“Two bodies completely overrun by touch”.

This is how Emma D’Arcy described an impulsive, passionate kiss between Emma D’Arcy’s and Sonoya Mizuno’s characters, Rhaenyra and Mysaria. This ground-shifting moment took place, semi-unexpectedly, during the new season of House of the Dragon season 2.

So my sincere congratulations to all the promoters of the lesbian Rhaenyra agenda! You’ve been here a while. This isn’t, by far, the first instant of lesbianism imposed upon HOTD, even if it is the most explicit one.

If you, like me, were an Online Lesbian in 2022, you don’t need to have watched either of the popular HBO shows to remember the following exchange between HOTD stars Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke: when asked what’s their drink of choice by Cooke, D’Arcy replies with the stylish answer “Negroni…Sbagliato…with Prosecco in it,” the tension-building description of the drink punctuated by Cooke’s enthusiastic exclamations, which conclude with the unforgettable, lavishly impressed, “Oh, stunning.”

@allcapsajA negroni sbagliato with prosecco in it “Stunnin’”

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The exchange became not only a meme (because of course it did), but knowledge of it became a way to signal to others that you are, in fact, a queer woman and you are, in fact, online. So much so that in season 2 of hit Australian comedy Colin From Accounts, episode 4 includes Megan’s (Emma Harvie) new girlfriend (played by a brilliantly satirical Virginia Gay) referencing D’Arcy’s drink of choice when ordering drinks for the table on a disastrous double date with protagonists Ashley and Gordon (show-creators Harriet Dyer and Patrick Barmmall, respectively): “Negroni Sbagliato with prosecco in it? Yes!” declares Gay’s character while looking at the menu. “Need, need, need.”

D’Arcy and Cooke don’t seem to speak to lesbians only in their interviews though (even if another joint interview where they talk about their friendship in homoerotic terms of domination and submission recently became popular). House of the Dragon fans have been reading sapphic tension into the relationship between Rheanyra (D’Arcy) and Alicent (Cooke) since the beginning of the show, their portrayal of intense friendship veering into recognisable signs of queer desire for those who have the right goggles on.

@jillbill_chill01Emma D’Arcy literally said “feels right”😭❤️. #pov #hotd #houseofthedragon #got #teamblack #queen #rhaenyratargaryen #wlw #lgbt #fyp #fypage

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And now the lesbians are, as the kids say, winning.

This isn’t, of course, the first and only fanbase to have enacted a queer reading upon its source material to create a community around that reading. In fact, this experience that people have with HOTD speaks to something that’s ingrained into online sapphic spaces (and, let’s be real, offline ones as well): sometimes, what we need as queer women to form a strong community together is something to understand each other through. 

Something that speaks to us enough to understand ourselves through.

And sometimes, that something is a piece of media.