Top 10 Best Written Characters?

[Sir Bronn]

1.Sandor Clegane

2.Duncan the Tall

3.Tyrion Lannister

4.Jaime Lannister

5.Barristan Selmy

6.Eddard Stark

7.Jon Snow

8.Varys

9.Arya

10.Littlefinger

[Ser Eric]

Theon is the best written character in the series by a considerable distance. Jaime comes in a distant second. Then the likes of Stannis, Davos, Sandor, Sansa prop up the list.

[OmnomnomPomelo]

Well, I don't want to make a particular order, but for me they are for example Tywin Lannister, Sandor Clegane, Davos Seaworth, Ned Stark, Littlefinger, Barristan Selmy, Doran Martell.

[INCBlackbird]

I think Theon Greyjoy is the best written character in anything ever.

THIS!!

[INCBlackbird]

1. Theon Greyjoy AKA Reek

(massive gap)

2. Cersei Lannister

3. Jaime Lannister

(big gap)

4. Sansa Stark

5 Jon Snow

6. Ramsay Bolton

7. Lancel Lannister

8. Roose Bolton

9. Arya Stark

10. Tyrion Lannister

[123456750]

Catelyn, Sansa, Jaime, Theon, Sam, Ygritte, Tyrion, Brienne, Davos.

[BalerionTheCat]

Those and more are in a close knot. But to give 10 and in order:

1. Jaime
   
2. Sansa
   
3. Theon
   
4. Davos
   
5. Littlefinger
   
6. Sandor
   
7. Tyrion
   
8. Varys
   
9. Brienne
   
10. Cersei
    

[Lord of the Dreadfort]

1. Theon

2. Petyr

3. Tyrion

4. Sandor

5. Roose

6. Ramsay

7. Jaime

8. Arya

9. Stannis

10. Davos

[Mad Madam Mim]

I havn't got the brain space to put them on any particular order, but i have selected these characters because they seem the most fully fleshed out characters and spring to life on the page.

Sandor

Jaime

Sansa

Theon

Ned

Littlefinger

Davos

Tyrion

[WenchofTarth]

Jaime

Brienne

Tyrion

Theon

Eddard

Stannis

Arya

Sansa

Varys

Roose Bolton

[Petyr's Little Finger]

1. Theon Greyjoy

2. Jaime Lannister

3. Eddard Stark

4. Sansa Stark

5. Sandor Clegane

6. Stannis Baratheon

7. Sansa Stark

8. Doran Martell

9. Petyr Baelish

10.Arya Stark

[Spencer Bjorklund]

1. Reek

2. Jaime Lannister

3. Jon snow

4. Tyrion Lannister

5. Catelynn stark

6. Cersei Lannister

7. Jorah Mormont

8. The hound

9. Arya stark

10. Robb stark

[Julia Martell]

I wish I was surprised by the fact that my girl Arianne has got zero love on this thread, but, yeah, I’m use to it by now. She’s in six chapters, only three of which are in her own POV and she’s as fleshed out as some other characters are after three or four books with them. I can go on for pages about her (and I have). I wouldn’t say she’s the #1 best written character, mostly because I don’t know what that means exactly, but she’s unjustly overlooked, both as a character and as an authorial achievement.

You know who’s not overlooked as an authorial achievement? Reek. And good for him because he deserves it. But I have to say, the POV doesn’t really shine until aDwD. Theon in aCoK is average in terms of Martin’s POV characters, which still means very good, but just not on the same plane as Reek.

Eddard in aGoT. OMG, who knew a significant chunk of aSoIaF was actually a roman à clef?

Catelyn. I still haven’t quite figured her out. I know she has an internalized patriarchy issue, and it’s fascinating.

Some of Arya’s chapters in the last two books are some of the best written in the entire series, The Blind Girl is just so wonderfully lyrical, but I’m not sure if that has much to do with her character. It’s weird.

Cersei is also weird because, like, the closer I look at Arianne or Catelyn or Eddard the more nuanced and complex they become, but the closer I look at Cersei the more shallow she becomes, like all her self justifications fall away and she becomes “just”, like, not a good person. I think this was intentional, in which case, good job.

I know it’s not ten and it’s not in any kind of order.... sorry OP.

[SeanF]

I wish I was surprised by the fact that my girl Arianne has got zero love on this thread, but, yeah, I’m use to it by now. She’s in six chapters, only three of which are in her own POV and she’s as fleshed out as some other characters are after three or four books with them. I can go on for pages about her (and I have). I wouldn’t say she’s the #1 best written character, mostly because I don’t know what that means exactly, but she’s unjustly overlooked, both as a character and as an authorial achievement.

You know who’s not overlooked as an authorial achievement? Reek. And good for him because he deserves it. But I have to say, the POV doesn’t really shine until aDwD. Theon in aCoK is average in terms of Martin’s POV characters, which still means very good, but just not on the same plane as Reek.

Eddard in aGoT. OMG, who knew a significant chunk of aSoIaF was actually a roman à clef?

Catelyn. I still haven’t quite figured her out. I know she has an internalized patriarchy issue, and it’s fascinating.

Some of Arya’s chapters in the last two books are some of the best written in the entire series, The Blind Girl is just so wonderfully lyrical, but I’m not sure if that has much to do with her character. It’s weird.

Cersei is also weird because, like, the closer I look at Arianne or Catelyn or Eddard the more nuanced and complex they become, but the closer I look at Cersei the more shallow she becomes, like all her self justifications fall away and she becomes “just”, like, not a good person. I think this was intentional, in which case, good job.

I know it’s not ten and it’s not in any kind of order.... sorry OP.

Arianne would likely be up there, if she had more chapters. I loved your re-read, but up till now, she's been a fairly marginal character. But, that's likely to change in TWOW.

[The Broke Howard Hughes]

Cersei's absolute insanity is fun to read. She's incredibly well written.

[Julia Martell]

Arianne would likely be up there, if she had more chapters. I loved your re-read, but up till now, she's been a fairly marginal character. But, that's likely to change in TWOW.

The fact that she a marginal character and is so well developed is kind of my point. But I’m not going to argue with any love from you, Sean. :love:

And how is Doran getting so much love and not her?

[TrueOrFalse]

The fact that she a marginal character and is so well developed is kind of my point. But I’m not going to argue with any love from you, Sean. :love:

And how is Doran getting so much love and not her?

It seems to me that the majority dislike Doran. :dunno:

[INCBlackbird]

I wish I was surprised by the fact that my girl Arianne has got zero love on this thread, but, yeah, I’m use to it by now. She’s in six chapters, only three of which are in her own POV and she’s as fleshed out as some other characters are after three or four books with them. I can go on for pages about her (and I have). I wouldn’t say she’s the #1 best written character, mostly because I don’t know what that means exactly, but she’s unjustly overlooked, both as a character and as an authorial achievement.

You know who’s not overlooked as an authorial achievement? Reek. And good for him because he deserves it. But I have to say, the POV doesn’t really shine until aDwD. Theon in aCoK is average in terms of Martin’s POV characters, which still means very good, but just not on the same plane as Reek.

Eddard in aGoT. OMG, who knew a significant chunk of aSoIaF was actually a roman à clef?

Catelyn. I still haven’t quite figured her out. I know she has an internalized patriarchy issue, and it’s fascinating.

Some of Arya’s chapters in the last two books are some of the best written in the entire series, The Blind Girl is just so wonderfully lyrical, but I’m not sure if that has much to do with her character. It’s weird.

Cersei is also weird because, like, the closer I look at Arianne or Catelyn or Eddard the more nuanced and complex they become, but the closer I look at Cersei the more shallow she becomes, like all her self justifications fall away and she becomes “just”, like, not a good person. I think this was intentional, in which case, good job.

I know it’s not ten and it’s not in any kind of order.... sorry OP.

I have to disagree on this, I think Theon's chapters were some of the best chapters in the books. His entire identity crisis and all it's effects is written so well into it, so subtle because Theon isn't aware of his own issues, not really, the ones that he is aware of he ignores and lies to himself about. He fails to self reflect but he is a very emotional character and everything he does/says can be traced back to some emotional issues he has. I also think it's particulary interesting to look at his entire arc as a whole, not his separate clash and dance arcs but the whole thing together because what happens to him in Dance is what eventually helps him fix his identity crisis. it's no coincidense that he gets forced into an identity he doesn't want, it's kind of the foil to him forcing an identity on himself that he wants but can't have. of course I am biased though... I mean, like you with Arianne I have written hundreds upon hundreds of pages on him and i'm not stopping anytime soon. I'm actually getting into clash in my reread now :

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/120599-what-is-dead-may-never-die-a-theon-greyjoy-reread-project/ (I'd actually love it if more people joined because I haven't gotten a lot of responses... than again I wasn't expecting too many of them because he's not exactly a well liked character, but still I am putting my heart and soul into this :))

about Arianne: I think a lot of people forget about her because she indeed doesn't have a lot of chapters yet. I actually completly forgot about her when making my list (next time I should just get a list with all the characters so I don't forget any) but I do think she's interesting and deserving of more love than she gets. is your reread still going on?

[SeanF]

The fact that she a marginal character and is so well developed is kind of my point. But I’m not going to argue with any love from you, Sean. :love:

And how is Doran getting so much love and not her?

Doran gets quite a lot of stick as far as I can tell. And he deserves it. To my mind, he's really crippled Arianne's chances of being a successful ruler, by shutting her out of the loop for nine years, before then placing the responsibility for war and peace in her hands.

[TheYellowAppleFossoway]

I think Theon Greyjoy is the best written character in anything ever.

I think you need to be exposed to more literature.