I worship Naughty Dogs for the Uncharted trilogy and TLOU games. To me, even a single game from them makes it worth buying a Playstation 4.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the quality of the trailers so far, and hyped about the gameplay and story.

But there’s one question I couldn’t get over: “What happened to Joel?”

I was frustrated not to know, but then an idea struck me, or rather a revelation triggered by this photo.

Neil Druckmann posted it on his twitter account last February, but I only saw it yesterday. My theory: you’re looking at Joel’s successor.

Think about it, Naughty Dog’s ought to feature a dog as a central character at some point! That’s a weak argument, I know.



More importantly, they worked a lot on the cooperation dynamics between the 2 characters during the first game, and I don’t think they’re going to trash that away, quite the opposite, they probably worked on improving it, because that’s what Naughty Dog do. They develop something good, and make it even better for the following games. So I bet there will be some sort of cooperation.



Then, for story’s sake, they apparently decided that Ellie would be separated from Joel. It will serve the story for sure, bringing new emotions and characters to the table.

So they must have thought “Right, we’re keeping Ellie as the central character, but who’s going to replace Joel so we can keep using the duo dynamic thing we developed so well in TLOU and Uncharted?”

They thought it would be difficult to just replace him with some else, disappointing even. Players are emotionally attached to Joel, it would be very hard for any new character to fill his shoes.

So the thought must have crossed their mind: how about a dog?



Imagine how emotional the bond between Ellie and her dog would be. This would be innovative enough to help us accept that we’re dealing with a new duo and that Joel’s out.



Remember Will Smith in “I am legend”? I was heart broken when his dog fought to death to save him. Or what about the horse in Shadow of the Colossus? In both occurrences, I had to blame allergies for sudden excessive ocular moisturisation.

Now imagine that you’re Ellie, fighting your way through the end of the world, surviving extreme situations, assisted by the most faithful and innocent friend a human can have: a dog. You work things out with him but eventually, things go bad for Ellie, only to allow for something magical to happen.

Ellie is in trouble, she needs help more than ever, but she’s incapacitated (just like in the first game between Joel and Ellie). That’s when the camera slowly shifts sideways before our incredulous eyes, and stops behind the dog. You don’t dare thinking what you’re thinking, so you gently push the controller stick forward. The dog moves accordingly. Game on.

I think that would be a cool secret to keep until the game is released. So far, they’ve shown so little and they’ve been so secretive that it is still entirely possible.

The theory is not based on anything tangible, I realise that. It’s an idea based on a thought process, a zest of intuition, one hint (the photograph) and essentially something that I’m dying to see happening.



Do you think this could happen, and would you like it?