Is no one going to point out the fact that it’s pretty impossible for Applebloom to be Ellie and be this age? The game is set twenty years after the outbreak, she should be late twenties at the very least.
 
Also, kinda takes away the main point of the game (Joel and Ellie’s relationship) if Big Mac’s protecting his sister.
 
Asides from that, good image.

@nyxabuse  
I can agree with those cases in regard to newer games, but PC gaming has always had done female characters right with the point and click adventure titles (understandably, the whole genre being story based). And even with ‘male centric’ Japanese dating sims, the funny cliche with them is that the male protagonists tends to be the boring part of those games, while the girl characters steals the spotlight EVERY time. Not to mention female characters lead the way and you will find an inundation of female leads and character art in Japanese games the past 20+ years or so.
 
I just think Western AAA game development has had this touchiness about female depictions whether they are to be strong characters or even background characters or even as eyecandy. Japanese games has never been afraid to do so, no matter how fluffy the girls are used as fanservice or just as plot devices or full on protagonists. I just get this feeling that AAA gaming tends to be hyper weary about offending anyone while Japanese titles don’t worry at all and just forge onward.
 
I do think Ellie is a great character and being strong and all that, but then again, I don’t see how a girl being demure or more ‘traditional’ feminine charm makes them any less of a character. It’s just one way of making a convincing character. Then again, that may all be because of Western AAA gaming (or the audience’s) hyper sensitivity to this. A character like Samus being a ‘strong character’ just strikes me as odd, considering physical strength and her being a face-less bounty hunter for her earlier games is considered the reason for her being a ‘strong’ character. But that’s all superficial stuff. Stuff that Aeris did in sacrificing herself and being ‘weak’, stuff like that is ‘strength’ as well.

@DVD  
Samus is a strong role, but I’m not sure if she really counts as a character, since she has essentially no personality for most of the games. Same with Chell, or most indie protagonists.
 
(This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I found myself really caring for the protag of Sword and Sworcery, even though she’s a silent character with minimal characterisation.)
 
It has flaws as a game (pointless RPG elements, standard stealth game ‘enemies with no peripheral vision’ stuff), but the realisation of the characters – not just the writing, but the voice acting, design and animation of them – is 100% perfect in The Last of Us. And Ellie is fucking badass (a large part of this comes down to her being an actually useful sidekick, like Alex Vance from Half Life squared).

@DVD  
Dude, everyone knows those aren’t women. They are dudes posing as women.

@Background Pony  
I don’t mind Samus being openly female honestly. I’m more talking about the indie and Japanese gaming scenes that had strong female roles dating back to the 80s. I just think peoplr are being myopic by only taking major blockbuster games into consideration. Gaming world is much wider than that.

@Detective_Chmilewsky  
She’d be close to perfect

@DVD  
What happened to Samus, the proper way to do a female character, as in, not pointing to her being female to make your game special?

I bet Babs Seed would be a good pony version for Ellie.

@DVD  
Agreed, The history, gfraphics ans soundtrack are amazing, but the gameplay is alittle repetitive, and you fight only, like, 5 zombies and 5 humans.

Pretty damn good game. But damn the gamers are way too hyperbolic about how good the game is. It’s not THAT great. Nor is it some ‘first game with a great female character!’. ugh.

I would NOT want to mess with a Big Mac who’s trying to protect his littlest sister!

I how should I imagine mushroom-zombie-mutant-ponies?

@nyxabuse  
Apple Bloom “too sweet”? You try to survive a zombie apocalypse, then tell me if you remain “sweet”.  
Anyway, that was already done with RD/Scoots: >>355032

lololol someone should totally do something like this with Mr. Cake as Joel

nice.

I was wondering how long it would take for The Last of Us images to start popping up here  
also Apple Bloom is too sweet to be Ellie  
Big Mac/some random OC child would probably work better (lol that’s the first time I’ve ever thought ’this would be better with an OC)