The Crown
When Hal encounters his father asleep, he assumes that he is dead (he has, after all, been declining in health for the entirety of the play). Hal promptly takes the crown, thinking that he has unofficially been crowned king. In reality, however, King Henry is still alive, and seeing Hal take the crown convinces him that Hal is only after his own interests and that he wants his father dead, rather than perceiving that Hal is willing and ready to be king.
Falstaff's Hopes
When Falstaff hears that Hal has been crowned King Henry V, he is immediately excited by the prospects of being able to run amuck in his thieving enterprises because he will have a friend in the king. What Falstaff does not know – and what the audience does – is that Hal must publicly rebuke him in order to fully step into his power as king. The moment he rejects Falstaff is one of the saddest instances in the play, especially for early modern English audiences who made his character a fan favorite.
Hal's Antics
Lingering over the course of the entire play is the audience's knowledge that Hal has not made companions out of commoners and thieves because he is truly a debauched youth, but because he is attempting to lower expectations of himself as a prince so that he can display a profound "transformation" as king. While the audience is aware of this fact thanks to Hal's speech in 1 Henry IV, other characters – most notably, Henry IV – doubt Hal's allegiance to the crown and his ability to take it seriously. Even Hal, at times, wonders whether he has leaned too far into his role and questions his status until his father dies.
Falstaff and Prince John
The play presents two parallel deceptions in its first half: Falstaff's swindling of Mistress Quickly and Prince John's surprise execution of the rebel prisoners. While Falstaff's deceit of Mistress Quickly is comedic, the play suggests that these two forms of deception are one and the same, ultimately criticizing Prince John because of his justification of his act as political strategy. Falstaff's deceit is precisely that, and Falstaff makes no claims to his own innocence. By contrast, Prince John defends his deceit by claiming it was politically efficacious. These two instances of deception parallel one another and even suggest that, in some ways, a character like Falstaff is more "noble" than a character like Prince John.
