Sigourn
uooh afficionado
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2016
- Messages
- 5,623
What I don't understand is what triggers Ellie her sudden drastic decission.
IMO the problem is that while I could understand why Ellie would forgive Abby, the way the game presented it felt very strange, and as you say, "drastic". I need to rewatch it definitely, because even when I could easily buy the "blood on hands -> Joel flashback" trigger for her trying to kill Abby, buying the second flashback that felt pretty sloppy (basically abusing the same narrative tool twice in a row) was harder. We do see Ellie get progressively more broken as she kills Nora and then afterwards Mel and Owen, since unlike the other WLF members she kills those three are some of the most human in that she doesn't randomly kill them in a battlefield, and instead show how much they care about Abby (showing again that Abby isn't just random villain, but a human being with people who deeply care about her).
If I'm not mistaken the cutscene at the very end, in the farm, explains why Ellie acted the way she did: the whole affair with forgiving Joel despite what she felt was basically him ruining her life (saving her from the Fireflies and making her life have no meaning, out of selfish reasons). Just as she was willing to forgive Joel, she also understands why people would be out to kill him as well and can see the parallel. But again, I need to rewatch that whole beach-ending sequence just to make sure I'm not headcanonning my way out of hamfisted writing.
If I'm not mistaken the cutscene at the very end, in the farm, explains why Ellie acted the way she did: the whole affair with forgiving Joel despite what she felt was basically him ruining her life (saving her from the Fireflies and making her life have no meaning, out of selfish reasons). Just as she was willing to forgive Joel, she also understands why people would be out to kill him as well and can see the parallel. But again, I need to rewatch that whole beach-ending sequence just to make sure I'm not headcanonning my way out of hamfisted writing.