Pride Month Picks: The Last Of Us Part 2's Sapphic Romance Remains A Blockbuster Triumph
This article is part of Pride Month Picks, a collection of pieces that aim to highlight queer representation across games, television, film, books, and more throughout June.
The Last of Us Part 2 was popular to hate when it first came out. Gamers were mad because Joel wandered off for an adventurous game of golf while female characters like Ellie and Abby were thrust into the limelight. This post-apocalyptic world belonged to women, especially fruity lesbians and those with massive muscles and a love for hammers. Sorry, boys, you can’t sit with us.
It’s a masterpiece, building upon the narrative themes of the beloved first game while taking its mixture of combat and exploration to new and exciting places. Naughty Dog produced one of the finest blockbusters in recent memory, and were notably uncompromising when it came to LGBTQ+ themes that sought further representation in the mainstream space. Ellie is a proud lesbian, Dina is a vocal bisexual, and Lev is an excellent trans character whose identity is effectively woven into the narrative.
Related: Resident Evil 4 Remake Is Going To Change So Much And I Can’t Wait
Left Behind, a standalone single-player expansion for The Last of Us, first introduced us to Ellie’s lesbian identity. Her childhood romance with Riley was a touching tragedy, and while groundbreaking for the time, sadly fell victim to the ‘bury your gays’ cliche that queer characters suffer in order to further character development. Moments after they shared a kiss, both of them were infected, an unnecessary loss in the grand scheme of things.
We’ve seen this trope used by often well-meaning heteronormative creators time and time again in the past, failing to depict queer experiences in a realistic and nuanced
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