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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 6 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” titled “Smallfolk,” currently airing on Max.
Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her new closest confidante and right-hand woman Mysaria aka The White Worm (Sonoya Mizuno) marked a turning point in their relationship in this week’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” as the two shared a passionate kiss in the episode’s final moments.
The kiss is interrupted, however, prompting Rhaenyra to almost immediately take off on her dragonback to find out who has been spotted riding a wild dragon in Westeros — and whether he is on her side with the Blacks or Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and the Greens. This leaves viewers with many questions about this intimate moment and what it means for the rest of Season 2.
One thing is for sure according to D’Arcy: the kiss was not a calculated decision on Rhaenyra’s part.
“Honestly, I think initially there was just such a desire to connect,” D’Arcy said. Variety“I think what you see initially is intimacy, and an intimacy that Rhaenyra so rarely shares. Even in some of her other romantic relationships, there’s a lot of presentation, there’s a lot of bravado, often on both sides. With Daemon, I think both sides have a hard time revealing themselves in weakness, and their eroticism is sort of predicated on power.
“Whereas with Mysaria, in this relationship that grows, it’s remarkably honest,” D’Arcy continued. “At the beginning, there’s a huge sense of empathy and gratitude for this person. Rhaenyra is so deeply affected by the life that Mysaria has lived so courageously. Then, it’s two bodies that are completely invaded by touch. As soon as they kiss and their bodies touch, I think it’s pure bodily desire.”
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Although Mizuno says she’s sure “people will have their own opinions about it,” she believes the kiss took Mysaria and Rhaenyra “by surprise.”
“There’s nothing Machiavellian about it, as far as I’m concerned,” Mizuno said in an interview Friday. “It’s a really beautiful, tender kiss, and it would be impossible not to feel something like Mysaria in that moment. I don’t think she’s had that kind of kiss — maybe ever. And I think sex and sexuality are very complicated for her, given her history as a young woman with her father and then entering the professional world. So to have that moment that was so tender and loving and passionate would have awakened something.”
Mizuno spoke about how the two actors conceived of their characters’ feelings before filming the scene. “When we talked about it, we talked about the moment when you realize in hindsight that you have a crush on someone and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, of course. I had a crush on this person for six months and I didn’t realize it,’” she said. “But once you realize it, it’s a real teenage crush. So there might be a little bit of that. But then there’s also a civil war that breaks out, so what are the priorities going to be?”
Although Daemon (Matt Smith) has been away from Dragonstone for half the season and only communicates with Rhaenyra through his hallucinations and disturbing dreams as he gathers an army at Harrenhal, it’s certain that he’ll be reunited with his wife at some point. What if he discovers Rhaenyra’s intimate moment with Mysaria, who used to have sex with Daemon regularly when Rhaenyra was still a child?
“It’s going to be a bit of a shit show, isn’t it?” Mizuno said. “But I’m looking forward to it, whatever it is.”
Readers can delve into what happened with the Greens in “House of the Dragon” this week. VarietyInterview with actor Ewan Mitchell about the beginning of Aemond Targaryen’s reign.
See below for more information VarietyD’Arcy’s full interview about “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 6, including their thoughts on how this kiss — which isn’t from George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” — will affect Rhaenyra’s already strained relationship with Daemon.
Courtesy of Ollie Upton/HBO
Can you describe the situation that Rhaenyra faced in this episode? She went from hoping to use the dragon seeds to help her cause, to having one of them burned in the process of trying to make her wish come true..
I suppose, as is often the case with Rhaenyra, her big ideas come with a slight touch of eccentricity. The deep-seated belief that there might be another possible answer is, in turn, met with a certain apprehension about sharing those ideas with her male colleagues. I think she probably approaches most council meetings with the expectation that she will be somehow patronized or underestimated. So the stakes are high. A woman in a position of power will have her mistakes judged more harshly, I would say, than a man in the same position. So it’s a high-stakes game.
After weeks of reluctantly heeding the advice of her family and clan to not go hunting with her own dragon, Syrax, and to leave the flying and fighting to everyone else, Rhaenyra took to the skies immediately after hearing that an unknown dragon rider ruled the world. What finally made her decide that breaking the rules was worth it?
That’s wonderful, but I don’t know if she’s considering other options. I have a feeling we’re at a point in the escalation of the civil war that, depending on who rides this dragon, could spell the end of their campaign. I suspect we’re already in a period of great extremism. If someone allied with the Greens has taken control of this dragon, then I think the odds are so terribly slim for Rhaenyra and her allies that I wonder if her need for self-protection isn’t lost anyway.
How do you see the evolution of Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s relationship from the beginning of the season to now?
This is a whole new type of relationship for Rhaenyra. She’s such a volatile person that she often lets her emotions guide her, especially in romantic relationships. I think it marks a shift. Their trust grows in a creeping way. At first, they don’t like each other at all. And I think there’s something interesting about seeing two women within a patriarchal system who have both developed mechanisms to navigate and manipulate systems of power. Those skills weren’t designed to be used as much on other women. So for Rhaenyra, she certainly feels a lot of threat, actually, from Mysaria, including, obviously, her history with Daemon.
But as the series progresses, Mysaria really affects Rhaenyra’s politics. She has a powerful impact on Rhaenyra’s ability to see how a kingdom and its citizens are affected in the event of a civil war. It was a little abstract for Rhaenyra – until Mysaria made it more concrete. And I think it speaks to different forms of power that, again, Rhaenyra, in her desire for conflict-based masculine power, sometimes overlooks. Winning the will and belief of the people – I don’t know to what extent that was part of her political consciousness before Mysaria.
Courtesy of Ollie Upton/HBO
This kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria is not part of the “historical” events reported in George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.” What do you think about adding this scene to the series, given that “Fire & Blood” is made up of many conflicting versions and gaps?
I think there’s humor in the fact that even in our written histories, women so often disappear from the history books. Partly because of neglect: people don’t care about what they do. And I like trying to investigate what happened between the forgotten pages.
Have you always seen Rhaenyra as a queer character, or was this the first experience for her?
It’s hard, because I don’t think “queer” is a word that’s in Rhaenyra’s vocabulary. There are so few images or stories in this world that she has access to that allow her to identify in that way. What I think is that she’s very sexual. That’s maybe one of the real joys of playing her, is that I think she’s a super embodied character who knows when her body is saying something. And that’s true in so many different contexts. I don’t think she’s afraid of her body’s instructions. And I certainly think there was a great intimacy in her early relationship with Alicent.
How do you see this kiss affecting Rhaenyra’s tumultuous relationship with Daemon?
I don’t expect her to tell him. But I imagine she feels quite proud and quite emboldened. I imagine she likes the idea of him finding out. There’s such a power struggle in their relationship that dating her ex, I can only think, would be a useful point on the board.
How has it been for you not to work as much with Matt Smith this season after being such close scene partners in Season 1? And will the separation between Rhaenyra and Daemon last for a long time?
Frankly, I found it frustrating. I know I’ve talked about it a lot, but I really enjoy filming with Matt, and it was a shame for me not to be able to do more. I don’t want to spoil anything. But inevitably, there’s a bigger enemy at hand. And so both of them have to figure out how they’re going to approach this ultimate battle.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.