The Last of Us' Gay Character Is Gettg a Major Change the Show

Contents:

• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• FROM REVIEW-BOMBG TO BURYG S GAYS: THE LAST OF US AND S EPIC HISTORY OF LGBTQ REPRENTATN, EXPLAED
• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
• Y, ELLIE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY ‘THE LAST OF US’
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE
• HOPEFULLY, THE LAST OF US TV SERI DON’T BURY ITS GAYS

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

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.

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.

FROM REVIEW-BOMBG TO BURYG S GAYS: THE LAST OF US AND S EPIC HISTORY OF LGBTQ REPRENTATN, EXPLAED

“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. Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed .

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

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.

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

Acrdg to crics who have seen the show, we're gettg a whole lot more of The Last of Us' gay characters than we thought.The Last of Us follows Joel and Ellie as they travel across a post-apolyptic Ameri tryg to avoid fung-fected zombi.

"The Last Of Us keeps buryg s gays - but that's OK, " op wrer Tom Chapman this season-wi rep. At a time when the work is known for queer shows like Euphoria and beg a memeable obssn thanks to Jennifer “The gays, they‘re tryg to murr me! Still, The Last of Us is dog the muny proud… and the homophob hate .

The Last Of Us buri s gays – but that’s OK (spoilers ahead). Followg the aths of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) episo three, The Last of Us uld fall to ‘Bury Your Gays’ terrory. Maz stated they were both gay, but “their sexualy is nfg to them and sry to them.

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

” Remdg how the vastatg Outbreak Day occurred 2003, Maz explaed the world hasn’t gone through the “revolutn” of “acceptg homosexualy and whatever we’d ll non-heteronormative sexuali. HBO seems equally aaid to nfirm Ellie is gay, and we’ll hazard a gus why. The game nfirmed Bill and Frank were a gay uple.

But when spun out to an epic love story, the homophob sharpened their pchforks. She recently told GQ: “If you don’t want to watch the show bee has gay storyl, bee has a trans character, that’s on you.

THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

Dpe beg straight, Offerman clapped back at one homophobe on Twter, sayg that this hate and ignorance to gay storyl is the reason people keep makg them. 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. Episo three was review-bombed after highlighted a gay relatnship. If you don't want to watch the show bee has gay storyl, bee has a trans character, that's on you, and you're missg out.

“The Last of Us” also will spotlight Bill and Frank, a gay uple played by Nick Offerman (“Parks and Rec”) and out gay actor Murray Bartlett (“Lookg, ” “The Whe Lot, ” “Wele to Chippendal”).

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

That same year, he lled the Tmp admistratn “pigs” for undog nondiscrimatn protectns for LGBTQ people health re and health surance, and he said that Supreme Court showed “the f*ckg basics of humany” by lg that gay and lbian people n sue for workplace bias. He won two awards and received a nomatn for his reportg on the lol LGBTQ muny, cludg a two-part vtigatn that exposed anti-gay bullyg of lol high school stunts and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protectns for LGBTQ stunts. 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.