Spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2 ahead.The second season of HBO’sThe Last of Ushas been taking a lot of liberties with… well, everything.Jackson’s communityplays a much larger part in the story.Abby exposition dumps her whole life story in the first few episodes. Ellie and Dinafeel more like rebellious teenagers than young adults. Some key, pivotal moments have been replicated, like Dina and Ellie’s kiss, but others like Dina and Ellie sparking up,have been removed.
I’ve generally tried to give the show grace when it comes to how it’s rewriting the story and characters. After all, every change is deliberate, and will have cascading consequences over the course of the show’s upcoming episodes and seasons.
The television series is exploring ideas and themes that wereless present in the original games, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s an adaptation, not a shot for shot recreation ofthe game, and I’d argue it’s more interesting that the show seems to be in conversation with its source material instead of copying it.
HBO’s Dina Is Vengeful
But I’m pretty concerned about the way Dina is being framed so far. Over the last few episodes, we’ve seen Dina presented asa bit of a surrogate daughter to Joel, someone who loves him as much as Ellie does and has her own separate relationship with him.
The absence of Ellie and Dina’s smoking scene in episode two was because Dina was with Joel when he was murdered instead of Tommy, who was back at Jackson trying to prevent the Infected from destroying the town. As a result of this omission and Dina’s fleshed out relationship with Joel, Dina and Ellie never solidify their romantic relationship, and Dina has her own reasons for wanting to pursue Abby and her friends.
Episode three shows us Ellie recuperating from her physical and emotional wounds, and Dina being the main driver of their revenge quest. It’s Dina who plans their journey, sorts out the logistics, and gathers supplies, weapons, and their horse. It’s Dina who thinks things through so that Ellie, impetuous and impulsive as she is, doesn’t get herself into trouble. They are two sides of the same, angry coin.
TV Dina Might Not Be Straight, But She’s Still Different
But these interesting changes also come with a strange narrative choice – Ellie and Dinastillhave not affirmed their feelings for each other. In fact, their relationship, one of gaming’s most important and well-known sapphic love stories, has been significantly altered. Where the game’s version of Dina only goes on this quest because she’s in love with Ellie, setting off immediately and just as recklessly so Ellie is not alone while she grieves, the show’s Dina is still playing coy. She tells Ellie, “You’re gay, I’m not.” She says she’s gotten back together with Jesse. She plays off the kiss as being meaningless.
There are valid reasons to interpret this as the show writing out Ellie and Dina’s romance,as many fans have complained. As a bisexual myself, I balked at the idea that theiconicmoment the two knew they were into each other was instead written as the bicurious exploration of a straight girl. Dina doesn’t need to be in love with Ellie in this version of the story, because she’s been given her own reasons to want revenge, so the show could, in theory, write it out entirely.
I don’t think this is necessarily the case. What we’re more likely seeing is a slow burn romance, where Dina comes to terms with her sexuality over time. It would certainly be more in line with the slower pacing of a television show, where romance can be developed over the course of a season and we’d have the opportunity to watch a very familiar (to many queer people) story play out – someone realising she’s bisexual and overcoming comphet.
This isn’t inherently a bad thing. There should be room for this kind of story in prestige media, and to immediately cry biphobia is a mistake. We’re probably going to see a different Dina, one who isn’t quite sure of her sexuality, but whose love is just as valid even if it isn’t immediate.
But it’s also not the Dina we know. The game’s Dina is not just a love interest or a side character, but a symbol of morality. She tries to nudge Ellie onto a ‘better’ path, one that seeks justice instead of revenge. Her pregnancy makes her a burden, not just physically, but morally – if something bad happens to her and her unborn child, it becomes Ellie’s fault, because Dina is only there because of her.
This Dina isn’t a moral compass. She’s not a symbol of love, or a better way forward, at least not now – if she chooses a different path from Ellie down the line, this reading might still work, but right now she’s characterised as being just as angry as Ellie. The show’s Dina is a woman on her own quest for revenge, and her not being in love with Ellie is just a symptom of that.
