I would say that's a gameplay decision not a story decision which is what I was talking about. However though there's no right or wrong answer, just a manner of opinion. The game is brutal, it's on the verge sometimes for me but that doesn't make it a bad game. If your feeling bad about it, that's the whole point of it.
So true. I didn't agree with Joel's predominantly selfish decision in the first game, the murder of the surgeon, because it didn't ring right with me. However, that was the story.
Abby was a few steps ahead in redemption than Ellie, with her developing compassion and letting go of the hatred. She found her salvation by being the salvation of surrogate family. Like Joel thought he was. I imagine Abby would break the cycle, risking her life selflessly for a stranger who gave her a reason to live.
I started to find Ellie repulsive to play. Her determination was self-serving, much like Joel's, in the vain hope that revenge would equal justice. Only she could free herself from her own self-imposed Hell by accepting what had happened, realising that her actions brought disaster to her friends.
You could see her steady decline by her interactions with Dina, the brutality of her murder and torture and general tunnel-vision. It wasn't easy playing, but car-crash gaming. She was no hero, but a force of retribution and destruction.
It was a bitter-sweet ending, but overall Ellie was a monster shaped partially by events and her own reactions to them. She was resentful that she didn't get a chance to make up with Joel. Nothing could make up for that and she dragged others down with her. She was, essentially, a tragic character who learned too little too late for some of her friends.
Not too sure if I can say I 'enjoyed' the game, some of the scenes made me very uncomfortable, but it was a masterpiece that still resonates with me.