The Last of Us’s gay love story breaks new ground for an entire genre

Contents:

• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ DIRECTOR SAYS YOU NEED TO ‘TRICK’ VIEWERS TO WATCHG A GAY LOVE STORY
• THE LAST OF US’S GAY LOVE STORY BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR AN ENTIRE GENRE
• WHY THE GAY ROMANCE “THE LAST OF US” MEANS SO MUCH
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ CONFIRMED THAT BILL WAS GAY YEARS AGO
• Y, ELLIE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY ‘THE LAST OF US’
• ARE BILL AND FRANK GAY THE LAST OF US? WHAT’S THEIR RELATNSHIP?
• ‘THE LAST OF US’ PRENTS AN ACHGLY BETIFUL GAY LOVE STORY
• THE LAST OF US LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

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.

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

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.

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. 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’ DIRECTOR SAYS YOU NEED TO ‘TRICK’ VIEWERS TO WATCHG A GAY LOVE STORY

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. 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. 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.

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

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. 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.

HBO’s h vio-game adaptatn seri The Last of Us took an unexpected tour to gay terrory s most recent episo, focg on a buddg romance between the characters played by actors Nick Offerman and Murry Bartlett. In a recent terview, the episo director said viewers sometim need to be tricked to watchg a gay love story.

Director Peter Hoar, who is openly gay, spoke to the science-foced se Inverse about makg the show. Hoar directed the recent Brish miseri It’s a S, which followed the liv of a group of gay men at the height of the AIDS epimic. 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.

WHY THE GAY ROMANCE “THE LAST OF US” MEANS SO MUCH

The episo is, among other thgs, a subversn of the much-cricised “bury your gays” trope. Here, y, are two gay characters who die. You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web of you reprentativ om the Miserable Onle League is gonna start somethg about Nick Offerman playg someone gay and I want to remd you he is married to Megan Mullally which qualifi as a gay marriage— nolan (@anxluxe) January 30, 2023Philip Ellis is News Edor at Men's Health, verg fns, pop culture, sex and relatnships, and LGBTQ+ issu.

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

In fact, this new take on The Last of Us is already gettg a b uy wh another gay love story, one that marks a huge improvement over the gam. Anyone would feel the same that moment, but the specific pa they’re feelg is magnified even more bee they’re two olr gay men who felt isolated even before the apolypse me along.

There’s so much tenrns this moment still, somethg we rarely see any pictn of gay sex onscreen, let alone between two middle-aged men such big, mastream fare. “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. Ne years before the episo of the same name, Left Behd revealed that Ellie is gay.

Y, ELLIE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY ‘THE LAST OF US’

Those are the qutns plagug Ellie, not the far more played out”Am I gay? Though this storyle ends wh a ad LGBTQ+ character, don’t necsarily follow the Bury Your Gays trope.

But The Last of Us Part II -wrer Halley Gross nfirmed no uncerta terms that Ellie is gay. While Jackson, Ellie is harassed by a homophobic man for kissg her iend Da. And yet The Last of Us was there 2014, nfirmg that one of the bt known characters gamg history was gay all along and handlg her first love as serly as this anchise handled the ath of Joel’s child.

ARE BILL AND FRANK GAY THE LAST OF US? WHAT’S THEIR RELATNSHIP?

“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.

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

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 LETS GAY LOVE FLOURISH THE APOLYPSE

”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. If you are wonrg whether Frank and Bill are gay the show and the 2013 Nghty Dog vio game is based on, we got you vered.

It gradually be apparent to the men that they both are gay. It is que apparent that Frank was openly gay the world before the outbreak, whereas Bill had never been wh a man before Frank.