There is an intimate moment between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6. This has made fans wonder if the Queen of the Blacks is a gay, bisexual, pansexual, or queer woman.
Here is everything we have learned about Rhaenyra’s sexual orientation in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6.
What is Rhaenyra Targaryen’s sexual orientation in House of the Dragon Season 2?
After Season 2 Episode 6, Rhaenyra can be regarded as an LGBTQ+ character.
Toward the end of the episode, Rhaenyra candidly speaks to Mysaria about the issues she is facing. Her own court, including her son Jace, questions her capabilities, while Daemon remains unresponsive at Harrenhal. In response, Mysaria tells Rhaenyra about her harrowing past before assuring Rhaenyra that she is meant to be the queen. Things have been developing between them throughout season 2, and it culminates in this episode when Rhaenyra hugs Mysaria. Soon, they begin kissing. It would have probably led to something more right then. However, one of Rhaenyra’s Queensguards interrupts them with the news that Seasmoke has a new rider.
In an interview with Variety, D’Arcy, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, reflected on whether they always saw Rhaenyra as a queer character. “It’s hard, because I don’t think the word ‘queer’ is a word that is in any way within Rhaenyra’s lexicon,” they said. “There are so few images or stories within that world that she has access to that allow one to identify in that way,” they added.
However, according to D’Arcy, Rhaenyra is “really sexual.” “Maybe that’s one of the real joys of playing her, is that I think she’s a super-embodied character, who knows when her body is sort of saying something,” they added. “And that goes for many different contexts. I don’t think she is frightened by her body’s instruction. And certainly, I think there was great intimacy within her early relationship with Alicent,” Emma D’Arcy further stated.
D’Arcy told Variety that the kiss happened between their and Mizuno’s characters because of Rhaenyra’s desire to connect. They stated that while Rhaenyra’s relationships with her other partners involved a lot of presentation and bravado from both sides, the dynamic between her and Mysaria was much more honest.
Is Rhaenyra Targaryen gay or bisexual in the Fire & Blood book?
No, Rhaenyra isn’t a gay or bisexual woman in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book. In it, she married Laenor and Daemon, and Criston and Harwin were her rumored lovers. The book doesn’t say anything about the relationship between Rhaenyra and Mysaria.
However, Martin penned the book as if an archmaester of the Citadel of Oldtown wrote it, using multiple sources for his account of the Dance of the Dragons. Speculatively, some aspects of history slipped through the cracks of the knowledge of these sources. Alternatively, they probably knew about them but decided not to put them in their accounts.
D’Arcy told as much to Variety. “I think there’s humor to be found that — also in our real written histories — so often women fall out of the history books,” they observed. “Partly from a lack of care: like, people are not concerned about what they’re up to. And I like trying to investigate what happened between the forgotten pages.”
The world in which Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon take place is often cruel and unforgiving. But, it is also realistic that the shows acknowledge that queer people have always existed (as do the books they are based on). Rhaenyra is just the recent addition to a relatively large group of queer characters that have appeared in both shows.
It will be interesting to see how the relationship develops between Rhaenyra and Mysaria in House of the Dragon and how it impacts the overarching plot and the relationship both women share with Daemon.
