Bella Ramsey Reacts To 'The Last of Us' Fan Theories

Yeah, with me and Pedro,

it was sometimes like father daughter energy,

but most of the time it was like two annoying siblings.

I also felt like I was his dad sometimes.

Sometimes I was the father.

Most of the time Pedro was the daughter.

[Speaker] Why are you so important?

I think what really impressed him

was the fact that I didn't turn into a monster.

Hello, I'm Bella Ramsey.

I play Ellie in The Last of Us

and I'm gonna be discussing some fan theories

for Vanity Fair.

Be warned, there are spoilers,

there will be sensitive discussions,

but I mean if you're worried about spoilers,

you should go and watch the show before watching this.

You should watch the show anyway.

[Bella clicking with mouth]

This was posted by zmannate.

Ellie isn't actually immune,

the cordyceps are just acting really, really, really slowly

causing her to slowly go insane.

It is well established that you quickly lose your mind

before turning into a runner.

This transition into insanity is usually extremely fast

but my theory is that with Ellie it's extremely slow.

This scares me.

Oh, Ellie is definitely insane.

But like, aren't we all?

I'm a bit insane.

Does that mean cordyceps is slowly growing in my body?

Ellie's quite violent and quite like impulsive,

which I guess the the clickers sort of are.

They're running purely on instinct.

But I feel like that's just who she is.

But maybe like that's amplified

by the slow burning cordyceps.

I don't really wanna think about it.

Yeah, I don't see why this couldn't be true.

This is by gnulynnux.

They may be able to cure humanity

by infecting a generation of mothers.

Ellie is immune because her mother was infected

shortly before giving birth.

Reproducing these circumstances would mean

infecting every birthing mother,

curing a generation of newborns.

I feel like they've just solved the problem.

They've just like saved the world with this theory.

Like, this is genius.

I mean, the mothers would have to consent

and like be okay with being infected

but I feel like you'd get a good selection of people

who would be up for it.

Yeah, this is cool.

Haquistadore.

Haquistadore, I quite like that.

I think the point of this series is that Ellie is special

but it's not the immunity that makes her important.

It's fucking Ellie.

She's strong, she's brave, she's capable of violence

but has a huge unbreakable heart.

Huge in capital letters.

Everyone sees it.

Her principal back in the QZ,

Riley, Marlene, Tess, Joel, David, everyone sees it,

and almost everyone feels an intense instinct

to protect her.

I think that Ellie is going to grow into a leader

who unites the survivors in a way

that might most resemble some combination

of Kathleen and her brother Michael.

The only other outcome would've left the world

quite possibly even worse off than it was before

and without Ellie.

Joel made the right decision, even if for the wrong reasons,

and he will never know why.

So I think this is basically, like,

the underlying story of the whole thing.

The immunity is definitely one of the things

that makes her special.

But like, fucking Ellie is also what makes her special.

Yeah, I think this is like...

She delved beneath like the surface level meaning.

Oh, don't ask me if Joel made the right decision.

I mean, I think he made the right decision

and I think like most people agree.

From like the reaction to the series as well,

I think more people are like,

he definitely made the right decision.

I don't think it was even a choice.

I don't even think it was a decision for him.

There was no other option other than to save her

because he didn't save...

He did save the world.

But like, his world.

That's so cringey but it's kind of true.

Klutzy_Camp6627.

Marlene already knew Ellie was immune

and used Riley to get her.

In this theory, her character is even more

integral to the story because she plays

a more critical role,

becoming more than Ellie's love interest.

Riley unknowingly lays the seas

for motivating Ellie to sympathize with the fireflies.

Why would Marlene recruit a 16 year old girl

simply because, as Riley put it,

'Marlene was impressed by watching me sneak around.'

No, Riley was recruited because Marlene knew

she was Ellie's roommate and close friend.

Marlene already knew Ellie was immune

before she got bitten by the fact

that she told her firefly subordinates

not to kill her on the spot.

She used Riley to get Ellie on board with the fireflies.

I don't wanna believe this is true.

I wanna believe that Riley loves Ellie

and that there's no ulterior motive

because that's too much of a betrayal otherwise.

But I mean it's valid.

Riley leaving for three weeks and whatever

is like part of this whole scheme.

It would like ruin Ellie, if this was true.

I mean, she already has trust issues, right?

So this would just...

I feel like she would never be able to trust anybody again

and I feel like her relationship with Joel

would be different also because of that.

Like if she found out that this was the case,

like, she'd start to question everything.

Oh no, I can't believe this.

Now it's gonna play on my mind.

This one was posted by novaeuphoria.

'The Last of Us': Joel's real reason.

Joel thought that sacrificing Ellie

wasn't worth saving humanity.

The same humanity that killed his daughter.

The same people that kill each other every day.

I think the giraffe symbolized true innocence,

the vanishing grace of childhood.

This is beautiful.

When Joel looked back at the giraffes

and they were almost gone,

he realized that innocence has left this world

and the world needed innocence.

People like Ellie.

They didn't need a cure because the cordyceps

wasn't the real disease.

It's what people have become.

Yeah.

True.

Truth.

I'm trying to think of like what the youth say

like when something's true.

Oh, period.

I feel like that episode with David and Ellie

shows that humans are far scarier

and capable of like far worse damage,

'cause they also know what they're doing.

Cordyceps are much more instinctive.

So I feel like that's really the real fear.

SL4Gg.

Which looks like slag.

Am I allowed to say that?

[Speaker] Yeah, you are.

Okay, good.

Maybe Joel is her actual dad.

Whoa!

Whoa, that would've meant...

No.

How?

That would've meant that Anna...

Oh yeah.

I guess Joel is the age to be her dad.

Whoa, this is blowing my mind a little bit.

That meant like Anna and Joel

would've hooked up somewhere.

When?

How?

I don't wanna think about that.

Imagine if Joel was her actual dad.

But she doesn't really look like Sarah in any way.

So I feel like they definitely...

They couldn't even be half sisters.

Maybe they could.

Maybe Joel is her dad.

Uh-oh.

I think Joel is inherently a good dad.

I think he was like born to be her dad.

He has dad energy, for sure.

He would definitely do like bad dad dancing at a party.

With me and Pedro,

it was sometimes like father-daughter energy,

but most of the time it was like two annoying siblings

who like, love each other and annoy everybody else.

I also felt like I was his dad sometimes.

I told him to like breathe, like, it's okay,

you're doing a good job.

Take a breath.

He also did that a lot to me.

We are very equal in the father daughter playing ground.

This is why I say more like siblings.

But he definitely like sometimes was like super dad to me.

Like super dad.

This is by throwtheclownaway20.

I really quite enjoy that name.

I watched a TikTok this morning that theorized

that the doctors the fireflies employ

are all med school dropouts.

No trained experienced doctors is going to be

so impatient and/or stupid that they'd get access

to one immune person on earth and just go, okay,

let's hack up her brain and hope for the best.

FFS.

Brain biopsies are a thing that exists

and don't require anyone to die

but you don't exactly learn to do that in your first year.

That's true.

I mean, no one's really been in like

formal education for a while.

The world was destroyed 20 years ago

and they're just gonna like chop out a brain

and not even think about the fact that maybe

you could chop out the brain and save humanity and Ellie?

Like, why didn't they think of that?

Maybe they just really hate me.

Okay, the next one, Maclin Vance said,

I just realized, another clue Ellie is immune,

she's eating a breaded chicken sandwich

while Joel and Tess are eating beef jerky.

If bread equals cordyceps,

Ellie is casually flaunting her immunity

in front of Joel and Tess.

Hmm.

This could be an interesting thing.

But I do think that one of the reasons

Joel and Tess are eating beef jerky

is just 'cause like that's all they've got.

I really dunno how they survived though.

But the bread thing, I don't know if that's still the case.

Like maybe cordyceps got into the initial

like one batch of flour,

but now more bread is being produced,

new batches are being made that don't contain cordyceps.

But can they really check for that?

I don't know.

@EvilSporkofDeath.

I haven't used a spork in so long.

I interpreted Ellie cutting that zombie with her knife

as her testing how human the guy is.

She wanted to see the fungus to feel better

about it really no longer being human.

I think that this Ellie cutting the zombie with her knife,

that scene, she's thinking of like Riley and Tess

and being like, you killed Riley and Tess, essentially.

Like, the infected guy.

It's like even though it wasn't you, it was you.

It's like your people, you killed them.

It's like her first moment of real violence

and like revenge.

Yeah, she's kind of evil in that moment.

I'm kind of into it.

Thank you for watching me read these out

and listening to my thoughts.

Enjoy The Last of Us if you haven't seen it already

and watch out for season two.

It'll be a while, sorry.