House of the Dragon stars shut down major fan theory, and now everyone’s confused

House of the Dragon stars Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke have just turned the Rhaenicent theories on their head, and everyone’s a little puzzled about it.

House of the Dragon Season 2 is just hours away from arriving, and fans of the Game of Thrones spinoff have a lot of questions. How will Rhaenyra get revenge for the death of her son? Will the Hightowers be able to hold onto the Iron Throne? And will we see Blood and Cheese enact their atrocious deeds?

The show will answer these soon, but many fans are still waiting on one thing: confirmation of Rhaenyra and Alicent’s romantic undertones. But “Rhaenicent” shippers, as they’re called, will now have to reevaluate after comments made by D’Arcy and Cooke.

In an interview with Gay Times, the pair were asked whether the erotic subtext between the characters was purposefully played in such a way. In response, D’Arcy and Cooke both made puzzled faces and took a long pause before answering, “No.”

D’Arcy then elaborated, adding that the current context of the TV show wouldn’t necessarily allow for their characters to be in the right condition for such a situation. However, their initial reaction has quickly made the rounds among fans.

The mixed response from the fandom comes from those arguing that there was never any sexual context between the two characters and others confused over past interviews from the cast.

When it comes to their denial of playing the characters with any intentional erotic subtext, one Reddit user wrote: “Because they literally didn’t lol. …Where is the queer or erotic subtext with Emma and Olivia’s Rhaenyra and Alicent?”

“I mean they don’t,” added another. “That’s just a fanbase thing lmao.”

A third wrote: “Them as adult Alicent and Rhaenyra never did that. It was strictly friendship…I think the reason why so many saw it differently is actually cause of Olivia and Emma’s chemistry being explosive off-screen, so I think the two have been conflated.”

Others noted that the actors have given opposing comments in the past, alluding to an “erotic energy” in the characters’ early relationship.

As one user noted: “I’m not complaining because I dislike that relationship but something must have changed. That’s how the actors used to talk about the relationship.”

“Yeah, I kinda feel bad for this interviewer,” another said. “Because he is probably asking that question based on the interviews he researched while preparing for this interview.”

“I don’t feel any particular way about this ship but I don’t understand why they seem so confused when they’ve both made statements supporting the theories,” said another. “Feel bad for the guy because he’s clearly basing the question on research he did from their previous interviews.”

One user suggested that it’s simply a change in direction, writing: “I think they had talks about it during Season 1, but now after they’ve filmed Season 2 they must’ve just decided to take a different direction and that’s totally understandable tbh.”

For more, check out our guide to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. You can also read our House of the Dragon Season 2 review, and check out which book House of the Dragon is based on.