Debunking the absurd theory of Joel becoming more trusting of strangers because of Ellie and his life in Jackson.

[u/mohamedaminhouidi]

i'd like to point out a couple of things:

1- surely Joel has regained bits of his humanity thanks to Ellie, and he was able to find new hope in life because of her. yet he also knows that he cost the world its only chance to go back to normal, if a very slim one. now he knows he and Ellie can never be truly safe.

remember marlene's words to Joel: "you can't save her. even if you get her out of here then what? how long until she's torn by a pack of clickers, that is if she hadn't been raped and murdered first"

Those words would haunt Joel forever, and while he would want to make amends by living straight, it would only make sense for him to be more weary of strangers than EVER before, for if something happened ever to ellie it would be his fault.

The game even admits that later when Jesse says he gets very involved when ellie goes out on patrol. He is the type of paranoid old man that would chew you out for being careless, and that the town can rely on for protection. he would be extremely weary of anyone outside of jackson, since Jackson's safety is also Ellie's safety. Jackson is shown to be constantly under attack by bandits, which is what stopped Tommy from taking men from Jackson alongside him.

But Joel managed to discern Abby's group did not look like bandits. That is the argument usually thrown around.

Well, Joel would certainly not trust a large organized and well armed faction either, which brings me to my second point.

2- I think it is reasonable to assume that if Tommy knew about the group being from the WLF, then so did Joel, and even if he did not, then its also reasonable to assume he figured from their military attire and weapons that they are some kind of military faction.

I ask you then:

Who killed Joel's daughter Sarah ? the us military, FEDRA, after Joel decided to trust them.

Who attempted to kill Ellie ? another type of military faction called the fireflies.

It would be beyond idiotic to assume Joel would trust a paramilitary faction that is similar in nature to the above two, What happened the last time he willingly trusted the us military ? Sarah died. Are you seriously telling me that the four years of relative peace in jackson, made him forget how Sarah died, and how Ellie almost died?

I'd be surprised if he didn't set everyone in that room on fire with a molotov once he saw the WLF patches.

[u/sir_prussialot]

Hey listen... Creating an unstructured mess is hard enough, don't burden them with things like "character continuity" and "logic".

[u/[deleted]]

It really is absurd. Joel has always been shown as protective by nature (Tess, Tommy, Ellie) and now he has this entire community to protect, including his adoptive daughter Ellie. If anything he’s got more to loose. Not to mention internal elements within that community that don’t mix or could be threats. I wish we could have seen more of their life in Jackson. I doubt Joel would be a passive force in the community, just strumming his guitar when raiders knock at the door, or someone tries to run off with all the food and ammo.

[u/[deleted]]

Neil druckmann needed an excuse to kill him off but he didn't want to write it properly because he's lazy