As we approach the Season 3 finale, House of the Dragon has killed off another principal character - though we can't see many fans being overly upset about this particular death.
Major spoilers ahead!
Episode 6, "Faceless Men," gets underway with a battle known as the Butcher's Ball, as Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and the handful of men still willing to follow him are ambushed by a group of Rivermen playing dead.
Cole and his forces manage to dispatch their enemies before finding themselves surrounded by Roderick Dustin, aka Roddy the Ruin (Tommy Flanagan), and his Winter Wolves.
Cole challenges his foes to face him two at a time, but is denied the noble death he longed for when Lady Alysanne "Black Aly" Blackwood (Annie Shapero) puts three arrows in him.
Criston Cole seemed like he was going to be a likable enough fellow when House of the Dragon began, but his intense hatred of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and general dickishness soon made him one of the most hated characters in the series. We'll say this for the grim bastard: he did remain loyal to Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) to the very end, wrapping her token around the hilt of his sword before his death.
Frankel shared his take on Cole's unceremonious end during an interview with GQ.
"It was so poetically written as a death. And I think, where it would've been easy to give him a villain's death, I don't think they have. His final act is saying, 'If I strike my banners, will you spare my men their lives,' right? And for a character who at times has probably avoided a level of heroism, I think at least there's a somewhat honourable final moment. I don't know that the journey to that point has been so honourable. But certainly, in its very final moments, it feels honourable."
Does Frankel feel that his character achieved some level of redemption?
"I hope so. I mean, it's tricky. It's so difficult when you're in it yourself to see what other people are seeing. And so many people have such profoundly differing views on him as a character, that I don't know whether there will be a great deal of relief from a lot of people that he's finally gone. And then, you hope, there are occasional tinges of sadness that one of the villains of our show has gone."
You can check out Cole's death scene along with a teaser for next week's seventh episode below.
"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires—real and imagined—crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm."
House of the Dragon season 3 sees Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans reprise their respective roles. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.
Season 3 directors include Loni Peristere (episodes 1,6), Clare Kilner (episodes 2,3,4), Nina Lopez-Corrado (episodes 5,7), and Andrij Parekh (episode 8).