love your take on gwayne, cole and gwaynston- do you have any headcanons about them? (showverse, bookverse anything goes)
I honestly never expected anyone to be interested in this...!
I'm usually a little embarrassed to talk about my interpretations of these characters because, at the end of the day, they're mostly just my own headcanons. A lot of these ideas gradually came together while I was commissioning art—artists often ask about a character's personality or backstory before they start drawing, so I ended up piecing everything together by combining details from both Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon.
When it comes to Gwaynston, my interpretation of Criston is almost entirely based on the show. I also treat book Criston and show Criston as two completely different people. Show Criston is the one I ship with Gwayne; book Criston, on the other hand, makes much more sense to me alongside Rhaenyra.
This is the character profile I wrote for Gwayne. I loosely modeled the formatting after the A Song of Ice and Fire Wiki, organizing it into family background, appearance, personality, and biography.
Ser Gwayne of House Hightower
89 AC – 130 AC
Ser Gwayne Hightower was born in Oldtown, the ancient and prosperous heart of the Reach, into the illustrious House Hightower—a family renowned for its scholarship, caution, and political influence. He is the son of Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King; the younger brother of Queen Alicent Hightower; and the uncle of King Aegon II Targaryen.
House Hightower possesses a Valyrian steel sword known as Vigilance, passed down through the main line for generations. Gwayne has never been considered a likely heir to it. Otto himself was a second son, and Gwayne, being the son of that second son, stands even further removed from the line of inheritance.
Like most knights of the Reach, Gwayne possesses a lean yet athletic build. Unlike his father and elder sister, who both have brown hair and honey-colored eyes, he inherited his mother Alerie Florent's auburn hair and cool mint-green eyes tinged with blue.
Like his beautiful and graceful sister Alicent, Gwayne was renowned for his good looks. Even by the outbreak of the civil war later known as the Dance of the Dragons, when he was already well into middle age, contemporaries still described him as beautiful. The knight rode a strong and handsome black horse, yet he almost never cared for it himself, leaving it instead to his squires or stableboys; perhaps, rather than gold, it was time he lacked.
Gwayne places great importance on both his family and the honor of House Hightower.
For reasons few around him can fully explain, he is particularly devoted to his youngest nephew, Prince Daeron Targaryen. Although Daeron officially serves as the squire of Gwayne's cousin, Lord Ormund Hightower, Gwayne takes such an active interest in the boy's upbringing that one might easily mistake him for Daeron's knight and mentor.
In temperament, however, Ser Gwayne bears little resemblance to the courteous and unassuming young prince.
The maesters of Oldtown have often remarked that he has far more in common with his eldest nephew, King Aegon II Targaryen. Both men are known for their fondness for the rich reds of the Arbor, and both are frequent patrons of taverns and brothels.
Like Aegon, Gwayne has always treated questions of inheritance with striking indifference. Despite Otto's repeated attempts to persuade him to marry, he remained unmarried and childless by the outbreak of the Dance of the Dragons.
Some attribute this to his position as the son of a second son, safely removed from the burdens and rivalries of succession. Others whisper that it has more to do with the strained relationship between father and son.
Gwayne himself is fond of saying, "I was the eldest son. It was only natural that I should grow up in Oldtown." Yet his distant relationship with Otto, coupled with the pride that borders on arrogance, seems to suggest another explanation. Many believe he never truly forgave his father for passing him over and choosing instead to keep Alicent at court.
Born in the ancient and prosperous city of Oldtown in the Reach, Gwayne Hightower was the eldest son of Lord Otto Hightower. （In the original book, Gwayne is mentioned as Otto's youngest son, but I changed it to the show’s setup where Gwayne is the eldest, to better fit my interpretation of his character and his personality going forward. ）When Otto was appointed Hand of the King, he relocated his entire family to the Red Keep in King's Landing.
Sometime later, Gwayne’s mother, Alerie, seemed to perceive that the Red Keep was no place to raise children. Yet, unwilling to relinquish his office as Hand, Otto refused to leave. Ultimately, he only permitted Alerie to depart with Gwayne. For reasons of his own, Otto had bypassed his eldest son, choosing instead his eldest daughter, Alicent, as his prospective political instrument. From that point on, the family was rarely whole.
Raised primarily by his mother during his youth, the absence of a father figure left Gwayne willful and self-indulgent. Though highly gifted, his temperament rarely aligned with the rigid ideals of knighthood, and the master-at-arms tasked with his training dared not discipline him too harshly due to his highborn status. It was not until his mother’s passing when he was sixteen that he began to show some restraint.
When he rode as the champion for his sister, Alicent, in King Viserys’s tourney, the young knight was a mere eighteen years of age—or, as the Northmen would scoff, "the knights of the South are as green as summer grass; some are better suited for the lute than the sword."
But Gwayne was clearly not among the latter. He unhorsed several seasoned knights in succession, until sheer complacency allowed a steward’s son to hurl him from his saddle. Meeting that same man again years later, Gwayne still harbored a bitter grudge—for he, too, possessed the common affliction of eldest sons: putting family honor above all, compounded by excessive pride and arrogance.
Having been passed over by his father despite being the eldest son, and left to face his mother’s death alone, Gwayne’s relationship with his father and sister remained strained for a long time. This cold impasse only found a turning point after Alicent’s third son arrived in Oldtown. Under his nephew's mediation, Gwayne gradually began corresponding more frequently with his elder sister, who was by then the Queen. Through her letters, he learned of her unhappiness in King's Landing, where the King's blatant favoritism left her constantly trembling for the future of her own children.
Thus, when the Dance of the Dragons erupted, despite his misgivings about his assigned companions, Gwayne answered his sister’s summons without hesitation and rode for King's Landing. After serving a stint as Second-in-Command of the City Watch, Gwayne stripped off his "Gold Cloak" and marched to war as the Greens' second-in-command, joining the host of Ser Criston Cole—the very man who had unhorsed him in the tourney more than a decade prior.
Gwayne was deeply vexed by the scandalous rumors regarding an indecent liaison between Criston and his sister, Alicent. Nevertheless, in most moments—save for when he was left entirely alone with Criston—he maintained the dignity, courtesy, and restraint expected of a highborn lord, offering only the occasional subtle jibe at Criston’s low birth and common blood. Consequently, the maesters accompanying the host recorded him as "prudent" and "decent," noting that "his occasional bouts of impulsiveness are but the lingering symptoms of an eldest son." The common soldiers, meanwhile, initially joked that "he was as pretty as a maid," a mockery Gwayne himself simply laughed off.
As they marched together, the men soon realized this knight was no hollow, gilded shell. Though the green knight from the Reach—the very cradle of chivalry—momentarily lost his composure upon his first encounter with dragons, he swiftly recovered his footing. Through the ordeal at Rook's Rest, he proved himself a commander of keen tactical instinct and a warrior of no small prowess.
Most remarkably, unlike Criston, Gwayne possessed a genuine sense of humor. Over time, the soldiers grew far fonder of this second-in-command—who was stern when needed, but more often willing to share a jest and a drink, turning a blind eye to their petty slacking—than of the grim and humorless Criston, who drove the army relentlessly forward without a moment's respite.
In the year 130 AC, Gwayne Hightower, serving as commander of the Green host alongside Criston Cole, fell in battle near the southern shore of the Gods Eye, not far from Harrenhal.
Ser Criston of House Cole
Ser Criston Cole was born in Blackhaven in the Stormlands, the son of a steward in service to House Dondarrion. He rose to become the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard under both Viserys I and Aegon II, and later served as the Hand of the King to Aegon II.
House Cole possessed no claim to nobility or distinction; in the Stormlands, they were regarded as a virtually nameless clan of commoners. Criston was, without a doubt, the only member of his house to ever achieve renown.
Ser Criston possessed coal-black hair and large, almond-shaped brown eyes. His pale olive skin suggested he likely harbored Dornish blood. Like most who wore the white cloak, Criston was a man of tall and imposing stature. He was a warrior of extraordinary skill, and while proficient with a longsword, he was particularly lethal when wielding a morningstar. His mount was a white horse, matching the iconic white cloak of the Kingsguard.
Though Criston bore the distinctive physical traits of a Dornishmen, he lacked the fiery warmth and vibrant confidence typical of the Dornish. Among the ladies of the court, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was deemed remarkably handsome, yet his demeanor was often described as sullen and rather dull. The handmaidens frequently noted that, unlike the witty and charming Gwayne, the second-in-command of the City Watch, the equally handsome Criston rarely smiled and knew nothing of how to please a lady. To some extent, this could be excused by the solemn vows of the Kingsguard—they swore to hold no lands, take no wives, father no children, and to serve their sovereign faithfully even through old age, physical ruin, or mental collapse.
Yet beneath his vows, the Lord Commander harbored a strange, inexplicable arrogance and a hyper-sensitivity to words. He was prone to sudden lapses in emotional control, often followed by violent overreactions. At the wedding feast of Princess Rhaenyra, for reasons known only to himself, he beat Ser Joffrey Lonmouth—the "Knight of Kisses" and lover of Rhaenyra’s betrothed, Laenor Velaryon—to death with his bare hands. Following this brutality, he attempted to take his own life beneath the heart tree of the Red Keep, only to be stopped by Queen Alicent. Later, during the pivotal Green Council that triggered the war of succession, he lost control once more, accidentally killing the Master of Coin, Lord Lyman Beesbury, who had opposed Aegon II’s ascension.
At Aegon II's coronation, Criston earned the moniker "The Kingmaker" for placing the Conqueror’s crown upon the Prince's brow. However, he himself had little to do with the Prince's climb to the throne. He possessed neither grand ambition nor political cunning; indeed, every emotion he felt was always written plainly upon his face.
Criston Cole was born in Blackhaven in the Marches of the Stormlands, the son of a steward in service to Lord Dondarrion. His mother was a woman of gentle beauty and devout faith. Yet, owing to her sun-kissed skin, dark curly hair, and striking amber-brown eyes, she was deeply resented by the townspeople. Judging by these distinct Dornish traits, the locals whispered that she was the bastard daughter of some Martell noble—and the Stormlands and Dorne had harbored a bloody, centuries-old enmity. Nonetheless, this hostility did not deter the lady from her devotions; indeed, she preferred the quiet sanctuary of the Sept of the Seven on the outskirts of Blackhaven to the company of her own son. Consequently, Criston's father played the far greater role in his upbringing, while conversations with his mother remained rare and distant.
Though Criston inherited his mother's foreign looks, his temperament was largely molded by his father. A childhood of rigorous discipline and strict social hierarchy rendered him reserved and cautious. His father’s constant influence, coupled with his own military experience, instilled in him a martyred devotion to the concepts of "honor and fealty." In his youth, he served as squire to Lord Dondarrion’s eldest son, eventually joining him in knightly training. During the Stormlands' campaign to repel a Dornish incursion, Criston's exceptional valor prompted Ser Arlan Dondarrion to break protocol and dub him a knight. At the age of twenty-three, he rode to King’s Landing for King Viserys's tourney, where he achieved a spectacular triumph, unhorsing a string of formidable opponents—including the King’s own brother, Daemon, and the Hand’s eldest son, Gwayne. This brilliant performance won him the favor of Princess Rhaenyra, leading to his appointment as her sworn shield and his elevation to the Kingsguard.
For many years, Criston remained the Princess’s personal protector, and whispers regarding the nature of their bond were never scarce. Yet, to the shock of the entire realm, at the Princess’s betrothal feast years later, he turned his back on her, choosing instead to accept Queen Alicent’s favor and blessing. Riding as the Queen’s champion, he proceeded to defeat every proxy champion put forth by Princess Rhaenyra.
In the accounts of Septon Eustace, this sudden betrayal was explained as a case of love turned to hatred, claiming that Criston had confessed his love to the Princess on the eve of the betrothal feast, only to be rejected. However, the court fool Mushroom offered a different tale, asserting that Criston had uncovered the Princess’s overly wanton private life, which the prim and rigid Stormlander knight simply could not stomach. Amidst the conflicting gossip, only one truth remained absolute: his loyalty had shifted entirely to Queen Alicent, making him a fierce and uncompromising pillar of the Green party. When the Dance of the Dragons erupted, he marched to war as Aegon II's Hand of the King.
Criston was deeply displeased when Alicent assigned her eldest brother, Gwayne, to his host. For one, though Gwayne had left a decent impression on him during the tourney over a decade ago, Criston held that Southern knights were, by rule, pampered and delicate. More importantly, he could not fathom Gwayne's inexplicable hostility toward him, fearing it would hinder the efficiency of their march.
After several bloody skirmishes, the catastrophic losses began to breed a profound pessimism within Criston. In the face of dragons, heavy cavalry stood no chance whatsoever. He once confessed his despair to Gwayne, muttering, "We are marching toward our own doom. Death would almost be a release." Gwayne met this with silence, but the following morning, he warned Criston sternly to cease spreading such defeatist talk, threatening that if he persisted, Gwayne would take the Hightower cavalry and anyone else willing to follow him and march on alone.
Criston was not blind to the growing resentment of the soldiers under his command. The mounting anxiety drove him to obsessively groom his dark curls—inherited from his mother—and endlessly polish his blade. These near-compulsive, repetitive gestures were the only things that brought him a semblance of calm. Deep down, he knew the men's discontent stemmed from his relentless, unforgiving leadership, rather than his Dornish blood.
In the year 130 AC, Gwayne Hightower and Criston Cole, serving as commanders of the Green host, both fell in battle near the southern shore of the Gods Eye, not far from Harrenhal.
Next, I want to talk about why I wrote them this way, starting with Gwayne.
I believe personality is shaped partly by nature and partly by nurture. Nature is like the foundational "base setting," but nurture is not just a setting—it is the evolution of that base. Once an author establishes a character’s initial setup, it naturally points toward a general direction for their development. When I write a character, I habitually deduce their personality from their social status and family position.
My central logic for writing Gwayne is this: He is the son of a second son, and his father left him just as he was reaching adolescence, around thirteen or fourteen.
Here, I blended elements from both the book and the show. In the book, Otto brings his entire family to King's Landing, but in the show, he does not—he leaves Gwayne behind. Furthermore, the show's timeline at this point is incredibly messy. In Season 1, Gwayne has a jousting match with Daemon and actually holds the upper hand until Daemon cheats by targeting Gwayne's horse's legs instead of the knight himself. In the very next episode, Alicent mentions to Rhaenyra that her mother only passed away in recent years. Yet, by Season 2, Alicent claims their mother died when Gwayne was only eight. If that were true, how could he have jousting matches with Daemon? In Westeros, one can only be knighted after reaching the age of majority at fourteen. Therefore, regarding his age, I adhered to the book's canon and ignored the show's self-contradictory timeline, while adopting the show's setup for his circumstances: when Otto went to court to become Hand, Gwayne was roughly thirteen or fourteen, and Otto chose not to bring him along.
From this point, my imagination began to branch out: Why didn't Otto bring his son to court? His daughter could marry Viserys, and his son could wed Rhaenyra; bringing both would have given him far more political leverage and options. Yet, he didn't. The reason I envisioned is simple: Gwayne’s personality was ill-suited for it. His sister was more composed, shrewd, and politically ambitious—much more like Otto (I largely based Alicent's personality on her book counterpart as well). Gwayne, on the other hand, was mischievous, unruly, and detested the convoluted mind games of court politics. Otto likely concluded from Gwayne's temperament that he was of no use to his grand schemes.
Following this line of analysis, it means Gwayne grew up with virtually no paternal presence during the most turbulent years of his adolescence; there was no strong, close father figure in his life. Furthermore, as the son of a second son, inheritance was practically out of his reach, meaning he faced very little pressure from familial competition. Yet, as a branch of an immensely prominent and powerful house, no one would dare treat him with disrespect. How would a medieval nobleman's personality develop under such a pressure-free environment?
The closest modern equivalent I can think of is the stereotypical 18-year-old intern who lands a gig at Morgan Stanley purely through their parents' connections: confident, arrogant, and morally ambiguous. Yet, because of their high-class upbringing and education, they still possess a fragile, but objectively real, moral baseline.
Returning to the father figures and the pressure of inheritance:
I believe that during Gwayne’s growth, he lacked a father figure who could effectively restrain him. His mother had limited control over him, which led to the arrogance of his noble status being more outwardly visible, making him take many things for granted. He was not like his cousin Ormund, who, as the eldest son of the family, would be heavily cultivated, disciplined, and taught to be steadfast by the house. This resulted in very weak family constraints on Gwayne. All of this makes me feel that Gwayne would become a "mean young master" type of character: he is unruly and dislikes taking on too much responsibility (which is why Otto did not bring him to court), and his status as the son of a second son indeed meant he did not have to bear much responsibility.
But Criston is different; I think he is the exact opposite of Gwayne:
He was exposed to the control of many paternal figures from birth: his father, the lord, and the lord's children. He received too much discipline. Furthermore, the show added the setup of his Dornish blood (from the book's perspective, I think Criston is more like a confident white man, because the book describes Cole as being very popular with the ladies of the court; he has black hair and green eyes, is beautiful and has high emotional intelligence. To me, the book version of Cole is closer in personality to a Gwayne who has ambition and a political mind).
Returning to the bloodline issue:
My setup for Cole is that his father is a typical Andal from the Stormlands, but his mother has Dornish blood. At the same time, I want to amplify the unstable and anxious part of his character... So I set it that his mother's mental state is not very good due to the townspeople's discrimination, and she is unwilling to face this son, turning instead to a zealot-like faith in the Seven. Meanwhile, his father also always kept a distance from him because the son looked too much like his mother. (In the book, I think the only reason Cole could be confident is that his appearance is pure Andal, and he is also very gifted at learning and has high emotional intelligence, training alongside the lord's sons as a steward's son, and having a good relationship with Dondarrion's sons).
In contrast, I think the show version of Criston's entire growth process is suffocating. He lacked the company of a maternal figure, having only the constant restraint of paternal figures, and his bloodline made him an outsider: this led to him being both arrogant and insecure, craving validation, masculinity, and the approval of father figures. He easily loses his sense of security, is prone to anxiety, and has more conservative thoughts (as a noble, I think Gwayne's exploration of his sexuality would be much more free than Criston's).
Therefore, I think Criston would be naturally attracted to someone with Gwayne's personality:
Confident, with abundant masculinity. But his arrogant side would also hate Gwayne's pride and young master style.
As for why Gwayne would like this part of Criston, I really cannot find a particularly logical reason, so I would say it might just be that Criston is exactly his physical type 💀💀💀 Perhaps there is also a bit of curiosity about the other's instability and anxiety—this kind of emotional red flag—because he likes excitement.
In my understanding, both Gwayne and show-version Criston are children abandoned by their fathers. However, their different character baselines and social statuses led to entirely different reactions:
Gwayne consequently despises marriage and disdains stable relationships; he prefers brothels and fleeting thrills. At the same time, remaining unmarried serves as his rebellion against his father. He always occupies the active, dominant position in his own relationships.
Criston, on the other hand, craves a stable relationship because of being frequently abandoned and replaced (by his father, Rhaenyra, and Alicent). Yet, his repressed and sensitive nature leaves him deeply insecure about his feelings, constantly placing him in a passive position. Gwayne rebelled against his father and succeeded, but show-version Criston never did.
Another aspect of my understanding of Gwaynston is that I like to incorporate a bit of the show's romantic/emotional dynamic between Criston and Alicent (in the book, I believe Criston and Alicent have no romantic relationship; they are just ordinary colleagues).
Because of Gwayne's personality, he rarely blames himself. He has completed a form of psychological patricide. After realizing how unhappy his sister's marriage was, he believes their father indirectly ruined her life as well. I think he harbors immense sympathy and love for Alicent, but he also realizes that he was excluded from his sister’s life—and that Criston, an outsider, actually understands Alicent better than he does. I feel his initial contact with Criston might be driven by a desire to understand his sister from Criston's perspective, which, to some extent, complicates his feelings toward Criston.
However, I believe Criston would be the one who falls deeper emotionally. He tends to anchor his own sense of meaning and purpose in other people. The show stripped away Criston's ambition, which, in my eyes, makes him feel somewhat like an outsider to the whole conflict. But Gwayne is not; no matter what, this war is always tied to his family. He actually has a purpose to fight for.
I haven't systematically organized my thoughts yet, so it might seem a bit disorganized! Many of these are my personal headcanons, and I might make minor adjustments in the future. But thank you for asking me this, as it gave me a great opportunity to untangle and articulate my current understanding!
I’ve also mapped out a complete timeline for them based on my headcanons, but since it’s a bit tricky to translate into English, I’ve just shared the original image here instead. If you're interested, feel free to use an image translator on it!
In short, my take on Gwaynston is basically this:
As for Gwayne（For me, there is basically no distinction between the book and show versions of Gwayne anymore... There is so little description in the book to analyze his personality） and Book Criston, I haven't thought too much about a romantic relationship between them, but I previously wrote a rather comedic take on how they might interact:
If Show Gwayne and Book Cole absolutely had to interact, I imagine it would go like this: back when Cole is suffering through his toxic, angsty romance with Rhaenyra, Gwayne solemnly hands him a little slip of paper and says, "This contains my ultimate, hard-won tips on pulling girls. Only open it when you are truly at your wits' end."
Cole, not trusting this perpetually frivolous bro, just chuckles and dismisses it, never opening it. Yet, because it's bizarrely linked to Rhaenyra, he somehow can't bring himself to throw it away and just keeps it tucked on him.
Fast forward to the Butcher's Ball—at death's door, he somehow thinks of Rhaenyra again → remembers the note → pulls it out and opens it.
And the note says: "Whoever dies first is gay."
With Book Cole and Gwayne, I can accept them as switches (though, honestly, I still feel it's probably best if they don't have a sexual relationship at all; I think of them more as really good colleagues). As for Show Cole and Gwayne, I'm pretty much only partial to Top Gwayne.
Anyway, all of the interpretations above are basically expansions I wrote by combining the book and the show before Season 3 came out... So looking back at them now, they really are quite different from their actual show counterparts🥲🥲
I’ve also thought about some animal headcanons for them. To me, Gwayne is more like a skilled, small-to-medium-sized predator. If we're talking about herbivores, I'd choose a horse for Gwayne, because I've seen some mischievous horses that bully tourists who don't know how to ride, and constantly do neurotic, hilariously funny things. As for Cole, he is like a highly passive-aggressive, large herbivore (or maybe one of those bad-tempered hares), but I also feel he's a bit like a dog... once he falls for someone, he gets separation anxiety really easily sth like that idk…!
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