Faced with homophobic critics and violent haters of The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey (Ellie) has a clear and precise answer.
Since the broadcast of the third episode, The Last of Us has suffered a wave of homophobic attacks and criticism. The third chapter of the series adapted from the famous video game is dedicated to the love story over twenty years between two secondary characters, Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).
If the vast majority of fans were very moved by this episode, which is important, a certain segment of the public expressed their dissatisfaction on social networks with violent and homophobic comments and the practice of review bombing. [action d’une communauté organisée à noter massivement de manière négative une œuvre sur les sites de référence, ndlr] of the episode in question on IMDb.
Nick Offerman, the interpreter of Bill, responded on Twitter to these trolls by explaining that it was precisely because of this kind of violent and virulent responses that such important stories were told.
It’s hard to believe that these haters are really aware of the humanist scope and the themes addressed in the video game work The Last of Us or that they really played it to cry foul and too big a difference in tone between the game and series.
Bella Ramsey warns homophobes
And the heroine of the series to outbid since she has a message for homophobic viewers: “You’ll have to get used to it”. Bella Ramsey warns toxic fans in magazine GQUK that the romance between Bill and Frank was just the beginning of LGBTQIA+ representation on the show.
Already, the first season will also explore the past of Ellie, who was in love with her friend Riley, played by Storm Reid. It is a direct adaptation of The Last of Us: Left Behind, the DLC (additional downloadable content) of the first video game.
HBO
But above all, the second season, already ordered, will transpose the plot of The Last of Us: Part II, and Ellie has a girlfriend there, by the name of Dina, and a transgender character, named Lev, is present there. And the interpreter of Ellie assured the British magazine that the writers of season 2 of The Last of Us were going “continue to closely follow the scenario of the games”.
Bella Ramsey said she was looking forward to tackling these queer stories in the sequel, regardless of how some viewers reacted: “I’m not particularly worried about it. I know people will think what they want to think. But they’re going to have to get used to it. If you don’t want to watch the show because there’s gay storylines , because there is a trans character, it’s your choice and you’re missing something. It won’t scare me. I think it comes from a spirit of resistance”.
A courageous statement from the interpreter of Ellie, especially since she was the victim of violent criticism of her physique from her casting and derogatory comments when she came out non-binary. For the record, Bella Ramsey accepts all pronouns, including she and iel, to refer to her.
The Last of Us series is available on Prime Video.