Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) should be the kind of man who has songs written in his honor. A knight of low birth, elevated to the Kingsguard, then appointed Lord Commander, before eventually rising to the position of Hand of the King. Our handsome knight has some… anger issues, yes (who in this world doesn’t?), but he appears to be an honorable and gallant knight – and that’s really all that matters as far as history is concerned. He does have one fatal flaw, however, something completely beyond his control: he was born in the Age of Dragons.
Episode 4 saw Criston reach his highest level yet, with a series of military victories earning him the praise of the masses. That a lowly knight is called a “kingmaker” is the stuff of legend, but here we saw just how far he can fall. As dragons clash in the skies above Rook’s Rest, Criston is thrown from his horse and spends most of the battle unconscious. While there’s no shortage of riveting dragon-on-dragon action, the focus of this sequence is remarkably human. This climactic battle represents one of the most important days of Criston’s career, the moment this entire campaign has been leading up to, but he spends it facedown in the mud. No matter what one’s status, when faced with a dragon, they’re little more than a sack of flesh and bone.
But this is just one setback in a long line. He’s been promoted to the Kingsguard, only to discover the limits of his position. He’s constantly under the royal family (and you can interpret that any way you like), which means he rarely has the space to act on his own. He’s had two royal affairs so far, and neither has gone particularly well. Even when things are going his way, he’s uncomfortably aware of his own vulnerability. No matter what he does, no matter how hard he tries, he’s just not good enough. His army is bigger and better equipped than Team Black’s, but they’re little more than specks when viewed from the Dragonback. He’s seen men tossed aside like puppets and incinerated in dragonfire. He knows his little fight between men and land is a farce—there are greater powers in the sky. But Criston rails against these limits. Faced with his own powerlessness, we see him declare this a war of dragons, not men. He is restless in his position, and it is easy to see why.
Criston is utterly convinced of his own importance. To be fair, he has a great deal of evidence to support that perspective, even beyond what is outlined above. He defeated Daemon in the tourney and quickly gained his position in the Kingsguard, and his military victories are all his own. Aegon looks pathetic when placed next to Criston (though that would be true of most people, to be fair), but even the more formidable Prince Aemond was his apprentice. He has done the impossible, so it is no wonder he is so confident in his own abilities; he can already hear the songs that will be sung in his honor.
Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO
But that honor is a fragile one. He attempts to bury all evidence that he is unfit for his position, first by killing Joffrey in season 1, and more recently by pinning the blame for Jaehaerys’ murder on Ser Arryk and sending him to his death. Criston is skilled, yes, but he is also recklessly proud. He is in a constant battle to prove to himself and others that he is worthy of his position, but he continually falls short. Episode after episode we see his frustration mount, Frankel deftly portraying the rising anger of a man who can’t quite get it right. We can all sense the danger here: a man bent on proving his own greatness, blinding himself to his own shortcomings, yet cursed to live his life in the shadow of dragons.
In most cases, this kind of self-confidence would serve him well. Criston is ruthless and brutal, and while that serves him well on the battlefield, it becomes a liability when the conflict begins to escalate. The battle at Rook’s Rest has clearly shaken him, but where some might reconsider, he doubles down. He supports Aemond as regent, knowing that he will escalate the war. Criston has seen a battle of dragons with his own eyes, he knows the chaos it will bring to the Seven Kingdoms, and yet he leads Team Green down the path of war anyway. He’s not entirely evil, but he’s deliciously spiteful right now. Alicent urges him to take her side, but he knows he can’t. It’s the dilemma at the heart of the series, and Criston would rather see the Seven Kingdoms fall than be on the losing side. He’s as doomed as everyone else in King’s Landing, no matter how high he climbs.
Criston’s attempts to rise above the dragons ultimately ensure that he will always be beneath them. Desperate to prove himself, he will lead this war of dragons to its bloody end. His legacy is set in stone, at least as far as his brief mention in A Feast for Crows concerns. Of all the tragic and thoughtless mistakes that characters make in House of the Dragon Of all the things we’ve accomplished so far, pitting the dragons against each other is perhaps the most meaningful.