Joey Maldanado

**Joseph "Joey" Elizabeth Maldanado** is the tritagonist of Edward and Eric, and the main protagonist of the video game, Edward and Eric: Joey's World. He is the youngest son of Floyd and an unnamed woman, and is one of Edward and Eric's best friends. He is also Milly's boyfriend (as of Bleeding Heart), and the younger brother of David, Cheesy, Fancy Pants, and Phillip. He is voiced by Wayne Grayson.

## Personality

Joey is extremely sarcastic, arrogant, loud, power-hungry, lazy and self-satisfied, often partaking in an anti-hero or a downright villainous role in most episodes he's featured in. Joey takes pleasure in laughing at the misfortune of others. He views himself as superior to everyone, and he loves to create exaggerated stories about himself. While Joey hardly shows true care for anybody, his friends are a notable exception (especially Stanley), even if he doesn't like to express it very often, and after Bleeding Heart, Milly becomes an exception as well. Joey is a lot more open towards his love for Milly, which is natural given how they're obviously a couple.

Joey is also portrayed as an overall failure. He is always thirsty for victory and fame, but his talents never fail to go unrecognized by the citizens of Lakeside, and he remains an unpopular student at school. Joey regularly insists his singing "skills" are "amazing", when they are actually subpar, although when he puts effort into it, he can actually be on par with the rest of The Lucky 6. On the contrary, Joey is a proficient illustrator, to the point where his drawings can easily be mistaken for one out of comic books. Despite this, people never typically ever choose to applaud him, no matter how much he strives for it. In general, things rarely turn out right for Joey. While his luck can be compared to Constantinos', there is a clear difference stated by Gary Sauls himself: whenever Joey endures bad luck, it's for comedy. For Constantinos' case, the audience is meant to sympathize.

Not only is Joey selfish, but another one of his notable traits is his short temper. It is not uncommon for Joey to raise his voice in most of his dialogue or threaten violence towards other characters. He chooses to resort to violence instead of calm negotiation to settle disputes, leading to him having a reputation for being foul-mouthed. Joey is not immune to cowardice either, usually valuing saving his own hide rather than wanting to help his friends. He is also very impatient, as in one episode, he got angry just from waiting for a cup of instant noodles to finish being microwaved. Joey tends to have a pessimistic outlook towards events, as he regularly looks at the worst outcomes that could happen.

Despite all of this, Joey cares for his friends deep down, although it's rather rare for him to acknowledge this, but this doesn't mean his caring side is non-existent. One trademark example is in Snake Zone, where, without any sort of questions or concerns whatsoever, Joey was completely willing to let Edward help him yank an eyelash from Principal Walker so he wouldn't supposedly get eaten alive. In addition, Joey never hesitates to become protective whenever any of his friends are in serious danger, possessing a 'nobody gets to hurt them except for me' mindset. Joey also greatly values and cares about Stanley, whom he considers his best friend. Thanks to this, Joey is able to confide in Stanley and tell him things he normally wouldn't tell anyone else.

One of the writers defended Joey's behavior in a Lakeside City Forums post. "Joey isn't necessarily a bad guy," they said. "He occasionally treats his own ego better than he treats his friends, but we never see him on the level of degeneracy as Principal Walker, and he's certainly not trying to burn down the school like Carver. He's simply the cynical foil to the Pearson brothers, he's fed up with the school's non-existent living standards, and he's just at this really shitty point in his life where his hidden self-depreciation is deluding him into thinking he's not good enough for anyone. Just ask any of his brothers."

Further supporting the fact Joey isn't completely heartless is his relationship with Milly. In Edward's words, they are "basically two peas in a pod - it's obvious they were meant for each other". (WIP)

Joey happens to lack proper intelligence when it comes to academics; some examples include him believing San Francisco is a town in Italy and that 0 divided by 0 is actually 2. When he was shown a map of the world in the episode Escape from Detention, he thought all of the continents were “a bunch of PEGOs mashed together”. In Truancy, he thought that "skipping school" was literally what it sounds like - a school where all you do is skip. Because of this, he is the second least intelligent member in The Lucky 6, beaten only by Eric.

Joey ended up overcoming all of his faults after The Edward and Eric Movie, thus making him a more pleasant person, which is something he's always been deep down.

Due to Edward and Eric: Joey's World taking place a year after the movie's events, Joey experiences a shift of change in his personality. Instead of being a loudmouthed egotist like how he was in the original show, Joey is now a laidback, selfless individual who punishes bad people that prey on the weak and helpless by giving them a taste of their own medicine. (WIP)

## Trivia

* Joey is 15 years old. In Joey's World, he is 16 years old.
* Joey is primarily based on Sauls' "worst qualities" from his childhood, as well as Joey Wheeler from *Yu-Gi-Oh!*.
	+ Both Joey Maldanado and Joey Wheeler share the same first name, voice actor, Brooklyn accent, and sarcastic, cocky personalities.
* Joey is partially inspired by Eric Cartman from the Comedy Central series, *South Park*, as well, to the point where Joey's winter outfit greatly resembles Cartman's clothes.
* As revealed in New Singer in Town, Joey believes his singing skills are "the best in the world". But humorously enough, it was also revealed he has an F- in Music.
	+ In fact, at the end of the aforementioned episode, it was also shown that his singing is destructive enough to blow up the entire universe.
* Joey is allergic to turnips.
* He is the third-strongest member of The Lucky 6, only behind Stanley and Dallas.
	+ Surprisingly, he is also the shortest member in the gang, since he stands at 5'4 (163 cm). He is very insecure about this fact.
* Joey has a deep hatred for milk, which could possibly explain why he's short compared to the rest of his family.
* During lunch time at school, Joey usually sits near the trash can.
* Tripping Down Memory Lane reveals Joey formerly had hair as a toddler, until Eric ended up setting it on fire, leaving only three tiny strands of it.
* His grades are so bad, that he has an F in Lunch.
	+ How he even got graded for Lunch is unknown, but Stanley chalked it up to Joey's "non-existent table manners".
	+ He also fails Spanish class so badly that he states the only place where he truly learned Spanish, was at Taco Smell’s menu.
* A running gag in the early episodes was Joey exploding for no reason each time he fell off a cliff, but this seems to have died out.
* Joey cannot kiss other girls in Edward and Eric: Joey's World due to his sworn loyalty to Milly. If a female camper flirts with him, he will have the option to either politely decline them, or insultingly reject them.