Fanfic / The Last Of Them

Joel: I'm boosting you up to have a look.
Ellie: Oh. I hate being boosted.
Joel: You'd think you'd be used to it by now.
Ellie: Shitty level design.

The Last of Them is an on-going The Last of Us fanfic by Red Priest.

It's a story that continues the tale of The Last Of Us following directly on from the game. As such, it's dark, but not a Dark Fic (because the original game was already pretty grim).

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The Last of Them provides examples of the following tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Averted and lampshaded. Joel, when thinking about his parents, recalls that his father was tough on him, but was a devoted family man.
• Actor Allusion: In chapter 4 when the trio meet Ish, the three of them give fake names. Joel gives his name as Trey, which is almost the name of his voice actor, Troy Baker.
• Anyone Can Die: Made clear when Tommy is sacrificed in chapter 7.
• Ax-Crazy: One of Frances' lieutenants seems completely insane and happily lets her friends die to save herself. At the same time, she exhibits characteristics of fanatical devotion to Frances.
• Beware the Nice Ones: At the introduction of Frances, he is written to be very friendly, if slightly strange. It later becomes clear that he is completely deranged.
  • It seems that the writer rewrote the section, with the original chapter having made his nature more obvious. The rewrite brought Frances more in line with the character of David.
• Big Brother Mentor: Joel acts in this way to Tommy, having to keep an extra eye on him after he loses some of his fight, due to Maria's death.
• Boring, but Practical: Joel, Ellie and Tommy spend a lot of time simply hiding or moving from place to place.
• Character Development: The characters undergo changes from the game quite rapidly, but not unnaturally. At the end of the game, Joel lies to Ellie about what happened with the Fireflies, and as a result she's a little more unsure. In the same way, Tommy changes rapidly from what was seen in the game, as he's unhinged quickly after Maria's death.
• Deadpan Snarker: Just like the game, Ellie continues to embody this trope.
• Disaster Democracy: When the trio encounter Ish in the dam, it's clear that he is the leader of the group, but his power of them is tenuous at best. In the end, he is murdered by his subordinates.
• Fallen States of America: Lydia controls the remnants of the government headed in Joel's hometown, but it seems that she has largely lost control of most sectors of the country, if not all. Her area differs from the quarantine zone of the original game in that there is a clearly defined structure, and she is at the top.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Joel and Ellie do consistently bad things to survive, but never pay much attention to the ethics. Ellie feels guilt not for the people she physically kills, but the ones who have died around her or died trying to protect her.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: At no point in the game nor the continued fanfiction do the infected kill any of the main characters. Tommy's death is at the hands of an infected, but it is Frances that sets it loose on him intentionally.
• Magical Antibiotics: Antibiotics are consistently the only way to treat wounds – and practically every open wound does get infected with something. Currently, a bullet wound inflicted upon Ellie is infected and they are embarking to find antibiotics.
• Meaningful Name: Averted and lampshaded with Lydia.
  Soldier: The name Lydia means noble one.
  Joel: Well, we'll wait and see. I don't put a lot of stock in names.
• Nervous Wreck: Subverted with Lydia. She initially seems high-strung and fidgety to the point of craziness, but when she is angered it becomes clear she puts on an act. Earlier on, a character makes a vague reference to her putting on different faces for different people, though the Nervous Wreck is the only one we see.
  Ben: Well, she didn't keep any colours for any period of time. Lydia... was an actress. She'd present herself to the people one day as a leader, someone they all rallied behind; the next day she was a nervous wreck, all twitching. She was fearful and she was to be feared, she was hopeful and hopeless. She was the worst part of what humanity had left, and she was the best. She kept us going for a while. We trusted her.
• Nightmare Fuel: Certain points in the story are freakin' terrifying, for example, when Joel, Ellie and Tommy are trapped in the cabin, surrounded by infected that are banging on the walls.
• Only One Name: Just like the game, characters are not given surnames with the exception of Frances, but he later makes the point that he was probably lying.
• Religion of Evil: More of a cult than a religion, Frances' group worship the infected.
• Survivor Guilt: Ellie continues to have a bad case of it, and when Joel returns to his hometown old feelings of survivor guilt are stirred up about Tommy and Sarah.
• Time Skip: At the end of an 'arc', the story moves forward to the next setting wherein there are new conflicts.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Civilians and the government remnants are two sides of different coins, and even Joel makes clear that they're probably both the bad guys. This is later proven to be the case, when it's revealed the Civilian leaders are simply leading their friends to the slaughter to get their son back, and Lydia has ordered spores to be used as weapons on them – again.

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