Ellie (The Last of Us)

Ellie is a fictional character in The Last of Us, a video game by Naughty Dog. She is controlled by the artificial intelligence for most of the game, later becoming playable for a portion, which is then repeated in the downloadable content campaign The Last of Us: Left Behind. She is played by Ashley Johnson, who provided the voice and motion capture for the character. Ellie also appears in the comic book prequel The Last of Us: American Dreams.

Naughty Dog based Ellie's appearance on Johnson's physical appearance. Johnson also inspired Ellie's personality, prompting creative director Neil Druckmann to give her a more defensive role. In the game, the character Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States, in an attempt to create a potential cure against an infection to which Ellie is immune. Throughout the game's development, the relationship between Ellie and Joel was the central focus, with all other elements developed around it.

Ellie has been well received by critics, who particularly praised her relationship with Joel. Her role in Left Behind received great social commentary, particularly focusing on a scene depicting LGBT themes. Both the character and Johnson's performance received recognition, being awarded various year-end accolades.

Character design

Ashley Johnson was excited to portray Ellie in The Last of Us, as she felt that video games rarely feature such strong female characters.^[1]

The development team chose actress Ashley Johnson to portray Ellie in The Last of Us shortly following her auditions,^[2] feeling that she suitably fit the role. Johnson contributed greatly to the development of the character, convincing creative director Neil Druckmann to re-write the character of Ellie in a stronger and more defensive manner.^[3] The character's performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology; approximately 85% of the game's animations were recorded using motion capture, with remaining audio elements recorded later in a studio.^[4] When portraying Ellie, Johnson faced challenges in performing scenes that made her feel uncomfortable. "There were some days when we would shoot things that even at my age made me feel a little uncomfortable," Johnson described.^[3] Johnson feels that video games rarely feature strong female characters such as Ellie, and expressed her excitement to portray the role for this reason.^[1]

The various iterations that Ellie's physical appearance underwent throughout development. Each design was tested with various hair colors and styles.^[5]

The team felt that establishing the physical appearance of Ellie was "critical"; they felt that she needed to appear young enough for to make her relationship with Joel believable, but old enough to be credible as a resourceful teenager capable of surviving.^[6] A redesign of Ellie's physical appearance was revealed in May 2012; Druckmann stated that the change was to make her look more similar to actress Ashley Johnson.^[7] Prior to the redesign, comparisons were made between Ellie and actress Ellen Page; in June 2013, Page accused Naughty Dog of "ripping off [her] likeness".^[8] Page's decision to come out on the same day as the release for Left Behind also sparked further discussion.^[9] The team also felt that Ellie was a very important aspect of the game; Druckmann said that they were asked to place a picture of Ellie on the back of the game's packaging, as opposed to the front, but that "everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused".^[10]

When questioned about the inspiration for Ellie as a gameplay feature, Druckmann recalled when he and game director Bruce Straley were brainstorming ideas for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) and created a mute character who would summon the player to follow them, creating a "beautiful" relationship through gameplay alone. Though this concept was never included in the final game, the idea was raised when the team were discussing a new project, ultimately inspiring Ellie.^[11] The addition of Ellie as artificial intelligence was a major contributor to the game engine.^[12] The team intentionally added a feature in which Ellie remains close to Joel, in order to avoid being conceived as a "burden".^[13] Programmer Max Dyckhoff stated that, when working on Ellie as artificial intelligence, he tried to imagine her experiences throughout the game's events, in an attempt to achieve realism.^[13] Druckmann also felt inspired by the wars that took place in Syria and Afghanistan when creating Ellie; he felt that conflict was a familiarity to the children in those countries, which is similar to Ellie's view.^[14] During the Winter segment of the game, players assume control of Ellie. The developers assured that this change, as well as the knowledge of Ellie's immunity, was kept secretive prior to the game's release, to surprise players.^[11]

Attributes

Ellie is characterized by her roughened, messy appearance and behaviour, as well as her emotional trauma. Having lost many people in her life, she suffers from severe monophobia and survivor's guilt.^[15] This has resulted in her becoming a very hardened person, using violence without hesitation and is noted for her liberal use of profanity.^[16] While she shows initiative, she is not as adept at survival as Joel, being somewhat impulsive, naïve, and unable to swim.^[17] Following the release of Left Behind, in which Ellie is seen kissing her friend Riley, creative director Neil Druckmann has stated that it was written with the intention of Ellie being gay, though preferred to leave it subjective.^[18]

Appearances

Having lost her mother at birth, Ellie grew up in an orphanage. She later went to a military boarding school in the Boston quarantine zone, where she befriended Riley Abel, a fellow rebel who protected her from her bullies.^[19] Several weeks prior to the beginning of The Last of Us, Riley returns to Ellie after a long absence, revealing that she had joined the Fireflies. While spending time together at an abandoned shopping mall near the quarantine zone, Riley reveals that she is about to be posted to another city, and Ellie hesitantly supports her decisions. When Ellie pleads for Riley to stay, the latter abandons her Firefly pendant. In response, Ellie impulsively kisses her, which Riley returns. Drawn by the noise of their activities, the Infected pursue Ellie and Riley; the two attempt to escape, but are bitten. They consider suicide, but choose to embrace their final hours together.^[20] However, Ellie survives the infection, and seeks help from Marlene, who agrees to escort Ellie to be picked up. Marlene is later wounded, and tasks Joel and Tess to escort her.^[21]

Initially annoyed by Joel's surliness, Ellie begins to feel a strong attachment to him. However, upon learning that he intends to leave her with his brother Tommy and return to Boston, she runs away, and later confronts Joel about it, demanding that he not abandon her. This strengthens the bond between them, and they continue on their journey. After experiencing a traumatizing encounter in the Winter, in which Ellie is nearly raped and murdered by a band of cannibals, she becomes withdrawn and introverted. When Joel finally gets her to the Fireflies, it is discovered that she has a mutant strain of the Cordyceps fungus growing on her brain, which may be used to create a vaccine; in order to extract the fungi, an operation on Ellie's brain is required, that will likely kill her. While she is being prepared for surgery, Joel kills Marlene and the Fireflies, making his way to the operating room and carrying her to safety. As she had been unconscious, Ellie is unaware of what has transpired. Joel lies, telling her that the Fireflies had found many other subjects, and had stopped looking for a cure. Ellie later confronts him about it, demanding to know the truth. When he reassures her that he is telling the truth, she replies with "Okay".^[21]

Reception

Ellie's character was met with generally positive feedback. Jason Killingsworth of Edge praised Ellie's complexity and commended Naughty Dog for not having made her "a subordinate ... precocious teen girl that Joel must babysit".^[22] Ashley Reed and Andy Hartup of GamesRadar named Ellie one of the "most inspirational female characters in games", writing that she is "one of the most modern, realistic characters ever designed".^[23] Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson wrote that Ellie is "sometimes strong, sometimes vulnerable, but never a cliché", praising the game's subversion of the damsel in distress cliché.^[24] Ellie was placed 38th on GamesRadar's list of the best characters of the generation, stating that her courage exceeds that of most men.^[25] IGN's Greg Miller compared Ellie to Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite (2013), and felt that the former was a "much more rounded out, full-fledged" character.^[26] Game Informer's Kimberley Wallace felt that the game's marketing was unbalanced, focusing too much on Joel and "hardly capitalizing on Ellie's importance".^[27] Conversely, Chris Suellentrop of The New York Times felt that the game casts Ellie "in a secondary, more subordinate role".^[28]

Critics praised the relationship between Ellie and Joel. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer wrote that it was "poignant" and "well-drawn",^[29] Joystiq's Richard Mitchell found it "genuine" and emotional,^[30] and IGN's Colin Moriarty identified it as a highlight of the game.^[31] Eurogamer's Oli Welsh felt the characters were developed with "real patience and skill".^[32] Philip Kollar of Polygon found the relationship was assisted by the game's optional conversations.^[33] Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer named Joel and Ellie one of the "best gaming duos of 2013", appreciating their interest in protecting each other.^[34] Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard compared Joel and Ellie's relationship to that of the Prince and Elika from Prince of Persia (2008), writing that both duos have deep care for one another, and praised the "emotional crescendo" in The Last of Us not achieved in Prince of Persia.^[35] PlayStation Official Magazine's David Meikleham named Joel and Ellie the best characters in a PlayStation 3 game.^[36]

Following the release of The Last of Us: Left Behind, Ellie's relationship with Riley was commended by reviewers. GameSpot's Tom Mc Shea felt new appreciation for Ellie by seeing her actions around Riley.^[37] The Daily Telegraph's Tim Martin praised the "interplay" between the Ellie and Riley,^[38] and Eurogamer's Stace Harman felt that the game improves the understanding of Joel and Ellie's relationship.^[39] Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton described Ellie and Riley's kiss as "video gaming's latest breakthrough moment", declaring it "a big deal".^[40] Keza MacDonald of IGN wrote that the kiss was "so beautiful and natural and funny that [she] was left dumbstruck".^[41] IGN's Luke Karmali questioned Naughty Dog's motivation behind the kiss, but commended their handling of Ellie's sexuality.^[42]

The character of Ellie won year-end awards from Cheat Code Central,^[43] Hardcore Gamer^[44] and the SXSW Gaming Awards,^[45] receiving nominations from Destructoid.^[46] Ashley Johnson's performance also received various accolades, at the 10th and 11th British Academy Video Games Awards,^[47][48] 17th Annual DICE Awards,^[49] the Spike VGX 2013^[50] and the SXSW Gaming Awards,^[45] as well as from The Daily Telegraph.^[51]

References

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