Concluding and Reflective Thoughts

This final exam project helped me understand Joel and Ellie’s quest in The Last of Us by really understanding what the quest expectations of a Medieval narrative were, and identifying how they are still interpreted in modern works. The more I worked on this project, the more I noticed how much The Last of Us really adhered to the Medieval quest expectations that we’ve discussed over the last 10 weeks in class—I often found it more difficult to identify deviations from the expectations than the alignments! Although I identified several quest expectations that are certainly overarching themes throughout the narrative, the most pervasive expectation that was not directly included (in the “Quest Expectations/Terms” that were generated in class) is the dichotomy of the physical and spiritual quest and dual protagonists. These are quest expectations that were present earlier in the quarter, particularly while we were examining the early Grail Quest works. In this narrative, the spiritual quest has been interpreted as an affective quest; this is both a deviation and an alignment to the expectation. Since this is a secular work the “spiritual” is interpreted as such; however, the affective and physical quests are sought after simultaneously, just as we see in early texts such Sir Thomas Malory’s “The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal”. As Perceval physically journeys in search of the Grail, he is repeatedly tested spiritually, such as his encounter with a beautiful woman when he is marooned “…truly I yeet no mete nyghe thes three dayes—but late here I spake with a good man that fedde me with hys good wordys and refreyshed me gretly” (Malory 529). The woman attempts to sway Percivale to lay with her, and disregard the oath he made previously to a “good man.” He decides to keep his word to the “good man” and ultimately discovers that the damsel is actually the archfiend. This scene reveals Percivale’s sways to temptation in a test to both Percival’s physical and spiritual strengths.

This is similarly depicted in The Last of Us, particularly in my first and seventh entries. The first entry is from Joel’s perspective, in which he reflects on the death of his daughter upon accepting this quest with Ellie, who is about the same age as Joel’s daughter was, “…this kid’s got guts. She’s smart, but she’s got a smart mouth on her too. Kinda reminds me of my Sarah…” (Hurst 1). The two continue on their quest, traveling from the East Coast to the West, and they survive multiple trials together—they nearly die several times—but they always come through, and they always protect each other. The last entry, spoken by Ellie, reveals her concern for Joel as her top priority, “Medicine is worth more than food right now…I have to help him. I can’t do this without him” (Hurst 7). This echoes sentiment by Joel throughout the narrative where he expresses his determination to protect Ellie, even when he is on the brink of death, “Ellie…I’ve gotta protect her…” (Hurst 6). As they travel physically toward the Firefly lab, Joel and Ellie also experience an affective quest, which ultimately ties them together as they recognize one other as familial figures. This physical/affective quest duality is further mirrored in the narrative’s dual protagonists. Joel and Ellie travel together throughout The Last of Us, but since the player controls Joel for the majority of the narrative, it just falls short from fulfilling this expectation wholly. In Medieval Grail Quests such as those by Chretien de Troyes and Wolfrom Von Eschenbach, there are definitively two protagonists that the narrative switches between (Perceval and Gawain in the previous, and Perceval and Galahad in the latter). Here, we consistently follow both protagonists simultaneously, and the only “switching” is in actual gameplay control. Both characters speak their thoughts, and the player watches each trial and side-quest that Joel and Ellie experience. Although it only halfway meets the dual protagonist expectation from early grail quest narratives, the deviation is slight.