Biggest badass in the series?

[dark sister]

Dany also walks into a fucking funeral pyre based on the intuition that she will not be harmed. Badass.

You view it as badass, I view it as kind of kooky. For some reason this scene has been described as her walking into the pyre in a "daze" -- I'm not sure why -- but she already knew beforehand that she was immune to extremely high temperatures. She had plenty of hints along the way, I wouldn't just call it intuition.

[dark sister]

Badass does not mean tough, cool, smart, or even brave, it means BADASS :hat:. Calling Danaerys Tagrayen a badass is insulting to the whole of badassery. Badasses do not create false memories in their head to make them feel like persecuted, hunted victims. Badasses do not sit in bathtubs thinking aboit how sad it is that they can't go back to their chilldhood home while hundreds of thousands of people are starving and dying as a direct result of her actions. Tagrayen blood, the dragon eggs, everything that makes her relevant has been handed to her. Without these things, no one would have ever heard of Dany, or she would have been dead a long time ago. Even the conquest of the 3 cities was done without fighting a single real battle. Dany is an intelligent, brave, tough and interesting character, but of course shes not a badass. Don't be silly.

I stand by my claim that Bronn is the ultimate badass in ASOIAF. Almost everyone else mentioned in this thread owes a huge portion of their supposed badassery to the fact that they were lucky enough to be born into a noble family. Would Oberyn Martell still be the Red Viper if he had been born to some sheep herder? I doubt it.

Bronn came from shit and raised himself to the level of a knight and beyond through sheer force of badassery. At the inn with Cat he helps arrest Tyrion, pissing off the richest and most powerul family in Westeros and going on the dangerous bandit-infested road to the Eyrie on the off chance that it might lead to some gold down the line. Then on a whim he decides to fight for Tyrion, risking his life and pissing off the entire Vale of Arryn while he happens to be in the middle of the Vale of Arryn, and then makes that same treacherous journey through the mountains of the moon, this time with only a dwarf at his side. His path of badassery takes him through the Green Fork and all the way to King's Landing, where he becomes captain of the guards for the motherfucking Hand of the King. After survivng riots, putting out fires in Kings Landing, and kicking ass at the Battle of the Blackwater, Bronn becomes a knight and chooses a fucking steel chain covered in wildfire as his sigil, symbolizing the thousands of people drowned and burned alive at the battle that gave his his title. Literally evey sentence said about this guys life sounds like it should be followed by David Caruso putting sunglasses on. YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

He marries into a noble family and, in a move that makes every other instance of badassery in this entire series pale in comparison-

he names

the baby

Tyrion.

With only his sword and his wits, in a few short years Bronn went from penniless sellsword to the Lord Protector of Stokeworth. His name is Bronn of the Blackwater, Badass of Badasses. Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.

I agree with (almost) everything you said. I forgot to mention Bronn. He definitely deserves to be called a badass. I think it was hilarious how he spit in Cersei's face. It also takes balls of steel to fuck a woman as reportedly unattractive as Lollys :ack:

However, I think it would have been helpful for the OP to define what HE considered to be the definition of "badass" -- it would have saved a lot of confusion, arguments, and differences of opinion.

ETA: About her sitting in a bathtub...I think even everyone (replace badasses with "everyone") deserve internal thoughts of wishing to be able to go home again.

[salt]

ETA: About her sitting in a bathtub...I think even badasses deserve internal thoughts of wishing to be able to go home again.

In the middle of a war with thousands of people dying of disease, hunger, and murder in the city below them? Its perefctly understandable for most people to do that, but most people aren't badasses.

[dark sister]

Daenerys Targaryen - she start as a little frightened girl and then grows to become khaleesi of the dothraki and mother of dragons. After Khal Drogo's death her khalasar consists of slaves, women, children and old men. But yet somehow she manages to pull it out and acquires the best mercenary army the money can buy without paying for it. After that it gets better she commands a massive slave uprising and takes city after city of slave traders. She got so powerful that all the slave trading cities throw away their differences and unite against her. In fact in ADWD she tries not ot be badass and to follow the rules and fails misserably imo. And she isn't even reached her full potencial yet. I can't imagine what will happen when she acquires the help of the dothraki horsmen, smashes the armies besieging Mereen and travel back to Westeros where she unleashes her dragons.... So IMO she is as badass as badass goes.

I hate when people mention how she took these slaver cities -- because they were NOT martial cities. It was akin to taking candy from a baby...as we saw in Dance when they tried to fight against her. They hadn't been fighting wars since the Valyrian Freehold was still running. I think it's pathetic that people give her so much credit for taking Astapor by treachery, Yunkai, a city that trains sex slaves, not Unsullied, and buying out their sellswords, and Mereen by using Jorah's plan (or was it Belwas'?) to go into the sewers. Let's see her try to take Pentos, or King's Landing, or some other Westerosi place with the tools she had at her disposal at that time.

[Ororo727 Jon Snow Fangirl]

Let's see...Ladies first.

Arya Stark

Maege Mormont

Daenerys Targaryen

Asha Greyjoy

Val

Ygritte

Now for the men...

Ser Barristan Selmy

Oberyen Martell

Mance Rayder

Qhorin Halfhand

Robert Baratheon (before iron throne)

Donal Noye

Bronn

[Arkash]

It was akin to taking candy from a baby...

She still took those cities, she still lead those armies, she still ruled Meereen, she still was more cunning and smart that most of all...

[PatrickStormborn]

Feel free to disagree.

[Gee, how did I know the Daenerys defenders would be out for blood for my comment...]

This is a discussion forum, so I decided to respond to you. No one here is "out for blood".

1. Viserys wasn't exactly hard to stand up to. Not even his own bodyguard defended him. No one did. He was never trained in the arts of war, same as Dany, and he was a coward. By that time she had gained confidence of the queen of her khal. Wow, big victory...? She also thought at the time that her brother dared not hit her b/c her khas were outside.

2. Drogo already liked her. He liked her when he first set eyes on her. She used sexual tactics to make her like him more. I give her credit for eating that disgusting horse heart. And it's speculation as to how much he really respected

her - he was proud that she ate the horse heart, and that she was carrying his son, but we never had a POV from him.

3. She took Astapor through deceit and the counsel of people like Jorah.

4. I highly doubt anyone could have murdered Drogon. Give me a break. He was an almost full-grown dragon. Part of how she subdued him was b/c he recognized her as his mother. It was brave of her to whip him into submission, but that wouldn't have worked with anyone else. It was her special position that allowed her to accomplish this feat.

5. What's the big deal about eating a horse?? It's food. She's eaten it before. And actually, she WAS relying on a badass that someone else mentioned earlier - Drogon. Do you REALLY think she would have faced Jhaqo if her huge ass dragon weren't right beside her? She hid in the grass the last time his khalasar went by b/c Drogon wasn't around. Not that I wouldn't do the same if I were her, but still, like I said, she relies on her dragons and counselers to help with her conundrums.

Um, my comment that she was a strong woman was complimentary. In the sexist world of Westeros/Essos, I think that's important.

1. This is just plain ignorance on your part. Viserys had tormented Daenerys for most of her life -- any response from her should be celebrated.

2. Drogo did not already like her; he objectified her (hint: they're not the same thing). I don't think he respected her as much as he respected a lot of others, but I think it's fair to say that her actions made him respect her a lot more than he normally would have.

3. She took it through deceit, yes. She did not do it through counsel from Jorah (he wanted her to actually buy the Unsullied). She actually went against Barristan's counsel.

4. Hizdahr wanted Drogon dead, and Barristan (whom you apparently think is a badass) simply told Daenerys to look away. The truth is that Dany tamed (or subdued) one of the only living dragons in the world with simply a whip.

5. I never said eating a horse is badass. But, by your own admission, Drogon is not a badass. That's why I included this scenario.

There are plenty of other examples I could have included. Walking into her husband's funeral pyre, defeating the Yunkish forces, crucifying the slavers (you included Arya's stabbing of one of Gregor's men, so I'm sure this counts), actually riding a dragon, etc. etc.

[PatrickStormborn]

It also takes balls of steel to fuck a woman as reportedly unattractive as Lollys :ack:

I'm sure you were only joking, but I'm not going to pretend to be anything but disturbed by this comment.

[OnionAhaiReborn]

...mother of dragons, child of storm....mother of dragons, daughter of death...mother of dragons, slayer of lies...

They don't write prophecies like this^ about non-badasses.

[Talleyrand]

I'm still going with Belwas. You have to be a good fighter to survive long in the pits and he was one of the champions. Even despite his size he can move with speed and can take on a mounted noble with almost no armour. Plus consuming a rather large bowl of poison and living.

[salt]

...mother of dragons, child of storm....mother of dragons, daughter of death...mother of dragons, slayer of lies...

They don't write prophecies like this^ about non-badasses.

Are you kidding me? Having prophecies tell you that Youre Special Just Because is the most unbadass thing there is. Badasses don't have a magical predetermined destiny that guides them through life, they carve out their own destiny through sweat and blood. Badassery is earned, not given.

[PatrickStormborn]

Are you kidding me? Having prophecies tell you that Youre Special Just Because is the most unbadass thing there is. Badasses don't have a magical predetermined destiny that guides them through life, they carve out their own destiny through sweat and blood. Badassery is earned, not given.

Daenerys doesn't have a "magical predertermined destiny", because it was prophesised that she would always do this. By this standard, every action performed by everyone in the series is "predetermined" (because MMD would always have to kill Drogo and Rhaego for Dany to fulfill the prophecy, and Viserys/Illyrio would always have to sell Dany to Drogo in order for this to happen, etc. etc).

[Evamitchelle]

Someone who I haven't seen mentioned yet but definitely deserves the title of BAMF in my opinion : BRIENNE OF TARTH.

Despite the fact that most people treat her like a sub-human freak she manages to become part of Renly's Rainbow Guard (filling the spot Renly had left open for Barristan "The Bold" Selmy) by fighting her way through a 116-men melee. Notable achievements in that particular melee include unhorsing/beating two knights at once and basically crushing Loras Tyrell to the ground. Later on she is falsely accused of kingslaying and manages to hold off a knight of the Rainbow Guard + 2 guards all at once. After some time safely spent in Riverrun she is sent on a 3-person journey (one of them a prisoner, the other a weasely Lannister-Frey) all the way to KG through a war-torn country. When their boat is given chase by Riverrun men she sinks their boat by dropping a huge frigging rock on it. She then engages in an epic fight with a (chained) Jaime "The Kingslayer" Lannister and half-drowns him in a lake. When caught by the Bloody Mummers it takes four men to beat her into submission. When Vargo Hoat tries to rape her she bites his ear of , giving him a very nasty injury that ended up in delirium-inducing infection. As a punishment she is thrown into a bear pit in a frilly pink dress and with a blunt sword to fight off a bear, which she manages admirably for a while before Jaime stops it. While she finds herself more or less safe again in KG (though confined due to Loras' claims of kingslaying) she is sent out in the ravaged country again to try and find a 13-year-old girl. She kills 3 battle-hardened killers on Craclaw Point by herself (with some help by Pod's thrown rock IIRC), and when she encounters the rest of the Brave Companions about to destroy an inn full of children she stands up for them alone against seven them by saying "Leave her be. If you want to rape someone, try me". She's personally killed/fatally maimed about a third of the Bloody Mummers. Could she be anymore of a BAMF ?

Other honourable mentions go to Stannis Baratheon whose life seems pretty much a succession of badass moments and equally badass comments, Davos Seaworth whose own badass achievements stand up very well even to those of his famed BAMF liege-lord, and who are made doubly badass because he's usually in a position of inferiority when he makes his BAMF status known ("Jared of House Frey, I name you a liar") and Catelyn Tully Stark because it takes definitive guts to prevent an assassination by grabbing the blade with your bare hands.

And as much as I don't like Dany, I still think she's more than earned her BAMF title as well (non-BAMF people do not walk into a giant pyre to revive petrified dragons and succeed).

[Val the Wildling Princess]

True! I forgot Brienne and Bronn.

[David Selig]

I'm still going with Belwas. You have to be a good fighter to survive long in the pits and he was one of the champions. Even despite his size he can move with speed and can take on a mounted noble with almost no armour. Plus consuming a rather large bowl of poison and living.

Definitely. Belwas is much more of a badass than the overrated Westerosi like Bron. Belwas allowed each of his opponent to leave him a scar and still killed them every time. That's badass to the extreme.

[Lady Meera Reed]

Tagrayen blood, the dragon eggs, everything that makes her relevant has been handed to her. Without these things, no one would have ever heard of Dany, or she would have been dead a long time ago. Even the conquest of the 3 cities was done without fighting a single real battle.

:agree: TRUE FACTS. Standing up to a brother who bullied her since she was a kid was badass yes, but everything she did after that was just out of luck & being a ~Targ~.

I stand by my claim that Bronn is the ultimate badass in ASOIAF. Almost everyone else mentioned in this thread owes a huge portion of their supposed badassery to the fact that they were lucky enough to be born into a noble family. Would Oberyn Martell still be the Red Viper if he had been born to some sheep herder? I doubt it.

Bronn came from shit and raised himself to the level of a knight and beyond through sheer force of badassery. At the inn with Cat he helps arrest Tyrion, pissing off the richest and most powerul family in Westeros and going on the dangerous bandit-infested road to the Eyrie on the off chance that it might lead to some gold down the line. Then on a whim he decides to fight for Tyrion, risking his life and pissing off the entire Vale of Arryn while he happens to be in the middle of the Vale of Arryn. He then makes that same treacherous journey through the mountains of the moon, this time with only a dwarf at his side. His path of badassery takes him through the Green Fork and all the way to King's Landing, where he becomes captain of the guards for the motherfucking Hand of the King. After survivng riots, putting out fires in Kings Landing, and kicking ass at the Battle of the Blackwater, Bronn becomes a knight and chooses a fucking steel chain covered in wildfire as his sigil, symbolizing the thousands of people drowned and burned alive at the battle that gave him his title. Literally evey sentence said about this guys life sounds like it should be followed by David Caruso putting sunglasses on. YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

He marries into a noble family and, in a move that makes every other instance of badassery in this entire series pale in comparison-

he names

the baby

Tyrion.

With only his sword and his wits, in a few short years Bronn went from penniless sellsword to the Lord Protector of Stokeworth. His name is Bronn of the Blackwater, Badass of Badasses. Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.

All hail Bronn :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[salt]

Brienne definitely makes the list. She chooses a path in life that spits in the face of every common notion held by society conerning how people should act. She catches shit for it constantly, yet never once in any of her POVs do we see the thought of reconsidering her identity and choices even cross her mind. Shes fought some of the best swordsmen in Westeros and gone toe to toe with some of its worst villains, and she always comes out on top. BAMF status all day.

It also takes balls of steel to fuck a woman as reportedly unattractive as Lollys :ack:

I assume he closes his eyes and thinks of England.

[Ororo727 Jon Snow Fangirl]

I cannot believe that I forgot Brienne of Tarth. Badass.

[Ororo727 Jon Snow Fangirl]

Another honorable mention would be, Tormond Giantsbane.

[Fredward]

Another honorable mention would be, Tormond Giantsbane.

He's to insecure about his penis. :P

Brienne is cool (even though her pov's bore me to tears most of the time) though and Arya too.