After viewers first thought a romance between the monarch and her erstwhile closest friend Alicient Hightower could materialise, Sunday night’s (July 21) episode showed an intense kiss between Queen Rhaenyra and her ally, Mysaria. While many LGBTQ+ viewers and allies were thrilled to see queer courtship depicted on film but the homosexual encounter—which was revealed to be unscripted—others weren’t exactly in agreement.
On IMDb, a staggering 33% of viewers gave the sixth episode of House of the Dragon, “Smallfolk,” a one-star rating. One observer referred to the kiss, which occurs after Rhaenyra and Mysaria talk about their circumstances and give each other props for being strong in the face of tumultuous occurrences, as being a part of “the agenda.”
Another viewer claimed their kiss was “ruining his own great work with just 30 sec of unnecessary scene that will drag the storyline to its doom,” another headlined their one-star assessment, “Thou shalt not escape from the agenda.”
The harsh critique went on to say, “Adding this kind of pointless scene suggested by some actress who plays the character or unstudied ideas by a writer who doesn’t even understand this world and treats it’s his own will shift the story from deep conflict between a family and a deadly war to some cheap version that doesn’t relate to the main conflict.”
A two-star assessment, in the meantime, voiced criticism, asking: “What was with that scene towards the ending? It was not necessary and completely ruined the mood of the show. From this point forward I’d not be surprised if I can’t keep watching this show. It’s ruined. Ruined…”