When Ellie tells Dina that she doesn't believe in luck, I also always interpreted it as something she took after her experience with David. Ellie had told him that they had gotten lucky, dealing with those infected effectively, and David told her "No such thing as luck" and "Everything happens for a reason". I don't think that Ellie fully believed that, but this is a point in her life where she's completely leaned on her cynical side and she might be taking David's philosophy because she can't find herself to be optimistic. Maybe even out of spite to feelings of guilt she has with being happy and/or optimistic. It's almost like a knee jerk reaction to hope, but I find it interesting that she's almost directly echoing David there because the last time she spoke about luck, it was moments before turning that around with David's ominous philosophy, followed by the most traumatic thing that happened to Ellie prior to the second game - which was her killing of David. The loss of Ellie's innocence, and one of the first instances of a cycle of violence.

Also, and I don't remember this very clear but I'm pretty sure that Joel used to frequently make subtle comments about luck, such as that they survived by sheer luck or that luck runs out. Tess said that their luck would run out sooner or later when she got infected too. Both of those characters ended up having their luck run out, and so did David, who didn't believe in it. It's too much of a vague concept that Ellie can't afford right now, it could blind her in her conviction to kill Abby by placing the outcome up to fate, when she wants to do it herself and control the situation, hence to why she denies understanding the reasoning for killing Joel. Ellie also survived once out of pure unadulterated luck, with her immunity, and it turned out to be completely meaningless (despite trying to find meaning with her death) and all hope she had for a future burned into sorrow and pain. I find it interesting how Ellie used to react to the concept of luck in the first game, compared to the second game, and how jaded she has become to it to the point of completely denying and opposing it, and whether she realises it or not maybe she even agrees with David now, just like she came to understand and agree with Bill after her experiences. Luck is meaningless, everything happens for a reason. And she will become that reason that will kill Abby.

Ellie may be immune to cordyceps but she is not immune to the queer relationship you have at 19 that ruins your life

Both Dina and Owen loved Ellie/Abby so much and tried hard to keep them away from a destructive path. But alas, both got pushed away. Not to mention Jessie/Mel becoming collateral damage in the process….

i can’t imagine what it’s like to care for a deeply mentally ill person while also battling with your own trauma… separating was truly the best for both of them

The reason why Dina goes to Seattle with Ellie, is the same reason she leaves the farm with JJ in the end: because she couldn’t bare the thought of spending the entire time Ellie was gone wondering whether or not she’d died.

"Beefing with the older generation"
*flips off Bill* 😂😂

I can’t believe people called Dina selfish for leaving at the end 😭

i love (well... "love") how twisted the phrase "you go, i go. end of story" becomes for ellie and dina. what once was a promise of following ellie into certain danger, without hesitation, is now turned on its head. "if you go (if you leave this house) i will go (and leave this relationship) end of story (and there is nothing that can bring us back)" is now what it has become for both of them.

Maybe im late to this realization but the fact that Ellie and Dina’s first time together, is  the same day she saw Joel being killed in front of her meant that those two events will always be connected, even on a subconscious level. She could never have stayed with Dina because it will have always brought back that day and that traumatic moment.

Ellie had a best/worst day of her life with Riley too. I wonder if that was intentional?

The way Ashley played Ellie during the final breakup scene was heart wrenching.  I got such an overwhelming sense that Ellie felt completely powerless in that moment and compelled to leave to find Abby.  It wasn't about wanting revenge as much as feeling it was the only thing she could possibly do to make her pain stop.  It would either stop, or she would die trying.  I'm convinced of Ellie had decided to stay with Dina, she probably would have taken her own life out of desperation before long.   She was at the bottom of the abyss and the only way out was through.

I always like to point out how at the end when Ellie visits the farm house, asides from her belongings being in her art studio, there is a set of clean sheets on top of the bed! And I just think this is so Dina, she knew and was hoping Ellie would be back and even tho she wasn't going to be there waiting for that, she still thought about it and cared enough to leave essential things around, just in case.

32:27, Ellie telling Dina, "Are we gonna raise sheep and milk cows?" As a response to Dina's dream of owning a farm. It reminds me of when Ellie asked Joel what he was going to do when "all of it was over". I vividly remember Joel saying he would find an old farmhouse and raise sheep 🤯 This game has so many connections.

I always thought Ellie's "I don't think you do" in reference to how she'd rate the kiss was her way of confessing almost, that she'd rate it so high that it'd change things between her and Dina and scare her off

1:00:30 when you made the connection of that scene with Joel using the same tactic on Ellie,.. my mind was BLOWN. These seemingly not that significant connections really keep amplifying just how much Ellie subconsciously tries to emulate Joel. That man literally shaped her.

It drives me crazy when people say the opening chapters in Jackson are “so high school.” Like ya they are teenagers, just because they are in an apocalypse doesn’t mean hormones aren’t a thing.

Ellie scratches out regret and changes it to shame in the first line of that final poem, it seems so important to me. Ellie DOESN'T regret leaving Dina and JJ. She feels shame about it, and how her leaving them hurt them, and for not putting their needs above herself and this revenge. But she doesn't regret it. She can't regret it, because if it wasn't for that moment, when she has almost killed Abby, she never would have got closure. The whole game she gets flashback's of Joel's death, but when she has almost killed Abby, she has the flashback of Joel playing guitar (the one she draws on the other page of the poem). She can't regret leaving Dina, because it gave her the ability to remember the best of Joel and the life they had together before that horrible day. She finally began accepting his death, and grieving him.

babe wake up TLOU explained just dropped

When I first experienced TLOU2, I felt that Dina was a very flat character with no goals of her own. She was only there to follow Ellie and be the love interest. It wasn't until their last scene at the farm when she stood up to Ellie that I felt like she became a character of her own, completely independent of Ellie. Your essay is not only a great analysis of their relationship, but is also a wonderful character analysis of Dina. She hadn't lived for herself for so long, and in turn wasn't her own person, until she broke away from Ellie.

Nah fr because I've always felt like their conversations were so off and so out-of-sync in most of the serious dialogues. It throws me off when Dina would say something to keep things light and then Ellie would say something f*cked up in response. They have funny lines to fill the air while exploring, but it had always bothered me how, as a new couple, they've danced around Ellie's questionable mental state throughout the Seattle chapters. The final farm scene felt like the only real conversation they've had.