Why make ellie gay
The best way to make sure viewers see themselves? Here's what Bella Ramsey and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann have said about Ellie's sexuality in the series and the game. I was playing the multiplayer before TLOU 2 released, and there was this piece of shit who was saying that he was going to boycott the second game because of Ellie being gay, and used a whole bunch of hateful language.
Those are the questions plaguing Ellie, not the far more played out”Am I gay?” That’s exactly how their relationship progresses in The Last of Us show.
The Last of Us
Yes, Ellie is gay in The Last of Us series. I sent him a polite message about chilling out with the hate speech, and he turned into a bigger dick, of course. Ellie's attraction to women is a core part of who she is, and the games have never been shy about leaning into that.
But what made The Last of Us game series so pioneering in the first place was that it centered on a queer protagonist. Understandably, emotions run high. Promising to tell Ellie everything, Riley convinces her friend to join her on one last adventure to an abandoned mall in the Boston QZ.
It all seems carefree — shockingly so for a game like this — but then Ellie stops dancing and, through tears, asks Riley to stay. Keep telling more queer stories. And even though Ellie finds it hard to confide in Joel about matters of the heart, Joel does stand up for Ellie when one Jackson local calls Ellie a homophobic slur.
Left Behind tells two parallel stories, and one of them is set three weeks before Ellie meets Joel. After all, Ellie is the first openly queer protagonist in a AAA game that most players encountered. The two dance together and share a kiss.
You know, we can So, while Ellie's sexuality is never explicitly discussed in The Last of Us, revealing that Ellie is gay isn't at all a departure from how the games have treated the character. In Episode 2 of the series, Tess Anna Torv casually asks Ellie Bella Ramsey about having a boyfriend; the way the teenage survivor responds — a bit of hesitation, a tinge of awkwardness — says it all.
Was Ellie Gay in
After framing Ellie as gay in The Last of Us: Left Behind — downloadable content (DLC) that expands upon The Last of Us: Part 1 and delves into Ellie’s relationship with Riley (voice of Yaani. My vote? And Ellie sobs with the weight of knowing the truth.
True openness was never part of the equation for either party. Players learn that the surrogate father-kid duo have a strained relationship now. But Ellie has things to keep hidden, too. Instead of waiting for a death that never seemed to come, Ellie wanted to save the world.
While much of the game is set in the past, the Ellie of the present is drawn to Dina. Joel is murdered before he and Ellie can really reconcile. That chance to try and forgive Joel is stolen from Ellie. Or two days. In response, Riley rips off her Firefly pendant — and Ellie kisses Riley.
When HBO confirmed its adaptation of The Last of Us was moving forward, some fans feared the series would stray away from depicting Ellie as queer.