House of the Dragon: Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s kiss makes total sense

The ‘shocking’ kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria in House of the Dragon Season 2 made total sense if you were paying attention.

House of the Dragon Season 2 may be focused on the ongoing Targaryen civil war, but one moment from Episode 6 seems to have baffled viewers.

After forming a tenacious alliance throughout the first six episodes, Daemon‘s ex-lover and spy mistress, Mysaria, and his wife, Rhaenyra, share a passionate kiss.

While some viewers were shocked by their sudden lip lock, the kiss between these two women made a lot of sense.

Why did Rhaenyra and Mysaria kiss?

Rhaenyra and Mysaria kissed after the latter fully endorsed Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne.

The dragon queen is currently in a precarious situation. Her husband is off having incest dreams at Harrenhal, and her small council doesn’t completely trust her war strategies.

Coupled with the loss of Rhaenys and  Lucerys at the hands of Aemond, Rhaenyra felt like she was out of moves and allies.

However, Mysaria, Daemon’s former lover and current mistress of whispers, was more than willing to step up to the plate to take her place as Rhaenyra’s No. 1 cheerleader.

After retelling a traumatic story from her youth, Mysaria declared herself fully for Rhaenyra’s cause, which led the two to share a hug and then an incredibly hot smooch.

According to Sonoya Mizuno, who plays Mysaria, their intimate moment was not scripted. It only occurred because she and Emma D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra, felt it was the right thing to do at the moment.

“It wasn’t scripted as a kiss. I think it was scripted as … there’s just breath between them or something, and then whatever happens is interrupted,” Mizuno told TheWrap. “Because we were separate in the room … [and] Mysaria has told this story, [D’Arcy] felt the instinct to hold her, to comfort her. From that, it felt so organic to go into the kiss.”

D’Arcy echoed their co-star’s sentiment about the kiss, telling Variety: “In this growing relationship — it’s remarkably honest. Initially, there’s huge feelings of empathy and gratitude toward this person. Rhaenyra is hugely affected by the life that Mysaria has lived so bravely. Then, they are two bodies completely overrun by touch. As soon as they embrace and their bodies are touching, I think it’s pure bodily desire.”

Some fans may have felt this moment was queerbaiting on the show’s part. Still, D’Arcy clarified that this wasn’t Rhaenyra’s first dabble with more queer-centric feelings because of the “great intimacy [she felt] within her early relationship with Alicent.”

While many of the show’s events are based on the novel Fire and Blood, Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s infamous kiss was not featured in the source material.

However, their burgeoning relationship is incredibly similar to the one they shared in the book, though the series is developing it differently.

In Fire and Blood, Mysaria acts as Rhaenyra’s mistress of whispers, but she is still actively having sex with Daemon, though he and Rhaenyra are married.

Mysaria was not appointed to be on the small council, and she mostly acted as an extension of Daemon’s most violent urges, like when she proposed that Alicent and Helaena be taken into a brothel and forcibly impregnated with bastard children.

However, in House of the Dragon Season 2, the two women are bonded over their wildly conflicted emotions for Daemon and their unstable positions in the King’s Landing hierarchy.

Their intimate moment is a culmination of wanting to be desired for who they are as people and seeking power from someone who views them as equals.

For more, you can find out whether Criston Cole is Daeron’s real father or a secret villain you’re going to hate. We also have a breakdown of the House of the Dragon release schedule. And don’t miss all the other new TV shows coming out in July, too!