Everybody Hates Ser Criston Cole on ‘House of the Dragon’

Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 2.

Westeros, as depicted in House of the Dragon, is full of terrible people committing atrocities at every turn. The quality of life isn’t great; childbirth can be deadly, no matter how close to the Iron Throne you are; systemic misogyny rules supreme; House Targaryen can get away with nearly any misdeed imaginable, and its members care little for the smallfolk (and most don’t think of them at all). Plus, those fearsome dragons are living, fire-breathing nuclear weapons waiting to take flight and lay siege to their enemies—and probably some loyal civilians, too, if they happen to be in the line of fire.

It’s about to get even worse, as the Dance of the Dragons will soon unleash seven hells onto the rest of Westeros. Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar may have delivered the first blow, and Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) may have hired goons that fumbled an assassination. King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) may have directed his grief-fueled wrath toward every rat catcher who worked in the Red Keep to ensure he killed the one responsible for his son’s murder. Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk Cargyll (Luke and Elliott Tittensor, respectively) are now dead after a fight to the death formed through duty and honor, a suicide mission, brotherhood, and unspeakable guilt as Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) watched the carnage unfold.

But it’s none other than Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the Lord Commander of Aegon’s Kingsguard and Queen Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) new lover, who’s emerged at the top of House of the Dragon’s ultimate shitlist. Look no further than X, which is full of fans posting vitriolic messages about Criston just for showing up in any given scene. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing, who he’s with, or what he might screw up: There’s just something about Criston that makes us go, “I fucking hate that guy.”

What that “something” might be depends on who you talk to. It could be his smarminess, his ingrained sexism toward Rhaenyra on a show that has been sympathetic toward her so far, his inability to admit his faults, his incompetence, or a combination of these traits. Episode 2 embodied all of it as Criston spiraled out, making the depth of viewers’ animosity even more apparent.

As Criston succeeds, we hate him for it and eagerly anticipate his eventual death (whenever it may arrive), no matter how it may happen. That reaction is a testament to Frankel’s pitch-perfect performance, because we might not hate (or love to hate) Criston as much as we do without it. But, in what has become an increasingly common and depressing part of online fandom, that hatred toward Criston Cole is being directed toward Frankel on social media, with some conflating the actor and his fictional character. Since Episode 2 aired on Sunday night, Frankel has limited who can comment on his Instagram posts, seemingly in response to the harassment. Conversely, the backlash has led to other fans propping Frankel up for his performance while calling out those unable to separate the character from the actor. (One of the high points of Season 2 is hating on Criston Cole. Don’t mistake him for Frankel.)

Part of the joy and frustration in hating Criston, two seasons into the show, is watching him navigate the line of hypocrisy. We’d like to think we won’t suffer hypocrites in our lives, and that goes for fictional ones, too. While most of the characters are committing war crimes left and right in House of the Dragon, many of his sins are entirely human, making him much easier to judge.

In a world where incestuous blond dragonriders prone to violent outbursts are a dime a dozen, Criston Cole stands out as one of the few major players who isn’t a Targaryen, Velaryon, or Hightower or married to one and doesn’t have a dragon to command—and yet, he still has power to wield. He’s initially an intriguing character and an example of the smallfolk emerging to make a difference. But we’re already meeting more characters in Season 2 who fit a similar mold, and Criston is no longer the only one; his actions give us reason to root against him.

A steward's son with ties to Dorne, Criston became a skilled enough fighter to take down Daemon in a jousting tournament and ascended to the Kingsguard after being handpicked by a young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock). He would become its Lord Commander after Ser Harrold Westerling (Graham McTavish) resigned in protest and personally placed the Conqueror’s crown on King Aegon’s head. That act would earn him the name “Kingmaker,” leaving behind a mixed bag of a legacy that, according to Ser Jaime Lannister in A Feast For Crows, embodied the best and the worst of what the Kingsguard was.

By the end of Episode 2, Criston has risen further to become the newly appointed Hand of the King; he’s ready to take a more hands-on approach to Aegon’s ensuing war. For most characters, that trajectory would be sold as a noble rags-to-riches story, but for Criston, it’s a portrait of someone falling upward to become one of the most powerful men in the realm. Villainous characters move up and succeed in Westeros all the time: Look no further than Aegon, Aemond, or Daemon. But while they also manage to entertain or amuse us in some way, due to their melodrama or the theatrics of their tantrums, Criston offers none of that satisfaction; he’s the Westerosi version of a buzzkill.

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Rhaenyra’s rejection of him in Season 1 and her unwillingness to run away with him and give him redemption for breaking his Kingsguard vows at the cost of Rhaenyra losing her throne has fueled his hatred of her ever since. He’s far from the only one in the Red Keep lobbing misogynistic insults toward Rhaenyra or thinking she’s unfit to rule, but his comments are so overboard that even Alicent, at her most unforgiving, glares at him until he walks back calling Rhaenyra a “spoiled cunt.”

Fans have been calling Criston a misogynist and an incel due to his “nice guy” attitude toward Rhaenyra ever since, making him an easy punching bag. But there’s also plenty of blood on his hands, as the body count rises directly (and indirectly) because of Criston’s actions. In Season 1, he killed Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod) for attempting to blackmail him about Rhaenyra and Lyman Beesbury (Bill Paterson) after trying to get him to stay seated during the first small council meeting following Viserys’s (Paddy Considine) death. Criston’s negligence of his duties after he starts sleeping with Alicent gave Blood and Cheese enough of a window to kill baby Jaehaerys. Blood and Cheese’s lives may have been forfeited the minute they accepted Daemon’s coin to kill a prince, but all of the Red Keep’s rat catchers would still be alive had Criston been doing his duty and stopped the assassins in the first place.

As he wrestled with his own guilt and shame, he insinuated that Ser Arryk was a traitor because Ser Erryk defected to Team Black and ordered Arryk to impersonate his brother so he could assassinate Rhaenyra. And when Arryk protested that deception wasn’t the Kingsguard way, Criston ripped him a new one for questioning orders. It was an absurd scheme that inexplicably almost worked, but it instead ended with the deaths of both Cargylls as Erryk slayed his twin and, being unable to live with what he did, chose to fall onto his own sword. Had Criston not sent Arryk on a suicide mission, both twins would still be alive.

In an Episode 2 scene that sums Criston up to a tee, he rips Ser Arryk a new one in front of the other members of the Kingsguard for wearing a dirtied cloak. Logically, Ser Arryk’s cloak became muddied from the royal funeral procession, but it also serves as a reminder for the dutiful and virtuous knight—who was watching over King Aegon and his buddies in the throne room when Jaehaerys died—of the Kingsguard’s failures.

“The white cloak is a symbol of our purity, our fidelity,” Criston says. “Kingsguard are a sacred trust. Will you so easily sully our ancient honor?”

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Projection much? Almost certainly. As Criston digs a deeper hole for himself, he cannot (or will not) reckon or acknowledge any of his sins and misdeeds. Some characters might commit more heinous acts than what Criston has done and admit their own faults, as Aemond did, or attempt to justify their worst impulses, as Daemon did. Some might relish in them, be proud of those evil acts, or plan on doing more to secure the Iron Throne for their side. Yet, despite the guilt and shame bubbling inside, Criston still thinks that if he can cover up his own mess enough to secure the throne for Aegon or find solace in Alicent, he can still be the virtuous knight he once swore to be. And that’s worked out pretty well for him so far, considering he now has Aegon’s ear.

Maybe Criston should look at his own sullied cloak before casting judgment. The Dance of the Dragons is about to get even messier. Now that Criston is in charge of planning Team Green’s next move and can indulge Aegon’s wish “to spill blood, not ink” (when he isn’t spending his off-hours with Alicent), we’ll have plenty of opportunity to hate him further. If he achieves victory on the field, it’s a personal vendetta against Rhaenyra.

But if his actions result in the deaths of characters we love, Criston’s the one who fucked it up for everyone. The only winners are the viewers, both for watching Frankel giving Criston a deliciously despicable spin and for finding more ways to rag on him. It’s been a while since we’ve had a character to hate this much in Westeros, and we’re all the better (and worse) for it.

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