Content note: this article contains references to sexual harassment that readers may find upsetting.

The Last Of Us – as in, yes, the chilling new post-apocalyptic TV series from Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin – has only gone and done it. Proving a runaway hit with critics, it has managed to score that elusive 100% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and that’s even before its first episode drops on Monday 16 January.

Still, though, people aren’t happy. And by people, I mean gamers. And by gamers, I mean… Well, fine, I don’t mean all gamers (“not all gamers!”), because I am a gamer myself. I bloody loved playing The Last Of Us. I was cautiously optimistic when I heard this deeply emotional story was getting a TV makeover, and I had my own thoughts about the casting. Of course I did. But I, like so many others, know that Mazin collaborated with The Last Of Us’s video game creator Neil Druckmann on the HBO adaptation and that he’s got the source material down pat.

No, I specifically mean those male gamers who have long-harboured a secret crush on Ellie, the 14-year-old CGI protagonist of the videogame version of The Last Of Us. Because, yes, I’ve seen them crawling out from underneath their bridges to fill the internet with their vitriol, and yes, I’ve noticed that they all have one problem with the new TV adaptation of their apparent-favourite game: Bella Ramsey.

How The Last Of Us trolls exposed their unhealthy obsession with teenage girls