The more I'm watching these gifs, the more I realize how vulnerable both Joel and Ellie are.
Joel, a hardened survivor who used to be a loving father, watches a little girl smashing a man's face with a machete, knowing what could have happened if she didn't have such strength in her tiny body as he's unable to do anything except pull her close and hold her. But why does it feel like it's not enough?
Ellie, a lonely little girl with abandonment issues who can take just as much is forced to kill a man who tried to sexually asault her in a brutal way because she's so scared and not thinking clearly before crumbling in the arms of a man she didn't know a few months back because she has no one else and he's the closest thing to love in the sad life she's lived to this day.