Lord Ben

I'm not saying he's Benjen but when people say "a long time" it means different things in different contexts. I haven't had a good steak in "a long time" which is like 5 weeks even though 5 weeks is also not that long compared to the span of my life.

Yeah, Shae is about my only disappointment. Also, I find it tiresome that any discussion on Renly has to turn into some sort of sexual liberation discussion. It's hinted at that people know, nobody cares outside fathering an heir. Westeros values people serving their Family/House/Lord and upholding their vows, what people do privately while publicly serving those people is largely up to them whether it's whoring and boozing (Tyrion), fathering bastards (Robert), or sleeping with Loras (Renly) few people care about your private life when it doesn't interfere with your responsibilities. Westeros is not a society that places a high value on individuality.

Fragile psyche? You're the one who seems the most upset over the whole situation..... Even busting out the ad hominems.

In the books they tease him for spending more on clothing than most of the women in court. That's pretty stereotypical.

It's not an add-on by any means. The Tyrell/Lannister alliance was only possible because people believed her to be a virgin after a few weeks of marriage. That wouldn't have been possible with a straight Renly. Had Renly been straight and gotten her knocked up with the heir the Tyrell/Baratheon alliance had a MUCH bigger army than King's Landing and Stannis combined. But because she wasn't preggers and he died they needed to side with the Lannisters.

We see neither her nor Renly as a POV so it's hard to know for sure. She's arranged as marriages to a couple different people, doesn't complain much and seems to do her duty without complaint within a family that's pretty scheming. Personally I sort of assumed she was this way but wasn't sure. Since I think they run things by GRRM to make sure they make sense (hate to write the character one way only to have GRRM go another way in Book 6) it would make sense for that to also be his intent. We just see it much more blatantly in the TV show. But much like Renly being gay or Loras saying Margeary is "officially" a virgin there are some things you just can't hint around the fringes at for a few hundred pages and have to just come out and show on TV.