Ellie (TLOU)

SHE'S SEMI PRIVATE, meaning: she's only available to rpers who write their TLOU muses with my Hannah at @justaprankhan (no crossovers but yes to ocs). Not to guilt people, I'm always ok with people not being into my ocs or aus, but because Hannah is the one I want to write the most, especially in TLOU, and I just know that I'll keep thinking 'I wish I could be writing Hannah with them too' every time I write Ellie with someone, and lose motivation.
Same as if people sent me memes here for other muses while I want to write Hannah, which is why I gave her a solo blog. 

Some important details, canon divergences etc:

1. I'm not at all confident in my ability to write the dialogue for Ellie. @fracturals convinced me to try anyway, you have been warned. 

2. I only saw the gameplay once, I will rewatch soon, but I'm taking inspiration from both show and game and merging them.

3. I'd STILL rather be more game-based than show-based when it comes to several choices, such as no Eugene plot, unneeded and I hate it, and that includes Gail being Joel's therapist after this which makes both look stupid for even starting it, and Ellie finding out about Salt Lake two years ago and *that* being the reason why she's furious at him. Also Ellie purposefully shooting Mel because Mel was also going to attack her. 

4. Whether we want her and Dina to have gotten together before Abby shows up or not is up to Dinas, but by default we can follow the show to explain why Tommy didn't get there first (Tommy's circumstances in the show, having a kid and all, are too different from the game). It doesn't change anything to me if we tweak their love-story a little, and the big reveal that Dina is pregnant because she's sick can happen anyway, not all women realize after a couple of weeks.

5. My Ellie *is* uncomfortable and kinda harsh about Dina being pregnant and in danger (and she will *not* be ready to be a "dad" that quickly for several reasons, she'll need to get there once she sees she can be a positive influence. IF she can be one). I think it's more realistic and adds a bit of drama, being connected to the fact that Ellie still very much has PTSD. 

6. my Ellie is a mix in personality between show and game, I like that sometimes in the show she dissociates and tries to pretend she's fine and I like that in the game she can't even really pretend. Whether she sets to go to Seattle right away or waits, she will be more hellbent on killing and less playful. She went on patrol for at least 2-3 years, ever since detatching from Joel, and is therefore more deadly and competent than she is in the show.

7. I'm happy to go with my primary AU that is Joel getting tortured but surviving (potentially with permanent damage given his age and the amount of beating he took), and Ellie is still traumatized (and in this case wants to protect him from Abby's return) and she still goes after her crew (what's Joel gonna do, crawl after her?). She's still fixated with ending the Salt Lake crew, and that can open the door to all kinds of threads (she may look less justified because he's alive but she still has every bit of PTSD as canon Ellie; she may feel more horror about what she's capable of because she tortures a dying woman, but at the same time either she does this and kills everybody or they may come back to kill Joel for good, and can you imagine taking that risk after watching him get tortured and almost losing him? Nope. Gotta kill them. Yet at the same time she kills a pregnant woman and that messes her up for a very long time. Tommy is permanently injured. We are ignoring if possible what happened to Jesse, he's also just very injured. She comes home destroyed by all this, and still wants to go back and make sure Abby is gone. A door can also open to the idea of her letting Abby live not only because she lets go of revenge, but because "her Abby" is "gone", Abby's become a Joel to Lev and wouldn't go after the real Joel again now). Ellie can leave Jackson earlier than 3 months later, she'll just wait until Joel is awake so she knows he's still Joel.

8. Ellie feels she *has* to kill them whether she likes it or not, so she won't be apologetic to Abby in the slightest at the end of s2. On the other hand, while she'd never ever forgive Abby, the potential for nearly civilized communication at the very end is there because he *is* alive.

9. my biggest focus is still Joel in AUs where she lives because there is a lot to explore: they missed 2 years because they were apart; she also still feels like he took away her sole purpose, but she can also digest more of their porch-talk (I do love the one from the show, if we exclude her having the confirmation of what happened to Salt Lake only then) and she can't really be 'mad at him' after she had to watch him almost die and believed him dead for a bit.

10. In the years between s1 and finding out what Joel did at Salt Lake, Ellie will still be struggling with what happened with David, which was deeply traumatizing, but also Riley, because she didn't have the time to process, and Sam and Henry, because of the guilt over falling asleep while he turned alone.

11. if you are a Joel rper who wants to feel canon remember that I hate writing character-death so I'm not coming up with any post/drabble about Joel being gone! Or if you want something else but still happy, like Abby doesn't even hurt him, go for it! I'm so weak! 

12. I love Bella Ramsey. I respect if it's not your choice of actress for Ellie because you think their expressions and body language aren't what you wanted, or because looks are important to you and therefore you don't like anyone in the cast: those are your tastes and hopefully you tag your negativity. But if you blame Bella for the script differing from the game, like they have any saying in what their lines will be, now that will make me side-eye you, because you are finding excuses to hate them. If you write negativity against them because they 'are too ugly' I'm blocking you and judging you, and yes, sometimes that's what's behind 'not like Bella's acting' when it's repeated at every turn or when they are literally doing what the show is asking them to do, so if I think that's what's going on I'll block you then too. 

13. That said, I don't use gifs or icons, I don't know if people will want to write with my Ellie so for now I won't be making any.

added: May 3rd 2025