Hey, everybody, I'm Troy Baker,
and I'm here to answer your final questions
for HBO's
♪ ("THE LAST OF US" THEME BY GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA PLAYS) ♪
The scene in the season finale between Anna
and the birth of Ellie
is such a significant one on so many levels.
I hate to use the word "meta," but it's so true.
Because you do have this handoff from one Ellie to the other.
And wonderfully, beautifully, and flawlessly played
by Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the original game.
There's so many similarities between Ashley and Bella.
It's like the same soul was split
and put into two different people.
I've known Ashley now for over a decade.
And to me, she's just Ash.
She's just one of my dearest friends.
And someone that I care so much about.
I forget sometimes how fierce of an actor she is.
And I couldn't wait to see what Ashley did with that.
And I knew she was gonna crush it.
Putting her in that situation of, to me,
one of the most dense, dramatic moments
of the entire season,
and I thought I was ready to watch it and then I did
and I wasn't.
She just smashes that scene.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
ANNA: Take her with you to Boston.
Find someone to bring her up and make sure that she's safe.
I can't do that.
And I want you to give her this.
There's this totem of the baton being passed
from not only one Ellie to the other,
but also from a mother to a daughter.
And in this world where Anna realizes that
her daughter's going to need protection,
she's going to need someone or something
to help protect her.
And the only thing that she has to offer her,
her birthright, is personified in this switch blade.
In that moment, it's also a very violent one
because she realizes that she has to do it quickly
before the worst part of her is passed on
to the best part of her.
-(ELLIE COOS) -I cut it before I was bit.
Before.
And so that's why every time we've seen that
ownership of that knife be threatened to Ellie,
she will scramble and she will fight for it.
'Cause she understands the significance of that knife.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
Something that I love about
is that whether it's the game or the show,
it raises more questions than it answers.
There's a temptation, I think, to try to answer every question that you can.
And other times, it's great to just go,
"I don't know. Why not both?"
And leave people in the Schrödinger's purgatory
of not knowing the actual answer.
"Why is Ellie immune?"
"How is it that she is
the only person in the world that is not affected by this virus?"
"Is she the only one that's not effected by this infection?"
To me, is one of the compelling things
that keeps people in this world.
Because I still want to know so many things,
and I think the beauty is never answering those questions.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
You have this wonderfully, poetically beautiful,
yet incredibly tragic story about these two people
who discover love at the wrong time.
And what one beautiful night can mean to one individual.
And being able to really slow down
and examine those moments and
either remind players of that story
or introduce new people to that story
was so foundational to who Ellie is.
Because seeing where Ellie goes only is as impactful as it can be
if we understand where she came from.
When I got bit in the mall, I wasn't on my own.
My best friend was there. And she got bit too.
We didn't know what to do and she says,
"We can just wait it out.
Be all poetic and just lose our minds together."
And then she did.
And I had to--
That story right there, in one episode,
explained so much about Ellie.
And so much of that is predicated upon
Ellie saying, "It's not the first time I've killed someone."
And being able to explore that
and what that means for her.
The fact that it was-- it was to Ellie
what Sarah was to Joel.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
If you played the game, you wrestled with the ending.
And now you're gonna have to wrestle with it all over again.
If you haven't played the game, welcome to the fight.
It's hard to tie a pretty little bow on a story.
It is an Olympic feat
to do that to a tragic story.
And there is gonna be a lot of people
that are frustrated, challenged,
and wrestle over this ending.
You find something new to fight for.
-And maybe that's not what you-- -Swear to me.
Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true.
I swear.
And I remember asking Neil when we shot the scene,
I said, "Dude, you're gonna piss people off."
And he goes, "Good.
Because that means they felt something.
If they love it, they hate it, we did our job.
If they don't care about it, that's when we failed."
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
As we end season one and we now pivot
to anticipating what season two looks like,
I, myself, as a fan, start asking a lot of questions.
Who do you cast as Abby?
That, to me, is one of the biggest questions I can't wait to see.
Because so far, Neil and Craig have
nailed the casting.
Who plays Dina?
What characters from the game are brought into this story?
What new characters that didn't exist in the game
are they going to include?
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
To all of those who have finished season one
and are now anxiously anticipating season two,
number one I would say, if you haven't played the game,
play the game.
But more than anything, it's do what everybody else has been doing
for the last 10 years. And that is,
find someone to talk about it.
Because that's been my favorite part,
all of the conversations that have happened in the wake
of this story.
And the community that has been born
because of this game is probably the best byproduct.
Thank you guys for allowing me to answer all of your questions.
I would say that if you haven't listened to the podcast,
the podcast that we're doing with HBO
where I get to sit down and talk with Craig Mazin
and Neil Druckmann, the two show runners,
will answer not only the questions I've answered,
but a whole lot more.
And it's been one of my favorite conversations,
one of my favorite aspects of being involved
with HBO's
So, please check it out.
I would love for you to be a part of that conversation too.
No matter what,
if you're lost in the darkness, look for the light.