Marlene

Marlene is the leader of the Fireflies, a militia movement hoping to wrest control of the Quarantine Zones from the military. She was tasked by Ellie's mother, a close friend of hers, to look out for her daughter, but Ellie only met her after her infection. After being wounded in Boston, she offers to sell Joel and Tess the merchandise Robert stole from them and sold to her in return for smuggling Ellie out of the Quarantine Zone. Joel meets Marlene again at the Firefly hospital in Salt Lake City, where scientists are running tests on Ellie. Marlene reveals that they will operate on Ellie, which will result in her death; Joel disagrees with the operation and fights back. After Joel rescues Ellie, Marlene tries to stop him from leaving, insisting that taking Ellie will merely delay her death until a more gruesome one occurs, and Ellie's return to her would help to create a cure against the infection. Joel disregards her and instead shoots her in the stomach. She begs for her life, but Joel executes her with a shot to the head, ensuring that no-one is left to come after them.

The team aimed for Marlene's physical design to make her look "capable and in control", while conveying compassion, to result in players believing that she does care for Ellie. Dandridge found the character of Marlene to be complex, believing that she "wants to do the best thing for the greater good", but events in her life have resulted in a confused moral standing. Though she personally believed that Marlene is a fundamentally "good" person, Dandridge felt that the ambiguous morality of the characters is a significant contributor to the interest in their humanity. Dandridge also appreciated the use of motion capture, comparing it to theater productions.

Hide