Joel effectively pulls double dad duties in The Last Of Us as not only is he shown to be a fair, kind and loving father to Sarah, but eventually warms to other young protagonist Ellie as he begrudgingly teaches her the survival skills she’ll need to master this infected new world.
As the pair travel, we get to see the layers of Joel peel back and as they fall to the floor so do pearls of wisdom, and we can see Ellie yearning for his approval, going to great lengths to prove herself. And also work on her comedy routine of course.
Joel's assault on the firefly medical facility proves his love for her, that he would be willing to sacrifice the cure for all mankind just so that she wouldn’t have to die. It is possibly one of the most selfish acts in video games, and proves that Joel is not a good person, but he is one hell of a dad.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
