.

joel miller you ARE the father

bonus - matching outfits <333

-“well now i have to see it” / “i don’t want you to” just the tone in which he says this and the thing of being like i’m not going to stop this from happening but i’m going to make my disapproval known, very dad

-his face softening and posture opening up a little in ep1 when she’s like “but you know where to go? so we’re gonna be okay” because even though he’s pissed to be babysitting and thinks she’s more trouble than she’s worth, he is not immune to scared little kid

-also ep1, all of his annoyed eyerolling at ellie instantly respecting/listening to tess and not him

-the Single Silent Nod of Capitulation™️

-becoming increasingly able to sense when ellie is about to ask for a gun from a mile away

-becoming increasingly able to sense when ellie is about to ask him to explain something he doesn’t know jackshit about

-saying under his breath “just wait goddamn it” while jogging after her

-loud coffee slurp in response to being told it’s gross

-also, assuming a 14 y/o who grew up in military school would like coffee

-dad infodumping infused with mild griping (i.e. pre-pandemic air travel, gasoline, how fedra cleared the highways)

-“lookit”

-oH i ThouGht yOu weNt tO ScHooL

-“you’re gonna break your neck”/“slow down”/“what did i just say”

-impatiently telling someone to straighten up is very dad

-the white lie about everyone loving contractors and contractors being cool obv

-doing the “is there anything bad in here” / “just you” bit not once but twice. he really does cycle through the same like 6 weak-ass jokes

-asking someone else to navigate while driving and then stressing them out for not navigating well enough for his liking

-being able to guess her favorite astronaut, i am weeping

-laying down 3 ground rules and then pretty much immediately and continually letting ellie get away with breaking 2 out of 3

-starting to look over at her in surprise when she says “i don’t want to talk about it” because it’s the first time that’s happened and he can tell he’s touched on something that really bothers her, and you see him having to wrestle with the dad impulse to be concerned

-when ellie tries to get him not to go after the sniper; impatiently being like ugh come on that guy is not gonna shoot me he literally sucks (pedro’s read of this line always makes me laugh)

-and of course also the follow-up, when he sees he’s going to have to do better than that to convince her that everything will be fine and his tone softens and he asks her to trust him. the “no questions, just do it” to “do you trust me” pipeline bro, fuucckkk

What I care about is being emotionally satisfied. We start the story with Joel completely shut off from Ellie, convinced she’s doomed to die, stubborn to her appeals for connection. We start the story with Ellie being passed over from various adults based on her utility, Ellie being defined by her experiences of abandonment. And then we end that story with these two characters completely emotionally entwined and Joel valuing Ellie—as an individual—and him becoming a father figure that would choose her first no matter what.

You telling me three medic dropouts that haven’t done any proper medicine in 20 years can figure out a cure better than a scientist on the top of her field who suggested to bomb the cities w her in it because there is no cure for a fungus infección

A 14y/o traumatised can’t consent to give up their life for a chance to get a slight inside of how are inmune to the infection

A doc and two nurses w crappy medical equipment aren’t suitable to find any kind of cure, even if that cure were possible

How were supposed to develop, storage, distribute the vaccine. Which infrastructure were going to use???

I imagine that Fedra, raiders, rapists and other ppl in power w the current status quo wouldn’t be happy to find out their position of power was about to weaken

In the 0.000000000000001% chance they could get the cure I bet they’d use it as a political tool not in order to save humanity

Joel is acting as in loco parentis, so, he did the correct choice of saving Ellie

The fireflies took the choice from Ellie in the first place.

She knew was she was signing for is such a bullshit argument bc Ellie doesn’t have the capacity of truly understand what is going to happen (tiny chance to get the cure, they aren’t prepared to find it anyways so they would be just killing her for nothing, she’s traumatices, etc).

SHE NEVER ASKED TO BE IN THAT POSITION

THE FUCKING OPERATION ROOM WASNT EVEN PROPERLY SANITISED

Joel:

“it wasn’t time that did it” and  “i’ll follow you wherever you go” 

joel and ellie are so broken and damaged from what they’ve experienced that the concept of love is like learning to walk. it’s weird and not something they think will be part of their dna ever again. but then one day, it’s just there. it’s probably been there for a long time, the exact moment unknown. maybe it was the moment ellie realised the figure grabbing her was joel. maybe it was when ellie cracked a ridiculous joke on another hours long journey. neither of them probably know. it just happened. it’s like a weird alternate version of cordyceps - neither wanted to be infected ever again, but little did they know it was inside of them all this time, controlling them in the best way possible.  so when ellie casually says time heals all wounds and joel replies with it wasn’t time that did it, that right there is joel saying for the first time in how many years…..i love you.  and when ellie says she’ll follow him anywhere, that’s her saying i love you and to me, that’s beautiful.