Last Of Us 2 Ending EXPLAINED - Why It's Dividing The Fandom

You're Supposed To Hate Abby

For the longest time, creative director Neil Druckmann stated that The Last of Us 2 is "about hate".

Naturally, with all trailers pointing to Ellie on the warpath, new girlfriend Dina looking to be killed and Joel trying to help, we assumed this would be a clear cut story of Ellie butchering everyone in her path. Joel would try to stop her, and all sorts of comparisons to Joel's actions at the close of the first game would come through.

An hour and a half into a 25 hour runtime though, Joel has his kneecap blown off by a shotgun, and is beaten to death by new character, Abby. He's further spat on by her friend Manny, and later called a "little b*tch" by Nora, who follows up saying he "got what he deserved".

All of this sets Abby and her gang up as the most detestable figures in quite some time.

It's immediately clear from the 18,000 (and counting) zero scores on Metacritic, reaction videos of people rage-quitting and the discourse in general, that most people did not like this decision.

However, that's the point.

All that anger, sadness, the questioning of "Why?!" and the drive to do something about it is entirely what you're supposed to be feeling for the majority of the game.

Naughty Dog took the bold as hell decision to make YOU care about enacting this tale of revenge as much as Ellie. They knew you wouldn't feel this way if Dina or even Tommy got killed, and the first step to understanding what they're going for is accepting these feelings are intentional from the creator.