Major spoilers ahead for ‘The Last Of Us Part II’ and Jesse’s character arc. You’ve been warned!
For all the flaws and serious storytelling issues present in The Last Of Us Part II, the game did a surprisingly great job when it comes to diversity and how it depicts its diverse cast of characters over the course of its 25-hour story.
But the biggest surprise was how The Last Of Us Part II portrayed Jesse, one of the game’s biggest characters who happens to also be an Asian dude.
Speaking of games, the GOAT team talk about what to expect from the PS5 on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
Several iconic Asian characters that have made their mark in video games, but it’s always been in a sort of piss-take way or in a game where Asia is the primary setting and context. Just imagine if the Yakuza series had a white dude as its protagonist instead of Kiryu.
There’s a sort of expectation that Asian characters won’t receive the same level of recognition in a Western-influenced video game compared to an Eastern-influenced game because that’s sadly the way it’s been for ages. It’s depressing and something that obviously needs addressing.
So you can imagine my surprise when The Last Of Us Part II trotted Jesse out and he turned out to not be some walking stereotype who borders on offensive. He actually looks and acts like, well, me.
Rather than the evil bad guy, martial arts guru, or socially awkward IT nerd we’ve come to expect from depictions of Asians in pop culture, The Last Of Us Part II presents Jesse as a handsome, funny, and all-around capable guy.
But importantly, it never feels like Jesse was shoehorned into The Last Of Us Part II to score diversity points. The game takes time to establish Jesse as part of Ellie’s world and his place in the story intertwines in genuinely meaningful ways with the rest of the game’s main characters.
There’s only one explicit reference to Jesse’s Asian background and it’s in the form of some playful banter between himself and Ellie during a conversation on why she isn’t attracted to him.
It’s a simple joke that carries a surprising amount of weight because of how much truth is in it and how it accurately captures a real-life snapshot of how Asians have had to adapt in order to fit into a world that may not always recognise them.
That being said, it was pretty shocking when Jesse gets shot to death at the end of act two in The Last Of Us Part II after the game spent so much time developing him into such a likable character.
But as much as it sucks to have Jesse cop a blow with the death hammer two-thirds of the way into The Last Of Us Part II – and there’s no way of not interpreting that as the developers doing him dirty when watching it for the first time as an Asian person – it was okay in the end.
Well-developed characters die all the time in video games and it’s been established throughout The Last Of Us Part II that Jesse was no disposable redshirt. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
All in all, it was just nice and refreshing to see a video game like The Last Of Us Part II portray an Asian dude in a way that’s more reflective of society’s diversity in real life and how Asian males are more than just some clichéd stereotype.
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