It's Been a Long, Long Time

I'm particularly taken with HBO's take on The Last of Us, a game series that takes the standard zombie apocalypse and, rather than choosing that vehicle to deliver the usual gory gun fest, decides instead to focus on the relationship between father and (sort of) daughter.

I like thinking and talking about story and plot a lot, mainly because I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying to learn.

Over in the Reddit post, one redditor posted:

This would be nowhere near as good of a love story if it was a heterosexual love story. Amazing presentation.

...to which they recieved this reply:

Why is that exactly? The beauty of Bill and Frank's story is that it's a universal depiction of love that everyone can relate to regardless of the adjective they apply to themself.

I replied in the thread, but I thought it was worth expanding on that point a little here.

Firstly, it's not the choice of the TV series to include the gay partnership between the two characters. In the original game, we discover Bill alone - Frank has already left town. Frank is discovered hanged after being bitten, and the relationship hinted at is one that's very different.

In the podcast that accompanies the TV show, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman (the original writer behind the game) talk in depth about their decisions when implementing the story in a new medium. The entire thing - and the entire podcast to the series - is incredibly interesting from a story telling perspective.

Fundamentally, the choice adds some extra nuance to the character. Bill has seemingly lived a closeted life, putting up defenses and walls - both literally and figuratively - to keep anybody getting too close and hurting him. Frank turns up, seemingly sees who he really is straight away, and slowly picks away at those defenses. Bill has spent his life doing the gruff prepper thing, and it's taken what's basically an apocalypse for him to feel like he can share his life with another man.

It's a brilliant representation of a gay couple, and in a way the Reddit question reffirms that; the genders involved are significant to a degree, but the overall story is about love. The fact that it's love between two men, who chose to grow old together, who are so in love that they want to spend their very last moments together and can't bear the thought of mourning for the loss of their partner, it's almost a footnote.

Would it work with a hetero couple? To some degree, yes; the story being told here is about a bond that surpasses relationship types, where it's unthinkable to contemplate living without the other person regardless of who that is, but it wouldn't hit as hard. There's more at stake in the story of Bill and Frank, and a greater character arc in seeing how our gruff, survivalist prepper allows somebody to breach physical, mental and emotional boundaries that he's been so careful to cultivate, lest he suffer the perceived consequences. Let's also not forget that the entire series is structured around the exploration of different relationship dynamics, and Mazin talks about deliberately avoiding repetition of the same beats and interactions. We're already being told that particular story told elsewhere, so instead we're left with an emotionally heavy narrative slipped into a story we were expecting to be full of zombies.