18 June 2024

By Marcel Weber

When the pandemic encompassed the world in 2020, very few gaming experiences came close to the one I had with The Last of Us Part II. The game mostly received critical praise and Ellie’s deeply personal coming-of-age journey through a USA infested with fungal zombies immersed me from start to finish. “An unforgiving tale of two young women attempting to seek justice in a long-awaited sequel to one of the most beloved video games of all time - what’s there not to like?”, I thought. As it turns out, a vocal group of players online critiqued the game for being ‘too woke’ and ‘pandering’ to the openly progressive LGBTQIA+ community. Most of the harsh criticism, however, was directed at one of the two protagonists, Abby Anderson. Players critiqued Abby for being portrayed as too muscular and too masculine; a far cry from the traditionally constructed image of women.

I decided to revisit the topic almost four years later in form of a term paper in the context of the cultural impact of diseases, by thoroughly analyzing how the game’s narrative shapes gender roles and how women are, in turn, portrayed as masculinized.

The game immediately makes the case that the wilderness, which, in contrast to the feminine “mother nature”, physically surrounds the characters, plays a part in how their behavior becomes more and more ruthless over the course of the story. The zombies roaming the world, moreover, represent a form of masculine wilderness. Being consumed by one has the direct consequence of becoming a part of the monstrous horde. The zombie hereby serves as an allegory for the forceful reclamation effort of nature, acting as a catalyst to which the humans respond. 

Similarly, both Abby and Ellie embody and internalize common tropes seen in various forms of media. Throughout her journey, Ellie takes on the traditionally male role of the ‘filial successor’ after her surrogate father’s death, while Abby, despite the controversies surrounding her, embodies the ‘final girl’. The game generally focuses on the concept of toxic paternity, especially (and similarly to the aforementioned zombie) concerning men’s desire to decide over other people’s bodies and lives. Both Ellie and Abby’s father figures play a dominant role in the narrative. By deciding over the lives of the young women, they condemn the latter to live with the consequences. By heavily forcing Ellie into the role of the successor, her role as an independent woman decreases further and further, until she fully embraces her father’s ambiguous morals and ideals.

Despite Naughty Dog’s best intentions at creating a gut-wrenching epic about two young women confronting a masculinized society, many aspects of their work still appear to be heavily influenced by stereotypical representations. Ellie may be depicted as culturally progressive on the surface, in that she is a strong, dominant and focal queer character, but the narrative implies her to be too heavily influenced by male behavior, thus portraying her more like a stereotypical man, hindering her from being truly progressive.

A similar case can be made for Abby. Despite her efforts to break free from the stereotypical female role, the narrative ultimately condemns her to the damsel in distress who needs to be saved, or more so decided over, by Ellie. This implies her not being allowed to be anything other than a stereotype, no matter how hard she may fight against it. 

The Last of Us: Part II may seem like a progressive tragedy at first glance, only to suggest the notion of it being better not to attempt rebellion against the stereotypically assigned gender roles, lest one ends up like the characters. It seems as though the game aims to serve as a kind of warning, rather than a call to action.

Further readings:

https://youtu.be/SC3C7GMMfDU?feature=shared “Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II”

https://youtu.be/bh5gzGs-63Y?feature=shared “Understanding The Last of Us Part II | Girlfriend Reviews”

Tomkinson, Sian. “She’s Built Like a Tank”: Player Reaction to Abby Anderson in The Last

   of Us: Part II. Games and Culture, Sage Publications, 2022.