The world of A Song of Ice and Fire is vast, with an estimated 1,200 named characters across the five books. It is not only a huge cast, but an amazing one as well, with complex and polarizing characters that can create hours of debate. The TV show Game of Thrones has changed how we see them as well, with some characters who weren’t that likeable or interesting in the books becoming so, or vice-versa. Here I have attempted to list my personal favourite characters. Because the TV and book versions of characters can sometimes be quite different, I have used a picture of the TV version of a character to show that I like the TV version more than the book version, and I have used an artist’s interpretation if the opposite is true. I have also used a couple of quotes from or about each character, to give an idea of what they are like.
So, on with the list!
50. Loras Tyrell
“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.”
Robert Baratheon: “Have you seen Mace Tyrell’s boy? The Knight of Flowers, they call him. Now there’s a son any man would be proud to own.”
Jaime Lannister: He’s me. I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry.
49. Doran Martell
“Vengeance. Justice. Fire and blood.”
“Words are like arrows. Once loosened, you cannot call them back.”
“Until the mountain crushed my brother’s skull, no Dornishmen had died in this War of the Five Kings. Tell me, Captain, is that my shame or my glory?”
48. Eddard Stark
“The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.”
Petyr Baelish: “You wear your honour like a suit of armour, Stark. You think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down and make it hard for you to move.”
47. Margaery Tyrell
“I want to be THE queen.”
Sansa Stark: Margaery was different, though. Sweet and gentle, yet there was a little of her grandmother in her, too.
Jaime Lannister: So the girl is as clever as she is pretty. Tommen could do a deal worse for a queen.
46. Maester Luwin
“There’s nothing in dreams that a man need fear.”
Bran Stark: “They burnt everything.”
Luwin: “Not everything. Not you.”
45. Meera Reed
“Some people will always need help. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth helping.”
44. Balon Greyjoy
“Did Ned Stark dress you like that? Was it his pleasure to garb you in velvets and silks and make you his own sweet daughter?”
“No man gives me a crown, I pay the iron price.”
43. Varys
“The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.”
“Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?”
Grand Maester Pycelle: “There are things I might tell you of that eunuch that would chill your blood. . .”
42. Robert Baratheon
“I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike.”
“I swear to you, I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I’ve won it.”
Stannis Baratheon: “We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right.”
41. Jorah Mormont
“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.”
“There is a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.”
Eddard Stark: “So the slaver has become a spy…I would rather he become a corpse.”
40. Mance Rayder
“The wall can stop an army, but not a man alone.”
Qhorin Halfhand: “He was the best of us, and the worst as well.”
39. Roose Bolton
“Fear is what keeps a man alive in this world of treachery and deceit.”
“Get the keys and remove those chains from him, before you make me rue the day I raped your mother.”
Theon Greyjoy: Once, he had had enjoyed tweaking Bolton as they sat at council with Robb Stark, mocking his soft voice and making japes about leeches. He must have been mad. This is no man to jape with.
38. Brynden Tully
“I’ve had wet shits I like more than Walder Frey.”
“You always disappoint, Kingslayer.”
37. Renly Baratheon
“Why the oldest son, and not the best-fitted? The crown will suit me, as it never suited Robert and would not suit Stannis.”
Stannis Baratheon: “What has Renly ever done to earn a throne? He sits in council and jests with Littlefinger, and at tourneys he dons his splendid suit of armor and allows himself to be knocked off his horse by a better man.”
Loras Tyrell: “I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.”
36. Wyman Manderly
“My son Wendel came to the the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Walder’s bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with friends. And they murdered him. Murdered I say, and may the Freys choke upon their fables. I drink with Jared, jape with Symond, promise Rhaegar the hand of my own beloved granddaughter … but never think that means I have forgotten. The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done.”
35. Olenna Tyrell
“All these kings would do a deal better if they put down their swords and listened to their mothers.”
“I hope they play “Rains of Castamere.” It’s been ten minutes since I heard it last; I’ve forgotten how it goes.”
“All men are fools, if truth be told, but the ones in motley are more amusing than ones with crowns.”
34. Tormund
“See, lad, that’s why he’s king and I’m not. I can outdrink, outfight, and outsing him, and my member’s thrice the size o’ his, but Mance has cunning.”
“If a man does not use his member it grows smaller and smaller, until one day he wants to piss and cannot find it.”
33. Daenerys Targaryen
“It seems to me that a queen who trusts no one is as foolish as a queen who trusts everyone.”
Prendahl na Ghezn: “Woman, you bray like an ass, and make no more sense.”
Daenerys: “Woman? Is that meant to insult me? I would return the slap, if I took you for a man.”
32. Jeor Mormont
“They say the king loved to hunt. The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.”
“When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?”
“Are you a brother of the Night’s Watch . . . or only a bastard boy who wants to play at war?”
31. Beric Dondarrion
“Robert is slain, but his realm remains. And we defend her.”
“Can I dwell on what I scarce remember? I held a castle on the Marches once, and there was a woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell you the color of that woman’s hair. Who knighted me, old friend? What were my favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash, with the taste of fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest. Are you my mother, Thoros?”
30. Shagga
“When you meet your gods, you tell them Shagga, son of Dolf, of the Stone Crows sent you.”
Tyrion Lannister: “Shagga likes axes.”
29. Thoros
“War makes monsters of us all.”
“Lord Beric’s fire has gone out of this world, I fear. A grimmer shadow leads us in his place.”
28. Yoren
“That’s no law, just a sword. Happens I got one too.”
“Lord Eddard gave me pick o’ the dungeons, and I didn’t find no little lordlings down there. This lot, half o’ them would turn you over to the queen quick as spit for a pardon and maybe a few silvers. The other half’d do the same, only they’d rape you first.”
“Wake up you lazy sons of whores, there’s men out there want to f*ck your corpses!”
27. Gendry
“You shouldn’t insult people that are bigger than you are.”
Gendry: “You don’t have to be a knight to buy armor. Any idiot can buy armor.”
Hot Pie: “How do you know?”
Gendry: “Cause I sold armor.”
26. Qyburn
Cersei Lannister: “Go to Lord Qyburn on my behalf, bring him a white cloak, and tell him the time has come.”
Jaime Lannister: “You’re no maester. Where’s your chain?”
Qyburn: “The Citadel stripped me of it. They found some of my… experiments… too bold.”
25. Val
“Lord Crow is welcome to steal into my bed any night he dares. Once he’s been gelded, keeping those vows will come much easier for him.”
“May I laugh when I kneel?”
24. Edmure Tully
“You will never know how sick it makes me to see you in this room, Kingslayer. You will never know how much I despise you.”
Eddard Stark: His wife’s brother was young, and more gallant than wise. He would try to hold every inch of his soil, to defend every man, woman, and child who named him lord, and Tywin Lannister was shrewd enough to know that.
23. Euron Greyjoy
“Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray.”
“We are the ironborn, and once we were conquerors. Our writ ran everywhere the sound of the waves was heard. My brother would have be content with the cold and dismal north, my niece with even less … but I shall give you Lannisport, Highgarden. The Arbor, Oldtown. The riverlands and the Reach, the kingswood and the rainwood, Dorne and the marches, the Mountains of the Moon and the Vale of Arryn, Tarth and the Steptones. I say we take it all! I say, we take Westeros.”
Baelor Blacktyde: “Balon was mad, Aeron is madder, and Euron is the maddest of them all.”
22. Samwell Tarly
“I hope the wall is high enough.”
Jon Snow: The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice as Samwell Tarly had.
21. Oberyn Martell
“Elia Martell, princess of Dorne. Your raped her. Your murdered her. You killed her children.”
Ellaria Sand: “You’re going to fight THAT?”
Oberyn: “I’m going to kill that.”
20. Cersei Lannister
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
“Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.”
Tyrion Lannister: “She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love.”
19. Robb Stark
“Love’s not always wise, I’ve learned. It can lead us to great folly, but we follow our hearts … wherever they take us.”
“I have won every battle, yet somehow I’m losing the war.”
Rickard Karstark: “Yes, Lord Umber, leave me to the king. He means to give me a scolding before he forgives me. That’s how he deals with treason, our King in the North, or should I call you the King Who Lost the North, Your Grace?”
18. Sansa Stark
There are no heroes. . . In life, the monsters win.
The Hound is right . . . I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me.
Petyr Baelish: “Life is not a song, sweetling. Someday you may learn that, to your sorrow.”
17. Barristan Selmy
“I thank you, my lords…but I spit on your pity…I am a knight…I shall die a knight.”
Tywin Lannister: “Dismissing Selmy, where was the sense in that? Yes, the man was old, but the name of Barristan the Bold still has meaning in the realm.”
16. Jaqen H’ghar
“The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life. This girl took three that were his. This girl must give three in their places. Speak the names, and a man will do the rest.”
“Gods are not mocked. This is no joking thing.”
“A man has patrol duty.”
15. Tywin Lannister
“Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens.”
“When your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you.”
“You cannot eat love, nor buy a horse with it, nor warm your halls on a cold night.”
14. Tyrion Lannister
“Let me give you some advice, bastard. Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Make it your strength, and it can never be your weakness. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”
“Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.”
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
13. Arianne Martell
I was a foolish willful girl, playing at the game of thrones like a drunkard rolling dice.
12. Jon Snow
“Tell Robb that I’m going to command the Night’s Watch and keep him safe, so he might as well take up needlework with the girls and have Mikken melt down his sword for horseshoes.”
“Edd, fetch me a block.”
Catelyn Stark: Whoever Jon’s mother was, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away.”
11. Asha Greyjoy
Asha Greyjoy did not intend to be taken alive. She would die as she had lived, with an axe in her hand and a laugh upon her lips.
“At least we’ll die with our feet wet. Ironborn fight better with salt spray in their nostrils and the sound of waves at their backs.”
Her laughter drew more wolves to her, and she killed them too, wondering if she should start a count of her own. I am a woman wed, and here’s my suckling babe.
10. Melisandre
“These little wars are no more than a scuffle of children before what is to come. The one whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power … a power fell and evil and strong beyond measure. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never end … Unless true men find the courage to fight it. Men whose hearts are fire.”
“Alone we are born and alone we die, but as we walk through this black vale we draw strength from one another…”
I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow.
9. Arya Stark
I am the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate.
Gendry: “If you need help, bark like a dog.”
Arya: “That’s stupid. If I need help, I’ll shout ‘help’.”
8. Sandor Clegane
“What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it’s all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing.”
“There are no true knights, no more than there are gods. If you can’t protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Sharp steel and strong arms rule this world, don’t ever believe any different.”
“The septons preach about the seven hells. What do they know? Only a man who’s been burned knows what hell is truly like.”
7. Podrick Payne
“I’m his squire. But he left me.”
“I had a dog once. He was called Hero. He was a good dog. He died.”
Tyrion Lannister: It was Pod on the bridge of boats, the lad saved my life.
6. Davos Seaworth
“What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!”
Stannis Baratheon: “What is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?”
Davos: “Everything.”
5. Dolorous Edd
“The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints – ‘the ground’s too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do…'”
“Once they figure a way to work a dead horse, we’ll be next. Likely I’ll be the first too. ‘Edd,’ they’ll say, ‘dying’s no excuse for laying down no more, so get on up and take this spear, you’ve got first watch tonight.”
“I just want to say to whoever is voting for me that I would certainly make an awful Lord Commander. But so would all these others.”
4. Stannis Baratheon
“I ask you, why did the gods inflict me with brothers?”
“Her own father got this child on her? We are well rid of her, then. I will not suffer such abominations here. This is not King’s Landing.”
Asha Greyjoy: His eyes were sunk in deep pits, his close-cropped beard no more than a shadow across his hollow cheeks and bony jawbone. Yet there was power in his stare, an iron ferocity that told Asha this man would never, ever turn back from his course.
3. Theon Greyjoy
“I am the Prince of Winterfell! This is my seat, no man will drive me from it. No, nor no woman either!”
“I’m not him, I’m not the turncloak, he died at Winterfell. My name is Reek, It rhymes with freak.”
“Robb, who had been more a brother to Theon than any son born of Balon Greyjoy’s loins. Murdered at the Red Wedding, butchered by the Freys. I should have been with him. Where was I? I should have died with him.”
2. Bronn
“Careful now, don’t want to get blood all over that pretty white cloak.”
Lysa Tully: “You don’t fight with honour!”
Bronn: “No. He did.”
Catelyn Stark: She had seen Bronn fight on the high road; it was no accident that he had survived the journey while other men had died. He moved like a panther, and that ugly sword of his seemed a part of his arm.
1. Jaime Lannister
“The things I do for love.”
“There are no men like me. Only me.”
“I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act.”
“By what right does the wolf judge the lion? By what right?”
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