#tlou analysis

Before Sarah dies the colors are a lot warmer, a lot “kinder”, almost

But when she dies, and it transitions to present day, the colors get colder. More stark.

But Ellie’s colors are warm

And you see that contrast…

…then you see their color schemes come together

The unasked question

During my most recent play through, one thought kept gnawing at me: the rope marks on Abby’s neck and wrists. They were so visible. Owen and Mel had to have seen them. Nora too, maybe. But we never see anyone ask her about them in the game. Not a single person.

Abby went to unimaginable lengths, putting her life on the line over and over again to find Owen. She plunged into infected territory, escaped the Seraphites by a narrow margin, swam through a dangerous current, and risked Isaac's wrath. She literally stared death in the face several times. Yet, once she found Owen, she selflessly pushed her own problems and trauma aside to focus solely on him. This is a person who consistently sacrifices for others, but did anyone even ask “what happened?” Did anyone ask how she met Lev and Yara, beyond her brief mention that they saved her? Was the trauma behind that story ever explored by those around her? It makes me wonder if anyone truly paid attention.

She always puts others first, so when she almost lost her life, did anyone bother to check in on her? Maybe I analyse things too deeply, but my heart breaks thinking about it. It's a heavy thought, and it really highlights the emotional weight she carries in silence.

Abby can be extremely obsessive. We know that. She spent 4 years anxiously and obsessively dedicating as much time to preparing to kill Joel as possible. Her revenge isn't just different from Ellie's because it took longer, but because Ellie, for all her rage, wouldn't have spent those four years never missing a single day of training and getting as Jacked as possible.

Abby's mind convinced her that Joel was some kind of almost superhuman monster that only a beast of a person could take down. And missing a single day of training could ruin her efforts, or maybe even get them kicked out of the WLF. Spending any kind of significant time not thinking about her dad and revenge left her feeling guilty and wrong.

She also does seem weirdly particular about her room set up: not caring about the dishes, and yet having to have other things exactly in their place, looking for all the world, the perfect soldier. She doesn't just not miss a day of training, she has a whole schedule she likely spent a lot of time obessively creating and never wavers from.

But Yara, that's just discipline.

True, it very well could be. But Abby is shown to be much more anxious than any of the other person in her life, in a number of ways. And sure, it could be that she is surrounded by a bunch of reckless people, but that just might be making it more noticeable. And I'm not just talking about her fear of heights. There are multiple moments with her dad, where she tries to talk him out of doing things she considers dangerous. Flashback Owen's actions scare her. Mel's actions scare her. Manny is absolutely less anxious than her point blank, as is Lev.

so we all know that pivotal moment in joel and ellie’s relationship when joel calls ellie “babygirl”. *sobs*

but we’re gonna talk about these names a little deeper.

so we know that “babygirl” was kind of joel’s pet name for sarah. that and “baby”. he calls her this multiple times up until her last moments and then some even after she’s passed. those are joel’s pet names for sarah, his daughter, the most important person in his life.

it’s why when he calls ellie “babygirl”, we know then for certain that joel sees ellie that way, has seen her that way. in his mind, she hasn’t been “cargo” for a long time, but the moment he calls her “babygirl”, it’s out there between them both. it’s official. ellie is his kid.

but the thing is, that’s the only time we hear joel call ellie “babygirl”. that moment and that word served it’s purpose. it drew it’s connection within joel between sarah and ellie. we now know, as the audience, that joel feels for ellie what he felt for sarah.

so where am i going with this? well, every other time after this that joel calls ellie a pet name, it’s “kiddo” and i think that’s really cute and important. “kiddo” is ellie’s special joel nickname like sarah’s was “babygirl”. it’s also prevents sarah and ellie from overlapping in joel’s head and to us. he isn’t replacing sarah, he never could, so joel, whether on purpose or not, separates the two and affectionately coins them each their own pet name. maybe for his own conscience so it doesn’t feel like he’s replacing sarah, but either way, i find it super meaningful and cute. it probably makes ellie feel special too, like “babygirl” probably did for sarah. coming from a life like ellie’s, where she is an orphan and has been for fourteen years, i can only imagine what it feels like to be someone’s “kiddo”. finally.

In the finding strings flashback, Joel stops Ellie from questioning him by bringing up the larger situation (getting the dead teenagers back to their families), and ends the conversation with “is there anything else you need to rehash? (..) good.” Ellie obviously parallels this and uses the same move on Dina when she goes off to the hospital.

Joel can’t apologize to Ellie in the first game. He does seem to understand he’s wrong and come around on things, like Ellie handling guns, but he doesn’t say “I’m sorry.” Ellie can’t apologize to Dina, even though she understands she shouldn’t have lashed out like she did when Dina admitted being pregnant. “Last night was…stupid.” Ellie’s way of saying she’s wrong, but not an admission of guilt or an apology.

Ellie changes drastically from game 1 and 2, everyone already knows. One change I’ll note for this argument is how game 1 Ellie is almost always starting the conversation. Asking Joel questions about his life or the plan or whatever. Joel is the quieter one for most of the relationship. In game 2, though, Ellie seems to mimic Joel’s quieter, more thoughtful, more responsive dialogue style. In Jackson, it’s always Dina asking questions, “what movie are you gonna see? What’s Joel into? Etc etc” similar in Seattle. Ellie keeps the conversation going, but it’s responsive to her more lively companion. And, when Dina comes close to empathizing with WLF with “why did they come after Joel? Why’d they leave you alive? They must have a reason.” Ellie shuts it down. Just like she was taught.

There’s also little things, like them both being teen parents. Joel probably fostered a paternal instinct in Ellie that we might’ve seen in other circumstances, especially when we see how naturally she handles JJ in the farm chapter. Ellie mimics Joel in almost every aspect of her life, I bet parenthood would be similar.

Maybe Joel was more shaken by violence when he was younger, like how Ellie is. However, we usually see him unaffected by it, it’s just a part of life for him after 20 some years. And for the most part it’s just life for Ellie too. However she isn’t Joel in this regard- she doesn’t have 20 years of experience hardening her to torturing people. She barely has 3 days. Maybe if it weren’t such a steep drop off for her, from the Jackson golf tournament to Seattle, we’d see her be like Joel in this way too.

however, in the world of jackson, ellie and dina both basically function as adults already. there is no secondary education for them to pursue, or job market to enter, or economic ladder to climb. ellie (practically) lives on her own, and while dina’s living situation is never clarified, i would assume she does as well.

seeing as they were both born post outbreak day, it makes perfect sense that neither of them would hold any sort of shame about the pregnancy (which is partially why i like the hbo series’ handling better than the og game. it feels more like they bothered to take that important different into consideration.)

This got incredibly out of hand but this scene has stuck with me and I haven't stopped thinking about it all day. So here's my analysis on the fight and what I think it means.

Jesse is upset because Ellie is being reckless. He's angry because she's being selfish and he struggles to comprehend why she would put herself and others in danger like this. He knows that she's smart, and that if she thought everything through with a clear mind that this entire thing wouldn't be as unnecessarily risky as it is. But she hasn't, and she's putting others in danger.