{"id":1187150,"date":"2026-02-16T10:01:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=566008"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:01:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:01:29","slug":"jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us<\/a><\/em>. The Cordyceps<\/em> outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are constantly ripped away from their loved ones; the fight between human factions for the few remaining supplies tears families apart right and left, and the survivors are always left to pick up the pieces and continue on with their lives as best they can.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with all this injustice swirling around, the decision reached in the town meeting in this week\u2019s episode absolutely wasn\u2019t an example of it. Jackson made the right call. <\/p>\n

[Ed. note:<\/strong> This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us<\/em> season 2 episode 3.] <\/p>\n

In this episode, a few months after Joel\u2019s death at the hands of Abby<\/a> and the walls of Jackson being broken down by hordes of infected, we get a tense town meeting with a climactic speech from Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in which she requests some help from the citizens of Jackson<\/a> to go track down Joel\u2019s killers and bring them to justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The show sets the speech up as a triumphant moment for Ellie: She\u2019s written her speech down just like Jesse (Young Mazino) told her to, and she\u2019s even managed to tone down some of her usual anger. And yet, the Jackson city council voted against Ellie\u2019s request in a landslide. And they were right to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just to be completely clear, when I say the town\u2019s people got this right, I\u2019m not talking about high-minded ideals or spiritual concepts. I\u2019m not here to tell you that a burning desire for revenge will erode your soul, or that vengeance never heals wounds, it only makes new ones. That\u2019s the show\u2019s responsibility. What I\u2019m saying is simply that the citizens of Jackson were right not to want to help Ellie on a totally and entirely practical level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her ask is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, sure, we\u2019re pretty locked in to Ellie\u2019s perspective in The Last of Us<\/em>, so we get how painful it was for her to lose Joel. But for everyone else, Jackson, the peaceful walled city and the safest place that any of these people have been in since the apocalypse started, just had a major break-in. The streets were flooded with zombies, some unknown amount of people died, and there\u2019s a tremendous amount of rebuilding still necessary to keep things even remotely safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in the wake of all this tragedy, loss, and destruction, Ellie walks into the meeting and demands 16 of Jackson\u2019s best fighters and strongest citizens to go hunt down people who live nearly 900 miles away. Look, we don\u2019t know exactly how many people live in Jackson, or how many of those people are good enough with a gun to send on this hunt for revenge. But based on what we\u2019ve seen, it certainly seems like that\u2019s a significant portion of the town\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

To put all this another way: Every single part of Ellie\u2019s proposal to the citizens of Jackson is totally unreasonable. But that shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise to us either. After all, we know Ellie is impulsive, short-sighted, and pretty selfish. That\u2019s not really a criticism of her or to say that she doesn\u2019t have many other redeeming qualities, just that big-picture strategizing and planning around the health of the broader community isn\u2019t one of her natural strengths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All of this may sound like a criticism of the show or its story, but it really isn\u2019t. It\u2019s a great addition to her character and the wider world of The Last of Us<\/em> that Ellie isn\u2019t a magically gifted orator, something that would feel wildly out of character for her, and that the residents of Jackson are able to recognize how ridiculous her request is. And, of course, it sets up a wonderful moment where Dina (Isabela Merced) realizes that Ellie\u2019s planning to do something stupid and won\u2019t let her do it alone \u2014 or underprepared.<\/p>\n

As with its portrayal of Seth, The Last of Us<\/em> wants us to know that Ellie\u2019s quest is being doubted, at the same time it wants to be able to push through with her anger. It\u2019s a subtle but effective way to remind us just how much of the story is rooted in Ellie\u2019s perspective and rationale. Of course, that\u2019s a bit of a double-edged sword: By presenting us with a very reasonable alternative to Ellie\u2019s quest for vengeance, the show risks undermining her character and leaving us unable to relate to her fury. But, at least for now, episode 3\u2019s town hall lands exactly on the right side of that line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are constantly ripped away from their loved ones; the fight between human factions for the few remaining supplies tears families apart right and left, and the survivors are always left to pick up the pieces and continue on with their lives as best they can.\u00a0 But with all this injustice swirling around, the decision reached in the town meeting in this week\u2019s episode absolutely wasn\u2019t an example of it. Jackson made the right call.  [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 3.]  In this episode, a few months after Joel\u2019s death at the hands…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1187151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1187150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nJackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":820,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Polygon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/\",\"name\":\"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":320,\"caption\":\"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News","description":"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News","og_description":"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie","datePublished":"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/"},"wordCount":820,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg","articleSection":["Polygon"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/","name":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-16T10:01:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"There\u2019s a lot of injustice in The Last of Us. The Cordyceps outbreak doesn\u2019t play favorites (outside of Ellie\u2019s immunity, of course), so people are","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie.jpg","width":480,"height":320,"caption":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/jacksons-residents-were-right-to-vote-against-ellie\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jackson\u2019s residents were right to vote against Ellie"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499417,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187150\/revisions\/1499417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}