History YMMV / TheLastOfUsPartII

** Abby. She became so controversial that her voice actor, Creator/LauraBailey, was sent death threats by both the fans and detractors of the game just for voicing her. She got a lot of flack right away for [[spoiler:killing Joel in cold blood in front of Ellie]]. To make matters worse, gamers had to play as Abby in order to understand her point of view. Is she an irredeemable psychopath who deserves to lose everything, or is she actually a sympathetic character who realizes the error of her ways and tries to redeem herself by [[spoiler:taking care of Lev like Joel did for Ellie?]] To make matters more contentious, it is Abby who ultimately is granted the moral high ground above Ellie as [[spoiler:she is the one to stop her revenge crusade and spares Ellie and Dina as opposed to Ellie who learns her lesson far too late and loses everything. However, the latter point is undermined by Abby taking pleasure in the thought of icing Dina even after learning the latter was pregnant, only stopped when [[MoralityPet Lev]] objects.]] For Pete's sake, even [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Ellie]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone is horrified when she learns Mel, who she murdered, was pregnant]]. It doesn't help that Abby is given the grace of not having alienated everyone in her own quest of revenge, and the ability to recover enough just in time to have a happy ending with Lev, seen often [[KarmaHoudini as an undeserved karmic surplus]] compared to Ellie, who is left alone, only just having come back from the brink, and sadly not soon enough to still have anyone by her side.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The main reason for the story’s divisiveness. This is a '''much''' more violent and depressing game than its predecessor, which was already pretty dark. [[spoiler:Joel's brutal death]] early on in the game, in particular, is a point where some players stopped caring about what happens in the story, and it doesn't get better from there. In addition to the dark story, observations of the environments and flavor text show that the state of the world appears to be getting worse instead of better. All hope of a cure or vaccine is dead because Joel killed apparently the last brain surgeon in the previous game. Unlike most zombies in fiction, Infected actually get stronger over time by mutating in tougher and deadlier forms, and every attempt at rebuilding civilization is thwarted by either the Infected, warfare or internal strife. Even many critics who gave an overall favourable review of the game agreed that it has an extremely nihilistic and unforgivably bleak story, for better or for worse. There's a reason that all but 4 of [[https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-last-of-us-part-ii/user-reviews the most helpful user reviews on the first page of metacritic]] are negative.

** The WLF crew on the Seraphite Island can be seen as this due to how they end up being [[spoiler: betrayed and potentially slaughtered by Abby when she chooses Lev over her faction who had fed her, trained her, and gave her a home to live in for four years after the Fireflies had disbanded. It doesn't help that they were in the middle of a war against the Seraphites, and the vast majority who weren't present during Isaac's confrontation against Abby, and his immediate death afterwards, all genuinely have no idea why Abby, their top Scar killer, suddenly turned traitor to save a member of the enemy faction. As such, Abby's decision to abandon her comrades in the middle of a warzone in favor for a child she had met and bonded with in just two days would appear less heroic than intended]].

* KarmicOverkill: An argument can be made for [[spoiler:[[HeroAntagonist Ellie]] going too far in her pursuit of and revenge against [[VillainProtagonist Abby]] for murdering Joel]], but players overall felt that [[UnintentionallySympathetic what ultimately happens to her was]] ''[[UnintentionallySympathetic way]]'' [[UnintentionallySympathetic too harsh a punishment]]. By the end, [[spoiler:she's lost almost everything important to her -- including her ability to play [[TragicKeepsake Joel's guitar]] from losing two fingers, Tommy and Jesse, and her relationship with Dina -- and with everyone close to her now either dead or despising her for her actions, Ellie is left completely alone in the world, [[HatesBeingAlone her worst fear]]]]. It really doesn't help that besides [[spoiler:not feeling any better for killing Joel and losing some friends to Ellie's rampage, Abby [[KarmaHoudini gets off scot-free]] and is free to [[TheBadGuyWins achieve her aim of re-uniting with the Fireflies]]]].

** [[spoiler:One underlying interpretation of Ellie is that from the first game she has something of a death wish. Her talking about her and Riley's infection, and even now after her immunity being revealed she is till waiting "her turn" for the end, her general reckless nature, along with discovering the truth of what Joel did in the hospital, coming to terms that her immunity now means nothing overall with her being chosen over any hope for a cure, outright telling Joel that he should have left her there, stating "my life would have fucking mattered!". This along the severe mental trauma she suffers from the second game's violent revenge cycle, it could be seen that Ellie's decision to finish things with Abby at the cost of her family is her wanting to die, notably forcing the former into an outright fight rather than just killing her when she was tied to the pillars.]]
** Another moment that's open to a number of different views is [[spoiler:Ellie ultimately letting Abby go. One possibility is that amongst the pain she feels, Ellie is suffering tremendous guilt over the falling out between her and Joel over what happened in the Firefly hospital. Abby's killing of Joel was torturous and brutal, but in an emotional way so was Ellie cutting ties with him for years, and it's understandable how he would find the latter more painful. Ellie hates herself for not doing more to forgive Joel, and her hatred of Abby is part of all those externalized feelings, her revenge mission being like an addiction that allows her not to self-reflect.[[note]]Or, more precisely, she is only able to partially self-reflect because of her horribly mixed feelings about Joel – [[ShowDontTell whose uncertain, messy mixture is alluded to through her reflective flashbacks]] – and her traumas that can be tipped in the favor of sparing Abby by her memory of her conversation with Joel the night before he was murdered. While she is pulled towards staying with Dina and JJ, she is still unable to live healthily and without PTSD episodes, and so she goes after Abby in California less out of a need for revenge at this point than desperation to make her suffering stop by getting rid of a cause of her suffering. Her above death wish helps.[[/note]] Seeing a vision of Joel from their last ever conversation, Ellie has a realization, is able to forgive Abby and herself – or at least start trying to, as she said to Joel – and come to terms with what happened between her and her father-figure.]]
** [[spoiler:In a similar way, Ellie leaving Joel's guitar behind is melancholy moment that shows just all she has lost through her revenge. While a sad scene, it can be also be taken as symbolically showing of her finally forgiving Joel, making peace with all that happened between them, and being finally ready to start a new life.]]
** Considering that the early part of the game hints at Tommy having been ruthless in the past, and he ends up going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after [[spoiler:his brother's murder]], what does that say about him? Is he [[BewareTheNiceOnes a decent person who ended up being pushed too far]], or is he more of a RetiredMonster who'd merely kept his demons in check while living in Jackson? Considering that in the previous game Tommy and Joel went their separate ways for what is implied to be differences in their actions, it's possible Tommy was in something of a middle spot between the two as well.

** Minor character Seth giving Ellie a sandwich as an apology for the awful homophobic insult he made towards Ellie and Dina is open to different interpretations. The game appears to frame it as a insincerely hollow gesture given Maria seemly had to force him into it and his excuse of being drunk is as a lot of people can agree pretty damn feeble. Yet on the other hand one of the notes you can find reveals [[DarkAndTroubledPast Seth’s wife and eldest son were killed by bandits and his other sons almost starved to death]], meaning his gesture of giving Ellie food could actually been genuine and his backstory, while not justifying his actions in the slightest does regardless explain why he’s got such awful attitude. Seth may just be a sad old widower with homophobic views.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The game's anti-revenge/violence message, and the ways it portrays that message (such as [[TheDeadHaveNames enemies crying out the names of their comrades]]) has led to debate if the game needed to be heavy-handed and unrelenting or is shallow and emotionally manipulative. Comparisons (positive or otherwise) to ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', ''VideoGame/NieR'', ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' and ''{{VideoGame/Lisa}}'' were common in the months leading up to and after the release of the game.

** Abby. She became so controversial that her voice actor, Creator/LauraBailey, was sent death threats by both the fans and detractors of the game just for voicing her. She got a lot of flack right away for [[spoiler:killing Joel in cold blood in front of Ellie]]. To make matters worse, gamers had to play as Abby in order to understand her point of view. Is she an irredeemable psychopath who deserves to lose everything, or is she actually a sympathetic character who realized the error of her ways and tried to redeem herself by [[spoiler:taking care of Lev like Joel did for Ellie?]] To make matters more contentious, it is Abby that ultimately is granted the moral high ground above Ellie as [[spoiler: she is the one to stop her revenge crusade and spares Ellie and Dina as opposed to Ellie who learns her lesson far too late and loses everything]].
** Ellie's portrayal in this game proved quite divisive at least. Is she a [[spoiler:jerkass psychopath who only cares about herself and abandons others for her own sake of revenge, or a sympathetic Woobie that was forced to watch Joel get murdered in cold blood and had to endure all the hardships caused by herself and Abby? Some are also divided on whether or not Ellie deserves living her biggest fear at the end of the game: being alone.]]
* BestBossEver: [[spoiler: The Rat King boss fight is the game at its most high-octane action-filled best, as it becomes like one of the more action-based ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' titles. It's truly scary, yet exhilarating and it doesn't even ''end'' when you beat the Rat King as the Stalker that breaks off from it is waiting for you after you're done.]]

* KarmicOverkill: An argument can be made for [[spoiler:Ellie [[NoSympathyForGrudgeholders going too far]] in her pursuit of and revenge against Abby for murdering Joel]], but players overall felt that [[UnintentionallySympathetic what ultimately happens to her was]] ''[[UnintentionallySympathetic way]]'' [[UnintentionallySympathetic too harsh a punishment]]. By the end, [[spoiler:she's lost almost everything important to her -- including her ability to play [[TragicKeepsake Joel's guitar]] from losing two fingers, Tommy and Jesse, and her relationship with Dina -- and with everyone close to her now either dead or despising her for her actions, Ellie is left completely alone in the world, [[HatesBeingAlone her worst fear]]]]. It really doesn't help that besides [[spoiler:not feeling any better for killing Joel and losing some friends to Ellie's rampage, Abby [[KarmaHoudini gets off scot-free]] and is [[TheBadGuyWins free to achieve her aim]] of re-uniting with the Fireflies]].

%%* Moral Event Horizon: Abby does not count per cleanup https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14984878480A61564600&page=16#comment-392

* KarmicOverkill: An argument can be made for [[spoiler:[[HeroAntagonist Ellie]] going too far in her pursuit of and revenge against [[VillainProtagonist Abby]] for murdering Joel]], but players overall felt that [[UnintentionallySympathetic what ultimately happens to her was]] ''[[UnintentionallySympathetic way]]'' [[UnintentionallySympathetic too harsh a punishment]]. By the end, [[spoiler:she's lost almost everything important to her -- including her ability to play [[TragicKeepsake Joel's guitar]] from losing two fingers, Tommy and Jesse, and her relationship with Dina -- and with everyone close to her now either dead or despising her for her actions, Ellie is left completely alone in the world, [[HatesBeingAlone her worst fear]]]]. It really doesn't help that besides [[spoiler:not feeling any better for killing Joel and losing some friends to Ellie's rampage, Abby [[KarmaHoudini gets off scot-free]] and is free to [[TheBadGuyWins achieve her aim of re-uniting with the Fireflies]]]].

* JerkassWoobie: Many of the games abrasive characters have some level of sympathy to them. Even Seth, the grouchy bigoted bartender has had a hard life. Abby finds a letter during the blizzard outside of Jackson that was written by Seth before he arrived at the town. His wife and eldest son were brutally murdered for their supplies, and his remaining two sons almost starved to death before they finally found the town.

** Laura Bailey has been sent death threats for how the character of Abby was written. This is despite her only being the voice actor.

*** Even creepier, the Seraphites might originally have been a smart adaptation to the new world. Guns, ammunition, technology, all the old-world things the WLF, FEDRA, Jackson, etc rely on; it won’t last, and the infrastructure to create more in and quantity is rotting away. Sooner or later the surviving human race will be down to swords and bows and wooden houses and telling legends about where the ‘demons’ came from. There are hints that the Seraphite Prophet saw this coming and tried to give her followers an ideological scaffolding on which to build a sustainable post-Infection human culture, only to have it perverted into to a xenophobic, patriarchal Cult by her power-hungry successors.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** It didn't take long before the tragic irony was found in ''The Last of Us Part II'', with its central premise revolving on a pandemic having wiped out most of humanity, being released shortly after the real life UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic struck. The real irony is that the game is set in Seattle which was the original epicenter of the virus in the US and where the first case originated from. In the game, the WLF hospital where you spend a good chunk of time is said to have been the epicenter of the fungal outbreak in the area.
** [[https://www.fandom.com/articles/the-last-of-us-2-troy-baker-joel In an interview]] posted on April 2, 2020, Troy Baker responded to questions as to Joel's status as a playable character, and asked fans to "... go in '''open-minded''' to this story, and allow Joel and Ellie to tell ''their'' story" (Bolded for emphasis). Just over 3 weeks later, on the 24th, came the massive ContentLeak in which multiple cutscenes for the then-unreleased game were posted on [=YouTube=], and [[spoiler:Troy's comment becomes an unintentional reference on exactly how Joel dies, having his head split open with a 9-iron courtesy of Abby. One can say that Joel died with an [[JustForPun open mind.]]]]
** The game was released on June 19, 2020, right before the same weekend as '''Father's Day'''.
** In the first game, Ellie tells Sam that one of her biggest fears was being alone. She then later tells Joel that everyone except for him has either died or left her. [[spoiler:By the end of ''Part II'', both Joel and Jesse are dead, and Dina has (seemingly) left her, leaving Ellie truly alone.]]
** The majority of the game being set in a post-apocalyptic Seattle that was the hub of a civil war became this when during and following the game's release, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone portions of Seattle in real life]] were cordoned off as part of the country-wide Black Lives Matter protests.

** The tagline, "I'm gonna find, and I'm gonna kill, every last one of them." came first indeed. However, in 2019, before the game was released, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' was released and the game had a MemeticMutation about the phrase [[Memes/FireEmblemThreeHouses "Kill every last one of them!"]]. And because of that, the tagline of this game ended up sounding kind of memetic.

** The game tries to make you feel bad for killing a certain dog. However, by that point in the game, the player may have killed dozens of dogs already and it doesn't help that they can be considered [[DemonicSpiders very annoying to fight]].

* CompleteMonster: [[GeneralRipper Isaac Dixon]] is the leader of [[Characters/TheLastOfUsWLF the Washington Liberation Front (WLF)]], aka the Wolves. A warmongering tyrant, Isaac has [[BadBoss sacrificed many of his own men]] to take over, having citizens rounded up to be controlled in one place and shot if they refuse. Engaging with the religious cult, the Seraphites, Isaac abducts prisoners to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] for information before attempting a wide-scale assault with the intent of [[FinalSolution massacring the Seraphites completely]] to the last man, woman, and child. Even when finding out Abby, his best soldier, is sheltering a Seraphite boy named Lev, Isaac simply attempts to execute both of them.

** As a consequence of the animations when Characters interact with [[HyperspaceArsenal their backpacks]] being reused from Part 1 is that molotov-cocktails and bombs are constantly put away with a lit fuse rather than having them light up when being used.

* ToughActtoFollow: Regardless of one’s feelings about the game, it was undeniable that any sequel would have a hard time

** Abby getting captured and beaten by Rattlers can be seen as well deserved karma not only for brutally killing Joel but also for killing Jesse, shooting Tommy and attempting to kill Dina especially relishing after being told she was pregnant and just leaving the theater unpunished. And if that’s not enough beating her down in the final battle is just icing on the cake.

** Abby getting captured and beaten by Rattlers can be seen as well deserved karma not only for brutally killing Joel but also for killing Jesse, shooting Tommy and about to kill Dina especially relishing after being told she was pregnant and just leaving the theater unpunished. And if that’s not enough beating her down in the final battle is just icing on the cake.

** [[spoiler:Abby and Owen's]] sex scene for how out of place and over the top it is.
** To some, [[DeusAngstMachina the number of bad things that happen to Ellie and her posse over the course of the game]] can border on making the entire group seem like TheChewToy rather than work effectively as dramatic tension.
** A lot of [=YouTubers=] found it incredibly funny the number of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s it took just to set the game's plot in motion. First, [[spoiler: Joel and Tommy just happen to go out on a scouting trek right as Abby's group finds Jackson]]. Second, [[spoiler: there just happens to be a herd of infected that throw Joel and Tommy of their usual path, and make it impossible to get back to Jackson]]. Third, [[spoiler: Joel and Tommy are the first people Abby encounters while escaping the herd of infected, and their brief shelter isn't enough to hold the herd back, conveniently making Abby's hideout the only place to go]]. Fourth, [[spoiler: Ellie makes it to the Baldwin place right as Abby is murdering Joel]]. The fourth one especially.
** The tendency for Mooks to call the names of their allies when you kill them. While it's supposed to show that [[WhatMeasureIsAMook the Mooks are humans too]], to some it becomes an obvious attempt to demonize Ellie's actions. The intended individualization effect is also blunted since most [=NPCs=] have randomly-assigned names and [[YouAllLookFamiliar don't each have a unique character model]].
** The scene where Ellie stabs a WLF hunting dog that jumped her is clearly meant to showcase her descent into ruthless brutality, but the fact that she mutters "Stupid dog," afterwards turns it into an overly literal KickTheDog moment. Not only that, but this scene also happens right before Abby becomes playable and we get to see her playing with the dog, as if to rub it in the player's face.

** The fact that Abby's nickname is Abs caused quite a few fans to guffaw. Seeing as she was called "Abs" [[spoiler:during flashbacks long before building muscles]], it's clearly meant as a shortening of her name and nothing else, but her muscled appearance in the present time can make the accidental connection hard to avoid.
** Abby and her crew allowing Mel, a heavily pregnant ''doctor'', to join them in their hunting trips. Many players had a hard time believing that any army would allow a woman who's so close to giving birth to be on the front lines.

** The attempted [[spoiler:heartbreak of Ellie being unable to play guitar with segments of her fingers gone loses a lot of its effectiveness if one knows of Music/DjangoReinhardt who, to quote this very wiki, "is frequently cited as one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived" despite also being disabled in the ring and pinky finger of his fretting hand.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Though the bow was never a hated weapon, being considered a GameBreaker for stealthy gameplay, it suffered from having limited range and ammo pickups were incredibly rare. The sequel brings back the bow and it's much better here than it was in the first game. For starters, the bow was given a massive boost to its accuracy; it now has more of a standard aiming reticle than the arc based reticle that throwable objects have[[note]]Technically, it ''does'' have an arc, but you need the rangefinder upgrade to really notice it.[[/note]] and arrows overall fly straighter than they did before. But the biggest change is that ammo for the bow is much more common, both because there are more arrows lying around the world (including drops from enemies that use bows) and because you can craft your own arrows. Lastly, you can eventually also craft explosive arrows, which are a rather powerful tool.

* AccidentalAesop:
** If you're gonna murder someone, make sure to kill all the witnesses. Especially when your intended victim has loved ones who won't take kindly to their death ''AND know your identity AND know where you live''.
** While Owen was trying to claim the moral high ground by sparing Ellie and Tommy, saying he refuses to be seen as no better than Joel, he really should have just let his friends kill the both of them on the spot, ethics be damned, because he should know better than anyone how powerful the pull towards hatred and revenge is after you witness a loved one being murdered in front of your eyes, considering how and why his relationship with Abby fell apart. If you are going to be punished for doing something wrong, you might as well do something worse so you can find some benefits from it.

** By far the biggest criticism of the story overall is how unflinchingly dark it is. The first game was also incredibly dark, with Joel and Ellie going through a lot of strife to get to the Fireflies, only for Joel to kill them all to save Ellie from being killed by them for a slim chance to find a vaccine, rendering the entire journey to find them AllForNothing. The reason it wasn't much of a problem then was because despite the darkness, there was still enough hope that players were still able to get invested in the world and its characters without getting turned off by it, with Joel and Ellie's relationship playing a big part in that. This game, however, was criticized for being [[DarkerAndEdgier much]] [[BloodierAndGorier darker]] while also lacking the same ray of hope that the first game and its BittersweetEnding gave off. Through the game, [[spoiler:Ellie is consumed by hatred, and countless people die in her ensuing RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Abby, the character responsible for Joel's death, is a protagonist and playable for half of the game and her sections are nearly as dark as Ellie's. In the end, both women have their lives ruined- Abby's hard-fought organization of the WLF collapses and all her companions save Lev die at Ellie's hands, while Ellie loses her friend Jesse and completely shatters her relationship with Dina leaving her with nothing, not even the ability to play guitar.]] As a result, the game's story was [[TooBleakStoppedCaring criticized]] for its incredibly dark narrative rather than [[TrueArtIsAngsty praised]] for it like the first game.

** One gag early on features Ellie coming across a copy of ''ParallelPornTitles Smash Brandi’s Cooch'', an obvious ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/Crash Bandicoot'', which Naughty Dog also created. Only 3 days after the game came out, ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'' was announced for release later in 2020.

** While Owen was trying to claim the moral high ground by sparing Ellie and Tommy, saying he refuses to be seen as no better than Joel, he really should have just let his friends kill the both of them on the spot, ethics be damned, because he should know better than anyone how powerful the pull towards hatred and revenge is when you witness a loved one being murdered in front of your eyes, considering how his relationship with Abby fell apart. If you are going to be punished for doing something wrong, you might as well do something worse so you can find some benefits from it.