Dare I say that I’m actually enjoying Criston Cole on this season House of the Dragon? Director Geeta Patel is determined that we find him relatable, and teases some big things to come.

Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is easily the most hated character on House of the Dragon, and it’s not hard to see why. Remember when Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) rejected his romantic overtures in season 1 and he got so mad that he beat an innocent man to death at her wedding and somehow got away with it? Or how it’s been almost two decades since then and he’s still obsessively hating the woman? Incels are insufferable in our world and in Westeros both.

But Criston has been making some big moves lately; he’s now both Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and Hand of the King to Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), and he’s leading an army round the Crownlands trying to flip noble houses loyal to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Also he’s having an affair with the recently widowed Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), who is also King Aegon’s mother. I gotta say: I’ve been enjoying Criston more this season, if for no other reason than he’s moving the plot along. It’s still hard to know just what’s going on inside that thick head of his, though.

Director Geeta Patel is determined to find out. She directed the most recent episode of the show, “The Burning Mill,” and tried to show us Criston’s more vulnerable side. “I hated him in the first season,” Patel told Variety. “I felt everything that we were supposed to feel. The challenge as a director for Episode 3…was to actually humanize him. The opening scene is him having a moment of anxiety, of being lost and then being called to action. It’s his first day of being the king’s hand, and I’m hoping that moment is very relatable. We’ve all felt it where you feel impostor syndrome, and that you don’t really belong here.”

“With Criston Cole, I really wanted to insert point of view. Watching him and having a moment of anxiety and walking with him downstairs, passing the men with a continuous shot going into the council chamber, that was intentionally designed so that we would feel him for once. We would be in his space, rather than everyone else watching him. A lot of times the lack of liking someone comes from not being in their point of view. When we’re in that space, we see everything happening at that table. That was one technique to start bringing his dimension out and start building to what’s going to happen in the season finale, where I think you are going to really understand him.”

I think that did kinda work for me! Criston does lots of objectionable stuff, but I too would be annoyed if I was in charge of the Kingsguard and the king appointed his lazy drinking buddies as my charges and they were slacking on the job. I also think pairing Criston with new character Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), who’s something of a smug prick, helped me sympathize with him. Patel may have the right idea here.

House of the Dragon director reveals Criston Cole survives at least until [SPOILER]

If Patel has her way, this humanization of Criston Cole will continue. She also directed the eighth episode of this season, which happens to be the season finale. Apparently Criston Cole has a speech that will change the way we see him:

“He’s a very interesting character by the time you get to the season finale. There’s a lot of things that we will relate to and we will be embarrassed to relate to. What he shares with us in Episode 8 is pretty awesome — we all have a bit of Criston Cole in us. That’s what we’re building. There’s this vulnerability in Episode 3, and then it keeps building from there and by the time you get to Episode 8, he has this beautiful moment where he shares what he thinks about the world and what he thinks about war.”

I’m so intrigued by this; what could Criston Cole, Westeros’ incel in chief, possibly say that would qualify as a beautiful moment? Color me interested.

Also, this basically confirms that Criston Cole will survive at least through to the season 2 finale of House of the Dragon, which may disappoint some of his more ardent haters. However you feel about Criston, people definitely shouldn’t be confusing hatred of the character for hatred of actor Fabien Frankel, who has received some blowback online: