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

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• THE LAST OF US FANS CLAIM NICK OFFERMAN IS ‘EXCEPTN’ TO STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ROL: ‘HE CHANGED MY MD’
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? RELATNSHIP WH FRANK EXPLAED
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE
• THAT ‘THE LAST OF US’ GAY LOVE STORY IS GROUNDBREAKG
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO

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 thought.The 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!

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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.

THE LAST OF US FANS CLAIM NICK OFFERMAN IS ‘EXCEPTN’ TO STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ROL: ‘HE CHANGED MY MD’

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.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

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.

WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? RELATNSHIP WH FRANK EXPLAED

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. She told CNN that, while playg the game for the first time, her “gaydar pged” when Bill mentned his “partner, ” but by the time she read Frank’s suici note, she wonred if she’d misunrstood – maybe the pair were jt bs partners and nothg more, she thought.

” Riley MacLeod of the Washgton Post noted that however movg their story was to viewers, Bill and Frank still “fall to well-worn gay ath trop” – a gay man phg another gay man, sickened by an unknown disease, a wheelchair; an image often shown storyl about HIV-posive characters – and are seemgly the “only two queer people the world.

A cric for Logo TV wrote that the game rced Bill to a “punchle” after Ellie jok about a gay porn magaze she fds.

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

Fanbyte reported on Bill’s stg the TV seri as a “gay (the show) will probably bury. ” Even the wily praised 2022 remake of the game was a “remr of s ‘bury your gays’ romance, ” said Ja Kg of The Gamer, an article that year. (The “bury your gays” trope refers to the equent killg off of gay characters media.

“To get almost two full s wh someone you love is a gift, and to get a time of so much ath and stctn feels even more special, so ’s really nice to see happen for gay people, ” she told CNN. Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.

THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual.

Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021.

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. Several The Last of Us viewers have claimed that the disurse over whether straight actors should be able to play gay characters on screen, Nick Offerman is an ‘exceptn to the le’.

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

There are equently bat over whether or not straight actors should be st gay rol, wh It’s a S creator Rsell T Davi sayg January 2021 about stg for his Channel 4 drama: ‘I’m not beg woke about this… but I feel strongly that if I st someone a story, I am stg them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on dgs or a crimal or a sat… they are not there to “act gay” bee “actg gay” is a bunch of s for a performance. The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons, who publicly me out as gay 2012, prevly said: ‘There’s fely this spectm: I thk the fight, as were, is not about havg only gay people play the gay parts but to ensure that all parts are open to all actors, ’ while Col Firth, who played a gay man oppose Stanley Tucci the 2020 film Supernova, said: ‘I don’t have a fal posn on this.

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

While The Whe Lot star Murray is gay, Nick has been married to Will & Grace star Megan Mullaly sce 2003. ‘Nick Offerman is the only straight man I’m okay wh beg st as a gay character. ‘Congratulatns to Nick Offerman for officially jog Stanley Tucci as the -print of the “Cis Straight Dus Wh A Lifetime Pass to Play Gay Characters” club after this episo bc wow I’m still cryg, ’ another wrote.