30 Best ‘Game of Thrones’ Villains
The game of thrones may be dizzyingly complex, but there’s one simple rule that still holds true: Like any competition, it requires people to root against. That’s where the characters on our list of the HBO show’s greatest villains come in. Sure, the story prefers to color its conflicts in shades of gray rather than black and white, but that doesn’t stop it from boasting some of the best worst people the small screen has ever seen.
Some are complicated characters who’ve revealed both good and bad sides of themselves over time. Some are products of their culture, conditioned by brutality to become brutal in turn. Some are grade-A psychopaths who get off on murder and mayhem. And one is an immortal ice demon leading a zombie army to exterminate all life on the planet. Where do they all rank? Steel yourself for a journey through the Seven Hells and read on to find out.
30. Euron Greyjoy
“I am the storm, brother. The first storm and the last. And you’re in my way.” Behold, the Game of Thrones villain equivalent of John McClane telling Hans Gruber he’s “the fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in the ass.” It’s too soon to tell whether House Greyjoy’s black sheep will amount to much beyond killing his kingly brother Balon and forcing his niece and nephew into exile. But if he’s able to make good on his delusions of grandeur — the Ironborn worship the Drowned God; this dude proclaimed “I am the Drowned God” — he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the show’s closing seasons.
29. Randyll Tarly
In a series with no shortage of bad dads, it takes some doing to stand out from the fearsome-father crowd, especially when you’re only introduced in Season Six. So kudos to the chrome-domed daddy of lovable Night’s Watchman Samwell Tarly, who established his awfulness in a single indelible dinner-table scene. Sure, Sam had told stories of being threatened and disinherited by his old man, but it took seeing the guy up close and personal as he insulted single mothers, body-shamed his own son, and spewed racist invective — in other words, acted like a Republican with a Valyrian steel sword — to drive the point home.
28. Pyat Pree
Daenerys Targayren has faced down several sinister one-percenters in her march through the the faraway cities of Essos, and few of them — from smooth-talking merchant prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos to foul-mouthed slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz — have emerged unscathed. But none made a stronger impression than the kohl-eyed warlock Pyat Pree, whose black magic bedeviled the khaleesi back in Season Two. From creating doppelgangers to kidnapping her “children” (say it with us now: “Where are my dragons???”), the bald sorcerer gave an otherwise lackluster storyline a distinctive Lynchian flair.
30 Best ‘Game of Thrones’ Villains, Page 1 of 8