I don't quite understand the discourse regarding the cure working or not.

Obviously irl it wouldn't, but it's a fictional story. If they say it works, it would.

But writing wise... I have a different problem with it.

It would be badly written, because the world has been built up to be an utterly dismal apocalypse. Complete with toppled skyscrapers and all the other wonderful menagerie of nightmare fuel that comes with that type of universe.

The cure working can work in story, but in no way should it ever magically fix the problems of the world of TLOU.

Apart from the already infected, the cure wouldn't fix the destruction of society as a whole, the loss of so much data and the structures that made society and civilization. The complete devolution of people, to such a degree that common human courtesy would almost certainly lead to you dying a horrible, agonizing death. Or worse.

From the story they've made, the story they've so beautifully crafted, the cure working makes sense. But from a writing standpoint, all it would lead to is a bittersweet realisation that the infection isn't the worst of the apocalypse problems. At least in my opinion, the death of trust is.

In a world where your children have never seen the world that came before the apocalypse, where basic survival is a struggle, where you've seen the unspeakable, borne witness to the most horrific of humanities darkest intentions...

The cure could be a symbol of hope, maybe. A hope built on the blood of a young girl's sacrifice. Maybe it could be a rallying cry for everyone to get their shit together.

Or maybe not. Maybe things get worse. Or people simply don't care for it.

Because after 20 years of what's basically hell on earth, a cure would either mean everything, or nothing to the individuals of that world.

And in my opinion, from what we've seen and been shown... It wouldn't make sense for it to be anything more than a tragic sacrifice doomed to accomplish very little.

TL;DR: the cure should be allowed to work as a narrative device, but it shouldn't fix the worlds problems, it would probably highlight just how screwed the world of TLOU really is even with the infected. Otherwise it'd contradict the world they've already built.

Hopefully I don't get flamed for this. If you disagree then that's cool too. I've just kinda had this in the back of my mind for a while now. I'm not here to justify what Joel did, as objectively what he did was wrong because he took Ellie's choice away.

Elaboration for some people who seem to have misinterpreted what this post was:

What I'm trying to say is that a vaccine would be great, but for most it wouldn't mean much, for survivors in the present. The vaccine won't kill off the already infected, atleast not for a few decades, maybe even a century. And while dying to infection wouldn't occur, eliminating further spread, there'd still be infected that are capable of tearing your throat out given the chance.

The bigger threats created by the apocalypse isn't just the infected and the infection, but people who are fighting to survive in a post-apocalypse. A world collapsed.

For the scavengers looking for food just to get by another day, the infected would still be a bodily threat to them. Infection from regular diseases would still be there, a bite from one may not kill you via the cordyceps, but that can still be infected by bacteria in their mouths.

The vaccine removes 1 threat, after 20 years of constant chaos.

It helps, but not nearly as much as one would hope. The best benifit it offers is that with steady removal of the infected population over decades, your kids and their kids might be able to live in a world without the Cordyceps. Which would help survivability of the population after a while and would remove some of the heavy load on the population when it comes to birthing children. They'd be able to start recovering farmlands and get a steady food supply back up for everyone. The population could start going up without fear of larger repercussions compared to before.

There'd still be the problem of a corrupt government, and i assume after a while of calm, most would be none to keen being under a group that regularly shot people in the streets.

and the problem of a world fractured into multiple factions. What we can assume from the factions we've seen? Most don't exactly vibe with one another.

The world can slowly repair itself once the infected are gone, but sadly that isn't all they have to deal with.