Cristen Cole's Fate is Sealed in House of the Dragon

Cristen Cole is one of the few characters that has gone through so much crap in season 3. After realizing that he was unable to get to Aemond in Harrenhal, not realizing that he has been there the whole time, he decided to take his army away, and go after the Rivermen army, that served Rhaenyra. He is also stuck in the company of Gwayne Hightower, the brother of Alicent. Their journey has not been going well at all. Gwayne is frustrated with Cole's decisions, and he was rightfully pissed off when he discovered one of their knights had harmed a village girl, only for Cole to brush over this assault.

Cole is stuck in the mindset that all men give in to evil at some point, but Gwayne is one of the few knights that appears to not believe in this awful mortality. The two men are stuck with each other, as they make their way to attack the Rivermen. They finally get lucky in the recent episode 5 of House of the Dragon, when they stumble upon their camp. Unfortunately, even though most of them were killed, the Rivermen were still able to get the drop on Cole's army. They got quite ahead of his men, and they left behind brutal traps to injure their own horses, to force the men to walk on foot for the rest of the way.

The men experience so much hardship during their journey. They trek on foot through the woods while cutting through branches, they are stuck walking through mud, while leeches are sucking on their wounds, they experience moments of weakness, and they were forced to leave behind dead men.

Then when they do reach their destination to the Rivermen, it turned out that they had burned down the bridge to cross over the river, to stop Cole's group. Despite this huge blow to the group, Cole reveals to Gwayne that he is determined to accomplish his task of reaching this army. He is aware that he will die, but he no longer cares about any of that. He tells Gwayne that he wishes to die, because he is tired of being tied to both the Hightowers and the Targaryen families. He wants to be done with the war fully, and he believes that his death will finally set him free from the corruption he has endured.

This speech from Cole really told me that he was a scumbag, all the way to the end. He is a huge hypocrite, continuing to blame the families for their evil corrupting his livelihood as a knight, but in reality, he gave in to these temptations. He blamed Rhaenyra for spending quality time with her, but it was his choice to be with her. He lost his mind after she asked him to stay with her, and he proceeded to murder her friend's lover on Rhaenyra's wedding day.

He started sleeping with Alicent too years later, and he even gave in to helping the Hightower family, not giving a damn of what was being asked of him.

Cole chose to do all of this.

He chose to become the villain, to become the ultimate scumbag of the Hightower family. Sure, he took the blame for what he chose to do, but he straight up blamed the families for his change. His uncanny devotion for being a knight literally destroyed him, and he chose to become even more corrupted as time went on.

Now he is going to die, and honestly, good riddance. This dude is one of the most annoying villains in the show, because he was always the one pointing fingers at everyone, but in reality, he was the one to blame for his own actions. At least Aemond had the guts to stay true to his character, of being a straight up villain that seeks power.

Cole is 100% going to die next episode, and I can't wait for this dude's demise.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn