#jerry anderson

[shorthaltsjester]

ashley and laura both being in that episode is fantastic for iconic bestie reasons but also god the fucking. poetry of. both of them having embodied and voiced central characters in the games and now playing people who are witnesses to what causes the characters’ most central motivations? like ashley as anna watching marlene carry away her daughter who she knows was still part of her when she was bitten and ellie carries the weight of that for the rest of her life because of everything it means for the possibility of a cure. and laura as a nurse who watches the murder of this (for now) nameless doctor whose needless death will be something that haunts abby for the rest of her life. god . cross media storytelling is so ripe with phenomenal possibility for exactly this reason i’m Losing It

[oscarisaacsspit]

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I’ll speak more on the season finale of “The Last of Us” later, but for now, I just wanna say that I felt that the episode brought back the sense of dread in a shootout scene. I feel that audiences, including myself, have gotten so desensitized to gunfights in movies and TV shows that when we’re watching these scenes happen, we’re not registering just how destructive they really are. For example, if you watch any of the “John Wick” movies, by the 70th person who John has gunned down, you’ve essentially become numb to all the deaths. They’re no longer people, they’re just targets.

But the way “The Last of Us” filmed the hospital scene really emphasized just how horrific the massacre was. Heroic music isn’t playing, close-ups on Joel’s victims, Joel shoots a guy who surrendered, Joel’s numb expression, unarmed people running away and pleading for their lives. Even though Joel is the hero, the show doesn’t sugarcoat how destructive his actions were.

Honestly, the last time a shootout scene gave me this sense of dread was “Daredevil” when Frank Castle shot up the hospital…oh, what a coincidence!

[ellies-enrichment]

[angelkissiies]

we fell in love in october

abby anderson x reader x ellie williams

cw : fluff, tears, mentions of pregnancy, mentions of birth, grandpa joel and grandpa jerry.

a/n : literally so short but i needed to get this out of my brain before i died (of baby fever)

Abby held the tiny bundle in her arms as Ellie and Joel crowded around her to catch a glimpse. She’d only been in the world for twenty minutes before the village of a family poured in itching to see their newest addition, gasping in awe as they took in her tiny blushed figure swaddled in a thick layer of blanket to counteract the cool fall air that drifted in from the open window. 

You smiled at the sight, looking over to Jerry as you nodded towards the group. “Go see your granddaughter, worry about me later.” He had been hovering by your side the entire time, watching you carefully just in case anything went wrong at the last minute but you couldn’t bear seeing Abby experience this moment without him. “I’m fine, trust me.” 

For a moment you thought you heard Dina and Jesse outside, awaiting their turn to see the baby- but Ellie’s soft voice caught your attention, drawing you back to the moment at hand. 

She was all tears, kneeling by your bedside now as she broke away from the group. “Oh, baby. You did so well.” She hiccuped, brushing the hair from your face. She had slight dark circles around her eyes, showing just how long she had spent pacing around your room, the hallway, the bathroom, and even the courtyard as she waited patiently. “She looks just like you.” 

Abby handed the baby off to Joel, letting him and her dad coo over the angel as she came to rest beside Ellie, intertwining her fingers with the brunette before ghosting her free hand over yours- nervous to be too rough after the day you’d been through. “God, she is so beautiful.” She stated, a small sigh leaving her lips as she peered up at you through her thick lashes. She never thought she’d see the day she’d make her dad and grandpa, yet here it was, and something inside of her knew she’d never be able to live without this. Without the family the three of you had created. 

You nodded, moving a weak hand to grip onto hers. “She’s ours. Our baby girl.” You reminded them, through the entire pregnancy- your biggest fear had been either of your girls feeling less than the other when it came to being your daughters mom. Yet as you saw the tear streaks that adorned both of their faces, you couldn’t deny their claim to her parentage. Maybe biologically, you were her only connection, but emotionally the women before you had taken on the role of mother long before she’d ever even seen the sun. 

“Thank you.” Ellie breathed, resting her head on Abby’s shoulder. 

The two held each other close, Abby being as gentle as she could as she peppered soft kisses on your knuckles. The sound of soft laughter and sniffles filled your ears as you let yourself finally begin to relax for the first time since you went into labor. There was nothing as sweet as the love that pulsed through the room, spilling out the windows and into the depths of Jackson, swallowing up the dangers that waited outside the walls and allowing the world to feel a lot softer than it had in a very long time. 

All it took was a little girl born on the first of October.

[cloudofbutterflies]

WAIT JOEL DON'T KILL HIM YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HIS DAUGHTER IS A GOLFER

[abbystanaccount]

Abby plays the guitar too sometimes 🥰

[twinsarekeepers]

Let me preface this by saying, I’m a pre-med student who works in a psychology lab as a research assistant and has also worked in a doctor’s office with actual patients. A lot of my opinions about this ending are informed by that aspect of myself, but that does not mean I don’t understand the incredible weight and horror of Joel’s decision either. I am also a writer and the narrative of a parent’s love being that destructive is so compelling.

However, it’s not more important to me than making sure people know how egregiously terrible the Fireflies are. Because the logic that something can morally outweigh informed consent is what has led to some truly horrific, catastrophic events in our REAL human history. Henrietta Lacks, the Tuskegee study, and the CIA’s fake vaccination drive in Pakistan come to mind immediately for me. These are all events that I encourage everyone to learn about.

Putting all that aside for now, objectively, Jerry Anderson was stupid and wrong in every way possible. You never ever want to completely destroy the subject you are working on, ESPECIALLY if that is the only one you have. Because wtf are you going to do if your experiment doesn’t work? You killed the one source! Literally anything would’ve been better than KILLING ELLIE?? Killing her should be the very last resort after exhausting every other possible avenue, which they didn’t. (Before someone tells me that I need to suspend my disbelief … no. The whole show is rooted in realism and that this is a possibility SCIENTIFICALLY … so I’m going to think about it with my science brain, I’m sorry!)

Now onto the part that I know y’all are going to get your panties in a twist about, Ellie herself and her capacity to give consent. Which in my opinion, coming from someone whose literal job it is to get informed consent, she did not have.

Bodily autonomy and agency is obviously very important but you would never let your child run into oncoming traffic because “oh, it’s their body and I’d be violating their autonomy and agency if I physically held them back!!” Like no. That’s a child that doesn’t fully grasp what they are doing or what is going on around them so you as the adult must make the decision to not let them harm themselves.

Ellie is a slew of red flags to someone who would be searching for participants for an experiment. For one, Ellie is a child. Getting informed consent from a child is already hard because their brains are not developed enough to fully grasp and understand what they’d be agreeing to. Two, Ellie has gone through immense trauma and is suffering from the worst case of survivor’s guilt to possibly ever exist. She literally feels like the only way to compensate for her loss is to die. She is the definition of passively suicidal. The way I would rule her out of a study so fast and send her links to every helpline I know. And yes, I know that she can never actually get the help she needs. But in my opinion, she is not in any way able to give consent and Jerry and nurses should’ve been very aware of that.

So, the fact that the Fireflies are just medically inept, and on top of that, didn’t care to get consent, and even if they had, it wouldn’t matter because Ellie is not in a position to be making that kind of decision, makes them very, very wrong.

Does that make Joel right? No. Because Joel wasn’t thinking about any of that. He believed that the Fireflies knew what they were doing, that they had a shot at making a cure and he also knew what Ellie would want (again, she’s still not a position to give consent but JOEL DOESN’T KNOW THAT BECAUSE HE’S NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL) and he still chose to save Ellie over … the entire world. And then he lied to her about it.

(And the lie was to protect her emotionally because he knows she takes on so much blame and he doesn’t want to cause even MORE damage and pile on top of that insane survivor’s guilt … but lying to a teenager is never the way to go, they always know).

TLDR: it is very, very complicated!

[unalteredgraces]

every time i think about jerry anderson i just have to laugh a little. man thought he was living a ya novel being the chosen one bc he convinced not just himself but everyone around him he was the Only Person On Earth that could make a vaccine. then he proceeds to not hear joel kill a whole hospital and when he finally barges in ?? he grabs a mf scalpel to defend himself !!! "i won't let you take her" whats next ?? youre gonna break into song and dance for the final part of your circus act

[miyagi-hokarate]

[sephirajo]

Non-medical and Non-science Tumblr: passionately debating the trolly problem the show set up.

Medical and science Tumblr: what a quack! Joel should have shot him twice!

[mayfieldsz]

IT BEWILDERS ME.

[elliescardcollection]

"everything that we've been fighting for, all the sacrifices, all the horrific… all of that is justified with this one act."

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Since Kaitlyn Dever is Abby, assuming the actor from season 1 doesn’t end up reprising the role, then I want Hugh Jackman as Jerry.

If you know, you know.

[ellies-enrichment]

[angelkissiies]

headcanons or a drabble for abby/reader/ellie as their child grows up? just read “we fell in love in october” and i neeeeed to know how these girls would deal with a rowdy teen lol

the terrible twos.. or was it teens?

raising a child with ellie and abby headcanons / scenarios

(thank you anon for the request!)

three times ellie and abby learned how hard parenting is

one

a tiny toddler ran past ellie’s legs as she reached out to grab her, only missing her by about an inch before the little ball of energy was gone, making the woman let out a sigh. she had been trying for half an hour to tire your daughter out, doing everything she could think of to no avail. at this point abby had all but given up as well, being the main target of the child’s never ending supply of energy as she saw the woman as a jungle gym. they were both beyond tired, yet not willing to ask you for help seeing as you’d been up through the night with her. 

“oh man, baby’s suck.” ellie huffed, rubbing her temples as she bent down to pick up a random couple of toys the little one had strewn out. 

abby laughed, nodding quickly as she looked at the tiny baby bruises she’d begun collecting over the past few months. “how do they have so much energy? it’s unnatural.” 

two

abby gasped as the child showed her what she’d been up to for the past hour. she didn’t even know how to react, seeing the paint smeared over almost every surface in ellie’s art room. on one hand, she was grateful it was only the art room. on the other, she was dreading ellie’s return home from patrol. 

“baby.” she called out, watching as you appeared from around the corner in record time- practically sensing something was wrong. 

your eyes followed the woman’s from your beautifully painted child to the horror scene that was now the art room. old drawings of ellie’s were coated in a thick layer of paint, all except for the ones on the walls that her little arms couldn’t reach. 

“oh hell.”

three

your teen daughter slammed her bedroom door, loud enough to startle the neighbors, as she avoided your parenting. she wanted nothing more than to sneak out after dark with some person from her class, but much to the trios dismay, the only person in her class she could be interested in was the spawn of dina and jesse. 

“absolutely not. not happening.” were the words that set her off, coming almost immediately from ellie’s mouth as she glowered down at the girl. 

abby watched, stressed, as you attempted to follow your daughter. hoping to talk some sense into her. “christ. were we this bad?” she whispered to the brunette as she allowed her to rest her head on her chest. 

ellie nodded, biting back a laugh as she thought about the hell the three of you raised at your daughters age. “worse, i think.” 

and

three times they wished they could stop time

one

abby was on her knees, hands outstretched towards the toddler now standing in ellie’s hold. “c’mon, bug. you can do it.” she whispered, attempting to get you to take your first steps. 

you watched from her side, heart thrumming in anticipation as she lifted her tiny leg and placed it firmly back down on the floor. before you’d even realized, ellie’s hands were gone and she attempted to take another step- completely on her own this time. 

ellie stifled an excited noise as she watched the little girl raise her leg again, wobbling slightly this time, before placing it back down a little further. “she’s doing it!” 

abby glanced over at you momentarily before coming back to settle on the girl who was now just another tiny step away from her hands. “you’re so close, bug, so so close.” she murmured in support, fingers wiggling slightly to keep the little ladies attention. 

she braved the next step, stumbling a tad before landing directly in abby’s outstretched hands. a tiny giggle escaping her lips at the expression that now lived on abby’s face. 

two

“momma, come on!” the little girl grunted, attempting to pull ellie along faster. 

the four of you were headed to joel and jerry’s shared home, all for a little holiday celebration that your daughter hadn’t stopped talking about. 

she’d learned all about hanukkah (from dina and joel) and christmas (from jesse and abby) and hadn’t been able to live without experiencing it this year. so that led you trekking through Jackson’s half plowed roads to her grandpas place. 

abby had her arm around you, trying to Lee your both warm as you watched the pair in front of you. ellie had always been (arguably so) your daughters best friend, giving into her every whim when she asked. “she might rip her arm off.” the woman spoke quietly, looking over to you for a second. 

“oh she definitely will.” you chuckled in response, watching as your daughter ripped away from ellie’s grasp and took off in the direction of her grandpas house, causing ellie to yell something unintelligible before taking off after her. 

three

you stood in front of your daughter, pinning a curl into place as she waited for you to finish. it was the night of the snow ball, an annual dance in Jackson for the kids (and adults) to dress up and have fun. 

“okay, i think im done.” you smiled, crows feet crinkling at the edges of your eyes as you looked down at the little girl who was not to little anymore. “you wanna show your moms?” 

abby and ellie had been waiting patiently for the past half hour after your first initial ‘were almost done!’ call- but as the two of you rounded the corner, they couldn’t even find the words to complain. 

your daughter was dressed in the dress you wore to your first snowball in Jackson, that event being the one you first met the duo you now called wives at. her hair was curled and she looked towards the two with hopeful eyes, sparking them to comment. 

“oh wow.” ellie breathed, eyes becoming glossy in about half a second as she stood to move over to the two of you. “you look so beautiful.” 

abby had stood the moment she heard the two of you coming, and as she peered down at the girl she had grown with for so many years- she felt her cheeks become wet. “bug, you look so much like your mom.” she hummed, moving to wipe the tears from her face.