At its core, The Last of Us is a story about loss and grief. It's this profound sense of looking for connection wherever you can that makes it the most valuable item in this world. It also makes it the easiest to lose once you find it. What makes it even easier to lose is its fragility, the softness of these moments that does away with the artifice of apocalyptic survival. Music is just music. A few strums on an old guitar. But in a world haunted by the echoes of nostalgia and simpler times, music is enough to bring two people together. The simplicity of The Last of Us is found in these quiet moments, and its stellar live-action cast has already proven they're the right people for the job.
The upcoming second season of The Last of Us is going to find a new way to use its cast. Bella Ramsey can bring their talents for the guitar to the small screen and capture in live-action the best parts of the divisive game. Ellie's quest for revenge in The Last of Us Part 2 is painted with blood, sweat, and tears. Then there are moments between the running and the gunning, moments for a little sing-song in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
These moments give The Last of Us Part 2 a specific narrative weight that Ramsey will portray perfectly. What makes these moments so important to the story? How can the show add something new to them? What can Bella Ramsey bring to it? Here's what you need to know.
Bella Ramsey Can Play the Guitar in Real Life
Those who have played The Last of Us Part 2 will know how intense it can be, which makes it so important for the player to stop for a few moments. The Last of Us' guitar sections highlight Ellie's childhood innocence, which slowly erodes as she is forced into more violent situations. They also provide a tether to the one force that grounds her: Joel. There isn't much symbolic meaning to why it's a guitar being played, but aesthetically, it fits into how The Last of Us uses nostalgia for the old world. Something so simple juxtaposed against the complications of how life is now can humanize Ellie as she strays further away from what made her human in the first place.
Many apocalyptic stories focus on the mental changes it forces in its characters, and Ellie's change isn't always so obvious. Ellie is influenced by the external pressures of what she experiences, so when she plays the guitar, it's one of the only things connecting her to the life she made with Joel on their journey. When Ellie loses her finger at the end of the second game, it's a symbolic severing of the link she and Joel shared, which, in a way, forces her to move on after his death and pushes her to grow out of her thirst for revenge.
How Can The Last of Us Season 2 Make Ellie's Guitar Scenes Unique?
Beyond the talents of Bella Ramsey as a performer, their magnetic screen presence is well suited to the quiet moments, arguably more so than the loud ones. What makes the moments when Ellie loses her cool so effective is how innocent she is shown to be when acting like a normal kid learning about the world. Bella Ramsey showed this in the first season when they tell jokes from the pun book, like the game character, and when they bond with Henry before he is bitten.
The most obvious and effective thing the second season can do to flesh out the guitar scenes is to let Ramsey's talent shine through. It will be interesting to see how much Ramsey gives away in these moments and if they will allow themselves to transform into Season 1 Ellie or be more subtle about it, as if they can't bring themselves to think about Joel. Ramsey's choices in the first season to distinguish Ellie from how she was portrayed in the game will provide a fresh opportunity to prove their doubters wrong. Ellie is her most vulnerable when playing the guitar in the second game, and if Ramsey can capture that vulnerability, it should make for some powerful television.
The Faithfulness of The Last of Us TV Adaptation
Adaptations are tricky, and not every fan will be fully satisfied with how it is done. The Last of Us Season 1 fleshed out secondary characters gracefully while adding a fresh layer of visceral energy to iconic moments by seeing them in live-action. There's also much to be said about doing something different, and Bella Ramsey stuck the landing somewhere in the middle. Ramsey rarely allowed Ellie to show much under the surface, and the guitar moments aren't exactly bursting with huge emotions. They're soft, slow sections that should suit the subtly Ramsey brought to the character in the first season.
The Last of Us Season 2 doesn't have an easy task ahead. The second game's controversy was a result of many things, but mostly, it was about fans not feeling like the game went in the direction they wanted. That's fine, but the second season of the show has the chance to rewrite the 'wrongs' of the game while adding new spins to moments of dramatic weight. Ramsey has to carry this burden, but when they sit down for a break after another killing spree, there is no reason why the guitar won't have the same transcendental effect it had in the game. The Last of Us Season 2 is coming to Max in 2025.
