The Last of Us and How Trauma Destroys Your Mind

I'm glad you made this video. I know most people dislike this game, but personally it spoke to me. It's conflicting experience and it isnt afraid to showcase some complex emotions.

I don't think enough people put emphasis on her PTSD. She was endangering their kid. I can't see her decision for revenge as entirely selfish.

13:00 Another subtexual element about Ellie's decision here that I think many people overlook is that Ellie is probably suicidal. Part of her trauma is that Joel took her righteous death away, and now she lives with no purpose. That haunts her even after she has a "happy ending" at the farm. When she leaves Dina, she isn't losing her... Ellie believes she's already lost it all. And pointlessly hunting Abby is all she has left. Ellie hopes to die by Abby's hands, both to pay back Abby for what she has done to her friends, and to release herself from life. Ellie never left to kill Abby, she left to die. But Abby denied Ellie her death, so Ellie lets her go in the end because fate had decided she would live, just as it had when she was bitten at 14.

Part 1: Love & Sacrifice Part 2: Vengeance & Grief Part 3: Forgiveness & Redemption

Not exactly related to THIS video in particular but something I'd like to point out that many reviewers and gamers interpret the ending of The Last of Us Part II as "Ellie has lost everyone and everything and became a shell of her former self". Something that often goes unacknowledged is that Ellie is NINETEEN in Part II. She basically has her whole life ahead of her to grow and heal from her trauma. Regardless of whether we get a Part III or not, Ellie's journey is far from over. At the end of Part II she's 19, 20 at most, and has already gone through things and learned lessons that most people never do their entire lives. Whether Ellie gets back together with Dina or not, whether she learns to play guitar left-handed or not, whether she goes back to Jackson or not, she basically has her whole life ahead of her. One big arc that she's yet to complete is learning to love and value her own life beyond what her immunity means, facing the reality that even if her death would 100% result in a vaccine against the Cordyceps, it still wouldn't "save the world", as you can't just undo 25 years of total societal collapse with a vaccine. So, regardless of which direction Ellie's journey is going, one thing is clear: she's still in the beginning of it. Saying that "Ellie's life is over" because of what she went through in her late teens is a bit like saying that "my dating life is over" because your high-school sweetheart cheated on you.

its crazy to me how its lost on a majority of people that abby and lev are so parallel to joel and ellie. abby and ellie have similarities too, with seeking vengeance for their fathers but joel and abby really have such similar roles and traits in more ways imo. i think ellie could really see that in the end as abby was protecting lev and thats a big part of why ellie spares her (but theres a lot more behind that decision ultimately i believe)

7:18 not even a couple of weeks, the night before. i think that’s what makes both scenes so heartbreaking, willing to fix their relationship but having no time to even process it all before it’s taken away. beautifully written video

That’s what I always had a problem with. All those games and TV Shows showing main character going through a whole ton of trauma with no repercussions. TLOU II finally portrayed the reality of people dealing with PTSD in a post “happy ending” way

I am so glad that now there's much more positive commentary on this game because the rest of the community just calls this game the Mid of Us and won't shutup about how they can't handle Joel's death. The game is much more than "revenge is bad" and I am glad we are getting content like this that dives deeper into the actions the characters took

This is such a beautiful, tragic story, and it resonated deeply with me as someone with C-PTSD. I’m so glad whenever I see a video pop up on my feed that discusses it. It’s disgusting to think back on what the scum of the internet did to this amazing game when it was first released. I can’t imagine hating women and LGBTQ+ people so much that you would feel the need to disregard this masterpiece. Joel turned into a monster, and he faced the consequences of his actions. Abby turned into a monster, and she faced the consequences of her actions. Ellie turned into a monster, and she faced the consequences of her actions. This game is an amazing depiction of trauma and the endless cycle of violence that can only be broken with forgiveness and healing and moving on. I absolutely adore it, and I always will.

I got Ellie’s tattoo as a symbol of my struggle with PTSD

After playing this game, I was shocked at how many couldn’t sympathize with Abby, but excused Ellie.

This game ruined my soul...

2:46 Ellie was very smart for her age in this scene, she definitely had the right to know what happened but I like how the game split it into two parts, making Joel tell her the truth at 17 instead of 14. A really small detail but a really cool one nonetheless.

YES! Literally I’ve been telling everybody that this game is peak narration on so many levels! The only reason why people still hate this game is because, like Ellie, they can’t seem to be able to move on from Joel’s death. Like, Druckmann was such a genius for being able to make the players dive so deep in this story that we’re not only put in the character’s shoes, but WE become the character, and Ellie is just the vehicle we control to get revenge over Joel. I don’t care what everyone says, this game is a masterpiece! Honestly, if you want to have more conversations about it, I’m all here for it! Good job with the analysis!

this is a great video essay! ellie's trauma is a driving force behind every single one of her actions in part 2. and her quest to bring peace to herself after that trauma of losing joel only serves to retraumatize her over and over again. she just can't seem to stop herself, and it's truly a devastating thing to watch as you see her go from joking around with dina in seattle day 1 to abandoning jesse and tommy and seeking out abby by herself on day 3, and then eventually also abandoning dina and jj at the farm to try and make that trauma stop hurting so much. i love the last of us part 2 so much

I have cPTSD and Ellie is my favorite depiction of it. The way she acts + carries herself, the way she loses the happy parts of herself, her journal entries ... all feels like the creators just sat and observed me for yeaaars. It was surreal seeing everything. I hope Ellie was able to recover, praying for TLOU 3 ahhhh

honestly, this is one of the deepest and heartfelt games. You get to experience the pain of both the antagonist and protagonist, making it hard to choose who will you side with.

i rooted for ellie, i wanted her to kill abby, however, HOWEVER, and this will sound hypocritical of me, i understood abby’s perspective, why she did what she did, and i understood that the cycle of violence becomes even more dangerous, and at the end both ellie and abby lost everything they cared for.

I can't think of a better written game that makes you feel all of the best and worst emotion of beings a human being in this fallen world.