The Last of Us is one of the most popular zombie narratives in gaming, but it's not the only one with a punishing and brutal story to tell. The Walking Dead series is set in the same universe as the comic book series that came before, but its story follows Clementine. Like Ellie, she was thrust into the outbreak at a young age, shaping her into the scrappy and clever fighter that is able to survive, despite the world being littered with the infected.
While The Walking Dead may not be a AAA game like the Last of Us series, the young female protagonists Ellie and Clementine share many similarities and differences. It's even led some fans to debate who would win in a fight, but that's not taking into account how vastly different the two zombie universes actually are, and how they affect both women.
Combat & Negotiating
Combat in The Walking Dead is far more sparse than in TLOU. While Last of Us's main focus in gameplay is combat and stealth kills, while navigating its protagonists throughout a ruined America, Walking Dead more often forces its characters to negotiate with others and actively avoiding confrontation with zombies. Because of this, there's a separation in the two protagonists' skillsets.
Clementine, more often than not, is able to get herself out of situations either by talking her way out of it (especially thanks to being a young girl) or by utilizing her surroundings to her advantage. She's often turned to by her adult peers because of her small size, making her able to squeeze through small spaces and sneak around dangerous areas. Combined with her sharp wit and loss of fear that occurs throughout Season Two, she becomes completely self-reliant, and the same can be said about Ellie.
The Last of Us relies much more heavily on combat than any kind of negotiating, though especially in the sequel, when Ellie slaughters her way through dozens of enemies, driven by blind hate. While Clementine is also a stealth-based character, Ellie will attack Infected head-on, but Clementine and her allies actively avoid them. The same can be seen with non-zombie enemies; Ellie typically shoots her way out of nasty situations or at least threatens to do so, while Clementine isn't as handy with a gun.
Father Figures
The relationship Ellie and Clementine share with their surrogate father figures, Joel and Lee respectively, boils down to their backstories and personalities. While Ellie was born into a quarantine zone bred as a result of the spore outbreak, Clementine was thrust into that reality at a very young age. Lee was the first person to find her at eight years old in the first episode of Season One, and she clung to him as she faced the reality that her parents were no longer alive. He teaches her many of the skills she would use throughout the series, and she thinks of him fondly after Lee comes to his tragic end.
Ellie and Joel's relationship, on the other hand, is far more complicated. After losing his own daughter Sarah, Joel wasn't eager to bear the burden of watching over another teen that shared many similarities with his own. He's very cold at Ellie's every attempt to get to know him, and it's not until the end of The Last of Us when Joel fully accepts the reality that he considers Ellie to be his own daughter. During Part 2, it's clear thanks to Jackson's townsfolk that this is their settled-upon relationship. In contrast, Lee and Clementine have player-driven options to intentionally call one other "dad" and "daughter" from the earliest episodes.
Revenge
Revenge is the hotly-debated through-line of TLOU2, but isn't a major theme with Clementine in TWD. After losing Joel who she had come so close to over the last few years and who's brutally murdered before her eyes, Ellie feels forced to continue the cycle of revenge that Joel had started by killing Abby's father. Players watch and experience Ellie's downward spiral first-hand as she succumbs to hatred. Revenge drives the story throughout TLOU2, but The Walking Dead is progressed rather by Clementine's will to push on.
While characters around Clem might act out of vengeance towards others, she acts as the moral compass of the group and often passes judgment on those who make these rash decisions. She only ever delivers heavy-handed punishments when it serves a real purpose. "Killing is bad, no matter what," Lee teaches her in the first game, and she would go on to teach A.J. the same lesson.
Survivor's Guilt
Survivor's guilt is obvious in Ellie based on the nature of her backstory. The DLC of The Last of Us showed the sad story of both Ellie and her friend Riley being bitten, but only Riley died because Ellie is immune. Based on a conversation with Joel, the player knows she feels guilty about her existence as an immune human and wants to donate her life to mean something. Of course, this boils over when she realizes that Joel had lied to her about the Fireflies, and she doesn't know how to cope with it or forgive him.
But Clementine doesn't seem to own the same guilt. She's saddened by the loss of her friends, but she embodies much colder confidence than Ellie does. By the end of her tale, she exhibits the behavior almost of a sociopath but understands the weight of death at the same time. The PTSD shaped her in a different way. While she begins her journey as a timid child, Clem eventually calls herself the toughest of anyone and the audience believes it. Ellie acts tough, especially in the first installment, but it's revealed that she's always scared and hurting.
Watching Over Children
Finally, both Ellie and Clem come to watch over a child that isn't directly their own, not so much out of choice but rather out of the reality of their situations. But eventually, each protagonist comes to genuinely love their child, J.J. and A.J. respectively, and care for the boys as their own. When separated, each woman spends their journeys thinking about how to get back to the child, reflecting on their decisions that brought them to become separated.
The Last of Us Part 2 is out now for PlayStation 4.