As players, we spend not only hours playing as a game’s main character but also years playing their franchises. As such, it’s easy to get caught up in loving these video game heroes, as they become an integral part of our daily lives.
If you start to think about it, though, some of our favorite video game heroes aren’t that great of people. These characters aren’t shown in a negative light and aren’t categorized as anti-heroes; they’re just your average run-of-the-mill video game main characters.
Yet, while we would never say that we hate these characters, it’s important to point out the fact that they may not be the pinnacle of morality. These are five video game characters who are actually kind of jerks.
Joel Miller – The Last of Us
While Joel is the main character of The Last of Us, he often isn’t the shining example of a video game hero or even someone who always does good. The Last of Us does a fantastic job of getting players to sympathize with its characters, which can often call for us to overlook all the wrong Joel has done.
He became a smuggler, and throughout the events of the first game, it’s heavily implied that Joel has killed a lot of innocent people to survive. At one point, Tommy even mentions how Joel would deceive people in order to steal from them, as well as the fact that his brother wasn’t above torturing others.
The game juxtaposes this by Joel having an emotionally impacting relationship with his pseudo-adoptive daughter, Ellie.
After losing his actual daughter, Sarah, early on in the game, we witness Joel’s reservations to care for Ellie at first. But as they travel, the two form an unbreakable and infectious bond you can’t help but love.
For every atrocity that Joel commits, he then has a heartwarming scene with Ellie. This still doesn’t justify that he kills many innocent people to keep her safe though.
These wrong choices eventually catch up with Joel, which causes the inciting incident in The Last of Us Part II. It’s easy to brush past all the bad things Joel has done, but he isn’t always a hero.
