Ashley Johnson + Ellie
Ashley Suzanne Johnson
August 9, 1983
Plays Ellie in the survival horror game 'The Last of Us'
Naughty's Dog The Last of Us certainly wasn't the first thing Johnson voiced in, but it was her first video game and and it earned her immense attention, especially throughout the gaming industry. Well-deserved attention, if I may add.
Johnson began her acting career at the young age of six. She starred as Chrissy Seaver in Growing Pains between 1990 to 1992. From there, she made herself known throughout the industry. Peter Shepherd in the Jumanji series was her first voice acting gig, and that was back in 1996. She is currently starring in the NBC drama Blindspot as Patterson (Patterson's father is Bill Nye!), and is apart of the live-streamed role-playing series Critical Role. Aside from acting, Johnson is also a wonderful singer, knows how to play the piano, guitar, and ukulele. How's that for talent?
Although she has quite the resume, including starring in the Avengers (2012), Johnson has admitted that most of her recognition comes from her role as Ellie in the Last of Us. The role won her two BAFTA awards in 2013 and 2014 for her performances in the game and its DLC, and a VGX award for best voice actress.
The Last of Us received massive praise after its release on June 14, 2013 exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Because of its popularity and the fact that it was released at the end of the PS3's life cycle, it was quickly remastered for the PlayStation 4 and released on July 29, 2014. Even after all these years, the game maintains its 95% score from Metacritic and it's perfect 10/10 score from IGN (Imagine Games Network).
The story follows the protagonist (and, arguably, the anti-hero of the game), Joel who is played by Troy Baker (a very well-respected and beloved voice actor in the gaming community). After losing his daughter the night the zombie apocalypse breaks out, the game skips forward twenty years where we find Joel living in a quarantine zone in Boston, Massachusetts. He and his partner-in-crime, Tess (played by Annie Wersching), constantly make deals with others in order to help them get more supplies. However, one of these people, Robert, has become an enemy of theirs. Joel and Tess track him down and kill him after he reveals that he has sold their guns to the leader of the Fireflies (a revolutionary militia group), Marlene (played by Merle Dandridge). Joel and Tess decide they must find the "Queen Firefly" when she coincidentally shows up right then and there, wounded. Marlene promises to give them back their guns if they agree to help her with something. They decide to follow her back to her base where Joel is nearly ambushed by a girl with a knife.
We soon learn that this is none other than Ellie, the fourteen-year-old, pun-loving girl who is immune to the Cordyceps Brain Infection (a fungus that takes over the brain and takes its host through four different zombie-like stages). Marlene needs Ellie to make it safely to the Salt Lake City hospital where the rest of the fireflies and their doctors are tirelessly working to find a cure. Ellie might just be that cure they're searching for.
After Tess sees the supplies Marlene will give her for agreeing to smuggle Ellie across the U.S., she convinces Joel to go through with this. Unfortunately, Tess is bitten during a tedious escape through a ruined museum. Military guards were also on the lookout for Firefly members since they have been against the group for the past two decades. They arrive at the scene, and Tess sacrifices herself to them while Joel and Ellie make their way out of the Capitol building. Thus begins the long journey to find the Fireflies.
The game overall gives every female character a strong personality and an even stronger will to survive. None of them are damsels. Each one the player encounters can easily use a handgun or fight their way through an ambush from raiders. Therefore, it is no surprise just how powerful our little side-kick, Ellie, actually is. I don't even like referring to her as a "side-kick", because she deserves far better than that. She is not one to underestimate. Had it not been for her incredible ability to pounce on unsuspecting human enemies and stab them to death, I would have found myself encountering far more death screens throughout my play-through. She's a great shot with a rifle, too!
The best part about this game has to be the Winter section where we finally get to control Ellie as she struggles gathering supplies and keeping a heavily-wounded Joel alive. Although she is captured by a group of hunters led by a man named David (played by another beloved actor, Nolan North), she refuses to let this be her demise. While she is locked behind bars, David assures her that he will keep her safe and let her wander free through their camp if she behaves. So when she breaks his finger and attempts to snatch the keys from his pocket, he decides he will kill her instead, and use her meat to feed his people (yes, this group eats humans). Ellie manages to escape just before they cut off her arm, because she admits that she is infected. David and one of his partners check to confirm this. Ellie attacks them and runs off, eventually finding herself one-on-one with David in a run-down restaurant (which is the both the most exciting and terrifying stealth mission I have ever done in any video game).
David sets the building on fire, and they both ultimately pass out from each other's hits and the smoke. The POV switches back to Joel momentarily as he awakens and realizes she's gone. He fights through his pain to find her, eventually capturing two of the hunters and interrogating them with torture tactics until they reveal where David took Ellie. Joel leaves, and the POV is again Ellie's. Though David pins her down, she manages to grab the machete he was wielding and slashes him to bits until Joel finds her and pulls her away. This event completely changes Ellie, turning her from a silly and sarcastic teenage girl to a hardened survivor.
Still, this does not weaken who she is. She continues fighting her way to Salt Lake City with Joel where they come across giraffes (yes, giraffes!) and share a moment of peace as they admire the animals. It's a good thing those Salt Lake City Zoo giraffes survived this entire time.
We are back in Joel's POV, but it is during this moment that Ellie delivers one of my favorite lines in this game. Joel tells her that they don't have to do this anymore, that they can go back and live with his younger brother, Tommy, at a dam Tommy has completely reconstructed into a community where they have electricity powered by water. Of course, Ellie is not pleased by this, and she says, "After all we've been through, everything that I've done, it can't be for nothing." Throughout the game, there is a comic Ellie finds (or rather, steals from one of Joel's old partners), and the hero in the comic often says, "To the edge of the universe and back. Endure and survive." I believe that is exactly what she is doing when she tells Joel that it can't be for nothing: enduring and surviving.
She is no longer the little girl who doesn't understand the dangers of a world outside of a quarantine zone. She has learned what must be done to survive and she won't let any of it stop her from reaching her goal, especially when she's so close. She and Joel keep going, eventually finding themselves going through a flooded tunnel. Ellie can't swim, but when Joel ends up falling through a bus, she jumps down from higher ground to assist, resulting in her getting hit and passing out under water. Joel drags her out and is captured by Firefly guards. He is reunited with Marlene at the hospital. She explains that the doctor can make a vaccine with the fungus that has grown inside of Ellie's head. Joel quickly realizes this means Ellie must die so that they can access her brain and further examine it, leading him on a rampage through the hospital to rescue the girl he now loves as the daughter he already lost.
Joel is successful and makes his escape with Ellie only to be stopped by Marlene in the parking garage. She assures Joel he can still make the right decision by handing Ellie back. But Joel shoots her dead and puts Ellie in the back seat of a functioning truck. Ellie wakes up when they're halfway to Tommy's and asks what happened. Joel lies to her, saying that they found the Fireflies, but that the Fireflies have found many others who are immune and it hasn't done them any good. The last chapter switches to Ellie's POV one last time as they trek through the forest above the dam. Ellie's demeanor and tone are off, and she eventually speaks her mind. She explains to him the story of how she was bit and that she was with her best friend Riley who had recently joined the Fireflies. Riley was also bit, and they both decided to just "lose their minds together". Except Riley turned, and Ellie was forced to put her out of her misery. Ellie tells Joel that she is "still waiting for my turn". Joel delivers my next favorite line in this game: "No matter what, you keep finding something to fight for".
Ellie makes Joel swear that what he said about the Fireflies was true. Joel swears, and the credits roll after a long pause on Ellie and her saying, "Okay."
We were treated with a DLC where we got to play as Ellie again in two separate timelines: the present where she is hastily making her way through a mall to find supplies to help Joel's wound (right before the main game's Winter section) and the past where she is having fun in a different mall with Riley, which leads up to the moment they're bit. The wonderful thing about this DLC is that we learn Ellie had romantic feelings for Riley, making her an openly member of the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, considering she was born during the apocalypse, she was never told anything about sexuality. To her, she does not see the difference between liking a man or a woman. However, she is not the only gay character in the game. The friend of Joel's who she stole the comic from is also openly gay (as seen from the various pornographic magazines he has stacked in piles and the hint that he had a partner he cared deeply for).
But what I'm trying to say here is that it is incredible how naturally everything is shown about Ellie's character. Naughty Dog is not trying to make any points with her by making her gay; it is what it is. She is a young girl, so she is not used provocatively to gain the attention of male players, and her brief relationship with Riley is shown as sweet and innocent (again, nothing provocative). She is a strong character with many layers to her, and that's what earned the respect of gamers everywhere (male and female).
Ellie is an example that female characters don't have to be dressed in tight tank tops and shorts to be loved or have an incredible character design. Women can be badass in jeans and sweaters. This is not to belittle the characters who do dress this way, because some have their reasons (such as having immense confidence in themselves, and that's also important for women to witness). But for the females who are designed provocatively for the sake of male attention, I would highly suggest to the developers to rethink this decision. Ellie is front and center in the box art for the PS3 and 4, fully clothed, while our main protagonist was behind her and facing away, and that definitely didn't take the appeal off this game, especially not from men. Take notes, game devs who still think only sex will sell.
Ashley Johnson herself has said about Ellie in an interview with Eurogamer, "I definitely think Ellie can hold her own. I don't think she's the type of character, or sidekick, whatever you wanna call her, that is tagging along, that becomes annoying because you're always having to save this character." I agree wholeheartedly with her, because as I mentioned before, if it weren't for Ellie, I would have died more.
A sequel has long since been confirmed, along with the fact that Ellie will now be the main playable character. The first teaser showed the Firefly symbol painted on a stop sign before switching to a house where dead bodies are sprawled throughout. We see Ellie sitting on a bed, playing an acoustic guitar and singing "Through the Valley" by Shawn James as blood runs down her face. Joel makes his way inside and finds her. After she is done playing, Joel asks her if she is really going to go through with this. She responds with, "I'm gonna find and I'm gonna kill every last one of them." This led many to believe she was referring to the Fireflies, perhaps holding anger toward them for wasting her time before. However, another trailer has since been released where we see her hunting down raiders and wearing the bracelet that belonged to her girlfriend (who we can assume has been killed by a raider).
We were treated with a DLC where we got to play as Ellie again in two separate timelines: the present where she is hastily making her way through a mall to find supplies to help Joel's wound (right before the main game's Winter section) and the past where she is having fun in a different mall with Riley, which leads up to the moment they're bit. The wonderful thing about this DLC is that we learn Ellie had romantic feelings for Riley, making her an openly member of the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, considering she was born during the apocalypse, she was never told anything about sexuality. To her, she does not see the difference between liking a man or a woman. However, she is not the only gay character in the game. The friend of Joel's who she stole the comic from is also openly gay (as seen from the various pornographic magazines he has stacked in piles and the hint that he had a partner he cared deeply for).
But what I'm trying to say here is that it is incredible how naturally everything is shown about Ellie's character. Naughty Dog is not trying to make any points with her by making her gay; it is what it is. She is a young girl, so she is not used provocatively to gain the attention of male players, and her brief relationship with Riley is shown as sweet and innocent (again, nothing provocative). She is a strong character with many layers to her, and that's what earned the respect of gamers everywhere (male and female).
Ellie is an example that female characters don't have to be dressed in tight tank tops and shorts to be loved or have an incredible character design. Women can be badass in jeans and sweaters. This is not to belittle the characters who do dress this way, because some have their reasons (such as having immense confidence in themselves, and that's also important for women to witness). But for the females who are designed provocatively for the sake of male attention, I would highly suggest to the developers to rethink this decision. Ellie is front and center in the box art for the PS3 and 4, fully clothed, while our main protagonist was behind her and facing away, and that definitely didn't take the appeal off this game, especially not from men. Take notes, game devs who still think only sex will sell.
Ashley Johnson herself has said about Ellie in an interview with Eurogamer, "I definitely think Ellie can hold her own. I don't think she's the type of character, or sidekick, whatever you wanna call her, that is tagging along, that becomes annoying because you're always having to save this character." I agree wholeheartedly with her, because as I mentioned before, if it weren't for Ellie, I would have died more.
A sequel has long since been confirmed, along with the fact that Ellie will now be the main playable character. The first teaser showed the Firefly symbol painted on a stop sign before switching to a house where dead bodies are sprawled throughout. We see Ellie sitting on a bed, playing an acoustic guitar and singing "Through the Valley" by Shawn James as blood runs down her face. Joel makes his way inside and finds her. After she is done playing, Joel asks her if she is really going to go through with this. She responds with, "I'm gonna find and I'm gonna kill every last one of them." This led many to believe she was referring to the Fireflies, perhaps holding anger toward them for wasting her time before. However, another trailer has since been released where we see her hunting down raiders and wearing the bracelet that belonged to her girlfriend (who we can assume has been killed by a raider).
It will be fascinating to see how much this character has evolved since she is now evidently grown up. But from what we have been treated with so far, it seems Naughty Dog is staying true to who she was in the first game: a perfectly-capable survivor.
So, while it's great that Ellie has rightfully earned her praise and respect, along with Johnson (everyone was immensely relieved to learn Johnson would return to reprise her role), there are so many other female characters in video games who are just as deserving of this love. There are plenty more Ellie's out there.
But that is why I am here, to show you the other incredible ladies you may have forgotten or weren't aware of.
Remember... endure and survive.
So, while it's great that Ellie has rightfully earned her praise and respect, along with Johnson (everyone was immensely relieved to learn Johnson would return to reprise her role), there are so many other female characters in video games who are just as deserving of this love. There are plenty more Ellie's out there.
But that is why I am here, to show you the other incredible ladies you may have forgotten or weren't aware of.
Remember... endure and survive.
