Game of Thrones is coming back, just in time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of George R. R. Martin announcing that book six, The Winds of Winter, will be out soon. (You might think I’m kidding, but the completion of the first four chapters WAS announced in June 2010…) Since we are unlikely to ever read the last two books, we have to focus on the final season. Which starts tomorrow.
Read further for a (mostly) spoiler-free list of my favourite characters…
10. Tyrion and Arya
I’m simply getting them out of the way. They are everyone’s favourite characters. So there. Confirmed. Love ’em (non-ironically).
9. Grey Worm
A man who will go to all lengths not to show he even has any feelings, only to be broken once he discovers he does – and that it’s impossible to stop having them by deciding not to. Jacob Anderson, who plays the character is twenty-nine, looks about twelve, and don’t you just want to hug him, squeeze him, and call him George?
8. Ygritte
Honestly, Ygritte, you should have killed the eternally constipated Jon Snow (seriously, please notice Kit Harrington only has one facial expression and it always suggests he urgently needs to visit a toilet). But you were too sweet under that tough exterior, a lot like Grey Worm. Please come back and kill Jon Snow properly, forever relieving him of his irritable bowel syndrome.
7. Tormund Giantsbane
The power of the Beard. Biiiiig, ginger beard. Ahem. Sorry about that. (DAT BEARD.) The Fandom.com page states that “Tormund makes much of his capacity for drink and sexual encounters, usually as a means of raising his allies’ morale”, which is amazing. “Bruh, I slept with a she-bear. My standards may be low, but I hope your morale just drastically increased.” Excellent. When my second novel inevitably gets acquired by The Hollywood, Kristofer Hivju is going to play Thor. He’ll simply have to be himself, no extra study or method acting required, he’s perfect.
(He also makes the GoT’s make-up team’s work easier, because he always looks like Tormund. He just needs to wear a zoo and he’s ready.)
6. Bronn
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Everything about him is wrong, yet he steals every scene he appears in. I wouldn’t want to be friends with him, because he’d stab me for a pint of ale, but he’s just so… fun. If there is something that would truly upset Bronn, except for dying and/or losing his money, I don’t know yet what it is. He’s not exactly a nice guy, but then, who in Game of Thrones is? (Please shut up about the multiple dead Starks.)
5. Melisandre
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I love the Priestess of Fire. “The niiight is daaahk and full of tehhohs,” ominously declares Carice van Houten as ominous music plays and ominous things happen, and I have to sit on my tongue (please don’t imagine that) from shouting myself “YAAAS OMINOUS KWEEEN SLAAAY– eh, I didn’t mean that literally– STOP SLAYING, KWEEN– you evil, wicked woman– nooo, don’t cut to the next scene, I was not ready!”.
4. Lady Olenna Tyrell
“I am but a sweet and simple granny. Also, I will cut you, b*tch.”
Oh boy, it’s a bad-ass old lady who looks like a sweet granny and has the mind of a very smart and angry wasp. I love bad-ass old ladies (see my review of “An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good”). It’s better to find yourself on the wrong side of Jamie Lannister rather than Lady Tyrell…
I was just going to say something along the lines of “…we should have politicians like that”, but 1) we already do (minus the cool factor), 2) similarly to everyone else, Lady Tyrell plays her own hand and gives no flying duck about yours.
3. The Hound
I love The Hound for all the wrong reasons, not just because Rory McCann actually looks like this:
I had a conversation once with a friend. It went something like this:
Her: “The Hound is so ducked up.”
Me: “Absolutely.”
Her, dreamily: “I soooooo would.”
Me, dreamily: “Absolutely.”
Her: “We need therapy.”
Me: “Absolutely.
2. Littlefinger
(I can’t at this post having a hashtag “entrepreneurlife” – it should add “influencer”.)
Oh boy, I hate and love Littlefinger, partly because of his complete unpredictability. He mastered the art of playing his own hand and helping others when it fit his long-term plans. (I partly based the character of Loki in the second book, which I am writing now, on Littlefinger.) Always with that mysterious little smile, a brothel owner who dresses like a prudish tradesman of expensive goods, a sneaky rat that I couldn’t tear my eyes from. A wonderful monster with all the morals of a Polish conservative party leader.
1. The one and only Cersei Lannister!
(Lena Headey’s Instagram is AMAZING and you must follow her immediately.)
I can’t remember which episode I was watching. Cersei was talking to Tyrion, holding her glass of wine, her always vigilant bitch face present. I suddenly realised I am watching a brilliantly realistic portrait of a woman with incredible power who is slowly sliding into insanity – and nobody’s going to stop her without accidentally dying five seconds later. There are very few that Cersei loves, or even just tolerates – her children and her brother Jamie… yeah, that’s the full list. Her list of grudges is very long – it is, in fact, an alphabetical list of all the other characters.
Her brand of evil is delicious. She’d sacrifice anybody and anything for her children, her zaddy brother Jamie, and herself (in this or other order) – and she does. There is nothing she won’t do for power, which she will then use against her enemies, whose list grows – at first only in her head, then around her. The more besieged she is, the more determined and calculating she becomes, but her outbursts of fury and complete lack of human feelings towards anybody who is not Jamie or her children tend to sabotage her own plans. She has no loyalty, she’s heard about this telling the truth thing but considers it some sort of old folks’ gossip comparable to those ridiculous tales about dragons. AND! We share birthdays. Lena Headey could probably play a broom and I’d watch that.
PS. Iceland gets a lot of action in Game of Thrones, if very little dialogue.
Honourable mentions
Brienne of Tarth, Sam, Sansa Stark in the last few episodes that aired but not before, Margaery Tyrell.
Who are your favourites? (Dead or alive, doesn’t matter.) Do you hate me for picking Cersei?
Main photo: Emilia Clarke’s Twitter
Ah, interesting! My favourite character is Tyrion – yeah, me and everyone else! I actually don’t care for Arya much, I find her a bit irritating.
My other favourites – Bronn, Robb Stark, Ned Stark, Varys, Littlefinger, Stannis, and Danaerys’s fella Daarius, because he was super hot – BOTH the actors who played him!!!
I only skipped Tyrion because of course he is! But for me he would still be second after Cersei. I adore Cersei. Daenerys kind of bores me, someone mentioned her on Twitter and I tried to figure out what my problem is. I think Daenerys is basically Cersei without the interesting bits. (Emilia Clarke, the actress, is an incredible person, though.) Her multi-face(te)d companion is very nice to look at though!
Agree with you, and surprised myself by agreeing about Littlefinger because I love to hate him so much I actually thought I hated him.
The only one missing for me is Lord Varys, The Spider. I love that he’s good, but also bad, like so many of the others. He’s also hilarious as a double act with Tyrion.
Cant wait for this season. But also don’t want to to end. Ever.
“Me neither” – George R. R. Martin 😉
I’ve narrowed my favorites to a top 4: Jaimie > The Hound > Cersei > And Dany. Jaimie really became my favorite as he was with Brienne. It seemed like he matured and become humble a bit instead of being so arrogant. I’m really excited to see what happens after he just left Cersei in the last episode of Season 7. Is she going to just completely go insane or cave and do what he wants to get him back. Kinda hoping for complete insanity :p
That was my favourite moment re: Jamie and Brienne! When they started forgetting that they were supposed to hate each other. I actually forgot the end of season 7, now I’m even more curious to see what happens next.
I don’t think it was really about him changing, more like showing his true face. Or starting to remember who he actually was.
His whole life he’s been judged either for things he had no control over – being a Lannister and everything that came with it, for starters – or for one act of so called “betrayal”. The truth is, for his father he was just a pawn without any real power, and he had good reasons for killing his king. But hey, who cares?
There’s really no way out of that kind of situation. Obviously, self-pity doesn’t solve anything. If you try explaining to everyone how unfair they are, it makes you look weak and pathetic. If you don’t say anything, you’re a traitor/coward/arrogant jerk, depending on context.
Pretty much the only thing Jaimie could do was to act like someone who doesn’t give a damn and can’t be touched by anyone’s opinion. And make them fear him enough to never voice it.
I’ve never thought about it, but I think you’re right! I will rewatch all the seasons at some point – not this week though. 😉
Yeah… guess I’m not very original, since my first choice is Tyrion. But what can I say, it’s impossible not to love this guy.
Varys. Especially in tandem with Tyrion.
Lady Olena. Obviously.
Arya. Yes, she can be a bit annoying sometimes, but I will always root for a tomboy. Everyone has a weakness. And she has become a bad-ass.
Bronn. Totally agree. Perfectly amoral character. No ideals, no loyalty, no so called “honor” – and absolutely no guilt about any of it.
Jaime. More complex than he seems at first, and that’s always interesting.
Daenerys and the way she evolved and grew from a terrified little girl into a strong leader.
Also, Davos, Daario, Greyworm, Cersei, Margaery, Ygritte, Tormund, The Hound, Sam, Oberyn Martell, Ellaria Sand… I could go on. But then, that’s the great thing about GoT. There are hardly any characters you’re completely indifferent to.
I kind of have mixed feelings about Littlefinger, though. Cersei sometimes shows her human side, almost makes you think that maybe, just maybe this time she will do the right thing… With Littlefinger you just know he’s a manipulative jerk always playing others against each other. No real surprise there. But I kind of like him anyway.
That’s what I like about Littlefinger. I think Cersei is a completely human-free character, so her being my favourite probably says way too much about me. With Littlefinger I always wondered “what the hell is he playing at THIS time”. With Cersei you know.
I LOVE that you have Cersei on your list!! She’s the ultimate bitch you love to hate, and hate to love – but still have to admire for her ruthless survival abilities. Oberyn Martell would have made it on my list, he was one of the best characters IMO. Ahh Littlefinger… one of the most satisfying executions in the entire show. The Hound is probably one of the secondary characters with most growth, can’t help but love the man.
I adore Cersei and at the same time I would pay good money not to ever attract her attention in any way.
With GRRM you never know what’s going to happen – I could absolutely imagine Littlefinger ending up on the Throne. I agree 100% – it was so satisfying when Sansa and Arya put an end to that. One of my favourite episodes!