https://www.indiewire.com/2020/06/the-last-of-us-part-ii-interview-neil-druckmann-halley-gross-spoilers-1234568597/
Ellie leaves behind the guitar that Joel gives her. I assume it’s not just because Abby chewed off two of the fingers Ellie needs to make chords.
Gross: For me, Ellie is putting the idea of Joel to bed. She’s burying him respectfully at that point and moving on to a new chapter in her life, whatever that might be. But he’s in the rear-view mirror when she leaves the house at the end.
Druckmann: Whatever we say here ultimately doesn’t matter. Everything you need to understand the story is in the game, and whatever players take from it… their interpretation is right. At least until if we ever make another game and then we can argue about it then. But personally, to me, Ellie is finally able to get past her ego and this whole obsession. We’d often use the metaphor of talking about her revenge as a drug and Ellie as a kind of drug addict, and that’s ultimately why Dina left. She’s like “this girl’s hit bottom and it’s still not enough, I can’t help her anymore.”
Also I should say that for more than 50 percent of the production, Ellie used to kill Abby at the end. Which gave a whole different kind of feel to the ending, and then another character would have to stop the cycle of violence. But at some point, through our conversations about Yara and Lev, we came to the realization that it wasn’t as honest to Ellie’s character that way. Deep down inside there’s goodness there. Hopefully she can go forward and build her life.
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