u/La_Villanelle_

Something I’ve noticed from a certain demographic of fans is the amount of racism and homophobia directed toward Sarah Hess disguised as “criticism.”

People constantly keep calling Mysaria a “self insert” for Sarah Hess, which is honestly some of the wildest bullshit I’ve seen. Because when you actually break it down, the only things these two women have in common are that Mysaria is played by an Asian actress while Sarah Hess is Asian in real life, and Mysaria is queer while Sarah Hess is queer in real life.

And besides how incredibly racist and homophobic that framing already is, it doesn’t even make sense factually.

Sarah Hess did not cast the show. She is not a casting director. Kate Rhodes James — a white woman — was the casting director responsible for the actors and actresses on the show. Sarah Hess is a writer and producer. That is an entirely different role. She did not personally choose Mysaria’s actress, because that literally was not her job.

As for Mysaria being bisexual, there is barely anything known about her in Fire & Blood in the first place. The show expanded multiple characters beyond what was in the book, so acting like Mysaria being queer is some impossible invention is ridiculous.

People also love bringing up the kiss between Mysaria and Rhaenyra Targaryen as “proof” of the self insert nonsense, except Sarah Hess didn’t even write that episode. She only wrote Episodes 2 and 8 of Season 2. The kiss happened in Episode 6, written by an entirely different writer (Eileen Shim).

And on top of that, Sonoya Mizuno herself said the romantic direction between Mysaria and Rhaenyra had been discussed with her since Season 1 — back when Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal were both running the show together.

“After I got the job and spoke to the showrunners, they said that this was a potentiality. They said the plan was definitely for Mysaria and Rhaenyra to start working together with a potential for romance. So I knew before we started Season 1.” - Sonoya Mizuno

There’s also the fact that people keep blaming Sarah Hess for Rhaenicent and acting like she is personally responsible for “making the show gay,” when that quite literally traces back to Miguel Sapochnik himself.

Miguel and Ryan were the head showrunners during Season 1. Sarah Hess was not a showrunner. She did not control the creative direction of the series. She was one writer among several writers and one producer among several producers. Acting like she singlehandedly invented the queer subtext in the show is just objectively false.

Miguel Sapochnik himself openly talked about the romantic undertones between Alicent and Rhaenyra years ago. He literally said:

“If you look at the way that Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship develops in the first five episodes… they are good friends with this potential romantic entanglement from earlier on that has always been a big thing for me.”

He also said:

“It seems like it’s a kind of unrequited love… there’s something there, right? And Rhaenyra has this deep longing for her best friend.”

And then he flat out said:

“The underlying theme is that Rhaenyra is actually in love with Alicent.”

Those are Miguel Sapochnik’s own words. Not Sarah Hess’s.

So the way some fans keep trying to rewrite history to pin every queer aspect of the show onto Sarah Hess specifically is incredibly transparent. Especially when the actual people who created and led the direction of Season 1 have openly discussed these themes for years.

Feel free to dislike Sarah Hess for whatever writing decisions you disagree with. Criticize the pacing, characterization, dialogue, changes from Fire & Blood, or specific scenes all you want.

But the way some people keep blaming one queer Asian woman for every queer aspect of House of the Dragon while completely ignoring the actual showrunners and creators who publicly discussed these themes years ago comes across as incredibly biased.

And honestly, the “Mysaria is Sarah Hess’s self insert” argument falls apart the second you actually examine it, because what are people even basing that accusation on? The fact that Mysaria is played by an Asian actress and is queer? That Sarah Hess is Asian and queer in real life? That’s literally it.

Male writers have centered male characters they relate to for decades without people screaming “self insert” every five seconds. Straight writers include straight romances constantly and nobody treats it like some secret agenda. But suddenly a queer woman is involved with a show that contains queer themes and people start acting like every gay scene or queer-coded interaction must secretly be her projecting herself into the story.

At a certain point, people need to be honest about the fact that there is a very obvious double standard happening here. Because a lot of these accusations stop sounding like actual criticism of the writing and start sounding like discomfort with queer women — especially queer women of color — having creative involvement in a major franchise at all.