At long last, the highly-anticipated Butcher’s Ball has gone down in House of the Dragon season 3, and with it, we’ve said goodbye to one of the most hated characters of the series.
Of course, we’re talking about Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the traitorous, ruthless, and petty character who we met in season 1 as a knight competing in a tourney. Throughout the years, he weasels his way up the ranks, now fighting for Aegon Targaryen’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) claim to the Iron Throne as his Hand.
Though Criston is introduced as a honorable man, after being rejected by Rhaenyra Targaryen (then played by Milly Alcock) in season 1, his true colors are revealed. By season 3, his army, which includes Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) is after victory, following the Rivermen who are loyal to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy. But once they realize there’s nothing left for them in the war beyond death, Criston has a revelation, as seen in last week’s episode: he’s ready to die fighting.
The final moments of season 3 episode 5 feature a speech by Criston, as he attempts to motivate his army to keep fighting a losing battle. He concludes by stating: “The Mother gives her comfort. The Father, his protection. And the Stranger offers us rest.” It’s evident he believes the only way out of this war is to die, honorably, fighting for what they believe in. And while Gwayne decides to leave, Criston has made up his mind.
Criston Cole is killed in House of the Dragon season 3 episode 6
All of this, in addition to an earlier scene with Gwayne, is set up for the opening six or so minutes of tonight’s episode, which sees the Butcher’s Ball unfold. Criston’s men are tricked by the Black army, led by Roddy the Ruin (Tommy Flanagan) and Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), falling for an ambush. When confronted, Criston proposes a fight between them, but he’s cut off by Black Aly (Annie Shapero) who shoots multiple arrows into him, killing him.
A battle launches, but because Criston has so few men left, it’s very one-sided. The action takes place around his dead body, as he clutches onto Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) handkerchief, the same one she gave him as her favor when he left King’s Landing in season 2. Of course, fans will remember that Criston and Alicent had a secret intimate relationship, and it seems she’s one of the last things he thinks about before his death.
Fabien Frankel spoke about Criston’s feelings towards Alicent in a recent interview with Variety, saying it’s “inevitable” for both Alicent and Rhaenyra to be on his mind “all the time.”
“I think Alicent much more than Rhaenyra,” Frankel added. “Certainly for me, Rhaenyra has become a sort of afterthought. And actually, it’s just the idea of winning the war for Alicent.”
If Criston couldn’t win the war for Alicent, I guess the second-best thing to him would be to die an honorable death. In last week’s episode, he tells Gwayne that songs will be written about him after he meets his fate, which is a bit of a callback to Fire & Blood. Though this conversation doesn’t exist in the book (Gwayne doesn’t even go to the Riverlands in the book), there is a connection in a line said after his death by the knight Longleaf the Lionslayer.
In Fire & Blood, after the Black army kills Criston, Longleaf states: “I’ll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There’s tens o’ thousands dead on your account.”
It would’ve been awesome to have that line included in the show, perhaps from Oscar Tully, to really solidify the fact that Criston is dying without honor. But either way, the show’s depiction of the event is still incredibly satisfying — and we’re sure fans will feel the same way.
We weren’t expecting the episode to open up with Criston’s death, but I think it works. Last week almost over-set up his death, so dragging it out to the end of this week might’ve felt a bit anticlimactic, now thinking about it in retrospect. We knew Criston’s chapter would be closing, so it was time to move on to the next events happening in the Dance of the Dragons. And of course, there’s much more to come after this episode.
Make sure to catch the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 3 next Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
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