Latest ‘House Of The Dragon’ episode review-bombed over same-sex kiss

nme.com:

House of the Dragon has become the lowest-rated instalment of the second season after being review-bombed by fans.Titled ‘Smallfolk’, the sixth instalment of the Game of Thrones prequel series surprised fans with a same-sex kiss between Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Lady Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno).

This moment did not feature in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood – the book on which the show is based.Mizuno told TheWrap that “it wasn’t scripted as a kiss” even, adding: “I think it was scripted as … there’s just breath between them or something, and then whatever happens is interrupted.”While many fans have praised the episode for including queer romance, others have heavily criticised the improvised kiss, with 33 per cent of viewers giving the episode a one star rating on IMDB.One viewer claimed the kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria was an “unnecessary scene that will drag the storyline to its doom”.Another fan wrote: “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.”While Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s kiss is not included in Martin’s 2018 book, the author has previously praised cast members for taking creative license with his characters.In the interview with TheWrap, Mizuno went on to say that it felt natural to go into the kiss because of their closeness.“Because we were separate in the room…[and] Mysaria has told this story, [D’Arcy] felt the instinct to hold her, to comfort her,” Mizuno explained.