The Redacted of Us

Well, I'm outraged and I not only don't watch The Last of Us, but I don't even live in Saudi Arabia. What am I outraged about? Why this nonsense about a network re-editing the show.

In fact, we've been the opposite of Saudi Arabia lately.

Vampires on the other hand are
sexy and far more plausible. 

Wait, maybe don't click on that if you care about spoilers. Again, I don't watch the show, but I'm familiar with the video games upon which it's based and I already knew the spoilery thing and-hang on, I should explain. While I don't watch the show or play the games, it's nothing against either one, it's just that I find zombie fiction gross, preposterous, and depressing. That said, as a video game fan, I have, through cultural adjacency, absorbed enough nerdery to know about Ellie and Riley.

You've almost got to enjoy the irony of something
being too hot for the Middle East. Almost...

Brace yourself, or bail out now, because this is spoiler. A minor spoiler that you're probably already aware of and one that shouldn't interfere with your enjoyment of the series, but you know, still a spoiler. Still there? Super, Ellie and Riley are totally gay for each other. And in the latest episode of the TV series they've gotten to the part of the story where they kiss. Or do they? Yes, of course they do, but in certain regions, a certain network edited out the kiss. That network is called OSN+ and if covers the Middle East and North Africa and according to the article linked above they love to cut gay stuff. And that's whatever. 

Not knowing something has never been a
bar to having an option about it on the internet.

And by whatever I mean bullshit. But if they want to pander to whatever the Middle East's version of Red States are that's their business. Except it's also business. Specifically an American business. Two in fact which are, even more specifically, Warner Bros. and HBO. Where I'm going with this is that the series has been a huge success for OSN+. Like, a 15% increase in viewership. And I don't know anything about streaming network business...uh, things...but that sounds like a lot. It is a lot. And they owe it to this specific show. Specifically. 

I want to know so I can threaten not to
watch the show I already don't watch.

This specific show about zombies and gay stuff. And that's pretty, I don't know, offensive? Yeah, that's the word. It's offensive that they're happy to run the show and make a ton of money off of it, but equally happy to cut out whatever they personally don't like to avoid upsetting conservatives. So what I want to know is how do the streaming rights work? Like, did Warner Bros. or HBO sign off on these changes? And are they just cool with that?

I kind of feel like they can say to OSN+ either stream the series as intended or don't stream it at all. And again, I have no personal stake in this. I'm just throwing out unsolicited opinions about how HBO or whoever should run their business. But I'm not wrong. If they're making money off queer content in some regions while bending to homophobic, conservative pressure in others, that sucks and we should let them know how it sucks.

Because not to get all slippery slope about it, but if HBO/Warner Bros. is allowed to
get away with de-queering content for certain regions, sooner or later Ron DeSantis
is going to start demanding Florida versions to appease the MAGA hat crowd.