5 most intelligent and stupid characters in asoiaf

[WastingSickness]

Looking for the pinnacle of stupidity, one can't help but turn to the Astapori slavers for inspiration. You couldn't even squeeze Hodor alongside those brainiacs.

[The Holy Goat]

Smartest

1. Varys.

2. Petyr Baelish.

3. Tywin Lannister.

4. Tyrion Lannister.

5. Olenna Tyrell.

6. Doran Martell.

7. Roose Bolton.

8. Wyman Manderly.

9. Illyrio Mopatis.

10. Euron Greyjoy.

I won't bother with dumbest, since that ain't as fun.

[Borsabil]

I should mention that Robb did one insanely stupid thing, take his entire army, his wife and mother to the Twins. He knew Walder Frey was a conniving snake, he knew the Freys were pissed at him, but he handed himself and what forces were left to him pretty much unarmed and defenseless. I'm afraid in this case it's one of those instances when GRRM abandons logical consistency, the young Wolf as a brilliant military commander, for the convenience of a plot device.

[silentwanderer]

I won't bother with dumbest, since that ain't as fun.

Not to mention, they are pretty obvious with all due respect to Sansa, Hodor, Lysa, Patchface and Pia.

[Fat Mac]

I see four ways to measure the intelligence of characters in the story, which are not all mutually exclusive. There is political intelligence (ie playing the game), militaristic intelligence (ie leading troops, war etc), common sense and general knowledge on the world (learned people).

So my ranking for each three

Political

1. Varys/LF (no one is better than them it seems)

2. Tywin Lannister

3. Olenna Tyrell

4. Wyman Manderly

5. Doran Martell

Special mentions to Tyrion (who despite his suspicions still underestimated LF), Roose Bolton, and even Cat deserves some shout out. Sansa could quickly be on this list depending on her future.

Militaristic (this one is not necessarily in order)

1. Stannis Baratheon

2. Ned Stark

3. Robb Stark

4. Robert Baratheon

5. Randyll Tarly

For common sense, it's hard to rank. However, people like Davos, Arya and people who are usually faced with life or death situations repeatedly belong here.

And for general knowledge, learned people like the Maesters go here (Aemon, Luwin and Pycelle come to mind first). They are forced to know basically every topic that can be learned. Also, big readers like Tyrion, Sam and Willas Tyrell likely are strong here as well.

Basically the reason for this post is that it's not easy to call someone smart or dumb because while people like LF can play the game, they wouldn't really be the best at leading an army. The opposite could be said for someone like Robb.

Then of course there are obviously dumb people like Hodor, Jinglebell, Lollys Stokeworth etc.

[The Prince of Ice]

are you serious ?

Hes obviously trying to be a Stark-hating troll.

Haters gonna hate.

[The Prince of Ice]

Not to mention, they are pretty obvious with all due respect to Sansa, Hodor, Lysa, Patchface and Pia.

Pray Mladen doesnt see this lol

[The Prince of Ice]

Okay, I know we all love the Starks, I do. But let's look at this objectively, once again in terms of the most stupid acts:

1. Ned & Cersei, it doesn't get any worse than this in my opinion, but he's the only one that I would give a pass to because he did it to protect Cersei's children.

2. Robb betrayed one of his most important allies and then went back to the Twins with most of his army and all his important bannermen. Tyrion said it best, "You won the war on the battlefield and lost it in a bedchamber", and all because he couldn't keep it in his pants.

3. Sansa warned Cersei about her father's plans because she wanted to stay with the guy who then tortures her and kills her father.

4. Catelyn freed the most important hostage anyone can have in a war against the Lannisters, Tywin's heir and one of the best fighters in the 7 kingdoms.

5. Arya missed the chance to end the war and take revenge for her father. She could have killed Joffrey, Cersei, and Tywin but no, she names three nobodies.

Seriously, how can you top that?

ETA: maybe this should be limited to important characters, who cares about Amory Loch or Jinglebells?

Pretty sure this about all characters not just important ones hence there are many more dumb characters than the ones you mentioned.

Well for Robb, Arya, and Sansa you have to remeber their children and are emotional and rash.

Robb made the stupid decision to marry Jeyne but her mom screwed over anyways so it doesnt even matter really. Who wouldn't do what he did at his age?

Sansa had no idea at that time Joffery was a monster. I dont like how she lied about Arya/Mycah but thats understandable in her situation.

Arya choose Weese and Chiswik because she just didnt like them personally. Weese struck her and Chiswik gang raped someone. Arya does show intelligence for saying Jaquens name, remember the Weasel Soup, that was brilliant.

Overall they're mistakes can be attributed to being children in adult situations not stupidity.

Ned and Cat id say their more unaware of southern politics( The Game).

Catelyn releasing the Kingslayer i cant understand because i dont have a child. It was a very dumb mistake but she just wanted her daughters back.

[silentwanderer]

Not to mention, they are pretty obvious with all due respect to Sansa, Hodor, Lysa, Patchface and Pia.

Pray Mladen doesnt see this lol

The only reason Walder Frey's son is not amongst them is because Catelyn killed him at the Red Wedding .

[Lord_Tyrell]

Most:

1) Maester Aemon (No contest in my opinion)

2) Littlefinger

3) Tyrion

4) Varys

5) Olenna Redwyne

Dumbest:

1) Joffrey

2) Viserys

3) Balon

4) Victation

5) Janos Slynt

[Nezzer]

Smartest:

1-Varys

2-Littlefinger

3-Roose

4-Tyrion

5-Tywin

6-Olenna

7-Euron

8-Doran

9-Davos

10-Stannis

Dumbest

1-Joffrey

2-Balon

3-Victarion

4-Cersei

5-Ned

6-Quentyn

7-Robb

8-Catelyn

9-Theon

10-Lysa

[Warrior Queen]

Uhm this is hard, because people can be smart in many ways.

So lets first do the book smart:

1. Maester Aemon

2. Maester Lewin

3. Sam Tarly

4. Rhaegar Targaryen

5. Tyrion Lannister

Strategic Smart:

1. Tywin Lannister

2. Randyll Tarly

3. Doran Martell

4. Robert Baratheon

5. Wyman Manderly

Street Smart:

1. Varys

2. LittleFinger

3. Lady Olenna

4. Davos Seaworth

5. Arianne Martell

Then the stupid:

1. Vicatrion Greyjoy

2. Joffrey

3. Viserys Targaryen

4. Lysa Arryn

5. Gregory Clegane

[Earth 1 Andrew]

Smartest:

1. Hodor

2. Butterbumps

3. Moon Boy

4. Patch face

5. Jinglebell

Dumbest:

1. Tywi... Lol just kidding!

[silentwanderer]

5) Janos Slynt

I don't see Janos as dumb as much as the perfect example of what happens once a politician is stuck in the turf of Ned Stark: you obey, or you die.

[Ice Turtle]

counting only POV's

most intelligent (can't decide who leave out from those six):

Tyrion

Arya

Davos

Jon Con

Asha

Sam

least intelligent:

Victarion

Pate

Arys Oakheart

Brienne

Aeron Greyjoy

[mistermayaki]

I think Rouse Bolton is pretty smart, he fought many battles for the starks and gets away with it

[mistermayaki]

Best at game of thrones

1. Varys (obvious)

2. Littlefinger (obvious)

3. Q.O.T. (Supports renly, kills Joff and gets away with it)

4. Tyrion (smart but he did get exiled)

5. Tywin Lannister (obvious)

Honourable mention:

Mother of Elia Martell (somehow managed to wed her sickly daughter to the crown prince)

Worst at game of thrones

1. Aerys (destroys a whole royal dynasty

2. Cersei (ruins everything)

3. Joffrey (obvious)

4. Quentyn (offers 5000 swords but can't convince dany to marry him)

5. Robb (he is brilliant in (battle) strategy and tactics but terrible in politics)

(Un)honourable mention:

Viserys: Very stupid but he did manage to keep Dany and himself alive for 14 years.

[Valandui]

Kind of surprised how many people are saying Ned was stupid. To me, he actually comes off as pretty intelligent. His main problem is that he comes from a different culture and is entirely too trusting.

[shiola]

As for stupid:

1. Cersei Lannister

2. The Greyjoys (minus Asha)

3. Viserys Targaryen

4. The Wildlings

5. Rhaegar Targaryen

How can you possibly lump so many people into that category? In addition, what makes them so dumb? Just curious

[Mladen]

Not to mention, they are pretty obvious with all due respect to Sansa, Hodor, Lysa, Patchface and Pia.

Care to elaborate this, please? Since I can mention at least 20 characters who were far idiotic than Sansa. It's a dumb list, not hate list

Pray Mladen doesnt see this lol

Seen it... :)