As a follow-up to one of the most beloved games of its generation The Last of Us 2 had big shoes to fill, but its unpredictable narrative outdid the original, featuring a story filled with twists that certainly constitute ample spoiler material. Unfortunately, many of these moments were spoiled for some thanks to leaks about two months before the title was released. Leaked information can give gamers reasons to be excited about a game and can even work as a kind of unofficial form of advertisement, giving hardcore fans information beyond the official trailers, but in the case of The Last of Us 2, the spoilers may have ruined some truly shocking twists.
Learning about these plot revelations outside the full context of the game’s story led a few gamers to an inappropriate bias against the title. This prompted a small but vocal group, including many who had not played TLOU2, to review bomb the game. Yet sales impact was minimal, as TLOU2 became the third highest-grossing PlayStation game of all time in the United States. The Last of Us 2 has been available for close to two years now, and much of the initial controversy has dimmed. Players can now look back on the story of TLOU2 with proper perspective to recognize it as a game that aimed for more than simple shock value. The sequel delivered appropriate consequences for Joel’s decisions at the end of the first game, and expanded on its themes.
The first game in the series featured a sympathetic antihero in protagonist Joel Miller, although by the end TLOU’s Joel was essentially a JRPG villain. In a world ravaged by a fungal infection that transformed countless humans into monstrous, zombie-like creatures, Joel sacrifices much of his humanity to survive. The story features Joel bonding with Ellie Williams who becomes a surrogate daughter to him. In the game’s iconic twist ending, Joel and Ellie reach the Fireflies, a group with medical expertise who may be able to use Ellie’s natural immunity to the Cordyceps infection to create a cure. When Joel learns that the procedure to harvest Ellie’s immunity will result in her death, he places his love for Ellie above the hope of the human race’s future recovery and slays the Fireflies.
Abby Murders Joel Early In TLOU2, Showing Characters Defined By Loss
The bleak and bittersweet ending saw Joel lie to Ellie about what took place, providing a self-contained story that could have remained a stand-alone game. The sequel pushed the concept further, unpacking the inevitable results of Joel’s decision, as well as the theme of how love can inspire atrocities. Ellie’s choices in TLOU2 would have disappointed Joel, as she risks the very life that he may have doomed the world to save to avenge a man who was fully aware he deserved to be punished. Early in TLOU2 the game introduces Abby Anderson, the daughter of the Firefly surgeon who was poised to perform the procedure to extract Ellie’s immunity at the end of the original game. Abby serves as the co-protagonist, alongside Ellie, in the sequel.
Abby takes revenge for the death of her father and the rest of the Fireflies by killing Joel with a golf club. This twist appears to be the one that caused the most outrage from fans who learned about the event from the leaks, absent the context of the game’s full story. Some fans expected Joel to be the main character again in TLOU2, or to play a larger role in the story, and his jarring death early in the game caught some players off guard. Ellie is forced to witness Joel’s execution, and sets out on a quest for revenge, which forms the bulk of the game’s plot. The reaction to leaks made Neil Druckman, TLOU2’s director, doubt the game, but the developer’s vision for the sequel ultimately vindicated itself. There are other story elements that could be considered twists alongside Joel’s death, but none of them sparked the same controversy as the sudden, early demise of the first game’s protagonist.
There are many other shocking deaths in The Last of Us 2 over the course of the story, but they all serve to illustrate the cycle of violence and hopelessness that began with Joel’s actions in the original game. When Joel killed The Fireflies, and the one surgeon who might have been able to formulate a cure for Cordyceps, humanity at large lost its hope. The survivors are left to go through the motions of life, finding solace in the handful of people who are important to them.
Ellie and Abby are both young women who lost their fathers to violence. Although it led to fan backlash, TLOU2 made the right choice in killing Joel. In a more hopeful world Ellie might have chosen to value her life with her girlfriend Dina over avenging the dead. The Last of Us 2 does not take place in a hopeful world, however. It is a world defined only by what has been lost, and that hopelessness leads both Ellie and Abby to sacrifice much of their humanity to avenge the fathers who were taken from them.
Owen, Mel, & Jessie’s Deaths Are Part Of The Last Of Us 2’s Message
The first game completed the heavy lifting of world building, leaving The Last of Us 2 to go in more character-centered directions, some of which are definitely spoilers. Dina leaves Jackson alongside Ellie as they set off to avenge Joel, and they are later joined by Dina’s ex-boyfriend Jessie. It is later revealed that Dina is pregnant with Jessie’s child. In a flashback sequence that takes place in Jackson, the new community that Ellie and Joel called home, players see how Ellie came out as gay after sharing a dance with love interest Dina (which was originally a playable TLOU2 dance sequence that was cut from the game). For a short time Dina and Ellie attempt to leave the cycle of violence behind and live on an isolated farm, raising Dina’s child together. When a new lead on Abby’s location surfaces, Ellie chooses to leave her new family behind to continue her pursuit of revenge.
The cycle of vengeance leads to Ellie slaying Abby’s friends Owen and Mel, and Abby killing Jessie, the biological father of Dina’s child. In the segments that chronicle Abby’s perspective she befriends siblings Yara and Lev. The pair are members of the Seraphite cult who flee the group due to Lev’s refusal to confirm to the gender identity the Seraphites would impose. Yara sacrifices herself so her brother and Abby can escape, and Lev ultimately kills his own mother, a bigoted extremist, in self-defense. When Ellie returns to the farm, she finds that Dina and her child have left, leaving her alone and broken. Despite its brutality, TLOU2 is the most awarded game in history. Its message is highly uncomfortable to some, but clearly one that resonated with the majority of its audience.
Despite TLOU2’s Brutality, Ellie Doesn’t Take Revenge On Abby In The End
The only spoiler that might rival Joel’s death in The Last of Us 2 is the fact that Ellie never takes her final revenge on his killer (outside of TLOU2 mods that allow Abby’s death, which undercut the game’s message). Ellie does kill numerous allies of Abby in her attempts to track her own, including Mel, a pregnant woman, and beats Nora with a pipe until she divulges information. Ellie ultimately chooses to let Abby leave, realizing the similarities in their experience, ending the cycle of violence – but only after it has left both of its protagonists’ lives in wreckage.
Many revenge narratives focus on the hero avenging their family or loved ones without reflection on the costs. Joel killed a group of altruists in The Fireflies, along with the world’s hope, to protect someone he loved, in the first game. Both Ellie and Abby kill to avenge the fathers they have lost. Some of the twists of who lives and dies caught players by surprise, but none of them sparked the same intense reaction as Joel’s early game death, and Ellie’s decision to spare Joel’s killer. By examining the cycle of violence unflinchingly, The Last of Us 2 showed that revenge is not glamorous, or even cathartic, and labeling murder as “justice” does not make it any less evil.
