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

Contents:

• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? RELATNSHIP WH FRANK EXPLAED
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? EXPLAED
• THE LAST OF US EPISO 3 REP: BLOOMG LOVE STORY OF A GAY UPLE, FRANK'S ILLNS AND BILL'S REMPTN
• Y, ELLIE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY ‘THE LAST OF US’
• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ SERI WILL SHE A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY UPLE BILL AND FRANK
• WAS BILL GAY IN THE LAST OF US GAME? THE SURPRISG ANSWER
• IS JOEL GAY? *SPOILERS*
• THE GAYG OF VIO GAM

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

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.

WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?

The most recent episo of HBO’s The Last of Us has left some fans wonrg if Bill and Frank were a gay uple the origal game.

Wh such drastic chang, pecially when to Bill and Frank’s relatnship, some are left askg if Bill was really gay The Last of Us vio game. The biggt hts towards Bill beg a gay man are his relatnship to Frank and a certa magaze that Ellie steals om his stash the church basement, both of which n be missed by players not engagg optnal ntent or not payg close enough attentn. “Long Long Time” has sparked several plats om the worst si of Twter about how The Last of Us allegedly shoehorned a gay relatnship.

But the fact is Bill has always been gay. So yeah, Bill has always been gay.

‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO

LGBTQ+ them are not somethg entirely new to The Last of Us anchise, as the first stallment of the seri also showsed a gay NPC and then a very graceful lbian kiss the Left Behd DLC. Bill is gay and had a relatnship wh a man lled Frank, who is later found ad the game, much to Bill's dismay.

Unlike Da, Bill tri to hi his homosexualy and ially only refers to Frank as someone he had red for. “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.

WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? RELATNSHIP WH FRANK EXPLAED

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. *WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Last Of Us*The story of Bill and Frank is only briefly touched upon The Last Of Us vio game, but episo 3 of HBO’s adaptatn has dramatilly expand on their relatnship what is a notable viatn om the source enthrallg episo is filled wh tensn, joy and heartbreak as tells the pair’s story over almost two s, begng wh their first meetg after Frank fell to one of Bill’s follows is a betiful love story that has left fans wh a number of qutns, wh some askg whether Bill was gay The Last Of Us game self.

TERMINAL ILLNESS: FRANK’S FATE IN THE LAST OF US SERIES IS A HUGE DEPARTURE FROM ORIGINAL GAME© HBO | Liane HentscherWas Bill gay The Last Of Us game? Y, Bill is nfirmed to be gay The Last Of Us vio game.

WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? EXPLAED

Speakg The Last Of Us podst, Craig Maz reerated this pot, sayg: “This wasn’t a new ncept that Bill was gay, that’s the game.

Here’s everythg you need to know about if Bill was gay The Last of Us game. Full Explanatn While both Bill’s sexualy and relatnship wh Frank were never explicly stated the game, there is plenty of evince to pot towards both Bill beg gay, and him and Frank havg mataed a romantic relatnship. On top of this, Ellie also steals a gay pornographic magaze om Bill’s locker, to joke around wh Joel.

THE LAST OF US EPISO 3 REP: BLOOMG LOVE STORY OF A GAY UPLE, FRANK'S ILLNS AND BILL'S REMPTN

So y, n be duced that Bill was very likely to have been gay The Last of Us game, or at least have some sexual attractn to men.

That’s all you need to know about if Bill was gay The Last of Us game. The show is already garnerg high praise for s third episo, which lved ep to a si story wh two gay characters at s re.

Several more gay characters are sttered among the game’s st, and future episos — and seasons — will see the h characters realized live-actn for the first time. Ellie Image via Nghty Dog That’s right, the lead character The Last of Us is part of the gay muny. The character’s sexualy is hted at the Last of Us gam, and many players termed that he was gay, but players didn’t get nearly the romance the origal that HBO livered wh “Long Long Time.

Y, ELLIE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY ‘THE LAST OF US’

Bill's Sexualy Was Always Hted at the Origal 'Last of Us' GameIs Bill gay the origal 'Last of Us' game?

This is new ground for The Last of Us, but is Bill gay the game? Bill is visibly troubled by his ath, revealg to Joel that Frank had lived wh him before leavg on poor isn't explicly stated, Bill is heavily implied to be gay this scene.

In a 2014 terview wh Gay Gamer, Neil revealed that Bill's sexualy was somethg that he wanted to rporate more openly the game but that the fal product left ambiguo. After Joel and Ellie take off one of Bill's tcks, Ellie mmag through the back seat and disvers an old adult men's magaze that likely belonged to Bill's sexualy is ultimately never nfirmed the game, his gay romance wh Frank is explored fully the show, where the two of them share their own love story that is pletely origal to the seri.

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

Was Bill gay The Last of Us game. The duo were ed a gay uple the game. Ne years before the episo of the same name, Left Behd revealed that Ellie is gay.

Those are the qutns plagug Ellie, not the far more played out”Am I gay?

Though this storyle ends wh a ad LGBTQ+ character, don’t necsarily follow the Bury Your Gays trope.

THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY

But The Last of Us Part II -wrer Halley Gross nfirmed no uncerta terms that Ellie is gay. While Jackson, Ellie is harassed by a homophobic man for kissg her iend Da. And yet The Last of Us was there 2014, nfirmg that one of the bt known characters gamg history was gay all along and handlg her first love as serly as this anchise handled the ath of Joel’s child.

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.

HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ SERI WILL SHE A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY UPLE BILL AND FRANK

In other words, they’re a perfect gay uple, a “normal” gay uple, a world which the mere thought of takg re of someone else is somethg of a ath sentence. Some might fd the pivot tone and narrative to be rehg, and the seri has already been praised by crics for liverg a gay love story, but the tonal shift om bter loss to lovg oasis feels disgenuo.

WAS BILL GAY IN THE LAST OF US GAME? THE SURPRISG ANSWER

Watchg the episo, feels as though the wrg beme stuck 2003, which is when the fungal panmic hs the show, rultg the kd of gay love story that would have been groundbreakg TV back then, but is now jt wearisome. To settle for a narrative this bland and dated, one termed to wrg tears while both metaphorilly and lerally buryg s gays — bee, y, strippg them of any narrative purpose is a thematic burial before their actual on-screen aths, is flat-out mortifyg, particularly a world where more and more nuanced and plited queer characters e to life every day.

IS JOEL GAY? *SPOILERS*

What we got stead was a psule episo, and a particularly bracg one, given the show’s opprsively bleak mood th far: The hour is dited to the love story of Bill and Frank, a gay uple who—due ially to Bill’s skills as a bunker-stockg, booby-trappg, Don’t Tread on Me survivalist—manage to build a largely happy existence together an abandoned and eventually fortified ral hamlet for almost 20 years. Wh Bill and Frank, we were given a portra of love—specifilly gay love—that feels surprisg and urgent. In our own 2023, we are not exactly lackg for media imag of whe gay men.

For one thg, we see gay sire portrayed all s plexy, but wh a touch as light as a breeze playg through curtas. Bill’s is not a “type” of gay man I n say I’ve ever seen mastream media before, and watchg him slowly reveal and epen that aspect of himself wh Frank’s help—sexually, y (Hollywood: more hairy bear love scen please!

THE GAYG OF VIO GAM

But Bill and Frank create somethg else, a ltle oasis of their own that’s regnizably gay, full of quiet bety and joys the size of new strawberri. Frank wants to fix up the block and some of the “not stupid” shops—the we and furnure stor, the clothg boutique—bee he hop they might one day have unfected guts (which they eventually do, the form of Joel and Ts), but really bee makg thgs nice, pecially when nicens isn’t valued, is one of the great gay llgs. As an echo of the gay experience wh AIDS, is, as veteran activist Peter Staley put a Facebook post, a ftg tribute to the “tenr love & bravery gay men summoned when facg ath durg the plague years, cludg those who did so on their own terms.

How powerful, then, to see not only a gay uple given an entire hour of a marquee show, but a gay uple who are held up as the keepers of civilizatn, as stewards of bety, as emblems of human digny and possibily.