The Last of Us season 1 succeeded because it perfectly captured Joel and Ellie’s relationship, but there are a lot more character dynamics in The Last of Us Part II that season 2 has to get right. A big part of why The Last of Us season 1 connected with such a wide audience is because Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey translated Joel and Ellie’s beautiful surrogate father-daughter relationship to the screen. The Last of Us saga is a very bleak story, but there’s a glimmer of hope in its portrayal of the love between certain characters.

While season 1 nailed other key relationships like Joel and Tommy’s brotherly love (and created some from scratch, like Bill and Frank’s heartwarming romance), season 2 is an even greater challenge. The Last of Us Part II is a much larger game than its predecessor, with a much larger cast. From Abby’s fierce protectiveness of Lev to Ellie’s touching but ultimately doomed romance with Dina, there are a lot of major character dynamics that The Last of Us season 2 has to get just right in order to succeed.

10 Ellie & Dina

Dina is the angel on Ellie’s shoulder

Ellie and Dina’s romance is the heart of The Last of Us Part II. Dina joins Ellie on her road to revenge in Seattle, but quickly regrets the decision when they encounter near-death experiences every day and she sees a darker side of Ellie emerge. By the end of the game, Dina is devastated to find that she’s fully lost Ellie to her quest for vengeance. Isabela Merced has already discussed her “palpable” on-set chemistry with Ramsey (via Gay Times), which is a hopeful sign that The Last of Us season 2 can do this beautiful, heartbreaking love story justice.

9 Abby & Owen

Abby and Owen have a passionate (but deeply complex) relationship

Abby’s on-and-off romance with her best friend Owen is one of the most passionate (and also one of the most complicated) relationships in The Last of Us Part II. During the main storyline of the game, Abby has lost Owen to his new girlfriend Mel, who’s pregnant with his child. While Abby knows the relationship is over, Owen the optimist maintains hope that he can somehow get back together with Abby and make it work. Kaitlyn Dever and Spencer Lord need to capture the complexities of this relationship as beautifully as Laura Bailey and Patrick Fugit did in the game.

8 Lev & Yara

The Last of Us season 2 needs to capture Lev and Yara’s undying sibling love

The sibling relationship between Lev and his sister Yara is one of the most heartwarming parts of The Last of Us Part II. Abby initially joins forces with them reluctantly, but she ends up loving them and protecting them like they’re her own siblings. While Lev and Yara are dubious of Abby at first, their undying familial love for each other shines through from the moment Lev saves Yara from her torturers. These roles haven’t been cast yet, but whoever plays Lev and Yara needs to capture their beautiful sibling dynamic.

7 Abby & Manny

Manny is both a friend and mentor to Abby

One of Abby’s closest confidants within the W.L.F. is Manny. When Manny is Abby’s companion in the gameplay, he always has her back. He’s one of Abby’s best friends, but he’s also a caring mentor who’s looking out for her best interests. Danny Ramirez needs to build a similar on-screen dynamic with Dever, where he’s both a friend that she can trust and a mentor that she can look up to.

6 Owen & Mel

Owen has a strained relationship with his pregnant girlfriend Mel

While Owen is desperately clinging to the hope of reconciliation with Abby, there’s still the small matter of his heavily pregnant girlfriend Mel. Owen cares about Mel, but he’s not as deeply infatuated with her as he is with Abby. Mel is skeptical about Owen’s closeness with Abby and suspects they might be having an affair (which is correct), which puts a great strain on the relationship. It’s a tough dynamic to pull off, so hopefully Lord and Ariela Barer are up to the task.

5 Ellie & Jesse

Jesse is the voice of reason

Jesse is essentially Jackson’s version of Manny: the level-headed, strong-willed, overall good guy who’s always there for his friends. Jesse follows Ellie and Dina to Seattle just to make sure they’re okay, and he replaces Dina as Ellie’s companion while Dina is resting at the theater. While Ellie is on her narrow-minded rampage of revenge, Jesse acts as the voice of reason who tries to tell her it’s not worth it (and ends up paying the ultimate price when she ignores that warning). Young Mazino needs to capture what makes Jesse so wonderful opposite Ramsey’s darker turn as Ellie.

4 Abby & Mel

Mel hates Abby almost as much as Ellie does

While most of the Salt Lake crew remain friendly with Abby after she kills Joel, Mel is so disturbed that she turns away from her. And matters only get worse when Mel becomes suspicious of Owen’s feelings for Abby and his potential for infidelity. Mel doesn’t mince words with Abby – she openly calls her “a piece of s***” – and Abby knows it’s futile to try to win Mel over, but she does her best to do the right thing. Dever and Barer need to capture this thinly veiled animosity in The Last of Us season 2.

3 Ellie & Tommy

Tommy is a sort of mediator between Ellie and Joel

Ramsey already developed a great on-screen dynamic with Gabriel Luna in their handful of scenes together in season 1, but Ellie and Tommy’s relationship gets a lot more complicated in The Last of Us Part II. In the years between the two stories, Tommy has had to become a mediator between Ellie and Joel as their relationship has become strained. After Joel is killed, both Ellie and Tommy want revenge, but they’re not prepared for the psychological toll that the quest for retribution will take on both of them.

2 Abby & Lev

Protecting Lev is Abby’s redemption arc

After brutally murdering Joel early in the game, The Last of Us Part II has to work overtime to get the player to sympathize with Abby. The driving force of Abby’s redemption arc is her relationship with Lev. Abby’s protectiveness of Lev is reminiscent of Joel’s own relationship with Ellie in the first game. At first, they team up reluctantly, but by the end of the game, Abby will do whatever it takes to keep Lev safe. Getting this big sister/little brother dynamic right is the key to making Abby a sympathetic character.

1 Joel & Ellie (After Ellie Learns The Truth)

Joel and Ellie’s relationship changes significantly after Ellie learns what happened at the hospital

Pascal and Ramsey already nailed Joel and Ellie’s father-daughter relationship in The Last of Us season 1, but that relationship gets a lot more complicated in The Last of Us Part II. After learning the truth about what happened at the hospital, Ellie’s perception of Joel is irreparably changed. Season 1 showed Ramsey’s Ellie looking up to Pascal’s Joel as a father figure, but season 2 needs to show her resenting him and struggling to forgive him. The final flashback on Joel’s porch is what makes the whole story land – Pascal and Ramsey need to play it just right.

Source: Gay Times