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Top 10 Best Written Characters?

Pinkie Baelish

By Pinkie Baelish,
in General (ASoIaF)

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Northbound2.0 Landed Knight

Northbound2.0

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1a Theon


1b Jaime


2 Arya



HUGE drop between the rest



3 Sansa


4 Tyrion


5 Cersei


6 Cat


7 Ned


8 Bran


9 Jon


10 Asha



I should note and be honest; Dany dropped from high on my list in the middle of SoS and fell off it in DwD. Before those two books, she was easily in my top 6. It is not because of who or what she did, but because of the slow pace.

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The Fourth Head Council Member

The Fourth Head

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ha! what a cool thread buried away.



Best Written Characters? Hmmm, certainly this is not about favourites.



1) Theon - Starting out with conflicted identity, provoked into acts of betrayal due to his manliness being challenged, to his total destruction of self, and probable castration together with being terrorised into unwilling acts of betrayal. It's a bitterly ironic story line. His first act of rebellion was him trying to be a man- but he was really being a coward. His second act of rebellion was when he became a man- despite having lost his identity and his penis. A weak man swallowed up and destroyed, before finding strength from somewhere in the pit of dispair. Harrowing- teaches me to sympathise with the most contemptible and understand how terrible acts can be motivated, and how betrayal is really self-betrayal and can lead to the destruction of self. A worthy lesson.



2) Tyrion- just so many nuances: Highest Born, yet physically reviled. Deceived into believing that gold was only way he could receive affection, which Im sure can resonate with anyone rich and physically unappealing. Tragic. Realises sharpening his mind is his best way to thrive. Realises he needs to turn his weakness into a strength. Contributes so many witty wisdoms, it's impossible to know where to begin. A brilliant character utterly free of cliche and predictability. Manages to turn patricide into a sympathetic act, despite kinslaying being such a heinous crime in Westeros.



3) Jamie Lannister- wittily written, a brilliant example of never judging a book by its cover, despite being apparently utterly irredeemable. A brilliant posthumous reflection on Ned's character, and possibly LS's, to challenge the "Starks good Lannisters bad" trope using this character from where he starts out is a masterstroke. A truly rigorous examination of what duty and honour really means.



4) Ned Stark- for his total subversion of the trope that good will triumph. If you are good and just and honourable, and you shy away from tough and dirty acts, you will come out on top. False. Brilliant. A massive contribution to literature. Indeed, his ending opened up all manner of questions regarding the line between honour and pragmatism, and Jamie added a further dimension regarding the infallability of the Starks actually coming across as judgemental and inflexible. But Ned was a necessary starting point for these sophisticated ideas to branch from.



5) Dany and Drogon- Drogon as the living fire breathing embodiment of Danearys' anguish, her suffering, her rage, and her wrath. Dany is Arya in many ways, albeit further along in her development, less misanthropic, yet with far more power at her fingertips. When you have someone so cruelly treated by life, with so much destructive capacity, so many reasons to hate, yet still such capacity and desire to love, you have a thrilling tension. I have never been so torn throughout her story line between love and hate, wrath and caution. At one point Dracharys is the most cathartic moment in the series, the next, it's the most wrecklessly cruel. Then there are the contemptible slavers may you seriously consider brutal acts as the only way whilst deep down there is the insidious voice "burn them ALL!" Does that make me mad too!? Dany is a magnificent tension and Drogon is what ramps it all up to fever pitch- the crazily destructive product of a powerful woman's self-righteous wrath. Pure gold.



6) Varys For the sheer depth, nuance, and detail. Anyone who can play a game this long has things to teach me! His lesson about power being a trick was excellent



7) Littlefinger- Similar. He's fascinating and has so much to offer in terms of lateral thinking and problem solving. His scene with the potted Hare in Tyrion's solar was a masterpiece of writing.



8) Sandor Clegane- For having the clarity of thought and lack of pretention to debunk myths and speak hard truths. And to reveal the festering damage an act of cruelty can have on an otherwise decent person. Great tension in this character.



9) Bran- brilliant lateral solution in terms of what to do with a crippled boy in a marshal world. The boy sees something that could destroy his enemies so he is thrown out of a window. Now he may end up seeing everyone secrets past and present. Life has so many possibilities! I guess the metaphor is the freedom the mind and imagination offers, even if you are crippled. Truly uplifting.



10) Roose Bolton- because even now, midway through season 4 of the tv series, my bf asks me "Who's Roose Bolton?" and for that, I doft my hat to the character and the actor. A quiet land, a peaceful people... how to steal the North from the Starks, stab the King in the North through the heart, break guest right, flay men, occupy lots of screen time, speak many lines, and yet, his name goes unremembered. I hope the show keeps him as softly spoken and menacing as the books.



Honourable mentions.



Arya and Catelyn, who really aught to be higher on the list, yet I cannot wrap my head around them other than Catelyn being...a mother. protective, brave, and flawed, and Arya- surviving and desperate to be able to wield some control over the chaos death and injustice surrounding her life. Very sympathetic, but I'm not sure whether I appreciate anything fundamental, fresh or new there. I'm probably missing some universal lesson in their story.



Same for Sansa- she does what she has to do in that circumstance- forget her true feelings, lie politely and do as she's told. Hell, I do that every day and I'm certainly no hero. Until she starts acting with her own agenda, I cannot really appreciate her as anything other than a character deserving sympathy- to which, disenfranchised women married off have always deserved. From Pawn to Pawn should be her current manta after 5 books, though I expect that to change soon. I really cannot see much skill on display or moments that really make me think.



And same for Davos- he is a father, he lost his sons, he supports Stannis- he does what he can. He is a good guy, a sympathetic guy, but there is nothing earth shattering about him- nothing complex, or particularly interesting- just, he is likeable and does what he can and I would probably have done the same in his shoes. Wow...



Cercei I really want to put on my list as very entertaining and engaging, but I can't articulate why. Her win or die speech and her tearing up of Robert's will was magnificent.


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SerArthurHeath Council Member

SerArthurHeath

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Let's just say that characterisation is something GRRM does very well, whether it's flamboyant characters, subtle ones or deep ones, it's hard to pick 10 fairly because there's so much difference between the above and well-written is different for each, and POV vs non-POV is a whole new ball game. Easier to pick out the less well written characters

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Batbob45 Council Member

Batbob45

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1.Davos(I enjoy every chapter he was in so far )


2.Shireen(She like a nicer female Tyrion and all her appearance be great)


3.Arya(more badass then hitgirl and had to suvide outside of King's landing)


4.Patches(he a riddle)


5.Sansa- dislike her at first, but once she saw reality it got good


6.Dany(at the beginning, she was interesting, but then she got boring


7.Tyrion-like him at first but after the shireen's rumor and his road to a dark side, his story might get darker than any character in the books


8..Stannis(one of my favorite but he did some dumb things I don't get)


9.Jon-He ok but most of his chapter have to much heroics


10. Renly- shallow charactor


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Annara Snow Council Member

Annara Snow

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It is difficult to rank them, epecially before the story is over, so I won't. In no particular order, out of the POV characters, I would say that Tyrion, Jaime, Theon, Arya, Sansa, Dany are best written with Cersei, Catelyn, Ned, Jon close by; I also disagree with everyone who disliked Brienne's POV, I really enjoyed her portrayal in her chapters. It would probably be easier to list POV characters that are not so well written.

Out of the non POV characters, Sandor is definitely #1; followed by Stannis, Littlefinger, Varys, Jorah, Robert Baratheon....

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  • 2 months later...
AlaynConY Freerider

AlaynConY

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Hi, I'm new on the forum, although I've been following it for a while.



I just registered because I wanted to write down my list of characters, and specifically because I've got one who hadn't appeared so far.



Ok, let's go...



1. Littlefinger.-> He has appeared quite a lot in previous lists, and sometimes as the first. I don't agree with those who consider him a counterpart to Varys. He is quite like Varys, in some ways... and Varys is quite like him... but I don't know, he has something, a charm, a way of schemming, a cleverness.. that I think goes way further than all of us can guess. I love the fact of him not being a POV, that enhances that veil of mistery that envolves him.



2. Jon -> I know, he is like the classic "good guy" that tries to do always the right thing and so on... but that as well makes him portray all the difficulties coming along with being a good leader. I love that "kill the boy" issue that accompanies him all along ADWD. His struggle with the leadership and the ever-lasting search of the right option, with the big bear's shadow looming over him, is what turns him in the most appealing POV character for me.



3. Brynden "Blackfish" Tully ->He is my "underdog" (understand by underdog someone who is not among the most talked characters but has chances of doing something of relevance). He is the most badass of the "good guys", beginning from the origin of his nickname. He was the real brain behind the Young Wolf's victories, and a quite seasoned fighter, I think that a big role is expected of him. He is out there, up for something... and his whereabouts are one of the biggest open questions for me. (Although, knowing GRRM, it wouldn't be unexpected that his corpse appeared somewhere along the Trident...).



4. Tyrion -> It was my favorite character when I just watched the show. When I started to read the books I went on liking him, his fears, his lifelong (and vain) ambition of gettng respected by his father... and I liked it further, for sure, since he is one of the best POVs. But I guess... other characters just surpassed him in my mind :)



5. Varys -> Probably the most relevant character in the main plot of the series. The hand in the darkness who moves the most powerful pieces along and across the board... LF is more a survivor, an opportunist who learns how to gain the most of each circumstance. Varys is the one who "creates" the circumstances... Oh, I don't know, both of them are "the" players, but I'm quite the fan of LF, that's it :)



6. Roose Bolton -> "The" antagonist. Twyin would probably be above him if not were because of his terrible mistake by understimating Tyrion. Roose seems like the kind of man who would never do such a thing (ok, he let Ramsay kill his firstborn and heir... but doesn't seem quite bothered by that). He is cold-blooded and very, very intelligent, with the sense of strategy of Tywin and without a trace of the craze of Ramsay or Joffrey. I see him as an improved Tywin, yeah.



7. Tywin -> "The" antagonist until he made the terrible mistake of understimating his son, basically.



8. Euron -> I love all the Greyjoys plot. We still know very little of the Croweye, but he seems one of the most promising characters for the following books, and his scheme to steal the dragons is quite thrilling. Will he let himself being beaten by Victarion? I doubt it so...



9. Asha -> 100% Greyjoy. Totally badass, even when being held as a prisoner. High expectations in her character.



10. Davos -> Love his plot and waiting to see where that bring-us-Rickon plan is going.


10A. Barristan Selmy -> The knight who has been condemned to serve the wrong kings... I started to like him when he left the Throne Room in that awesome way...




PS: Sorry if my English is a bit confusing, I'm Spanish.


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Lord Reaver Council Member

Lord Reaver

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1. Theon.



Rest, why even bother? They don't even reach to his knees as far as character depth and how well written his chapters are. But eh, I suppose for the sake of completeness.



2. Sandor.



3. Jaime. Both of these two have pretty much the same reversal of expectations trick, but it works.



4. Sansa. Much subtle changes in this one, and a very believable depiction.



5. Tyrion.



6. Daenerys.



7. Cersei.



8. Jon Snow.



9. Victarion.



10. Tywin.


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7-String Freerider

7-String

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POV Characters



Tyrion - Incredibly funny / observant lines from GRRM. And very human in his failings / nastiness. Tyrion really resonates with the reader (well to me anyway)



Arya - The "young assassin girl" is a cliche but GRRM really melds the spunky loveable kid with the dark killer really well. No matter who she kills I can't stop cheering for her.



Theon - Haunting



Davos - Everything he does seems to make perfect sense and yet he doesn't 'belong' anywhere. He's trying to make sense of the world just like us readers.



Jaime - I can't figure him out even though he's a POV character. Mostly because he can't figure himself out. Is he smart? Stupid? Honourable? wicked? Is he trying to be Tywin / Tyrion now? Very complex and impossible to predict...



Catelyn - Another strong but haunting character.



Non-POV Characters



Varys - The most intriguing character in the book



Edd - Need I say more?



Thoros & the rest of the Brotherhood



Stannis - another enigma.


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The Holy Goat Council Member

The Holy Goat

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Best Written? Very difficult, so many characters are well written.



1, Theon Greyjoy - There is no more well-written character in the series. A wonderfully tragic character. His inner dilemmas, the way he can be extremely unlikable yet so very sympathetic, the way he starts to slowly regain his identity after having it purged from him... brilliant.



2, Jaime Lannister - One of few to give Theon competition in this ranking, Jaime is similar. He starts out as a very unlikable individual, but turns out to be far more complex and far more likeable than many previously thought, and always gives the reader some good entertainment. Well done GRRM!



3, Stannis Baratheon - Designed to be an unlikeable principles zealot, yet surprisingly entertaining nontheless, despite his rather unpleasant personality, and shown to have more layers and more internal dilemmas than originally thought. Don't know if he is the king to root for, but he's certainly charismatic in a very uncharismatic way.



4, Sandor Clegane - A sympathetic yet horrible anti-villain, he is on of the best takes on the type I've seen. Like him or not, one doesn't remain unmoved by anything he does, good or bad. Steals the scene whenever he turns up, and one can never know exactly what he will do, since he's so incredibly complex.



5, Tyrion Lannister - A very realistic a deep portrayal of a dwarf, especially in a medieval setting. The greyest of the grey morally, capable of doing horrible deeds and good actions yet he always remaing entertaining and fascinating, and one wonders what he will do next.



6, Roose Bolton - One of the most frightening individuals in the series, he's something umhuman hiding in human skin. He's also a good trolling bastard: just look at his actions when dining Jaime and Brienne. That dinner was set up to highlight his "guests" insecurities (Brienne in an ugly dress, food which can't be eaten with only one hand), which only makes him all the more unsettling. Psycholagical warfare at it's most subtle.



7, Catelyn Tully - An extremely divisive character with both unlikable and admirable traits. She's a usually levelheaded individual, yet one who more often than not let's her heart rule her actions. Her personal biases, as well as her upringing and role as a highborn lady make her extremely fascinating to me. I can understand her so well, but she is blind to so many of her own flaws... just as many humans are. Very well written.



8, Jon Snow - A character many can associate with, Jon is the unfazed everyman, and a reconstruction of the classic hero character. He is a kind individual without neccessarily being a friendly one, a practical individual while still being an idealistic one, a caring individual without necessarily being a warm one. All of this makes him very real in my eyes, and he's probably the most normal person so far in the series, demonstrating what a normal person is capable of.



9, Eddard Stark - One of the best tragic characters I've ever come across, his fate was sad and unexpected, and a catalyst for much of the series. GRRM actually succeded into a false sense of security, only to pull out the rug from underneath my feet. Well done I say!



10, Varys - The enigma of the series, Varys is a mysterious individual done right. A manipulative, scheming, planning, decietful eunuch who still manages to be oddly enjoyable. All while having some of the best lines in a series of great lines. Can't wait to see more of Varys.


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