Abby Anderson (The Last of Us Part II)

Abby Anderson is the playable false deuteragonist, before becoming the main antagonist of the second half in The Last of Us Part II. She is an antagonist of Ellie’s storyline and the playable character of her own storyline upon switching from Ellie's perspective in the story. She is a former member of the Fireflies, who leads a small faction of the militant Washington Liberation Front.

However, her act of killing Joel Miller, a beloved character from the first game, led to her being a Karma Houdini for it, cementing her place as one of the most polarizing characters in the PlayStation-exclusive series.

Why Joel Miller Didn't Deserve To Be Killed By Her

 * 1) Her design looks like her head was superimposed onto a man's body.
 * 2) *Instead of looking like an average female bodybuilder, her body looked closer to John Cena or Dwayne Johnson, which made her character design look disproportionate and cartoonish.
 * 3) Her sex scene is very cringe-worthy.
 * 4) She doesn't even have a good reason to want to kill Joel, given he was justified in killing her father to save Ellie (who is no better in this game). The plot point where she killed him is also extremely contrived and tacked on.
 * 5) * In fact, her father was having second thoughts about operating on (and therefore killing) Ellie to make a cordyceps cure, until Abby talked him into it. This means that  Abby herself is the person truly responsible for her father's death, rather than Joel.
 * 6) She was supposed to be the sane protagonist who's in the right, but her actions don't justify anything to make her a sympathetic and tragic heroine:
 * 7) *The game tries very hard to make you feel sorry for her after she kills Joel, which only ends up making players hate her even more.
 * 8) * As said earlier, she kills Joel and injured Tommy right after she was saved by them from the infected.
 * 9) *Owen calling her out on killing Joel in a very sadistic fashion because she could not let go of her father's death and spending 4 years before that obsessing over getting revenge and doing so with very little care for the well-being of her friends. Instead of listening, her only response was to attack Owen.
 * 10) *Having sex with Owen, who was already dating a pregnant Mel.
 * 11) *She killed Jesse and severely injured Tommy.
 * 12) *Didn't take a moment to understand the perspectives of both Joel and Ellie while killing the defenseless man.
 * 13) *Even with Abby being weakened after being held hostage by a pack of cannibals for months, it still comes off as cheap and emotionally manipulative.
 * 14) *Didn't even explain to Ellie why she murdered Joel.
 * 15) She has Mel sent out on missions while pregnant and despite being their best doctor.
 * 16) You are forced to play as her for half the game, which makes her even less likable as players wished to continue Joel and Ellie's story.
 * 17) *You even play as her during the fight against Ellie, instead of the other way around.
 * 18) She tried to slit Dina's throat only to spite Ellie, even after being told she's pregnant.
 * 19) *Abby would have killed Dina, an unborn J.J., and Ellie if Lev hadn't interrupted the scene.
 * 20) She actually bit off Ellie's fingers leaving Ellie unable to play guitar ever again.
 * 21) The fact that she has been made as the main protagonist after Joel's death seems to be out of left field and has no buildup.
 * 22) The developers intend for Abby to replace Joel and to some extent, Ellie with her as a character. However, Abby had too many qualities in common with both of them, making this a similar case to Dani Ramos.
 * 23) *Joel and Abby lose a loved one in their lives which causes them to become more bitter. They meet a young child whom they grow fond of and protect with their lives.
 * 24) **They both go out of their way to protect their loved ones by any means possible.
 * 25) *Joel and Abby are considered protagonist villains, though the latter serves as the antagonist for Ellie's arc in The Last of Us Part II
 * 26) **Specifically, Joel and Abby both kill several people to protect their loved ones (Ellie for Joel, and Lev for Abby), and they both take lives for selfish reasons.
 * 27) * Both Ellie and Abby lose their father/father figures and seek revenge for their deaths. They risk losing their newfound families for the sake of their quests for vengeance.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Laura Bailey did a great job voicing the character. Heck, Bailey is also the one who had voiced Kotone/Rise from the Persona series, Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Maka Albarn from Soul Eater and Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket.
 * 2) As mentioned before, her design looked much better in the trailers.
 * 3) She gets called her out on her selfishness by Mel and how badly she screwed up her relationships in the pursuit of revenge and getting her friends killed.
 * 4) She has a nice friendship with Lev, genuinely wanting to protect him no matter what.
 * 5) She does get her comeuppances for her killing Joel, as she basically loses everything she had, including her friends, Manny, Owen and Mel being killed by Tommy and Ellie. Abby was also tortured for months by cannibals and she received many wounds from Ellie during their fight, including being stabbed.

Trivia

 * Laura Bailey stated that the story of The Last of Us Part II had an incredible story and her portrayal of Abby was a noteworthy role in a long time during her career. She also acknowledged why people hated the character and agreed with them about Abby's attitude.