A Bad Gay Waiting for Vengeance
Ellie in The Last of Us Part II
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37536/reden.2025.6.2724Keywords:
The Last of Us, Queer Theory, Queer Studies, Game Studies, Queer Representation, Deidealization, WaitingAbstract
This article examines The Last of Us Part II (2020), a videogame with explicit queer representation that forefronts a queer main playable character—Ellie—that behaves in morally ambiguous, even villainous, ways. The aim of the article is to examine Ellie’s behavior and concretize what sort of queer representation she brings to popular culture, particularly because she is “bad.” The main question posed is if the game’s expressions of waiting—primarily Ellie’s intense waiting for vengeance after one of her loved ones is murdered—makes her antagonistic traits pronounced? Theoretically, the article draws on “deidealization” (Amin 2017), a concept that helps scholars to accept rather than redeem or critique imperfect, messy, and complex queer objects of study (historical and current), as well as theories of waiting (Heidegger 1959). The article concludes that although Ellie’s anger is relatable, her methods in the game (mainly her propensity for violence) are questionable. Still, studying Ellie constitutes an important lesson: if we allow ourselves to be blinded by hate for people we see as our enemies, we might, inadvertently, turn into villains.
References
Amin, Kadji. 2017. Disturbing Attachments: Genet, Modern Pederasty, and Queer History. Durham: Duke University Press.
Anderson, Karoline A. 2022. “Moral Distress in The Last of Us: Moral Agency, Character Realism, and Navigating Fixed Gaming Narratives.” Computers in Human Behavior Reports 5: n.p. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100163.
Bushman, Brad J. 2002. “Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (6): 724–731. https://doi-org.ezproxy.its.uu.se/10.1177/0146167202289002.
Cross, Liam, Kaye, Linda K., Savostijanovs, Juris, McLatchie, Neil, Johnston, Matthew, Whiteman, Liam, Mooney, Robyn, and Atherton, Gray. 2024. “Gendered Violence and Sexualized Representations in Video Games: (Lack of) Effect on Gender-Related Attitudes.” New Media & Society 26 (3): 1648–1669. https://doi-org.ezproxy.its.uu.se/10.1177/14614448221075736.
Dennin, Kimberley, and Burton, Adrianna. 2023. “Experiential Play as an Analytical Framework: Empathetic and Grating Queerness in The Last of Us Part II.” Game Studies 23 (2): n.p. https://gamestudies.org/2302/articles/denninburton
Druckmann, Neil, Straley, Bruce, Escayg, Shaun, and Gallant, Matthew, dir. The Last of Us Part I. 2013/2022. Santa Monica, CA: Naughty Dog.
Druckmann, Neil, Newman, Anthony, and Margenau, Kurt, dir. The Last of Us Part II. 2020. Santa Monica, CA: Naughty Dog.
Ellis, Bret Easton. 2023. The Shards. New York: Knopf Publishing Group.
Erb, Valérie, Lee, Seyeon, and Doh, Youn Yim. 2021. “Player-Character Relationship and Game Satisfaction in Narrative Game: Focus on Player Experience of Character Switch in The Last of Us Part II. Frontiers in Psychology 12: n.p. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.709926
Favis, Elise. 2020. “The Evolution of Ellie.” The Washington Post, July 1, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/video-games/news/the-last-of-us-part-2-ellie-evolution/.
Fennell, Emerald, dir. Saltburn. 2023. Culver City, CA: Amazon MGM Studios.
Fielding-Redpath, Ellie. 2024. “Masculine Apocalypses: Navigating Masculinity, Male Spaces, and Violence in Days Gone (2019) and The Last of Us Part II (2020).” In End-Game: Apocalyptic Video Games, Contemporary Society, and Digital Media Culture, edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso, James Crossley, Alastair Lockhart, and Rachel Wagner, 73–89. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Gach, Ethan. 2016. “The Last of Us Part II Will Be a Game ‘About Hate’.” Kotaku, December 4, 2016. https://kotaku.com/the-last-of-us-2-will-be-a-game-about-hate-1789662506.
Halberstam, Jack. 1993. “Imagined Violence/Queer Violence: Representation, Rage, and Resistance.” Social Text (37): 187–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/466268.
Hayot, Eric. 2021. “Video Games & the Novel.” Daedalus 150 (1): 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_01841.
Heidegger, Martin. 1966/1959. Discourse on Thinking. Translated by John M. Anderson and E. Hans Freund. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Hoar, Peter, dir. 2023. The Last of Us. Season 1, episode 3, “Long, Long Time.” Aired January 29, 2023, on HBO.
Holiday, Charming. 2024. “Naughty Dog Identified The Last of Us 2 Leaker and Found Out Why They Leaked the Footage.” Game Rant, February 4, 2024. https://gamerant.com/the-last-of-us-2-leaker-naughty-dog-found-reason-why/.
Horn, Joshua Charles. 2024a. “The Last of Us as Moral Philosophy: Teleological Particularism and Why Joel Is Not a Villain.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy, edited by David Kyle Johnson, Dean A. Kowalski, Chris Lay, Kimberly S. Engels, 1741–1756. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Horn, Charles Joshua, ed. 2024b. The Last of Us and Philosophy: Look for the Light. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Horn, Charles Joshua. 2024c. “Self-Deception and Moral Failure in The Last of Us.” In The Last of Us and Philosophy: Look for the Light, edited by Charles Joshua Horn, 113–120. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Ivory, James D. 2006. “Still a Man’s Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games. Mass Communication and Society 9 (1): 103–114.
Jones, Tim. 2024. “Necessary Violence in The Last of Us Part II.” In The Last of Us and Philosophy: Look for the Light, edited by Charles Joshua Horn, 45–51. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Keen, Richard, McCoy, Monica L., and Powell, Elizabeth. 2012. “Rooting for the Bad Guy: Psychological Perspectives.” Studies in Popular Culture 34 (2): 129–148.
Lemmey, Huw, and Miller, Ben. 2022. Bad Gays: A Homosexual History. London: Verso.
Lemmey, Huw, and Miller, Ben, hosts. “James Levine.” Bad Gays (podcast). March 12, 2024. Accessed September 17, 2024. https://badgayspod.podbean.com/e/james-levine/.
Maiberg, Emanuel. 2020. “The Not So Hidden Israeli Politics of ‘The Last of Us Part II’.” Vice, July 15, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-not-so-hidden-israeli-politics-of-the-last-of-us-part-ii/.
Mary & George. 2024. Created by DC Moore. Produced by Térèsa Ryan, Scott Bassett, Liza Marshall, Jon Finn, Oliver Hermanus, Sam Hoyle, and DC Moore. Starz/Sky Atlantic.
Nussbaum, Martha. 2016. Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Oya, Alberto. 2024. “Is Ellie’s Revenge Ethically Justified?” In The Last of Us and Philosophy: Look for the Light, edited by Charles Joshua Horn, 37–44. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Peppers-Bates, Susan, and Bernard, Mary. 2024. “Ellie and Abby Are the Queer Feminist Icons We’ve Been Waiting For.” In The Last of Us and Philosophy: Look for the Light, edited by Charles Joshua Horn, 97–104. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Puar, Jasbir. 2013. “Rethinking Homonationalism.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2): 336–339. https://doi.org/10.1017/s002074381300007x.
Ruberg, Bonnie, and Shaw, Adrienne, eds. 2017. Queer Game Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Spence, Steve. 2024. “Adaptation, Violence, and Storytelling in The Last of Us.” Games and Culture: n.p. https://doi-org.ezproxy.its.uu.se/10.1177/15554120241238771.
Stanley, Eric A. 2021. Atmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable. Durham: Duke University Press.
Stryker, Susan. 1994. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies 1: 235–254. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-1-3-237.
The Last of Us. 2023–ongoing. Created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin. Produced by Neil Druckmann, Spike Allison Hooper, Rose Lam, Jaqueline Lesko, Crag Mazin, Cecil O’Connor, Asad Qizilbash, Greg Spence, Carolyn Strauss, Carter Swan, and Evan Wells. HBO.
von Seth, Oscar. 2025. “Queer Waiting in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.” Lambda Nordica (online first): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.34041/ln.v.1006
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Oscar von Seth
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
