The Last of Us Season 2 Never Paid Off a Major Moment (And Fans Are Furious)

The Last of Us fans are puzzled by this omission.

The Last of Us Season 2 set up a pretty significant moment, but never paid it off and fans are very upset. The Last of Us Season 2 came to an end this past weekend and the reception to the show has been more mixed than Season 1. It seems like Season 2 has left audiences underwhelmed, including those who hadn’t played the game. Those who have played the game know that The Last of Us Part 2 the video game, which Season 2 partially adapts, is a very violent game. The whole point of the story is about how violence creates violence through revenge, war, and so on. However, Season 2’s violence felt pretty minor relative to the game.

Of course, a video game is never going to be a one to one translation for TV. There’s going to be more violence in a game because that’s the gameplay, it’s what fills the hours, it’s what keeps the player engaged. It’s interactive and therefore, it’s almost disproportionate. It’s unreasonable to expect a real person to slay that many people in real life, but we suspend our disbelief. Still, Ellie kills about four or five people in Season 2, two of which are sort of a freak accident. Some fans feel like this doesn’t accurately portray Ellie’s rage from the games and sort of just makes her actions feel aimless.

Ellie Never Uses Seth’s Rifle in The Last of Us Season 2

Now, fans are even more upset because they realized that Ellie never used Seth’s rifle that she was given when leaving Jackson. We see Ellie training with a rifle with Tommy early on in the show, so it felt like they were definitely setting up for her to feel like a decent marksman, especially after she also used a rifle in Season 1. But it never happens. In fact, fans have also started to get upset as they noticed that artwork of Ellie holding the rifle has since been changed to remove it from her hands. It’s all a bit puzzling and has enraged some fans.

Y’all literally promoted a show with Ellie taking a leap with violence and just remove it piece by piece pic.twitter.com/12kCOfYMHR

— DomTheBomb (@DomTheBombYT) May 28, 2025

Others have pointed out that The Last of Us Season 2 also removed shots of Ellie shooting an assault rifle, further highlighting changes to scale back her violence. It’s unclear exactly why these changes were made. Some have felt that The Last of Us Season 2 was scared of making fans dislike Ellie for her actions, though that’s sort of the point of the story in the game. You aren’t supposed to love and support her unconditionally, you are meant to be conflicted about her actions and question when she has crossed the line.

Of course, only time will tell what happens in future seasons. The Last of Us Season 3 has a chance to lean into the violence given Abby has already demonstrated how brutal she can be and there’s quite a bit of action in her side of the story. As for Ellie, it’s probably too late to make that change. If they try to make her more violent in future seasons, it will feel a bit jarring given the guilt she felt over killing Owen and Mel in Season 2.