There’s a real sense these day in which writers are trying to deal with trauma and its effects in realistic ways. Ellie’s actions only seem unhinged from the comfortable remove of our sofas. She’s seriously traumatized and under constant stress. The world she lives in is unbearably tragic and so are her circumstances. Her moments of grace are fleeting and it’s no wonder she can’t form lasting connections or make decisions that would better her well-being.
I certainly get that, but even in the context of the game, she’s not under constant stress and she has these moments of tenderness, even after Joel dies. There’s no specific trigger that seems to blind her character to the rest of what she has. She knows full well what she’s giving up when she walks away from the farmhouse mid-game. She’s just chasing the demons in her visions. But at the end, she seems to overcome those, to some extent, when she finds Abby crucified. Only then to tear into her? And then to let her go? Eh… I think the writing was poor at the end.
I felt like it just turned into misery porn by the end.
Even though the world is grim and violent, I thought the first game had a real sense of hope. TLOU2 not so much. I applaud the creators for telling the story they wanted to tell, expectations be damned, but I really disliked where it went.
Gonna be a real bear for the show to depict this.