History TheLastOfUs / TropesKToN

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the toy store, if you keep an eye on Ellie, you'll see her [[spoiler:approach the robot that she later gives to Sam in a cutscene. Look away for a second, and when you look back, the robot has vanished and she's walking away innocently.]]

* LimitedLoadout: PlayedWith. Joel maintains a HyperspaceArsenal of weapons in his pack (including a bow, multiple handguns, two types of rifles and three types of bombs) and he is limited to a handful of active weapons, but he can also carry breakable weapons (which can be seen attached to Joel's pack when not in use).

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: ZigZagged. You will fight female Infected, but any non-Infected enemy you encounter will be exclusively male (the exception being a single female who the player can kill in contrast to the dozens of men). However, the Boston Militia is co-ed, and Tommy's group has plenty of armed female members. Whether it's a case of time constraints or InUniverse misogyny is hard to say, considering that while there are most definitely women in the group of enemies you face during Winter, they to have more [[StayInTheKitchen domestic]] responsibilities. Also subverted in relation to the main characters: [[spoiler: Joel is horrifically wounded and neutralized during the ending of Fall and most of Winter, and since the Laconic for the trope describes itself as "Male suffering is less meaningful than female suffering"…]]

* MercyKill: In a world where you can turn into a zombie in a matter of days, you can expect some people to do this to their friends and loved ones.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Subverted with [[spoiler: David and James. They're obviously biblical names, and they're the only people Joel and Ellie run into who have a personal vendetta against them.]]

* NoEnding: Joel and Ellie make it back to Tommy's group, cue credits.
** More than that, it leaves the relationship between Joel and Ellie a bit ambiguous, with Ellie asking Joel to swear that [[spoiler:he is not lying to her about the Fireflies not needing her anymore (since she was drugged to undergo surgery at the Firefly base, so she wasn't awake during the events there). Joel swears that he is not lying to her. The last shot is of her saying "Okay" even though you can see doubt in her expression.]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: A Firefly scientist can't bring himself to kill a batch of test monkeys injected with the Cordyceps fungus, so he decides to set them free instead. Unfortunately, he gets bitten by one, getting infected in the process, and he ends up killing himself. Fortunately for Joel and Ellie, [[spoiler:his audio suicide note happens to mention where the rest of the Fireflies relocated to.]]

* NoodleIncident: You never find out exactly what favors Bill owes to Joel and Tess, but they must be pretty damn important if he's willing to trek across a heavily infected part of town to help Joel get something he needs.
-->'''Bill''': Whatever favors you think I owe ya, it ain't worth that much.
-->'''Joel''': Actually, Bill, they are.
** Also, the "early years", when Joel and Tommy survived the start of the infection together in Boston.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Averted given the presence of shivs as weapons and the possibility of stealth gameplay when low on ammo against overwhelming opposing numbers and weaponry/threats. Played straight in certain encounters, but especially [[spoiler:at the end between the surgeon [[MuggingTheMonster with his scalpel]] and Joel with [[ChekhovsArmoury everything but.]]]]

* LittleMissBadAss: Ellie.

* NotUsingTheZWord: They were once human but are now mindless, bloodthirsty monsters. They're formed by infection. Their spread caused an apocalypse. Most of them have a clumsy, [[ZombieGait staggering gait.]] They resemble corpses. A single bite from them will cause you to turn. [[NoExceptYes But they're most definitely not zombies]]; they're [[InsistentTerminology Infected]]. Even the developers insist this.

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* NextSundayAD: The game released in June of 2013, and the prologue occurs in October of the same year.

* MarcyKill: In a world where you can turn into a zombie in a matter of days, you can expect some people to do this to their friends and loved ones.

* LostInTranslation: One of the most poignant moments of the game is when Joel [[spoiler:finally calls Ellie "baby girl" while comforting her like he did with Sarah, having grown to see the former as a surrogate daughter. In certain dubs and subtitles however, the phrase "baby girl" does not have a good equivalent and is translated to more non-familial phrases such as "poor thing" or "little one", removing some of the importance of said scene.]]

* NotUsingTheZWord: They were once human but are now mindless, bloodthirsty monsters. They're formed by infection. Their spread caused an apocalypse. Most of them have a clumsy, [[ZombieGait staggering gait.]] They resemble corpses. A single bite from them will cause you to turn. [[NoExceptYes But they're most definitely ''not'' zombies]]; they're [[InsistentTerminology Infected]]. Even the developers insist this.

* MeaningfulName: Let's just say there's a very good reason the bandit group is called: the Hunters.
** Joel has this with a bit of [[PropheticNames prophetic]] bonus seeing as he's named after a (rather bleak) Biblical apocalyptic prophet.

** David is the leader of his group. [[spoiler:He also implicitly desires a woman - or, rather, teenage girl - who is with another man. Unlike Bathsheba, Ellie turns him down. Repeatedly.]]
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: ZigZagged. You will fight female Infected, but any non-Infected enemy you encounter will be exclusively male (the exception being a single female who the player can kill in contrast to the dozens of men). However the Boston Militia is co-ed, and Tommy's group has plenty of armed female members. Whether it's a case of time constraints or InUniverse misogyny is hard to say, considering there's most definitely women in the group of enemies you face during Winter but seem to have more [[StayInTheKitchen domestic]] responsibilities. Also subverted in relation to the main characters; [[spoiler: Joel is horrifically wounded and neutralized during the ending of Fall and most of Winter, and since the Laconic for the trope describes itself as "Male suffering is less meaningful than female suffering"…]]
** Shortly after arriving in Pittsburgh, you can hear two men talking about a woman that tried to fight them off. They considered recruiting her, but they realized that recruiting a woman who already killed some of their own [[HeelFaceTurn probably wouldn't be a smart idea.]]

** It is possible however, though rarer, to get a team with [[SubvertedTrope two women and two men or even three women and one man]].
* MissingMom: No mention is given to the whereabouts to Sarah's mother who doesn't even appear in family photos in Joel's house. The only thing that Joel says about her is that they didn't stay together for long.

* MookHorrorShow: [[AntiHero Joel]] and [[ActionSurvivor Ellie]] being a highly mobile version of this is the main reason the [[ImaHumanitarian Cannibals]] want them dead. Not to mention the escalating terror of the enemies in Pittsburgh as you destroy patrol after patrol.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Averted given the presence of shivs as weapons and the possibility of stealth gameplay in low on ammo against overwhelming opposing numbers and weaponry/threat. Played straight with several times in certain encounters, but especially [[spoiler:at the end between the surgeon [[MuggingTheMonster with his scalpel]] and Joel with [[ChekhovsArmoury anything but.]]]]

* NoArcInArchery: Averted for the bow. Helpfully the aiming reticule changes to show the arc.

** More than that, it leaves the relationship between Joel and Ellie a bit ambiguous with Ellie asking Joel to swear that [[spoiler:he is not lying to her about the Fireflies not needing her anymore (since she was drugged to undergo surgery at the Firefly base, so she wasn't awake during the events there). Joel swears that he is not lying to her. The last shot is of her saying "Okay" even though you can see doubt in her expression.]]
* NoFEMAResponse: Averted. There ''was'' a response, even going so extreme to shoot a potential threat and his young daughter on sight. Twenty years later, there's martial law in place all over the world, with no civilian government unless one is built up from scratch, in a remote area. However, the quarantine zones appear to crumbling almost without exception, suggesting the military is not even remotely as good at governing things as they are at shooting them.
* NoGearLevel: There are two separate occasions. First is [[spoiler:when Joel is critically injured and the perspective switches to Ellie, who is only armed with a bow initially. The second time is when Ellie is captured by David and his group, forcing her to escape her cell with nothing but her trusty switchblade.]]

** [[spoiler: At the end, Marlene gives Joel the chance to leave the Firefly base alive, instead of immediately putting a bullet in his head once he makes it perfectly clear that he's completely opposed to their plan to kill Ellie for the potential cure and absolutely willing to kill them all without hesitation. (A journal left behind by her reveals that the other Fireflies wanted to kill him, but she overruled them) This, of course, gets them all killed.]]

** Though true this is OSHA standard, military testing from outside the US has shown no significant effect of a beard on a gas mask seal, such as the Israeli Defense Forces, which have many religiously bearded members and no issues with gas mask seal integrity in training or practical use.
* NoodleIncident: You never find out what favors exactly does Bill owe to Joel and Tess, but they must be pretty damn important when he's willing to trek across a heavily infected part of town to help Joel get something he needs.

** Nearby items that you can pick up turn white and a circle with a symbol of what it is will appear to help distinguish it from the general clutter.

** Ellie will point out various important things including enemies and places you need to go in order to proceed. Even Joel at times will mention certain tasks only his companions can accomplish so the player will not have to pointlessly attempt them.

* NotUsingTheZWord: They were once human but are now mindless, bloodthirsty monsters. They're formed by infection. Their spread caused an apocalypse. Most of them have a clumsy, [[ZombieGait staggering gait.]] They resemble corpses. A single bite from them will cause you to turn. [[NoExceptYes But they're most definitely ''not'' zombies]], they're [[InsistentTerminology Infected]]. Even the developers insist this.

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: A ''lot'' of nasty ways to get killed in this game. You can be shot, beaten to death, eaten alive or have your jaw torn apart, and that a few examples among others.

* KleptomaniacHero: To get the necessary materials to survive you need take any useful junk that isn't nailed down (heck, even the nails are useful). Not that anyone actually owns most of the stuff you find.

%%* LittleMissBadAss: Ellie.
* TheLoad: Joel's initial reaction to Ellie is to treat her as this, [[spoiler:which gets very pronounced after Tess' death.]] Gradually, his attitude turns around, until during the Pittsburgh chapters he accepts her as more or less an equal partner who has his back.

* MacheteMayhem: Machetes are available as potential melee weapons, being the first tier of OneHitKill melee weapons. The blade is old and they break quickly though, but three guaranteed kills is better than other weapons that take at least three hits to kill, even if they have more uses total.
* MagicalAntibiotics: [[spoiler: After Joel is impaled by rubble in a fight at the Science Lab in Colorado, ]] Ellie asks David for some medicine to treat the wounds. David sends his accomplice back to their camp to gather some penicillin which, when administered [[spoiler: to Joel]], seems to work overnight, despite Ellie not knowing what kind of infection might be going on in the wound.
** Also an interesting coincidence in that penicillin is derived from a fungus, just not the same kind as the ones causing the outbreak.

** Justified in that the Infected aren't reanimated corpses. They have been taken over by a fungal strain that changes them into something else.

* MoodWhiplash: The scene where Bill and Joel stumble upon Frank's house and corpse. It's clear that he was DrivenToSuicide after being bitten by the Infected. Bill is visibly distraught over his partner being bitten and hanging himself instead of turning. However, just before he's about to shed a tear or two, he just says "Screw him then." Almost made the players cry for you, Bill.

** [[spoiler: At the end, the Fireflies actually hold up their end of the bargain with Joel and are willing to accept him into their base, instead of immediately putting a bullet in his head once he's no longer needed ''and'' after he makes it perfectly clear that he's completely opposed to their plans and absolutely willing to kill them all without hesitation. This, of course, gets them all killed.]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: A ''lot'' of nasty ways to get killed in this game. You can be shot, beaten to death, eaten alive or have your jaw torn apart, and that a few exemples among others.

** Though true this is OSHA standard, military testing from outside the US has shown no significant effect of a beard on a gas mask seal, such as the Israeli Defense Forces, which have many religiously bearded members, and no issues with gas mask seal integrity in training or practical use.

*** Even outside of gameplay she averts this, with her own character arc based around her [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more and more competent at surviving at any cost]], and most notably, refuses to put up with Joel's crap, with one memorable exchange in particular having her tell him off for not being grateful or appreciative of her efforts to help him out. She's quite a dynamic character who doesn't simply blithely go along with whatever Joel demands, and the game's story is just as much about her as him.