There are plenty of gay characters in A Song of Fire and Ice, a series of fantasy novels currently being adapted by HBO for television, the first season of which will be called A Game of Thrones. But what was a little more subtle in the books will be much more apparent in the series.

The same-sex relationship between the characters of Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones) and Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony) will be very apparent by the third episode in the ten-episode first season, which bows April 17th.

Executive producer and series writer D.B. Weiss tells AfterElton.com, “I think there will be a scene mid-season that will make you very happy.”

Renly is “gay in the books, too,” says George R.R. Martin, the author of the bestselling novels. But online chatter suggests that not every reader picked that fact up.

“I never meant to make it a mystery,” Martin says. “I like to handle things subtly. I couldn’t ever actually say, ‘such-and-such is gay,’ because, as I’m sure you know, the word wasn’t invented until the 60s. And I’m talking medieval times, and I’m not going to say, ‘so-and-so is gay.’ But I thought it was pretty clear in context.”

READ MORE @ After Elton.