PTSD While Gaming: Processing Black Death In The Last of Us Franchise
A reckoning with Naughty Dog.
CW/TW: Explorations of mental+physical trauma, Death
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!
I CAN’T SHAKE THE VIOLENCE.
In the weeks since The Last of Us Part II (2020) debuted I haven’t been able to shake the violence. The copy/paste human enemies I’ve somehow been able to compartmentalize, perhaps because their function is so fundamentally rote (or if you play stealthily you can bypass them all together). The brutal death of the Black female character Nora Harris however cemented for me that Naughty Dog Studios isn’t adept at telling stories with Black characters, nor understands the impact of Black death. After the first game concluded I was devastated, with The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC (2014) my patience wore thinner, and with this recent chapter in the series I’ve had to completely shelve all of it and walk away. As much as I want to eke out a feeling of inclusion, I cannot. **In my previous editorial about the character Abby, her identity resonated with me as a weight/powerlifter, but at the end of the day I’m still a Black person that wants to see our lives matter.** The Last of Us was not made for me or people who look like me — especially because our narrative purpose is to further another white character’s…
