'The Last of Us Part II' And How Its Character's Voice Actress Received Online Death Threats

There are lots of video games out there, and the varieties are meant to appeal the many people who are meant to be the games' consumers.

These people are, and an be either fans or haters.

In many cases, these people persistently interpret their opinions about games and their desire to enjoy the games, as if others should do the same.

And this is what exactly happened during the peak popularity of the game 'The Last of Us Part II'.

The 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment is set five years after the game's prequel. It focuses on two playable characters in a post-apocalyptic United States of America.

The first character is Ellie Williams, who sets out for revenge after suffering a tragedy. The second, is Abigail "Abby" Anderson, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult.

Most controversies surrounding the game involved the latter.

Abby is portrayed by Laura Bailey through motion capture and voice acting.

Bailey managed to make the character lovable, and successfully made players to empathize her. Many think that Abby's part in the game is more important than others, even more than Ellie.

Because Naughty Dog's ability to make the character likable by the game's end, Abby gained more spotlight than all other characters in the game.

While this is a good thing, Naughty Dog's choice in designing Abby as a bulky and muscular woman made many people to speculate that the character was a transgender.

If compared to Ellie's relatively small and slim figure, Abby's appearance with her broad shoulders and very defined biceps, narrow hip and less pronounced waistline, made her a lot less conventionally attractive to straight men.

Abby was built like a truck and has a small chest.

It is said that Bailey worked with CrossFit athlete Colleen Fotsch to create Abby’s body double.

Polygon's Patricia Hernandez and The Independent's Amy Coles argued that this perception was a result of the lack of body diversity in games, and that the story showed Abby had the resources to achieve her physique.

But still, this makes Abby's voice actress to receive hate from trolls and others, in response to her portrayal of Abby.

While Abby may provide representation for the gender non-conforming, the criticisms here stem from the fact that playing Abby may be off-putting, in a way similar to how trans players may feel when a game has a restrictive character.

Others debated on how Abby could have such buffed physique in a post-apocalyptic world.

While the character was well-received by most gamers and critics, others suggest that the character is controversial.

Bailey’s tweet sparked a number of supportive responses from the video game industry and beyond.

"Your performance in the game was an absolute revelation and it transformed me,” said Ashley Johnson, Ellie’s voice actress.

The character Abby didn’t appear in the first game, but she marked her entrance into the series in one of the most jaw-dropping sequences in video game history, killing the protagonist of the original game with a golf club.

In the The Last of Us Part II, the story initially follows Ellie, who’s looking to get revenge. But as players close in on Abby at the halfway point in the story, the timeline shifts back to the start and players are then placed in control of Abby instead.

It's only through this time, that players would learn why she did what she did, and players would eventually empathize with her.

Bailey’s performance, which takes the player from hatred to admiration, is astounding.

So here, The Last of Us Part II story line, the debate about Abby's gender, and how Abby managed to capture the hearts of players sparked debate that was so intense on social media platforms, that Bailey became the target of online death threats.

Some players just found it difficult to play as Abby, a character so so diametrically opposed to the Joel Miller and Ellie, the characters they consider to be heroes.

While the spotlight was all on Abby, less people talked about Ellie, a character described as a lesbian.

This is because Naughty Dog successfully made the character a "much-beloved" person, despite having less influence than Abby.

In fact, the characters in The Last of Us Part II are designed in such a way to not make trans people feel uncomfortable.

Every single new character introduced in the sequel does not have definitive feminine or masculine qualities.

The Last of Us Part II was meant to be launched earlier, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The game was released on June 2020, and has since received numerous critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, audio design, score, performances, characters, and visual fidelity.

The game is one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games and the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive, with over four million units sold in its release weekend, and over ten million by 2022. It holds the record for most Game of the Year awards, and received multiple other accolades from awards shows and gaming publications.

As for the death threats, Bailey said in an interview in 2022, that the threats persisted.