If the Manderlys succeed in retrieving Rickon and installing him in Winterfell, would they then expect favors from the restored Starks or a marriage/regency?

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…)

anon-foreverandever: Tywin and Stannis

There is something that fascinates me, and is Tywin and Stannis parallelism and admiration for each other. Tywin speaks of how he always felt Stannis as a grander threat that the rest of them (kings) combined, but even so he makes the same mistake than with Robb, namely, “his sun set at the Blackwater” “the rest of them are usurpers and thieves”. While Stannis spoke of how, with Robert holding his hand, both saw someone on the Iron Throne so solemn that they thought it was the king and even when Steffon confessed them that it was Tywin the hand, Stannis believed that was the image a king should have (just like Jon said Jaime was the image a king should have).

I say this because, while both have the same outward behaviour, is the same as Aerys and Robert’s behaviour, namely, Stannis and Tywin are very introverted, only in public when neccessary, frown upon them all, etc.

BUT, and here’s the problem, they are actually the same face on different coins, while Aerys and Tywin are faces on the same coin, Robert and Stannis are another coin, though Robert was corruptible and therefore worn away until it was unrecognizible but Stannis’ face has been kept untarnished. I say this because, well, summing up, Tywin is a gilded surface with a rotten core, while Stannis is a rotten (or simply rough) surface with a golden core.

I want to know where did they differ. I understand Tywin continously hearing mocks under a house whose ancient history he was keenly aware of (and therefore asking himself why do they have to suffer such shitty behaviour) but so is Stannis, specially after knowing Robert was horned, it was more than love for Robert (love that they did have, embittered as that may be) like humilliation for their entire house, the “Lannister woman” laughing at him. So, where did Tywin finally break and think that image and not substance nor acts were more important whereas Stannis chose to do the right thing? Where did they diverge?

And also, another thing I was thinking, having into account that Renly most likely was an attempt to give Rhaegar a royalblooded bride, and supposing that Robert is equally socially skilled with women as well as men, it may mean that Female Stannis STILL holds Storm’s End while leaving his two supposed children (as Rhaegar would have another plot-excused reason to have his third child with Lyanna, Ice and Fire after all) in Dragonstone, and I mean, Female Stannis would be a Doctoral Thesis on duty. What are your thoughts on that?

Wow. That’s a lot to take in. I guess I could see the parallels to an extent, but I don’t know if I agree entirely. For one thing, I think Tywin always cared about power primarily, and image only as it extended to power, whereas Stannis’ fixation on law counter-balanced his resentment.

Do you think the descriptions of Rhaegar’s behavior are consistent with bipolar disorder?

I’m not a psychologist or psychotherapist, but not really. Rhaegar certainly had what his contemporaries would describe as “melancholy” episodes, but where’s the evidence for any manic episodes?