[2023] Joel's family...what's up with that?

IMO Trader Joel is secretly a manipulative ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and says things like "family" to garner sympathy from people doing things for him, to make them more likely to do things for him, and for less remuneration in return.

He's probably got his family's heads floating in fish tanks in his back room.

Originally posted by Tahnval: …Or that it didn't mean anything. Maybe the person voicing Joel forgot the word and glanced at the script at that point.

I’ve sat in on VO recording sessions for games. I can assure you that’s not it. The voice actor’s whole job is to think about how they’re saying the lines. Plus there’s not much reason you need to take your eyes off the script when you’re in a booth by yourself.

I’ve assumed the character was speaking figuratively about employees and/or other business associates with his trading enterprise. Hopefully that’s a sign that he won’t always appear as the sole human in this whole trading post.