There are many, many spoilers for House of the Dragon below.
There are few things I enjoy more than comics, movies, and television shows about mythical creatures, witches, warlocks and silver-haired nepo babies. And when there’s a dose of the alphabet community mixed into it? Ultra nerdy and queer? Say less! I’m locked in.
That’s what the most recent season of House of the Dragon gave us when Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, First of Her Name, started riding more than just dragons. The third season won’t air until 2025, so we’ll have to wait with anticipation for her official coming out party. But read below for my somewhat unhinged recaps of the hit HBO show’s queerest moments so far (along with some details from the book series). Note: there are many, many spoilers below.
The Sapphics Who Never Were: Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower
While the fandom spends a lot of time debating this, I’m not here to appeal to both sides. I’m here to give you my opinion, also known as the facts. Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) is a repressed lesbian, and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is a messy bisexual. Don’t argue with the truth!
These two highborn women were the best of friends until Alicent’s father forced her to marry Rhaenyra’s father King Viserys I (Paddy Considine). The drama! Not only was this the ultimate betrayal for Rhaenyra, but it also put her life at risk. Alicent was sure to produce a male heir that would immediately contest Rhaenyra’s ascension, and it also meant that Rhaenyra was more alone than ever.
Like any other misunderstood teenager, she started to act up. If no one’s paying attention to you, why not have some fun? Unfortunately, she had too much fun, and rumors of her sexcapades got back to Alicent who clearly had a longtime crush on the princess. Alicent never got the chance to be carefree and reckless because her father kept her under lock and key while Rhaenyra’s father found his child’s rambunctious nature endearing.
The question of Rhaenyra’s virtue was the first wound for Alicent and led to her greatest heartbreak. I imagine her thought process went something like, “What do you mean my ex-bestie is sleeping with men while I’m stuck in this dingy old castle carrying her father’s next child? Off with her head! She should be saving herself for a husband she doesn’t want. It’s the ladylike thing to do!” Like any other repressed lesbian, Alicent becomes cold and bitter eventually leading to her own ascension as the First Tradwife of the Seven Kingdoms.
When Viserys lied on his deathbed, Alicent misunderstood his mumblings of his son Aegon’s dream as declaring Aegon the next heir. How she managed to interpret his boney behind’s last words as a disowning of Rhaenyra, I’ll never know. This misunderstanding leads to the entire conflict of the series: Who should succeed to the Iron Throne? Should it be Rhaenyra, first born child of King Viserys I? He did have several of the major houses of Westeros pledge their allegiance to her. Or should the crown go to Aegon II, the first born son of Viserys who came along years after Rhaenyra was named heir? Never before had a woman sat on the Iron Throne, and as Princess Rhaenys Targayren, the Queen Who Never Was (played by thee Eve Best!), foretold her dear niece, “the men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend to the Iron Throne.”
While Rhaenys was correct, I prefer to interpret the core issue of the show as two queer women who got their day in the sun and are now making it everyone else’s problem. Much more fun! Much more spicy! Much more feminist!
Saddest (and Gayest!) Boy of the Seven Kingdoms: Laenor Velaryon
While the House of Velaryon was never mentioned in HBO’s Game of Thrones, this sea-faring family has been high in the ranking of the prequel series. Their power came into question when Laenor Vaelaryon (John Macmillan) failed to produce biological heirs. Why? He was gay, and he just wasn’t feeling it. Totally valid! Don’t do anything you don’t want to, king.
While Laenor was forced to marry his cousin Rhaenyra Targaryen, she never pressured him to be anything that he wasn’t. He was busy getting it on with his lover Ser Joffrey Lonmouth while the heir to the Iron Throne was with Ser Harwin Strong. We love ethical non-monogamy! The two only married to secure Rhaenyra’s status as she hoped to ascend to the Iron Throne and to maintain the purity of the last two remaining Valyrian families. This also (presumably) upheld their offspring’s supreme status as dragonriders, although that was later debunked.
All of this was for nought as Laenor and Rhaenyra never even consummated their union for the sake of children. Rhaenyra ends up having two “Strong boys” who Laenor only pretended were his until he got tired of living a lie. He actually spent his days getting wasted and finding other dudes to mess around with whenever possible. Rhaenyra was on her own from the start. Laenor ends up faking his death, taking his new lover (first one got killed at his own wedding, poor thing) and sailing to Essos at the end of the first season. As he drunkenly told his beard Rhaenyra in episode six of season one, “The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers.”
I can’t say that I respect him very much for leaving her alone to fend for herself and raise her children alone. At the same time, he’s dealing with a lot of self hate. Toward the end of episode seven, his true despondent self pierces through when he says to Rhaenyra, “I hate the gods for making me this way.” While he is a deadbeat, he’s doing his best. In comparison to the other fathers on the show, he’s probably in the top three. Other fathers throughout the series only see their offspring as chances to improve upon their own personal failures. Laenor never forced his sons to be anything that they’re not because he knows firsthand how damaging that can be.
In the books, he was actually murdered (RIP), so while I usually am a stickler for accurate book-to-screen adaptations, this change is more than welcome. We love to see the gays gay! (Gay, as in happy.)
Not Just a Dragonrider: Rhaenyra and Mysaria Forever
Alicent Hightower couldn’t get off her high horse long enough to mend things with Rhaenyra, so my good sis has moved on to another. Lady Mysaria, a sex worker turned paramour turned mistress of whisperers, has had quite the eventful life. The most eventful and unexpected is her being the latest lover to the Queen of Dragonstone. While watching season two, I was pretty sure the queer subtext between Emma D’Arcy and Sonoya Mizuno’s characters was intentional, but I never expected the two to kiss! I had to rewind that scene because I truly believed I dreamt it. I have no clue where the showrunners plan on taking these characters because this was not an arc from the book, but either way, I’m seated. Season three can’t come fast enough.
Special Mention: Abigail Thorn as Admiral Sharako Lohar
Abigail Thorn, a.k.a. Philosophy Tube, popped into the series during the season two finale as Admiral Sharako Lohar. This character was originally written as a cisgender man, but was changed to female for Thorn to play. This usually only happens with cisgender actresses, so this is an even more welcome gender swapping. As a trans actress myself, I’m all for it. I can think of several canonically male characters that I would love to gender swap for my own portrayal (Marvel? DC? Hit me up y’all. I’m available and I’ve got a growing stack of comic books to prove it.) There’s no confirmation as to whether Thorn’s character is trans or not. Frankly, it makes no difference to me. I just love seeing another trans actress on screen. You better get that HBO money!
The first two seasons of House of the Dragon are available to stream on Max.
Thank you for this! Love the “just the queer parts” recaps. Especially since I know I will never watch this show.
Straight people are wild at being able to ignore the chemistry between Rheanyra and Mysaria. I didn’t think they were actually gonna kiss either, but when they did, it wasn’t out of no where.
In the book, the maester implies the couples of Rheanyra and Leanor and Daemon and Leana were all together basically. Dragonstone to Driftmark is an easy trip and they all enjoyed flying together, if you know what I mean ;)
If no one else is gonna vouch for it, I also wanna suggest a special shout-out for Aegon and Larys’s dynamic in the second season! As soon as we got a good look at Aegon’s whole deal–he’s desperate to be loved, trying to live up to his family’s expectations but always falling short, and really really talented at missing how good he is at getting other people (Alicent, Aemond, etc) to hate him to the point of wanting him dead–, I suspected Larys was going to pull the same ‘confidante-to-worst-nightmare’ routine on him we’d previously seen him use on Alicent in season one. But what I didn’t expect was for them to 1. actually have some really heartwarming breakthroughs after Aegon’s near-death experience, where Larys opens up in an unnervingly emotionally honest way about surviving in a world that’s eager to use your disability against you and Aegon actually seems to take his words to heart, and 2. RUN AWAY TOGETHER AT THE END OF THE SEASON IN A PSEUDO-ELOPEMENT. Like, yes, I know it’s also out of practicality and keeping Aegon alive to take the throne back from Aemond as soon as he possibly can while avoiding Rhaenyra’s forces, but STILL. There was something deeply romantic about seeing them come together and Aegon agreeing against his first instinct to trust Larys with his future like that. Moral of the story: if two of the worst people in Westeros can find love in the most unlikely circumstances, there might be hope for the rest of us. And no one watching at home is throwing their bastards into the child fighting pits!