SPOILERS for Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and some of the third Dunk & Egg novella, “The Mystery Knight.”
DISCLAIMER: When I talk about Lyonel Baratheon’s sexuality, I am talking about the character’s sexuality only. I am not speculating about the sexuality of his actor, Daniel Ings. I just need to clarify that before we get started.
I really love the new Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It has great characters and really strong themes, and it’s overall fun, funny, and weighty at different points. I could go on and on about all the wonderful things in this show, but I really want to talk about one of my favorite characters in Season 1, Lyonel Baratheon (the Laughing Storm), and why I think he’s bisexual.
One more thing before we get started: I’m a bisexual woman. It’s something I’ve been working through and realizing for a long time now.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about Lyonel Baratheon being bisexual because I’ve seen a couple of videos by straight men that talk about what an amazing character Lyonel is and how he’s a great example of positive masculinity. They never mention the possibility that Lyonel is anything but straight, even though that’s clearly possible and even likely. I believe that they do this because they assume that Lyonel is straight because they are straight, and all fictional characters reflect them unless otherwise stated, right? No, not really.
Thankfully, the entire queer theory school of criticism exists, and it invites us to think outside of heteronormative social norms and ideas. Like, if you’ve ever heard of the concept of gender being a performance, not an inborn trait, that comes from queer theory. Now, I’m not doing a hardcore academic criticism of Lyonel Baratheon or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as a whole. However, it is based on the idea that we can interpret characters and fictional works outside of heteronormative binaries.
A Note to Straight Men: Lyonel Baratheon is still allowed to be your favorite character in AKOTSK even if you can see how he may be bisexual. The sexualities of fictional characters that you like do not reflect your sexuality. For example, my brother is a straight man, but he really loves Lestat de Lioncourt, a bisexual character, in the recent AMC+ adaptation/reimagining of Interview with the Vampire. And yet, my brother is still straight.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way, here are some specific instances that I think help Lyonel Baratheon come across as bisexual:
- The whole party sequence in the Baratheon tent: This is the sequence that introduces us to Lyonel, and it’s what made quite a few of us audience members wonder if he might be bi. I know when I was watching the dancing sequence and I saw the way Lyonel looked at Ser Duncan the Tall right after Dunk stomps on his foot, I thought, “Is he going to kiss Dunk?” Later, my sister (who identifies as straight) and I were talking about the episode, and I mentioned the Laughing Storm. That’s when my sister said, “Did he seem bisexual to you?” And I said yes. When we rewatched the episode, we realized that each of us thought Lyonel was going to kiss Dunk at two different points during the dancing sequence. And then I went online and found that many other people had similar reactions to Lyonel in this whole sequence, including one Dunk/Lyonel fanfic writer who said something like, “They made Lyonel the most bisexual man ever, so I had to!”
- Also in this sequence, Lyonel calls jousting “a bit of gay fun.” While I know that gay used to mean “happy,” some fans take that line into consideration and see it as a reference to Lyonel’s sexuality. To be fair, riding full-tilt at another man with a lance, which is rather phallic itself, can be interpreted as rather homoerotic. Also, George R.R. Martin uses jousting and sword fighting metaphors to refer to sex between men in the third Dunk & Egg novella, “The Mystery Knight.” (More on that later.)
- The Tug of War scene: It’s worth noting that when Lyonel leaves the Tug of War to get a drink, insisting that he’s thirsty, he’s at an angle where he has a great view of Dunk’s behind if he turns around. The camera cuts away from Lyonel before we can see if he checks Dunk out. However, we do see Lyonel seconds later, walking back to his spot in the Tug of War while giving Dunk an Athletic Butt Slap (which is a real thing in professional sports) and saying, “Looking good!” I feel like the writers knew what they were doing here, and they’ve left the door open for us to interpret this as a less-than-platonic butt slap.
- Lyonel visiting Dunk after the Trial of Seven: When Lyonel goes to see Dunk, he’s dressed in his nice gold cape and a nice black shirt, has his hair slicked back, and takes his maester with him. And he just sits there at first, talking about how the tournament is over, how he likes them better than hanging out at Storm’s End (his home), and how he wants to take Dunk with him back to Storm’s End. Ser Lyonel Baratheon is the heir to Storm’s End and will rule the Stormlands one day. Why would he care about some random hedge knight, especially one that he seems to suspect wasn’t even knighted*? I know straight men will tell me that Lyonel purely considers Dunk a brother now, but I feel like that explanation is hollow. After all, this is Westeros, where no one is perfect and no one’s motives are that pure (heck, even Dunk falsely claims to be a knight mainly because he believes it will afford him security). Add on the way Lyonel snaps at Dunk after he says, “Baelor risked everything for me! He gave his fucking life!”, and I just feel like Lyonel feels friendship for Ser Duncan the Tall, but he may be feeling more than that, too.
*Clock Lyonel’s expression when Dunk won’t knight Raymun Fossoway–he knows Dunk falsified his claim to knighthood!
That’s all the concrete evidence (or close to concrete evidence) that I have for Lyonel Baratheon being bisexual. And yet I and quite a few other people believe he’s bi. So why is that? I think it’s mainly a massive vibe that we get from this character that is bigger than individual moments. I think it has to do with the fact that Lyonel is more flamboyant than the other male characters. His clothes are a bit brighter and more ostentatious, and he wears an earring in his left ear*. The man also really loves decorative antlers, and not gold or silver hammered into the shape of antlers, but ACTUAL STAG ANTLERS! And he just seems so secure in himself, no matter what he’s doing. Plus, that wink + stuck-out tongue he gave Dunk when they were dancing? That didn’t feel straight.
*Starting in the 1980s, queer men often wore a single earring in one ear. There used to be stereotypes about how a gay or bi man may wear his earring in the right ear, but they wore them in either ear. Even today, Francois Arnaud, the only out actor in the main cast of Heated Rivalry (he’s openly bisexual), wears a single earring in his left ear.
Also, there’s just this tension that exists between Lyonel and Dunk that feels homoerotic. That tension is not present in Dunk’s friendship with Raymun Fossoway or his interactions with any of the other male characters. The tension is just there, and it’s the reason that quite a few people ship Dunk/Lyonel and write fanfics and draw fanart for them.
And I think it’s kind of wonderful that many fans (including me) are clocking Lyonel as queer (mainly bisexual) because we’re doing it without the presence of really overt and cliche stereotypes. Like, the typical bisexual stereotypes of promiscuity and cheating aren’t present here. Instead, we’re reacting to a performance that feels very lived in, and then we decide whether or not we think Lyonel is bi. It’s just something that’s built into this character, and people are responding to it with reactions like, “He seems like a guy who didn’t know that he should choose,” and “He’s every bisexual man I’ve met at a Renaissance Faire!”. (Those are both real comments I’ve seen about Lyonel on YouTube.)
But beyond just vibes, there’s another reason I believe that Lyonel is bisexual: it makes him a great foil for a character that we’ll meet in Season 3, John the Fiddler. You see, John the Fiddler appears in the third novella, “The Mystery Knight,” when he rides down the road while Dunk is standing shirtless in a hedge. (Dunk took his shirt off because it’s summer, and it’s a hot, sunny day.) He then spends the first half of that novella speaking in double entendres and sexual euphemisms when he talks to Dunk. Some examples of these euphemisms include:
- “I would love to cross swords with you, ser. I’ve tried men of many lands and races, but never one of your size.”
- “Perchance we’ll meet again someday. I hope so. I should love to try my lance on you.”
- “Be my dog, ser. The night’s alive with promise. We can howl together and wake the very gods.”
Yes, that’s all real dialogue that George R.R. Martin wrote! When I mentioned using jousting and swordplay metaphors referring to men having sex earlier, I was talking about this stuff. Dunk having another man lusting after him is canon to the novellas, so Lyonel Baratheon having a crush on Dunk doesn’t seem that out there. It also makes Lyonel a foil to John the Fiddler, and makes the story a bit rounder and more interesting.
Wait, what’s a foil? A foil is a literary device where an author/filmmaker/showrunner creates two characters that contrast and highlight each others’ differences. One example of this is (and maybe I’m showing my age here) Buffy Summer and Faith Lehane in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both are very effective Slayers, but Buffy is a blonde from the West Coast of the U.S. with a loving mother, while Faith is a brunette from the East Coast of the U.S. with an abusive mother. Another example would be Dunk and Egg: a giant, strong, uneducated hedge knight and a small, clever, educated prince in disguise. Now, foils can be complete opposites (like Dunk and Egg), or they can be similar but different (like Buffy and Faith).
NOTE: If you want zero information for the third novella, “The Mystery Knight” (which will form the basis for the third season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), please skip the following section. I have marked where the spoilers end.
Lyonel and John the Fiddler fall into the similar but different category of foils. And here are some examples of how Lyonel Baratheon (in the show, specifically, where he’s a larger character) and John the Fiddler (in the third novella, which hasn’t been adapted yet) operate as foils to each other:
- Both show an interest in Ser Duncan the Tall, but Lyonel’s interest is clearly based in friendship, but could be read as romantic or sexual as well. That part is left ambiguous. John the Fiddler, meanwhile, has a much more overtly sexual and romantic interest in Dunk.
- Both men wear fine, colorful clothing, but Lyonel sticks to his House Baratheon colors (gold and black) and his heritage is known to everyone. John the Fiddler’s heritage is unknown for most of the story, and he wears a range of colors while claiming to be a hedge knight. (Dunk privately calls BS on that because no hedge knight has the money to wear silk or cloth of gold, which are the types of fabrics that John wears.)
- Both men have connections to music and performance: Lyonel loves dancing, while John the Fiddler enjoys playing the fiddle.
- Dunk meets each man at or on the way to a tourney, and each one appears to be an experienced tournament knight. In Lyonel’s case, this is true. But John the Fiddler may be rising through the tournament ranks through less than honest means…
- Lyonel offers Dunk a place at Storm’s End out of genuine friendship and/or attraction. John the Fiddler offers to make Dunk Lord Commander of the Kingsguard or a lord if Dunk joins his side, and his motivations are much, much more political than Lyonel’s are. (When Lyonel says, “There’s a war coming. We could be a force, you and I,” he’s not talking about rebelling himself. He’s talking about people like John the Fiddler. Lyonel is an observant person, and he knows there are people like that out there. That’s all I’ll say for now.)
Okay, we’re done talking about foils. Thank you for indulging me!
Basically, interpreting Lyonel Baratheon as bisexual makes the longer arc of Dunk’s story more interesting because he will meet another queer man (in this case, a gay man) who is going to approach him in a similar way, but his friendship comes with more strings attached than Lyonel’s does.
Here’s the END of the spoilers for “The Mystery Knight.”
Beyond all of that, another reason that I believe Lyonel is bisexual is because he’s already a multifaceted character who gets this line: “In every man, there are many men.” A person’s sexuality is just one facet of their identity. Lyonel can be a masculine warrior, an observant person, and a wacky party animal. And he is all of those things. And there’s also room to interpret him as queer (in the reclaimed sense), too. Because people who identify as bi, gay, pan, queer, asexual, etc. can be all of those things.
And the thing is that Lyonel’s vibe with Dunk reminds me of crushes that I had on a girl in middle school (when I was eleven) and then a young woman in college/university (when I was twenty-one). When I felt those crushes, it was a combination of an intense need for friendship plus something else (that I later realized was sexual attraction). Then I eventually got over those crushes and kept being friendly with those people (without ever saying anything because I didn’t fully understand what I was feeling at those times). While this isn’t a feeling that neatly fits monosexual (straight or gay) ideas of love and attraction, it was a pleasant one. And the way Lyonel interacts with Ser Duncan the Tall reminds me of those crushes and feelings, and that’s okay. I’m glad that I found a relationship between two characters that reminds me of that stuff. Because it is a real thing.
I don’t think I’ve proved anything with this post. I was never going to definitely prove anything about Ser Lyonel Baratheon’s sexuality. But I needed to write it because when I see straight dudes talking Lyonel and they don’t bring up the possibility that he’s not straight, it feels hollow. On top of that, I have seen several homophobic comments saying that Lyonel isn’t gay and we’re projecting (or that he’s just drunk or that’s how men act with their homies). There are also homophobic/biphobic comments that say we’re “making Dunk and Lyonel gay.” No, we’re just recognizing that Lyonel seems a bit flirty. All of these approaches are bisexual erasure, which is the denial that bisexuality exists. Straight and gay people both perpetuate bi erasure because, well, it’s easier for them if everyone is monosexual (only attracted to one gender). But bisexual people do exist, and we’ve been everyone from Alexander the Great to Freddie Mercury to Angelina Jolie to Ice Spice. We can be great warriors of Westeros, too.
Really, I wrote this post to challenge the idea that reading the interactions between Lyonel and Dunk as purely platonic is the default. For a lot of people, it’s not the default reading. Bisexual is many people’s default reading for Lyonel. As my sister said, “His vibe isn’t gay. It’s bisexual.” Even though Lyonel doesn’t try anything with Dunk, there’s just a vibe that this is a bi guy who has figured out how to exist in this medieval-ish fantasy world that he lives in. And you know what? I love that for Ser Lyonel Baratheon, the Laughing Storm.
And yes, I know we need more overtly bisexual characters like Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones and Ilya Rosanov in Heated Rivalry (and maybe even some bisexual women, too!). But I also want characters like Ser Lyonel Baratheon, who feel bisexual without having to do anything explicitly sexual in the narrative. I just love that he’s having the most fun out of anyone at this tourney, and he basically asks Dunk to visit his cottage (Storm’s End) in the final episode. For whatever reason, I connect with that.
Anyway, the caravan departs after the roast! Bye!
Shout out to my sister, who talked this stuff out with me so I didn’t feel so crazy about reading Lyonel as bi!