My partner and I are young adults in our early twenties. Like many young, queer relationships, our beginning was overwhelmingly intense and passionate. Things moved quickly, and we lived together within six months of meeting. Now, years later, our story is much quieter and more intimate. We’re making ends meet together. We've stumbled and learned. He is my support and I his.
I played Night in the Woods and met an anthropomorphic fox and bear, and I thought, They look just like me. Their relationship looks so much like mine. And it made me happy because those are thoughts I never have.
Gregg and Angus—the aforementioned fox and bear respectively—are a young, queer couple in a mature relationship. They struggle to communicate and define boundaries in their relationship, but they love one another unconditionally. They are tender and intimate; they compliment one another's butts. They work minimum wage jobs and stress about finances, dreaming of escape from their poor and prejudiced mining town. Their story of queer millennial disillusionment while navigating the struggles of a mature relationship moved me because it mirrored my own story so closely.
Thank you, Night in the Woods. Thank you for crafting characters whose story is about staying in love rather than falling in love, and thank you for making those characters queer. Thank you for capturing my lived experience with remarkable specificity.
