In the latest episode of House of the Dragon, several people lost their lives. The main culprit is a character that many fans can’t stand anyway. Spoilers ahoy
House of the Dragon, like Game of Thrones and Takeshi’s Castle before it, has a habit of regularly eliminating people. This sometimes affects completely innocent people, as in the opening episode of season 2, and sometimes people hired to fight – which can also be tragic, depending on the situation.
After the episode Rhaenyra the Cruel (2×02), no one will be crying blood and cheese for the child killers who died this week. But a double-death drama, brought about completely unnecessarily by an already hated character, caused great emotion among fans.
House of the Dragon hate figure Kriston Kraut sends subordinates on a suicide mission
A prince from Team Black was (accidentally?) killed by an enemy dragon; a prince from Team Green was killed by two assassins, although the exact wording of the mission is not entirely clear. Goldrock general and royal “friend with benefits” Kriston Kraut (Fabien Frankel) now believes he can end the conflict with a single assassination mission … and orders Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) to impersonate his twin brother Ser Erryk (Elliott Tittensor) on Dragonstone to assassinate Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).
(House of the Dragon)
Arryk reluctantly agrees, but the mission ends just as tragically as he had imagined: it comes to a duel against his twin, in which it is easy for viewers to lose track of who is who. In the end, Erryk from Team Black manages to protect his queen and kill his brother. But it’s all too much for the honorable knight, who begs his ruler for forgiveness before falling on his own sword. Thanks, Criston!
HotD fans let social media posts and memes do the talking: Hate for Ser Kraut boils over
Many fans have long had Ser Kraut in their sights as a hate figure. Whether it’s because of his disgusting double standards, certain hate crimes in season 1, or simply because he’s a dull gold rock bro who only became far more influential than he deserved to be due to the favor of Alicent Hohenturm (Olivia Cooke). To make matters worse, he’s now promoted to be the new Hand of the King because the young king would rather have a devoted yes-man at his side than the counter-punching Otto Hohenturm (Rhys Ifans).
(House of the Dragon)
The internet was not happy about these developments. One fan wrote on X (once Twitter) : “That the Arryk and Erryk scene ends with a suicide because he couldn’t stand how this pointless ‘war’ put him in a position where he had to kill his own brother … Oh god, I want to puke, it’s so brilliant and sad, I can’t stop thinking about it.”
At the same time, a meme did the rounds with the phrase “Me every time I see Criston Cole on screen” plus a picture or video of annoyed people. Here are a few delicious examples from the anti-kraut faction:
Me every time i see Ser Criston Cole on screen HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/1fTM6gd7QI
– Gabe (@GabeCama) September 26, 2022
Me every time I see Criston Cole on screen HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/P1e8df6QQZ
– Jon Snow (@LordSnow) June 24, 2024
every time criston cole is on my screen HOTD HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/50xOaRMiep
– kathleen (@kathleen_hanley) June 24, 2024
Me every time I see Criston Cole on screen
HouseOfTheDragon HOTD pic.twitter.com/PbjK7SZaF6
– Free Folk Memes (@FreeFolkMemes) June 24, 2024
