A guide to Abby Anderson

The following may contain potential spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2.

Both video game and television adaptations The Last of Us A sad ending for Ellie and Joel. They are possibly the only survivors of the massacre at the Firefly Hospital where Eli was determined to die for the Cordyceps vaccine. As a stressed-out surrogate father-daughter duo starts a new life in Jackson, Abby Anderson begins a quest for revenge.

Little was known about the actual plot The Last of Us Part II Just like the second season of the HBO series before its official release. Many players were shocked to learn that for half of the game, they would be playing as Abby, who had come to be hated by players for the controversial decision she made. Caitlin Dever has now been cast as Abby The Last of Us Season 2, fans of the TV series may be wondering what it is about Abby that made everyone so angry.

Abby was the daughter of an important firefly

Before Joel and Ellie met in a fatal collision, Abby was the young daughter of Firefly’s successor, Jerry Anderson. The Last of Us Part II Jerry surgeon Joel was killed to save Ellie from death. The ending of the first game left the surgeon anonymous through Joel’s view of the situation. In this case, Jerry was a nameless man who tried to kill Ellie. No matter how important he was or what family he had, Jerry was a threat that needed to be eliminated in order to prevent Joel from experiencing serious harm again. But the second game gave that face a name, and the entire conflict was built on murder.

In a flashback, after Joel and Ellie’s arrival at Firefly Hospital, Jerry was the one who, knowing the outcome, advocated surgery on Ellie. Abby, herself training as a young firefly, assures him that if it’s her on the operating table, she wants him to do the surgery too. After Joel’s rampage at the hospital, the only ones left alive are Abby and her friends. Another issue that arose was the fact that Jerry’s death meant that there were no other surgeons capable of making the vaccine. Along with Ellie, Jerry was the last hope for humanity.

Abby experienced a tremendous transformation

As the loss of her only living family member stings Abby, she withdraws from her boyfriend Owen and his friends. Abby hardly had a care in the world that Joel prevented the possibility of a vaccine, which would have changed the course of scientific discovery and the reconstruction of society. Her only worry was that her father was murdered in cold blood for trying to do the right thing for the greater good.

Abby and her friends join the Washington Liberation Front in Seattle, led by Isaac, a militant and xenophobic leader. Determined to seek revenge one day, Abby Rose joins the ranks of the WLF as a merciless soldier against the Seraphites (or “Scars” as the WLF calls them). Abby gained a reputation as “Isaac’s top scar killer”, trusted enough to lead the first wave in the final battle against the Seraphites. Physically, Abby developed a strong, muscular body in order to be in the best shape to take down Joel when their final confrontation takes place.

Finally the day has come. With the help of her friends, Abby tracks down Joel in Wyoming and corners him where he brutally tortures and kills him at a golf club in front of Ellie. Unbeknownst to Abby, Ellie was the immune girl at the hospital. Although his friends agreed to the plan, he alienated most of them. The mostly pacifist Mel regrets taking part in the act, and Owen already shows reluctance to kill Ellie and Tommy to cut loose ends.

That’s where most players assumed Abby’s story would end, but they were wrong. Abby becomes a playable character who journeys through a personal redemption arc that defines her beyond a body torn apart and killing the gamers’ beloved father. Her surprising benevolence towards the two fugitive Seraphites, Lev and Yara, cured the hatred welling up within her. And when she confronts Ellie again for killing all her friends, Abby finds it within herself to let Ellie live. Abby found no peace in killing Joel, and knew that the cycle of revenge needed to end with someone.

Why Abby is a Controversial Character

The obvious reason people dislike Abby is because she killed Joel. How can one not be angry? Joel was the protagonist of the first game. His life was full of grievances until he met Ellie, and he was killed to protect her. It was hard to get fans onboard and sympathize with Abby. She was not quite sympathetically presented as a cruel and cold torturer. But through an unsettling perspective shift, players discover a young girl driven by a quest to restore humanity. Her life crumbles when Joel walks into the picture, forcing her to abandon her younger self and grow up in a loveless world.

Even through her guilt-ridden transformation from vicious predator to protective protector, some fans refuse to see Abby’s duality. It didn’t matter that Abby was a reflection of Ellie, who was both driven by revenge and lost supportive friends in an emotionally charged process. Abby’s biggest loss is that she wasn’t introduced in the first game and developed a passionate relationship with gamers like Ellie or Joel. Some people refused to look past the fact that she killed a strong man who led one of the greatest video games of all time, even though her time was already ticking.

Misognostic gamers also rose from their seats to make harsh comments about Abby’s body. A defining feature about Abby is that she is muscular and tall, especially compared to the short and petite Ellie. Her body symbolizes her determination to defeat Joel if that time ever comes. But some gamers believed that her body was “unrealistic” for a woman in Revelations. They were angry that women were no longer being sexualized in video games, as they had once been for many years.

No need to change our last Season 2 AB

The beauty of Abby’s character is that she challenged gamers on the meaning of hero and villain. He is a person who does not fit into a box, and can do bad things as a good person. If the first game was transferred from Joel’s perspective to Abby, people would have the same problem with Ellie in the second game. That’s why when it comes to its second season The Last of Us, the show doesn’t need to soften or delve into Abby’s inhumanity. As a character, Abby’s portrayal is a near perfect representation of someone struggling to properly grieve.

The hatred the game received for Abby was unjustified and immature. Abby’s voice and motion-capture actor Laura Bailey received death threats for the character, as did the game’s writers. However, the makers have not publicly expressed regret about her place in the game. To say that AB is not culturally important to video games is an understatement. The Last of Us Part II A game so complex and complete that it is taking many seasons to cover it.

At that point, Abby’s arc can be slowly and carefully explored to fully execute her transformation from vengeful to compassionate woman. Abby pushed the hero-villain boundary more than any other character, so hopefully the adaptation doesn’t try to do damage control to make her more appealing to viewers.

Our Last Season 2 is in development and expected to air in 2025.