Page 70 - Metropolis Megazine nº117i

JOEL MILLER

Joel, one of the central characters world did not accept sentimentali- just the “merchandise” of another
in “The Last of Us”, illustrates the ty: those who gave in to it became smuggling job.
unfriendly conflict between survi- easy targets.
val and humanity. Before the end The relationship between Joel and
of the world as he knew it, Joel led Joel spent two decades in this Ellie evolved in a subtle but inten-
a simple life with his daughter, automatic mode, living on the se way. Initially reluctant, Joel de-
Sarah (Nico Parker). He worked in margins, mechanised, doing what velops a close, fatherly bond with
construction and tried to give his was necessary at any cost, while Ellie, which reopens old wounds
daughter everything he could in carrying his traumas like a se- while giving him a new purpose.
an imperfect world. On the night cond skin. He made his mark in Joel is, above all, a character torn
the war truly began, Joel not only a broken society as a smuggler, between the man who lost every-
lost his daughter, but he also lost doing jobs no one else wanted and thing and the man who is trying
himself. The pain of this loss re- closing himself off from the world not to lose again. His pain does not
defined his path, turning him into and his feelings. He managed to disappear; it just changes form.
a closed, pragmatic, and emotio- stay alive, but not whole. Every- And it is in this unstable balance
nally inaccessible man. This was thing changed unexpectedly when between love, trauma, and survival
especially true because the new Ellie appeared, who, at first, was that his main complexity lies.

70 METROPOLIS APRIL 2025