It has been almost 2 weeks since The Last of Us “Long Long Time” aired and I AM STILL NOT OKAY. God, it absolutely shattered me (in a good way) so I’ve been liking every damn piece of Bill/Frank fanart that’s crossed any of my dashboards, my gosh it’s all so well done and I’m so glad that episode has become so beloved in the space of less than a month!
Here’s my favourites, get ready to cry or perhaps happy-cry:
i’ve seen two articles about how the last of us episode 3 is a conservative power fantasy masked in a queer love story and it just rubs me the wrong way a little because i feel like it ignores the fact that being away from heteronormative society is an actual queer fantasy and trope (like in maurice for example, where the two lovers run away from england to be together.)
i’m trying to be fair to those articles tho and examining my own predisposition to defending this episode – it moved me a lot so i’m a bit protective of me. i also think we can enjoy media while also being critical of it.
both articles seem to really harp on about bill hoarding resources and refusing to help communities around him but seem to ignore that in universe there’s no one really around him to help. joel pretty much states in a scene that they’re so far away from the rest of civilization that the only people who will come their way are the occasional raiders. surrounding communities around them have devolved into fascism and by making themselves known, bill and frank risk the threat of being exposed and potentially executed or forced to lose their home by FEDRA.
the articles talk about how societal isolation is bad (which i agree) without taking into consideration that there isn’t much of a society left in the world anymore. and the fact that bill was already isolated before the pandemic and was only free to be himself and love freely when that society collapsed says something of how damaging that society was.
i think there’s something to be said about how zombie/post apocalyptic media tends to lend itself to more conservative/ individualistic values of “my people over others” but i guess i just don’t understand why this particular episode and this particular couple is the one being nitpicked. that bill and frank somehow owed society a share of their resources when doing so could have exposed them to fascism and hostility.
and on the subject of bill being a doomsday prepper. if anything i feel like that was more of a means to getting him to where he needed to be in the episode – it explains why he was the sole survivor of his town. maybe the episode could have done more to deconstruct his worldview but it was an 80 minute story where the moral was “life can be good in the post-apocalypse if you find someone to love” so idk. /shrug
I remember seeing one of those articles on Twitter, and I clicked on it to read what it had to say and it was behind a paywall. Go figure.
But I think one of the things I actually liked the most about Long Long Time is that Bill really isn’t a nice person… at the beginning. If the apocalypse hadn’t happened and he hadn’t met Frank he’d almost certainly be a nightmare, but he did meet Frank. “You can love a person so much you can make them a better human being and change the entire story” is probably also a power fantasy but I don’t think it’s a conservative one.
I’ve been thinking about the Bill-Frank wedding scene and I wonder… Where did they get the rings? It’s possible they were family heirlooms Bill had lying around or he found them in what was left of the town or something, but I like to think he made them.
But, I think (not an expert, mind-) making two rings of good quality would take longer than one day. So did Bill make them long before the wedding, knowing Frank would ask him eventually?
Something about Joel ending up in Frank’s shirt when Frank was the open, loving, living one and bill was cut off and reserved and removed, and how now that Joel is wearing that shirt he begins his journey to opening up, loving again, and having something to live for 🥺
I am floored I am flabbergasted I cannot believe it
In the game, Bill and Frank were almost nothing. Bill was a joke character, he shows up, he’s a doomsday prepper, he helps you fight zombies, gives you a truck battery, and you leave. Ellie steals some comics and a gay porno magazine from him, and he’s never seen again.
Frank WAS nothing. You never see him. You find his BODY, he got bit and hung himself, and he got bit trying to escape Bill because he hated him so much and the note says he’s happier dead than living another day with Bill
And then the show. The show took that shallow, mean storyline, and made it beautiful.
Now Bill and Frank are real characters. We know them. Really KNOW them. And they don’t hate each other. In fact they’re in love. They’re really IN LOVE. And yes they argue and disagree sometimes but they’re a real couple who really love each other while still being two people so sometimes they fight. That doesn’t change that they’re in love
And they GET TO BE IN LOVE, the whole time, they’re doing things for each other. They’re living in their little gated paradise and it’s beautiful. They make it pretty. They grow food. They’re eating gourmet meals. They’re not just surviving. They’re thriving. They’re living
They took that mean spirited game story, and they made it the point, the heart, the example of what people are still fighting for. The proof that yes, even in the middle of the apocalypse, you can still live a good life. Not an easy life, you will still have bad days, you’ll have bad days with the ones you love, but you will still love them, and they will still love you. And then, with all these grizzly, horrific deaths we see two deaths that are peaceful. Painless. Two men who die old, satisfied, and in the arms of their purpose.
