Ranking Game of Thrones Characters

Everyone has their favorite Game of Thrones character. Some fans even know their house so let’s go ahead and talk about the best and worst of the core Game of Thrones cast. This ranking list will be taking from all 7 seasons (as we know the show was devastatingly canceled after 7 successful seasons) and will only focus on the main houses; Stark, Targaryen, Lannister and Tyrell. The more supporting characters will be the makeup of a different list. Yes that means Baratheon will not be on this list, he was largely inconsequential and only existed for a single season. Honestly the ensemble cast was really big with a lot of characters being important only over 1 or 2 seasons so those characters are going to be their own separate thing. This list is for the families that were present for nearly the entire show. These are, of course, opinions but I am in fact correct so feel free to argue with a wall. I will be giving detailed explanations but just a friendly reminder that this is not just who I like the best, but who is in fact the best written as a character. This list is in the context of the show as that is the only completed version of the story so that is what we will be going by.

We are starting with Myrcella Lannister, really what happened here was that she just didn’t have a lot of screen time. She was one of those characters that we just didn’t see enough of to really form an opinion. When we did see her she also didn’t have much of a personality. She was sweet and quiet and that was about all we knew about her. She just wasn’t really a whole character on her own, she really was just a plot device that existed to hurt Cersei.

Next we have Tommen Lannister, here we kind of had the same problem as we did with Myrcella. Now he did have more screen time and was almost a character. But really his character was just a chess piece between Cersie and Margery. I will say one of his shining moments was diving out of a window, because Cersie really did that to herself. Had she not killed Margery her baby boy would have survived at least a little bit longer.

Obviously we have the least relevant of the Stark children, Rickon Stark. He was so irrelevant I genuinely had to google his existence. His only purpose was to die during Jon and Ramsey’s battle.

Then we have Bran Stark, Bran the fucking broken. Bran “I can’t be a lord I’m the three eyed raven but now I can magically be king” Stark. Bran “I wasn’t on screen for an entire season but somehow I’m still important” Stark. His storyline was inconsistent and ridiculous.

God I hate Catelyn Stark. She was such a bitch for no reason. I don’t even like Jon but she treated him like crap for literally no reason. You take your anger out on your husband that brought home a bastard, not on the baby. Every word out of her mouth was irritating.

Then we have Jon Snow, yeah he’s the middle of the list for a lot of reasons. The biggest being that since he came back from the dead he proved himself to be largely useless. Never really understood why people wanted to follow him so badly, he really didn’t display any actual leadership skills. And every time he was put in a position of power, he screwed up majorly. But for some reason that isn’t acknowledged in fiction…ever.

Next up is Rob Stark, the best of the male Stark boys. If we all wanted to follow Rob, and make him king then I would totally be on board. But he had to go and fall in love and be all sweet and stupid and get himself killed. Which is why he isn’t higher on the list because his death was 100% his fault and it still makes me sad.

Now despite the fact that he only survived for a season we have Ned Stark. His integrity was his downfall and if he had just taken his concerns directly to Robert he might have survived a little longer. But he was naive and thought he could trust people around him (who hadn’t really given him a reason to trust them) and he was murdered for it.

Joffrey Lannister was a son of a bitch but he was a well written character. His death was one of the most satisfying of the series because of how villainous he was. He was quick to anger, extremely emotional and quite easily manipulated. This made for some really well written explosive scenes that were violent but filled with incredible character development for both him and Sansa.

Next we have Olenna Tyrell. I love her very much. She is incredible. She is the slayer of Joffrey Lannister. The old, wise, sassy, incredible, badass head of house Tyrell. Now she didn’t have a whole lot of screen time over the course of the only 7 seasons that exist, but she made every second possible. She was the star of every scene that she was in, this was obviously helped by incredible casting.

Nearing the top of the list we’ve got Cersei Lannister. She was someone we loved to hate for 7 seasons, she was a master manipulator, and she sat on the throne for the longest out of anyone else on the show. She had some of the wittiest dialogue and the most diabolical plans. It’s a real shame that we didn’t get to see her villainous end because of the shows sudden cancellation.

Then we have Margery Tyrell, the only person who could really go toe to toe with Cersie’s wit, and manipulation. My poor girl knew exactly what Cersie was planning and everyone else’s stupidity killed my perfect, beautiful, wonderful queen. Her ability to get herself married to Joffrey and then to Tommen was sheer genius, especially when Cersei was pushing back every step of the way.

Okay I know people are gonna be pissy about this one but quite frankly you are lucky she’s up this high, Sansa Stark. Sansa started as a child, she was whiny and a little stupid and you could chalk that up to the fact that she was 14 (despite Arya being younger and 100X smarter). But as the show goes on the writers seem to forget that trauma does not equal character development. Staying stoic in the face of repeated assault also does not equal character development. She started a selfish little bitch that wanted to be queen, she ended a selfish little bitch that wanted to be queen. We would call that a lack of character development.

Moving into the top 3 we have Jamie Lannister. Jamie had a beautifully written 7 season redemption arc. He moved away from Cersei, bonded with Brienne and even helped the Stark girls. He had such a wonderful arc where he proved that he was more than Cersei's lapdog. He and Brienne’s relationship was also really tender and beautiful.

Next to the top we have the rightful heir to the iron throne, Daenerys Targaryen. She spent 7 seasons traveling the world freeing slaves. That’s it, she showed over and over and over again that she had a kind heart. She proved herself to be an open minded and capable leader, and the rightful queen. She is my queen and I will fight anyone and everyone who says otherwise.

And easily the best character in Game of Thrones is Arya Stark. Though her personality was also relatively static throughout the series she had some remarkable character growth. She went on the run and managed to train and gain some unique and amazing skills. She became stronger, smarter and way more badass. Arya avenged the deaths of her family and in such a delightfully creative way.

Regardless of who your favorite character is I think that based on screentime and character development this list accurately reflects who the best and worst characters are. Though there are a lot of factors that could go into this analyzing the characters choices, and their effect on the overall story was the best way to go about this.