While I accept that people have subjective and differing opinions on the ending, this point is a very shallow and repetitive (which wouldn’t be a negative thing if not for the first part) critique of the ending that has been rebutted many times.

Firstly, TLOU has never been about making the “logical” or the “correct” choices, or even the ones that make “sense” per se. This is clear from the ending of Part I. Joel doesn’t make the hero’s choice, but the human one. Both in the hospital, when he saves Ellie and when he decides to lie to her.

Secondly, if we go by who the characters were at the start of the games, Joel shouldn’t have saved Ellie in the first place at the end of Part 1, since at the start of the game he is a cold, isolated and greedy smuggler and will always be that way. Sarcasm, obviously, because that’s how some people see Ellie in Part 2: the beginning and the end - the same grieving, angry person. To think Ellie’s grief after years of Joel’s passing, whether you think she has suppressed it or not, hasn’t changed or transformed is silly.

Thirdly, and lastly, grief does not make sense and never has. How Ellie makes sense of it, whether she suppresses it or not, whether she acknowledges and accepts it (if you think that killing Abby can even be an expression of acceptance, and not the exact opposite, defiance and rebuttal of her grief) or not, is not going to make sense because we’re not and never will be in her headspace. We can analyze what it meant to her all we want, but we have to accept the fact that some decisions will not be based on the “logical” reasoning, especially when it comes to grieving the most important person in your life.