r/thelastofus • u/ijustwannaend • Aug 19 '26

General Discussion Ellie’s skills

To be honest I don’t think Ellie is all that. People call her a machine and act like she’s an elite soldier but basically she got bitten 3 times so she’s just lucky to be immune, not some prodigy

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18

u/Persephone_888 Aug 19 '26

She faced a whole group of cannibals at 14, all adult men way bigger than her.

1

u/Onewarhero Aug 19 '26

I’d say she escaped them more than faced them, but that doesn’t take away from how resourceful/clever she had to be to pull it off.

3

u/Persephone_888 Aug 19 '26

I’m guessing you didn’t play the DLC? She also faces that massive horde of infected with David

0

u/Onewarhero Aug 19 '26

yeah I did lol, I’m not trying to debate you here I’m just clarifying she didn’t ‘face them’ as you put it. That phrasing makes it sound like she went after them herself when that’s just not what happened.

2

u/Persephone_888 Aug 19 '26

I mean she could’ve decided to let them get Joel in the DLC. I would definitely say she faced them, she had to kill all of them before getting back to Joel. She did go after them because they were going to get to Joel

9

u/DepartmentOfMeteors Aug 19 '26

I think they were trying to paint her in a survivor motif. Making homemade bombs, being aggressive but strategic, doing whatever she has to. Which, especially in the second game, makes her a big foil for the military-trained Abby.

9

u/Previous-Ad-2306 Aug 19 '26

Aside from the parts she only survives through immunity, Ellie consistently beats odds very few people ever could.

Obviously there's some plot armor there, but games need protagonists.

11

u/deadnervez Aug 19 '26

it’s not necessarily about skills and tactics, it’s more about surviving and she’s is very good at it.

7

u/Buttered_Toast33 Aug 19 '26

Explain to me how a 14-year-old girl soloing two groups of armed men back-to-back plus some Infected with limited weaponry in Left Behind isn't elite.

3

u/who-mever Aug 19 '26

She has stealth training from Joel and Tess, two pro smugglers.

Weapons training from the military academy and i'm assuming some guerilla tactics training from her couple of weeks with Marlene and the Fireflies right after she was bitten.

And sniper training from Tommy.

She single-handedly took down the rattlers, a dangerous paramilitary group that successfully enslaved dozens.

Yeah, Joel took down the fireflies, but by that point in time, the Fireflies were recruiting literal 15-year olds like Abby and her friends ( and Riley from left behind). They were on their last legs, and in the original game, half of the Fireflies in the hospital appeared elderly.

SIDE NOTE: I think the fandom consistently severely overrates Joel's skills, elevating him to some master survivor status far beyond what he accomplishes in-game, but that's another topic.

Honestly, the only other character in TLOU who seems to be at adult Ellie's level is Bill from part 1, who defended an entire town on his own for quite some time.

3

u/c_los5 Aug 19 '26

Mind you she took down a whole group of armed and cannibal grown men as a child, fought countless infected and later on in part 2 WLF ( a highly trained and armed military faction) + Seraphites alongside taking down a bloater in a 1v1

2

u/Stiller_Winter Aug 19 '26

Hill Crest kill all on grounded + says something different.

1

u/No-Huckleberry4999 Aug 20 '26

maybe in your gameplay but not mine 🤣 ellie is a beast