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
• THE LAST OF US HBO TV SERI WRER CONFIRMS ‘ELLIE WILL BE GAY’
• HOPEFULLY, THE LAST OF US TV SERI DON’T BURY ITS GAYS
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US GETS REVIEW BOMBED AFTER HISTORIC GAY EPISO

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. Speakg of The Last of Us TV seri at HBO, wrer/producer Craig Maz replied to a tweet om one of the fans who requted to “keep the gay, gay, ” to which he Maz replied, “You have my word.

This post ntas spoilers for the Last of Us prequel game Left, sners, for the gay mhroom apolypse is upon ten years after the vio game of the same name buted, HBO Max's The Last of Us is g to the streamer next year — and the seri' first teaser trailer, which dropped on Monday, has given a peek at our queer a near-future U. In the game, Riley di almost immediately after she and Ellie kiss for the first time; that's generally not unexpected for survival horror, but a naked example of the "bury your gays" trope neverthels.

THE LAST OF US HBO TV SERI WRER CONFIRMS ‘ELLIE WILL BE GAY’

Meanwhile, the characters Bill and Frank (Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) are nonilly a gay relatnship — or at least were, as Frank is killed off screen before the events of the first game take place.

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

And Part II, players meet Lev, a trans man whose life is largely fed by parental and relig abe, and whose adname is repeatedly shouted by var 40-mute long Ntendo Direct showse had no shortage of gaymer-gasm, this is survival horror, so we shouldn't expect nice thgs or much of a life expectancy for anyone. And bee of this gay reprentatn on-screen, a ntgent of largely homophobic dience members have been quick to share s vrl. Bill n’t exist whout beg gay Frank’s arms.

Apparently the wrers thk Bill and Frank’s inty was jt that they were gay, nothg more than that. Oh and that person jt happens to also be gay?

"And jeroen-10631 even lled out the episo's haters, sayg review bombers should "be ashamed of themselv" and that "clearly the story of two gay men ma you so unfortable:""Some of the people mentg about “polil propaganda” and 'checkg off liberal box' should be ashamed of themselv. Clearly the story of two gay men ma you so unfortable that you only subnscly realized you are so behd the tim and been raised rigid and immature while htg that '1 star' button.

HBO’S THE LAST OF US GETS REVIEW BOMBED AFTER HISTORIC GAY EPISO

All tak is a simple Google search to figure out that this is simply the act of homophobic ter trolls. In the game, while not overtly shown, Bill is gay. The long-anticipated third episo of The Last of Us troduced viewers to the gay love story between Bill (played by Nick Offerman) and Frank (played by Murray Bartlett) an terview whInverse, episo three director Peter Hoar explaed how he liberately “tricked” viewers to watchg a gay love story whout necsarily makg that clear straight away.

I would fely argue that Bill don’t e across as a gay man.

”Even though people who had played The Last of Us gam already knew of Bill’s gay love story, the TV adaptatn of the viogame seri is attractg a wir dience that isn’t necsarily aware of all the characters and storyl.