Before HBO’s “The Last of Us” premiered in January, fans of the survival horror game were anxiously awaiting its release, wondering if this adaptation would drop a- fell into the same trap that so many video game adaptations have by not staying true to its source material. .
While the show has undoubtedly taken some creative liberties, fans of the games and newcomers to the franchise are thrilled, so much so that sales for the game “The Last of Us: Part I” has taken off a lot, and there has already been an HBO series. picked up for a second season.
Since the first season of “The Last of Us” follows the story of the first game, the second season could cover the events of “The Last of Us: Part II”. So check out what happens in the game “The Last of Us: Part II” to get an idea of what might happen in season two of HBO’s The Last of Us.
A difficult change in perspective
“The Last of Us: Part II” was a huge success when it came out. It won Game of the Year in 2020 as did its predecessor in 2013. Praised for its progressive nature with multiple female leads and a lesbian protagonist, Ellie, it offered a lot of diversity that the gaming industry still tends to be shy. That said, the game was still controversial upon release, primarily due to its plot.
In “The Last of Us”, players played Joel, a middle-aged man who is engaged to Ellie across the country but eventually comes to see her as a girl (he is portrayed by the amazing Pedro Pascal in the TV series). There is a limited portion of the game where players play 14-year-old Ellie, and DLC that features her as the playable character.
Considering Joel’s love in the fandom, fans expected to play Joel again in “Part II”, not the plot created by the creator, Naughty Dog. In the end, players only get to play Joel for a short time at the beginning of the game, during which Joel confesses to his brother, Tommy, that he saved Ellie from the Fireflies who wanted to kill her for a possible cure. After the opening episode, players will be thrown into the perspective of a now grown-up Ellie.
Within the first few hours of the game which is almost 24 hours, Joel dies in a brutal and bloody way. This decision was divisive among fans. The initial shock of Joel’s death came out of nowhere, leaving many fans angry and criticizing the game. Some even refused to finish the game at all.
Joel’s death, explained
“Part II” introduces Abby Anderson, the daughter of the doctor who was going to kill Ellie in “The Last of Us.” As it turns out, Abby has been hunting Joel ever since Joel went into the hospital at the end of the first game. The final fight in the game was Joel mowing down the entire hospital full of Fireflies, including Marlene, to save Ellie. “Part II” follows the logical path that such an act would anger people. In this case, Abby, the same age as Ellie, lost her father. Also, Joel could spend the world’s possible cure for cordyceps.
The end of “The Last of Us” was a hard pill to swallow because, naturally, the player wants to save Ellie from a terrible fate. The Fireflies don’t even know that killing her will help them produce a cure. It was never a sure thing. However, in saving Ellie, Joel may have stopped the world’s only chance of finding a cure. Both options are terrible, but a decision had to be made. “Part II” continues by making Joel face his actions.
The game forces players to play Abby for half of the runtime as she first meets Joel and is not sure who he is. Joel saves her from a horde of zombies and helps her get to safety. It is not until Joel and Tommy introduce themselves that she finally realizes that she has found the man she has been hunting for. She kills Tommy and proceeds to torture Joel, slowly beating him to death without any explanation to the player as to why it is happening. Ellie arrives at the moment of the attack, and is held down and forced to watch as Abby kills Joel by crushing his head with a golf club.
Ellie seeks revenge
Ellie and Joel’s relationship is strained and distant at the beginning of the game as she discovers that Joel lied to her when he said that her immunity could not help the Fireflies, and would not i chance to resolve things before Abby kills him. Being held down and forced to look like a stranger who murdered her father figure breaks something in her. Abby and her friends argue about killing Ellie but in the end let Ellie and Tommy live because they were only there for Joel.
Ellie leaves the settlement in Jackson with her pregnant girlfriend, Dina, in search of Abby. Determined to get revenge on the woman who killed Joel, Ellie will stop at nothing to achieve this. The two chase Abby to Seattle, where Abby’s settlement is. The further Ellie goes, the more irrational she becomes in her mind. Finally, Dina can’t get through to her anymore. Unfortunately, Tommy can’t get through either, and her pursuit leads to Abby shooting Ellie’s friend, Jesse, in the head.
Ellie and Abby show
In the end, Ellie ends up alone, not willing to give up her mission. Her desire to get to Abby causes her to cross several lines, including killing several of Abby’s friends, one of whom was pregnant at the time. When Abby and Ellie face each other at the end of the game, there is a lot of bloodshed and hatred between them. When he gets the chance to kill Abby, Ellie finally decides not to. A little boy that Abby protects swears that if she hurts Abby, he will never stop until she is found, continuing this endless cycle of needless violence. Ellie decides to quit and returns home to Dina and her baby.
Meaning of “The Last of Us: Part II”.
The game “The Last of Us: Part II” is told from two perspectives. It constantly moves the player between Ellie and Abby’s stories. As the player controls Abby, they learn about her history and why she is hunting Joel: she is looking for him to kill her father. In that way, she is a mirror for Ellie’s intention to avenge Joel in turn.
The time she spent with Abby is going to accomplish a few things, including showing how her life hasn’t gotten any better since she killed Joel. In fact, killing Joel set off a chain reaction of her people being deeply hurt by her revenge spree. It’s also meant to offer a different perspective so that fans could choke down the fact that there are limits to being a good guy in the world of “The Last of Us.” In a world overrun by zombies, where people are desperate to survive, they can do terrible things that would be condemned as evil in the real world. Abby is not a bad person. She cares and protects her people and works hard to keep her settlement going. She felt she had to kill Joel, but she never stopped.
More importantly, Abby is meant to be a cautionary tale for Ellie. Revenge never does anything, it only does unnecessary violence. Abby lost so much because she couldn’t let Joel go, and if Ellie were to commit to murdering Abby, she would just continue her endless need for revenge.
Although Ellie crossed many lines while trying to get to Abby, Abby’s mistakes, mixed with her own, taught her (and the player) a valuable lesson.
