Finn Jones on Westeros’ Gay Rights Movement

There was a lot of controversy this week on Game of Thrones when it comes to sex and sexuality. And though there are fans who have been less than pleased with the way the show has handled Loras Tyrell’s homosexuality, that hasn’t stopped the producers from revolving Cersei’s plotline this season around religious intolerance and sexual persecution, in the show’s most open “real world parable” to date. Part of the reason this hasn’t sat well with fans is because, up until now, King’s Landing has been a rather openly decadent society, especially among the upper classes. With well-off brothel keepers like Littlefinger obviously free to peddle flesh and yet still find a place in court, it’s something of a shock for a main character to be arrested for sleeping with a prostitute. But as Finn Jones tells Vulture in a new interview discussing the Faith Militant’s new laws, just because characters were open about it didn’t mean it was really accepted. After all, his grandmother might not mind, but Renly and Loras were trying to keep their relationship on the down low when we first met them.

“It’s not illegal but it’s always been taboo. It’s not spoken about that much or celebrated that much. The way I see it, in Highgarden, they’re just very open and accepting,” Jones said. “Being gay, being lesbian isn’t unnatural. It’s free land. I don’t want to say it’s hippie land, but it has a more carefree attitude. Dorne might have more fire to it and Highgarden might be more airy-fairy, but both places are very open to homosexual relationships.”

Eugene Simon sees the carefree attitudes in King’s Landing as having been temporary, and compared the way the city was when Ned Stark arrived back in Season 1 as “sort of like spring break.” Finn Jones agrees that it was also seen as something of an elitist party, and part of the Faith Militant striking back comes from that class resentment. “It’s paupers fed up with the elitist rule.”

Be that as it may, it is interesting that the show chose to rework the Tyrells-on-trial storyline so that Loras’ sexuality is on trial rather than Margaery’s. One of the things the show gets accused of regularly is reducing women to sex objects, and being anti-feminist. But this was one spot where instead of following the books, and putting a woman on trial for salacious (and, from what we assume are, untrue) rumors, instead they chose to age up Tommen so that Margaery was able to marry (and sleep with) him, and have the trial focus more on something socially relevant to our present day. And even though they may have changed the path the show takes, they still wound up in the same place at the end, with Margaery arrested for lying to protect Loras during the trial (Jones refers to them as a “very loyal sibling unit”).

When asked about Loras’ acting out this season and becoming more careless about who knows who he sleeps with, Jones responded that, since Renly’s death, Loras has been at a bit of a loose end.

Loras isn’t stupid — he really should know better than to sleep around openly with a squire like he does,” Jones says. “But the way I see it, he’s a widower. His life was surrounded by Renly, and since his death, he’s feeling really isolated, and he’s looking for any kind of engagement to make him feel like himself again. And Olyvar was there, and he has his own motives. Loras let his guard down — he’s pissed off that this happened, and he’s hurt and embarrassed. And he’s upset that the world he’s lived in won’t accept him for who he is.

Not that he thinks Westeros is ready for a Gay Right’s Movement, not yet anyway. “Not in King’s Landing,” Jones says. “In Highgarden and Dorne, they already live it. Everywhere else? There needs to be a lot of shit changing, and a lot of people would have to die.”

• Published on 05/21/2015 at 9:30 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:04 PM CDT