#writing a full character analysis of joe goldberg in the near future (just implied some of his trauma in this post)

[konekomaid]

GOODBYE, YOU

As a Joe Goldberg fan, I have to speak up about the end of the last season... And no I am not a romanticizing him. Also, I prefer the book version Joe because he is raw and not a watered down version, giving him 'redeemable characteristics'. The first book of 'You' is the one and only you need to read to understand who he really is. Keep seeing people in the comments saying, "Hate book Joe Goldberg because he's creepy and or disgusting compared to the show on Netflix." Hmm, how do I tell you this..? Book Joe is the first and real version of Joe. Netflix show Joe is just a watered down version of him, trying to make him somehow likable because, let's be real, if Joe was not likable, you clearly wouldn't want to watch the show.

With that said; there will be huge spoilers for the Netflix show plus the book(s). If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this post.

Let's start from the beginning because most fans, or rather 'viewers', forget what the show/books are actually about. The show/books are narrated from the perspective of Joe Goldberg, who at the start was a bookseller with a traumatic childhood. His mom and him were beaten by her various boyfriends and Joe shot her current boyfriend to save his mother. Instead of living with her son in peace, she abandoned him to start a new life/family. The Netflix show wasn't going really deep into his childhood (trauma). However, the book(s) gave us a bit more information about his mother and their toxic relationship dynamic. His mother would drop him off or as Joe said 'dump' him at Key Foods. She would tell him they were playing hide-and-seek but he knew they weren't. Joe would play along. Everyone knew about it but no one called the cops. His mother would then return and slap him hard on the face and scream at him to not 'run away' or pull 'that shit' again. He promised to be a good boy. This was explained in the book 'Hidden Bodies'. His mom wasn't abusive towards Joe in the show. At least I couldn't find anything about his mom slapping him. That's a big difference, in my opinion. His mother was more of a victim in the show who was trying to protect her son while she slapped him hard on the face in the book, pretending Joe ran away when she clearly dumped her son. It wasn't a secret, everybody knew, but she still decided to slap Joe and play this charade. And the fact she slapped him hard told me everything I had to know about his mom. I firmly believe that in the books his mom was abusive towards Joe. You have to read the books thoroughly because he would drop vital information about his past every now and then. Some of Joe's stories are lies that he presents to the reader in order to manipulate you, yes, you.

Sometimes he tells the truth;

I believe him when he tells us his mother dumped him at Key Foods and later slapped him hard and screamed at him, pretending he ran away.

and sometimes he lies;

I do not believe Joe when he tells us he was not the one trying to force himself on his classmate in 4th grade but she was the one who tried to take his virginity.

And yes, there exists a scene in the first book that mentions it. In the end, Joe was the one sent to the psychologist, to the dean's office, and to the counselor where Joe had to show on a 'show-me-who-touched-you-where' doll where he touched her.

Why don't I believe him that he's innocent? Various reasons: I'm aware that Joe is the unreliable narrator. I'm also aware that Joe likes to be honest occasionally so that it's easier for him to feed us lies later on. Very powerful manipulation tactic, by the way... I mean, lying to you, but sprinkling in truths from time to time so that you believe me or can't even tell the difference between lies and truths is powerful. I'm also aware he likes to play the victim all the time. When Beck found his box with her bloody tampon and other stuff in it, Joe tried to blame Beck. It's her own fault she found his box with her stuff in it because she snooped around, she's crazy, it's her pms, she's unhinged, a wild animal. He doesn't see anything wrong with stealing her stuff and keeping it in a box. Because Beck belongs to him, she's just an object. I'm also aware that Joe can and probably would rape a woman. Big words, I know, shocking even! How dare I say such a bad thing? Well, the real Joe Goldberg (book Joe Goldberg) is literally spitting this information right into your face. In the second book 'Hidden Bodies' Joe is falling in 'love' with Love but also tracking down Amy (short summary: after she stole a huge cache of valuable rare books, he tries to track her down.) In one scene Joe's engaging in a conversation with Forty. Both talk about scripts and Joe had written down some of his disturbing fantasies. In one of these fantasies, he catches Amy before she was able to steal his books and flee the shop, keeping her locked up in his cage, using her as a slave. What kind of slave? Sex slave, of course. Because that's the only slave Joe Goldberg wants to keep in his cage. And I don't know about you but I don't think Amy would be overjoyed and consent to that. And if you try to tell me it's just a fantasy, he literally killed Beck because she didn't want to be with him. He also talked about how he could give it to Beck right now even though she was screaming/crying for help. And after Beck managed to ran out of his cage and upstairs, trying to escape through the front door (door was locked!) Joe wrapped his arms around her and pulled her behind the counter. He kissed her neck while she was hitting and scratching him in order for him to let her go. He did stop but kept talking about how she was his broken doll. Joe doesn't give a fuck about consent, he pretends he does. There is also no empathy on his side. Sorry, but, "I could give it to you right now but you have to scream and cry!?" doesn't sound empathetic to me. She's scared, she doesn't want to be there.

The name of the girl in 4th grade is Maureen Grady, her nickname 'Mo'. People called her 'Ho Mo', not funny. Maureen was Joe's crush back then, he describes Maureen in the book as gruff, an odd misfit. They were on a trip with the class, touring the deck of a tall ship, it was according to Joe 'boring' so they ditched the tour and broke into the off-limits hull. According to Joe, Maureen told him she would 'steal his virginity', he then punched her in the face, escaped and told the teachers. Joe also added that Mo's the fucked-up now; a twice-divorced paralegal with a profile on OkCupid and a Pomeranian named Gosling, obviously she'll be alone forever. But after telling us that he then says, he prefers to live in the moment, like it's no big deal. All of that appears weird to me. I mean, Joe obviously stalks her, after years, keeping tabs on Maureen. He also dances around the topic, keeping it vague. Joe never really tells us the whole story. And he never straight up says that he is innocent, that he didn't touch her. And Joe never claims that she did touch him. You know who else dances around a topic..? Liars.

You have to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Don't let Joe manipulate you.

The book(s) do a very good job in displaying how misogynistic Joe really is. He keeps talking about tits and pussy and sex, objectifying women every second. Joe does not want love or connection, he wants control, sex.

They toned it down for Netflix but that's no excuse for you to say, "I didn't know!" Joe still objectifies them but not in the same way book Joe does. You actually have to use your brain, shocking. You don't even need a high IQ to understand the message.

This is why the ending of the show was so perfect. People who still didn't understand the point of the show were called out.

MAYBE THE PROBLEM ISN'T ME. MAYBE... IT'S YOU.

Pointing directly at you, calling you out.

"They nerfed Joe!" - "Bad ending!" - "We're women ahh!" - "Feminist ending!" - "They went woke!"

Breaking news: Joe Goldberg was written by a... WOMAN, outrageous, I know! Joe is the bitch/slut/whore of a WOMAN, he belongs to a WOMAN, whoa!

"Come on, it's just a show/fiction, why do they have to lock him up? And not give him a happy ending?" Maybe because both the books and the show are written/produced in a way to criticize a lot that happens in real life. Misogyny, anti-vaccine, forgiving or romanticizing a murderer because of his childhood (trauma.) I enjoyed 'You' because it was talking about real life problems in the fictional world. Why is his name Joe and not Steve? Because of the idiom; 'average Joe'. Both the show and the books want to tell us that someone like Joe exists in real life and he's not the huge, intimidating guy who grabs you, screams at you and threatens you. He could be the sweet bookseller, your employee, your neighbor, your professor or your boss. Joe could be anyone and you wouldn't notice it because he's gentle, he's kind, he's supportive, he 'loves' you in a way no one else has loved you before (or could love you...) 'You' is filled with a lot of messages for us. It's not just a show for fun, it never was supposed to be. If you don't like messages in shows, don't watch 'You'. Not every piece of media is just a silly, little fictional story with no real meaning behind it. And that's okay. 'You' was made for the people who love to see real life getting dissected in a fictional world. And it's not just a silly, little story for you to enjoy. It's a confrontation, showing you what's wrong with the real world.

Joe Goldberg NEVER was a good person, he was just able to fool his victims. Yes, he was also a victim back in his childhood. Yes, he has mommy issues. And yes, Joe has huge abandonment issues. But nothing, NOTHING, that happened to him justifies his disgusting behavior. Joe's just recreating what his mother and him had, over and over again. Joe will never find the destined 'you' because she doesn't exist. All Joe does is projecting, manipulating and claiming. "I did this for YOU so YOU belong to me." Book Joe also loved calling Beck a whore/slut/dirty and no, not in the bedroom. Joe wants to degrade her in his mind, to feel superior. Joe also hates taller girls, he's an insecure man. He doesn't need love or a relationship, Joe needs a lot of therapy and jail (which he got, finally.)

"But why did they have to make a joke out of him? She shot him in the dick!" Joe always was a joke. He lasted 8 seconds in the first season. They started it with a dick joke and they ended it with one; it's perfection. Full circle.

I mean, I get the whole complaining about Bronte and Kate surviving but in the end it was their decision to end the show this way. Is it realistic? No. But if you can ask that, then, please, also ask yourself whether it is realistic for an 'average Joe' to manage to kill that many innocent people without being caught. The answer is; no.

Conclusion: The show may be fictional but the topics/subjects addressed are part of our reality. It is an appeal to our society.