Who's The Main Character?

So I recently read an article talking about the possibility of a Last of Us sequel and they listed their top 10 things that they want to see in a sequel, and most of it was fairly reasonable stuff, continue the story, introduce new conflict, etc. But the #1 spot is what peaked my curiosity "Make Ellie the Main Character" to which I instantly thought "um...I thought Ellie was the main character?". Now I know your instant reaction is "But we play as Joel for about 70% of the game, that makes him the main character. Yes, but does it really? I would disagree and say that Ellie is the true protagonist of The Last of Us and here are 5 reasons why:

(Spoilers Ahead)

1. She Gets A Boss Fight

Pretty standard conventions in a video game that you will eventually fight against a boss (sadly I have noticed this trend has been dying out recently) but how many bosses are in The Last of Us? Well there's the bloater, but really they get demoted down to heavy grunt fairly quickly. Really the only boss is David, that creepy mother fucker (or daughter fucker I guess) is the only actual boss in the game, and Ellie is the one that fights him, Joel never even meets David. So really in what game is there where the only boss fight isn't even fought by the protagonist?

2. The Cover of the Box

Just look at that cover, who's at the front? Ellie. Who's got the bigger gun? Ellie. Who did the narration in the first trailer of the game and the one we initially followed? Ellie. Let's be honest, this game was marketed to make us believe Ellie is the main character, yeah we got a gameplay demo as Joel but let's face it, in all the trailers and gameplay footage Joel barely said anything, we didn't learn that much about his character from them, but with Ellie, we got a fairly decent idea on what type of person she is, she's rude, brave, smart and loyal, all from some trailers.

3. Her Arc is Larger

Alright, both Joel & Ellie obviously go through major arcs within the story, however Ellie's arc is much more extreme and much more impactful. Joel's arc is to finally move on from Sarah's death and to accept Ellie as his new daughter. While Ellie has to learn how to fight for herself, learn how to fight for others, get over the tragedies that she experiences, accept death as a part of life without blaming herself and learn that you can't save everyone. That is a so much more than what Joel has to go through, and usually in fiction, the character with the bigger arc is normally the more important character, which also normally is made for the main character.

4. More Likeable Than Joel

I mean don't get me wrong, I love Joel but let's be honest...the guy is pretty mopey, for most of the game we don't get much out of him but grumpiness, I mean yeah he has his moments where he opens up and becomes more of a talker, but guess who brings that out of him? Ellie. She changes him more than he changes her, she has the bigger impact on his life, and mostly because she is just more likeable. She loves telling puns and reading comic books and finds the joy in the little things in life, like learning how to whistle or giving a friend a small gift. She knows that in a world like this you have to appreciate the little things in life and she constantly tries to spread that joy to other people, while Joel is always a glass half empty kinda guy, so it's up to Ellie to keep a world as dark and depressing as this with a little bit a light in it.

5. Joel is Totally The Bad Guy!

He is, Joel is totally the bad guy. I mean think about it, a few people who didn't like the game have said that they didn't like it because they disagreed with Joel's morals...um...that's the point! He lies, threatens, hurts, kills and steals, fully aware that it's wrong but he does it anyway, you know who else does that kinda stuff? The bad guys. I mean he threatens to take away the one thing that could save all of humanity for his own selfish reasons. Joel, I love ya man but you are one fucked up human being! And if Joel is the antagonist, then who could the protagonist be? Well someone who is the complete opposite of him in every way, keep your friends close but your enemies closer, hmm...oh right! Ellie! Duh!

And that is why Ellie is already the main character of The Last of Us, and here's hoping she returns for the second one for even more f-bombs.

-Danny