I spend a lot of time thinking about the end of the world, and I don’t mean in a “we’re
doomed” sort of way, although, ya know, not looking great. Instead I think about it
in a “what would I do” sort of way. If I managed to be one of the few people left
after whatever terrible catastrophe ended life as we knew it, would I be able to survive
for long? It’s undoubtedly morbid, but there’s something about the post-apocalyptic life
that’s sort of alluring. It’s interesting to consider what things would be like if all
of the social structures we’ve come to rely on collapsed, if our primary drive in life
was simply to survive, if we were left to form a new kind of world. And that is why
I’m so drawn to stories set in the post-apocalypse. They explore how people move forward both
as individuals and societies after losing their way of life.
While most stories set after the end of the world typically are dark and brutal, the vast
majority still have a strange hope to them. And after spending most of my past month playing
The Last of Us Part II and watching Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, I’ve been thinking
a lot about the different ways hope can be explored in post-apocalyptic tales and how
a lot of the same conclusions about hope and humanity can be reached in dramatically different
ways, and I think comparing and contrasting these two properties in particular illustrates
that idea perfectly.
Despite one being a game that very much earns its M rating and the other being a Y7 cartoon
made by Dreamworks Animation, the two have a surprising amount in common. They both are
set in worlds where it has become dangerous for humans to simply exist, they both feature
the “cities reclaimed by nature” aesthetic that I can’t get enough of, and they both
have leads with genetic mutations that set them apart from other survivors; also Ellie
and Kipo both play guitar. Most importantly though, the two stories examine a lot of the
same ideas about hope, humanity, and how those two things are affected by the drive to survive.
With that said, The Last of Us Part II is an exhausting journey where the main character
trudges relentlessly through a world that seems hellbent on breaking people down to
their worst selves, and Kipo is a light-hearted jaunt where the main character is fueled by
unyielding optimism and the desire to correct the mistakes of those who came before her.
I won’t be discussing heavy spoilers for The Last of Us Part II or Kipo and the Age
of Wonderbeasts but I will talk about some specific story moments, examine general themes,
and show various clips of each, so if you want to go into either of them blind, consider
this your warning. Also, I will be spoiling the first Last of Us game, so if you’re
one of the 12 people who still doesn’t know what happens in that one, beware.
Anyway, let’s talk about how The Last of Us and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts explores
hope and humanity in the post-apocalypse.
In our normal lives, when we think about hope, it is rooted in the future. It’s about growing
as people and as communities to make a life and world that is better than anything we’ve
seen before. In the post-apocalypse hope is typically rooted in the past. It’s about
returning to a time before life became solely about survival.
And this is reflected by the communities survivors carve out for themselves. Looking at Jackson
in The Last of Us: Part II we see a lifestyle unlike anything shown to us prior in the series.
A humble town sitting in the middle of nowhere, almost as if the world hadn’t been overrun
by the infected. Homes are actually homes instead of remnants of how people used to
live. Children not only are present, but they’re plentiful, and they act like normal kids.
There are bars, dances, movie nights. The people of Jackson have found a life similar
to what things were like before the outbreak. And it’s given them something to believe
in. They had a hope that things could return to normal, and that led to the creation of
something that truly is beautiful in the midst of an ugly world. Of course, things aren’t
normal. There are still the infected walking outside the walls, there are still hunters
who want to take what they have, and really, at any moment, either could come and destroy
the life that the people of Jackson have built. By the time players get to see Jackson, which
is well after its formation, the hope most people hold is the desire to maintain what
they’ve built.
This mentality is similar for the people of Kipo’s burrow, although the normal that
they arrive at is a bit further away from what life used to be like. Humans built massive
bunkers underground for them to hide in after animals on the surface began to mutate, growing
in size and intelligence, for some unknown reason. On top of that, it has been around
200 years since the mutated animals, or mutes, came to be, so no one currently alive ever
knew first hand what life was like before. Regardless, the folks in the burrows live
a life based around how the generations before them lived. They created markets and schools;
they continued to teach the history of a world that has long since been destroyed and of
stars that no one living there would likely ever see: they found pleasure in activities
like climbing and music; And they got used to the sound of giant footsteps rumbling above
them.
Both Jackson and Kipo’s burrow are stuck in how things used to be, and neither community
seems to have a good idea of what comes next. And for the older generations who are either
happy to just have some sort of stability or accepted long ago that the new world could
only go so far, this is mostly fine, but of course, both of these stories center around
the younger generation. The people trying to figure out who they are and where they
belong in the world.
Ellie and Kipo were both born into the post-apocalypse, and in a lot of ways, they are raised to yearn
for a world they never knew.
Unsurprisingly, though, both of them want more than that. They want to see bigger things,
and this is shown through one of their shared fascinations: space. Kipo fancies herself
an astronomer despite not seeing the sky until she was older. Talking about space is how
she relates to people, particularly to her dad, and space is something she constantly
looks to for hope. Even before she even made it to the surface, she was drawn to the stars,
and whatever it is that lies beyond.
In the first Last of Us, Ellie talks about how if the outbreak had never happened, she
would have liked to be an astronaut, and this isn’t just a fleeting desire.
There is a section in The Last of Us Part II where Joel takes Ellie to the Wyoming Museum
of Science and History for her birthday. They explore what’s left of the broken down and
overgrown museum, and eventually come across a space exhibit. While there, Ellie gushes
about the cosmos, and at one point she even mutters under her breath that one day she
will make it to the moon. Despite there being no indication that the world will ever get
to a point of being able to travel to space again, Ellie has hope. An unrealistic hope
that she hasn’t thought through all that far, but still a hope.
This all followed up by a scene where Joel gives Ellie a tape with a recording of a space
launch on it, and for a brief moment, she imagines what it would be like to live her
dream, and also, what it would be like to leave the earth behind.
Ellie and Kipo’s fascination with the space goes beyond a simple interest. It means more
to them. Space is infinite. It is the promise that there must be something out there that
is better than Jackson, that is better than the burrow.
Space is an escape. It’s a hope for a new future. And as the stories go on, Ellie becomes
less and less interested in it while Kipo continues to rely on it for guidance.
While the two start off with similar points of view on life, as their respective stories
go on, they take very different paths. Ellie sheds the wonder and optimism she had when
she was younger, and begins to view the world through an untrusting and dark lens. While
most of the confrontations she finds herself in are kill or be killed situations, she still
is the one who puts herself in those situations. And she ends up doing everything she can to
dehumanize the people she is fighting against, the people she is tracking down in order to
exact her revenge. It is easier for her to ignore the fact that the people she is killing
are people.
On Kipo’s journey to find where the people of her burrow went, she humanizes everything,
especially the non-humans. Despite constantly being given reasons to not trust others, she
does. She overwhelms everyone with her goodness, and while this doesn’t work in every encounter,
sometimes putting her into trouble, she never let’s these experiences break her down.
She never gives up on people, no matter how many times they give her a reason too.
Kipo goes through her journey with a hope of not only finding her father and friends,
but also of things getting better. Of being able to show that the way mutes and humans
treat each other doesn’t have to be about getting one up on the other. She aims to change
the world by being unchanging in her optimism. Ellie doesn’t. She doesn’t take time to
give anyone the benefit of the doubt, and she falls into the same patterns that have
helped make the world as dangerous as it is—the same patterns that her father figure was all
too familiar with.
As Ellie loses hope in there being a purpose, in there being something more, her humanity
chips away. With Kipo, as she finds more things to be hopeful, her humanity rubs off on others.
Both characters are also tied to a more global idea of hope: the hope of reversing what brought
about the apocalypse in the first place. With Ellie it is her immunity to the cordyceps
infection that the Fireflies believe could be the key to a cure, and with Kipo, it’s
her genetic mutation that gives her jaguar-like qualities, placing her as part human and part
mute.
The science behind Kipo’s mutation was originally intended to reverse the mutations of the animals
on the surface, and that is still very much the hope and plan of action for many humans
in the world. However, Kipo’s parents recognized the ethical dilemma of taking away the agency
of intelligent life forms that have formed societies and created human-like lives for
themselves. So they decided to do something a little wild and create a new life form.
Kipo’s existence is the decision to change humans instead of the world around them. She
represents a future for humanity that is not just returning to the past; it’s making
something new.
This kind of future isn’t an option in the world of The Last of Us as the infected can’t
be reasoned with in the way mutes can. The best possible future for the people of that
world is to return things to the way they were. It is never really stated how effective
a vaccine would be, but at the very least, it would be a step in a safer direction. What
matters most about the cure, at least in the confines of the characters we care about is
that in order to obtain it, Ellie would have to die. And we never really get to know for
sure if this is a choice she would be able to make, as the option is taken away from
her, first by the Fireflies who planned to do the operation without her consent and then
by Joel, who killed most of those people and then lied to her about it. Ellie wants her
life to mean something. Her belief that everything she’s been through can’t be for nothing
is the basis of her hope, so when she learns that it was all for nothing, that shifts her
view on the world. And in The Last of Us Part II when she learns that it was actually all
for nothing because of Joel’s actions, it deteriorates her view of things even further.
She wanted her life to matter and she felt like that was taken away from her; so despite
her life still having value and there even being a chance that someone else out there
could create a cure, she pushes that to the side. She buries it because the idea of having
hope and losing it is too painful to go through again. This is the opposite of Kipo who is
never afraid to have hope because so far all of hers have paid off.
Hope is a weird thing, especially in the post-apocalypse. It is necessary for survival; it acts as a
beacon to follow in order to live a good life. However, hope is also dangerous. It can get
those with too much of it into trouble, and also when a hope becomes an impossibility,
it can cause people to lose who they are.
And all of this is the sort of thing I focus on when running through my end of the world
scenarios. What would I have hope in? Would I be looking to return to the past or establish
some new future? Would I still have big dreams no matter how impossible they seemed in the
new world? Would I be like Ellie or would I be like Kipo?
Hopefully, I will never actually have to find out, but I will always wonder who I might
become if everything I’ve ever known and relied on was completely thrown out of balance.
And speaking of balance.
Have you ever been listening to music on a pair of earbuds and wondered what it would
be like if there was more bass?. Well, luckily, this video’s sponsor, Raycon has a solution
to that problem. Raycon makes high quality wireless earbuds that sound as great as other
premium earbud brands but start at about half the price. I listen to stuff constantly, so
it is nice to have a pair of earbuds that are comfortable, sound good, and don’t have
any cords.
Their latest model, the everyday E25 earbuds are awesome. They have 6 hours of playtime,
seamless bluetooth pairing, tons of bass, a more compact design that gives a nice, noise-isolating
fit, and they also come in new, fun colors. And if you got to BuyRacon.com/razbuten
you can get 15% off your order. The link is in the description
Raycon makes great earbuds, and I’ve used mine literally
everyday since I’ve gotten them, so if you’re in the market for a really awesome pair of
earbuds, you should check them out. Anyway, thanks again to Raycon for sponsoring this
video.
I appreciate you all for watching. It means a lot, and uh thank you. Thank you, thank
you. I hope you have a great day and/or night, and I will see you in the next one.