Week 5: There’s definitely Fridging but At Least It’s Not Ashley Johnson, I Guess?
So after watching Sarkeesian’s videos, I want to go back to a point in the game that I kind of mentioned as being bad but definitely glossed over. So Joel’s boss Tess was definitely a badass, and since I’m not super good at the combat stuff and I’m on easy mode, her NPC took care of a lot of the killing I had to do to get to this point. But then she gets bit by a zombie. And dies. And her last, dying wish is for Joel to take Ellie to her destination.
So Joel does it. His important female relation dies, and this motivates him to complete the rest of his hero’s quest. It’s literally a perfect example, like it was taken right out of the videos.
I think it’s super interesting, because Tess doesn’t fit the expected mold of “damsel.” She’s in charge and she’s intimidating, and she’s never really viewed as a sexual or romantic object in Joel’s eyes. But she gets so obviously fridged. She even did what Sarkeesian said about women who turn into monsters and beg for death. Some of Tess’s last words, as she decided to take a last stand to hold the bad guys off and die in a hail of gunfire rather than turn into a zombie, was to ask Joel, “Make this easy on me.”
And Tess isn’t even the only woman who gets killed either. Within the first ten minutes of the game Joel’s daughter Sarah gets gunned down in front of him. This sets him off on the dark path that spans the years between the prologue and the current gameplay, which we’re only starting to hear about now. But his daughter died so that he had a teenaged-daughter-sized hole in his heart for Ellie to jump in and fill.
Which brings us to Ellie herself. Though she, again, does not necessarily fit the “damsel” mold, it’s very easy to place her there when you think about it. She hasn’t been captured or killed, necessarily, but the nature of the world they live in, the journey they’re making, and her unique immunity to the zombie virus leaves her in near-constant “distress”, from which Joel, as her adult/protector, is expected to protect her. I want to say it’s a little different, since Ellie is, in-game, constantly learning more about the world and how to defend herself, and it’s not just “oh poor foolish woman doesn’t know how to operate sniper rifle” as much as it’s “literal child has thankfully never needed to operate sniper rifle,” but there’s still that lingering sensation of a strong man protecting a weak woman from the world she doesn’t understand as it is perpetually trying to hurt her. On the other hand, this could be a clever subversion of the “teaching my son to be a man” trope as Joel is instead teaching Ellie, a female, how to become a self-defending, zombie-murdering badass like he is.
However, regardless of whatever direction the Joel and Ellie relationship is going in, the fact is the game completely fridges Tess and Sarah, no matter how much I might wish otherwise. And damseling most of the women in a game just so one gets to be a badass hero unfortunately isn’t great progress.
I still love this game though. And Ashley Johnson.
