Ellie Williams (The Last of Us). The bravest video game heroines
Table of Contents
- Year of debut: 2013
- Key games: The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, The Last of Us: Part II
- Age when she achieved her greatest deeds: 14–18
- Motion capture specialist, voice actress: Ashley Johnson
The Last of Us can be accused of playing on basic emotions, preferring to use the tactic of big surprises rather than elaborate subtleties, that it kills some characters only to increase the tragedy of the story and turns the most trivial of situations into a dramatic fight for survival. This is all true.
However, it's difficult to deny the authors of this game the ability to create expressive, unconventional characters. Moreover, they are almost always ambiguous. Even teenage Ellie had to make difficult moral choices. Did we hate her because of it? Quite the opposite. The more human the heroine is, the more we appreciate her courage, determination and empathy.
At the beginning of the game, Joel takes care of the girl. For a long time it seems that he will protect her. Ellie, however, becomes more and more independent over time, and her relationship with Joel gets complicated, to say the least. She fights to survive to the very end, which is partly aided by her resistance to the plague that prevails in the world. However, she repeatedly emphasizes that she would be ready to give her life if it would be of any benefit to the surviving society.