The Last of Us 2 continues the story of Ellie and Joel from the first game, but another name is thrown into the mix of this complex narrative. Abby is a new character on the scene, but her integration into this intricate story has been weaved in long before the start of this sequel. Her role in this game ties into a huge theme that Naughty Dog brought to this plot in a unique way: the aspect of empathy. The Last of Us 2MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.
The first game left off with Joel making a choice — he could leave Ellie in the hands of the Fireflies to find a potential cure for humanity that could save the world while killing her, or he could save Ellie's life and abandon any chance of finding a cure. He chose the later, and in order to get out, he needed to kill all the Fireflies in the hospital. Players were surprised at this outcome, but they understood where Joel was coming from with this. Its ramifications come to life in The Last of Us 2.
TLOU's Joel wasn't just sacrificing one life to possibly save the world. This was someone he'd come to see as an adopted daughter. She meant something to him, and those nameless Fireflies didn't.
Players could accept this. In a game that makes the player take out enemy after enemy, they can become desensitized to the lives they are ending in order to survive. In most games, players are the protagonists, their actions are justified, and they don't have to worry about consequences. Enemies are obstacles to overcome, not people to empathize with. The sequel changes that. Every The Last of Us 2 enemy has a name, and players will have to face the results of their actions. With that in mind, Abby's actions in the game are the result of the decisions Joel made in the previous one.
TLOU 2: Who is Abby?
Abby's father was one of the Fireflies that Joel murdered at the end of the first game. Her father's death destroyed her, giving her PTSD symptoms and fueling her desire for revenge. She joined the WLF and eventually brought a group down to hunt Joel down so that she torture him and kill him. To her, Joel was a name, but he was a two-dimensional being, and all she knew was that he was the man that killed her father. That drove her to murder him, even after he and Tommy saved her life when she was being chased by infected.
After that, Ellie is driven by that same blind rage that Abby was. She followed Joel's killer all the way to Seattle to enact revenge. Players feel that anger because they've gone through a journey with Joel and Ellie. Gamers know these two to be the complex characters they are, something that separates Ellie's journey of revenge in fans minds from Abby's. However, after Ellie fights her way to Abby and it seems that she is about to finally enact her vengeance, the game changes. Now, players start to see the world of The Last of Us 2 from Abby's eyes.
Abby has her own struggles that the player gets to experience first hand. Players watch her discover her dead father in a sea of his murdered co-workers. They see her struggle through issues with the Seraphites, developing bonds with characters like Lev, and discovering the deaths of her comrades that the player killed while in Ellie's perspective. While players are angry at what Abby did to Joel, these story details can lead them to empathize with her character and realize the hurt that Ellie's actions are causing others.
Tying Abby's Journey to The Last of Us
Abby ties the story back to the first game, but not the story the fans of The Last of Us have seen before. Every story has multiple sides to it, and in someone else's story, the player might not be the protagonist. Before the game released, The Last of Us 2 director said that some fans may not like it because it subverts expectations and because of its message about characters that they've grown to love. Abby is a character that gets a lot of hate, but fans can't deny that it makes sense why she did what she did and killed Joel.
Joel's fight against the Fireflies carries into the next generation through Abby and Ellie's animosity, but they also have a chance to change that dynamic and let it die. When Ellie comes at Abby in the Seattle theater, Abby could have killed her in self-defense and the fight between them would have been over. However, Abby did something that Joel didn't do in The Last of Us. When the fight was interrupted with the announcement of Dina's pregnancy, Abby recognized in that moment Ellie and her friend's humanity, and decided to spare them. While Abby still hates Ellie and Joel and what they've done to the people she loves, she just tells them that she never wants to see them again before leaving the theater.
Ellie takes longer to come around to this, but she eventually does as well. She throws away the life she created with Dina and her baby to pursue Abby once again. She hunts Abby down and frees her from the Rattlers before challenging her to a one-on-one duel once more. After all that and the player as Ellie winning the fight, she still lets Abby and Lev escape before returning to an empty farmhouse.
Abby ties back to The Last of Us with the backstory that she brings to the table, but she also reminds players that the last of humanity isn't just Ellie and Joel with their allies — it is also the morally complicated characters that may be considered to be the enemies of the game. In a post-apocalyptic world, sometimes people are just trying to save the people they love. Sometimes, those actions have consequences.
The Last of Us 2 is out now for PS4.
