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Get ready for a ranking that will get every The Last of Us Part II fan talking, arguing, and maybe even rage-typing. This game didn’t just divide opinions—it detonated deep fault lines in the fandom, and at the heart of it all are five story choices that sparked more controversy than almost any other modern video game.
Number five: The abrupt shift to Abby’s perspective halfway through the game. Up until this point, most players expected to spend the majority of their time with Ellie, the beloved protagonist from the first game. But about halfway in, the narrative pulls a hard left. The player is forced to control Abby, the person responsible for killing Joel, the central character from the original game. This decision forced players to spend hours with a character they’d been taught to hate and, for many, this was a betrayal of their expectations. The controversy here comes from how the switch forced emotional whiplash. Some praised the choice for its risk and ambition, while others felt manipulated or even resentful at being asked to empathize with Abby.
Number four: The violent, graphic death of Joel early in the story. Joel’s death is not only sudden—it’s brutal, and it’s carried out by Abby with a golf club in front of Ellie. Fans had spent the first game—and seven years of real-world time—growing attached to Joel as a father figure and protector. The game’s creators chose to show his demise in the first act, shattering any illusion that old favorites were safe. This upset many players who felt that Joel deserved a more heroic or meaningful end, not a gory execution at the hands of a new character. Some fans argue this was a necessary story beat to drive Ellie’s quest for revenge, but others believe it undermined the legacy of a beloved character. The debate centers on whether the narrative served the character or sacrificed him for shock value.
Number three: The game’s structure, which repeats three days in Seattle from both Ellie’s and Abby’s points of view. Players spend roughly 12 to 15 hours experiencing events as Ellie, then loop back and replay those same three days through Abby’s eyes. This narrative device is rare in big-budget games, and for some, it offered a nuanced look at both sides of a violent cycle. Others, though, found it exhausting or even frustrating, arguing it disrupted the pacing and forced empathy for a character they still resented. The controversy isn’t just about storytelling—it’s about how much agency the player actually has, and whether being forced to walk in Abby’s shoes made the experience richer or just more aggravating.
Number two: Ellie’s decision not to kill Abby in the final confrontation. After more than 20 hours of carnage, loss, and escalating violence, the climactic moment comes not with a final kill, but with mercy. Ellie, poised to finish Abby off, instead lets her go. For many players, this choice—after the relentless drive for vengeance—felt anticlimactic, confusing, or even unsatisfying. Some saw it as a powerful condemnation of revenge, but others felt robbed of catharsis after the emotional toll of the entire journey. The arguments erupted almost instantly online, with some players defending the ending as mature and subversive, while others accused the story of pulling its punches at the last second.
Number one: The deliberate framing of Abby as a hero in her own right, not just as a villain or a plot device for Ellie’s story. According to the creators, including Neil Druckmann, Abby is positioned as the protagonist of her own journey, with her motivations, losses, and search for justice running parallel to Ellie’s. This wasn’t just a narrative twist; it was a calculated creative risk that forced players to confront their own biases and emotions. The controversy exploded because fans felt the first game had built an unbreakable bond between Joel, Ellie, and the player—only for The Last of Us Part II to rip that apart and insist on a new kind of empathy. For some, Abby’s story was compelling and brave, turning the sequel into a meditation on the nature of vengeance and forgiveness. For others, it was a betrayal of everything that made the original so loved, replacing the emotional core with a character they never wanted to root for. The creators, led by Neil Druckmann, doubled down on Abby’s centrality to the story even as backlash mounted. This wasn’t an accidental misstep or a course correction after launch. It was a conscious decision from the writing and creative team, and it set the tone for every other controversial moment in the game. The insistence that Abby is a hero—despite her role in Joel’s death, and despite the fandom’s attachment to Ellie—became the lightning rod for every other argument in the community.
The lasting impact of these choices is visible in the ongoing debates within the fandom and even in adaptations of the story. As of May 2024, HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has completed its first season, with a second season in production. The show’s creators, including Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, have publicly discussed the challenges of adapting the events and characters of The Last of Us Part II, particularly Abby’s arc, for a television audience. Fans continue to speculate about how Abby’s story will be handled in future seasons, with many predicting that the same controversies that split the gaming community will resurface when the show reaches these storylines.
Some fans now believe there’s no way to adapt this story to television without reigniting the same controversies that split the gaming community when The Last of Us Part II was first released. The fate of the series and the community itself hinges on the decisions made around Abby’s arc, which remains the most divisive subject in the franchise.