AKOTSK: Why I Believe Lyonel Baratheon is Bisexual

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.

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To My Fellow Americans: Keep Resisting ICE

Hi, there. I just need to say one thing: FUCK ICE.

Okay, I’ll say another thing: keep resisting and fighting against ICE.

How can you do that? There are many different ways:
– You can protest in person, of course.
– Avoid buying things from companies like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Whole Foods, since they all work with ICE.
– Get involved with local organizations to help protect people and find protests to participate in. Your local branches of Indivisible and 50501 are good places to start.
– Call your representatives and put pressure on them to abolish ICE and invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump (and all his cronies) from office. You can find their phone numbers with a quick online search, and the staffers on the other end will write down your message.
– If you see a snitch hotline phone number being passed around on social media, call it and give the workers and/or answering machine extremely useless information. Sing songs, rattle off trivia, quote movies and TV shows, talk about who you think is in the Epstein files, or mention anything else that comes into your head. (I did this for a Texas snitch hotline that went up last summer, and the whole process was strangely cathartic.) This helps gum up the hotline and prevents real snitches from informing on innocent people.
– If you own a business and ICE agents try to use it, refuse them service. It’s your right to refuse them.

And here’s the most important bit of advice: DON’T. GIVE. UP. Keep resisting, protesting, and fighting back. Everyone is angry at ICE right now, and if we keep pushing back against them, they cannot win. There are 340 million of us, after all, and they can’t get rid of us.

I know that telling you to rebel against a U.S. government agency is a far cry from what I usually write about here, but I have to say something. And actually, many of the narratives I’ve covered in my posts are explicitly anti-fascist (hi, Star Wars, Captain Marvel, Wicked, and even Harry Potter), so this feels a bit like life imitating art.

Also, it scares me that both Renee Good and Alex Pretti (ICE’s most recent murder victims, who were innocent people) were just a year old than I am. Like, yikes, we’re the ones you’re going after? I guess I see the Millennial generation as people who are trying to figure our lives out, while ICE sees us as fully adult threats.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now.

Ironheart: He’s a Man of Wealth and Taste, and He’s Here

SPOILERS for Episode 6 of Ironheart, “The Past is the Past.” This post centers on a character who only appears in that episode. You have been warned.

So, the finale episode of Ironheart introduced a particular character. This is a character that fans have been speculating about since WandaVision. People have wanted him to show up, and now he’s here. I can’t say much about him above the “Read More” cut without spoiling someone, other than that he’s played by Sacha Baron Cohen.

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Wakanda Forever: I Have a Crush on Namor the Sub-Mariner

NO SPOILERS for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever because I haven’t actually seen the movie yet. Everything discussed here comes from the film’s official teaser and official trailer as well as Tenoch Huerta’s interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Okay, so ever since the teaser trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped, I have been obsessed with Namor the Sub-Mariner. Who’s that? This guy:

I mean, how could I not? He’s a very handsome dude who has pointy ears and ankle-wings, wears Casino Royale-esque green swim trunks and a bunch of jewelry, and radiates the intensity of a thousand burning suns. What’s not to like?

What I really like about him, though, is that he just seems so highly specific.

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Hey, VICE: All Art Is Collaborative Content

Okay, okay, I read VICE’s article, “The Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Not Art,” today. I mean, the title is clearly clickbait, and the whole article itself is a lot of gatekeeping. And it draws an elitist line between “art” and “content” without really telling us what art should be. It reads like the screed of an angry 40-something guy who really wanted to insult the MCU and everyone who’s ever watched one of its films. And looking at the author Patrick Marlborough’s Twitter page, it seems like he is an angry 40-something guy who wants us all to leave the MCU and Star Wars behind and…watch Mad Men? Uh, okay, Patrick.

The article I’m responding to talks about both the MCU and Star Wars, so here are some random images from both franchises.

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Moon Knight, Ep. 5: Character Study, Ahoy!

MAJOR SPOILERS for Moon Knight Episode 5, “Asylum.”

CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses the trauma and abuse featured in this episode.

Wow, okay. This episode. THIS EPISODE. See, the reason that I love Moon Knight is that it’s a superhero show that isn’t really about being a superhero. It’s about a person with mental illness struggling to get through life and figure out what’s happening to them. The superhero genre is just a backdrop for all that. The story is really intriguing, but not in the usual, plot-ish way. This is a story about a person, a character. No, not all the things with the Ammit cult and the Ennead are going to make sense, but they’re not here to make logical sense. They’re here to facilitate Marc and Steven’s personal journey together.

Here are my reactions for this very intense episode:

Steven and Marc are just out here, staring into your souls.

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Moon Knight, Ep. 4: It’s Getting Trippy in Here!!!

SPOILERS for Moon Knight Episode 4, “The Tomb.” Yes, ALL of that episode.

Just when I’m like, “Oh, this is very Indiana Jones,” things took a turn. But more on that in a minute, after the cut.

Me explaining this show to myself from two months ago.

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Moon Knight, Ep. 2: We Don’t Talk About Khonshu

SPOILERS for Moon Knight Episode 2, “Summon the Suit.”

We don’t talk about Khonshu-u-u-u!!! WE DON’T TALK ABOUT KHONSHU!!!!!

(Thirteen-foot frame, moonlight on his back, when he calls your name, it all fades to black…)

Okay, I didn’t think I was going to do another reaction post about Moon Knight, but here we are. I have more reactions and thoughts. So let’s get into them!

Marvel asks the question: What if Batman…had MORE mental problems? And was way less predictable?

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Moon Knight: I Just Really Need To Write Down My Thoughts

SPOILERS for Episode 1 of Moon Knight, “The Goldfish Problem.”

Well, the first episode of Moon Knight was an experience. And I mean that in the best way possible. It’s a bit darker than the usual MCU fare, but not as grim as Marvel’s recent Netflix shows. It’s trippy, but not so nutty that general audience members can’t follow it. And it’s just so much fun.

Since we only have one episode so far, I’m going to put my thoughts down here in list form because I don’t really have one theme or character to write about more fully yet.

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How To Improve The Book of Boba Fett

SPOILERS for The Book of Boba Fett.

Okay, so the finale of The Book of Boba Fett was fun, but that’s mainly because of the other characters in the story. Boba’s actual character arc still left a lot to be desired, and the finale helped me figure out what the story was missing.

Here’s what would have made The Book of Boba Fett a much stronger narrative:

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