【En la intimidad】

While notoriously tight-lipped and En la intimidadcryptic on just about everything regarding the highly anticipated The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann didconfirm one bit of fan speculation.

After the E3 trailer at the Sony E3 Press Conference on Monday, June 11, fans were abuzz (as always) with theories. Not only did the sweet yet vicious trailer reveal a new character named Dina (played by Westworld's Shannon Woodward), but it also centered around a beautiful kiss between her and Ellie.

After much cheering for this enormous step in LGBTQ representation in AAA video games, fans started scouting for clues about the game's still largely unknown story. Some pointed to the bracelet on Dina's wrist in the cut scene, which appears on Ellie during the brutal gameplay part of it.

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The speculation, then, is that Ellie turns into the remorseless killer we see in the E3 2018 trailer (and 2017 Paris Week reveal) to avenge the death of Dina. This would mirror her story in the Left Behind DLC from the first game.

While Druckmann remains tight-lipped on that one (of course), he did confirm one uplifting detail about the nature of that bracelet. Another fan pointed out that it's a hamsa:

Druckmann's referencing his Israeli roots with this, a ubiquitous symbol in the Middle East that often appears on jewelry and household items. It symbolizes the hand of G-d, a sign of protection, luck, fortune, etc., wards away evil. Like, you'd hang a hamsa charm on your front door to keep away negative energy, wear a hamsa charm on a necklace/keychain for good luck, and a lot of drivers have hamsa charms on their rearview mirrors for protection.

Druckmann said that several people on the Last of Us Part IIteam have made diversity a pillar of how they design. "So I was like, 'Well, it’s rare to see a Jewish character in a video game, and for her to own that.'"

He also spoke to how Dina's heritage reflects his experiences. "I have a little bit of Middle Eastern descent, so why not throw that in there? It doesn’t need to be front and center the whole time, but it’s just one more thing."

The understated nature of Dina's Israeli heritage is part of what makes Naughty Dog exemplar of how best to incorporate diversity into blockbuster games. As with Ellie's queerness, it is not Dina's onlycharacteristic, and she doesn't appear to be othered for being of Middle Eastern descent.

But it's one aspect part of her character -- one we don't always get to see. And you can see Naughty Dog represented this aspect of her identity in both big and small ways. During theLast of Us Part IIpanel at E3, Druckmann pointed out that getting the lighting to look right on Dina's hair was a particularly difficult challenge for their animators.

Frizzy, curly hair that he himself deals with as a man of Israeli descent is extremelyhard to get right with video game lighting. But the team worked tirelessly to do it because they know getting these seemingly small details of representation would matter.

"It’s the differences we have, or the imperfections we have, that makes us human. And all of that better reflects the world we live in and, ultimately, better immerses you in the story we have to tell," Druckmann said.