Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon Season 1 was an emotional roller-coaster. Friendships were broken, tough choices were made, and a few key characters died. Author George R. R. Martin already foreshadowed how morally ambiguous the characters of House of The Dragon would be, and it seems the rising tension has all but riled up yet again. Ser Criston Cole, played by Fabien Frankel, lost his temper and did some things that completely changed his character in the latter episodes. However, there was an important scene that was lost to the cuts which showed why Cole felt so betrayed by Rhaenyra.
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In the book House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty, EW’s exclusive book written by Gina McIntyre, Ryan Condal shed some light on the deleted scene, “Choosing your Kingsguard, your bodyguard, is very important, but it’s indicative of this time period — where they haven’t seen a war in over half a century — that Viserys just fobs off this really important choice to his daughter to try to give her something to do to make her feel like she has weight and significance.”
“It’s a story of small choices that lead to big things. She picks Criston Cole, who later becomes the reason she nearly gets disinherited, and becomes one of her worst enemies.”
“We were like, ‘What if we make it like a secret society? It’s done under the cover of night,’” said Episode 2 director Greg Yaitanes. “It’s almost like he’s joining a secret order, is how we approached it.”
“We got a more emotional scene than we would have if we would have spent more time shooting this other version. It’s a father-daughter bonding moment where Viserys and Rhaenyra are engaged in an activity together, and it’s a beautiful scene for Cole.”
Condal said the scene was cut because “it felt tonally wrong to include a ‘win’ for Rhaenyra before Dragonstone.”
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