Truly Damaging: How The Last of Us Part II Rewards White Savior Complex and Privilege

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us Part II perpetuates harmful values by terrorizing ethnic and queer minorities and rewarding privileged, white heterosexuals who show no empathy toward those minorities. I have no problem with Naughty Dog pitting a second character against Ellie and making that character playable–but Abby was the worst character they could have chosen. While Ellie grows in The Last of Us Part II, Abby learns nothing. She never takes responsibility for her or her father’s actions, yet Naughty Dog gives her a happy ending and makes Ellie end the cycle of vengeance that Abby’s family started.

Although Ellie and Abby both lose their father figures, their vengeance is not equal. Joel committed a monstrous act by killing Abby’s father, but he did so out of self-defense. Abby’s father chose to kill a child, and Joel defended that child. Ellie’s immunity and survivor’s guilt complicate the narrative, but they don’t complicate it enough to erase this one simple truth: Ellie never had a choice, and Abby’s father did. He chose to sacrifice her life instead of waiting for her consent. But instead of expressing guilt for Ellie’s sacrifice, Abby’s father considers himself a savior. As a privileged white man, he thinks the world revolves around his choices and abilities. He sees Ellie as a means to rectify the world and his sins, not a person with her own abilities and hardships. Her sacrifice should be her choice and contribution to the world, not his.

Naughty Dog emphasizes the selfishness of Abby’s father through Marlene. She asks multiple times if he would sacrifice his daughter if she were in Ellie’s situation, and he always avoids the question. He refuses to empathize with Ellie or Joel–and so does Abby. Despite knowing the full story, Abby doesn’t acknowledge her father’s flaws. She thoughtlessly seeks vengeance for her family even though she knows Joel was simply defending his family. And then, after murdering Ellie’s father figure in front of her, she shows no remorse toward harming Ellie and Joel.

Ellie, on the other hand, increasingly regrets her actions and eventually chooses mercy over vengeance. She regrets torturing Nora. She hates that she unknowingly killed a pregnant woman, whereas Abby relishes the opportunity to kill pregnant Dina. Guilt and a distinct lack of confidence and self-worth drive Ellie’s journey. After killing so many people, she loses faith in herself and lets others lead the way. Jesse and Tommy choose to leave Seattle without killing Abby: Ellie reluctantly follows them. She later pursues Abby because Tommy guilt-trips her into it. Men make decisions for her just as Abby’s father–and even Joel–chose Ellie’s fate in the previous game. This is what makes her final decision so important: she chooses, as an individual, to spare Abby. Ellie breaks the cycle begun by white heterosexual men, choosing love, mercy, and empathy over peer pressure and thoughtless murder.

Instead of devoting The Last of Us Part II to Ellie and her triumph over the patriarchy, Naughty Dog gives Abby more screen time. With harder gameplay and more companions than Ellie, Abby dominates the game with longer cutscenes, more interactions, and more intensive, time-consuming combat. Abby battles the final bosses for both zombies and humans, with Ellie only taking back the reins for an extended epilogue. The game ends up being more about Abby than Ellie, which is incredibly harmful because–unlike Ellie–Abby doesn’t grow, develop empathy, or break away from the toxic patriarchy.

You might think Abby grows because she saves Yara and Lev after they rescue her, whereas she killed Joel after he rescued her. But this parallel only highlights her apathetic selfishness. She refuses to see the good in Joel because he wronged her personally; she blindly trusts Lev and Yara because she has no personal history with them. Yara’s a Seraphite soldier, so she’s likely killed Wolves and may have even killed friends of Abby’s–but Abby lets ignorance justify their friendship. Abby doesn’t help them to atone for Joel’s death: she saves them to feel like a good person. When Lev asks why she saved them, she admits she’s only pursuing her own self-interest, replying: “Guilt…I just…needed to lighten the load a bit.” She labels “guilt” as her reason, yet she doesn’t assign anything specific to that label. Abby hides behind this vague term without accepting responsibility for her mistakes. Instead of genuinely regretting her actions and seeking forgiveness from Ellie or the Seraphites, Abby only satiates her self-centered white savior complex.

Abby helps random non-white strangers from a culture she’s wronged, believing that that absolves all her unspecified sins. She believes helping a minority makes her a savior superior to the rest of her community–but she’s still prejudiced and selfish. She aids two members of the Seraphite culture, yet she continues to kill Seraphites. She turns on her people to protect an innocent child, yet she hates Joel for protecting an innocent child. Abby doesn’t reflect on her actions, so she can’t change into a better person. She tries to wash away her sins without contemplating what made her sinful in the first place.

As Mel points out, Abby’s sudden “sympathy” for the Seraphites stems from Owen’s decision to spare a Seraphite. Abby acts under the direction of the patriarchy just like Ellie, but Ellie learns to be independent all on her own. Abby intends to kill Dina and Ellie but stops only because Lev tells her to. I’m glad Naughty Dog replaces white, cisgender patriarchy with an Asian transgender boy, but they still make Abby follow someone else’s orders without inwardly recognizing her mistake. Abby only acts according to what society tells her is right, further ingraining her savior complex.

Since I interpreted Abby and the game in this way, I must answer the question: what if this is what the developers want us to feel? What if they want us to hate Abby, her lack of growth, and her loyalty to the patriarchy? I don’t believe this was their intent–but if it was, Naughty Dog messed up by making Abby the central protagonist of the game, creating a story that rewards her, and having characters verbally support her actions. The only character who calls Abby out is Mel, and Mel’s comments are immediately brushed over by Yara, who naively says: “Mel’s wrong…you’re a good person.” This is one of very few moments in which Naughty Dog offers commentary. The majority of the game follows the “show, don’t tell” technique–and Naughty Dog shows us terrible, terrible values. Abby is given not only more screen time but also more victories than Ellie. The game starts with Abby achieving her goal of killing Joel. Ellie sets out to find Abby but chooses to leave Seattle in defeat–but not before Abby finds her and, as the playable protagonist, achieves her goal of defeating Ellie. Abby is completely weaponless in this final boss fight, further empowering Abby and her twisted cause. The post-game menu implies that Abby rejoined her community–the Fireflies–while Ellie is separated from her community and family. Although Abby loses family and friends just like Ellie, her victories heighten her savior complex, making her giddy and carefree in the epilogue while Ellie experiences PTSD. Abby only suffers in the endgame because random strangers kidnap and torture her. By making Ellie fight Abby in her weakened state in the epilogue’s final battle, Naughty Dog villainizes Ellie and marginalizes her victory.

Based on my experience playing The Last of Us Part II, I imagine Naughty Dog’s actual goal was to teach players to overcome hate with love and empathy. I interpret the message of the game to be: treat strangers like the people you know and love, for they have motives, hardships, family, and friends just like you. The switch from Ellie to the character she’s hunting is brilliant because, before the switch, you know nothing about Abby. The game builds toward their eventual confrontation, making players anticipate that Abby will be the final boss–and Naughty Dog flips that expectation on its head. When Ellie and Abby meet, you switch to Abby’s perspective, learn her backstory, and battle Ellie as the final boss. You expected to battle a complete stranger; now you’re fighting someone you love because Abby views her as a complete stranger. If you didn’t already hate violence and vengeance during Ellie’s story, you’ll especially hate it after playing Abby.

If this was Naughty Dog’s goal, they had some good ideas but ultimately delivered the wrong message. They could have improved the game by making Abby a better character who deserves greater empathy, has been more genuinely wronged, and feels more like a heroine than a villain. Then the game could switch back to Ellie for the final boss fight so that now–having learned about, played, and ideally fallen in love with the character you once knew nothing about–you hate fighting Abby and love Ellie for sparing her. In my hypothetical boss fight (or even in the game’s actual three-stage fight), Naughty Dog could have potentially switched between Ellie and Abby to reinforce their similarities and, ideally, your desire for both to live.

But instead of building a complex character who deserves our empathy, Naughty Dog created Abby–a privileged white heterosexual–and gave her power and happiness. Meanwhile, every minority character suffers terrible fates. The first Last of Us kills every non-white character. Part II kills every non-white character except one, but that survivor loses everything. Everyone loses something in Part II, but the ethnic and queer minorities lose more than the white heterosexual characters. Abby finds her community; Lev’s community turns against him, and his own mother tries to kill him. Amongst the deceased characters, Yara loses an arm and is shot multiple times, and Nora is infected and tortured–whereas every white heterosexual except Joel has a swift death.

Naughty Dog only makes Joel an exception so that Ellie–a queer character–suffers. And she suffers far more than Abby. While Abby rekindles love with Owen via an abusive, immoral love affair, Ellie loses her healthy relationship with Dina. Abby’s father dies quickly while separated from Abby; Ellie’s father figure is tortured and murdered in front of her. Yet despite her losses, it’s up to Ellie to grow as a character and end the cycle of vengeance that Abby’s family began. Abby never should have perpetuated the cycle in the first place. She knows exactly why Joel killed her criminal father, but she chooses to kill him anyway; Ellie kills because she has no idea why Abby killed Joel. Abby leaves Ellie without answers or reason, just loss. Instead of giving Ellie the victory she deserves, Naughty Dog allows Abby to beat Ellie–and she would have killed Ellie if Lev hadn’t intervened. Ellie, on the other hand, independently chooses to spare Abby. Ellie’s family suffers because of Abby’s family, yet only Ellie genuinely shows mercy and empathy. Naughty Dog throws terrible messages at players by not only torturing minorities but also showing these victims forgive the privileged white characters who hurt them. Instead of demonizing the privileged whites who don’t take responsibility for their prejudiced crimes, Naughty Dog supports those characters by giving them more screen time, victories, and in-game sympathy.

I have many additional problems with The Last of Us Part II, but the biggest, most significant problem is the mistreatment of minorities and support of white privilege. This problem permeates the game and turns many of Naughty Dog’s decisions into outright mistakes. Their misleading marketing campaign tricked me into preordering the game because they advertised Part II as a game about Ellie and her girlfriend–making me all the more frustrated when they centered the game around a privileged white heterosexual. Since Naughty Dog gave Abby more screen time and interactions, I can’t help but feel like they wanted to tell Abby’s story and just used Ellie to draw in fans and make more money. Even if Naughty Dog genuinely wanted Ellie to be a central part of the game, they overshadowed her more valuable arc with Abby’s twisted, self-centered, toxic story. Naughty Dog created a truly damaging game that pushes horrific values onto its massive fanbase, making The Last of Us Part II the worst, most irresponsible game I have ever played.