Are House of the Dragon’s Rhaenyra and Alicent secretly in love? It’s complicated…
During an interview with The New York Times, actors Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke responded to the speculation about their on-screen relationship.
“That sort of erotic energy is very present in their early relationship,” said D’Arcy, who plays an older Rhaenyra. “I think Rhaenyra is primarily motivated by a deep desire to be known and seen. The hurt and pain is so dominant that I don’t know if there’s a space, at this point, for a conscious interaction with sexual lust, but she definitely yearns for the old physical intimacy that they shared. It’s different from what she shares with her current husband and her children. A different form of contact.”
Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower have shown a certain intimacy in their relationship since the show began, especially in their younger years. But it sounds as though Alicent might be too repressed for it to lead anywhere.
“I don’t know if Alicent knows what it feels like to feel those things now,” said Cooke, who plays the older Alicent. “There’s layers and layers of repression; sexuality and lust are probably a prehistoric, sedimentary layer by now. From Alicent’s point of view, I don’t think she’s that self-aware, in terms of what she’s feeling, to know what’s propelling her to reach out to Rhaenyra again.”
Of course, the two young women are also played by younger actresses, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey. Although the older versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent may be doomed to never fulfill their desires, it seems that the younger actresses told Variety that they discussed the possibility.
“I mean, we kind of started that discourse,” said Carey, who plays the young Alicent. “We were in the rehearsal room … I believe it’s Episode 4. It’s not necessarily something we had talked about yet. We were doing a scene, and Milly and I looked at each other like, ‘It kind of felt like we were about to kiss? That was really weird!’ And so, we talked about it.”
“We weren’t ‘making them gay’ or ‘queerbaiting,’ or anything like that,” she added. “It’s just, if you want to read into it and see it like that, do it. If you want to see them as more than friends, do it. If you don’t, then don’t… They’re 14-year-old girls, they don’t know the difference between platonic and romantic.”
Whether or not Rhaenyra and Alicent get there, in the end, remains to be seen. Still, with at least four seasons to get to grips with it, they’ve got a decent chance, right?
Want to read more about House of the Dragon? Check out the emotional House of the Dragon scene that was improvised as well as why the show just changed Game of Thrones history.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/house-of-the-dragon-actresses-respond-to-speculation-that-rhaenyra-and-alicent-are-secretly-in-love