“The Last of Us” and the mystery of the missing plot point:

When I reviewed “The Last of Us:  American Dreams,” my main gripe was that it felt pretty slight with the story not having too much relevance to the game itself.  I also said that I was hoping/expecting the comic to tell the story behind Ellie’s final monologue to Joel, about how she found out she was special the hard way.  Even if that was arrogant of me to expect something like that, it still felt like the kind of thing that would’ve been perfect for this kind of ancillary project to follow up on.  This particular plot point wasn’t essential to see in the game, but would’ve given added gravity to the story of the comic.

Then the “story” downloadable content for the game was unveiled last week and now I understand why we didn’t get to see the story behind the monologue.  Titled “Left Behind,” all we know about it is that it takes place before the game and it focuses on Ellie and Riley with you being able to play as the former for the experience.  Now, they didn’t announce exactly what the story of the DLC will be… but given that it’s called “Left Behind” and focuses on Ellie before the game, I’d be EXTREMELY surprised if it didn’t address that plot point I’ve done my best to tiptoe around in these posts.  As the game is the best one I’ve played this year (so far) I’ll be downloading it as soon as it comes out, and will likely be able to enjoy future “The Last of Us” comics without the expecting that they address specific things from the game.