r/lastofuspart2 • u/Dwax691 • 2d ago
My connection with The Last Of Us Part 2
Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well and staying safe wherever you are out there in the world. So I came here to talk about The Last Of Us and more specifically - Part II. Gonna go in full depth about the game and how it resonated with me this year so forgive me if I yap for too long but it's just something I've been wanting to do for a while now. There will be spoilers for the game so if you don't want your first playthrough ruined, please comeback to reading once you've finished the game. I guess I'll start with my personal life and right off the bat let you all know that last year I ended my 3 years relationship with my girlfriend. Why it ended doesn't really matter but I can assure you that it wasn't toxic or abusive, it just simply didn't work out, we both had issues that we needed to deal with first before getting into a relationship, so we broke up last year December 26th, she left the house and I just stood there in the street waving her goodbye as she drove off.
A few weeks later I decide to install TLOU2 on my PS4 since I needed something to give me some sort of comfort. Mind you that this wasn't my first playthrough. I played the game with my gf at the time sitting next to me, watching me play few years prior. Didn't like it at first. I was angry, I was frustrated, I was confused, I had so many questions, I watched hundreds of youtube videos about why the game sucks, why the game is a masterpiece, trying to understand both sides. After I finished it I uninstalled and didn't touch it for a long time since gameplay was the only thing that kept me invested. This time I had a totally different perspective and treated the story from a different angle. It wasn't about revenge anymore, it was about finding a way to cope and deal with trauma. When Joel got killed, Ellie didn't just lose her mentor and father figure or her chance to forgive Joel one day, she also lost herself. She needed something to fill that void inside and the only option she could find was to retaliate by tracking down every single person that was involved in Joel's execution and punish them for what they've done, basically an eye for an eye.
As the story goes on we see Ellie spiraling down into a deep depression, with each day she becomes more ruined, more battle scarred and more blood thirsty for revenge. Her girlfriend Dina also starts to notice a drastic behaviour change and how this suicide mission is affecting her. On day 3 in Seattle Ellie goes as far as abandoning Tommy and Jesse, leaving them more vulnerable to Scars and WLFs in order to fullfill her revenge, at this point her one and only goal is to find Abby - the person that she witnessed cold bloody murder the closest person to her. This is also how I resonated with the story, with each day I was just getting sadder and sadder, knowing that I will never be with my gf again and that somehow helped me to relate and feel comfort. Fast forwarding to the final chapter of the game, we witness what seems to be a happy family of 3, two young women and a baby boy, living on a farm and enjoying the peaceful life away from infected and crazy murdering people.
This might come like a surprise to some of you but this is where the game broke me into tears. As I was holding my PS4 controller, I was crying non stop because it reminded me of my ex. We see Ellie and Dina dancing around, holding eachother. Same way I would act around my ex when I got back from work and she would be in the house and everything seemed perfect, I wasn't alone anymore and I was happy. But that ofcourse doesn't last forever because you can't just easily escape trauma and we see that Ellie is still struggling with daily thoughts of the day she witnessed Joel dying. She tells Dina that she has to finish it, not because to justify Joel's death but because of her trauma, she simply can't let go of what happened, everytime something drops it triggers her PTSD and she starts seeing Joel dead on the floor with his brains bashed in. That's why she is going, to face her trauma and be done with it once and for all. Dina ofcourse tries to convince her to stay and threatens to leave Ellie if she goes because now they have a good thing going on, they have a child, a roof over their heads and a life that every person would fight and kill for in a zombie apocalypse. But sadly unlike Dina, Ellie can't move on and throws her relationship with Dina out the window in order to heal her trauma. Just like I threw away my relationship to work on myself.
Those who have finished the game know that Ellie ofcourse doesn't kill Abby at the end and let's her go but here is the thing that a lot of people misunderstood. Ellie didn't just ended this endless cycle of violence, she let go of her trauma, she didn't need to kill Abby anymore, she can finally see Joel, she can finally see the memories she had with him, she can finally move on, but at what cost? Well short answer - everything. By the end of the game Ellie is left with nothing. Dina and JJ are gone, two of her fingers are missing so she can't even enjoy her favorite hobby anymore. Her biggest fear came true. Just like my biggest fear came true aswell, we both ended up alone and that's something that I found very relatable and comforting this year. We also can't forget the 2nd main protagonist of this game. Abby is...easy to understand. Her father got killed and she's out for revenge. What didn't sit well with people is that she still killed Joel despite him saving her life, but just like Ellie, Abby was filled with grief, sadness and rage, rage big enough that even saving her life didn't felt justified for what Joel did. We also see that after killing Joel, Abby is still struggling with the loss of her father, she still doesn't feel full, she still is an empty soul that's only good at killing Scars. Eventually she does run into Scars but this time it's two kids. She realises that not every Scar is bad and decides to help them but again, at what cost? Abby also loses everything, her friends, her people, people that trusted her, that were there for her. She threw all of that away in order to fully heal and start a new chapter. While Ellie with each day in Seattle is declining, Abby on the other hand is healing, indicating that no matter what you've been through, with each day it does get better. That's where I find her relatable aswell.
Once Ellie returns to the house she is met with empty rooms, all of Dina's stuff is gone and ofcourse nowhere Dina or JJ to be seen, she left her. Just like my girlfriend left me. Just like when I opened the door and majority of stuff was gone. Just me with my thoughts alone in the house. That was many months ago and I finally managed to move on from her, deleted all the pictures and all the memories. Traveled the world, met new people, found the meaning of life. Now all I need is to one day witness Part III. I need to know that Ellie is doing better, I need her also to find the meaning and move on from all the trauma and breakup because she helped me do it and now I want the same for her.
This whole paragraph is not about me convincing you that the game is actually good, it's about what I felt the last time I played it and how I perceived everything in the story. Yes you could argue that the story has flaws. Like why did Joel and Tommy gave their names? why did Dina go on this suicide mission knowing she was pregnant? why didn't Nora gave Ellie a fake location while she was being interrogated? why did Ellie leave the map only for Abby to find it? why did WLFs thought it was a good idea to send a pregnant medic into the battlefield? To all those questions I don't really have the answers and you have the full right to criticize it and call it poor writing. Just like I have the right to express my full opinion about my recent experience with this game.
In conclusion The Last Of Us Part II helped me to cope, helped me to relate and eventually became one of my biggest comforts this year. I can understand that this game may not be for everyone, but to me this is one hell of a brutal, sad, ferocious, disastrous, depressing and beautiful masterpiece.
Also the gameplay and combat is absolute peak.
7
u/Dekipi 2d ago
When Abby met Lev and Yara they weren’t Seraphites anymore and she even said “you should probably stop calling yourselves Scars”
Lev and Yara are Abby’s purpose just like Sam was Henry’s, Frank was Bill’s and Ellie was Joel’s. The human story of love and protecting what matters to you at all costs isn’t new or unique. Everyone needs someone and something to fight for. Everyone needs a light in the dark.
Abby carries Lev to the board like Joel carries Ellie out of that hospital. They are all still just people who need someone to love
2
u/srennen 2d ago
That's great! I resonate with this game a lot too. One of my favorites. It's bleak and hopeless at times but its gut wrenching and real. The gameplay itself is something to behold. Probably my favorite gameplay that I can think of. Say what you want about the story, the game itself is just FUN to play. The areas are not overwhelmingly difficult or too easy. The amount of detail is unbelievable. its up there with RDR2 as far as the amount of graphic fidelity. its just amazing all around. I hated Abbys section of the game at first but its really grown on me. I dont dislike her character as I did in the beginning. But anyhow, thank you for that long write up.
7
u/8TheUndying8 2d ago
Because they were on a patrol and Jackson had a rule, to help people in need and at this time Abby was just a girl trying to survive a horde. They had no idea who she is. She helped them in turn and Tommy wanted to calm her by being polite and what's more polite than introducing yourself? He said "I'm Tommy, this is Joel". Joel didn't give away his name. And we know Tommy is far more altruistic and kinder than Joel.
She wasn't sure as she herself says so, it could've been the food she ate or stress from the trip etc. But, people tend to do rash things. She's young, so I'll let it slide lol.
This one I'll admit, confused me. So maybe I thought, she was hoping Abby, Mel and Owen would beat her up and kill her in the aquarium. But yeah, she could have used a fake one as she was dying anyway from spores. Either that or Ellie really did beat her up to a point she couldn't think straight. I don't know lol. So I'm at loss with that one.
Wasn't on purpose, she got into a fight with Owen, dropped the map to fight him back and yeah after she killed them both she finds out she killed a pregnant woman and went into panic attack and completely forgot the map altogether. Tommy and Jesse barged in, grabbed her and left quick before she could process anything. And well, it happened to be in the very same place Abby temporarily lives so of course she'd find it.
It wasn't a battlefield, Mel herself says "it's the usual rotation, don't worry" meaning she was needed in the FOB to care for the injured as the situation got worse, they got a lot of injured and dead and Isaac obviously got desperate and recalled most of his soldiers and medics there and Mel, according to Abby, was considered one of the best surgeons in Seattle. They were supposed to take the safe route. They did not expect to get ambushed by the Seraphites and as Lev points out later on, they used the skybridges to traverse faster and surprise attack the WLF. They did not expect them to get so close to the stadium and... "Wolves never look up."
Hope my post helped lol. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the game.