Joel and Ellie stand at the heart of the Last of Us games. The relationship, interactions, and growth between the two is the main driver as to why the first game was met with critical acclaim. To this day, Joel and Ellie are still cited as among the best video game characters of all time.
Joel, the father figure, and Ellie, the surrogate daughter. During the beginning of the first game, the personalities of the two couldn’t be more different. Joel was cold and distant, while Ellie was innocent and naive. However, both eventually changed. As the two grew closer, Ellie would start to pick up on Joel’s habits. There are a couple of moments in the game and its sequel that highlights Ellie picking up on some of Joel’s personality traits.
10 Ellie Didn’t Trust David
At one point during the first Last of Us game, Joel becomes sick and Ellie is essentially left to take care of him. In an effort to find food and medicine, Ellie sets out on a dark, winter day. She then encounters two men named David and James.
At first, David reassures Ellie that they mean her no harm. However, Ellie knows better than to trust them, a lesson she got from Joel. Of course, this lesson was well-heeded as it is later revealed that David and James are a part of a group of cannibals.
9 Her Tendency To Lose Control
Oftentimes, especially during the second game, Ellie is shown to have very little control of her emotions. She often lets anger get the best of her, which is understandable given her situation. While it is not one of Joel’s most honorable traits, it’s something Ellie seems to have picked up on.
During the first game, Joel has always had no problems using his anger to overcome tough obstacles. So did Ellie during the second game.
8 Ellie Went After Abby
After Joel’s untimely demise, Ellie immediately wanted to go after the person responsible for his death. When goaded into staying by Tommy, Ellie exclaims if the same happened to her or him, Joel would be halfway to Seattle already, and she’s absolutely right.
Ellie is absolutely right in this assessment. If the circumstances were different and it was Tommy or Ellie who suffered the unfortunate fate, Joel would have gone after the person responsible.
7 Ellie’s Desire To Settle Down
Just before the final act of the Last of Us II, Ellie settles down with Dina, seemingly leaving her past behind. This highlights Ellie’s desire to leave her violent past behind and settle down with the woman she loves, along with Dina’s son JJ.
This decision mirrors Joel’s choice to save Ellie from the hospital and bring her back to Jackson. During this, Joel tells Ellie that they can finally return to having a normal life. This is something Ellie almost got until the memories of Joel’s death became too much for her to leave alone.
6 Every Time Ellie Uses The Guitar
During the first game, Joel confesses to Ellie his former desires to be a musician or singer, much to Ellie’s amusement. He then promises to teach Ellie how to play the guitar once everything settles, a promise he later fulfills.
During the second game, one of Ellie’s favorite past time activities is playing the guitar, something she obviously picked up from Joel. Even the song she constantly plays is the song taught to her by Joel.
5 How She Kills Without Hesitation
In the Last of Us world, when faced with a “kill-or-be-killed” situation, hesitation means absolute death. Joel knew that, and Ellie knows that too. Ellie never shows signs of hesitation whenever killing a foe, save for the final moment of the game where she spares Abby’s life.
Throughout Ellie’s journey, she has killed an unspeakable amount of people, as Joel did during their journey in the first game. They did so for the sake of survival, which is why hesitation is never on the table.
4 She Tortures To Get Information
One of the most horrific things Joel and Ellie have ever done is torture people for the sake of getting information. One example of this during the first game was when Joel was tracking down Ellie after she has been abducted by a cannibalistic group.
Ellie also does the same in the second game when she tortures Nora for information on Abby’s whereabouts. Unlike Joel, though, Ellie is left shaken after the ordeal.
3 Her Fighting Style
Ellie’s fighting style all throughout the Last of Us II is very reminiscent of Joel’s, albeit much more fluid and acrobatic, which is understandable considering Ellie is younger and lighter.
Ellie is proficient in almost any weapon type, she can fight using melee weapons, and her stealth movements resemble Joel’s movements. The things she knows, she learned from Joel.
2 Ellie’s Resourcefulness
One of the things you as a player constantly have to do while playing a Last of Us game is to scrounge around for whatever resources you can, which is highly essential because of how limited resources can be. This then becomes Joel’s character trait and the same goes for Ellie.
Like Joel, Ellie is also very resourceful throughout her journey. She knows how to craft medicine, bombs, arrows, and even a makeshift silencer.
1 She Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands
Although Ellie is not alone, considering the friends she made in Jackson, she also has no problems taking matters into her own hands. At one point while she is with Jesse and he opts for them to take a detour, hoping it will lead them to Tommy, Ellie stands her ground and tells him she’ll continue on her path, with or without him.
This is also something Joel would do. When everyone else fails, Joel will drop everything and take matters into his own hands, and he’ll do it extremely skillfully.
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