Am I Supposed To Hate Abby in The Last of Us Part II? Because I Don’t

There’s no doubt that The Last of Us Part II has become one of the most hotly debated video game releases of all time. There have been many heated discussions around character design, storytelling and the game’s controversial plot. However, one element of the game seems to have divided most fans, often getting the most resentment from fans: Abby.

[Sonyslave3]

Nope i don't Abby at all she my favorite through the whole game, I was hoping he would have had kill Ellie for keep chasing her and killing her friends.

[lukasmain]

I hated her so much at first. But I grew to like her also. I didn't think it was going to happen, but ND made me lol.

[Sunny12345]

I didnt like her initially. I let Ellie kill her again and again in the duel, getting pseudo satisfaction. Though eventually I understood her point of view, doesnt mean I like her but I respect her decisions.

[RgR]

That's precisely the issue. They gave all the best parts to Abby. The only killer without regrets. She gets the best moments in the game while Ellie just gets to kill dogs and has whole cutscenes where she kills people. They writers make you dislike Ellie and like Abby. Probably in an effort to replace Ellie as the protagonist for the next game.

Ellie isn't witty and doesn't make any jokes. She's unlikable and has the worst parts in the game.

[thorstein]

Same here until the end. Then I agree with you.

[spektical]

Exactly how I felt! ND built a brilliant story for Last of Us pt 2. They really drove the point of not knowing where people come from and the consequences and deviations grand actions can take.

[Ready4nxtgen]

You thought that ellie wasnt going to get revenge? Your crazy lmao

[sampsonon]

Yeah, I want her and Lev if they make the third game.

[rainslacker]

Think you were supposed to hate her during Ellie's part, then come to like her when you see it from her side. They humanized her, which is what writers do to make you understand things from a different perspective. Many game stories, or even movies or TV shows, don't bother much with trying to make the bad guy look like a regular person one can empathize with. Usually it's quite the opposite.

[Silly gameAr]

I don't either. I actually ended up liking her quite a bit.

[Knightofelemia]

Hate her if you want like her if you want who cares there will always be characters you either hate or like. Personally I see here as a character I am probably going to forget about when the next game come out. Only way I will remember her is because she looks like Ronda Rousey even after that pretty sure I will forget all about her until I play the game again.

[TheEnigma313]

She will more than likely be the center of the next game. She made it to the fireflies

[shammgod]

I was wondering about this. Did she make it to the fireflies or was the dude on the radio the rattlers that ambushes her as she left that house?

Don’t know if I missed something in between, but that scene when she was trying to contact them had me rooting for her. Such an amazing scene

[DrDeath]

That was the rattlers i figured

[sampsonon]

@shammgod That was the Fireflies. The Rattlers have a patrol in each area. They also happened upon Ellie.

[RgR]

She's likely replacing Ellie as the protagonist. Ellie's story is finish came to an end but Abby's did not.

[Grilla]

I don’t think so, it’ll be Abby and Ellie. Remember Ellie still has the cure.

3rd and final game Ellie will sacrifice herself for the cure.

[RgR]

@Grilla

That sounds like a very defeated Ellie with nothing more to love for.
Just because she's immune doesn't mean she needs to sacrifice herself. It would either be a sense of doing the right thing or just do it because her life sucks.

That would be an awful ending to Ellie as it undoes the first game. Which Neil is all about unfortunately. The entire tlou2 is going for a certain goal and then either giving up that goal or something happens to make previous actions completely pointless.

[-Foxtrot]

She's just so badly written

They tried everything in the book writing / gameplay wise to make us like her and did everything they could to make us hate Ellie and Joel. In the end Abby and Lev just become a poor rip off of Ellie and Joel, it honestly feels Neil wanted rid of them because those characters had ties to Bruce Straley while Abby and Lev are 100% his.

[Christopher]

Honestly, disagree.

I think the bad writing is throughout and not just "Abby." It's more about presentation through writing that's the issue, IMHO. But, I don't see Abby as poorly written.

[Dirtnapstor]

I’ve never understood the “bad writing” critique by those who think they could have written a better story (not saying you btw).
Is it bad writing because they didn’t like where the story went?! That’s pretty much what I surmise based on the maximum hate with minimal reasoning.
I thought the story was fine. The dual time lines and whatnot. I was a bit drug out, but I was engaged enough as to not feel fatigued.
Abby was a well written character. I never felt like she was a killing machine as was originally thought....even after Joel’s demise. I really had an issue with Ellie though. I was irritated with her general demeanor throughout her part. Each (and others) had plenty of memorable moments, and that is key.
Whether the penned characters were lovable or loathesome, the fact is, we are still talking about them. Ergo, ND did indeed do a good job crafting their characters.

[RgR]

Many leads like to place their own way into something amazing. Many times they end up ruining the franchise like in star wars.

I got the same impression as you. Neil wanted to get rid of Joel and Ellie. Hence why both their actions make little sense.

[dumahim]

What was it they did to make us want to hate Ellie and Joel? I can see not agreeing with what Ellie was doing, but hate her? I didn't get a sense of that at all. Joel was hardly in the game.

[Question_Mark]

Yeah, it was pretty manipulative storytelling all for Abby’s benefit. They make Ellie kill all these dogs, but what’s one of the first things Abby does? Play with a cute dog. It’s pretty blatant how they want you to feel.

[-Foxtrot]

Exactly, that's one of the obvious examples

You kill a fair few dogs in the game (if you don't stealth by them) and there's a scene where despite saying everything was optional, the game FORCES you to kill one and who's dog does it end up being? Only Abby's dog who you then play catch with later on to make you think "Gee Ellie, you awful bitch"

But it doesn't affect me because they are trying to manipulate me into making out Abby isn't such a bad character after what she did to Joel. It tries to justify her actions.

[SyntheticForm]

How did they try to make us hate Ellie and Joel?

I still love Joel, and he's still a great and powerful character in the game's world, even though he's dead. I still love Ellie and hope she's finding peace wherever she's hiking at this moment.

I don't think their intention was to make us hate Ellie and Joel at all. I think the message was more along the lines of 'If you hate, you lose' and 'If you let hate consume you, you'll become undone.'

Everyone lost a lot, but I like and appreciate all of the characters.

As for Straley, he's a good director, but he didn't co-write the first game, and that was all Neil. I'm not sure how much involvement Straley had in the creation of Joel and Ellie or their story, but if you do know, let me know.

[chicken_in_the_corn]

The whole game is badly written

[Redemption-64]

You really really seem to know a lot about what is going at Naughty Dog. Can you please tell us, how you know exactly who created which character? Neil is the writer of this game and the first, he was also one of directors and vice president of Naughty Dog. If anything Straley was under him. We get, you don't like Neil and this game hurts your feelings, just move on. Desperately trying to disassociate Neil from the first game is just sad.

[franwex]

Get rid of ties to Bruce Straley? Wow dude. Kinda a stretch there.

But then again you actually believe that Tabata wanted to get rid of Nomura’s work on FF15 and went out of his way to do it.

[-Foxtrot]

He did get rid of his work...so badly that there's so many story gaps and plot holes in FF15 which don't make sense because they never managed to get rid of everything Nomura did story wise.

[Platinum_k]

Poorly written? The main story was based on her lol. If you actually take a second to think about it, Abbys character was more admirable through her actions and she certainly was more mature than Ellie.

[ziggurcat]

Abby was fine. I liked her as a character, and enjoyed playing the game as her.

[isarai]

Um... i thought it was blatantly obvious you were supposed to like her and sympathize for her by the end. So no you're not supposed to hate her, quite the opposite actually.

[_dangerclose_]

The hate mob will like for you to but feel free to ignore them like I did. I didn't hate her either nor did I have an issue with the story like so many of the seasoned professional novelists that visit this site apparently did.

[Petebloodyonion]

I think that you are supposed to feel Ellie's rage and hate for her until you get to play her.
Then the game wants you to understand the why she she went on that revenge quest that is fuelled by the same rage that Ellie has.
Also the games make sure to let you experience the repercussion of both vengeance as both girls get their life destroyed because of their quest.
Some nice subtle note is the many tribute that Joel's got is quite similar to how Abby's friend perceived Abby's dad.

The difference is that Abby get's to understand Joel's motivation (something she don't understand at the start of the game because she Joel as selfish bastard) by having a similar relation with Lev and basically betraying the WLF for Lev.
It's also because of Lev that she let Ellie live.

[TheHateTheyGive]

I like her also

[AnnaDea]

Best character of this decade ❤

[Gamist2dot0]

I don't think we're supposed to hate anybody...except the fanboys/girls. The game pits the player in the views of each character experiencing their lost. That's it. Just like the movies Letters from Iwo Jima and Flag of Our Fathers; if only one movie is released, the viewer would think one group is evil, the other is good when both are at war with loved ones at home in fear of a lost.

[Silly Mammo]

I empathized with Abby more than I did with Ellie. Abby was a very flawed character but so were all the characters. She ended up losing alot more than Ellie but was able to let go of the hate and the need for revenge. I mean she let Ellie live twice for christsake! I was sort of rooting for her in the last battle.

[TheEnigma313]

Abby is cool, i like her and she has a better campaign. He friends are very unlikable though.

[Petebloodyonion]

I really like Manny, Owen and Nora.

[TheEnigma313]

I hated all of them especially that tool owen.

[Dixiedevil]

That dude is a badass!

[Android]

I started feeling sorry for her. She suffered way too much.

[Lord_Sloth]

I don't think you're SUPPOSED to hate any of the characters really. You can understand Abby, Ellie, and Joel's decisions that led them down their paths.

[CrimsonWing69]

I actually found Abby to have the more compelling story of the two.

[lucian229]

I ended up getting why abby did what she did; ended up not hating her; just the one action

[toddybad]

The whole point is you like her once you've seen her story.
Stupid article

[TitaniumExposed_VIP]

Playing as Abby is actually fkn amazing, the set-pieces and situations you encounter as her are way more tense than Ellie's, Also she is a great character looking for redemption from the shit she did.
I loved Joel but he was no saint either.

[jukins]

I still hate her especially after the last scene "2 fingers" lmao that would've been it for me lmao

[Npugz7]

I actually like her more than any character.

[BlaqMagiq1]

I didn't hate her either. I actually enjoyed some parts of her story moreso than Ellie.

[nommers]

I just didn't really care about her or ellie after a certain point in the game. I saw what they were trying to do, but it was odd. It wasn't like a train wreck I couldn't look away from; it was a train wreck I was tired of.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

By the end, you're supposed to realize that killing Joel left Abby empty more than ever and you see Ellie walking into that same path but choosing otherwise. Both wanted to fill that void created by the death of their father figure, violently make their peace by avenging them. I think that if like Ellie, you kind of like Abby too by default, they're so similar.

[chicken_in_the_corn]

I liked Abby. Her story arc, until it's awful ending, saved this game from being a complete disaster

[anast]

Abby's cool. She's got one hell of a knee to the neck.

[Nicknasty]

I want to bash her face in with a golf club

[Rimeskeem]

I think she fits the world perfectly tbh, no one is the bad guy in this world and I think Naughty Dog did a superb job of showing that.

[sourOG]

Didn’t hate her at all. She was best with lev.

[Harryvok]

I ended up sympathising with Abby more than any other character in the game.

[talocaca]

I thought she was great 🤷‍♂️

[jeromeface]

I'd love if this site kept PLOT HINTING DETAILS out of the f'n headlines. That's grade school clickbail bull sh*t. THANKS

[DrDeath]

I hate her man body. 100p Unrealistic

The real slap in the face was in the flashbacks where she had a womans figure. She actually was cute. Then she turned into a damn man

Loved the game still. Ps

[dmonee]

Would have been cool if you had to chose between Abby and ellie, to continue the adventure. Then we’d see how many people chose who they let live

[Broncob]

Literally her and Lev are the worst characters of all time

[LucidIllusion]

Ever since this game's debut, one thing was made very apparent; most people lack the skill of comprehension.

[Final_Aeon]

Hate is a bit too strong I suppose, but I definitely didn't like her.

[Mr Marvel]

I liked Abby, but hated Ellie and Dina.

[NukeDaHippies]

She was the most likable in a game with mostly hatable characters.....not saying much. Also her story was nonsensical, and so was ellies.

[KingofGambling]

That was a good read.

[derek]

I dont think I ever hated Abby the way I have seen so many react to having to play her. I actually thought it was smart to make you play as her so long so that when you are being hunted by Ellie later on it felt really weird.