TalesfromtheCrypt
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2005
- Messages
- 4,575
On the whole "Ellie forgiving Abby at the end" and it supposedly not making sense, here's how I interpret it.
You have to think about why she goes after Abby again at the end. It's because she keeps getting haunted by images of Joel, having panic attacks, not being able to sleep - all despite apparently having "moved on" while at the farmhouse with Dina. She says all this to Dina when she decides to leave. She thinks that finally killing Abby will make this stop, but it won't, because it's evading the core issue.
What's really haunting her is the fact that she never forgave Joel for saving her life at the Firefly base. This is shown in the last flashback, where she says to him "I can't forgive you for what you did, but I'd like to try." This turns out to be the last thing she said to him (he's killed the next day). Think about that. That's how she left things with him, having not yet forgiven him, but admitting the possibility of it in the future. But she never gets the chance to fully make amends with him, and this is why she can't move on.
When she'd finally in the act of killing Abby, she realizes that killing her won't help her to move on, because she's simply been using Abby as a proxy for her unresolved feelings over Joel. That's why the image of Joel flashes before her eyes in that moment. So she lets Abby go. But it's not really about forgiving Abby - it's about forgiving Joel.
Now, you could say that she could still kill Abby anyway, and that's true, but consider the circumstances as well at the end. She finds Abby emaciated and crucified, having spent months in slavery. When Ellie cuts her down her first act is to immediately go after the boy. She's not interested in fighting Ellie at all, in fact she refuses to and willingly accepts her fate at Ellie's hands until Ellie actually threatens said boy. She's basically a completely different person at this point. Ellie can see this as well, despite the fact that she forces her to fight. So this also contributes to her decision to let her go.
Then at the end of the game, we get that final flashback. And I do think it was put at that spot for a reason. The way I interpret that final scene is that, in that moment, Ellie finally forgave Joel for saving her life, and because of this she's able to finally move on, and in turn start to truly value her life. That's why I think the game ends on a somewhat hopeful note - not for Abby, but for Ellie.
Also, I definitely don't think Ellie "lost everything." It seems pretty clear that Dina went back to Jackson, and it seems likely that that's where Ellie heads off to as well. I see no reason why they can't get back together, especially now that Ellie is "done for good." Plus there's a whole community there which presumably still cares about her.
That whole „Ellie is mad at Joel for saving her life“ shtick is fucking stupid. That fact alone makes your drivel obsolete.