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

Contents:

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

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

“It was geo, and I was so not expectg , ” said Darn Lowenste, 41, a vio game nsultant, who is gay. “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-themed gam date as far back as 1992’s “Gay Bla, ” acrdg to the LGBTQ media advocy group GLAAD.

Though Bill’s role the game is small, and his mentn of beg gay brief, did not go unnoticed by LGBTQ gamers like then, he was his early 20s and still the closet about his sexualy. ”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. 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.

The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars strength ach, Kev Maxen, has e out as gay — makg him the first male ach a U.

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

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. 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. Here, y, are two gay characters who die.

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

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. ” 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.

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

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. Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St. 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.

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

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. Gay storyl on TV, while not ubiquo, are not unheard of.

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. This post ntas spoilers for the Last of Us prequel game Left, sners, for the gay mhroom apolypse is upon ten years after the vio game of the same name buted, HBO Max's The Last of Us is g to the streamer next year — and the seri' first teaser trailer, which dropped on Monday, has given a peek at our queer a near-future U.

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

In the game, Riley di almost immediately after she and Ellie kiss for the first time; that's generally not unexpected for survival horror, but a naked example of the "bury your gays" trope neverthels.

Meanwhile, the characters Bill and Frank (Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) are nonilly a gay relatnship — or at least were, as Frank is killed off screen before the events of the first game take place. And Part II, players meet Lev, a trans man whose life is largely fed by parental and relig abe, and whose adname is repeatedly shouted by var 40-mute long Ntendo Direct showse had no shortage of gaymer-gasm, this is survival horror, so we shouldn't expect nice thgs or much of a life expectancy for anyone. And by all means, there are homophobics that hate this game bee they heard Ellie is gay.