There has been a general sense that Ellie’s character has veered well outside the lines of the source material in The Last of Us season 2. Now, there appears to be actual documentation that fans can point to and say, “See, they don’t get it.”
One of the biggest complaints about season 2 of The Last of Us is that Ellie has been made out to be kind of an idiot. She lurches forward attempting to get revenge for Joel, with Dina handling all logistics. Her reactions and emotions to situations are often bizarre. And her combat prowess is almost non-existent, with practically no kills and half of them being by accident.
Now, co-showrunner and the writer of most of the season, Craig Mazin, appears to be spelling out his view of Ellie, and it’s what everyone is complaining about. This is an excerpt from the post-finale Last of Us podcast with Mazin:
“Abby is seemingly not like Ellie, in that Abby is incredibly competent…When Abby gets into the theater, she doesn’t screw up…She is in complete control of the situation.”
The idea that Ellie is somehow incompetent or dumb is not at all how she’s portrayed in the game or even in season 1 of this show, where she’s repeatedly called smart and just not living up to her potential.
In the second game, Ellie activates that potential and becomes a revenge-fueled killing machine that is a match for Abby, which is a key part of the game. It’s not that Abby never gets the drop on her, but calling Abby “competent” compared to the bumbling kid that Ellie has morphed into in season 2 is so frustrating.
This “she’s just a dumb kid flying by the seat of her pants” is so misaligned with every part of the second game, as at one point (spoilers) she acts as an actual, terrifying level boss as you fight as Abby, more than a “competent” match for her.
Again, this isn’t even in line with the show itself. Season 1 Ellie is smart. Season 2 Ellie has, at the very least, been doing combat training and has had five years to prepare for an inevitable hunt like this. Then they just throw all that out (remember that rifle that Seth ceremoniously gave her that she hasn’t used once?) for whatever this is. There are clips we’ve seen that were never used (Ellie firing an assault rifle) and scripted fight sequences that never happened.
You can say that Ellie was reshaped for the TV audience, and while that may be true, it’s a worse version of the character and one that doesn’t even match the Ellie the show spent a year building. It’s beyond frustrating to hear Mazin say things like this.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
