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

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US PART 2 REVIEW: BURY YOUR GAYS, EMOTNALLY
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

THE LAST OF US PART 2 REVIEW: BURY YOUR GAYS, EMOTNALLY

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.

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. 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.

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

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.

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

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

Here, y, are two gay characters who die. 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 actor’s role as Bill HBO’s The Last of Us adaptatn is part of a larger discsn that rais the qutn as to whether Nick Offerman is gay.

Nick Offerman Is Not Gay, But He Believ Strongly In Reprentatn. While The Last of Us’ Bill is gay, Nick Offerman himself is not, and is married to Megan Mullally.

IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED

When I read scripts, if there’s any kd of humor that’s misogynistic or homophobic or racist, that is jt a red flag. While Nick Offerman do not share beg gay wh the character of Bill, as progrs has been ma society and queer characters are ls likely to be offensive ritur than once was and the LGBTQ+ muny is much more likely to get to reprent self today. Bill’s partner The Last of Us TV show, Frank, is played by Murray Bartlett, a gay man.

In the game, Bill’s partner Frank is never seen alive and only his remas are seen a move that walks dangeroly close to “buryg your gays. And by all means, there are homophobics that hate this game bee they heard Ellie is gay. The are the type of people that reviewed the game before was lnched and the on that jt review bombed metacric by sayg, "I hate the gays".

THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

So they ma Ellie gay and add a transgenr character so they n get more sal om the LGBTQ+ muny. People that tried to nstctively cricize the game are beg brand as homophobic, so Nghty Dog beme partially immune bee the reviewer was biased and homophobic.