Letting Go
by Claudia Sanchez, Contributing Editor
“If somehow the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment, I would do it all over again.”
Watching Joel say these words while almost shedding a tear, Ellie responding that she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to forgive him for his decision, we’re thrown into the significance of forgiveness in the world of The Last of Us Part II. While players may feel conflicted regarding Joel’s actions at the hospital in the first game, it’s not until the moment we are presented with this dialogue that we truly understand Joel’s motive. Marked by the loss of his daughter on Outbreak Day, Joel is not willing to face loss once more, nor the trauma that accompanies it. He will do whatever it takes to save Ellie’s life, to redeem himself and make up for the loss of his own daughter.
From this perspective, Ellie and Abby are more alike than players first may think. TLOU II is a perfect blend of loss, grief, compassion, vengeance, and reflection on the effects trauma can have in our actions. We are introduced to characters suffering from PTSD, who coexist in an apocalyptic future. For example, even though as players we don’t experience the trauma that made Ellie the kid she was when we first met her, in this second installment we’re put through some of the experiences and relationships that ultimately made these characters who they are as adults.
Towards the end of the first installment, players control Joel as he tries to break out of the hospital with Ellie; after he learns she would die in the process of making a cure with her, he cannot stand losing the kid he had grown so attached to and with whom he had crossed the country. It’s then that players are forced to murder Jerry (later on shown as Abby’s dad) in order to retrieve Ellie and run away. Joel’s murder of Jerry serves as a catalyst for every death that follows. It makes Abby colder and less trusting. It traumatizes her. Jerry’s death is the starting point for Abby’s mental and emotional shifts, just as Joel’s death is the starting point for Ellie.
While for Abby Joel’s death promises closure, it opens a wound for Ellie. Ellie and Joel may have grown apart in the last few years, but regardless of their differences, she obviously loves him. His death sends her on a killing frenzy, getting rid of everyone else who stood in the room doing nothing while Joel was killed. These deaths motivate Abby to pursue Ellie in order to avenge her friends. At the end, I found myself pitying both characters, seeing how caught up they were in the vicious circle of vengeance. The heartbreaking journey I shared with both player characters made me wish I could help them come to terms with the fact that more death will not repair the past. I believe that was Naughty Dog’s intention: to provide verisimilitude and a moral lesson by putting players through the nonsensical vengeance, unnecessary deaths, and numbing pain so as to make the experience of the game feel more ‘real.’ That is what makes the game so powerful and emotionally touching.
The final fight between Abby and Ellie symbolizes Ellie’s internal fight: Should Ellie avenge Joel in an attempt to find peace, or should she let Abby live in the name of forgiveness? Letting Abby go isn’t a simple act, because it means Ellie must finally come to terms with Joel’s death. The other side of the coin is that Abby doesn’t want to fight, which may be reasonable if she’s already found peace. This is the clear lesson of the game: there is a human side to everyone. Even if we chose to ignore their humanity (as Naughty Dog positions players to do with Abby in the beginning of the game), they are most likely still motivated by the same things we are. Both Abby and Ellie are motivated by loss and grief. While they are initially fixed on the pursuit of vengeance as a cure for their pain, they ultimately come to the understanding that one sin won’t wash away another. Instead, they find peace by learning how to forgive each other for their past choices and they’re brave enough to let go of the vicious cycle of vengeance. They find peace by forgiving from the heart because, at the end of the day, feelings cannot be rationalized. TLOU Part II is an outstanding game that makes the wall between players and characters very thin. As a player, the game made me feel, made me grieve, made me frustrated and angry, and for all of that, it served as an excellent lesson on how forgiving and letting go of the things that hurt us is a necessary step in healing.
