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
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• BILL AND FRANK’S GAY LOVE STORY THE LAST OF US GAME IS PLETELY DIFFERENT
• THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
• IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED
• WAS BILL GAY IN THE LAST OF US GAME? THE SURPRISG ANSWER
• THE LAST OF US PART 2 BURI ITS GAYS BEFORE RELEASE (AND MAYBE THAT’S OKAY)

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.

WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME?

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. Wh such drastic chang, pecially when to Bill and Frank’s relatnship, some are left askg if Bill was really gay The Last of Us vio game.

The biggt hts towards Bill beg a gay man are his relatnship to Frank and a certa magaze that Ellie steals om his stash the church basement, both of which n be missed by players not engagg optnal ntent or not payg close enough attentn. “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.

‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO

”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.

Given athat female ma characters gam were a rary until que recently, the fact that one of the biggt releas of the year, The Last of Us Part II, stars a gay woman feels like a signifint moment. Ellie is, fact, the first gay star of any blockbter game (die velopers have been ls shy about explorg queer stori) and Ellie The Last of Us Part II.

We journey through much of the game wh her girliend Da (played by Shannon Woodward); we see her experience homophobia and have awkward nversatns wh the people who re about is played by Ashley Johnson – a warm, wry and ngoly shy actor who had numero creds film and TV before landg a role 2013’s The Last of Us.

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

“Playg a lead female character a game is already pretty ol, but the fact that she’s gay is even oler, for me. ”Most often vio gam, if a character is gay ’s bee you chose for them to be so. Dpe a history of gay reprentatn that go back s – gay marriage was a thg The Sims long before most real-world untri – gam rarely have much to say about what ’s like to be queer real 2013’s The Last of Us, Ellie was a supportg character: the funny, sarstic teenage foil to gff, nflicted, beardy father figure Joel, who transported her across Ameri on a post-apolyptic road trip.

BILL AND FRANK’S GAY LOVE STORY THE LAST OF US GAME IS PLETELY DIFFERENT

“Whenever I’ve met fans at [nventns] there are still some people who ask: ‘Ellie’s not gay, right? “Ellie is VERY gay.

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

“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.

IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED

So yeah, Bill has always been gay.

Some er reviews on Metacric clud homophobic ments. HBO's latt episo of "The Last of Us, " s new vio-game adaptatn, aired Sunday to wispread praise and imprsive the episo, tled "Long, Long Time, " is seemgly gettg review-bombed by angry, homophobic fans of the the review aggregator Metacric, the episo has a er ratg of 4. 9, the past, review-bombg — or when people liberately give a show or movie a low ratg to crease s sre on s like Metacric and Rotten Tomato — has typilly occurred for racist, sexist, or homophobic reasons.

Lookg through the er reviews, 's clear that some of the game's fans didn't like the episo's central love story between Bill, played by Nick Offerman, and Frank, played by Murray the game, 's evint that Bill is gay and had a relatnship wh Frank, who never appears HBO seri tak their relatnship a different directn: In a flashback, Frank across Bill's hoe after beg the lone survivor of a group travelg to the Boston quarante zone. Sign up today for our ee To TopTelevisnThe Last of Us TV Show Perfectly Recreated the Game's Gay Adult MagWe sudnly all want to read a py of Bearsk. Episo four of HBO’s The Last of Us featured Ellie (Bella Ramsey) readg a physil py of Bearsk – a gay adult magaze that had been spotted the viogame seri.

WAS BILL GAY IN THE LAST OF US GAME? THE SURPRISG ANSWER

1675649673\u201cWhere\u2019s the Emmy tegory for \u201cmost fahful recreatn of a gay magaze om a vio game\u201d bee The Last of Us would w \u201d — Tom Zohar (@Tom Zohar). 1675730581It was a lot of fun for gamers and viewers alike to see that the HBO seri recreated this gay magaze so accurately stead of g somethg more generic or not featurg the scene at all. 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 PART 2 BURI ITS GAYS BEFORE RELEASE (AND MAYBE THAT’S OKAY)

Here, y, are two gay characters who die. The Last of Us st open up about the gay love story episo 3. The Last of Us fans are cryg over the gay love story between Bill (Nick Offermann) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) episo 3 but 's very different the sce The Last of Us buted on HBO, viewers have been gripped by the show's emotnally rich storytellg.

The Last of Us fans are sobbg over Bill and Frank’s gay love story episo 3. Are Bill and Frank gay The Last of Us game?