Ellie (The Last of Us)

Ellie is the deuteragonist of The Last of Us, the playable protagonist of The Last of Us Part II and The Last of Us: Left Behind, and the main character in The Last of Us: American Dreams.

Ellie is a nineteen-year-old survivor, Ellie is "mature beyond her years" as a result of the circumstances of her environment.

Appearance
Ellie is described as having auburn hair and being 5 feet 3 inches (160.02 cm) by a deceased Firefly. Ellie has bright green eyes, fair skin with freckles, a scar on her right eyebrow, and a thin stature. When asked in an interview about her eyebrow scar, Neil Druckmann states that there is a story behind her scar, but says that he won't share the story yet. She gained the scar before American Dreams, Left Behind, and The Last of Us took place. Several years after the events of The Last of Us, Ellie's hair appears to be cut shorter and she now sports a tattoo on her right arm.

It was revealed in the Truck Ambush cinematic commentary that Ellie had been redesigned to bear a greater resemblance to Ashley Johnson in appearance and personality. Neil Druckmann, the game's creative director, spoke of the change, saying "after delving further into the game's narrative over the past few months, we decided to modify Ellie's model to better reflect Ashley's personality, and also resemble a slightly younger teen more fitting to the story. We're happy with the final result shown in the cinematic we have released today, and we hope the fans like her too."

Personality
Having been raised in an environment where modern standards and values have deteriorated, Ellie is considerably rash, foul-mouthed, impulsive, and temperamental, and isn't fazed by the notion of using violence as a means to an end or profanity as a way of expressing how she feels. However, she manages to maintain a particular innocence as she has yet to see the darkest sides of human nature and retains a palpable trust in people. This serves as the juxtaposition to Joel's wary, morose, and cynical outlook on post-pandemic life. She apologized to the soldier scanning her moments before stabbing him in the leg and hoped to incapacitate him and Ramirez with non-lethal means.

Ellie is also perceptibly clever and witty, and will do whatever it takes to keep Joel and herself alive. She has good survival instinct and she can be resourceful. She takes orders from Joel, but all the while makes it clear she does not "need any babysitting at all".

Ellie is enthusiastic about the outside world, given her confinement to her quarantine zone during her childhood. She is obsessed with things she collects from others, illustrated through her interest in music, movies, books, and video games. She frequently remarks her amusement upon finding interesting collectibles throughout her trip, which often clashes with Joel's physical indifference.

Ellie seems to adhere to no religion, as seen when she claims that she goes "back and forth" when asked by Sam if she believes in an afterlife. She says that she would like to believe it, but admits "I … guess not."

Ellie also suffers from a case of monophobia (fear of being alone) and states to Sam that she fears losing others she cares about such as Joel. The cause of this case is possibly related to her estranged parents and the deaths of her best friend, Riley, and hired guardian, Tess. Coincidentally, both were victims of the fungus and both had gotten infected while in her company. Soon after admitting her fear to Sam, he too, joins the list.

Ellie showed difficulties in positioning herself as a young kid in an adults' eyes, and sometimes even tends to "supervise" adults. She also takes "justice" into her own hands on her relationship with anyone, and does not think she requires any adults' consent. This self-parenting trait is related to her time spent in an orphanage,where she had learned to fend for herself. An example is when Joel falls on an iron rod. Though not shown, she takes Joel (by horse) to an abandoned mall in order to find supplies to stitch his wound up. Afterward, she takes him to an abandoned house on a sled attached to her horse and continues to nurse him back to health, while at the same time getting them food, and medicine from David.

Ellie's sexuality indicates that she is interested in women romantically. It's been confirmed by Neil Druckmann that she is in fact a lesbian. She shares a kiss with Riley in Left Behind and in The Last of Us: Part II, she is romantically involved with Dina.

Abilities
Initially, Ellie is fairly unskilled in techniques to survive. She cannot swim, a hindrance to herself since swimming is crucial, given the amount of water bodies in the locations she travels. She carries a switchblade, which is her only weapon until she is trusted with a gun by Joel. Due doubting her ability, Joel does not grant a firearm to Ellie until she saves him by shooting a hunter, and only afterwards does he teach her how to use a hunting rifle. Later on, she becomes more proficient in combat, sporting a number of weapons such as a pistol, rifle, bow, and explosives, along with her trademark switchblade.

Ellie is occasionally a playable character, much in the same way Joel is throughout the game. She is at first armed with a bow, which she uses quite well. Her stealth capabilities are similar to Joel's, and she even has a less-honed version of the listening mode that Joel has. Compared to Joel, however, she has limited hand-to-hand combat skills, as she struggles to defeat fully-grown men, having to rely on stunning them with a brick or bottle to gain an upper hand. She also lacks the strength to grapple human enemies and Infected, meaning she is unable to use the former as a human shield. She is relatively inexperienced compared to Joel, as she is often surprised when on her and is easily snuck up upon; David remarks she is "easy to track", the man successfully strangling her unconscious despite her drawing her switchblade on him. She also struggled to defeat David in a fight, nearly strangled to death, only defeating him by using his own machete against him.

As an NPC, Ellie is still effective as a partner, since she can spot and warn about enemies for Joel (she will not be spotted unless Joel is spotted) and at times fight alongside him. On rare occasions, she may give Joel ammunition or a health kit. She can also attack hostile survivors with her switchblade who grapple with Joel (both Infected and human) and occasionally dazes the latter by throwing bricks and bottles at them to give Joel a greater chance to act. Given her light frame, Joel often lifts her up over high ledges and obstacles, where she can then obtain a nearby ladder so Joel can access the once inaccessible areas.

Ellie's most important, and unique, ability is her complete immunity to the fungus. Due to a strange mutation in her brain that developed following her initial infection, she became immune to the bites and spores of the Infected. It is presumed that if she was properly studied, some form of cure or countermeasure for the infection could be created. This is never clarified, however, since the study would result in her death, which Joel would not allow.

By The Last of Us Part II, Ellie is now able to play the acoustic guitar. She is physically stronger, enabling her to use human enemies as shields and she can craft arrows, as well as use larger melee weapons such as machetesand hammers, which she can disarm from the Seraphite.

Trivia

 * Ellie is the only known human to be immune to the Cordyceps Brain Infection.
 * In Left Behind, during the exploration of the Mall (more specifically, the photo booth), Ellie types her surname. Though it is encrypted, it can be seen that her surname consists of eight letters.
 * The Japanese game manual lists her last name as "Williams", which is also eight letters. Although any mention of her last name was removed by Naughty Dog early in development and is not considered canon.
 * However, in a tweet for Halloween of 2018, a Naughty Dog employee referred to her as Ellie Williams.
 * Ellie has a habit of rubbing her nose and wringing her hands together, especially in situations that could be seen as stressful. This implies towards a nervous tic.
 * Players can browse through Ellie's artifacts during the Winter chapter of the game. When browsing, Ellie will comment on specific items, this includes Anna's letter, Riley's pendant, and other interactive objects, such as her own switchblade. She loses only one artifact from her backpack by the end of the game, Joel and Sarah's soccer photo, which is given to Joel.
 * When playing as Joel, Ellie is invisible to enemy AI until they spot Joel. This was an intentional design choice made by Naughty Dog so that her own AI would never accidentally give away Joel's position.


 * Ellie used to bear a striking resemblance to Canadian actress Ellen Page, who stars in another PlayStation exclusive game, Beyond: Two Souls, (released roughly four months after The Last of Us), but had her appearance altered as an attempt by Naughty Dog to better portray her age and actual voice actress. Page jokingly said that she didn't appreciate Naughty Dog "ripping off" her likeness due to her appearance in Beyond: Two Souls.
 * Ellie owns a joke book that she will read aloud during downtime in the hopes of lightening the mood. These character interactions can only be triggered during the second half of the Summer portion of the game. Listening to all will unlock the That's All I Got trophy. Her joke books are available as artifacts in Ellie's Backpack. To find them, players have to play as Ellie in either the winter chapter or the epilogue and check the Collectibles inside her backpack.
 * The Sony Walkman Ellie used during the American Dreams series is also available as artifact in Ellie's backpack.
 * The ending is somewhat similar to the beginning of the game, albeit reversed. In the prologue, Joel and Sarah start off at home, and then use the car to escape the infected, which eventually crashes, forcing Joel to carry Sarah, who is eventually shot by the soldier. Sarah then dies in Joel's arms. Near the end of the game, an unconscious Ellie (reminiscent of the dying Sarah) is carried by Joel out of the hospital away from humans and into a car. The duo then drives 'home', home being Tommy's settlement.
 * Neil Druckmann also stated in an interview that it was intentional for the opening shot to begin with Sarah, and the ending shot to end with Ellie.
 * The ending shot for Left Behind also ends with a shot of Ellie's face.
 * Druckmann has stated that, while Joel is the protagonist of The Last of Us, he personally viewed the story as Ellie's bildungsroman.
 * In the initial version of the game, Ellie was supposed to kill Tess, who was originally the main antagonist.
 * In Left Behind flashbacks, she doesn't swear nearly as much as in The Last of Us. This increase could be based on the stress of Riley's death.
 * Ellie's joke book was given to her by Riley as seen in Left Behind.
 * The picture found in Ellie's room in Left Behind was taken by Riley's camera, we later know that in an optional segment in Left Behind, Ellie had broken Riley's camera sometime after the picture was taken.
 * Ellie states that when she was a kid, she had a coloring book, and thought the gnomes in it were cute, but fairies startled her.
 * In Left Behind, Ellie has a flashlight when she is with Riley, but in the main game, Ellie finds her flashlight in the "The Outskirts" chapter. It's possible she lost her flashlight between chapters, and had to find a new one.
 * If the player stands idle, wastes ammo, etc., Ellie will make a comment on it, such as "Ok... you're standing around and this is awkward."
 * The tattoo on Ellie's arm was designed by tattoo artist Natalie Hall. Before being put in the game, it was tested on the arm of UI artist/designer Alexandria Neonakis.
 * Red seems to be Ellie's signature color in the first game since her outfits in the main game contain a piece of clothing that is red or close to red.
 * Her last name has so far not been mentioned, but it appears to be 8 letters long.
 * Upon completing the game and randomly after that point, in the background of the main menu the player will see Ellie's switchblade lying against the window.