I've gotten very invested on HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us and I'm loving it. I have a lot of thoughts on how they've chosen to adapt the game's story and characters that I'm breaking down in this post.

SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASON 2 OF THE LAST OF US TV SHOW AHEAD.

One of my favorite things in this adaptation of TLOU is how the writers chose to approach Ellie's character development. I know in the game she has a subdued kind of snarky dryness to her. She acts older (as many others have pointed out) and more worn down like Joel is when we first meet him post the 20 year time skip.

In the show Ellie seems like she's teetering more between her need to be the 19 year old we know she is and the traumatized woman she's growing into. For me this works both from a development standpoint (because it offers the opportunity for us to see how Ellie battles with her trauma play by play) and from a psychological standpoint.

As someone who has C-PTSD Ellie's reactions resonated with me. I've talked in my other fandom posts about how trauma can fuck with your sense of time and sense of self. Specifically I want to address how the younger version of Ellie's self acts in contrast to her moments when she is lost in her grief/rage. In psychology sufferers of traumatic experiences can go through "regression." In my psychology class my instructor used the example of how on campus a couple years prior a student died in an accident and everyone who was there to witness to it started walking around in pajamas and acting like kids at a morose sleepover.

Ellie has been through hell since the beginning. That kind of longterm trauma can fuck with your sense of time and space. For example: Ellie latches onto Tommy like a child after she kills Owen and Mel. Ellie is regressing and her mind cannot reconcile who she is in her own mental timeline.

In my own experiences, I sometimes find I'm torn between present and my past trauma mentally. Like there's a difference between my inner child and my adult self. Ellie is going through the same thing.

The potrayal of Ellie fighting herself is incredibly smart as a narrative choice when it comes to showing visually how Ellie's relationships fall apart. Because Ellie is still stuck in the past, using violence as a tool to fuse her two selves, she is severing things further.

Which brings me to Dina. She has also been through so much. But unlike Ellie, Dina has had a strong support system for years to help her cope with her trauma. It's obviously still there. Dina internalizes a lot of her pain where Ellie lashes out. This is true both in the game and in the show.

Dina has a lot more hope and positivity than Ellie does. Dina accepts that if she keeps chasing ghosts she won't ever settle down. She jokes about dying and death, but it crumbles the moment it threatens to shatter what she has or could have with Ellie. For both of them, the laughter and punchy jokes are a coping mechanism. Ellie uses it to keep people from seeing her fall apart. For Dina it's to make an otherwise untenable horrible life bearable.

When Dina says in the game that it isn't as easy as Ellie thinks it is, that mask cracks. The mask cracks in the show in S2E4 when Dina realizes she can't do anything to save yet another loss from happening right before her eyes.

In episode 7 of season 2 Dina is quiet as Ellie tells the story of what happened with the Fireflies and how Joel killed them all. To me Dina isn't quiet out of disapproval or rejection. Dina almost bled out from a leg wound that is still causing her pain. And she's pregnant on top of that. Dina knows that with her leg out of commission that she cannot help Ellie. Dina can't fight by Ellie's side. To Dina, keeping Ellie and Jesse safe ranks higher than allowing Ellie to die at the hands of any number of threats. So, when Dina gives Ellie the hamsa bracelet and says, "I'm alive," it's proof of the ONE thing Dina cares about in that moment: Ellie surviving. When Dina says they should go home, that is what she is asking of Ellie. To live. To stay alive. And I know when they do the show's version of Ellie abandoning the farmhouse it will hit so fucking hard as a result. Ellie is basically saying "No, I won't live for you and JJ. Or for me."

Ellie's rage or penchant for violence in the game is a given and is well established by the time part II hits. In the show, Ellie's rage and vitriol needs time to build up. It needs to simmer. And we see Ellie's conflicting bouts with her need to seek revenge warring with her need to just be a young adult.

Ellie is only 19 and so is Dina. When I was 19 I was still figuring myself out. I wasn't out yet. I both sensed I might not be straight while shoving that shit way down. Dina's internal struggles with her sexuality, even if she has some idea of who she is, felt very real to me. That fight where you know that you may be queer deep down but you aren't ready to admit it. Or you aren't in the right situation safety wise to admit it. Coming out is also not a linear process. It comes in waves. Sometimes those waves are choppy and rough. Sometimes it's a storm. Sometimes you never make it to shore with some people.

Dina fights through all of that. We know from both her game dialogue and the show that Dina did not have the easiest coming out experience. She is comfortable NOW in ways that she is still processing outwardly. When she asks Ellie about her experience being gay, it's not because Dina doesn't think she's bi. It's because she is asking one of the only other queer people she knows and TRUSTS about being gay. And for anyone in the queer community who has come out at any point, the game of asking the question without asking the question feels very familiar. Additionally Dina is testing the waters on where Ellie is in her own feelings. We know in the show that Dina figured out Ellie's feelings for Dina a long time ago. But Dina is probing to see where Ellie is now. If she's ready to come out and say it.

Until the moment in the show when Dina thinks she has no time left and is suddenly gifted with that second chance does she say "fuck it" and crosses that line they've both been dancing on.

For me this slower burn of their feelings works because it creates more tension and chaos for them emotionally as they both realize that despite their love for one another, it isn't enough to overcome past trauma and pain. This is not to say it's better than the game. Just that TV shows are a different medium than video games so the pacing will need to change a least a little regardless of what those changes are.

More imporantly, Ellie's motivations and goals from the game are still intact. She still gireves Joel in a viscerally agonized way. She still wants to bring him back and in her mind the only way to do it is to kill Abby.

My biggest concern/question at this point in the show has more to do with the show's version of Tommy. I like that he's so warm and close to Ellie. However, he lacks the fury/selfishness he needs to be the one to guilt Ellie into leaving the farm later on. Show Tommy is more subdued and somber. Game Tommy is impulsive and reckless like Ellie. So I don't know if that part will work at all.