Was Bill Gay In 'The Last of Us' Vio Game?

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
• IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED
• IS JOEL OM THE LAST OF US GAY OR BISEXUAL? THEORY EXPLAED
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE
• WAS BILL GAY THE LAST OF US GAME? RELATNSHIP WH FRANK EXPLAED
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ PRENTS AN ACHGLY BETIFUL GAY LOVE STORY

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.

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

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!

IS NICK OFFERMAN GAY? HIS LAST OF US ROLE EXPLAED

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.

IS JOEL OM THE LAST OF US GAY OR BISEXUAL? THEORY EXPLAED

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. 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. “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. 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.

THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

” 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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

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

Unlike Da, Bill tri to hi his homosexualy and ially only refers to Frank as someone he had red for. 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.