Which character is the saddest?

[House Beaudreau]

On 8/30/2015 at 3:02 PM, Lili Targaryen said:

Hi! I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. What characters do you personally think is the most upsetting or tragic, and has the saddest moments?

For me it would have to be Arya or Tyrion. They are the only characters, whose inner monologue has made me cry. I don't know why I find Arya so tragic, but moments like:

"She could feel the hole inside her every morning when she woke. It was a hollow place, an emptiness where her heart had been."
or "She dreamed of wolves most every night. (...) They would never leave her."
She just breaks my heart
And all the moments where Tyrion thinks about his childhood. Like where he dreamed about having a dragon of his own, and then found out they were all dead so he cried himself to sleep.

But what do you think? Sorry about my english

When thinking about the saddest characters, For some reason I always think of Quentyn Martell. He doesn't have the typical Martell good looks or really any of their charm either. He is sent from his home at a young age to be foster to a family that historically are at odds with his own. He is then sent on a Hero's quest only to suffer hardship at the hands of pirates, sellswords, dragons, and most of all spurred by the queen you were trusted to woe. 

Is he really dead? I don't know but if he is he is probably more burned up than the Hound making him even more sad in my eyes.  

[YOVMO]

Robert and Rheagar hands down

[Seams]

I agree with Elia Martell, Jeyne Poole and the victims of Gregor Clegane and the Tickler.

I'm surprised, though, that no one has mentioned Lady Hornwood. She loses her whole family, has to beg her liege lord to protect her from greedy suitors (and finds no help), no one wants to marry her for herself, Ramsay kidnaps, rapes and starves her, and she dies after eating her own fingers. Sad.

Falyse Stokeworth would make my top ten. She thought she was doing everything right, everything expected of her and she lost everything and was horribly tortured.

The Ghost of High Heart is also a tragic figure, but we don't really know why. Something to do with Jenny and the Prince of Dragonflies?

Lysa Arryn is very sad, but only for a couple of minutes.

 

[Lion of the West]

There are lots and lots of people to feel sad for in Westeros and another one is Lolly who is treated with reprehension, gets gang raped and odds are that the factions of others can well cause her more harm.

EDITED: And Lysa's life is incredibly sad given how she is treated like shit by her father and ruthlessly manipulated by what she thinks is her true love.

[Jaime4Brienne]

6 hours ago, LionoftheWest said:

There are lots and lots of people to feel sad for in Westeros and another one is Lolly who is treated with reprehension, gets gang raped and odds are that the factions of others can well cause her more harm.

EDITED: And Lysa's life is incredibly sad given how she is treated like shit by her father and ruthlessly manipulated by what she thinks is her true love.

Lolly for sure...and what Shae had to say about Lolly being gang raped made me hate her even more.

[Drogonthedread]

On 7/29/2016 at 1:16 PM, Tijgy said:

Theon, Jeyne, 

Bran too. He lost his legs, his dreams, his parents, his home, ... 

Bran was terrified that Summer was off dying in the darkness. Please, you old gods, he prayed, you took Winterfell, and my father, and my legs, please don't take Summer too. And watch over Jon Snow too, and make the wildlings go away.

 

 

These quotes actually reminded me about couple of dany's quotes which shows how much sad life she had led so far growing up ..

Quote

 When Ser Barristan did not dispute her, Dany closed her eyes. Gods, she prayed, you took Khal Drogo, who was my sun-and-stars. You took our valiant son before he drew a breath. You have had your blood of me. Help me now, I pray you. Give me the wisdom to see the path ahead and the strength to do what I must to keep my children safe.
The gods did not respond.
When she opened her eyes again, Daenerys said, “I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one with out. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me. The whole city. I need … I need …” She could not say it.
“Your Grace?” Ser Barristan prompted, gently. A queen belongs not to herself but to her people. “I need Hizdahr zo Loraq.

Quote

  I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn’t have done that. He wasn’t just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?

 

Most of the characters are named already so I will just add little rhaenys rhaeegar's daughter and dany ..

Rhaenys poor girl didn't know dad had already died but hides in his bedside hoping he will come and save her. .

Dany never had a family and home ...all she wants is house with a red door and someone to call family...growing up as poor and beggers and pawns in other games with only an abusive brother ( who himself is very sad ).afraid of their lives running from city to city ..

And after all the suffering thats where her compassion for those people comes from ..

 

[Elisabetta Duò]

It depends on what you mean with 'sad'.

(annoyingly) pathetic?Tragic? Depressing? unable to generate sympathy or at the contrary moving?

my answers would be different ...

I find Penny annoyingly pathetic and Theon at times as well. Jeyne Poole is another helpless character.

I think Viserys was the epithome of the deluded person hence quite sad. Everyone but him could see how deluded he was..which makes him kinda pathetic really.

Stannis is a very sad character.. he might have been a tragic hero if shaped differently (you know, more like Rhaegar), but as GRRM shaped him, he comes across as a 'little' man in the end not as a tragic giant (it's not a moral judgement, just as a whole) ... he's pathetic/depressing/unsympatetic... he was a deluded man, stern and rigid towards himself and towards anybody else to the point of being utterly unsympathetic, who wasted his chance and the life of his followers and was blinded to the point he killed his daughter (if the books follow the show on this).

Rickon and Myrcella and Tommen are very sad (as pathetic/depressing) characters too, people who can't truly fight for themselves, who don't have the required strenght to live in that world, losers who don't have any chance of survival and you just feel / know this since the start.

Arya and Tyrion are quite sympathetic characters I think (at least to me), they have tragic arches but I wouldn't call them 'sad', they are tragic characters in the 'big' way, they both resemble characters taken straight from the greek tragedy. Tyrion especially is a tragic hero... his arch might be the most tragic (with his death or if he lost his faith and started to seek revenge in the most cruel way) or the most successful, being able to be wiser but compassionate as his his pre-murder self was and at the same time to get revenge against the ones who wronged him. Tyrion is my fave character (I wouldn't say he likes to kill at all, btw), Arya is in my top5.

 

 

 

[Jon's Queen Consort]

On 30/7/2016 at 1:34 AM, YOVMO said:

Rheagar

Come on! How Rhaegar is a sad character? He was an emo but not a sad character.

[YOVMO]

5 minutes ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

Come on! How Rhaegar is a sad character? He was an emo but not a sad character.

I disagree whole heartedly. Rhaegar would appear to have had it all. Handsome, talented, well loved, the right family name. But he had visions of a very frightening future and made decisions in order to fulfil a prophecy which ultimately undid him, everyone he cared about and was the (at least effective) cause of the fall of his house. He seems to have been weighed down by the tonnage of this knowledge his entire life and with his death came his childrens deathes, his wifes rape and murder, the child bed death of his lover and the fall of house targaryen

[hitman47]

Cersei lannister she belives that her own brother will kill her when she was just a kid. Her son died and another 2 kids are mark for death

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Just now, hitman47 said:

Cersei lannister she belives that her own brother will kill her when she was just a kid. Her son died and another 2 kids are mark for death

She also killed her friend when she was 10 and abused her brother when she was 6. She is a psychopath not a sad character.

3 minutes ago, YOVMO said:

I disagree whole heartedly. Rhaegar would appear to have had it all. Handsome, talented, well loved, the right family name. But he had visions of a very frightening future and made decisions in order to fulfil a prophecy which ultimately undid him, everyone he cared about and was the (at least effective) cause of the fall of his house. He seems to have been weighed down by the tonnage of this knowledge his entire life and with his death came his childrens deathes, his wifes rape and murder, the child bed death of his lover and the fall of house targaryen

We have no idea if he had visions or it was his own wishful thinking. What we know so far it seems to be delusional narcissist who for some reason believed that he was the one who would save the world. What happened to him is his own fault.

[hitman47]

Cersei liked her little brother's dick she didnt know it was hurting him she was just a child. But she give him love i have  got a theory that Cersei = Tysha

[Jon's Queen Consort]

3 minutes ago, hitman47 said:

Cersei = Tysha

Wut?

[YOVMO]

33 minutes ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

She also killed her friend when she was 10 and abused her brother when she was 6. She is a psychopath not a sad character.

People always forget that Cercei murdered someone at 10 lol

Quote

We have no idea if he had visions or it was his own wishful thinking. What we know so far it seems to be delusional narcissist who for some reason believed that he was the one who would save the world. What happened to him is his own fault.

 

I feel that the description you give is one that Rhaegar gets labelled with too frequently and it is, er hem, sad itself. Whenever someone has a very deep internal life and doesn't feel the need to explain himself to others he gets labeled a delusional narcissist.

Also, we do know that Targaryen's have a history of having prophetic visions -- especially with regard to huge world altering events like Dany the Dreamer. Also, he came to believe that it wasn't him who was going to save the world but his son and, due in large parts to actions which taken separately seem unconnected, he proceded on a course that put his son, a child born of ice and fire, at the wall as lord commander of the Nights Watch just at the very moment when the Others have, for some reason, returned and seem to be preparing to mount an attack.

 

Its not parranoia if everyone is actually out to get you.

 

If Rhaegar had a vision not unlike Dany's vision about the Doom of Valyria and knew he was going to have to forfeit his own life, the loves of everyone he loved and bring an end to the Targaryen dynasty in order to position the PTWP in such a way that he can be in the vanguard of the great war at just the precise time then, yes, I would say he was an incredibly sad character.

 

AFTER THOUGHT: I think that one of the best ways we have to learn about Rheagar is the way Barriston speaks about him (as Whitebeard) to Dany. He really loved, admired and respected Rhaegar. Barriston doesn't strike me as someone who would feel like that automatically. His devotion went beyond the King's Guard / Prince relationship. In Barriston's love for Rhaegar I think we see Rhaegar as something much more than a spoiled emo prince.

[Endymion I Targaryen]

Catelyn. She lost nearly everything and 4/5 children (at least she believed that).

[Future Null Infinity]

Robert Baratheon : Sadness since the death of Lyanna until his death

Catelyn Stark : the emotions of a mother who lost her husband and her sons

Sansa Stark : " If Lady was here, I would not be afraid. Lady was dead, though; Robb, Bran, Rickon, Arya, her father, her mother, even Septa Mordane. All of them are dead but me. She was alone in the world now. " 

[Lurid Jester]

 

On August 30, 2015 at 6:07 PM, Kasporio said:

Yep and how many children died cuz of Ned, Robert, Robb, Stannis... rightfull crusades to ride the kingdom of evil ? When ISIS burn a village to the ground, enslave and kill people its wrong. When a drone pilot in utah burns a school or hospital to ashes its democracy. Who's right ?

Wow... Way to take this down an unnecessary path much less the implication those two things have any kind of parity. 

[black_hart]

Not mentioned so far:

Roslin Tully - worst family to grow up in, arranged marriage, happens to like the groom, only to have her family slaughter the grooms family, quasi-prisoner while pregnant, praying for a girl 'cause a son means death to her husband, potentially saved by being moved to Casterly Rock (did it happen?), but she will still be sort of a prisoner there.

Jeyne Stark - meets love of her life, queen. Betrayed by own family. Blamed for the death of her husband / loathed for a betrayal (the part of family coordinating with Lannisters) she had no part in.

[Drabanten]

Sandor for me... 

[Osric]

I have to say I had never thought about Jeyne Poole, however I agree with her story as the sadest. Arya could be there too, but because of the background they come from, Jeyne from a vassal family and Arya being highborn, I stay with Jeynne and of course all the smallfolk suffering between the wars of the lords.

And I need to put Nymeria the direwolf and also Dog, Pretty pig and poor Crunch just to remember them.