In relation to TLOU2 I've seen people arguing for the treatment of the LGBTQ+ characters and the violence they face (for being lgbt) because people need to see our struggles to feel empathy for us. Let's talk about meaningful violence & generating empathy: a thread

Disclaimer: I haven't played TLOU2, I don't want to. I've seen and read enough to talk about what I want to though because TLOU2 is only the start of the conversation. What I'm really going to talk about here is the portrayal of queer pain and (in my opinion) how best to do it

and I'm going to do that by comparing TLOU2 to The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories. TLOU2 has a variety of queer characters, but only shows our struggles in the most direct way possible in a way you're not going to be able to relate to unless you are already queer

You're not going to know the pain of being called slurs or spit on for your sexuality, you're not going to know the pain of being deadnamed and beat for being trans. You can feel sympathy, but empathy will be harder, because these situations are always going to be abstract to

an extent. "That's sad. I feel bad for these characters." will be the general reaction. And for most it won't open the floor to learning or conversation. The queer violence in TLOU2 is wholly uneeded, it's meaningless. It does nothing for the conversation at best and is harmful

at worst. It boils us down to our tragedies and pain. But let's compare it to The Missing:
The Missing is a gory puzzle game about a girl who can never die. The game takes you through a series of platform puzzles as JJ searches for her romantic interest Emily, but many

of these puzzles can't be solved without JJ brutally maiming herself to progress, then magically stitching her body back together again. The process of both these things is painful, as evident by JJ's agonized screams, but the violence and gore are never the focus.

This isn't torture porn, JJ's body becomes less and less detailed the more it's damaged. Because the focus isn't the violence, it's the -pain-

SPOILERS

JJ is not only a lesbian, you later find out through a series of text messages (which you get periodically through the game)

that she's also trans, and struggling with the societal hardships that being trans is currently and going to cause her. The entire game and all the violence you face with her becomes a metaphor for this,

with JJ constantly tearing herself apart, putting herself back together again and carrying on despite the pain she's going through. There's an amazing scene in the penultimate chapter of the game where JJ basically says as much.

The game is violent and gory but not once does it put that ahead of JJ and her painful journey, and that's the way you end up empathizing with her and coming to the games stunning conclusion of self acceptance.

This is probably very rambly because I've wanted to talk about The Missing since forever, but the point is that if you're going to write queer pain, the focus can't be on "making people feel bad for you" the focus should instead be "making people feel with us."