miseducator@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I actually liked the ending too, but the more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.
Ellie lives happily, except for her PTSD, with Deena and their kid.
Tommy comes through and says he knows where Abby is, but is too messed up to go after her himself.
Deena says don’t do it.
Ellie goes anyway and proceeds to kill dozens of slavers, frees the slaves, then finds Abby, who is on the verge of dying.
She then saves Abby’s life, kicks her malnourished butt, then let’s her go off on her way.
Ellie returns home, hoping to find Deena and kid, but they are gone and her life is uprooted once again.
The final act and epilogue just seemed so absurd to me for some reason. It was fun and well acted and directed, but it was a bit silly.
NelDel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
I think part of that silliness is intentional, at least in my interpretation of the game. The internal thesis of the game seems to be examining how far they can push the player-to-protagonist relationship until it breaks. Similar to the first game, where it was intended for players to have complicated feelings about having to control Joel in the hospital at the end doing something they may not have wanted to do but was 100% in character for Joel.
Part 2 feels like that idea stretched across the entire game, especially for Ellie. There’s a pretty powerful metaphor for addiction in the form of addiction to violence/revenge, and I feel like going to Santa Barbara shows Ellie reaching her rock bottom. The player doesn’t want this (especially after playing as Abby), Dina doesn’t want this, hell part of Ellie doesn’t even want this. It’s just the main thing she knows how to solve her problems - through violence