September 26, 2022
'House of the Dragon' Star Rebuffs 'Queerbaiting' Claims
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
One of the stars of the HBO Max "Game of Thrones" spinoff insists that her character, and that of her arch-rival, aren't intentionally depicted as frenemies with benefits, according to IndieWire.
Fan theories around the relationship of childhood besties Rhaenyra, named heir to the Iron Throne by her ailing father, and Alicent, the king's much younger new wife, might not have been that far off the mark; Emily Carey, who plays a young Alicent in the first half of the first season, told Variety "that she was involved in conversations about the characters potentially having romantic feelings for each other, even if the more nefarious claims of queerbaiting are misguided," IndieWire relayed.
"I mean, we kind of started that discourse," Carey recalled, going on to say that she and Rhaenyra actor Milly Alcock were rehearsing a scene in which the two castmates discussed how "It kind of felt like we were about to kiss? That was really weird!"
"And so we talked about it," Carey said, before adding: "Being a queer woman myself, it was something that I was conscious of. But I wasn't consciously putting it out there."
"They're 14-year-old girls, they don't know the difference between platonic and romantic. They don't even know what the words mean, let alone what the feelings mean," Carey said.
The actor also said that she and Alcock "weren't 'making them gay' or 'queerbaiting,' or anything like that. 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."
The show does include gay characters, but – as was also true of "Game of Thrones" – those characters tend to die gruesome deaths. Already, in the new show's early episodes, a gay male couple (dragon rider Laenor Velaryon, played by Theo Nate, and Joffrey Lonmouth, played by Solly McLeod) was introduced, only for one of the men to be viciously bashed to death in a scene that prompted criticism of the show for "burying its gays" – a phrase that pointedly calls out TV and film properties for introducing queer characters, only to dispatch them quickly and in gratuitously violent ways.
"House of the Dragon" viewers were unimpressed with the weary trope, especially since "Game of Thrones" had done pretty much the same thing to another gay couple, Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony) and Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones).
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
