My Top 10 Game of Thrones Characters

***SPOILERS BELOW***

You have been warned!!

---

Game of Thrones!!! What a wild ride this show took us on.

I was very hesitant at first to watch the show. Mid-evil, dragons, some magic, it wasn’t what I normally watched.

But by the end of the 1st episode, I was hooked. We binged watched the first 4 seasons and then started watching it on TV with everyone else.

I will have to say that Game of Thrones is probably one of my all time favorite TV shows.

The directing was amazing. The casting was spot on. It always kept you guessing on what was going to happen next.

Some people were not happy with how the show ended. Personally, I was okay with the ending. I think the writers ended it in a way that allowed for spin-offs to happen in the future and in a way that would also allow the characters to come back together again, one day, maybe.

So onto the blog. I usually blog about books, but since this show is based off the books by George R.R. Martin, I am mixing this up a bit today.

Here are my Top 10 Game of Thrones Characters (in my opinion).

---

I’ll start with #10:

#10 – Melisandre

Also known as the Red Woman, Melisandre has been around and manipulating men for hundreds of years.

Melisandre believes in the Lord of Light, which gives her powers over fire and shadows.

Melisandre believed that Stannis Baratheon was to be the leader of all and she would do whatever she needed to do in able for that to happen. Even if that meant burning his daughter alive. (Which I was not happy about at all)

One reason I choose Melisandre for my list was because she was honestly one of the most terrifying characters on the show. She convinced people to burn a child alive. She was able to get men to do whatever she wanted them to do.

Even though many felt that Melisandre was evil, she showed at The Battle of Winterfell, that she could put differences aside and unite against a much larger evil force. Without her, The Battle of Winterfell would have ended much differently.

I felt that her death was a bit too weak. I felt that Davos should have been the one to kill her, but in the end, she was able to kill herself by taking her necklace off after she had used all her magic.

---

#9 – Jamie Lannister

As one of the few main characters to make it from the first episode to the almost the last, Jamie Lannister has been though a lot.

Jamie was a knight in the Kingsguard and is part of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Westeros. Jamie was also known as “the Kingslayer” for killing the “Mad King” Aerys Targaryen.

Jamie’s character evolves a ton during the show.

In the beginning, he seemed to be a jerk (he pushed a kid from a tower window) and a know it all. Along with the incestuous relationship with his twin sister Cersei, he was not one of my favorite characters in the beginning.

But as the show progressed, Jamie changed. He always loved Cersei but he also started to see the bad in her. He saw that her ways were not always the right ways.

He became more honorable and complex. You saw the love he had for his brother Tyrion when no one else showed Tyrion love. This is why he made my list. He had great character development and I learned to love him.

I am not happy with how he died but he always said he would “die in the arms of his queen” and that he did.

---

#8 – Sansa Stark

For a lot of people, Sansa Stark is higher on their lists of their favorite characters. She is in my top 10 but only at number 8.

I felt that Sansa had a very interesting story line. She started out as an annoying child. She was whiny and defiantly felt everything should have been given to her.

But then she went through a lot of terrible events:

Saw her father get beheaded.

She almost had  to marry Joffery Lannister.

She lost her mother at the Red Wedding.

She had to marry Ramsey Bolton and deal with the terror that came with that.

But in all the bad, she did find some good and she learned a lot:

She learned that Tyrion Lannister had a great heart and would be there to protect her when he could.

She learned that she was stronger than she could have ever imagined.

She was able to kill Ramsey.

She was reunited with her brother and sister.

And she became Queen of the North.

As her character developed she showed that she could play the game too, Littlefinger is an example of that.

I didn’t always liked her attitude and I felt she wasn’t always a “team player”. But in the end she got what she wanted, to be queen.

---

#7 – Olenna Tyrell

Olenna Tyrell, what a cunning, sharp, and whitty old lady. As the matriarch of House Tyrell, she has been around long enough to know how the game is played. And she played the game better than most. She knew who she could trust and who she couldn’t.

She was not afraid to speak her mind and she told the best jokes. (How I want to be when I get old)

Even when facing death, she got in the last word “I want her to know it was me”. She was speaking of how she was the only who poisoned Joffrey and wanted Cersei to know it. (And I love her even more for that!!)

---

#6 – Jon Snow

Jon Snow, a favorite of most people. Yes, he was a great character. But he was not a #1 or #2 for me.

Jon was the “hero” of the show.

Rising from a bastard and becoming the King of the North, Jon has been though a lot, even death (We can thank Melisandre for fixing that).

His character had a semi-good story line, but at times he was just bland. I wish he would have had more personality. He always did the right thing and always kept his word, even when he shouldn’t have. He had a huge heart, but that got him in trouble at times.

He was one heck of a fighter and won fights he should have lost.

He lost his first love and then he fell in love with this aunt, Daenerys Targaryen. Except he didn’t know she was his aunt at the time. (OOPS)

I knew that he was going to be the one to kill Daenerys in the end. He was the only one who would get the chance after she went mad.

I don’t know if I like the fact that he didn’t end up being King and was sent north of the wall but, it is what it is.

---

#5 – Cersei Lannister

Cersei Lannister, if there was ever a “Mad Queen”, she was it. She was ruthless, powerful, cunning, dangerous…. the list could go on and on.

She knew what she wanted, to be the queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and she would do WHATEVER she needed in order to achieve that goal.

I felt that she was just a terrible person.

Yes, she grew up with a terrible father.

Yes, she had to watch all her children die.

But she knew right from wrong.

She blowup a church with a half dozen major characters in it. (It was very smart on her part but damn, I felt it was a bit overkill)

At one point in the show Cersei told Sansa that tears are not the only weapons women have; the greatest weapon they own is between their legs. And she used that weapon. She used it to get Jamie, her lover/brother, to do what she wanted. She used it to get Euron Greyjoy to give her his army.

She knew how to play the game.  And she always had her wine.

I felt that she should have had a more painful death, but she had lost control and that was one thing she craved, control. So her having no control over her death, I’m okay with that.

---

#4 –Margaery Tyrell

Margaery Tyrell was killed off the show WAYYYY before she should have been. I felt that she was one of the biggest players in the game and had she lived, I feel that she could have taken Cersei down.

Margaery was originally married to Renly Baratheon, but knows he is sleeping with her brother (I was a bit shocked too but then this show never does anything normal). When Renly was killed, Margaery makes it known that she wants to be the Queen of Westeros and ends up being relocated to Kings Landing.

Margaery ends up marrying Joffrey and then Tommen after Joffrey’s death. Cersei hates Margaery and I think it was because she knew that Margaery knows how to play the game and was playing it good. She could be manipulative and cunning but she could also be loving and kind.

I hate how Margaery died. I hate that Cersei got to kill her.

I wish that she would have been in the last 2 seasons. I think she could have played a huge role in how everything turned out.

---

#3 – Arya Stark

Arya was the spunky little girl that grew into a badass woman.

Arya never wanted to be queen. Unlike her sister Sansa, Arya wanted to be a fighter.

Arya used her small size to her advantage because people would underestimate her.

She never made herself a victim, even when times were rough.

I loved her drive and how she never gave up.

I honestly wish she would have had more screen time. I would have loved to see more of her story.

---

#2 – Daenerys Targaryen

“Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons.”…….What a name!

Daenerys’s story started with her brother, Viserys, marrying her off to the Dothraki warload Khal Drogo (he was beautiful) in order to get the Dothraki military to follow him into battle. Daenerys went through a lot in a short amount of time, but even from the beginning, you could tell how strong she was. You could also tell how much other people loved her and that plays into the show big time!

Daenerys also had dragons and she was not afraid to use them when necessary. She usually only used her dragons to kill really bad people, so that made it okay. (Okay…….. sometimes they didn’t kill only bad people but it happens)

Daenerys showed signs as the show went on that she was going to turn into the “Mad Queen”. Her father was known as the “Mad King”. I don’t understand why people were so surprised when she did what she did in Season 8 Episode 5.

She was born to be the “Mad Queen”.

I did not like how she died. I knew that someone was going to have to kill her, but I’m not sure how I feel about the way it went down.

I felt that Daenerys was an AMAZING character. She was strong. She was beautiful. She was smart. She never backed down.

---

#1 – Tyrion Lannister

My favorite character of the show was Tyrion Lannister.

Tyrion might be from a very strong, very rich family, but he was the “black sheep” of the family.

Blamed for his mother’s death by his entire family and hated for being a dwarf, Tyrion did not have an easy life. So he drank and slept around.

But don’t let that fool you, Tyrion was insanely smart and he was able to outsmart his enemies.

“I drink and I know things” ….. and that was what he did. He drank a lot but he also knew a lot. He would listen to others when no one else would and that helped him learn about his friends and his enemies.

Tyrion always showed that he just wanted what was best for the people of Westeros. And he would support the person he felt could make that happen.

His character showed amazing development over the course of the show.

I picked him as my favorite because I felt that out of all the characters on the show, Tyrion was the most upstanding, reliable, caring, and awesome character there was.

---

Books by Geroge R. R. Martin that inspired Game of Thrones or are other books written about the characters families:

The Box Set:

The Individual Books:

Other books about The Seven Kingdoms and the families there:

---

Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans

Shop Amazon Devices – Trade-in Your Kindle, Get 25% Off a New Kindle + Gift Card

Try Prime Discounted Monthly Offering

Fire 7 Tablet – Starting at $49.99

Shop Amazon Devices – Bundle and Save: All-new Kindle Paperwhite + Audible
Try Prime Discounted Monthly Offering