The Last of Us Lets Gay Love Flourish the Apolypse - IGN

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• 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’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ PRENTS AN ACHGLY BETIFUL GAY LOVE STORY
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE
• VIEWERS SAY NICK OFFERMAN HAS ‘CHANGED THEIR MDS’ ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY

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!

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

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’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE

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. 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.

IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE 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. 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.

LGBTQ+ them are not somethg entirely new to The Last of Us anchise, as the first stallment of the seri also showsed a gay NPC and then a very graceful lbian kiss the Left Behd DLC. Bill is gay and had a relatnship wh a man lled Frank, who is later found ad the game, much to Bill's dismay. Unlike Da, Bill tri to hi his homosexualy and ially only refers to Frank as someone he had red for.

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

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. 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.

Here, y, are two gay characters who die.

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.

‘THE LAST OF US’ PRENTS AN ACHGLY BETIFUL GAY LOVE STORY

While The Last of Us’ Bill is gay, Nick Offerman himself is not, and is married to Megan Mullally.

THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

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. Nick Offerman ma believe love wh his portrayal of a gay man buildg a life after an apolypse the latt episo of The Last of UsThe Last of Us — but he almost didn’t even take the the popular HBO seri (based on the vio game anchise of the same name), Offerman played Bill, a survivalist who sets up fenc and traps around his town after is evacuated due to a zombie apolypse ed by fung. ”While there won’t be any more Bill and Frank upg episos of The Last of Us, the show is still one of the bt on TV and has several other queer Offerman on His Episo of The Last Of Us, Reactns to His Performance & Beg Spoiled on episos air Sunday nights on Your Se ArticlGay Episo of 'The Last of Us' Has an Unaired 2-Hour Director's Cut ›Homophob Are Review Bombg The Last of Us' Emotnal Gay Episo ›'The Last of Us' Director Tricked Straight Viewers to Watch Gay Couple ›'The Last of Us' Has an Entire Episo Foced on Its Gay Characters ›.

“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. So yeah, Bill has always been gay.

VIEWERS SAY NICK OFFERMAN HAS ‘CHANGED THEIR MDS’ ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

“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.

”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. 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.