House of the Dragon just pulled an Arya Stark on Criston Cole — and book fans saw it coming

If you saw House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 6 and thought, "Hang on, haven’t I seen this trick before?", you’re not alone. The show just delivered its very own 'Arya takes out the Night King' moment, this time swapping ice zombies for the Riverlands mud and making poor old Ser Criston Cole the unfortunate target.

House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 6 puts Alysanne Blackwood centre stage as Criston Cole meets his end — but not quite as George R.R. Martin wrote it.

Cole Gets His Comeuppance

It’s taken four years, but the show finally answers the one question fans have been shouting since Season 1: "When will Criston Cole get his?" Anyone who loves the source material (Martin’s ‘Fire & Blood’ if you’re catching up) knows Cole’s downfall is one of the best, messiest boots-on-the-ground episodes the war has to offer. No Targaryen drama, no dragons on the horizon — just men slogging through the Riverlands and the ugliness of real combat strategy.

Here’s where HBO throws in a twist. In the books, Cole dies thanks to an arrow courtesy of one Red Robb Rivers — but Rivers never gets cast, never even shows up in the show. Instead, we’ve been getting a slow introduction to Alysanne 'Black Aly' Blackwood, a fierce warrior figure among the Riverlands and Northern hosts.

The rivalry between the Blackwoods and the Brackens has already given us plenty of bloodshed, with Daemon getting the Blackwoods on side in Season 2 and then promptly bumping off Willem Blackwood when Oscar Tully calls for retribution. The upshot is, Black Aly’s position in the Dance is solid — she’s no passing guest character — but she’s not, by the letter of the book, supposed to kill Cole. That didn’t stop some from clocking where the show might be headed as soon as Annie Shapero was cast for the part. Why? In the books, Aly misses out on her signature bow-and-arrow revenge moment (cut from the script), and the writers clearly needed a hand for Cole’s death… so, two plus two. It also meant one of the show’s biggest kills landed on a character the TV audience barely knows yet, which is always a gamble, but perhaps one with its logic.

The Scene Itself

Cole’s end hits early in the episode, almost catching you off guard if you hadn’t braced for it in the previous rounds of forest skirmishes. It’s true to the brutal tone of the books: Cole, battered, realises he’s surrounded, tries once to set terms for surrender or maybe a last stand, and gets a shaft in the chest for his trouble. No dragon spectacle, just the suddenness of war at its most unforgiving. And, much like Arya’s Night King moment, it’s both satisfying in its execution and just a little bit random — you get why it works, but wonder if it’d have landed harder with a few more scenes establishing Aly’s grit and grievances.

Why Aly Blackwood Matters Going Forward

If you’re thinking, 'Was that it for Black Aly?' — absolutely not. She’s actually a major player in the aftermath. Alysanne eventually marries Cregan Stark, the very same Stark we met in Season 2, Episode 1. For those keeping track on the family tree (always a fool’s errand with this franchise, but here we are), that makes her Ned Stark’s great-great-great-great-grandfather’s second wife. Arya and the lot aren’t technically descended from her, since she and Cregan only have daughters, but there’s Blackwood blood in the north from later generations regardless.

In her own right, Aly leads three hundred archers at the Battle of the Kingsroad — a key moment at the climax of the war. She’s still got plenty to do as the series continues, assuming the writers flesh her out a bit more than they have so far.

• Criston Cole dies in the Riverlands at the hands of Alysanne Blackwood in the show, not Red Robb Rivers as in the books
• Alysanne (Black Aly) Blackwood is the defacto leader of Riverlands archers and future wife to Cregan Stark
• Game of Thrones' Arya Stark descends from the Starks, who eventually bear Blackwood blood