Just a random girl

[kashti15]

Alicent is clearly the victim of parental abuse. The way she used to bite her nail to the point that it started bleeding speaks volumes. Even in episode 5 she was biting her nails after otto left. She was in too much of stress. Otto literally fucked her mind up. Such a shitty Father she had and not to forget a rapist husband. I have great sympathy for her.

[kashti15]

Deamon literally calling his wife bronze bitch and killing his wife is still some love struck puppy but Criston with tears in his eyes asks Rhaenyra to marry him because he's guilty of losing his purity suddenly becomes epitome of toxic masculinity. Double standards at it's best 👏👏👏👏👏👏.

[kashti15]

First of all, what was the meaning of Criston killing Joffrey at the wedding? Plain bad writing..... They could have stuck to the original death of Joffrey in Book. Because it doesn't make sence for a king's guard to kill a Nobel man at the wedding soooo brutally and have no consequences whatsoever 🤷‍♀️.

And I don't know if it was to make Criston look as homophobic or something but they could have shown it different way. Even if he was a homophobic, he can't just kill Joffrey openly like that.

this whole Criston being homophobic doesn't add anything to the story at all. I mean how much difference it makes to the story if he's a homophobic. And if there was some other reason for him to kill Joffrey, they should have specified it.

I guess that scene was just there for shock value because something has to happen in a wedding. Lol 😂.

[kashti15]

Just want to see Alicent and Criston to be a badass duo🤟🤟🤟

[mejcinta]

So many soap opera takes on this site so I'm going to bless some intellectual viewers with understanding the political issue Alicent faces in the wake of Rhaenyra's actions.

Alicent Hightower isn't being merely 'petty'. Her friend, and quite frankly the only best thing in her life since her deceased mother, has LIED to her. Lies that amount to criminal charges, disinheriting, exile from the realm and even execution!

After her actions in the brothel and her triste with Ser Criston, by laws, Rhaenyra has committed acts that put her succession at great risk and question. It's why Alicent questioned her and offered to help her. It was a true act of friendliness.

However, Rhaenyra was willing to throw another House under the bus to cover her own arse; to hide the fact that she let her uncle ruin her reputation.

We can all agree Otto Hightower is a conniving and selfish weasel but for once he was right about something: Rhaenyra, having already stripped him of his position and honour to cover her lies wouldn't be opposed to taking Alicent's children out of the equation if it suited her. She'd already made a big political move by having Viserys fire Otto. And even if Rhaenyra wasn't capable of imagining harming Alicent's children for her political gain, Daemon certainly could go through with it; just as he was shown taking Rhea out of the equation for his own ends!!! The show highlights two murders for a reason, you know. To show us the lengths people will go to, to secure their ambitions or protect their reputations!!

So, no. Alicent Hightower strutting down that aisle in her House colours isn't an act of 'pettiness'. It's a cry for help; a signal to her only defenders (her family) that she can't trust anybody in her own home, much less her sickly husband Viserys who has his own biases. She feels exposed and vulnerable.

Alicent is seeking help to first and foremost protect her children from what she perceives as impending harm, because she knows Viserys won't protect her; and sadly not even her friend Rhaenyra.

For too long her kindness, naivety and nonchalance has made her vulnerable. Now, no longer.

[sansacule]

I need this so much 🙏🏼

[kashti15]

I just wanted Criston and alicent to be the strongest fucking allies

[kashti15]

So now people are like Criston started blaming Rhaenyra for all his problems and didn't blame himself. Come on that guy asked for death. When he confessed to alicent he was definitely blaming himself too. Of course he said truth about Rhaenyra's part also. He went to do suiside. How much more should he blame himself? And what about Rhaenyra who kept blaming every other person but her own lack of diplomacy. How unfair this fandom can be to justify Rhaenyra. Every other person that oppose Rhaenyra is bad. Daemon who used to disrespect his wife like hell and later killed her is also good but Criston is bad just for friction of second if he blamed Rhaenyra 👏👏👏

[wandering-scavenger]

It's easy enough to reduce Criston Cole's Episode 5 behaviour to being in love with Rhaenyra, but the truth of the matter is that his reaction doesn't revolve around her so much as it revolves around his struggle with honor and purpose.

As he said back in episode 3, Kingsguard is the highest honor that his house has ever had. What he and Rhaenyra initially had was very much reminiscent of the courtly love that was dominant in Arthurian legend, the concept that a knight and lady could have affections for one another while respecting the boundaries of their stations and maintaining a sense of "purity".

It's already been discussed that the episode 4 conflict of to-sleep-with-rhaenyra-or-not-to was not 100% consensual because Criston was in a position of subservience to Rhaenyra and it was very much a "damned if you do, damned if you dont" situation. He risks death either way and ends up breaking his vows to appease her. Of course, it is apparent enough that he harbored feelings for her. But two things can be true at the same time.

We open to episode 5, where Criston proposes that they run away and marry one another, already without his armour and showing his vulnerability to her. When Rhaenyra rejects, he tells her that he broke his vows as Kingsguard and thought that marrying her would relieve him of his guilt. Guilt over what? Breaking his vows, of course. When she suggests that they continue on as lovers while she married Laenor, he reduces it to being her "whore".

In Criston's eyes, the only way he can properly make up for his sin of breaking his Kingsguard vows is by swearing the vows between two people in matrimony, another lifelong commitment. If it was simply about love in his eyes, he might have said "lover/paramour" but he specifically says "whore", someone who trades their body for coin.

Having his proposal be rejected by Rhaenyra was not simply the loss of a romantic future he thought they could have, it was the loss of his chance to redeem himself and regain the honor he lost by sleeping with the woman who gave him his job and whom he was sworn to protect.

It's why he loses all control over himself when Joffrey tries to build a rapport with him and insinuates that they are on the same boat. Criston does not want to be Joffrey's equivalent, a "whore" for their King/Queen to enjoy. To him, there is no honor in that. But the reality of it is staring him so plainly in the face during the feast that he needs to eliminate that reminder by attacking and killing poor Joffrey.

That inability to live with the reality of his situation is further emphasized when he finally tries to kill himself. He's more than a scorned man, he's a man who's lost his purpose and blames himself for it (as seen when he admits to Alicent that he slept with Rhaenyra and accepts the fate of death).

When Alicent stops him from doing the deed, what she is essentially doing is giving him a chance to regain his honour and a new sense of purpose: serving her and her children. It is possible that they will have the courtly love that is more true to Arthurian legend, Criston having such a deep devotion to his Queen and his role as her guard that he pushes the chess pieces to further the Greens' cause. Whether or not there will be a semblance of romance between them in the time jump, there will no doubt be the devotion that renders him one of Alicent's staunchest allies.

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Two things I don’t get:

1) How the fandom can watch the very “I so do not wanna be here” sex scene between a boss and her direct subordinate who owes her for pretty much everything, and interpret this reaction as that of a possessive douche too stupid to realize the awesome deal he’s getting, not of a desperate man breaking down because he was made to throw away the most valued aspect of himself for shitz and lulz to please a person who doesn’t give a single fuck about him or his needs, you guys would have no issue seeing how punchworthy Rhaenyra is being here if the genders were switched, and

2) How the show made me sympathize with and root for a character I utterly loathe in the books and sorta understand where the greens are coming from beyond rabid misogyny and hunger for power, fine I’ll fucking watch, gah

[duncan-rohanne]

My oath has been broken. I have dishonored myself. I deserve no consideration. But if as a clement Queen, you are inclined to pity, I would ask only this… that rather than gelding me and having me tortured, you would sentence me mercifully to death. Thank you for your honesty, Ser Criston. You may go.

[goldcrescent]

Jokes aside I feel like people are missing the point that continually choosing more power over everything else is detrimental to both the characters and everyone else across the board

Viserys wants no conflict and sweet docile wife? He could have played nice and stayed with Aemma, instead gets impatient for a son and kills her then pisses everyone off by taking a newer more docile wife who he also treats like shit & now theres a civil war brewing

Daemon wants his brother’s love and a strong outspoken wife? He could have applied himself and teamed up with her to accomplish great things, instead goes out of his way to piss off his brother and uses shortcuts to get everything, kills his wife and tries to steal her titles so he can go for the more agreeable heir he’s already groomed

Rhaenyra spent the entire series resenting that she has to marry and wanting to run away to fly and eat sweets forever? Criston literally offers to sail her away to eat sweets forever and she stays and marries to secure her power over people she doesn’t even care about. She doesn’t care about a woman’s claim otherwise she’d give hers up to Rhaenys, she cares about her own claim

Otto, Rhaenys, and Corlys are already stupidly rich and powerful but throw their kids to the wolves for a chance at the throne. Alicent is about to do the same.

Its not about who’s the rightful what, the point is they could all say “I have enough” and walk away but nothing will ever be enough and they’d all rather burn the kingdom down than let someone else have it. That throne isn’t going to cut x or y bc they’re worthy or unworthy, it’s going to cut anyone that tries to sit on it to ribbons bc its made of dead men’s swords. They’re trying sit on the symbolic pile of corpses, they’re all unworthy

[kashti15]

So Rhaenyra can expect to get the throne being a woman when no woman in the history got it and seems quite impossible but Criston can't expect to marry a prinsess being a lowborn. How can he think of himself as worthy? Why so much bias is there?

(I have literally seen people saying how can Criston even think of marrying a princess being a lowborn)

[sansacule]

Criston is RELIGIOUS and pious and that drives his character. He didn't want to sleep with Rhaenyrs because it would violate his vows and beliefs. He wanted to marry her to make himself believe that what they had was real and romantic and when she rejected him it made him realize that he debased his white cloak for nothing. He confessed to Alicent because his actions weighed on his conscience.

And now he sees Alicent as a religious figure because she saved him -both his life and conscience by offering him a second chance. To him she is the Mother offering him mercy.

[kashti15]

Ok so I actually don't understand the way people are blaming only Criston Cole and giving Rhaenyra the clean cheat. First of all, Rhaenyra used to behave with him as if she has crush on him for years, then she slept with him without telling him that it is just because she was horney and didn't have any feeling for him. I mean yeah he broke his oath by his own choice but if somebody's breaking their oath, putting their life in danger, he must be having feelings for you. he didn't seem like a guy who would take such risk for just pleasure. he atleast have right to know what Rhaenyra actually feels for him. Now, of course marriage is an exaggeration. He should have first confess his feelings instead of directly propose her for marrage. He's definitely wrong here but the way Rhaenyra rejected him was rude.

Was Criston stupid? Yes.

Was he wrong in proposing Rhaenyra for marriage? Yes.

Was Rhaenyra wrong in not clarifying her feelings before sleeping with Criston? Also yes.

See this is not an excuse for Criston's actions in future. But it is true as well that Rhaenyra just used him and threw. And she is not immune to critisism.

[goldcrescent]

oh so when daemon commits crimes against humanity its funny but when criston beats a guy to death at a wedding for no reason and immediately runs away to commit suicide at an icon of a religion he’s not even a part of bc something’s wrong with him and he’s a little bit stupid everyone’s mad? hot girls can’t do anything around here 😒

[hotcupofdragons]

I took an oath. As a knight of your Kingsguard. An oath of chastity. I’ve broken it. I’ve soiled my white cloak. And it is the only thing I have to my fucking name! I thought if we were married I might be able to restore it.

The Iron Throne looms larger than me, larger than anyone in my family…

CRISTON COLE and RHAENYRA TARGARYEN in HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S01E05 | “We Light the Way”

[i-am-mldy]

That rejection was BRUTAL. Just goes to show how far removed the Targaryens are. Royalty and commoners are just fundamentally different and Rhaenyra was ignorant to the power imbalance, despite being a woman, of their relationship. He gave up an integral part of himself, thinking she would do the same. He wants and stands for all the things you cannot find with Targaryens. They were both naive