Bella Ramsey deserves an apology
Let's discuss The Last of Us, and the best performance of the year (so far)
The Last of Us means a lot to me. Both of the game installments are my favorite pieces of media, ever. So, obviously I’ve been highly anticipating HBO’s adaption of the first game, but not without hesitation.
Before we tackle the series, I do want to explain my weird relationship with the games. I’ll set the scene… me (a Pedro Pascal stan) in 2021, he’s coming hot off of Wonder Woman 1984… sigh.
To say the least… we were in the dumps. I was practically BEGGING for a great project to fall into his lap. THEN… god heard me.
THE LAST OF US… The Last of Us? Whatever that means. I’m clueless when it comes to gaming, so while HBO’s attachment was enough to get excited about… this meant nothing to me. But it’s Pedro! Working with HBO again! Although… didn’t really end all that well last time.
Oberyn Martell and Lady Mormont leading a new HBO series… based on a video game? I’d heard of The Last of Us but, knew virtually nothing about it. Just that my very good friend and co-host of our podcast (listen to it please) Duane, had been trying to convince me to watch gameplay for a long time. Me, (knowing that I’m not a gamer) always brushed him off. Why would I want to watch this video game?
Well… hitting peak boredom in the heat of covid (and many glasses of wine), lead me to buying a PS4. With the news of the series fresh in my mind… and knowing that I’ll be tuning in because of Pedro, what else was I to do? Of course I bought the game too.
The Last of Us Remastered (2014)… I went into this with absolutely no expectations. The only video games I’d ever touched were along the lines of Mario Party and Mortal Kombat (never the story mode because who cares), I just wanted to know what Pedro Pascal had in store for us!
From the first fifteen minutes alone… I knew there was no way I’d walk away from this unscathed. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, and you want to suffer, watch this. If you do know, it probably made you want to jump off a bridge as well.
I thought I was playing a video game! These are mean’t to be fun! I’m here to shoot pretend guns and kill pretend zombies! Not watch a little girl devastatingly die in her father’s arms!
Long story short, I finished it within three days… a long emotionally taxing three days. Obviously I went in for Joel, given that Pedro Pascal was the reason I played in the first place. And I LOVED Joel, but I expected that. What I didn’t expect… Ellie.
Ellie Williams… my favorite character in media, ever. From the first second that she was on my screen, the universe shifted. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express my love for her in words properly so, hopefully the admiration is felt through my keyboard.
Ellie is voiced and motion captured by Ashley Johnson in both games brilliantly. I guess I knew that amazing performances could stem from mocap having seen movies like, Avatar, Avengers: Infinity War, and The Planet of the Apes trilogy. But, video games never registered to me as a place where you find work of this caliber.
Ellie is just such a specific character, and one that could easily come off as annoying, rather than charming. And I think Ashley’s performance is absolutely why she is so beloved. From the delivery of Ellie’s silly little puns, (open for a giggle). To the unrelenting heartbreak that she’s asked to relay over and over again, (open for a cry) she nails it.
If there were a Mount Rushmore of characters that have suffered more than Jesus, Ellie has certainly earned a spot… next to Jesse Pinkman probably.
Clearly, whoever was following Ashley had some big shoes to fill. After playing both games, and not only falling in love with Ellie herself but, Ashley’s Ellie… I didn’t need another portrayal. I was set on Ashley being my Ellie, and there’s no way the kid from Game of Thrones could match, or top what she already brought to the table… right?
Although I was hesitant, that isn’t me saying that I thought Bella was the wrong choice. I just didn’t have any opinion, really. Unlike the man-babies of the world… who continue to be the scum of the earth. Bella and Pedro were cast in February of 2021, and from then on you couldn’t escape the ridiculous fancastings from grown men who were upset about Ellie not fitting into their weird beauty standards (that they’re placing onto a 14 year old mind you).
From Kaitlyn Dever, (a 26 year old woman), to Elliot Page (a 36 year old man)… it was embarrassing to say the least. I didn’t know if Bella had what it took for Ellie but, I knew they were certainly better than a grown man or woman. And absolutely didn’t deserve harassment over not a hundred percent resembling a bunch of pixels.
It’s actually insane how many grown ass men told on themselves regarding this casting, claiming Bella wasn’t “pretty enough” to be Ellie. Which first of all, Bella is very obviously a beautiful person. But, more importantly… why do you need to be attracted to a 14 year old little girl? Obviously the over-sexualization of women in video games has been an issue for a LONG time. But, that wasn’t an issue in The Last of Us! Ellie is very much presented as a 14 year old little girl! So, to find out men still found a way to sexualize her was… weird, to say the least.
As referenced earlier, all I knew about Bella was that they played Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones… and that’s it. From that alone, I guess I had an idea of what Bella could bring to the table, considering Lyanna is just are fiery and badass as Ellie but like I said before, Ellie is just so specific in regards to that spunk. I just really couldn’t envision anyone replicating, or matching Ashley’s work.
But then… the teaser dropped. I was excited for the show, WITH A BIT OF SKEPTICISM… on all fronts. THIS THOUGH? Whew. Alone and Forsaken by Hank Williams (if you know you know), plays over gorgeous set, character, and creature design. THEY DID IT! Well, visually at least. From FEDRA street signs, to a glorious clicker.
I will say, this put my mind at ease, but we’ve been here before. Recently actually, with Uncharted (2022). Now, playing The Last of Us lead me down the road of Naughty Dog’s previous releases, including the Uncharted series. They didn’t quite change my life like The Last of Us did but, I do love them dearly. I was excited for the movie but, not in the same way I was excited for HBO’s The Last of Us.
Leading up to the release of the film, the trailers looked incredibly promising, in the visual sense… just like the teaser for The Last of Us. I won’t harp on the bizarre casting choices… because from the jump we knew Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg were the wrong ones but, Bella and Pedro on the other hand were interesting picks. I DIGRESS before this newsletter turns into something else entirely… we’ve been here before though, and unfortunately with the release of the movie, the visual aesthetics were quite literally all it had going for it.
So while this teaser was definitely something to celebrate, there was still plenty of room for things to go south. INCLUDING our leads, Bella and Pedro.
We sat in limbo for a few more months… patiently waiting on an official trailer, one with something other than a nearly identical visual aesthetic to chew on preferably. AND ONCE AGAIN, GOD HEARD MY PRAYERS! THE OFFICIAL TRAILER HAD ARRIVED!
Sitting in my bed and hitting play… I’ve truly never been more nervous. What if Pedro is terrible? How will I defend him? Are they going to change the story in a way that betrays the source material? Were my expectations too high? MORE IMPORTANTLY… what if my Ellie doesn’t feel like my Ellie? I love The Last of Us for DOZENS of reasons but, Ellie is where my heart is. And I don’t know if I could stomach anything other than perfection… which is obviously a tall order.
Six seconds… six seconds is what it took to convince me Bella IS Ellie. 0:39 timestamp in the trailer is the singular moment that won me over. A silly little joke that’s easy to giggle at and move on to far more exciting things in the splices of footage we got… (a freaking bloater!!!) but, I was stuck on Bella’s line delivery.
THIS is what truly excited me, My-… OUR Ellie being done justice. There’s no way the naysayers wouldn’t be able to see the spark I saw… right? So I thought. Twitter seemed to have been loving Pedro as Joel (I did too!) but, STILL dogging on Bella. Seemingly… even worse now, so imagine my surprise when I’m expecting this casting to finally click with everyone else like it did me, and it just… didn’t. I genuinely couldn’t wrap my head around not getting it… this was our Ellie! I felt it in my bones! And I had the proof right in front of me! What wasn’t clicking? (ha get it… clickers… anyways).
It was like… overnight a worldwide hit was placed upon this kid, this 19 year old kid. Hit tweet left and right saying the most vile things imaginable… for what? They said less than ten words in the entire trailer! What could’ve possibly upset people (men) this much? Pretty much… it all boiled down to where we started in February. (Man) babies were still crying about how Bella didn’t fit into their weird perverted fantasies of Ellie (once again, a 14 year old little girl). It didn’t matter what Bella brought to the table as a performer… they were going to dogpile them regardless for not fulfilling their wants of being attracted to a little girl.
Now, we got clips on top of clips leading up to the release of the show, showing more and more of what Bella’s Ellie would entail. And with each clip, the more confident I became in them being the perfect casting choice. I was READY for this first episode to drop and hopefully put a cork in all of these weirdos mouths!
And after two LONG years… the day was finally here. Sunday, January 15th, 2023. The Last of Us is premiering in all it’s glory with a whopping hour and a half pilot. I. Couldn’t. Wait. I was actually counting down the minutes, hours, and seconds. It quite literally didn’t feel real.
I’m writing this, and you cared enough to read it… so obviously we all know it didn’t just reach the sky high expectations we all had, but exceeded them. Not only in quality, but also commercially. 4.7 million viewers… 4.7 MILLION VIEWERS. The highest debut for an HBO original series in a decade (other than House of the Dragon…). The world was ready and eager to experience this story that I’m so desperately in love with. And to experience it in a way that’s worthy of the source material, (not only with the pilot by the way, this show is seriously incredible and everything someone who loves the games could’ve asked for)
I’ve truly never been more happy. My favorite thing in the world was being displayed in full glory to a huge audience… and of course, introduced to Ellie. A SINGULAR SCENE… just like those six seconds, and I knew Bella was special. "Why won’t you let me go home?” MY SWEET ELLIE. Right out of my (now) PS5, and onto my T.V. screen. I was ready to hand them the Emmy from that line delivery alone, and they haven’t let up since. Eight episodes in, and I’m still walking out of each and every one raving about Bella. Reminding everyone once again, I played this video game because of Pedro Pascal… and my only thoughts with every week that passes are about the kid sharing the screen with him!
The best performance of the year… AND I KNOW YOU’RE ABOUT TO SAY THAT WE’RE ONLY THREE MONTHS IN but, I really can’t see this changing for me. I mean, there’s a scene of them literally just looking at buildings and I couldn’t help but cry (no literally...) JUST BECAUSE of the the pure innocence and wonder that they were able to capture. And its moments like that, that keep proving how integral Bella is to making this show the phenomenon that it’s become.
Just like Ashley… from Ellie’s stupid puns, to the gut wrenching emotions on full display week after week, I can’t help but say that we’re witnessing a true star in the making in real time. And I think everyone else has realized that to… including the man-babies. The once loud crowd bullying Bella has seemed to lose their voice, little by little, getting quieter with each episode that passes. Now I know that they will never admit that they were wrong, and no matter what they’re all still massive weirdos who are going to hell but, I think an apology is deserved.
Before I wrap this up, I want to share a list of all of my favorite Bella moments from each episode to make sure I’m covering all the bases but, also rubbing it in that much more that these losers were WRONGGGGGGGGG!
When You're Lost in the Darkness// I know we’ve covered this already but, this scene is too excellent and Bella is so great in it
Infected// to say the least, the chemistry was chemistrying
Long, Long Time// the way that Bella captures not only Ellie’s struggle with survivors guilt but, the blame that she’s placed on herself for Tess’ death without saying a single word about either of those things, is so beautiful
Please Hold My Hand// this is probably my favorite scene in the show, the giggles from both Pedro and Bella are just so genuine and sweet, ugh my heart
Endure and Survive// the little scream that Bella lets out once Henry takes his life… yeah
Kin// "everyone I have cared for has either died or left me, everyone fucking except for you” WE ALL FELT THAT SHOVE
Left Behind// the pining… the stolen glances… everything about this episode made my heart burst but, Storm and Bella’s chemistry is absolutely what made it all hit as hard as it did (their smile after the kiss… I’m going to THROW UP)
And these are all the reasons why… Bella Ramsey not only deserves an apology but, a huge thank you from everyone who loves this character (Neil and Craig too… I guess).