Jump to content

Best ASOIAF Villains?


Pinkie Baelish

Recommended Posts

Because villains are just so much more fascinating than heroes. Who do you think are the best villains in the series?

My list:

1. Littlefinger-The Iago of A Song of Ice and Fire and one of my favourite characters(hence my name, duh).

2. Tywin Lannister- The evil, oppressive authority figure is a common type of villain, and no other character exemplifies more to me than the Lord of Casterly Rock. A fascinating character.

3. Theon Greyjoy- Easily one of the most complex characters in the series, and a great example of a tragic villain.

4. Ramsay Bolton- Evil at its purest form. This sicko makes Joffrey look like Mother Teresa. Just one of those guys who you love to hate. Or love, if you're one of those creeps that writes Theon-Ramsay fan fiction.

So, who's the best of the worst in your books?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Villains I love to hate in no particular order (as in villains who I want to get their comeuppance in a very huge karmic way, but wouldn't mind a few more chapters before they go up in flames [obviously does not apply to Joffrey]).

Ramsay (fascinated with the Theon/Reek dynamic in a chilling and hair-raising way, but would rather not know about the raping and flaying)

Joffrey

Cersei

Varys

Littlefinger

Villains I'm "meh" on:

Roose

Tywin

Victarion

Villains I despise (got nothing out of their literary existence other than blood-boiling rage):

Gregor

Craster

Walder Frey

Euron

ETA: Clarification, as some members were apparently under the impression I was actually enamored with Ramsay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really there is only one villian that I "like" and that is Euron, and that is only really due to how he turns the whole game on its head when he attacks the Reach. What seemed a nigh inevitable victory for the Lannister's was undone by his order to invade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really there is only one villian that I "like" and that is Euron, and that is only really due to how he turns the whole game on its head when he attacks the Reach. What seemed a nigh inevitable victory for the Lannister's was undone by his order to invade.

Grrr! How could I forget the Greyjoys? Please place Euron under "despised" and Victarion under "meh".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Tywin on the whole wins this one for me, closely followed by Roose (if you define him as a villain). The reason for why I put Tywin as number one is because he is just a normal Lord doing what he thinks is best for his House, his cause or his honour etc. He isnt strong or fearsome as Gregor or terrifying as Ramsay and yet he is more dangerous then either. His attitude aswell as his resources makes him a formidable villain and yet in the end he is just a man and not all that different from other men in Westeros. Roose is more appearent from the beginning, IE with the flaying and the reputation of the Dreadfort etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we're talking about the most effective villain from a literary, story-telling standpoint, I guess my picks would be Joffrey, Tywin, and Littlefinger. Joffrey essentially lacks the greyness that define most of the characters in this series, but I love how he's slowly revealed to be a monster throughout AGoT and then descends completely in the following two volumes. He's a great antagonist to Tyrion and Sansa in those books, and his death happens no sooner or later than it should have (again, from a narrative standpoint - he of course deserved to die a much slower death much earlier in the books).

Tywin is built up as the most dangerous man in Westeros, but once we start seeing him regularly in Storm we learn that there's a bit more to him than meets the eye. Spawns fascinating relationships with his three children that haunt them long after his genital displacement.

We can't root for Baelish, but we can watch dumfounded as he continues to rule the damn world. There's a certain pathos in his story too, cause it's kind of like...Revenge of the Nerd.

In terms of creepiest villain, Joffrey is still up there, along with Euron, the Boltons, and I suppose Gregor. Gregor is largely functional, though, and the Boltons sometimes seem to be just exaggerated versions of Tywin and Joff respectively. We've not seen Euron do enough yet: The POV characters who have been most threatened by him at this point are his two brothers, neither of whom are the most likeable of fellows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are some effective, accomplished and very well-written villains:

-Tywin - ruthlessly pragmatic Machiavellian figure

-Roose - emotionless opportunist known for his cunning

-Littlefinger - master player and manipulator, truly a Magnificent Bastard

- ETA: Theon (how could I miss him?) - had good intentions, but due to his vices and unfortunate circumstances he digged himself deeper and deeper

I despise three of them as characters and personas, but they all make wonderful villains, much more interesting then "obvious evil" guys like Joffrey, Vargo, Gregor etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obvious to anyone who reads most of my posts, Roose is my favorite and most fascinating villain in the series. Roose is a great character, period. He's a fun villain, like a horror movie monster -- he is, after all, heavily inspired by Vlad the Impaler and Lady Bathory, the original inspirations for Count Dracula/the modern Vampire, spurring some of us to float the crackpot theory that Roose is or might be trying to become whatever the Westeros version of a vampire would be himself -- but regardless of whether my fever dream is correct, Roose taps into that morbid appeal that horror movie monsters have.

Joffrey is, echoing what was said earlier, is the most effective villain. There's no shades of gray with Joffrey, no complex motivation that threatens to make him sympathetic or undermine him with a strain of redemption or antiheroism (as has befallen his biological father Jaime). There's just pure, visceral, pro-wrestling crowd booing the heel reaction. A man might love to hate Roose, or Littlefinger, but Joffrey's so well constructed that he cuts through all that and the fact that you know better and that it's just a work of fiction and you're screaming at your book for someone to finally ice this asshole. You don't love to hate Joffrey, you just plain hate him.

Viserys was in a similar vein as Joffrey, but he got what was coming to him so comparatively early in the series that he tends to not show up in this discussion ranked as highly as he might otherwise deserve. Viserys doesn't really "escape" his just deserts for any length of time. Joffrey is horrible and he gets away with it, and its not even due to any guile or skill or power on his part (Littlefinger, at least, is clearly outsmarting people).

And Cersei needs to get serious love as this thread goes on. She's fantastically evil and has been since she first stepped out of King Robert's procession and into Winterfell way back at the beginning of Game Of Thrones. Cersei may not have the slasher flick appeal that the Boltons bring to the table, but she can still twirl her mustache (despite not actually having one) in a way that would make any one dimensional saturday morning cartoon villain proud -- or violently jealous since we're talking bad guys here. She's MEAN. She's selfish. She's petty. She's paranoid. She cheats to win. And she's outlasted her son and her dad, and every time you think it looks like she's finally been beaten, or she's going to come to her senses and see things more objectively... NOPE. She comes back even worse than ever, and her opus on this front still seems yet to come as she has started showing subtlety, feigning being broken in the wake of her walk of shame. Throwing her in jail has, as it often does, only caused her to learn how to be a better criminal.

Euron The Crow's Eye hasn't quite had the screen time to compete with the above villains yet, but every page he shows up on gleams with his evil potential. His villain star can only rise from here. "I'm the most godly man alive! People all over the world start praying when they see me coming!" When Damphair indignantly objects that Euron's victims to be are praying to false gods and it should not count, Euron counters with "Yeah, and then prove their gods are false by killing them all. :D" He's not my favorite yet, but he'll be right in the thick of the conversation once TWOW comes out and he is at last able to add to his resume.

Sandor, Jamie, and arguably even Victarion(?) are, I think, more antiheroes than true villains -- a series of this nature and an author seeking to avoid traditional black and white good/evil like GRRM is -- is going to end up heavy in the antihero department.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Theon is probably the most interesting

Tywin with his pride

LF

Varys

Roose

Ramsay

Jon Connington for the future

I struggle to categorize Theon as an outright villain. There are so many layers to his situation, I almost prefer putting him and Jaime in a class of their own. Both have done despicable things, but at their core, I believe both have a conscience that they are sometimes at odds with, while other times actually do the good and honorable thing. Bottom line, brilliant characters...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...