There is simply nothing better than when a person you despise makes a glaring mistake. Something small enough that it registers only with people who wish them ill (you), but also obvious enough to point to and say, “Yes, I’ve been right all along—they really are insufferable.” Maybe they made an off-color joke in a meeting, or posted a sappy anonymous quote on their Instagram stories, or committed the type of fashion faux pas that you’ve been avoiding for months because you are a maven of culture and wide-legged jeans.
Taking joy in another person’s downfall is a sick little display of schadenfreude, sure. Except maybe it’s not sick? Maybe this guy just really sucks that much . Maybe if this guy starred in an early-aughts sitcom, it would be called Everybody Hates Criston , and that title would be incredibly literal.
All of this is to say, House of the Dragon ’s Ser Criston Cole seems to have been written onto this earth specifically to annoy me. When he showed up in the show’s Season 2 preview with a dumb new haircut , I knew that anticipating the moment he arrived on-screen with a Westerosi Caesar hairstyle would be enough to get me through all of Season 2, maybe even the rest of 2024. Because of course he thinks he needs a fancy new haircut to go to war.
Of course he does. He hasn’t found any other way to be good at his job! Related Yet the root of my—and most of the viewing public’s —hatred of Ser Criston isn’t founded in the Haircut That’s B.
