Alright, after the most recent House of the Dragon episode where Mysaria and Rhaenyra kiss, you cannot tell me nothing was secretly going on between Rhaenyra and Alicent when they were younger. I mean, the way they were looking at each other even in that confessional church scene?! Just tell each other you secretly love each other and run away together already.

But, as if I needed any more fuel to the fire it turns out Olivia Cooke has a headcanon where she believes Rhaenyra and Alicent definitely did “kiss or made out” when they were younger in House of the Dragon. And if you can hear anything right now, it’s just me screaming from the rooftops. I’m so obsessed with these two, and Olivia even thinks Rhaenyra and Alicent were “each other’s first loves.” My delusions are being well and truly fed today.

Via HBO

During an interview with Variety, writer Sarah Hess talked more about the relationship between the two women. She explained: “There’s an element of queerness to it. Whether you see it that way or as just the unbelievably passionate friendships that women have with each other at that age. I think understanding that element of it sort of informs the entire rest of their relationship… Even though they’re driven apart by all these societal, systemic elements and pressures and happenings, at the core of it, they knew each other as children, and they loved each other and that doesn’t go away.”

She continued: “Olivia has told me she believes — and this is her headcanon — that they at some point kissed or made out or had some kind of physical interaction that Alicent’s mother found out about and forbade. And that was Olivia’s head story, ‘Oh, I can’t do that. That’s not right.’ And that’s the background for her in their relationship going forward. I would be 100% down with that.”

Olivia Cooke added that she and Emma D’Arcy have “definitely” talked about Alicent and Rhaenyra being “each other’s first love.” She admitted: “But when it comes to our iterations of the characters, too much has happened and too much time has passed to probably even recognize those fledgling feelings.”

Via HBO

However, Sarah Hess didn’t want to “define” what their love might have meant in terms of their sexuality. She explained: “I happen to be a queer woman, but I know straight women who had ‘Heavenly Creatures’-esque, romantic friendships with their best friend at that age.

“That’s something that I think, probably — I don’t want to stereotype anybody – but it seems to be more a phenomenon with young women than it is with men, probably because whether you’re queer or not, society cares less if you’re physically intimate with each other or hugging or touching each other. You can have sleepovers and sleep in the same bed and nobody cares.”