girls r like "but he's my comfort character" and then it's literally the most emotionally traumatized man you have ever seen ever

"joel took away ellie's choice"- damn it's almost like he knew they were both gonna just end up killed.. it's almost like he had no choice either and the fireflies were always gonna kill her with or without her knowledge. it's almost like ellie is a child who does not deserve the weight of the world on her shoulders like this. it's almost like her survivors guilt and unresolved trauma is what drives her to feel as if her entire life needs to end to compensate for those she's lost; it's almost like joel indulging ellie's martyrdom is a far worse thing than saving her on the chance she doesn't want to die. it's almost like she genuinely was never in the right conditions to consent to begin with and was never going to have the chance to regardless. idk

why is the conversation always about how joel “took ellie’s choice away” but never about how the firelfies took it away first? the episode literally went a step further and showed that they lied to ellie before putting her under; they made her believe she would be waking up after the surgery!!! she was expecting to wake up and then go back to jackson with joel. being with joel was literally all that she wanted. so marlene telling joel that dying for the cure is what ellie would have wanted was just her assumption, because if she was so sure that ellie would have agreed to it then why did she not tell her? she was afraid of the answer, she was afraid they would have had to drag ellie, kicking and screaming, onto that table. also, marlene telling joel that she has no choice but to do this, and joel responding that he does have a choice was him taking that choice back for ellie. because she never fucking consented to dying, and even if she knew and she agreed to it, she is just a 14 year old girl with a shit tonne of trauma!! she cannot make that decision for herself. i don’t deny that joel’s actions were also messy as fuck, but i will always be on his side with this.