Joel and Tess were not a couple in the game
I'm sorry anon what lmao
So you come to my house, tessjoel Central, disguised as a stranger, and you tell me this. Why come to the tessjoel headquarters blog and even bother?????
I normally wouldn't even entertain asks like this but I must carry their legacy and clear the searches.
Here, from that conference in Toronto in the year 2013!!! and despite me not really vibing with Neil and his retcons, Tess and Joel's relationship isn't one of those.
It isn't a retcon because even if it wasn't planned from the get go (as we all know the tlou we got is way different from the original idea), it's something that was brought up and discussed while the game was being made and it is imbued in the subtext of the game, and sure you can argue that it makes Tess and Joel being a "couple" semi-canon at best, but if you're trying to look at it with the lenses of how a regular couple should act and behave then you'll miss the clues and what it's being implied.
From the director's commentary released in 2022, both Troy and Neil discuss again the nature of their relationship (something that they have done before in the past, too) and you can have your own interpretation, but this is a topic that has been discussed and breached openly from people that were involved in the process of creating the game.
And lastly, the most recent interview about these two from 2023 before the show dropped, again it's not a retcon if even in the OG Tess and Joel had their own sort of romantic relationship. I think for you to truly accept it and embrace it you must remember how these characters behave and the world that shapes them, they won't go around kissing and holding hands but that doesn't make them less true.
So yep, you're entitled to make your own conclusions and have your own opinions but I'm gonna leave the facts here and go
