I was itching to re-watch some old fashioned campy 90's action shows, so only one name came to my mind, Xena

Yes, that show was definitely made to be utter cheese, but I really tried to pay attention to all the lesbian hints in the show that I missed as I was growing up. I watched it as a kid in the 90's, but never really thought of it with sexual overtones, just that Lucy Lawless kicked ass! Now, I realize how much subtle romantic and love interest there was between Xena and Gabriel, which seems cute in retrospect.

Now after little bit of cheese, I thought why not go back even further to what started Xena off, Hercules: the Legendary Journey. Then, I started seeing the same pattern of subtext between Hercules and Iolaus, which it turns out is truer to the old myth of Hercules than just modern fiction. According ot the old stories in Greek mythology, they were lovers, so it doesn't seem that out of place.

Then, I flipped to find another show from that era's fantasy genre, another name came to my head, Beastmaster, based on the old 1982 movie. The show was as full of subtext between Dar and Tao, but there was a strange couple feel the two as well as they traveled and had their adventures.

Now, I wondered if modern fantasy stories shared that same type of coupling dynamic. I don't really see it in modern fantasy as much. True I can see some stuff in shows like Supernatural, which still remains my favorite in the genre modern form, but in shows like "once Upon a Time" and "Grimm" can anyone see the same things. In Supernatural, it is really obvious and even the writers joke about how "gay" two brothers fighting evil on the open road and sleeping in the same bed can be (Watch some of the episodes with self-parody, you'll see what I mean)

Is it me or is GLBT subtext just more apparent in retrospect than in modern fantasy shows?