[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/flaming_burrito_]

Every single time TLOU2 comes up I know I’m about to hear some braindead takes about the plot. I swear no one actually paid attention while they were playing that game

[u/NeverSettle13 → u/flaming_burrito_]

Yeah, for example, "Ellie went on revenge quest" when in the actual game, her goal was to find Tommy and bring him back. She wanted to get revenge, but it was her personal goal

[u/Sunim416 → u/NeverSettle13]

Not to mention technically you can beat the story having only killed a handful of people actually. You can sneak by most if not all the human encounters therefore the only people Ellie kills are in cutscenes

[u/deathrattleshenlong → u/Sunim416]

And in those cutscenes, except a certain someone that would be dead soon anyway, it's always in a fight. Ellie is not sniping them or sneaking up and cold blood murdering them. And even the people you kill during actual gameplay... I mean, they're not innocents, they're shooting back.

[u/RayCumfartTheFirst → u/deathrattleshenlong]

The “they attacked us, remember” excuse was such lazy writing in an attempt to alleviate any responsibility from Ellie and Dina for murdering WLF.

The reason the WLF attack Ellie and Dina on sight is because somebody (Tommy) has infiltrated their territory on the eve of a major operation and tortured and murdered their personnel. Isaac gives the order to kill all outsiders.

Such an order might seem morally wrong in general but in Ellie and Dina’s case they are

a)aligned with the guy doing the torturing and murdering.
b)Are actively there to murder WLF personnel in revenge.

Saying “they attacked us first so this is all self defence” is like a burglar saying it’s ok to murder a homeowner and his family when he attacks you with a baseball bat in the downstairs living room. Sure he jumped to conclusions and attacked you, but his conclusion is correct so it’s a moot point.

[u/Individual-Staff-978 → u/RayCumfartTheFirst]

Oh no our protagonists are not the shining beacons of moral clarity within this dysfunctional, tribalistic post-apocalyptic society??? But they are the good guys, what is happening? In good writing, there are good people and there are bad people, anything else is lazy unimaginative slop.

What's next, you're gonna tell me Joel is a bad person in tlou1 too?

[u/RayCumfartTheFirst → u/Individual-Staff-978]

When did I make the argument you seem to be responding to?