By David Futrelle
Fans of the well-loved postapocalyptic video game The Last of Us are reeling over a massive leak of information about the game’s upcoming sequel that suggests the story will be taking an exceedingly dark turn that highlights the futility of a cycle of revenge and retribution.
You’ll have to look up the spoilers yourself; I don’t want to give any more plot details.
While many fans are upset with the new direction, an angry minority has decided to blame the game’s apparently much darker plot — and everything else they think is wrong with the still-unreleased sequel — on evil SJWs for “shoving as much diversity and woke agenda at the player as possible,” as the One Angry Gamer site awkwardly put it.
In particular, they’re targeting unnamed and possibly imaginary trans activists at Naughty Dog, the developer of the game, for making it (allegedly) too trans-friendly for the true fans.
Much of the ire centers around a new character named Abby, whom 4channers and others have decided is trans — or at least “trans-gendered-looking,” as One Angry Gamer has described her — because she’s small-breasted and a bit butch.
A writer at the right-wing culture war site Sausage Roll takes this argument further, arguing that the allegedly less-feminine character design in The Last of Us 2 is part of a devious plan to make the game “trans-friendly.”
“It seems … that the inclusion of gay and lesbian characters in the last three Naughty Dog games was not enough to appease the activists who are reportedly working at Naughty Dog,” wrote Sausage Roll’s Dianne Anders.
The Last of Us Part II gameplay footage leak confirms that the plot has some extreme trans rights ideologies, too. ….
Abby is the leader of [a] little gang; and, according to 4chan leaks, she is also a trans woman.
Has there ever been a less-credible source than “4chan leaks?”
The characters in The Last of Us Part II are designed in such a way to not make trans people feel uncomfortable. Every single new character introduced in the sequel does not have definitive feminine or masculine qualities.
Ellie and Dina, specifically, have been remodelled to look less feminine … .
According to an unnamed video game artist interviewed by Anders, it’s all the fault of trans women that the game’s characters don’t have massive, male-pleasing boobs. (Because what’s an apocalypse without boobs?)
“A trans woman can’t naturally grow large breasts, and not all trans people can afford implants,” the anonymous artist told Anders.
If you see a game where the women are a little less curvy, it’s not … because the game designers are worried about receiving backlash for sexualising women, it’s because they are worried about offending the trans community. …
That’s why you will see a lot of designers ‘nerfing the female form’ so to speak so that the difference between trans women and cis women is a little less noticeable.
Anders herself continues:
That might explain exactly what happened to the cis female characters in TheLast of Us Part II.
We can practically hear the gutteral cries from offended gamer dudes from around the world: TRANS WOMEN TOOK MUH BOOBIES!
This would ring true especially if one of the new protagonists is a trans woman because it would blur the line between cis and trans so people would perceive Abby simply as a female hero.
Given that she’s already seen as trans despite no evidence that she is actually trans, that seems a tad unlikely.
It’s striking how easy it is for people like Anders — and her 4chan “sources” — to conjure up a trans demon out of nothing. Because transphobia runs deep.
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Won’t lie – if someone is trying to kill me, whether or not they are trans woman would be the thing least on my mind.