House of the Dragon star talks Criston Cole’s deadly outburst
During the latest episode of House of the Dragon, the Kingsguard knight Criston Cole takes audiences through a roller coaster of emotions as his life goes through radical changes. Up until this point, Criston has been portrayed as the faithful protector of Rhaenyra Targaryen, an honorable knight that would do anything for his princess. In Episode 4, Rhaenyra hooks up with him.
This event turned Criston’s entire world upside down, because he is obligated to obey Rhaenyra’s command, but at the same time having sex with her is treason and goes against his vow of celibacy. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, actor Fabien Frankel discussed Cole’s dilemma. “He’s very much set up as one thing, and as the show goes on, changes a great deal,” he said. “That was what was exciting to me. He’s very much set up as a noble, well-meaning knight there to protect Rhaenyra. And for those who’ve read the book, he isn’t that by any means.”
In Episode 5, Cole asks Rhaenyra to run away with him to Essos and marry him. After she rejects him, Criston’s secret eats at him until he blurts it out to Alicent Hightower, inadvertently binding himself to the Queen.
Fabian Frankel blames Rhaenyra for Criston Cole’s outburst
Criston’s guilt and paranoia boil over when Joffrey Lonmouth hits a shot in the dark by guessing he is Rhaenyra’s lover. Joffrey, who is the lover of Rhaenyra’s fiancé Laenor Velaryon, figures he and Criston should work together to help protect the people they love, and to keep each other’s secrets. But Criston is in a shame spiral, and beats Joffrey to death in the middle of the wedding feast. “I don’t think he’s searching for any form of conflict at this wedding at all,” Frankel said. “If anything, he wants to be as far away as humanly possible. I don’t think it’s because Rhaenyra says she won’t go away with him. I think it’s the way in which she says she won’t go away with him.”
"That scene could so easily have been written [as] he asks her to run away with him, she understands why he feels this way, she can’t give up her role as queen, but what she will offer him is an out if he would like to leave the Kingsguard. That very much could be the scenario that happens. It isn’t. That to me is very interesting. She chose to keep him there. She made him stand through that wedding. That’s where the animosity builds."
The next time we see these characters, 10 years will have passed. A lot could change in that time. “I f—ing love that, in a week’s time, the audience is gonna very much change their opinion of him,” Frankel said. “I think that Criston is, in a lot of ways, a fly on the wall, but without the Machiavellian nature of a character like Otto. You have a very interesting dynamic of someone who is overhearing every conversation that is happening, be it when he’s on the side of Rhaenyra or on the side of any of the other characters. And slowly as the show goes on, Criston Cole I believe will become a very integral part of the Dance of the Dragons.”
New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays on HBO.
Next. House of the Dragon struggles to reconcile itself in “We Light The Way”. dark
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