The Last of Us faction: who are they and what do they want

in life last of us Difficult, to put it very, very mildly. Traveling anywhere is tough and involves getting 20 year old gas out of abandoned cars. Zombies are everywhere, in increasingly gruesome forms. No one will laugh at your pun book, Perhaps worst of all, danger is all around, from other people around you,

The Last of Us universe is full of factions, all struggling for dominance in one form or another. pretty much anywhere Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) find themselves posing a threat to the group, either by trying to recruit them, threatening them, or much worse, In a world with so many parties one might wonder: what is the difference between all these factions? What do they all want? And what exactly is there to fight for in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, anyway?

The short answer is power. They all want it, most are willing to kill to get it, and the difference is who has it, or how much they are able to do it. as a collective, last of us‘ factions further the objectives of the show (and play), each one has its own quest for how relationships with others They have their own danger in this world. But the actual goal of each group within the story is slightly different, hence all the division.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers through episode 8 of The Last of Us.]

Fedra

What they want: To be a government agency, ostensibly, and to rule the people (possibly by brutal means; see below).

The principal ruling authority in the federal disaster response agency is last of us‘ United States of america. It is a militarized government that oversees quarantine zones, presiding over punitive forces on cities around the United States. FEDRA clearly has some sort of unified structure, but it seems that individual chapters get a lot of leeway, as they do in Kansas City (again, more on that later,

At least in Boston, they operate with high-minded goals (even if they still appear low). As one captain tells Ellie: “I care because it doesn’t matter what anyone out there says or thinks, we’re the only thing holding it together. If we go down, the area I know that people will starve to death or kill each other.

Although he is clearly the highest authority in the show (or at least the figure with the most organized power, including the creation of essential goods), last of us does not display them prominently. Mostly they are a force in the narrative, accompanying soldiers on the streets of Boston in early episodes, occasionally attacking or bartering with Joel as part of the smuggling operation. Still, we’ve heard how tough they are: Neither Ellie nor Joel talk much about their education jobs, and when Frank (Murray Bartlett) laments That Bill (Nick Offerman) thinks the government is all Nazis, Bill shouts: “The government Are All Nazis!

Frank’s rebuttal – “Well, yeah, Now, but no Then, , doesn’t paint a rosy picture What does FEDRA do last of us‘ 2023. But in Episode 7, “Left Behind,” we at least get to hear the other side. This is not entirely optimistic; Ellie’s time at the FEDRA school is basically a military academy, complete with being put “in the hole” for misbehaving, and being set up to become a FEDRA officer if she doesn’t wash up.

As you might expect from a totalitarian regime, life has its perks. Being an officer brings with it privileges that seem to be unique in the world last of us: Eating well, getting a bed, staying in a comfortable temperature, and not going on patrol.

fireflies

Photo: Shane Harvey/HBO

What they want: To overthrow FEDRA and restore something close to pre-Outbreak government authority.

While at this point in the season we mostly think of the Fireflies as a small clique rebelling against FEDRA’s rule, the Guerrilla Network has groups across the country, and they work together, at least to some extent. As far as (probably: More than FEDRA though, again, it’s hard to tell). Labeled as terrorists by the federal government, fireflies have been largely unsuccessful, though there are a few cities where they have seen triumph. Plus, they have graffiti everywhere – “When you’re lost in the dark, seek the light” – and possibly the most powerful trump card in the world: a man immune to zombie bites.

It’s not clear, exactly, why the Fireflies want to keep this a secret and not immediately use it to boost their profile against FEDRA. But it provides a reason to throw Joel and Ellie together and take them to Colorado. Plus, we know that at least sometimes they have a better relationship than FEDRA — at least in the form of Ellie when she eats a chicken given to her by Boston Firefly leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge). flares up.

They recruit like any good post-apocalyptic guerrilla organization: sneaking up on rebellious teens like Riley (Storm Reid) and then asking what they think of FEDRA (“Fascist Dickbags”). and they act as one would expect from that kind of organization, in which Riley admitted that they Doing still bomb locations such as storage depots (even though she insists they do not do so “when civilians are around”).

Hunter

Photo: Lianne Hantscher/HBO

What they want: Kansas City to overthrow FEDRA (specifically, at least for starters).

In episode 4 we are introduced to the Hunters (as they are known in the game), a group that has driven FEDRA out of their city. Though Kansas City is now freshly prepared, the hunters already command much fearsome machinery like the “run” plow – and look forward to violence to enforce their rule. They are led by Kathleen (yellow jacket‘ Melanie Lynskey), who is eager to hunt down Henry (Lamar Johnson).

Per Joel and Henry’s conversation in Episode 5, the Kansas City Fedra was bad even for the governing body considered authoritarian. “Demon? Wild? Yeah, you heard that right,” Henry finishes Joel’s idea of ​​Casey’s Fedra chapter. “20 years of raping and torturing and killing people. And you know when you What happens if they do? The moment they get a chance, they return it to you.

And indeed, cruelty seems to be how Kathleen is running things. Episode 5 opens with hunters overpowering FEDRA, dragging bodies through the street and beating people up. Kathleen questions Fedra’s informants about Henry’s whereabouts before telling Perry (Jeffrey Pearce) to shoot them all and burn the bodies. By the end of the episode, Kathleen states that she is willing to kill Ellie and Sam (KEVON MONTREAL WOODARD) simply because they are engaged to Joel and Henry.

It’s a particularly venomous villainous twist, but when a little clicker girl appears out of nowhere to kill Kathleen – while the rest of her men are torn apart by a mob behind her – it’s as if Hunter is going to kill the inner circle. has been thrown out. Whatever fills the power vacuum left behind – well, Joel and Ellie won’t stick around to find out.

jackson

Photo: Lianne Hantscher/HBO

After several miles, Joel and Ellie arrive in Jackson, Wyoming and find Tommy (GABRIEL LUNA). The Jackson community he’s a part of is straight the last of us part 2, where it is also run by Maria (played in the show by Rutina Wesley), at least partially. She tells Joel and Ellie, “Nobody is in charge.” “I’m on the council—democratically elected, serving 300 people including children. Everyone pitches in, we patrol, prepare meals, make repairs, hunt, harvest.

Everything in Jackson – the greenhouse, the livestock, etc. – is shared through what Tommy calls “collective ownership”. Though she tries to reject the “communism” label Joel applies to her, Maria is not intimidated: “It Is That, really. It is a commune; We are communists! Between actual power powered by a nearby dam and a peaceful, relatively normal existence, the Jackson faction exists in direct opposition to most of the other groups on this list. This is an example to Joel and Ellie of how the post-apocalypse doesn’t Near complacency followed (though Maria notes that being out in the middle of nowhere and maintaining a low profile helps her keep out “the wrong people”).

cannibals

Photo: Lianne Hantscher/HBO

The most unfortunate kind of faction to walk into a post-apocalyptic situation: a bunch of religious cannibals! Also, in episode 8 they are revealed to be the group that ran into Ellie and Joel at university, which means that many of them are seeking some form of revenge against Joel (and possibly Ellie).

We don’t know a ton about the everyday lives of the group beyond what we see in the very limited, very dark periods where they overlap with Ellie’s. Led by David (Scott Shepherd), the group are fanatics of some sort, and they’ve been camping at a lakeside resort for some time. A particularly harsh winter left them without food, and – at some point – the group resorted to eating people (although David and his right hand, jameshave been hiding that fact from the larger group).

While David seems paternal and caring at first, he is slowly revealed to be a monster: he tries to assault Ellie, slapping a member of her flock for going against her. , and of course, eating people. As we see the dinner scene in the middle of the episode, he too enjoys a hearty service of Manav while his men work with a few lumps in their soup.