Contents:
- THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
- THE LAST OF US PART 2 REVIEW: BURY YOUR GAYS, EMOTNALLY
- THE LAST OF US EPISO 3 REVIEW BOMBED BEE GAYS EXIST
- THE LAST OF US' APPROVAL RATE DIPS AMID COMPLATS AGAST GAY RELATNSHIP AND CHANGG CANON
- THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
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. 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 LAST OF US PART 2 REVIEW: BURY YOUR GAYS, EMOTNALLY
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. While The Last of Us and Left Behd were both guilty of the bury your gays trope, Part 2 steps up by attackg the soul.
THE LAST OF US EPISO 3 REVIEW BOMBED BEE GAYS EXIST
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.
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. When lookg closer at the one-star ratgs, many brg up the fact that Bill is gay, dubbg the episo a "borg" romance. Other one-star reviews are angry that a gay man met a gay man, dubbg pletely unlikely, while the same breath mentng a girl who is somehow immune to a vis that has torn down the walls of society as we know .
It's fairly obv what the mon thread is across this sudn flux of negative reviews - a gay uple dared exist. Another tertg plat levied at this episo is that 's a disservice to the game, spe beg an episo that revolv entirely around buildg on clu given the game while also makg up for s pfalls reprentatn, namely fallg to the Bury Your Gays trope. Bury Your Gays, if you're unaware, is a trope which gay upl disproportnately break apart due to ath.
THE LAST OF US' APPROVAL RATE DIPS AMID COMPLATS AGAST GAY RELATNSHIP AND CHANGG CANON
It was a gay story that wasn't mired trma, but bee of the "lack of actn", apparently wasn't worth tellg.
Gay people existg is polil, apparently, and so TLOU even darg to show two gay people livg their liv together is to make some grand statement, spe the show already beg heavily polil given that the US ernment turn to psdo-Nazis that fd easier to burn people alive than take re of them. Gay people exist, the ter gets mad, review bomb ensu.
THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
However, the third episo has seen the show’s stellar 96% dience sre dip, wh a wave of negative reviews aimed at the show by those upset wh episo 3’s viatn om the game’s storyle and the central gay relatnship between the characters of Bill and Frank. Most prompts for gay porn, meanwhile, explibly flt to people of ambiguoly LatX scent wh an unrcut hairstyle.
Is that ditive of the typ of gay porn the mols were traed on? A gay uple, as picted by Unstable Diffn.