The precious cargo and a unique genetic specimen, Ellie has the most story development per game compared to most in the gaming universe. Growing from a fairly naive and frail child into a little renegade, capable of making big sacrifices and taking out monsters that most men are afraid of. Backed by Joel, she’s able to survive the post-apocalyptic disaster, even if it means leaning into the darker side of humanity.
While she is the centre of the entire series, so much information is thrown the player’s way it’s almost impossible to retain it all. Some of the information is hidden away in side quests that most might not even play through unless they take the time to wander the environment. This leaves some interesting contextual pieces left uncovered when found it really breathes some life into the character.
10 Doppelganger
When the character had its debut, she bared a striking resemblance to the actress Ellen Paige. Something that lined up perfectly seeing as the actress was already starring in the Playstation game, Beyond: Two Souls.
Fans speculated about this before Ellie was altered to represent her age better. She was also remodeled after her actual voice actress, Ashley Johnson. Though the actress was much older than the character, they adjusted the facial features according to young age.
9 Joke Book
A small piece of a larger puzzle that is Ellie’s artifacts, all of which can be found in her backpack if specific tasks are completed. She’s often heard reading out of it in the rare slow points of the Pittsburgh and The Suburbs chapters of the game.
If players can manage to get through all the jokes in the book they’re rewarded with a trophy, That’s All I Got. To get the artifact Ellie will have to be played in the Winter or Epilogue chapters of the game, or the achievement is the only reward.
8 Centre Stage
Joel is listed as the real main character of the game, though the creators view the story as revolving around the sympathetic sidekick. With the game following Joel through the first storyline while every event is revolved around Ellie.
Essentially the creators view the entire series as her development story. Luckily, fans get to see the inner workings of Joel’s mind at the beginning, he’s essentially used as a bodyguard to get Ellie through to the second game.
7 Fresh Ink
While the tattoo is fairly open to interpretation, it was actually thought through quite a bit. Being designed by tattoo artist Natalie Hall, it was released in high resolution by Naughty Dog. Even being tested on the arm of one of the UI designers before being put in the game.
This has followed through the fandom, with countless pictures of people getting the exact same tattoo inked on their own skin. Hard work paid off in this case, creating a trend out of a little cyber ink.
6 A Civil End
Unlike other characters in the game, a Bloater will swipe Ellie with its fist. Probably due to her small stature, its the only unique animation in the game with the rest being a much more gruesome end that wouldn’t feel right to such a vulnerable character.
Whether it was the attention to physics or simply saving the fans from watching a child get her head crushed, Ellies the only character spared in the melee. Unlike the second game where players control a much more progressed character that’s more than capable of handling her own.
5 Name Games
The Left Behind expansion of the original game is the only place players will get a clue as to her last name. The photobooth of the mall will show Ellie shows an encrypted surname with eight characters.
To get the full name players will have to look at the Japanese game manual where it is listed as Williams. Though the development team took out last names in production, even one of the employees referred to her as such in a Halloween tweet.
4 History Repeats
While many points in the gameplay off of each other, none quite as well as the beginning and end of the original. In an uncharacteristic move by the series, the game actually gets a little happier in the split scenes that play out.
Early in the game, Joel holds his daughter’s lifeless body in his arms, while the end is him carrying Ellie out of the hospital. It’s a bittersweet transition from his birth daughter to the girl he is now responsible for and sheds a light on just how seriously he takes the relationship after the loss of his own daughter.
3 Top Of The Charts
Another example of the game world and reality overlapping, Ellie’s song that she’s heard singing at the beginning of the second installment is Shawn James’ ‘‘Through The Valley.’’ A popular song in its own right, when the game was released it shot up through the ranks of popularity.
It now sits as his most popular song on the platform, directly influencing the real world. While not the first time, it’s rare that titles use actual songs through gameplay, usually creating their own. Luckily for Shawn James, they decided to have one of the most popular characters in video gaming sing it.
2 Lost Dreams
Backstories aren’t the main focus in the title and who can blame them? With so much going on in the current state the past almost seems boring. The more fans care about a character, those little details become all the more important.
The Fall chapter reveals that she would have wanted to become an astronaut if society had continued. Something that almost every little tike has considered at least once in their life. A sad detail is seeing the spaceship pin on her backpack in the second game. A bleak reminder of what could have been.
1 Intertwined Titles
While the two series are closely intertwined purely because of studios and design teams, Uncharted has played the main easter egg source for The Last Of Us the entire way through. Most times it was Ellie who stumbled upon these elusive nods.
From artifacts to voice actors, it’s blatantly obvious that the two were made by the same team. Even being formed from a single unit, Naughty Dog split the team down the middle to work on the third installation of Uncharted while the original The Last Of Us was being made.
NEXT: The Last Of Us: Ranking The 10 Best Characters
