Overanalyzing House of the Dragon, Part 30: Cole as "The Kingmaker" 

That's not exactly how I read it. IMO it's there to further characterize Helaena as severely mentally impaired and clueless about the important events happening around her. That line could work well as a sour, sarcastic joke about her husband cheating on her from a witty character, but given everything else we know about Helaena, what she said implies she truly thinks they're looking for Aegon because they're playing hide and seek and he might really be hiding from them under her blankets.

what going over the entire ASOIAF series line by line does to you

@@xeroprotagonistI was gonna mock this as being over-analysis but it is an interesting interpretation of the line. I do think she was joking though - we’re told Jaehaera was perceived as mentally impaired, we’d probably be told if Helaena also was

I would have been murdered

😂

This is certainly true. But I think the suggestion that he's hiding under the covers is also a nod towards the idea that Aemon is immature, which is also presumably the reason that his younger brother has been informed of the impending coup while he hasn't.

I agree with you. Comes across as just some dry sarcasm to me like looking beneath the sheets would be just as much as a waste of time as even bothering her about his whereabouts. As in even an idiot would know the last place you would find Aegon is his wife’s bed.

Yeah, I think she was obviously just making a joke/being sarcastic. Like he’s clearly not there but if you don’t take my word for it feel free to intently search an empty bed.

Pretty much the same as "want me to check my pocket?" When asked where someone is. Seems like simple sarcasm to me.

😅 i think it's more of an insinuation that he was raised under laenor's shadow as a child so he'd emulate similar traits// would be a “debaucherer” after witnessing “debauchery” his whole life

Lord BEEEESSSSSBURRRYYY

Fortunately the official history is wrong, and he actually escaped to safety through a Secret Tunnel

​ @@trenchardjj He was guided by Larys' rats.

We smoking beesbury the traitor

He was a real one

Omg yes I totally forgot about that it’s just that his hatred for Queen Rhaenyra was so much it clouded his mind

The White Hart appeared to Rhaenyra. But, I guess you could argue that Criston Cole's hatred of Rhaenyra has clouded his mind.

The show had such a clear setup for Criston’s character arc in that episode. He tells Rhaenyra that people won’t have a choice but to accept her, so I thought that was a clear foreshadowing for it being his choice that drives the kingdom to civil war, that his actions are such a key part of Aegon’s coronation that this moment will be looked on with irony given he chooses to prevent her from being Queen, I thought he would convince the unsure members of the Green Council with a speech - and kill Beesbury for not budging - and personally convince Aegon he needs to be King, which is why Aegon would later make him Hand because he trusts him. But no, Criston has no role in that episode and accidents Beesbury to death instead, so why he was the one to crown Aegon actually makes no sense given he had no role in symbolically crowning him. Just such a waste of potential as now Criston has no point or purpose in the story, that robbed him of any weight he has and now he’s just there until he dies.

​@@Longshanks1690 I don't think he has no point in the story, he's a perfect example of failing upwards

@@johnny_thunder_1815 This was written before the season and I kind of retract this since they’ve done a good job establishing why Criston was made Hand and giving him a purpose on the council. I still stand by removing his choice making during E9 was dumb as hell though, and it’d make even more sense why Aegon chose Criston if he trusted him even more.

It's also incredibly ironic because, whether he knew it or not, he was technically also wearing mourning colors. Nobody in the room was wearing black despite the monarch being dead, save the one guy who wanted to fulfill his wish to put his firstborn child on the throne.

@@manband20 absolutely I didn’t notice that this show has so many Easter eggs and subtle nods to what’s going to happen next

But "Targaryen colors" is in no way support of either the blacks or the greens. Both are Targaryens, that's the entire point, it's a Targaryen civil war.

@@frankvandorp2059 yes however the Hightower Targaryen’s wear green not the traditional black and red cause Alicent declared war way back in episode 5 so everyone who supports her wears green on that council pretty much

@@justcallmeD90 I know, but Targaryen colors are red and black. So the qustion here is whether Beesbury just wore black to support the blacks, or black and red just as general support for the crown and House Targaryen (and up until a few hours before, that just meant loyalty to Viserys).

Thief! Bandit!

Ser Wendigoon

The chapter is from Arys' perspective, not Arianne, and he's a Kingsguard. He's going to know Cole's history better than most considering they specifically have a White Book with Cole's biography in it. Not to mention, Arianne and Oakheart seem to be in agreement on who he was.

@@PrestonJacobstheSweetrobin you’re right; I mix those two up whenever I think back to their chapters. Anyways, I don’t get the sense that Oakheart and Arianne’s understanding of history really goes beyond a pop understanding of the subject. Yeah, they have access to more resources than the average small folk, but they’re not historians. Thats not to mention that the white books aren’t exactly detailed biographies either; they’re chronicles of achievements for kingsguard. Jaime’s page doesn’t include a nuanced explanation of why he killed Aerys- only that he did it, and that now he’s called kingslayer. Cole’s probably has an equally quick description going “convinced his grace Aegon Targaryen, Second of his name, to take up arms and defend the rights of him and his brothers against the Princess Rhaenyra. Thereafter known as the kingmaker.” And I would just stress again that we’re dealing with people living centuries after these events have happened. Stories change, are embellished, and retold over and over again. I totally get your reading but I think keeping ideas like this in mind are really important. I’m actually studying to be a historian right now, and I had to spend a lot of time on my final paper last semester analyzing sources and the ways historians select narratives to be carried on while diminishing other perspectives. A lot, and I mean a LOT of our understanding of past history is based on maybe one or two historians’ perspectives being uncritically repeated by centuries of subsequent academics. That consensus can easily filter down to the public so that by the time scholars begin to reexamine the facts with more information later, the narrative becomes so baked into the popular understanding that it’s treated as established fact by most people. The people of Westeros have had centuries to tell and retell the story of the dance, and as Fire and Blood makes painfully clear, the people actually writing history don’t really interrogate the biases of their sources or critically engage with the writing on a deeper level. Whether Gyldane wants to admit it or not, his perspective is colored by centuries of narrative and bias, to the point where when he sees a historical figure like Criston Cole do basically *nothing* in the sources he still decides to repeat this guy’s cool nickname regardless. Anyways, sorry for the essay. This could all just be because GRRM changed his mind or whatever lmao

So bad that it never even made it to the TV adaption haha

George was a TV writer for quite a while. Probably his most famous work until Ice and Fire.

Actually, blood oaths made by cutting the palm were so prevalent at one time in Eastern Rome/Byzantium that they made an entire church canon or rule forbidding it. You are correct that cutting the palm isn't always safe but it was done so often that it had to be banned.

Aerys has never read the White Book?

@@PrestonJacobstheSweetrobin i guess we can assume Aery's has. But does fire and blood use the white book as a source? Even then we see in the real world these a disconnect between what a lot of people think of historical figures and the more complicated reality. Don't get me wrong it probably is a retcon, i just wonder if these still like possible other explanations.

Because the primary sources are available, I suppose

Someone got here quicker and already said that and publicly called you out 😕

He's here literally every Sunday at like 9 PM Eastern time doing livestreams 😢

Allegedly!!

According to Mushroom... who supported Rhaenyra.

The show doesn't seem to be able to judge the legitimacy of rumours very well..