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Do you have an ao3?

I do! I started posting on there within the past year and only have a few fics up at the moment. I believe I have a post with a link to one of them on here. It's LPSQueen :) I linked my ongoing fic for you.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/82347451

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I think it's so fun to think that once they get back to Jackson, where commodities are afforded, that Joel's insistent Ellie has all these various toiletries that she's never even fucking heard of before, but Joel is insistent they are necessary now that they're accessible. Like suddenly her bathroom is full of conditioner and shampoo, not just a single overused soap bar for her hair and body that they'd been sharing for months. Or a jar of homemade lotion that he keeps forcing her to use after she showers. Maybe he even makes her some detangler by mixing water and a little bit of conditioner in a spray bottle and runs it through her hair after she showers, so she doesn't have to tug at the tangled wet mess.

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I finally finished my first edit! Please don’t ask me how long this very simple 10 second video took :)

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nothing but the utmost respect for editors. i've been trying to make an edit on this fuckass capcut for hours and i'm still not happy with it. i'm going the fuck to bed.

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I don’t know if anyone’s seen the trend of bullying their kid to see how they would respond, but Sarah would 100% be the “yep, because that’s how growing up works” kid and Ellie is the “kill yourself” child.

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We're led to believe that Tommy accepted Ellie as his niece quickly upon their return to Jackson, so I have to believe that if/when he found out about the whole 'you're not my daughter/I'm not your father' debacle, he was PISSED.

I'm thinking every time he called himself her uncle, or her his niece, or referred to her as Joel's kid, that she cringed because she was scared Joel would be upset, and one day he's finally able to weasel the story out of her. The next time she's at school or otherwise occupied, he books it to his brother and absolutely lays into a stunned Joel with something along the lines of "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" and "WHY IS MY NIECE WALKING AROUND CLAIMING NOT TO BE MY NIECE??"

Bonus of Joel probably cycling through dumbfounded, shame, and regret because he was fully confident that his kid understood that he never meant it, and she is, for all purposes, just as much his youngest child as his first is his oldest. Also, Ellie is not happy to find out that her uncle ratted her out, and she now has to have a heart-to-heart between her and Joel's emotionally stunted asses while Tommy watches on from the corner to ensure they actually get their shit sorted.

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Ellie when Maria was trying to convince her that Joel was a bad person:

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you're looking for somebody, but he isn't me

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Joel's look of 'oh shit it's queit, where the fuck is my kid?'

Cue him finding her, of course, at the highest possible altitude she could climb to, appearing to be considering midnight cliff jumping.

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Another scene that is so funny to me. He's so indignant and hurt when she suggests he doesn't care about her. The way he switches so fast from 'I don't give a shit about this annoying little punk' to 'how dare my child insinuate I don't give a shit about her, I would literally slit my wrists for you right now.'

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I'm counting this as the equivalent of Joel and Ellie getting their sheep ranch.

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This is how it starts.

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Aw, guys, he thinks he's in charge.

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This part is SO funny to me. The way he grabs the bat and then looks at her as if to say, "Ok, kiddo. Prepare yourself because Dad's about to un-impale himself, okay?"

And her little face after he pulls it out is just like, "Dude, what the fuck? That's so not cool."

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Funnily enough, this scene is one of the more intense as far as Joel's brutality goes, in my opinion. As much as the torture scene in Silver Lake really shows the extent Joel will go to protect Ellie and the level of violence he possesses, or when he kills the guard without hesitation with his own hands to protect her, or of course when he massacres a hospital, for me, this scene right here shows the true viciousness of his ruthlessness. The way he practically growls at the man, immediately throwing him against a tree and bashing his own skull against his to protect his kid. There are no meditated acts of violence, just pure determination to desecrate this man by any means necessary, if it means protecting his kid.

Bonus for the immediate look back to ensure Ellie hadn't been harmed, as if he hadn't just head-butted someone like a bull and then snapped their neck with his bare hands.

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Loving the idea that once they returned to Jackson and had to settle into normalcy, Joel realized how difficult it was for Ellie to learn what it meant to be someone's kid in a semi-normal society. Cue Joel checking out an abundance of family counseling and child development books like "You've Adopted A Child: Now What?" Bonus if he started seeing Gail solely for advice on how to help Ellie acclimate.

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When Marlene is trying to explain to Joel after he wakes in the hospital how they can create a cure using Ellie and his reaction is literally: