Why Abby in 'The Last of Us Part II' Doesn't Work
She could've been a very interesting character, but Naughty Dog dropped the ball.
One act of revenge, and Abby becomes the most controversial video game character in recent memory. In The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog not only had the audacity to have her kill off Joel, the beloved protagonist of the first game, but they also forced you to play as her for a large section of the game afterwards. That’s pretty ballsy, and it could’ve worked if done well. Needless to say, it wasn’t done well.
The problem with Abby is not that she kills Joel, nor is it her openly having an affair with a man who has a pregnant girlfriend, nor is it her abandoning everything she stands for because of a single bad dream. The problem is that the game wants you to like her in spite of those things. After she kills Joel, the story bends over backwards to make her look as benevolent and even relatable as possible. She goes out of her way to protect the people she cares about, and she’s even shown playing with a dog. Abby’s story paints her like a noble hero, as if her killing Joel never happened.
Abby gets more favorable treatment than Ellie in the story as well. Let’s compare their respective endings, for example. Abby may have lost her friends and WLF comrades, but she still has Lev, and she learns that the Fireflies are not all dead. Ellie loses two fingers, her once peaceful, loving home, and her relationship with Dina. Abby’s ending is far more hopeful than Ellie’s. Also, Abby’s revenge quest is seen as justifiable, while Ellie’s is destructive. Abby successfully kills Joel and goes back to business as usual with the WLF. While some of her friends were squeamish about the brutality of it, they all agreed that Joel deserved what he got. Ellie, however, goes through hell to get her pound of flesh, losing Jesse and nearly Dina in the process. Even after Abby spares her life a second time, she still can’t let it go. She returns to the metaphorical heart of darkness and confronts Abby, even at the cost of everything she holds dear.
During Ellie and Abby’s first confrontation, you play as Abby. Both are in peak physical condition, and despite Abby being unarmed and Ellie being armed to the teeth, Abby gets the upper hand and beats her down. In their final confrontation, you play as Ellie, but both she and Abby are disheveled and weakened, and Ellie essentially forces Abby to fight her. Ellie gets the upper hand but lets Abby live, even after everything she’s done to get to this point and everything she’s been through. Abby succeeds in her quest and moves on with her life, yet Ellie fails and loses everything.
Apparently, Naughty Dog originally planned for Ellie to kill Abby in the end, but they wanted her to preserve the last bit of humanity she had left and spare her. I can understand that, but it makes no sense whatsoever. Why does Abby get to have her revenge, but not Ellie? Why should Abby get a shot at redemption, but not Ellie? Abby’s the catalyst for everything that happens in this game, so why shouldn’t she pay for the hurt she’s caused?
Ellie is a pre-established character that fans of The Last of Us already know and love. Abby is a new character making her debut, and the first thing she does is kill Joel, who is loved even more than Ellie. For Naughty Dog to paint her as a good person afterwards and expect players to just readily go along with it is tone deaf and almost condescending.
I have a theory that Naughty Dog had two conflicting ideas for the direction of this game, and instead of picking one or the other, they mashed the two together and hoped it would work. That would explain why Ellie and Abby’s stories are tonally different. Ellie’s is focused squarely on finding Abby and getting revenge. Abby’s is about about territorial wars, open sexual affairs, and making friends with the enemy. There are few if any parallels between the two stories, and I think it damages the game greatly. If Abby was shown to be just as hell-bent on revenge as Ellie, and her path was equally as destructive, I think players would’ve liked her a bit more. Instead, Joel’s death is treated like water under the bridge in Abby’s story, and the player is forced to see her as a good person.
There’s also the issue of Abby’s relationship with Lev. It’s meant to be similar to Ellie and Joel’s relationship in the first game, with Lev being the emotional core to Abby the way Ellie was to Joel. After all, it was Lev who stopped Abby from killing Dina after finding out she was pregnant. This doesn’t work, though, for a number of reasons. First, Ellie and Joel’s relationship builds up over several months. Abby and Lev’s takes place over less than 3 days. Second, Ellie and Joel’s relationship builds up over the entire first game, and expanded upon in parts of the second. Abby and Lev’s takes place over only a small portion of the second game. Third, there’s much greater emotional depth to Ellie and Joel’s relationship. Joel’s attachment to Ellie is him trying to be the protective father figure he couldn’t be for his own daughter, Sarah. Abby is protective of Lev because she had a bad dream about him dying once, at which point she barely knew him.
Lastly, while this isn’t quite as bad how she’s written, many have criticized Abby’s physical appearance, and I do share their sentiment to a degree. Her character design looks like they just slapped a woman’s head on a man’s body and called it a day. I’ve seen muscular women with broad shoulders, but her figure just doesn’t look natural. I’d even say it borders the uncanny valley. (Her masculine clothes don’t help either.) During her flashback sections, her body looks more lean and realistic by comparison. If they had kept that model and maybe added some definition to her muscles, she’d probably look a lot better.
TL;DR - Abby doesn’t work because:
The game wants you to like her despite her killing Joel, being a side chick, and abandoning her principles over one bad dream.
She gets more favorable treatment than Ellie for no apparent reason.
Her relationship with Lev isn’t as developed as Ellie and Joel’s.
She’s a woman’s head on a man’s body.
I know I’m several years late to the party with this one, but it was on my mind and I needed to get it out. Disagree? Did I get anything wrong? Let me know in the comments.