By the end of The Last of Us 2, many of the established characters from both the first part and its sequel are either dead, disabled, or otherwise retired from any sort of adventuring. Fans aren’t sure who’s left to carry the torch should a part three ever come out. The obvious choice is Abby and Lev, as those two still have a mission in mind and a plan to carry out, but The Last of Us 3 doesn’t have to take that route. Instead, it would be very interesting to see Tommy take the lead in the next game, a character that fans have always wanted to see more of.
Tommy is in both The Last of Us games, albeit in limited capacity. His role in both games is small but very important, as he always acts as a crucial supporting character. The Last of Us hinted at his background and how he got to where he is now, and The Last of Us 2 showed fans a little more of what Tommy is capable of, but there are a still a lot of unanswered questions. A story focused around Tommy could take the pressure off of Ellie and Abby, allowing fans to explore a different side of survival.
This should go without saying, but there will be spoilers ahead for The Last of Us 2. By the end of that game, Tommy is in pretty bad shape. He’s lost one of his eyes, his left leg seems to be injured, causing him to limp, and it’s revealed that he and Maria are “taking some time apart.” More likely than not, that last part is because of his obsession over finding Abby. After he sends Ellie off to find her again, fans don’t see him again in that game.
It would be hard to imagine this Tommy going off on some grand adventure, as he’s hardly fit to hunt down Abby at that point. If it were to happen, there would have to be sufficient enough time in between games for his leg to heal. A one-eyed protagonist is believable if handled correctly, but one leg is pushing things a bit too far. Still, it’s possible that Tommy could recover and eventually go out on an adventure of his own. What that adventure would be is unclear, as most fans wouldn’t want to see another game centered around hunting down Abby since part two already did that twice.
Instead of moving the story forward, there’s a ton of potential for The Last of Us to make a prequel story instead. This game could cover the 20 years between outbreak day and the beginning of the first game, but the story would be told from Tommy’s point of view. Here players could see exactly what Joel had the two of them doing in order to survive, explore the morality of survival in a post apocalyptic world such as this, and get to know Tommy a little better.
What’s more, Tommy’s accomplishment of creating a lively city with electricity, running water, and safety is no small feat, and fans would certainly love to see the process of doing that. In this type of a story, fans would get the chance to see Tommy go from a construction worker before the outbreak, to a hunter surviving alongside Joel. They’d get to see his time with the fireflies as well as what eventually spurred him to leave that group, and finally play through his struggle to build a safe haven amidst a world crawling with infected and other dangers.
As much as fans love Joel and Ellie, half the allure of The Last of Us was the setting itself. Apocalypse settings such as this are common, but The Last of Us put a different spin on it. The 20 year time skip was necessary to get to a point where the game’s story could be told, but there is a wealth of potential for story and content there that fans are missing out on. Additionally, exploring the events of the time skip would have the side effect of bringing Joel back into the picture, though whether that’s a good thing or not is up to each individual to decide.
The Joel seen here would be a much more ruthless one than what is seen in The Last of Us, and that’s certainly saying something. Whether or not this would stir up more controversy is difficult to say, but it would give players another missing piece of how Joel developed into the man he was during the events of The Last of Us and subsequently The Last of Us 2. On the flip side, Ellie and new characters like Abby, Dina, Yara and Lev wouldn’t be in these stories at all.
Whether it is through the lens of the past or the future, Tommy still has a lot to offer to the franchise. In The Last of Us 2, players followed in the wake of Tommy’s destruction, showing that in certain situations he’s a lot more similar to Joel than he lets on. This sort of ruthless survival is what made the franchise so famous in the first place, and getting to experience it from a different point of view could be what the franchise needs to reunite its fan base.
The possibilities are practically endless here. This could act as a chance for the franchise to take a detour from the main story and shake up its formula a bit, perhaps making a game purely about survival and the building of Jackson County. Alternatively, The Last of Us 2 could release a DLC in which players take control of Tommy during his solo quest, filling in the blanks of the story that played out in the background of the main game. Tommy may be in bad shape at the moment, but there are still plenty of opportunities for the character to shine in the franchise moving forward.
The Last of Us 2 is available now exclusively on PS4.
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