Is Rhaenyra Targaryen Gay or Bisexual in the ‘Fire and Blood’ Books, According to George R.R. Martin

Rhaenyra Targaryen’s love life became one of the most talked about threads of ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 after episode six ended with a moment nobody saw coming. Following an emotional exchange with her advisor Mysaria, Rhaenyra pulled her into a hug that turned into a kiss, and the internet immediately split into two camps. The scene came near the end of the episode when Princess Rhaenyra and Mysaria shared a poignant moment where the two commiserate about their situation, and what started as a hug became a passionate kiss.

Because the show is adapted from George R.R. Martin’s ‘Fire and Blood’, many viewers went looking for the source material to see whether this relationship, or Rhaenyra’s sexuality more broadly, was something the novel had already established. The answer turns out to be more layered than a simple yes or no, and it says as much about how the show handles adaptation as it does about Rhaenyra Targaryen herself.

What Fire and Blood Actually Says About Rhaenyra Targaryen’s Sexuality

In the original book, Rhaenyra is not explicitly written as gay, bisexual, or otherwise part of the LGBTQIA plus community, and she and Mysaria never share any kind of romance on the page. Their relationship in the novel stays limited to the same advisership dynamic the show also portrays for most of its runtime.

Within the pages of ‘Fire and Blood’, Rhaenyra marries both Laenor Velaryon and Daemon Targaryen, while Ser Criston Cole and Harwin Strong are recorded as her rumored lovers. Nothing in the text addresses a relationship between Rhaenyra and Mysaria at all.

Taken at face value, her recorded preferences in the book are straight, and the scene that confused viewers in season two was written specifically for the television adaptation rather than pulled from any passage in the novel. That distinction matters because ‘Fire and Blood’ is framed as a history rather than a straightforward narrative, which leaves room for interpretation that the show does not always share.

Martin structured the book as though it were compiled by an archmaester drawing on multiple, sometimes unreliable, historical sources, which means gaps in the record are treated as part of the story rather than oversights. That framing device is part of why some readers argue the absence of an explicit same-sex relationship does not necessarily rule one out.

The Laena Velaryon Connection House of the Dragon Books Readers Point To

Some fans have instead pointed to a different relationship in the book, arguing there is queer subtext between Rhaenyra and Laena Velaryon, who was her second cousin, sister-in-law, and the second wife of Daemon. Martin describes Rhaenyra as being fond and more than fond of Laena, a phrase that elsewhere in the text tends to signal romantic or presumed romantic attachments.

Even though Rhaenyra and Mysaria are never explicitly linked in the book, it is strongly implied by some readers that Rhaenyra’s bisexuality exists in book canon through her relationship with Laena, who was Daemon’s first wife. The show only gave Laena one season as an adult and never paired her with Rhaenyra onscreen, so this particular thread from the novel did not carry over.

Supporters of this reading also cite a parallel Martin draws elsewhere in the text, where Rhaenyra’s great great aunt Rhaena Targaryen marries Androw Farman, the gay son of the lord of Fair Isle, specifically so she can be close to his sister Elissa Farman, whom she loves. The names and dynamics in that earlier generation echo the Laenor, Rhaenyra, and Laena arrangement closely enough that some readers see it as an intentional structural parallel rather than a coincidence.

None of this amounts to Martin stating outright that Rhaenyra is bisexual, and that ambiguity is exactly why the debate has persisted since long before the show ever aired.

Why House of the Dragon Added the Rhaenyra and Mysaria Kiss

The kiss itself was not originally written into the episode six script, and it came together on set after Emma D’Arcy suggested the moment felt true to the scene. Mysaria had just opened up to Rhaenyra about her difficult past, and the embrace between them shifted into something more before the two were interrupted by news that pulled Rhaenyra away.

D’Arcy has spoken about the choice in an interview with Variety, describing the scene as something interesting about two women inside a patriarchal system who have each developed their own mechanisms for navigating and manipulating power. D’Arcy has also made clear the kiss was not a calculated move on Rhaenyra’s part, but something that emerged in the moment.

Sonoya Mizuno, who plays Mysaria, offered her own account in an interview with TheWrap, explaining that the scene was scripted only as a charged pause between the two characters before being interrupted, and that Rhaenyra’s instinct to hold Mysaria grew out of the story Mysaria had just shared.

D’Arcy has also reflected more broadly on how women’s histories get recorded, telling Variety there is a kind of humor in how often women fall out of the history books, partly out of a simple lack of care about what they were actually doing. That idea lines up neatly with how ‘Fire and Blood’ is framed as an incomplete historical record rather than a full accounting of every relationship in Rhaenyra’s life.

How Fans and Critics Reacted to the Scene

The reveal did not sit well with every viewer, and the episode was review bombed in some countries by fans who objected to the moment. Episode six went on to become the lowest rated installment of the season, with roughly a third of IMDb voters giving it a single star.

Other viewers pushed back on that backlash directly, noting that the kiss received considerable praise from fans who saw it as a natural extension of how close Rhaenyra and Mysaria had grown over the course of the season. Some also pointed out that the show has made far larger departures from the book without drawing anywhere near the same level of criticism.

The disagreement ultimately circles back to the same tension that runs through the book discussion, whether a relationship needs to be spelled out explicitly to count, or whether the space Martin leaves in ‘Fire and Blood’ was always an invitation for adaptations to fill in the gaps their own way.

Given how divided the reaction has been, it seems fair to ask readers directly whether they think ‘House of the Dragon’ was right to give Rhaenyra and Mysaria a moment the books never wrote for them.