i did and felt the exact same way. but it literally wasn't until the beach fight that i understood exactly what the game was doing.

i feel like so many people who are mad at the game are just focused on the idea of abby killing joel and they literally can't get passed that. there aren't any good or bad characters in this world imo abby did something f***ed up because joel killed her dad but she literally stopped herself from killing ellie multiple times because she was trying to end the cycle of violence.

i think ellie not killing abby in the end was a way of her letting go of joel and not letting her obsession take over her

anybody else love ellie's hair at the end?

i f*** with that design a lot

Her whole bloody shirt short hair look at the end screamed Cécile de France's character from the movie High Tension

I like that last statement you said about her letting go of Joel, can’t say I fully agree with that narrative choice but I understand it. The quick snapshot of Joel while she’s drowning Abbey was super powerful and brings your point around.

I honestly feel like just killing her off would’ve been better considering the entire foundation of the story was “hate”. It almost seemed a bit too clean for her to realize while she’s about to kill the one person who she travelled the country for, has haunted and tormented her that the cycle needs to end.

I’m not even mad at Joel’s death infact i think it was extremely bold and almost necessary for his death to spark this story. All the great ones gotta go like Don Corleone, and what they teach those they love is what we end up getting a chance to see first hand.

i feel the same way

i guess this means that if they do a part III that they will meet again

but i wouldn't have been mad at her learning about forgiveness in the third game

despite having empathy for both parties

i feel like one of them should have finished the job

preferably ellie

She ends up all alone in the end

She just killed an entire mansion full of enemies but couldn’t kill the one person she actually came for?

As someone who by a miracle never got the story spoiled and hasn’t really dived into the whole “controversy” of the game (I think it’s cause of Ellie is gay & Joel’s death?) I’m a bit underwhelmed about the ending, don’t mind either of those choices.

The games cover art is almost funny now. Like yeah, all that rage to let the games antagonist ride away on a boat like Andy Dufresne.

if Ellie killed Abby, the ending would've been more impactful...but wouldve made the whole game meaningless tbh.

In the end Ellie saw Joel on Abby just like we all did.

And even though Abby was a killer and murdered alot of people and especially people Ellie cared about, Ellie had to give her the chance to help raise Lev the same way Joel was given a chance to raise Ellie.

I feel like Ellie didnt fully understand why Joel did what he did until the very end, just as Abby was in her last breathe.

You can beat the game going stealth thru most areas. you’re only forced to kill abbys gang and like two other unavoidable combat areas

I read that Ellie beginning to forgive Joel in the last scene allowed her to move past the incident at the party just as sparring Abby which I get but man those two events couldn’t be farther apart.

I get what you’re saying though & like I said I understand why but don’t fully agree with it, felt too easy and wrapped up. I do love how risky and bold the story was though and I give props to any writer who can take such dramatic risks.

Did Ellie need her last two fingers to play the song Joel taught her?

yeh

So by not being able to play guitar and killing Abby, she has essentially lost all connection to Joel

Ending got me f***ing heated what the F***.

All that for WHAT????

Let me start by saying, I couldn’t possibly give any less of a f*** about any of the s*** the neckbeards are mad about. I don’t care that there’s a lesbian love story. I don’t care that there’s a trans character.

Make all of them straight and do what you need to please all those losers, and the ending is still f***ing GARBAGE.

Initially, I was extremely irritated by having to play as Abby. Especially because her main drop off was smack dab in the middle of when s*** was heating up and getting good. But over time, she (Or maybe not she, but what they were doing wit her.) started growing on me.

They drew parallels to what The Walking Dead always does, in the sense that they showed that neither side is “bad & evil”, (Or both sides are extremely f***ed up, depending on how you look at it.) and that they’re simply a product of their environment and doing what they need to in an extremely f***ed up world.

Abby was a good person jus like Ellie, (Shown by how she eventually realized the whole “gang war” was absolute bullshit and that a good human is a good human.) and both were riding extremely hard for the ones they cared about and locked in a cycle of revenge. Abby has her father killed (And simultaneously the rest of humanity.) and so, on the same “eye for an eye” path as Ellie, makes sure she kills Ellie’s “father”. Both characters are simply 2 sides of the same coin. I appreciated that parallel. It was pulled off very well.

But to end it like that, after Ellie lost everything, and even finally settled down into her and Dina’s fantasy life at a farm raising a baby, only for her to put it all on the line again, then finally get there and be right at the finish line of exactly what her life’s purpose has been, only to say F*** IT? WIT NO EXPLANATION? Nah that don’t sit right wit me.

And then she gets home and Dina presumably left wit the baby. So you lost literally EVERYTHING to this b****. You lost Joel, Jesse, Dina, your baby, and even 2 FINGERS, and you get absolutely NOTHING out of it? And then jus roll credits.

Such a bleak empty ass ending and feels like some 13 Reasons Why bullshit where it had absolutely no meaning and no payoff and it’s only purpose was to be as bleak and depressing as it possibly could be.

What a missed f***ing mark. And it’s worse because mechanically, the game is a f***ing masterclass and was still very enjoyable to play. But as a game that’s so narrative heavy and story based, that ending will never f***ing sit right wit me and put a massive stain on it and made the whole story feel aimless. What the F*** man.

Fam this right here may have just convinced me Neil was up to something

A very mature and thoughtful a***ysis on what It all meant, I may be on-board with the ending

reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/hggfs9/joels_song_and_the_games_hopeful_ending/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

From the comments:

"Ellie finally has an emotional reckoning with herself and that’s why she can’t play Joel’s song on the guitar again because she’s never going to lose herself again. "

This is the first time I've seen this idea and I love it. The last part of the song ellie plays would match the lyrics "If I ever were to lose you". She never plays the second part. Beautiful.

And she lost Dina and JJ for picking revenge over them.

She's all alone.

i get what you're saying but i don't have the right words to perfectly articulate why the game ended the way it did

maybe in a couple days or weeks ill be able coherently explain why i think ellie didn't kill abby (its along of the lines of finally being able to let joel go)

might sound a bit pretentious but, i honestly do believe the story is meticulously crafted and there is definitely a reason it ended the way it did. it's just frustrating knowing why the story ended the way it did but not being able to fully articulate why

Check out that piece I just posted

s***s crazy

"It’s fitting that Abby is crucified by the Rattlers. Abby isn’t just paying for her sins of killing Joel, Abby is also paying for the sins of all the WLFs and Seraphites who are lost in the cycle of violence. It’s only after Abby and Ellie fight in the water that they are both baptised, they’re both regenerated as symbols of hope for a broken world."

“The game is supposed to be centered on the theme of self-destruction. Ellie’s covered her bite, the thing that gave the Fireflies hope, with a moth. Moths kill themselves by flying straight into fire, chasing the heat of the flames. Ellie’s set on destruction. I think the question of the game is whose destruction it really is.”

The foundation of this series has always been about the passage of time and what it does to humans amongst other things. I think history will look back at this tale a lot nicer.

might start survivor + replay tomorrow

from the same reddit post?