How do you feel about Asha/Yara being a lesbian on the show? I personally feel like it’s a cheap choice to pick the woman with masculine interests (which is something I loved that GRRM didn’t do with Loras, since even hyper-masculine Robert admired martial ability).

For me, I guess it depends on the extent to which Asha’s sexuality is actually used as a part of her character – does it affect her interaction with other characters, is it a part of her backstory, will she have actual relationships with women – vs just being used as an excuse to have another topless brothel scene so that HBO executives are happy. 

As for the “cheap choice,” I’m not sure. Yes, the Camp Gay and Butch Lesbian tropes in media are problematic to the extent that the tropes imply that everyone with gendered interests has a certain sexuality and vice versa, but it’s also the case that there are femme gay guys and butch lesbians and they deserve not just representation but quality representation too. So I don’t think erasure is the right response. 

Loras is kind of an interesting case study. Since norms of gender and sexuality change over time, it’s hard to say that he presents as particularly femme as other Westerosi would understand it. After all, being really into fashion and male beauty was once a conventional part of the gender presentation of male aristocrats. To give an example:

The high heels, the stockings, the wig, and the long, flowing cape might scan as feminine in the 21st century, but they didn’t in the 17th century. So to the extent that Loras fits into any archetype of homosexuality, it’s the younger man/older man dynamic we’re familiar with from Greek myth – Patroclus and Achilles, etc. (I would argue that Loras’ murderous rage following Renly’s death is a deliberate invocation of Achilles’ wrath following the death of Patroclus…)