It is not just Odysseus, but our modern notion of the hero being a better version of what we wish we could be, with a near-perfect moral compass, is not something I have noticed in the classics. The heroes of the past are brutal, cynical, and deeply flawed in many ways. Odysseus is a snake and pushed Ajax to suicide by winning Achille’s armor. Jason helped Medea chop her brother into tiny little pieces after an ambush. Hercules threatened to kill an entire town of innocent people if they stopped searching for Hylas. Theseus would have become Minotaur food if not for Ariadne, and yet he left her in Naxos, although who wouldn’t pause when Athena herself commanded you to leave her? As Catholics, or as Christians broadly, we are taught that we are made in the image of God. But God is perfect, and we are not. Far from it. By contrast, the Greek gods are just humans with supernatural powers. They lust over mortals and other gods; they get jealous bouts of anger; their hubristic nature is clear when they are directly challenged as Apollo or Artemis were; they are vindictive and vengeful, but occasionally, you have acts of mercy like Zeus punishing Prometheus for stealing the fire and giving the gods bones instead of meat, and yet not erasing mankind like he could have done and did before with a flood. The Greek mythos always felt more personal to me, as the gods quite literally walked amongst humans and meddled with their lives in a way that my own God, untouchable, transcendent, and distant, doesn’t do.
I would say that Part II is an anti-revenge story through and through. At the end of the game, Ellie is in an objectively worse spot than when she started. She is alone, purposeless, and maimed, both mentally and physically. Meanwhile, Joel is still dead, and her entire journey and misery were for naught since Abby still breathes. I think the problem is that, as with any other story, the protagonist or deuteragonist is given a gargantuan amount of sympathy or justification for their actions since they are the ones the public sees and interacts with the most. We see the world through their eyes, we hear their version of the tale, and we are often “manipulated” to feel empathy towards them. Joel is not a good guy. He himself and other characters hint that he was more of a Negan than a Rick. That, for once, he could not outrun the consequences of his past actions was not surprising to me. Knowing that, I believe that those who had legitimate grievances with the game regarding the story instead of Ellie’s sexual preference or other social commentary were at least somewhat justified in believing that the game could have done a better job of making Abby more sympathetic to players, and that could have been done, in my opinion, by cutting through the curated version of Joel we get to see in the first game. It is already hard to create even a modicum of appeal for a new character whose first acts are murdering your beloved protagonist, let alone when a good chunk of people think he really is an upstanding and moral guy. Not that Abby’s father was not morally questionable at best, but if they wanted the girl to be given a legitimate shot to be heard, they needed to take Joel down a few notches. Not only that, but both of them hardly interact in a real sense. They are chased by a horde of infected people and barely exchange ten words before we get the infamous scene. A golden opportunity to have Joel and Abby hit it off and get along, even if for only a chapter, only for that to fall apart later on when she realizes who he really is, was wasted . It was a missed chance to add depth to her dilemma and create a more complex dynamic between them.
Now, taking all of this into consideration, imagine the frustation of getting through hell to chase Abby only for Ellie to pull back at the last moment and end the game being unable to even play Joel’s guitar ever again. Not only did Abby take Joel from the protagonist, but to rub salt on the wound, even her ability to enjoy playing music was taken away. Despite the fact that I enjoy the game, I believe the entire plot could have been enhanced if we had been given the option of killing Abby or releasing her ourselves. You, as the player, taking the entire journey into consideration and weighing the pros and cons, ultimately make the decision that is morally right for you as to whether you think revenge is justifiable or not. Either way, Ellie would have ended up empty inside because revenge is not fulfilling. But unfortunately, we did not get that choice, and that was a narrative choice made by the developers that is within their purview.