Wasn't the ending of the first game so impactful precisely because of its moral ambiguity? Yes, the Fireflies were about to kill Ellie without her consent. They were considered a terrorist group in the quarantine zones. And if they made a successful cure, could they really have distributed it effectively? Nobody knows, but guess what? Joel wasn't thinking about any of that when he decided to save Ellie.

It wasn't because they didn't ask for Ellie's consent. If they asked her and she said yes, do you really think Joel would've been ok with it? No, of course not. That's why he made the decision for her and lied to her about the truth.

It wasn't because Joel thought "hold on, can these Fireflies really be trusted to distribute the cure effectively without using it as a bargaining tool to oppress people?" He saved Ellie because he saw her like a daughter, and after he had already lost Sarah 20 years ago, he finally found a good thing in his life again and didn't want to lose it. It was a selfish reason. But at the same time, it was relatable. It was a human reaction. Most other parents would've done the same if it was their child. But it is inherently selfish. That's why the ending was so impactful. If it was a clear-cut "yes, saving Ellie is absolutely the right choice", the ending wouldn't be nearly as powerful.

But now we have a lot of people criticizing the 2nd game, and of course, anyone can have their own opinion and do that. Personally, I would give the 2nd game somewhere between an 8-9 out of 10, not quite as amazing as I thought the first game was (a 10) but still great. I just thought a lot of the new characters could have been developed more to really increase the emotional impact we have when we start playing from Abby's perspective. But in terms of the overall direction of the plot, it's a completely natural continuation of TLOU1. Everyone has a justification for their own actions. The Fireflies genuinely believed that this chance at a cure was the right choice for the betterment of society. Tommy and Joel spent years as hunters, during which it was heavily implied that they did a lot of fucked up things, which is why Tommy said he still had nightmares. And it's the exact reason why he cut off Joel and tried to build a peaceful community in Jackson. But from Joel's perspective, he was just "doing what he had to do to survive".

All of these details and themes were already present in the first game. For people to come out now and say things like "Joel was completely justified. Abby and her friends are not the same as Joel and Ellie. Abby's dad was a piece of shit for not asking Ellie for consent, and Abby is a piece of shit for beating Joel with that golf club after he just saved her!" It just makes me feel like they really didn't get what made the first game special.