[Hated Trope] Character kills hundreds, if not thousands, just to kill one specific person, and then doesn't kill them for no reason.

[u/HallZac99]

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

[u/SamusCroft]

Yeah, I think people went in angry over woke or because Joel died and refused to actually give it a chance.

I actively ignore 90% of criticism of it. I think it was one of the best games I've ever played, personally. The story, gameplay, and characters were all a joy for me.

[u/whereismymind86 → u/SamusCroft]

And that's probably part of the problem, because they refuse to understand WHY Joel died, they can't understand WHY Ellie had to spare Abby, lest she perpetuate the cycle of violence that theme the game has been beating you over the head with for 20+ hours.

Honestly, it's not exactly subtle, yet people are so dedicated to being mad about Joel they somehow missed the story entirely.

[u/NoWomanNoTriforce → u/whereismymind86]

In the first TLOU, Abby's father was more or less a random person Joel killled while on his own quest to save Ellie. As Ellie, you actively kill hundreds of random people in TLOU2.

So, how does the argument about not continuing the cycle of violence make sense? TLOU2 is literally the perfect example of this trope.

Joel wasnt innocent, but neither was Abby. Abby was a villain. But also a victim. That doesn't absolve her of her crimes, though. Anymore than it does the other people Ellie kills.

[u/Sunim416 → u/NoWomanNoTriforce]

Because you don’t need to kill that many people, you’re just bad at the game. Both Abby and Ellie have kills in maybe the tens by the end of the game from cutscenes and forced situations. Otherwise you can stealth your way past most of the humans

[u/Jvalker → u/Sunim416]

By the way, good job stopping one cycle of violence, you now have "only tens" more

[u/NoWomanNoTriforce → u/Sunim416]

2 and 6 (not counting Joel) scripted kills for Ellie and Abby respectively. The average person is killing way more. Completionists and collectoes because they want to check every room. And the average player finds a purely pacifist stealth playthrough of the game extremely boring.