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sundownpromises · 2 months

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The Beauty in The Last of Us Part II's Ending

I just want to take a minute to ramble about the ending of TLOU2 because it is one of the most beautiful endings to a game ever.

It’s so easy to watch the ending and feel nothing but sadness for Ellie. Her worst fear came true – ending up alone. But something that I love about this ending is the renewed sense of hope that you feel. Or that I felt, at least.

After the final cutscene with Joel, when we see Ellie’s face, she seems at peace. To me, I see the face of someone who has finally learned to forgive. I think this moment is the moment we finally see Ellie silently realize that the only way to truly heal is to accept what has happened and to let it go. She will never forget everything that happened; that much is clear. Trauma is not something that one can forget, and even if she could, the physical scars and her missing fingers will remain a constant reminder of all that she’s lost and has endured. But now we see Ellie finally reach the point in her journey where she is able to outgrow that trauma. Her trauma, which was once a heavy ball of lead tied around her ankle, has now become small enough that she can walk without the weight.

And then, of course, we see her leave the guitar behind. I’ve always believed that this symbolizes not leaving Joel behind, but instead no longer resenting him, understanding him, and learning to move on. Sure, she can no longer play the guitar in the same way she used to, and that’s heart-breaking. The guitar was such a clear connection between Joel and Ellie, and it has been said that now that she can no longer play that that connection is broken. But what if that’s not such an awful thing? I believe that there is a silver lining; she will always have other things to remember him by because Joel is always to her. She’s got the pin he gave her for her birthday. She’s got drawings of him in her journal (now that she can finally imagine him not in pain but in tranquility), and most importantly, memories. Yes, she has lost a lot, so much, including the one physical object that directly tied her to Joel -- but what is grief, if not love persevering?

And when we see her walk into the forestry, she walks with determined steps. It is unclear where she is going – but I think at this point, after all Ellie has been through, she sees the futility in unnecessary violence. In a world that is so unforgiving and cruel, what is truly lacking is love and compassion. Ellie is capable of giving and receiving both of those things. She doesn’t have a violent heart; it’s just that the world that she grew up in has shown her nothing but pain and loss. Her circumstances have caused her to react in the only way that she saw fit (further proving that the world Ellie lives in is the true villain of this game, but that is for another post). But we see it with Dina, we see it with Joel, Maria, Tommy, Jesse, and we see it in her survivor’s guilt that she feels toward Tess, Riley, and Sam. We have seen the love and compassion that she has felt for all of these people no matter how short lived the relationship.

This point brings me to a particular line of dialogue from the first game that I absolutely love. It is a line that Joel says to Ellie at the very end:

You keep finding something to fight for.

Is that not what survival is all about? Is that not what enduring is all about? To survive is to find meaning in that survival. When I see Ellie walk off at the end of Part 2, I like to believe that she is going to find meaning elsewhere – whatever that may look like. Personally, I could see her running into another group of survivors who take her in, and she helps them and she cares for them because she knows that that’s how she should be living her life – doing good by other people (or perhaps she truly does go back to Jackson, which I could also envision). She knows that that’s what Joel would want for her.

The Last of Us Part II is a game full of so much tragedy and despair and yet… there is hope to be found. Some people don’t like the ending because it is so open-ended and ambiguous. But personally that’s why I find it so profound and beautiful. I don’t have all the answers but instead I am left with a feeling; a feeling of hope. A renewed sense of faith. That is enough for me. To be teased with that silver lining and to be left alone with my own thoughts, to come up with my own conclusions, is an extremely impactful way to end a game. Wherever Ellie is, I just hope she’s happy. That’s what she deserves.

I think as people who consume media (movies, TV shows, books, games, etc), we're so used to seeing endings that feel truly resolved. In other words, endings that answer all of our pressing questions. But the fact that TLOU2's ending just leaves you with a feeling is so beautiful to me. Ellie's new journey is just beginning, and we as players are not going on that journey with her (at least not until Part 3). It is bittersweet in a way. We can only hope.

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elliespuns · 3 months

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Do you think Ellie would be unfaithful? That is, Dina didn't want her at the moment and Ellie ended up getting into a relationship. Do you think Ellie would relapse with Dina?

(By the way i love your analyses)

Ellie, unfaithful? I can't see that happening. She's the golden retriever of a relationship. It doesn't go with her personality when it comes to something as intimate as a relationship.

Same as I don't see Ellie just randomly dating or fucking people without actually initiating a friendship first, I can't see her as the bad guy in it either.

I honestly think she's emotionally intelligent enough to understand that doing something like this would hurt the person she loves, and even if she was about to do it, she'd back out before even doing it because her good heart wouldn't let her.

I also don't think that Ellie would be the person to seek sex somewhere else if she didn't have it from the person she's with. I think a lot of people like to imagine Ellie being very sexually active, and maybe she would have been if she didn't suffer that much and wasn't forever marked with PTSD.

But I believe that even if Dina were refusing sex with her, Ellie wouldn't relapse. I think her heart would overrule her needs, and she'd make sure to take care of Dina, doing everything in her power to find out what was happening and trying to make it better for her.

Plus, if Ellie can't take it anymore, she can stil self-serve, can't she? *giggles nervously*

#aww thank you my analysis loves You #the last of us #tlou #ellie williams #ellie tlou #dina nolastname #dina ellie #ellie and dina #ellie x dina #tlou part 2 #the last of us part 2 #elliespuns answers

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softlyspector · 4 months

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my favorite piece of environmental storytelling/character work in tlou1 is that Joel can pet some of the animals that you encounter and interacts with all of them in some way (through dialogue or otherwise)

#bec talks #the giraffes the monekys the dogs buckley the horses #and his voice always like a particular kind of soft when talking about them #ok so he only can pet 2 of them WHATEVER #they didnt have to do that #not forgiving rockstar for not letting arthur pet the cats in rdr2 #im like 5k into joel meta analysis can u tell #joel miller #tlou

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jaythedagger · 1 year

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tlou2 spoilers.

scenes in ‘the last of us: part II’ concept art that i would love to see adapted in the next season(s) of the show:

a fun fishing scene with abby and lev. just those two being silly and goofy together in santa barbara, maybe a moment where abby gets pushed into the water by lev just how joel pushed ellie into the water during the birthday flashback (and vice versa)

a dog. i know dogs are hard to work with and can be expensive but because we already saw one with maria’s patrol, i would like to see another doggie, even if it’s just for a little while (it’s to offset the pain). however, if we do get joel’s dog and i have to see them without their owner coming home - i will need to take emotional leave.

call me crazy but bella ramsey can convey grief in such a captivating way, having more scenes right after joel’s passing before it cuts to the grave would be cool to see. dina coming down the stairs to find ellie holding him rather than lying on the floor (or in another concept art piece you can see ellie standing with dina holding her and she is holding onto his broken watch, it’s heartbreaking)

there is art of cat’s character and if they choose to show her more just as they did with frank in the adaptation, a scene where she is giving ellie her tattoo outline and having to see her act all brave and tough getting her first ink would be a nice moment of levity and such a cute teenager-crush moment. do it for the gays, craig.

jesse with a manbun.

#the campfire scene inspired me to write these down #i remember seeing the art and in-game model for that so seeing it in the show was cute as hell #the last of us #tlou #joel miller #ellie williams #pedro pascal #bella ramsey #tommy miller #hbo tlou #tlou2 spoilers #the last of us part 2 spoilers #abby anderson #tlou dina #tlou lev #the last of us part 2 #tlou jesse #jaytalks #the last of us analysis

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jacketpotatoo · 1 year

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Tlou ep7 spoilers

something commented on so subtly that I really enjoyed was how the functioning systemic operations (fedra, the fireflies) indoctrinate their children and make them Other the opposing party to justify their violence against them. These are kids and they’re traumatised, vulnerable, and malleable. So what do they do? They feed them grand hopes of becoming a Leader, in charge of the delinquents that wronged them, allowing them to abuse their power and get sweet, sweet payback. They train them to shoot and kill the Other because they’re simply bad people and not at all like Us, the good ones maintaining order. They’re fed hopes of being wanted, of feeling a sense of belonging to a grand cause. And then made to make bombs to kill in order to prove that they really do. Through Ellie and Riley, the rest of the members of Fedra and the Fireflies are that much more horribly sad

#tribalism and factionalism was something *really* explored in tlou 2 so it’s cool that seeds of it have been planted in the show #the last of us #tlou spoilers #the last of us hbo #tlou hbo #analysis #jp musings

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rebexquest · 1 year

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Kathleen is Ellie. A dark mirror of TLOU II Ellie, to be specific, and it thrills me to no end to see this parallel put here. Ellie is on a rampage. No distance too far, no obstacle too high. Alongside her closest partner, she’ll get revenge for her father figure, and it’ll be done by her hand. Something bigger or more important to stop for? It’ll be left by the wayside in her death march. Kathleen is on a rampage. No stone unturned, no cost too great. Alongside her closest partner, she’ll get revenge for her brother, and it’ll be done by her hand. Something lurking underground, potentially threatening the new order in KC? It’s not worth her attention, not now. Because where’s the justice in that? I sometimes see opinions about Ellie’s arc in the game, about how she should’ve just killed Abby, about how the game was shoving a ‘revenge bad’ plot too hard, and I just need everyone to look at Kathleen. When you lose sight of what you’re living for in favor of what you’ve lost, when you get that tunnel vision- even if it’s for fair, honorable, just, correct things like righting a wrongful death? Well that’s when you lose the rest of your life, too.

#tlou analysis #tlou hbo #tlou spoilers #tlou 2 #the last of us #I have a lot of feelings and this is where I'm choosing to put them #thank you good night

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abbystanaccount · 1 year

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TLOU 2 Shoe/foot size analysis 👟

I discovered by measuring the model's foot length that Abby is a size US 11, and that Ellie and Dina have about the same size feet and are a size 6! They can share shoes, lol.

that being said though, Ellie's sneakers are much bigger than her feet lol

Owen is the other named character that has feet, and he wears a US men's 11.5. Most characters are shown only wearing shoes, and don't have full models of their bodies that I can measure.

#analysis #the last of us part 2 #the last of us #abby #tlou dina #ellie #owen moore #tlou abby #tlou 2 #ellie williams

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mdawgswizzleinthehizzle · 5 months

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i don’t think it’s talked about enough how awful joel’s death was for tommy too.

…like that was his big brother who basically raised him alongside sarah. tommy is like 4 or 5 years younger than joel so i can only imagine how much he just adored his big brother as a kid.

tommy, when he was younger, would do things like this…

little tommy fr sent a letter back home to joel when he was away at camp just because he missed him. he looked up to joel so much as a brother, a mentor and a best friend.

even after they came back together at jackson, they goofed around as brothers…

after joel’s death, and by the end of the game, tommy literally lost an eye after getting shot in the head, could barely walk right and split with maria.

not to mention, he probably carries a ton of guilt about joel’s death like ellie does. he was literally with joel when they were attacked. i’m sure he feels like he should have been able to do more and save him.

i know a lot of people get mad at tommy when he goes to ellie and dina’s ranch to talk about abby. admittedly, he does push ellie, guilt tripping her a bit. realistically, he shouldn’t have pushed ellie like that… but he’s grieving just as much as ellie, if not more so, since that was literally his brother of 50 years. he’s bound to do rash things like that.

joel was absolutely tommy’s best friend, and even if they had that separation for those 20 some years, joel was always his big brother, no matter what. they never stopped loving each other.

i have a sister and i couldn’t imagine losing her like tommy lost joel.

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abbysthighs · 7 months

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Anyone ever notice that Dina is usually wearing warm colors and Ellie is always wearing cool colors?

#tlou2 #tlou2 photomode #virtual photography #the last of us part 2 #ellie williams #queer #lesbian #tlou2 analysis #tlou2 spoilers #tlou part 2 #dina nolastname #dina and ellie #ellie and dina #ellie x dina #the last of us 2

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notgoingwell · 1 year

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youtube

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villanelleskiss · 1 year

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killing eve vs the last of us: a comparison

A niche post for the likeness of those who are obsessed with Killing Eve or The Last of Us, or both.

I’ve recently been listening to the TLOU podcast for both the game and show and I’ve noticed a lot of similarities to the characters of Villanelle and Ellie. They are both similar characters, along with similarities between Eve and Dina, with possible similarities between Konstantin and Joel.

WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR BOTH KILLING EVE AND TLOU

Villanelle:

Villanelle is a character who we’re introduced to right away in the show. Seeing a speckle of blood across a watch, getting the sense that she is not who she says she is. Hiding her true identity while never shying away from her anger and murderous natures. She has felt these emotions from a very young age and displayed them as well, while also never having any family connections to fall back on for comfort. Her mother sent her to an orphanage, her father passed. In school she hurt and maimed other children before being sent to a juvenile detention center. She had a relationship with her language teacher, whose husband she proceeded to mutilate. Which sent her to prison, where she presumingly killed more people and led to the faking of her death. Where she met Konstantin who recruited her into a twelve, a group of powerful government entities with a mind to create their own militia of seemingly teenagers/young adults whose minds are easily swayed and preyed upon.

Over time, we see Villanelle has become one of the victims of this group. But does she ever really see herself as a victim? She sees herself as a predator, like a shark, hunting its prey. Given orders to murder who she thinks are random people, but we as viewers know it’s serving a higher purpose to those in charge. She never questions what she does and rather, she enjoys it. Villanelle is flamboyant and creative, acting much like a child. Killing men with fancy poison pins, clamping their balls, holding their ties into elevator doors, and gutting them like pigs in front of their scorned wives. It’s all a game, how she can make each kill more interesting than the last and we enjoy it. Seeing how she does it and what her thought process is behind it. But there really is no thought process, she kills because she wants to and that’s how simple it is. That’s what makes her different from everyone else.

But what happens when we add Eve to her story? Villanelle becomes unraveled at the seams. Everything that she has worked for and trained herself to be, devoid of emotion with a lavish lifestyle with endless money, slowly becoming a life of the past. Eve shows her what a normal life is and can be for her, that she can put away her anger and let herself feel all those emotions she’s tried so hard to keep hidden. To be herself, to be happy, and no longer fighting inside.

Likewise, with Eve who understands Villanelle and wants to know more. She wants to know everything about her and she will throw away her normal life in a moment if she can get even a sliver of that. But Eve is the same, too. She wants to know what it’s like to kill in a world where having dark and angry thoughts is considered to be a bad thing and here’s Villanelle who embraces all of those things with wide open arms. It’s exciting to know that there is someone like her, who can equally understand that. She shows compassion and empathy to Villanelle for the first time ever and that overwhelms her. To know that a person like Villanelle is capable of being loved by someone like Eve, it’s beautiful, but it’s only possible because they are the same.

Though, there are qualms with how their story unfolds. When we do see these women together, they bicker but they work well together. They’re enemies but they’re lovers. If they choose to and they can, to kill together, it’s one of the most dangerous things possibly ever in the world and everybody should be terrified of that. They can tear the world apart and rule it together.

Ellie:

When we first meet Ellie, she’s a bold, defensive 14 year old girl. Orphaned from a young age due to losing her mother, who was bitten by the infected, leaving Ellie with exposure to cordyceps which later would cause her to become immune when bitten by a runner. She’s in military school, where she was put by a somewhat surrogate mother, Marlene, because it is the safest place for her to be in the world we see. Then Joel and Tess come along, who are asked to smuggle her out of the city to Salt Lake to a group called the fireflies, who have a team that can create a vaccine from her.

At first, we see Ellie as a girl with an extreme childlike wonder due to never being able to experience anything from the world before. All she sees is remnants of it. But when situations become dire, from Tess becoming infected, to the tragedy of Sam and Henry, we start to see a change in her. She learns how to use a gun from Joel, killing only when necessary but she enjoys it when she does. She wants the power that Joel does when he kills. So, where does this darkness come from? Is it who she is? Or is the cordyceps fungus that is growing in her brain? If she wasn’t infected and simply “just a girl”, would she have those same thoughts or feelings? We only ever saw Ellie briefly before becoming infected in The Left Behind DLC, where she was just a girl having fun and exploring the broken world with her best friend. So it’s hard to say if we’ll ever know the truth.

And by the end of the first game, we start to see where more of this anger and guilt manifest. Because she was not able be the cure due to Joel’s love for her, she questions everything she is. Is she a monster, is she nothing? Her feelings are so strong that despite how hard she tries to hide it, she simply can’t. Every chance she has, she asks Joel the same question, or rather demands it, Tell Me The Truth. And each time she is lied to, the anger just becomes stronger, taking on a personality on its own.

So, at the event of Joel’s death, it allows this anger to manifest and show itself in the deepest and strongest way possible. By hunting down and killing everyone and everything that had anything to do with it. Murdering people who have lives, who mean something to others, without any mind. And when she does find the people who were directly involved, only God can save them because Ellie does literally become an animal. But inside, we know she is still that girl we met at the mere age of 14. So, does it become difficult for us to see her mindlessly kill or does it become even more exciting and interesting? Because by the end of her journey, she saves and spares the life of the person who killed Joel. Would a monster do the same? That action shows that there is humanity inside her and she is just so broken inside from her own emotions, that, that is what controls her actions.

With Dina, we see them fight but we see them comfort each other. They bicker but they trust each other and love each other. They are partners and where one goes, the other follows. They kill together and is just as rough around the edges as Ellie is. They protect each other, always. We see the tenderest of moments, sometimes it’s just a song, sometimes it’s through sickness, and other times it’s after Ellie kills someone, but they have each other, through it all. Ellie is loyal at all costs, to everyone she loves in her life. The only time she betrays that is through the pain she feels. But she realizes her mistakes and in the end, wants to make everything right again and follows her heart back to where it belongs.

Father Figures:

Villanelle’s real father dies when she is young so the only father figure that is in her life, is Konstantin. He believes in her like nobody else does, but he is also afraid of her. He knows what Villanelle is capable of and tries to keep her at a distance, but his own love for her, his own curiosity doesn’t let him. She figures out he has a daughter and later on, takes her away from him by introducing her to the darkness. So, he tries to kill her, she tries to kill him, he tries to save her, she leaves him, it’s an endless cycle but it’s one that works for them. It’s a dynamic only they could have for each other, because they are not a real family, not connected by blood, which is a point Konstantin points out to her. But she is truly the only one that he has. His own actions despite the ones we would be led to think Villanelle caused. But in the last season, their relationship is strained. Why? It could be because of Villanelle’s attempted religious rebirth but it could be the effect of everything they have done to each other. Villanelle finally realizing that Konstantin continues to lie and hurt her, so she does the same to him. And by the end of the series, it ends with Konstantin’s death, again by his own actions before they’re able to reconcile.

Joel is Ellie’s father. Wholly and simply. Blood or not, that doesn’t matter. His lies to Ellie about the fireflies would regard the same outcome as if he was her father by blood. The hurt and anger is possibly even more because she knows what they have been through together. They crossed the country and saved each other from infected, and their lives have literally been dependent on each other. It was an easy decision for Joel to save Ellie, killing everyone that got in his way, much like Ellie would later kill everyone in her way to avenge Joel. So, them not speaking to each other and Ellie publicly berating him is not easy for Ellie. Especially when Joel lost his own daughter Sarah. But her choosing to want to fix that relationship is a brave one, when his death was less than 24 hours later. And Ellie finally choosing to let her life with Joel go, so she can live her own with Dina.

Overview:

If you put these four characters together and switched their places, you would have a nearly similar outcome. Both Villanelle and Ellie are lesbians, while Eve and Dina are both bisexual. They are similar but different, but their stories are unique and borne of trauma, anger, and overwhelming emotions, which are calmed by love and humanity by Eve and Dina.

(Disclaimer: Eve is not being sidelined to just Villanelle’s counterpart in this post, as Eve is her own person, this is just a comparison to Villanelle and Ellie’s stories)

TLDR:

They are the same person except Villanelle is clean and smells good, while Ellie is stinky and dirty.

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fuckyeahpedropascal · 1 year

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Pedro boys hair matrix

| Masterlist • Taglist |

Alright folks, we’re taking a break from Joel for now until I catch up on episode 2 of TLOU.

Following the Pedro boys facial hair matrix, we come to part 2 of this compilation series. I've loved every second of making these and there will be more to come!

If you're interested in more discourse on this topic, I've been sent some great asks which I’ve tagged fuckyeahmensgrooming.

* click on image for higher resolution

Commentary below the cut:

Closely Cropped

Jay Castillo, Pietro Alvarez, Ezra, Max Phillips

I definitely prefer a longer length on Pedro, this is not my favourite look, but he's still handsome AF!

Combed Short

Jack Daniels, Javier Pena, Dave York, Oberyn Martell

Men's hair is so deceptive. I spent ages debating between the Closely Cropped and this category, but I think the hair is definitely on the longer side in Combed Short, it's just styled so that it looks shorter than it seems.

Javier is an interesting one for this category. His hair is styled so many different ways in Seasons 2 and 3, but the differences are so subtle that I struggle to make sense out of them. Perhaps a deep dive Javier hair analysis is something I might do next.

Slicked Back

Commandante Veracruz, Joel Miller, Max Lord, Marcus Moreno

As with the Wrap Around category in the facial hair matrix, this is the most transformative look for me. I honestly didn't recognise Pedro in WW84. And older Joel with wet hair is a revelation.

Front Sweep

Pero Tovar, Din Djarin, Javier Pena (Season 1), Marcus Pike

This is a close second favourite look of mine. I love the soft curls over his eyes, the longer the better. Javier's season 1 bangs are the pinnacle for me, so lush and fluffy and I want to run my fingers through them.

Curls For Days

Javi Gutierrez, Joel Miller, Frankie Morales, Dieter Bravo

A clear winner for me personally. While Frankie definitely rocks the shorter curls, Dieter is the first Pedro boy really go long with the messy curls and I love him for it, and he hasn't stopped since. Give me curls all day, every day.

Which category is your favourite? Any looks you would classify differently?

P.S. When is it my turn to get the poll function??

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