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Ellabs is the femslash ship between Ellie Williams and Abby Anderson from the The Last of Us fandom.
Canon[]
Abby is first made aware of Ellie when she visits her father in the Salt Lake hospital. She listens in as he and Marlene discuss the operation they plan to perform, which will kill Ellie but have the potential to create a cure for Cordyceps. Abby tells her father that, if she were in Ellie's position, she would sacrifice herself for the greater good. However, Ellie is not given the chance to make the decision for herself; Marlene decides to sacrifice Ellie without consulting her. This drives Joel into a rage, and he kills anyone in the hospital that gets in his way so that he can escape with Ellie. Abby arrives back at the hospital later that night and discovers that her father has been murdered. There, she promises to seek revenge on the man that killed him.
Five years later, Abby and others who were affected by the hospital massacre finally catch up to Joel. Not knowing who the group are, Joel helps save their lives from a pack of infected. This doesn't alter Abby's opinion of him. She finds a golfclub, and uses it to beat Joel while she tells him that he "[doesn't] get to rush this". When Tommy and Joel don't return from their patrol, Ellie and a few others set out to look for them. Ellie stumbles across the lodge where they are keeping Joel, and hurries in to try and save him. The group becomes panicked that others will arrive, and they tell Abby to stop torturing Joel and to finish it. Abby reluctantly obliges, and uses the golf club to kill Joel. Ellie cries out, and she is knocked unconscious. Tommy and Ellie are both spared, as Abby and her group head back to Seattle.
Ellie, having seen her father-figure murdered right in front of her, vows to set out for revenge against Abby. She travels to Seattle with Dina, Jesse, and Tommy in an attempt to track down the group. They end up eliminating six of Abby's friends in the process, which causes Abby to track them down to their hideout for further revenge. Jesse is killed in the gunfight, and Tommy is gravely injured. Abby and Ellie proceed to fight, stabbing and beating each other with their fists. When Dina is injured, Ellie begs for her life to be spared because she's pregnant. Abby nearly kills her for this, wanting to seek revenge for the murder of her own pregnant friend, but is convinced by Lev to spare both of their lives. She leaves, and tells Ellie she never wants to see her again.
Despite twice being given mercy at Abby's hands, Ellie still cannot escape her feeling of vengeance. She tries to settle into a normal life with Dina, but she cannot move past Joel's death. Even though Dina begs her to stay, Ellie packs a bag and heads to Santa Barbara, Abby's last known location. There, she follows Abby's tracks to the base of a slaver gang. She fights her way past the gang members and the infected that roam their property, and finds a number of prisoners. She asks for Abby's whereabouts, and is told that Abby was punished for attempting an escape. She has been strung up on a pillar on the beach, left to die from starvation or at the hands of the elements.
Ellie frees Abby and Lev, and Abby leads the three of them to boats they can use to escape. However, before they part ways, Ellie demands that Abby fights her. Abby refuses, so Ellie threatens Lev's life. Seeing no other choice, Abby agrees to fight her. The fight is brutal, with Ellie losing two fingers in the process, but she manages to get the upperhand. As she holds Abby underwater, drowning her, she remembers Joel playing the guitar for her. The memories cause Ellie to have a change of heart, and she loosens her grip on Abby before she dies. Ellie tells Abby and Lev to leave, and watches with tears as their boat departs.
Fanon[]
Ellabs is a not-so-popular ship in The Last of Us fandom, as it is a very decisive one. Abby is known for being one of the most hated video game characters of all time, due to her murder of Joel. This turned a lot of fans away from the ship. Others like Abby and Ellie separately, but can't look past the fact that they spend the entire game trying to kill each other. Others still are hardcore EllieDina shippers, and don't want to see any competition for their favourite pairing.
Still, Ellabs continues to be liked by a good portion of people. It has a dedicated fanbase on Tumblr, and is a popular inspiration for fanart. Fans of the ship generally imagine them together in an AU where neither of them sought revenge against the other. The two characters are so similar, even being presented in-game as two sides of the same coin, that many think they would have been good friends or maybe even lovers if their circumstances were different.
And then there are those who ship the canonical version of the characters, and enjoy the tension presented from an enemies-to-lovers perspective. Some even ship them in a hypothetical sense, where Abby and Ellie later reconcile in post-canon, and become lovers afterwards.
Ellabs is the 9th most popular ship in the fandom on AO3. It is Abby's most popular ship and Ellie's sixth most popular.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Abby/Ellie tag on AO3
- Abby & Ellie tag on AO3
- WIKIS
- Abby's relationship with Ellie on The Last of Us Wiki
- Ellie's relationship with Abby on The Last of Us Wiki
Gallery[]
- All art in this section is fan made, and must be sourced back to the original artist. It also must have permission from the original artist to be posted here. If your art is here without your permission and you wish to have it taken down, please inform an admin, so that we may delete it.
_2.jpg "Ellabs (TLOU PART 3) 2.jpg (302 KB)")
.webp "Ellabs (TLOU PART 3).webp (56 KB)")
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| The Last of Us Ships • The Last of Us Characters | |||
| SHIPS | het | Joel x Tess | |
| slash | Bill x Frank | ||
| femslash | Ellabs • EllieDina • EllieRiley | ||
| poly | JesseEllieDina | ||
| family | Joel & Ellie | ||
| CHARACTERS | female | Ellie Williams | |