Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the most recent episode of House Of The Dragon.
This week’s instalment of House Of The Dragon featured a kiss between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Mysaria as the two have continued to grow closer over the course of season two.
And while the kiss was undoubtedly a stand-out moment of the series, Mysaria actor Sonoya Mizuno has revealed that it didn’t actually feature in the episode’s script.
“It was scripted as an intimate moment that got interrupted, and it was unknown where the scene was going to go,” she explained to Variety, noting that she and co-star Emma D’Arcy were both “strongly” keen to avoid the moment becoming “queer-baity in any way”.
“We wanted to step back, look at it, and take care of it,” she explained. “But it just felt right. It would be a kiss.”
Sonoya went on to say that the intimate hug between the two characters was “Emma’s idea”, with the kiss being an “organic” progression from there.
“We were standing quite far apart and [Emma] felt that, in the moment after Mysaria reveals this vulnerable story, Rhaenyra would just want to hold her,” Sonoya said.
“Because Rhaenyra does have passion and empathy. She has children. She can understand these things. The hug was so arresting because we realised that people don’t really hug in this show. They don’t hug in this kind of way. It was such a gorgeous hug, and the kiss came so organically from that.
“It was very vulnerable and very tender, and then it was really nice. And then you stop thinking and it gets really passionate. It was very considered. We rehearsed it but it was also totally organic.”
During their own interview with Variety, Emma said of the kiss: “I think what you see initially is intimacy, and an intimacy that Rhaenyra shares so rarely.
“Even in some of her other romantic relationships, there’s a lot of presentation, there’s a lot of bravado, often from both sides. Certainly with Daemon, I think both parties struggle to reveal themselves in weakness, and that their eroticism is sort of predicated on power.”
Sonoya added: “When we discussed it, we talked about when you realise you have a crush on someone in hindsight, and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, of course. I’ve fancied that person for six months, and I didn’t realise’. But then once you realise it, it’s then a full-blown teenage crush.
“So maybe there’s some of that going on. But there’s also a civil war breaking out, so what are the priorities going to be?”
While Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s kiss in this week’s episode was interrupted, viewers can see what’s next for the characters on Monday, on Sky Atlantic and the catch-up service Now.