Game of Thrones Villains Best/favorite/evillest/goodest (open spoilers through Book 5)

So let’s talk about villains in thegame of thrones series. There certainly are a lot of them.

Who are your favorite? Whom do you love to hate? Whom do you find just absolutely degenerate and loathsome? Are there any you actually like?

I suppose there are several categories we could sort them into:

(1) Villains who have experienced significant character development and thus are due some degree of sympathy or admiration or understanding.

– Tyrion Lannister – His character has been developed so much, he’s pretty much a hero, but he still has some instincts and decisions that make him not very good.

– Arya Stark – Okay, so she’s an out-and-out hero, but she’s also a cold-blooded killer

– Sansa Stark – She betrayed Ned Stark, which is definitely villain-worthy, but maybe we can excuse that because she was just being stupid and didn’t mean to be evil.

– Theon Greyjoy – A fool, a traitor, but, man, have things gone real bad for him.

– Drogo – A murderer, a thief, a rapist – but he treated our Daenerys so kindly.

– the Tyrells – they scheme to murder and betray – but, they do it to really bad people, at least so far.

(2) Run-of-the-mill badguys

– Cersei Lannister – By the end of Book 5, so we feel a little sorry for how badly her schemes have gone or is it all just desserts?

– Tywin Lannister – He’s cold and ruthless. Is any of it excused because he did it all in the name of success? Well, he’s unnecessarily cruel to Tyrion, and he has no feeling for smallfolk.

– Arnulf, Rickard, and Cregan Karstark – They went against Robb for emotional reasons and now they plan to betray Stannis

– Balon, Euron, and Viserion Greyjoy – They’re pirates; they’re vikings.

– Ilyn Payne, Meryn Trant, Maester Pycelle, Janos Slynt, Allar Deem, Preston Greenfield – Run-of-the-mill badguys or their henchmen.

– Randyll Tarley – Mean dad

– Petyr Baelish (“Littlefinger”) – a schemer for sure, and skeevy too – he’s the one who set the whole story in motion by conspiring with Lysa Arryn to murder Jon Arryn.

– Rhaegar Targaryen – abducted and possibly raped Lyanna Stark? But did he do it all for love?

– Mirri Maz Duur – Horribly betrayed Daenerys’s trust, but … she might have been justified.

– Bad seed among the Night’s Watch – Alliser Thorne, Chett, Dirk, Softfoot, Ollo Lophand, Clubfoot Karl, Maslyn, Rolly of Sisterton, Sawwood, Kedge Whiteye, Donnel Hill, Lark the Sisterman, Muttering Bill, Orphan Oss, Mawney, Gruggs, Garth of Greenaway, Alan of Rosby

– The Westerlings – What role did they really play in the betrayal of the Starks?
(3) Kinda nuts

– Lysa Arryn and Robin Arryn

– The Brotherhood Without Banners – Robin Hood types, yes, but do they go too far?

(4) Out-and-out degenerates

– Joffrey Lannister

– Gregor Clegane and the Mountain’s Men (the Tickler, Chiswyck, Joss Stilwood, Raff the Sweetling, Polliver, Eggon, Tobbot, Dunsen) – numerous unspeakable acts of rapine and murder, bloody murder

– Roose Bolton and Ramsey Snow/Bolton

– The Freys – Their pride leads them to enact a monumental betrayal at the Red Wedding

– Vargo Hoat (the Goat) and the Bloody Mummers/Brave Companions (Urswyck, Utt, Qyburn, Shagwell, Zollo, Timeon, Pyg, Rorge, and Biter) – Some of these guys, like Qyburn, Rorge, and Biter, probably qualify for their own entries, but let’s keep it simple. Torture, rape, mayhem, and murder of the most heinous sort.

– Aerys II Targaryen (the Mad King), Viserys Targaryen – Aerys worked his magic in the backstory. Viserys didn’t get much of a chance to cause havoc.

– Craster – “Marries” his daughters and gives his newborn sons to the Others.

– Melisandre of Asshai – Known practitioner of black magic with a penchant for burning people alive

Any comments, opinions, details? Anyone left out?

Disagree with Theon Greyjoy…he’s a total asshole and deserves what he got. As for out and out nuts, I don’t remember their names, but the guys who captured and tortured (and eventually took the hand of) Jamie Lannister. THOSE guys were totally nuts, especially the guy who filed his teeth.

Compared to everyone else? Hmm … don’t know about that. Theon was really just being a conqueror of the kind that gets respect in his world.

Those would be: Vargo Hoat (the Goat) and the Bloody Mummers/Brave Companions

One of the things I dislike about the HBO series is that they make Cersei way too sympathetic. Book-Cersei I was loving every second of her arrest, incarceration and humiliating parade back to the Red Keep. I have NEVER felt sympathy for book-Cersei. Show-Cersei, on the other hand, has had sympathetic scenes. <Grumpy Cat> I hated it!</GC>

Wasn’t it in the TV series that it was hinted that Cersei actually killed her firstborn son because it was Robert’s child? That didn’t really make me feel sympathetic towards her at all.

Hm… I just noticed that in my OP, I called him “Joffrey Lannister,” although his name is, of course, “Joffrey Baratheon.” Interesting slip.

I believe (unless I didn’t read carefully) you left out Jaime Lannister, who belongs in group 1.

Yes, you’re right. I meant to put him there.

Ramsey Bolton, IMHO, is the most horrible person in the entire series. Even his father Roose is capable of not hurting people if it suits his purposes; Ramsey has no such ability. He’s a walking plague zone - everyone within a certain radius of him suffers.

Of course we have the category of the villains throughout the world that make the life of the ordinary denizen miserable – thieves, rapists, kidnappers, slavers, assassins, soldiers of all kinds …

Sorry, rapers