Criston Cole Died Hallelujah

Updated 3 weeks ago, July 27, 2026

I posted last week that Criston Cole needs to die ASAP. I guess God answers prayers because on last night’s episode of House of the Dragon, Ser Criston faced his final battle.

Oscar Tully, the young Lord of the Riverlands, tells Cole he wants to build a Sept out of the bones of traitors.

Knowing his Green army was badly outnumbered, Cole challenges the enemy commanders to face him in single combat. However, because Cole is one of the best fighters in Westeros, the duel is declined and an enemy archer (Alysanne “Black Aly” Blackwood) shoots him with arrows, including a fatal shot to the face, killing him on the battlefield.

Criston realizes he is badly outnumbered by the Blacks.

Just before facing his fate, Cole unwraps Alicent Hightower’s handkerchief (or favor) from beneath his armor, caresses it, and then wraps it around the handle of his sword. This signals his devotion to Alicent and the reason he was willing to risk his life fighting a war where the odds were stacked against him. Although he saw the writing on the wall that his death was inevitable, he still marched forward, accepting the he would die for the Greens.

Cole caresses Alicent’s favor before his death.

I really hated this character. Criston Cole was a sanctimonious Karen who always had a lot to say about everyone else… but never blamed himself for murdering an innocent man (Joffrey Lonmouth), having affairs with Alicent and Rhaenyra, or escalating a war that killed up to a million people (and 20 dragons).

A still from House of the Dragon — Ser Criston Cole’s final moments.

When you hate a character it means the actor did an incredible job, and Fabien Frankel deserves all the credit for bringing Criston Cole to life. The show expanded Criston’s character beyond Fire &Blood. In the book, he’s remembered primarily as the Kingmaker and one of the Greens’ greatest commanders because it’s written as an in-universe history. You learn what he did, but rarely why. The series gave us his relationships with Rhaenyra and Alicent, his growing disillusionment with knighthood, his rigid sense of duty, his religious conviction, and the emotional complexity behind his choices. It didn’t make him more likable, but it made him far more understandable.