HBO’s The Last of Us expands Bill & Frank’s gay romance om the game - Polygon

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS
• US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• HOPEFULLY, THE LAST OF US TV SERI DON’T BURY ITS GAYS

THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE

Acrdg to crics who have seen the show, we're gettg a whole lot more of The Last of Us' gay characters than we Last of Us follows Joel and Ellie as they travel across a post-apolyptic Ameri tryg to avoid fung-fected zombi. “It was geo, and I was so not expectg ,” said Darn Lowenste, 41, a vio game nsultant, who is gay.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS

“Obvly, I’ve played the gam religly and I know there’s gay characters there, but I was not expectg an 80-mute … tearworthy piece of art.”Queer gamers who tuned said felt like a watershed moment for LGBTQ reprentatn vio gam.From left, Murray Bartlett as Frank and Nick Offerman as Bill HBO's "The Last of Us."Courty WarnerMediaBill’s story, while a first for some, is jt one queer storyle an dtry which LGBTQ narrativ are beg more proment.

Exampl of queer characters clu transgenr man Tyler Ronan 2020’s “Tell Me Why” and Dorian Pav 2014’s “Dragon Age: Inquisn.” Queer-themed gam date as far back as 1992’s “Gay Bla,” acrdg to the LGBTQ media advocy group GLAAD.

US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT

Though Bill’s role the game is small, and his mentn of beg gay brief, did not go unnoticed by LGBTQ gamers like Bonatsakis.Back then, he was his early 20s and still the closet about his sexualy. This was excellence.”Adaptatn giv gamers hope for more reprentatnSome queer viewers exprsed excement that Sunday's episo would expose even more people to gay vio game characters.

After wng turns Lookg, Tal of the Cy and The Whe Lot, he’s fast beg one of the medium’s most proment gay the episo nears s end, and Frank be curably sick, the uple’s last scen together are profoundly movg. The episo is, among other thgs, a subversn of the much-cricised “bury your gays” trope.

HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE

Here, y, are two gay characters who die. I first took note of “The Last of Us, ” the post-apolyptic HBO show based on the same-named PlayStatn vio game, when my queer social feeds l up about a surprise episo which a gay uple figured promently.

What’s more, stead of beg – as many other narrativ – the foc (or target) of the story’s pa, this gay uple’s plotle reprents the show’s only joyful reprieve an otherwise doomed world.

THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG

” Or we were shriveled si ourselv unable to break ee like Jake Gyllenhaal “Brokeback Mounta;” or else an exponential eratn of every gay stereotype, as Nathan Lane and Rob Williams “The Birdge. There is a nox factn of homophobic trolls who have been weighg down onle ratgs on the show wh claims that the “woke” HBO tried to trick straight people to watchg gay people. The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars strength ach, Kev Maxen, has e out as gay — makg him the first male ach a U.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

While Maxen is believed to be the first male ach to have e out publicly as gay, there have been a few female ach U. When to players, there have only been 16 the history of the NFL to e out as gay or bisexual as of September 2022, per Outsports. Image source, North Country Off Grid/Youtube/via RtersImage ptn, Photos shared on social at the time allegedly showed dozens of the hate group's members beg arrted near the pri eventFive members of a whe supremacist hate group nvicted of plottg to rt at a gay pri event will spend three days jail, a urt has men and dozens other members of the Patrt Front group were arrted last June after a rint spotted them wh masks and shields gettg to a were lled and found rt gear and a smoke grena the lorry was stopped near where the North Idaho Pri Alliance was holdg an event the cy of Cor d'Alene.

HOPEFULLY, THE LAST OF US TV SERI DON’T BURY ITS GAYS

Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed . The cisn to keep muted, hted at a sgle le of dialogue and a hidn letter, was both praised and cricized — was easy to overlook, but also avoid a lot of gay-character trop, and allowed Bill to be a human and not “a maniftatn of sexualy, ” as Polygon’s Danielle Rien put at the time.

The game’s storyle don’t avoid trop altogether, though: It was cricized for “buryg s gays.

Bartlett, an openly gay actor whose most famo rol have been as gay characters The Whe Lot, Wele to Chippendal and Lookg, is a well-chosen scene partner. There’s a good chance Bartlett will be playg a gay character: the ia that Offerman’s character might be too blossoms as litely as the pair’s relatnship. As the gam have been adapted for the screen, there has not exactly been a wealth of gay characters to choose mak Bill’s barely-mentned relatnship The Last of Us somethg of an outlier.