Do people struggle to look beyond their own (or the protagonists) perspective in media?
I think whether or not The Last of Us Part II works for people (and this video reaffirms this) hinges on whether or not you're angry at Abby for killing Joel. That emotion is largely what should drive players during the first half of the game, and then contribute to a lot of the emotional weight and payoffs in the second half as you slowly come to terms with the idea that Abby is not just some expendable video game villain; she's a real person, with understandable reasons for killing Joel, and is arguably even one of the more 'decent' people within the context of that world.
The problem is that I didn't have this experience. I wasn't angry at Abby. And I love Joel for the record. But I knew there were plenty of reasons for someone to want him dead. I also knew that narrative conventions exist, and that his death was very likely the consequence of his choice at the end of the first game. Which meant that my very first thought was to assume that Abby was the daughter of one of the Firefly doctors at Saint Mary's Hospital. Or at the very least one who knew he had robbed humanity of the cure.
I've been reading a lot of takes since finishing the game, and I'm surprised that so few people had this experience. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but…shouldn't this have been obvious? Abby and her group had clearly traveled across the country to literally hunt Joel down. You don't do that without a very good reason. She also spared Ellie and Tommy, which should have said a lot about her character. I spent the entirety of Ellie's three days in Seattle anticipating the moment when the game would show me Abby's POV. From about two hours into the game, I had guessed the entire structure of the story and most of the biggest plot beats.
Now, I imagine some of you are thinking "So what? A story being predictable doesn't make it bad!" And generally I would agree with that, but...it took me twenty hours to make it to Abby's Day 1. That's a very long time, and because Naughty Dog had (from my perspective) completely failed to get me invested in Ellie's revenge quest…the first half of the game dragged. It doesn't help that most of the partner characters in this section (Dina & Jessie) are fairly shallow overall, and don't challenge Ellie's views in any real way. I know this will vary from person to person, but I didn't find many of their interactions to be compelling. Dina and Ellie's relationship is paper thin.
And then the second half of the game rolls around, and it goes to great, incredibly unsubtle lengths to humanize and redeem a character that I already assumed had a pretty good justification for killing Joel. I did end up liking Abby as a character, but...I didn't get any of those moments of self-reflection that I imagine Naughty Dog were intending the player to have, as you question your earlier feelings towards her. The side characters were a letdown in the section as well. I do like Owen (who is probably the best human in the story) and Abby's relationship with him is cute, but Lev and Yara? How are they so popular? Their dynamic with Abby is shallow, and it feels like Abby's determination to save them comes more from her need to do something good than anything they were bringing to the table. I don't dislike them, but passing the basic threshold of likeability isn't really enough tbh.
Ultimately, I think the central theme of the game is that of empathy. Ellie's quest for revenge is just a vehicle for putting the player through an experience that will hopefully make them question themselves as their views towards certain characters change over the course of the game. We get to see lots of different perspectives, and see how each group feels justified in their actions. We're supposed to contrast and compare Ellie and Abby, and realize that they're actually on the exact same path, just at different phases of it. We're supposed to recognize through Abby's campaign that killing Joel ultimately didn't give her any closure, adding to the senselessness of what Ellie is doing. And by the very end of the game we're supposed to be very uncomfortable with what Ellie has become, meaning the decision to let Abby go should be a relief.
I still feel that this wasn't a story worth telling, and that the ending of the first game is weaker now that this exists. I feel that Part II is very poorly paced and heavy handed in its themes. Again, I feel that the character relationships are very shallow for the most part. I feel like there's almost nothing to dwell on after completing it.
One thing I will praise the game for, is that despite Joel dying very early in the runtime, he permeates throughout the story of the entire game. Almost every other character in the story is on their trajectory because of him. He really is still a major character in this, and the idea that Part II is 'disrespectful' towards him in any way is laughable tbh. If anything it's actually an incredibly positive portrayal. We see so many touching moments between him and Ellie in the flashbacks. One of my favourite sections of the game was when we explored his house, and got to learn more about what he had been doing in the years since the first game. Seeing the pictures of his two daughters on the table. Seeing that he was reading up on Space before bed, so that he'd have more to talk to Ellie about. That it was Ellie remembering how much she wanted to forgive Joel that ultimately allowed her to let Abby go at the end of the game. And the tragedy that her quest for revenge still cost her absolutely everything, including the last connection she had to Joel in playing the guitar.
