Joel (The Last of Us)

Joel
The Last of Us character
Joel as he appears in The Last of Us
First appearance	The Last of Us (2013)
Last appearance	The Last of Us Part II (2020)
Created by	Neil Druckmann
Portrayed by	Troy Baker

Joel Miller is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game The Last of Us, and a supporting character in its sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Originally from Texas, Joel was a single father in his late twenties when the initial Cordyceps outbreak occurred. Fleeing with his brother Tommy and his twelve-year-old daughter Sarah, they got involved in a firefight with a soldier, and Sarah was mortally wounded and died in his arms, leaving him traumatized. In the 20 years that follow, Joel did whatever he had to do to survive. In the time spent in the brutal post-apocalyptic world, still bitter from his daughter's death, Joel became a hardened survivor, physically and mentally tough. He has a brutal fighting style and is capable of taking on and defeating much younger men in hand-to-hand combat.

Joel is the main playable character of the first game, where he is tasked with escorting a young girl named Ellie across the post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. Along the way, he forms a bond with Ellie and eventually comes to see her as his daughter, ultimately choosing to save her from the revolutionary militia group known as the Fireflies and, therefore, ruining humanity's chance at finding a cure. Joel returns as a playable and supporting character in the second game, where he is living within a peaceful community alongside Ellie, until being murdered by a woman named Abby, who sought revenge on Joel for killing her father, leaving Ellie to attempt to exact revenge for her mentor's death.

Joel was voiced by Troy Baker, who also provided motion capture for the character, and was created by Neil Druckmann, the creative director and writer of The Last of Us. The character has been well-received by critics, with Ellie's relationship with Joel most frequently the subject of praise. Both the character and Baker's performance received numerous awards and nominations alongside with Ellie, and have regularly been placed favorably in polls and lists.

Character development and design

Veteran voice actor Troy Baker portrayed Joel in The Last of Us. The development team attributed Baker's voice and movement to their choice of casting him in the role.

Creative director Neil Druckmann designed Joel as a main playable character. the development team felt that Troy Baker fit the role, particularly when acting alongside Ashley Johnson, who portrayed Ellie. Baker made important contributions to Joel's character development. For example, Baker convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness. they spent more time selecting the actor of Joel, as the chemistry between the two characters was imperative to the game. After Baker and Johnson played alongside each other, the team realized that the former perfectly fit the role of Joel, despite the actor's young age. Druckmann attributed Baker's voice and movement to the team's choice of casting him. The characters of Joel and Ellie were the basis of the game; the development between the characters was established first, and the game's other concepts followed. The developers ensured that this change was kept secretive prior to the game's release, to surprise players; they did the same with Ellie's immunity, as well as with the game's prologue, where players assume control of Joel's daughter Sarah. The change of control from Joel to Ellie signifies a change in the role of the protector, echoing Druckmann's previous ideas as a student. The character interactions were inspired by the relationship of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, in turn inspired by the video game Ico. When designing Joel's physical appearance, the team tried to make him look "flexible enough" to allow for him to appear as both a "ruthless operator in the underground of a quarantined city" as well as a "caring father figure to Ellie". His appearance was aimed to evoke "rural Americana", referencing values of self-reliance and ingenuity when facing hardship and deprivation. Though Druckmann initially wrote the character of Joel using inspiration from Josh Brolin's portrayal of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men (2007), which he saw as "very quiet, very cool under pressure", Baker's interpretation of Joel as a more emotional person evolved the character in a different way. Ultimately, the narrative became an exploration of how willing a father is to save a child; initially, Joel is willing to sacrifice himself, before evolving where he is willing to sacrifice his friends, until finally feeling that he would sacrifice all of humanity in order to save Ellie. Druckmann felt that players, specifical parents, would be able to relate to Joel's character and his bonding with Ellie. Baker believes that Joel discovers morality throughout the game's narrative, working out the difference between loss and sacrifice, and his true personality begins to show. When auditioning for the role, Baker read a phrase on the character sheet that stated Joel had "few moral lines left to cross", which became the "anchor point" to the character for him. Baker found great difficulty in filming the game's prologue, which features scenes with Joel and his daughter Sarah, portrayed by Hana Hayes. Upon later viewing of the first day of footage from the scene, Druckmann felt that it could still be improved. When filming the scene again, Druckmann explained to Baker how to perform it, and felt that it was the best take upon doing so. Though Baker initially found the take too "mechanical", he retroactively realised that he had been previously trying to impress audiences by his acting, and that it was "not what the scene needed". Druckmann became intrigued by players who discussed Joel's morality, distinguishing him as a hero or villain; Druckmann felt that Joel was only "a complex person who's made good and bad decisions", but allowed it to be open to interpretation.

The team made Joel more "grounded and less nimble" than Uncharted's Nathan Drake. The camera angle and melee system were also altered to fit with the team's intention of the game. The team also felt that No Country for Old Men inspired them in terms of the minimalism. A tweet by Naughty Dog developer Mark Richard Davies confirms that Joel's birth date was first speculated to be September 26, as it was the date seen in the Texas Herald newspaper at the beginning of the game.

Appearance

Main articles: The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, and The Last of Us Part II

Twenty years after Sarah's death, Joel works as a smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone with his friend and partner Tess. While out searching for a former accomplice who stole some of their merchandise, Joel and Tess are tasked by Marlene, an acquaintance and leader of a rebel militia called the Fireflies, to smuggle Ellie to a rendezvous point at the Massachusetts State House. Making their way there, Joel discovers that Ellie is immune to the infection. Upon their arrival, Tess reveals that she has sustained a bite on the journey, and insists Joel finds Tommy, a former Firefly, in order to continue the mission. Joel is initially surly and short towards Ellie, though he begins to warm up to her as their journey continues. This is compounded when Joel, having initially asked Tommy to carry on in his place after meeting up with him at his settlement in Jackson County, Colorado, changes his mind and carries on as planned. Their bond deepens when Ellie nearly loses Joel to a severe injury, and when he comes to her aid after she is nearly killed by a band of cannibals. Ultimately, Joel shows his devotion to Ellie when he chooses to rescue her from the doctors who plan to remove and examine her brain, as opposed to allowing her to die. To ensure they are not pursued, Joel kills Marlene. Driving away, Ellie wakes up, after which Joel tells her the doctors gave up on discovering a cure. Ellie later confronts him about the events, and Joel swears to her that he was telling the truth.

The game's protagonists represent the two eras that are shown in the game; Joel represents the world before the outbreak, having spent most of his life during this period, while Ellie represents the world after the outbreak, as she was born in the post-apocalyptic world. While the former is emotionally damaged due to the loss that he has experienced, the latter maintains an optimistic view of life, has become familiar to the damaged world; spending time with each other saw these qualities overlapping, with Joel become more lively, and Ellie learning more survival skills.

Joel appears briefly in the The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC. Carrying on from the Fall arc, Ellie has managed to drag Joel to an abandoned mall. He is severely injured because of the last major event in the fall, and only appears in the beginning and towards the end of the DLC.

At the December 2016 PlayStation Experience event, a sequel titled The Last of Us Part II was announced as being in early development. The game's first trailer reveals the return of Ellie and Joel. In the sequel, Joel and Ellie live in Tommy's settlement in Jackson, Wyoming among a large, peaceful community. In the winter, while observing the movement of nearby Infected, Joel and Tommy go missing, so Ellie and her love interest, Dina, are sent to find them. After rescuing a woman named Abby from a group of Infected, they take her back to her companions, only for them knock out Tommy and restrain Joel, as Abby seeks revenge against the latter for murdering her father, who was part of the surgical team Joel killed while saving Ellie from the Fireflies at the end of the first game. Abby then reveals Joel's last name as being Miller and shoots him in the leg with a shotgun before repeatedly bludgeoning him with a golf club in front of a restrained Ellie, who arrived too late and witnesses Joel being killed before her eyes, leaving her in a traumatized state and desiring revenge. However, when Ellie finally gets her chance to avenge Joel's death and kill Abby at the end of the game, she can't bring herself to do it and lets her go. Flashbacks in various stages of the game reveal that Ellie learned about Joel lying about the Fireflies being unable to find a cure, and that she promised to try and forgive him.

Reception

Joel's character received generally positive feedback. Critics praised the relationship between Ellie and Joel. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer wrote that the relationship was "poignant" and "well-drawn", Joystiq's Richard Mitchell found it "genuine" and emotional, and IGN's Colin Moriarty identified it as a highlight of the game. Eurogamer's Oli Welsh felt the characters were developed with "real patience and skill". Philip Kollar of Polygon found the relationship was assisted by the game's optional conversations. Wallace of Game Informer named Joel and Ellie one of the "best gaming duos of 2013", appreciating their interest in protecting each other. Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard compared Joel and Ellie's relationship to that of the Prince and Elika from Prince of Persia (2008), writing that both duos care deeply for one another, and praising the "emotional crescendo" in The Last of Us, which he judged had not been achieved in Prince of Persia. PlayStation Official Magazine's David Meikleham named Joel and Ellie the best characters in a PlayStation 3 game. Gamezone described Joel as a "Sad Dad" genre.

WhatCulture ranked Joel as the sixth sexiest male video game character of all time.