Arthur Morgan Beats Joel Miller and It Is Not Even Close, DanCo Argues

Joel Miller versus Arthur Morgan pits two lethal killers and dangerous fighters against each other, one hardened by the zombie apocalypse and the other by the wild western frontier. Both have been transformed into one-man armies. But when forced to fight each other, this is not a close contest. Arthur Morgan wins, and it is not even close.

Joel Miller Survives the Cordyceps Apocalypse as a Ruthless, Battle Hardened Smuggler

Joel Miller survives in postapocalyptic America after the world is ravaged by the Cordyceps virus, which turns basically everyone into bloodthirsty zombies. After losing his daughter Sarah during the outbreak, Joel becomes a ruthless and cynical smuggler before eventually being tasked with smuggling and protecting Ellie, a young girl who might be the key to mankind's survival. Along the way, Joel rediscovers what it means to be a father.

As a hardened survivalist, Joel displays terrifying intensity, strength, cunning and fierce fist fighting prowess. He can outbrawl and overwhelm opponents half his age with just a few punches, and he can literally beat people to death with his hits, the same applying to the infected as he turns their heads to mush with his bare hands. People are terrified to face off against him, either running away or begging for their lives when he is coming, and for good reason: Joel is strong enough to take down a bloater with just a machete.

Joel is also super tough. He refuses to quit, has taken car crashes, big falls, and brushed off all sorts of attacks to the point where he can be tackled and knocked around by runners and bloaters. He survives being shot and survives being impaled all the way through, though that one nearly takes him out. He is an expert with handguns, rifles and bows, skilled with melee weapons though he prefers a machete when he has one, and he is able to craft weapons on the fly, including explosives and Molotov cocktails that he is willing to use in fights.

With decades of survival and fighting experience, Joel proves himself to be quite a tactician. He can overcome overwhelming odds by running headfirst into beating everyone, but he can also be covert when he wants to be, surprisingly stealthy, capable of taking out skilled survivors with sneak attacks, and always aware of what is happening around him just by focusing on noises. He is one of the best survivors in any zombie apocalypse and a true force to be reckoned with.

Arthur Morgan Is the Van der Linde Gang's Most Feared Enforcer, Strong Enough to Kill Bears With His Fists

Arthur Morgan is one of the Van der Linde gang's most notable members, Dutch's toughest, most dependable and accomplished follower, always ready to do whatever is necessary to support the group. But underneath it all, Arthur is a good man. He is widely regarded as the single most dangerous member of the gang, feared by allies and foes alike as its primary enforcer, and with good reason: he is strong enough to send people flying with his punches and easily kill men with his bare hands. It extends to the point where Arthur can fight wolves, cougars, and grizzly bears with just his fists and win, killing the animals and walking it off afterward.

Arthur is strong enough to push back grizzlies and overpower cattle and bison in a tug of war. He is basically superhumanly strong, and he is equally tough, a brute with basically superhuman stamina who can survive gunshots and explosives, walk off getting mauled by wild animals, and take punches while fighting for hours on end. He survives severe torture and punishment by the O'Driscolls, still has enough in him afterward to escape and kill every single O'Driscoll along the way, and even while dying from tuberculosis he keeps going, fighting and killing everyone in his way and beating Micah with his last dying breath.

Arthur is also one of the best gunslingers in the West, an expert with pretty much any weapon he can get his hands on. With Dead Eye, he has an edge in every gunfight, an ability that lets him slow time and see the world in slow motion while expertly picking out shots to wound or kill opponents. He tends to use Dead Eye in every fight he finds himself in, whether confronted by guards, facing off with expert gunslingers, or fighting off swarms of Pinkertons. Even when outnumbered, Arthur never backs down, never surrenders, has no problem fighting dirty, and always carries an array of weapons including revolvers, bows, lassos, knives, shotguns, rifles, machetes, tomahawks and dynamite sticks. He is the epitome of the Wild West: an expert in surviving the wilderness, hunting legendary animals, a lethal marksman, and a ruthless brawler.

My Verdict: Arthur Dominates Both the Melee Fight and the Gunfight

These are two ruthless fighters and killers, both able to take on whole swarms of men and beat them with ease, making each of them a one-man army. There are two ways to look at this fight, melee and guns, and in my opinion Arthur is absolutely dominating in both. That is not taking anything away from Joel, who is the quintessential zombie apocalypse survivor and basically superhuman himself, strong enough to kill people and the infected with his bare hands and with no problem fighting dirty to do it.

But compared to Arthur, that is not going to cut it. Arthur can kill people with a few punches too, but he can also beat grizzlies to death with his bare hands, and Joel cannot do that. Joel can beat a bloater, but not by punching it. Arthur is the stronger one of the two, and even more than that, he is the tougher one. Joel can take a lot of attacks and keep fighting, but it pales next to what Arthur does: while Joel was laid up for weeks after being pierced by rebar, nearly dying from it, Arthur was literally on his last breath dying from tuberculosis and still went out guns blazing, shooting down everyone in his way and beating Micah, who is no pushover and should comfortably scale to a lot of what Arthur and Joel can do. You could genuinely argue Arthur could beat Joel to death at his absolute weakest moment, let alone at his best.

In a gunfight it is not any closer, in fact it is much worse, because Dead Eye is a broken ability for Arthur in this matchup. But even outside of Dead Eye, this is just what Arthur does: he is a gunslinger through and through, way faster on the draw, with way better reaction time, and he will have riddled Joel with bullet holes before Joel can even get his gun up and ready. There is genuinely no other way this could go. Arthur has Joel dead to rights. I love both of these characters and both of these games, but for me this one is pretty simple: Arthur Morgan wins and it is not even close.

Do you think Joel has any answer for Arthur's Dead Eye, or is this matchup as one sided as it looks?