[WARNING: Spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 below]
In The Last of Us: Part 2, players are introduced to two different love triangles, but the inclusion of these story arcs in the overall plot only served to hinder the game. For the most part, the love triangles felt out of place and also helped to distract from the main story – Ellie’s quest for revenge – that players were the most invested in and interested in seeing.
At the beginning of The Last of Us: Part 2, it’s revealed Ellie kissed her best friend Jesse’s ex-girlfriend of only two weeks. Jesse is surprisingly cool with their hook-up, and Ellie and Dina continue their romance throughout the course of the game, only for things to become complicated when Dina reveals she’s pregnant and Jesse subsequently arrives unexpectedly to help them in Ellie’s mission.
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The parallels between the love triangle involving Mel, Abby, and Owen are also eerie. Abby and Owen were a couple at one point, but the game implies they broke up after Abby became too consumed with avenging her father’s death. Owen begins a relationship with Mel, who then gets pregnant, even though he constantly tells Abby he wants to be with her throughout the game. As shall be seen, some simple, to-the-point communication would’ve done these characters a world of good, but The Last of Us: Part 2 stripped them of any opportunity for that.
Everything Wrong With TLOU2’s Love Triangles
The similarities between Ellie’s love life and Abby’s were not only plentiful, but were also painfully obvious. The story writers were clearly trying to humanize Abby by getting players to play as her for half the game. That way, the major moral of The Last of Us: Part 2 – that revenge is a cycle that isn’t fulfilling and never ends – would be easier for players to grasp once Ellie pardons Abby’s life. Putting Abby right in the middle of a love triangle just like Ellie’s is a way to make players realize how similar the two are, and in the end, why Abby was no more deserving of death than Ellie.
But while the game may have achieved its purpose, at least for some players, overall it felt as though the game was trying to push the love triangles down their throats. The storylines felt childish and out of place, given that the characters are battling to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Perhaps, more importantly, is that The Last of Us fans didn’t come to play the sequel in order to see how various romantic arcs play out. In the original game, there was barely any time for romance at all. Ellie’s crush on her deceased best friend was revealed, and it seemed like Joel may have had something going on with Tess, but that was the extent of the romantic storylines. In The Last of Us: Part 2, though, much of the plot as well as the behaviors of the characters are dependent on the various love triangles playing out, seeming out of character for the franchise.
Even for players that appreciate the extra drama the love triangles added, the fact that both of them remained largely unresolved at the end is frustrating for fans of the franchise. The game spent so much time developing the conflicts, only to rush them and brush them off abruptly. Both of the love triangles were about to reach a climax – Jesse and Ellie were butting heads about Dina’s condition, while Owen told Abby he was taking Mel to California to reconnect with the Fireflies. But rather than having the characters decide what to do moving forward, either one or more of the characters involved in the love triangles were killed off before the game’s end. Jesse’s death was swift and unforeseen, whereas players had an idea Owen and Mel were about to meet their end at the hands of Ellie.
However it was presented, the game still didn’t give the characters (or the players) any resolve to the love triangles. By killing off characters, the love triangles simply became a non-issue. While perhaps part of the thematic ideas surrounding the game, ultimately this then left the story arcs unresolved in the minds of the players. The love triangles featured in The Last of Us: Part 2 did little to enhance the overall story, and given how rushed they seemed, it probably would have been better to not include them at all.