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.
