The Last of Us Season 2 is about to drop, and instead of hyping up the apocalypse, people are back on their bullshit complaining that Bella Ramsey doesn’t look like Ellie from the video game. And honestly, I don’t know what kind of mushrooms these people are eating, but they’ve clearly gone cordyceps-for-brains.
Bella Ramsey crushed it in Season 1. Not just kinda nailed it, but absolutely embodied Ellie in every possible way. The voice, the attitude, the emotional gut-punches. If you closed your eyes, you could swear Ashley Johnson was in the room. But apparently, that’s not enough. No, apparently she needs to look more like a PlayStation character from 2013 for the performance to count.
Let’s just call this out for what it is. People aren’t mad that Bella doesn’t match the character’s face model. They’re mad she doesn’t look like the Ellie in their head. And by “in their head,” I mean “in their gross little fantasy where Ellie is hotter.” Which is real weird, considering Ellie is fourteen years old.
Like, do I really need to spell this out? If you’re upset that a real-life teenager doesn’t meet your fictional hotness standards, you’ve got bigger problems than casting accuracy. Maybe take a break from the subreddit and go touch some grass. Or better yet, talk to a therapist.
As a dad to two young girls, let me just say—this crap is exhausting. We’re living in a world where Instagram filters are practically baked into our self-esteem. Where little kids are being sold the idea that “beautiful” means “you with a different face.” It’s not just unrealistic. It’s straight-up dystopian. And now we’re dragging that nonsense into TV casting debates? Over a post-apocalyptic horror drama?
Bella Ramsey doesn’t owe you a glow-up. She’s an actor. Her job is to act. And she did it damn near flawlessly. The fact that this conversation is still happening says way more about us than it does about her.
This obsession with looks isn’t new. We’ve been grooming kids into the cult of aesthetic perfection since way before TikTok. Remember Josie and the Pussycats? That razor-sharp satire about how corporations hijack culture to brainwash teens into buying crap they don’t need? Yeah, we laughed. We nodded. We got the message. And then we turned around and did the exact same thing but on Instagram with built-in subliminal ads and face filters. The only difference now is the algorithm gets a vote.
Hollywood, fashion, and every dumb “hot girl summer” trend have been quietly sexualizing young girls for decades, and people barely blink. The line between “style icon” and “creepy” has been smeared beyond recognition, and no one seems to care. It’s all just part of the machine now. Feed it your kids. Smile for the content.
And then along comes Bella. No airbrushed perfection. No Disney-fied polish. Just raw, brilliant, deeply human performance. And instead of applauding it, some folks are out here doing a full-frame breakdown to complain about jawlines.
It’s pathetic.
And honestly, if your main complaint about The Last of Us is that the traumatized teenager surviving the apocalypse isn’t giving you enough aesthetic appeal, then maybe you’re not actually a fan of the story. Maybe you’re just mad that the actor on screen doesn’t fit into your curated feed of unrealistic beauty expectations.
Bella Ramsey doesn’t need to look like Ellie. She is Ellie. And if that breaks your immersion or ruins your weird fan edit, I’m sorry. Actually, no—I’m not sorry. Grow up.
We need to start judging performances, not faces. Talent, not cheekbones. And maybe once we do that, we’ll stop passing this toxic beauty obsession down to the next generation. Because I swear, if my daughters grow up thinking they’re not enough because some troll on the internet didn’t like Bella’s eyebrows, I will start flipping tables.
So here’s an idea. Let kids be kids. Let actors act. And maybe, just maybe, let the person portraying a fictional child in a fungus-zombie show be judged on something more substantial than whether or not she makes you feel things you probably shouldn’t be feeling in the first place.
Hollywood After Dark 