Unfortunate, possibly unavoidable implications in GoT
Regarding the episode “The Ghost of Harrenhal”: I was trying to write up a summation of my feelings on the episode overall, and then got sidetracked by one particular point that bothered me.
So I’m not faulting the writer’s for this. Much. I don’t know. With the way the books are written, it’s rather unavoidable to a degree. In the books, Catelyn and Brienne are meeting with Renly when the shadow kills him. Renly does die in Brienne’s arms. Brienne is so angst-ridden that she just throws back her head and screams, because there are no words for her grief. It makes sense that the show chose this as a vehicle for showing that Brienne was definitively in love with Renly. In contrast, because Loras is not a POV character, and Catelyn— the POV character— never interacts with him, we don’t find out his reaction at all until the Lannister’s talk about it in a counsel meeting. Obviously, because Renly and Loras have had scenes by themselves in the show, this isn’t going to happen. They need to show a reaction.
The problem therein is, simply put, that Brienne’s grief is largely prioritized over Loras’. It makes sense that this happens, because there is more material from the book— for the reasons outlined above. I don’t think there is anything innately heterosexist in the decisions made by the creators of Game of Thrones. The problem, I think, is that it ultimately reduces Loras’ character. We get to see Brienne reduced to primal horror and despair; Loras is sad, but composed. When he does lose his temper, it’s only a bit more surly than when Brienne got to join the King’s Guard in the first place.
I agree so much with all of this. I was so disappointed. There were so many opportunities for really gritty emotional scenes here and it was wasted. It was the defining moment of Loras’ character and they cut it out.
