Hi!
I really hope you're doing well.
I don't know if you've already started writing or thinking about the sequel to TLoU Part II, but I'd like to share an idea... you can take it or leave it, I like your work so I just want to share.
What bothers me about Part II is the overt manichaeism: Jerry Anderson is the good guy, and sure, he has a moral dilemma about sacrificing Ellie, but that's quickly swept aside. The greater good comes first!
But there's a scientific problem: he can't hope to create a vaccine without an established protocol. Medicine has been built on the accumulation of experience over many years. You can't invent a cure overnight. Sure, humanity has known about cordyceps for 20 years and has studied it (albeit in increasingly poor conditions with the loss of specialized personnel and equipment), but without coming up with a vaccine. But Jerry can do it, and I find that suspicious...
Here's my idea: Marlene has known Jerry for a long time and she certainly has doubts about Ellie's contamination (if we consider the episode of the HBO series) and, over the years, questions about her immunity, because when she was bitten, Ellie was not killed. Marlene probably understood that Ellie's immunity could be linked to the conditions of her birth. What if she had told Jerry about it? He could have started experimenting on pregnant women in order to have more patients to test his ideas and advance the vaccine development process...
So Jerry is a kind of Dr. Mengele who, in the name of the greater good, performs evil experiments on prisoners... that would balance the story and the morality. Joel killed innocent people and loved Ellie, Jerry loved his daughter and also killed innocent people... and there's also the fact that Joel's lie wasn't totally worthless...
Not to mention that the prologue to the first part would find justification here.
Anyway, it was an idea I've been wanting to share with you for a while...
Take care of you...
