The Last of Us Part II prepared players for the dark journey of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in The Last of Us Season 2. Casual fans may not have been ready for the choices Ellie made in the Season 2 finale or the way her confrontation with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) played out. But if you’re still thinking of those two as the hero and villain of the story, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have explained why the entire concept behind that is flawed.
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for The Last of Us Season 2 finale!
“The point of this story–and this is looked at from so many different angles in so many different ways–is that the entire concept of protagonist is flawed,” explained Mazin via The Hollywood Reporter. “The entire concept of villain is flawed. Our way of processing the world through heroes and villains is a mistake. It ends up creating these barriers between people that shouldn’t be there. It ends up giving ourselves justifications and conveniences for bad behavior, and it ends up allowing us to judge others summarily for things that we don’t quite understand the motivation behind it. We know this is a challenging thing to keep track of emotionally. We understand people are going to be provoked. But part of this story is about examining why we’re so comfortable with following one person’s point of view about everything.”