The Last of Us Series, the Way We Read Now, and the Narrativization of Feminist Theory

This article analyzes the narrative of the phenomenally successful PlayStation series The Last of Us ( TLoU ) and The Last of Us Part II ( TLoU2 ) using intersectional feminist/queer theory. I show that the series' two female protagonists, Ellie ( TLoU, TLoU2 ) and Abby ( TLoU2 ), challenge the heteronormative family through their desire for queer kinship. I connect the TLoU series' exploration of queer relationality to scholarly discussions of paranoid versus reparative reading; I claim that the series combines these two reading methods with feminist versus queer analyses of the heteronormative family, respectively. Whereas Ellie's narrative in both TLoU and TLoU2 advances a feminist/paranoid critique of the hetero-family as the embodiment of the repetitive nature of hetero-violence, Abby's reparative queer narrative in TLoU2 centers around Abby's successful queering of the hetero-family via her queer kinship with her adoptive trans son Lev. I argue that TLoU2 displays a feminist sensibility in striving to balance a reparative queer desire to flourish in the present with a feminist critique of that very present. This striving is evident in how TLoU2 urges audiences to envision a future that transcends the heteronormative, anti-Black foundations of Abby and Lev's queer kinship.