Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is not a Targaryen, nor even a nobleman from Westeros. His origins are Dorne, but even without a title, he captured the attention of the young princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), who personally selected him to be the Royal Guard of Viserys I Targaryen, her father. Ser Criston first caught everyone’s attention by dueling – and winning – none other than Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith).

If at first there was the attraction of both the princess and her friend, Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), little by little the relationship between the knight and the heir to the Iron Throne became more complex. Skilled as a warrior, the young knight stood close to Rhaneyra, as her personal shield. We saw how much the princess trusted him, opening her heart when she had doubts and reaffirming his admiration for her. Until everything changed.

In the book Fire and Blood, it is not as explicit as in the series, but the hatred that Ser Criston starts to feel towards Rhaenyra clearly has a romantic origin and also involves Daemon’s controversial ‘return’ to the kingdom, after a first period away. The “rumors” about his night out with his niece became legendary, with some claiming that he had taken her virginity and others suggesting that Daemon had “explicitly” taught how Rhaenyra should seduce Criston. Many believe that the knight would have rejected her, offended her, and still clung to his oath as a Knight. Anyone who has seen the series knows that the details are wrong, but that the night of the visit to the brothel effectively changed Ser Criston Cole’s life forever.

His admiration for Rhaenyra, from what we saw, had already turned into love. When spending a night with her, however, Ser Criston was drawn into an irreversible tragedy, in which he would have a unique strategic position. “He was thrown from a life he understood to one he didn’t understand,” the actor said in an interview. He went further, confirming some suspicions.

The Darkness of Being Criston Cole’s Soul: Unrequited Love

The actor’s analysis brings some important points to understanding the character and his eventual alliance with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). As he did not come from a wealthy family, the only way to rise socially was through hard work, which is why he prepared himself so much for combat and life in the Royal Guard. Just like the future Queen consort, Ser Criston understood that she had to obey the rules, and admired the princess’s ‘rebelliousness’, who managed to do what she wanted and still maintain her popularity and position as successor. However, it was one thing to see her put her foot down and question her father, the other was to be used as a pawn in a game where the rules changed for her alone.

“There is a darkness in him that triggers at one point and after that Cole transforms into who he is,” explains Fabien. The moment is the night of love between him and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).

In the actor’s words, Ser Criston “has strong personality and feelings” for the princess, but she underestimates both. For her, fulfilling her role and marrying a nobleman is part of her obligations, so at no point did she allow herself or feel anything extra for him, but Ser Criston didn’t notice. In her Cartesian mentality, if she broke the rules to be with him it was because she liked him and wanted to change everything. However, he fails to accept that not everything is in her hands and that is something that neither Ser Criston nor Alicent wants to understand.

When Viserys was informed of Daemon and Rhaenyra’s night out, due to Ser Otto’s malice, he believed that the two consumed the relationship, creating two problems for the Targaryens. 1) Daemon was still married, so he couldn’t be Rhaenyra’s husband and 2) She could get pregnant, and we now know that virginity was important not only to avoid scandal but to keep her in the line of succession. Daemon – who doesn’t bother to correct the gossip – likes the idea of marrying his niece, but he has to be a widower first. Viserys doesn’t even consider this possibility and therefore has to find a faster solution.

The most efficient alternative on paper was to marry his reluctant daughter to her cousin and childhood friend, Ser Laenor Velaryon. This way, it would also solve his father’s ambitions, who wanted Viserys to marry his 12-year-old daughter, Laenora, but Viserys chose Alicent instead. Marrying Rhaenyra to Laenor would put the Velaryons back in succession to the Throne (through their children) and the Houses would make Peace again. On one side, ok, on the other, war.

Following the book – confirmed in the series – Ser Criston confessed his love to the princess, offering the plan to flee together to one of the Free Cities, where he would support her as a sword for hire to some merchant prince. After all, he knew she didn’t love Laenor (clearly gay) and since she was a rebel, everything would be fine. There is something more essential here too: machismo.

Rules are only broken by those who ‘can’, something that separates Criston from Power

Rhaenyra was sworn in as Viserys’ successor in an official ceremony, breaking the centuries-old tradition of making a Targaryen Queen even before any male heir. It was a political strategy fueled by Otto to buy time and remove Daemon’s chances from the throne, but both Rhaenyra and Viserys took it seriously. The only two in all of Westeros (ok, the Starks too). Furthermore, no one expected to see Rhaenyra as Queen, including Ser Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen, whose grandchildren would eventually take priority even over their future mother.

Alicent Hightower, in the series, as a friend and wife, also had no faith in Rhaenyra as Queen but avoided getting involved until the scandal provoked her. An event that changed the course of History.

Daemon’s intention to teach Rhaenyra to take pleasure in life was unfortunate in every way. Until then, even if with difficulty, she had the support of Alicent Hightower and Ser Criston Cole, who resented her irresponsible behavior, but whose rebellion was mild. By involving sex in the equation, she threw everything out of balance.

Alicent, who married Viserys, a man who could have been her father, never took carnal pleasure with him, fulfilling her role when he demanded. Out of fear and ‘duty’, she did not seek an alternative outside of marriage either. For her, this was the reality of women and something that her stepdaughter-friend would be equally subjected to. When gossip about the night out begins to circulate, Alicent still believes that Rhaenyra would not have taken such a risk, and she opposes Otto on the issue. The breakthrough for her comes when she discovers that her father was punished for “telling the truth” and that the princess got away with lying. An injustice that arrogant people like the Targaryens could ignore. Only Alicent knows the full truth that it was not Daemon that Rhaenyra spent the night with, but with Ser Criston Cole. Teenage crush may have contributed here too: Rhaenyra and Daemon destroyed the lives of Otto, banished from the Court, and Criston, whose honor was tarnished by reckless seduction.

Denial is the seed of a civil war

The fact that Ser Criston considered that Rhaenyra would give up the Crown for him is inconceivable for any modern woman, but, in that scenario, something logical. By daring to have her cake and eat it too, she has unequivocally disturbed the Peace. (Thank you, Daemon, you agent of chaos, for feeding the beast!)

None of this changes the fact that Rhaenyra was the first love (if not the only) of Ser Criston Cole, who found himself used and despised. Her intensity of love turned to hate, and seeing her accepting to follow the rules and marry without love is worse than seeing them breaking them to be happy. For him, what the princess refused was being with an ordinary man, doubling his feeling of inadequacy.

Likewise, Alicent’s children begin to have the knight’s unconditional devotion. For him, Aegon and Aemond, two men and sons of an honorable woman, have more rights to the throne than the seductive Rhaenyra. To make matters worse, when having a marriage where her husband does not fulfill the role of producing heirs, the princess found solace in Ser Harwin Strong, something that was clear with the three children who looked more like Harwin than Laenor. Not only was Rhaenyra a woman of sin, but she also wanted to put bastards on the Throne. And when she becomes a widow, she immediately marries the also recently widowed Daemon Targaryen. She is the enemy of good manners and dignity.

In the book, the violent scandal of the wedding night is different, but in both the series and the original that event determines the lethal alliance between him and Alicent. At the party, there are fights to celebrate and all the aggression he has is unleashed on Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, who would have died six days later, and in the series, he dies instantly. In disgrace, Cole is ‘saved’ by the Queen consort from a suicide attempt, as she makes him swear to be a personal shield and he becomes the Greens’ most strategic defender.

According to the actor, of Alicent’s children, it is Aemond with whom Criston has the closest relationship. The prince, who lost one of his eyes in a clash with his nephews, is well-trained to be an excellent combatant. Although he has veiled ambitions to one day sit on the Iron Throne, Aemond, like Alicent and Criston, does not act to find shortcuts but defends them as if they were his. Ser Criston Cole also becomes proud of the hatred he feeds for Rhaenyra, her great motivator is seeing her fall, be humiliated, and lose the Crown.

The alliance with the Targaryen Princes could take him away from Alicent

In the 1st season of House of the Dragon, Ser Criston has not yet taken on the leading role that will make him a hated figure for those who support Rhaenyra. His blatant mistreatment of the future Queen’s children makes it clear that he has no respect for anyone who does not come from the Green lineage, nor does he have any respect for her children with Daemon.

As a man of strength, Ser Criston helped the Greens take over the council after Viserys’ death. He also supports Aegon’s coronation, still aligned with Alicent more than with Otto when the prince needed to be found to take his place as King. Likewise, Criston kills Lord Lyman Beesbury, the only advisor to support Rhaenyra, and threatens anyone who dares to refuse to kneel for the new King. With this, he gains the reputation of ‘kingmaker’, even more than Aegon’s own grandfather, Otto, the true political strategist of everything.

In the book, more than Alicent, it is Criston who convinces Aegon to ascend the Iron Throne, remembering that he and his brothers would be killed by Rhaenyra if Aegon did not claim the Crown. In fact, it is Cristom who places Aegon the Conqueror’s crown on the young king’s head. No problems with violence, we will see a bloodthirsty Ser Criston Cole when we meet him again.

Ploys to destroy Rhaenyra and Daemon

Lucerys Velaryon’s death, accidental or not, is everything Ser Criston dreamed of to start attacking Rhaenyra. We have to see how Aemond will explain the fact in King’s Landing, but we know that Aegon and Cole will celebrate the news, while Otto and Alicent will be terrified. Otto, in fact, will be a problem between him and the Queen Mother.

Like Aegon, Cole is irritated by Otto’s politics and wants to avoid fighting. The head of the Royal Guard executes the “traitors” and opponents of the Greens and outlines defense and battle strategies. Otto looks for alliances, and Cole shows his strength on the field. Without delay, Aegon takes the position of Hand of the King from his grandfather and makes it official to Ser Cole Criston, a young man from Dorne who reaches the highest position in the Kingdom besides the King himself.

When the “tit for tat” strategy is the black response for Lucerys, Criston wins the gift he so desperately wanted. He is the one who devises the strategy of sending the reluctant Ser Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard to infiltrate Dragonstone, disguised as his twin, Ser Erryk Cargyll, a supporter of Rhaenyra. We will find out if the intention was to kill the Queen or her children, but the fact is that the twins die and the Targaryens survive.

Bloody battles, defeats, and victories

The board will be conducted in such a way that Daemon Targaryen and Ser Criston Cole emerge as the opposing strategists. We will see black victories at Harrenhall and other battles, but, in Rook’s Nest, it is Cole’s plan that generates one of the most legendary battles in the entire Dance of Dragons. In it, the Kingmaker prepares a lethal trap that costs the lives of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen and the dragon Meleys.

When Aegon is unable to reign after the ambush, Ser Criston and Aemond will take charge of everything without restrictions. They kill the Rook’s Rest garrison and carry the heads of Lord Staunton and Meleys back to King’s Landing.

But the future for those who experience so much resentment is bleak. In the battle of God’s Eye, Criston’s army discovered that Harrenhal had been ‘abandoned’ by the blacks, deciding to act immediately and take the castle. In this way, they leave King’s Landing vulnerable and the blacks take the city and the throne. In response, Criston retreats south and continues fighting.

His downfall will come later when he is surprised by Ser Garibald Grey, Ser Pate, and Roderick Dustin in an ambush. Out of honor, Ser Criston offers his capture to spare his men but is refused. Defying Rhaenyra’s three supporters, he is killed with three arrows, and his army is executed. Ser Criston’s head is then taken as a trophy to celebrate this important defeat.

As we know, Rhaenyra is going through so many problems that it’s not even clear whether or not she’s happy with her ex-lover’s death. At this point, she loses control of King’s Landing, loses Daemon (supposedly killed defying Aemond, who also dies), and is surprised and killed by Aegon. In the accelerated exchange of Targaryens, Criston will be succeeded as Hand of the King by Lord Cregan Stark and as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard by Ser Willis Fell. Both serve Aegon III Targaryen, son of Daemon and Rhaenyra.

Being Criston lives the paradox of victory and defeat

The tragic fate of Being Criston Cole, according to the analysis of actor Fabien Frankel, we are following in some way, the destruction of a good man. He considers that “you are what surrounds you, you are the people who surround you”, as he said. Because he is surrounded by incredibly ambitious, Machiavellian, and Power-obsessed people, he embarks on this journey because it is irreversible.

This view resonates with an impression suggested by some fans, that, in fact, Ser Criston Cole was no different from Otto Hightower, he really wanted to “lead”. He would have dreamed of having Rhaenyra under his influence, but, without succeeding, he took advantage of the vulnerability of the princes who saw him as a hero. His personal relationships with Alicent and Rhaenyra only fueled his ambitions. Or, as Fabien says, he’s just a simple man, rejected and resentful. sense. Really?

Pesquisar

Pesquisar