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.
Contents:
- HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
- ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
- THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
- WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?
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.
“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
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.
THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
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!
WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?
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.