As is always the case: A show highlights a LGBTQ+ couple and somehow it is forcing something “down the throats” of an audience, but a straight couple is a-okay! The Last of Us is just a recent example where “fans” want to throw tantrums online because of a same sex couple. In episode 3, titled “Long Long Time,” fans got to meet Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) and see their love story unfold.
It, of course, ushered in a series of “Bill wasn’t gay in the game!” responses (spoiler: He was) and just generally grossness from people who claim to love the world of The Last of Us. Which hasn’t been a stranger to gross responses either. The casting of Nico Parker as Sarah had “fans” furious and being racist towards the young performer and so on.
Their anger now seems geared towards the third episode of the story, claiming there were changes in the characters from the game and furious about things that … well, were great shifts from The Last of Us: Part One. And it has also just led to them … saying that the show is pushing the homosexual agenda simply because Melanie Lynskey is there? Let’s unpack how this is all unfolding online.
We’d care regardless because of the love story
One of the “troll” responses is that the third episode is only a “big” deal to audiences because it is about a gay couple. As Joanna Robinson pointed out on Twitter, that’s just false. There are episodes throughout television that have this response to fans and it is because of the love story at the center of them. Much like Robinson, when everyone started to talk about this episode of The Last of Us, I also thought about the emotional response that I (and many others) had to “The Constant” episode of Lost.
The point is: There have been plenty of episodes of television with a straight couple at its center that have brought on this response for fans of the series. So saying that we only care or “wouldn’t care” if it was a straight couple is … well, false.
It’s just honestly about the love story at the center of a show that isn’t necessarily about romance or love. It’s why we have ships that we get desperate about. “Oh look, they glanced at each other!” is a commentary about two characters that happens in online fandom spaces because their romance is not the main story arc.
So when The Last of Us just happens to include a gay couple, it is suddenly the only reason we care? No. We just love episodes of television that break from their typical mold and tell us a different story about love.
Review bombing is gross!
Online there are three minds: You loved “Long Long Time” and praise it, you thought it was fine/have critiques but love other stories better, and you are gross and are reviewing bombing it. Now, disliking the episode and coming at it from the point of criticism that isn’t about Bill and Frank’s love story is one thing and that’s fine. But the review bombing is coming from gross circles of the internet.
It’s filled with people claiming that they made Bill and Frank gay for the show. First of all, they were gay in the game and they just had a falling out instead of dying together while still in love. But the bombing on places like IMDb just simply come from a place of prejudice. (Note: the tweet below contains a spoiler for The Last of Us Part 2.)
It’s just gross to see how people would go out of their way to review bomb something that is, at its core, a love story. It’s not doing anything but telling us a story of two men who loved each other and spend the end of the world in each other’s arms. And somehow that is bringing this response into the world? It’s upsetting.
Melanie Lynskey, pushing agendas with her presence.
The latest shocker is that the show is pushing the “homosexual agenda” just by casting Melanie Lynskey. No seriously. Lynskey just showed up in a trailer for the next episode and got a response about pushing an agenda…
All of this is just chaotic and has ushered in people online posting tweets just so people will angrily engage with them like this one:
And for what? Because there’s a show where LGBTQ+ characters just exist? It’s just annoyingly gross at this time in the world and to see it happen constantly with any show that “dares” to highlight non-cis/straight couples or characters is exhausting. The Last of Us is great and all these responses to it are just laughable.
(Featured image: HBO)
