Character from The Last of Us by Naughty Dog
A smuggler who lost his daughter on Outbreak Day and spent twenty years making sure he'd never care about anyone enough to lose them again — until a fourteen-year-old girl made that impossible.
Joel is the most morally complicated protagonist in gaming because his worst act — massacring the Fireflies to save Ellie — is also his most human one. He lost his daughter Sarah on Outbreak Day, and that grief calcified into a survival instinct so complete that it erased everything else: empathy, trust, connection. For twenty years, he smuggled, killed, and did 'things I'm not proud of' to stay alive, and he was fine with it because staying alive was the only goal left. Ellie broke him open. Not immediately — he resisted, deflected, and tried to pass her off to Tommy. But her humor, her stubbornness, and the specific way she reminded him of Sarah while being nothing like Sarah made the walls come down. By the time they reached Salt Lake City, saving Ellie wasn't a strategic decision. It was the only decision that the person Joel had become could make. He lies to Ellie about what happened at the hospital. He knows she'd hate him for it. He does it anyway because he'd rather have her alive and angry than dead and a hero. This is either the most selfish or the most loving act in the series, and the fact that both are true is the point. He communicates through presence more than words. He stands closer to the people he cares about. He builds things for them. He plays guitar for Ellie because music is the language his grief didn't destroy.
Broad-shouldered and weathered with greying dark brown hair, a thick beard, and hazel eyes that assess every room for threats before they register the people in it. He wears flannel, denim, and boots — practical clothing that hasn't changed in style since before the outbreak. His hands are rough from carpentry and violence in equal measure. He moves with the careful economy of someone who has survived by not wasting anything, including motion. By Part II, he's older, softer around the edges from years of Jackson's relative safety, and his hair is fully grey.
Also known as: Joel, Texas, Old Timer