All the deleted scenes from House of the Dragon season 1

Criston Cole being sworn into the Kingsguard

House of the Dragon may not have quite as many blatantly loathsome characters as Game of Thrones did in its heyday, but of those it does have, no one is worse than Ser Criston Cole. Though he began as a stalwart knight, after being rejected by Rhaenyra Criston devolved into a sycophant to Alicent Hightower and the greens. His poor widdle feelings got hurt too bad to forgive that one time a girl rejected him.

Criston is chosen for the Kingsguard in Episode 2 by Rhaenyra, but we never actually see him take his vows. As it turns out, a scene was shot of Criston Cole being sworn into the brotherhood. Once again, we actually have a promotional image from it; see above.

Actor Fabien Frankel revealed to Vulture that this scene didn’t make the final cut, which is a shame, since seeing how seriously Criston takes his vows would have helped us understand why he freaks out later when Rhaenyra “makes” him break them.

“We fought to try and get it back, but it was just a dodgy camera thing that meant it wasn’t in there,” Frankel recalled.

Criston Cole’s rigid devotion to his oaths felt like it came out of left field in Episode 5, when Criston explodes into a violent mass of murderous anger at Rhaenyra’s wedding. Seeing Criston sworn into the Kingsguard probably would have made it all land a bit better. – Dan Selcke