If I Ever Were To Lose You
CAUTION: FULL SPOILERS AHEAD
The days since the launch of The Last of Us Part 2 have rolled on, but the controversial apocalyptic action-adventure story has remained a hot topic amongst the gaming community. Players remain divided on the fates of certain characters, including what many felt was Ellie being left with a horrifically unsatisfying conclusion. Surprisingly, creative director Neil Druckmann and narrative lead Halley Gross recently spoke on the original plans for the end of the game.
Gross initially went on to reveal the differences in the script when she first came aboard:
“When I signed on a lot of it was very similar. We did a lot of iterations on what that last act looked like, but the final beat was that Ellie would kill Abby. About halfway through production, we changed that and had Ellie let go at the last second to [illustrate] that some little part of the old Ellie, the Ellie with humanity, the Ellie that is impacted by Joel, still exists within this character who has been so overtaken by her quest for revenge.”
Druckman continued:
“Letting Abby live felt wrong thematically initially. But at the end of the day, it felt more honest for the character. The theme [and] what we’re trying to say shifted a little bit, but our top priority always is are we being honest to the character? There’s certain things we are trying to hit but they can only work if we’re consistent with the character we’re writing.”
It’s hard not to imagine that if Druckman followed through with his initial plans, The Last of Us Part 2 wouldn’t be sitting with a 5.5 user score on Metacritic.
Which of Druckman’s endings do you prefer? Sound off in the comment section below and let us know what you think.