Honestly, if you were online in 2020, you remember the explosion. It wasn’t just a "leak." It was a cultural earthquake in the gaming community that centered entirely on one man: The Last of Us Part 2 Joel. People didn't just play the game; they felt personally betrayed by it, or they hailed it as a masterpiece of subversion. Looking back on it now from the perspective of 2026, the dust has settled slightly, but the discourse is just as sharp.
Joel Miller is a complicated guy. He’s a survivor. He’s a father who lost everything and then found it again in the most violent way possible. When Naughty Dog released the sequel, they didn't give us the "Joel and Ellie's Excellent Adventure" that the marketing trailers—which, let's be real, were pretty deceptive—promised. Instead, they gave us a brutal, swift, and polarizing exit for a character who had become a surrogate father to millions of players.
It was a bold move. Maybe too bold?
What Really Happened With The Last of Us Part 2 Joel and That Infamous Scene
Most people focus on the golf club. It’s the visual shorthand for the entire game’s controversy. But the context matters more than the violence itself. When we meet The Last of Us Part 2 Joel, he’s different. He’s lived in Jackson for years. He’s been soft-softened by a community, by patrols, by a life that involves trading coffee and playing guitar rather than just smashing skulls in a Boston QZ.
Some fans argue he got "dumb." They say the Joel from the first game—the guy who smelled an ambush a mile away—would never have given his name to a group of armed strangers. But that ignores the character's arc. He wanted to believe in a world where you could help people. He had a home. He had something to lose, sure, but he also had something to protect that wasn't just his own skin.
Abby Anderson didn't care about his character growth. To her, he was just the monster who killed her father and robbed the world of a cure. The sequence in the basement of the Baldwin mansion isn't just about killing a protagonist; it’s about the collision of two different stories where each person is the hero of their own and the villain of the other's.
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The Consequences of the Hospital Choice
Let’s talk about the ending of the first game because it’s the only reason The Last of Us Part 2 Joel exists in the state we find him. At the end of the original journey, Joel kills Jerry Anderson—Abby’s dad—and a whole lot of Fireflies to save Ellie. He lies to her about it. That lie is the poison that rots their relationship from the inside out.
By the time the sequel starts, Ellie knows. Or she suspects. The tension between them is thick enough to cut with a machete. We see these flashbacks—the museum trip, the birthday gift—that remind us why we loved them. The "Finding Strings" chapter is peak Joel. It shows him trying so hard to be the dad he lost the chance to be with Sarah.
But you can't outrun the past in a world this bleak. The game forces you to reckon with the fact that Joel's choice to save Ellie had a body count. It wasn't just "nameless NPCs." It was people with daughters.
Why the Fan Backlash Was So Intense
It wasn't just that he died. It was how it happened.
For many, The Last of Us Part 2 Joel deserved a "warrior's death." Something heroic. Something where he sacrifices himself to save Ellie one last time in a blaze of glory. Instead, he got caught. He was tortured. He was killed while Ellie watched, screaming on the floor. It was messy, unfair, and deeply uncomfortable.
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That’s the point.
Naughty Dog, led by Neil Druckmann, wasn't interested in fanservice. They wanted to explore the cycle of violence. If Joel dies heroically, Ellie’s quest for revenge feels like a noble crusade. If Joel dies like a dog in a basement, her quest feels like a descent into madness. The developers chose the latter. It sparked a massive wave of review bombing and even death threats toward the staff and actress Laura Bailey (who played Abby). It was a dark time for the fandom, honestly.
Variations in How We See Joel Now
- The Protector: Some see him as a man who did what any father would do, consequences be damned.
- The Villain: Others, especially those who vibed with Abby’s perspective, see him as a selfish man who doomed humanity for his own emotional needs.
- The Relic: A man from an older, more violent world who couldn't survive in the "new" world Jackson was trying to build.
The "Deceptive" Marketing Controversy
We have to address the elephant in the room. The trailers for The Last of Us Part 2 literally swapped character models. There’s a scene in the trailer where Joel grabs Ellie’s mouth and says, "You think I'd let you do this on your own?" In the actual game, that’s Jesse. Joel is already dead by that point in the timeline.
This fueled the fire. Fans felt lied to. They bought the game expecting a 20-hour Joel and Ellie road trip. They got a 2-hour Joel prologue followed by a 25-hour meditation on grief and empathy.
While "deceptive marketing" is a valid complaint from a consumer standpoint, from a narrative standpoint, it served the shock the developers wanted. They wanted you to feel exactly what Ellie felt: the sudden, jarring loss of a person you thought would always be there.
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Joel's Presence Through Absence
Even though The Last of Us Part 2 Joel is dead for most of the runtime, he’s the most important character in the game. He’s in every guitar chord Ellie plays. He’s in the red jacket she wears. He’s in the flashbacks that slowly reveal the truth of their final days together.
The final flashback—the "I would do it all over again" scene—is arguably the best writing in the entire franchise. It recontextualizes everything. Joel doesn't apologize for saving her. He doesn't regret the hospital. He loves her that much. And Ellie, in her own way, starts the process of forgiving him.
That’s the real tragedy. They were just about to start over. They were going to watch a movie and eat popcorn. Then Abby walked into the room.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Players
If you’re revisiting the game or playing it for the first time on a modern console, here is how to actually digest the story of The Last of Us Part 2 Joel without losing your mind:
- Watch the Flashbacks Chronologically: If you’re struggling with the pacing, look up the flashback sequence on YouTube. Seeing their relationship degrade and then start to heal in a straight line makes the ending hit way harder.
- Separate the Character from the "Hero": Joel was never a hero. He was a survivor. Accepting that he was a "bad guy" in someone else's story is the key to enjoying the sequel's complexity.
- Focus on the Guitar Mechanic: The guitar isn't just a minigame. It's Ellie’s connection to Joel. Every time you play it, you're literally keeping his memory alive in the game world.
- Look at the Environment: Joel's house in Jackson tells a story. Look at the wood-carving tools. Look at the books. He was trying to find peace.
The legacy of The Last of Us Part 2 Joel isn't about how he died. It’s about the massive, irreparable hole he left behind. Whether you love the game or hate it, you can't deny that Naughty Dog made us feel the weight of his loss. It’s been years, and we’re still talking about it. That’s the mark of a character that actually mattered.
To move forward with the series—especially with the HBO show bringing this story to a wider audience—we have to accept that Joel's journey was always a tragedy. It was a story about a man who found his soul by losing his life, and a girl who had to lose her father to finally find herself. It's brutal. It's ugly. It's exactly what The Last of Us was always meant to be.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Understanding:
- Analyze the "Joel's House" Chapter: Take your time in the beginning of the game to explore Joel's home. The items he kept—the photo of Sarah, the flower from Ellie—provide more characterization than any cutscene.
- Compare the HBO Adaptation: Pay close attention to how Pedro Pascal plays the "Jackson Joel" compared to the game version. The show often adds subtle layers of PTSD that explain his lapse in judgment during the sequel's events.
- Listen to the Official Podcast: Neil Druckmann and the cast go into extreme detail regarding the decision-making process behind Joel's death. It provides the "why" that the game sometimes leaves for the player to figure out.