In Abby's case, her friends are taken out by Ellie and her group in the first half of the game, further showing how certain actions can be justified in one's mind because of that person's biases. Abby loses everyone in her group, including Owen. Abby and Lev eventually lose everyone else they care about, with Lev accidentally killing his mother and Yara dying in order to protect him. Abby herself is then saved from death by two Seraphites, Yara and Lev, making her move away from factionalism.Ībby forms a strong bond with Lev, and she starts caring more for a select few people than her own faction, effectively deserting the Washington Liberation Front. That changes because of the events that ensue, which see Owen, one of the people she cares about the most, saying that he is done with fighting the Seraphites. This is where they learn about Abby's reasons for killing Joel, and the game delves into the life of this complex character, who also is victim to the mindset of factionalism for a good part of The Last of Us Part 2. In perhaps one of the most interesting point of view switches in the history of video games, The Last of Us Part 2 lets players control Ellie for the first half of the game, only to make them play as Abby instead moving forward. That's why Naughty Dog made the bold decision to have The Last of Us Part 2 be a game that offers to its players both Ellie's view of things and also Abby's. There are plenty of factions in the world of The Last of Us Part 2, and yet the game makes an effort trying to explain why factionalism is at the very core of the aforementioned vicious cycles, meaning there shouldn't be an "us versus them" mindset. This enacts a vicious cycle of violence and revenge where there are no winners, but rather survivors who have to learn to live with what they have done and what was done to them by others. Most importantly, they tend to be on Ellie's side because Abby kills Joel. Players tend to automatically be on Ellie's side because they know her, they played as her in the first game, and they watched her change and mature over time. Killing Joel was the inciting incident for the story in the game, and what comes next is something that comes purely out of the complex social dynamics and psychological traits of the characters. Rather, the stars of the show are violence and revenge, with the concepts of good and evil greyed out as the story unfolds. The Last of Us Part 2 is a game where there are no clear protagonists nor good characters. RELATED: The Last of Us 3: The Case to Retire EllieĪbby Acts as The Last of Us 2's Model for Change This combination of things led to a mixed reception for the game that was based around the fact that players were not happy with having to control Abby or hurt other "good characters." However, that was the entire point of this game. The second detail is that Joel is killed by Abby, who then lives on to be the deuteragonist of The Last of Us Part 2, which hits harder because Joel saved Abby's life moments before his death. The first is that Joel's death is raw and unsettling, and it comes as torture both for the characters involved and the players alike, who have to watch a character they learned to love throughout the first game being beaten to death. That is still true in a way, even if the beloved protagonist of the first The Last of Us game is brutally murdered merely an hour into The Last of Us Part 2, and there are two details about this that many fans found disheartening. However, when the game starts, there is nothing to hint that Abby will be a fully playable character, and players delving into the game without reading anything about it most likely thought that the story would revolve around Ellie and Joel instead. While to some players the true protagonist of The Last of Us Part 2 was still Ellie, it is also true that both Abby and Lev had enough screen time to become fully fleshed-out characters, and quite compelling ones at that.