What Joel From the HBO Series ‘The Last of Us’ Teaches Us About Humanity

As the first season of the Last of Us series advances towards its end, fans are getting to know the characters better and are getting a hold of how they think and where they come from.

While many of those characters were one shot, the series still succeeded in showing viewers their state of mind. It successfully made them relatable enough for fans to think about them when they perished.

The previous episode of this series introduced yet another bunch of complex new characters. But what does the most important character in the series teach about an important aspect?

What does Joel’s character in the Last of Us say without talking much?

Joel is introduced to viewers as a loving father, a person who profoundly cares for his daughter and would do anything for her. And when his daughter is taken from him, he changes, that change was justified too. Anyone who loses someone so close to them is bound to change. He is now distant. He has lost the taste for humanity, and he does just about anything to survive, so much so that even his brother leaves him behind due to his ways.

Tess is another person he gets close to, but only because she has suffered a similar fate. She had a son, and she lost her son to this new epidemic. When Tess dies, we can see the anger on Joel’s face. He is not happy that he had to suffer the same fate once again.

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And then, on their way to the Fireflies’ headquarters, he appears distant from Ellie. Eventually, he opens up but does not talk much, but his change in behavior is shown by his actions.

And when he finally reaches Tommy, we are shown all that he was hiding behind that frowning face. He is hiding affection and his fear for Ellie. He tells Tommy how he feels weaker by the day and fears for the girl. Then he requests his brother to take her ahead without him.

Joel reveals to us the most basic nature of humanity. We lose something; we promise ourselves we would never get close to anyone anymore, then we do it again. Joel is not a very complex character to understand. He is the most typical character ever.

Every rough and tough character in those action movies who has lost someone close to them previously is Joel. Only he acts somewhat realistically. There are some more complex characters in The Last of Us, but Joel is not one of them.

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He cannot help himself from being a protagonist. But the world of The Last of Us is not one for people who think of themselves as heroes.