In the final moments of Ser Criston Cole’s life in House of the Dragon, one figure looms larger than any battlefield or sworn duty: Alicent Hightower. Actor Fabien Frankel has now opened up about why that choice felt not only natural, but inevitable.
Reflecting on his character’s death in an interview with The New York Times, Frankel shared a deeply personal insight into Criston’s emotional landscape.
“I’ve been in love a small handful of times, and it’s very hard to think about anything else. The people you think about when the end is near are the people you love. He doesn’t have a father, a mother, siblings, a wife, children. What has this man loved? Alicent is the only true thing he’s loved. It doesn’t feel surprising to me that she’s so prevalent in his final moments.”
Criston Cole morreu com o lenço que a Alicent deu pra ele na 2ª temporada.#HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/vlRzsxUBqq
— House the Dragons (@housethedragons) July 27, 2026
A life defined by one love
Criston Cole’s story has always been shaped by intense, often destructive devotion. He rose from a relatively humble background to become one of the most powerful knights in the realm, yet he remained emotionally isolated. With no family of his own and relationships marked more by duty or bitterness than genuine connection, Alicent became the singular constant in his life after she saved his life twice.
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Frankel’s comments suggest just how central that bond was. In Criston’s eyes, Alicent was not simply a queen or a political ally, she was the only person he had ever truly loved. That reality makes her presence in his final thoughts feel less like a dramatic choice and more like an honest reflection of the man he had become.
Love as the last anchor
By framing Criston’s dying moments around Alicent, the series gives the character a quiet, human resolution amid the chaos of war. Frankel’s perspective suggests that, for all of Criston’s violence, ambition, and moral compromises, his heart remained fixed on one person. When everything else fell away: honour, status, the war itself, that love was all that remained.
The actor’s willingness to draw from his own experiences of love adds authenticity to the performance. It also deepens the tragedy of Criston’s arc: A man who spent his life fighting for power and principle, only to realize at the end that the one thing that ever truly mattered was the woman he could never fully have.
