#(as i mentioned show criston is giving major dornish jaime vibes and i stand by that)

[navree]

https://at.tumblr.com/navree/does-aegon-ii-wants-to-be-king-in-the-book/vuh0fivit443

I really love your insight on Book!Aegon and he is really the most interesting and compelling green to me in the book. It's kinda sad how they turned him in the show, they wanted to humanization him at first but then they decided to ruin it all by what they did in ep8&9 . I really wanted his line "what kind of a brother...." to be in the show. Also what do you think about Criston in the book? I get the impression that he is very ambitious and had really close relationship with Egg otherwise he won't be able to convince him to take the iron throne

Thank you so much for the compliment!

I actually like a fair bit of what they've done with Aegon in the show, like his ten million different issues, I just wish they kept the Mushroom to a minimum so we'd get less weird and unnecessary shit. But I would have also liked to see some more of the book characterization (well, "characterization" we don't know whether any of this is factual or not) and I would have liked to see some more of how he was convinced to accept the crown when he was already willing to let it go to Rhaenyra, especially when in the show he's got some level of genre awareness and is terrified of what the Iron Throne is going to do to him, as well as that eventual conversation about how he needs to do it for his family. Given that we've seen Aegon being really to put it all on the line for his family in the show, the way he was willing to take the heat on Driftmark for Aemond and Alicent's sakes, it would have been some good character moment too.

Criston's a bit of a hard read in the book, since the book is mainly focused on the Targaryen histories and as such, non-Targaryens, even heavily featured ones like Criston Cole or Alys Rivers or Torrhen Stark or any of the Conquest-era Martells don't get a lot of characterization. Which I think is understandable, if I'm a fifteenth century historian writing about, like, the York Plantagenets, I'm not going to devote significant time to also telling you about the personality of Eleanor Butler or even the Duke of Buckingham, not in any significant ways. Criston's story in the book is also incredibly different than in the show; for instance, he's already been the Lord Commander for nearly ten years when Viserys dies, whereas Harrold Westerling was still alive and kicking in the show and only retired out of disgust, rather than just dying of old age. There's also the fact that a lot of time stuff was flipped around to accommodate changed ages and whatnot, along with just Criston having been given a lot more character to work with; things like his Dornish hereitage, his commoner's backstory, his religious leanings, those are all show originals, none of that is mentioned in the book.

Criston doesn't seem to have been personally ambitious, not in any way that would have been remarked upon, but determined to advance the cause of the Greens and ambitious for them. Like in the show, Criston has a falling out with Rhaenyra (the circumstances in the book are murky) and then later becomes Alicent's sworn shield after the death of Joffrey Lonmouth, though in the book he's probably more profoundly grateful to her and tied to her because the death was actually an accident, and Alicent was the only one who seemed to point out that this is the risk people take when they enter tourneys and that Criston shouldn't be punished just for having won and just because Joffrey decided to ignore that risk. He's a much more personally loyal man to Alicent than his show counterpart, which is saying something because show!Criston is like.......extremely loyal to Alicent, I watched episode 9. He also seems to have filled a mentor type of role to her kids, though less overtly fatherly than in the show, given that Viserys was something of a present father in the book (leagues more than he was in the show) and just the fact that he just became attached to Alicent later in their lives than he did. But he was still close to them, the book makes a note of the special attention he paid to Aemond and how he helped him become a swordsman after he lost his eye, even before he was Lord Commander, and as you said, he was able to both figure out where Aegon was after Viserys died and lighted on the right way to convince him to take the crown. It does speak to at least knowing what kind of person Aegon was and what he valued enough to go against his initial ideals. Aegon also names Criston his hand, and Criston is trusted enough to be a major battle leader and also spend significant time with Aemond during his regency.

Criston in the book comes off as less of an intrinsically nice person and less good intentioned and proto-Jaime than he does in the show (I've discussed what I think of show Criston as a show character here); he seems snider and more motivated by spite and just wanting to win against people he dislikes than anything else, but there's still a nobility in him and a goodness in how he treats his fellow man (not just his apparent affection for Alicent's children even in the book, but also surrounding the circumstances of his death and how it happened, which I talked about here). Ultimately, I agree with Jaime that Criston Cole embodied the best and the worst of the Kingsguard: steadfast and loyal and uncompromising in the face of duty, unquestioning in the orders given and unflinching and determined in his role as protector and guardian and fighter; but also capable of subsuming his entire identity to those he serves even at the potential destruction of the realm, vicious not just on the battlefield but off of it (given the personal dimension to his issues with Rhaenyra influencing his role in crowning Aegon), and how ultimately his duty as Alicent's shield and supporting her put him on the path to being the Kingmaker and using positions intrinsic to the Kinsguard, like the Lord Commander being on the Small Council, to influence events and politics when he shouldn't have done so. Very different from his show character, but I don't think less interesting or less worthy of interest and further analysis.