Daemon Targaryen is one of the most polarizing characters in House of the Dragon. In Fire & Blood, he is described as “made of light and darkness in equal parts,” but the showrunner has chosen to highlight his darker traits. Despite this, Daemon remains an enigmatic and somewhat unpredictable character. Some fans admire him, while others despise him. However, he is certainly not the worst character in George R. R. Martin’s universe.
Many characters in Game of Thrones have committed far worse acts than the Rogue Prince. Although Daemon can be ruthless and selfish, he also loves his family and is loyal to his soldiers. This list will highlight the worst individuals in Westeros based on the TV show adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire.
10. Balon Greyjoy Abandons His Son With No Regard
Portrayed by: Patrick Malahide
Balon, the ruthless Lord of the Iron Islands, rebelled against Ned Stark, who killed his male heirs except for young Theon, who was taken as a ward to force Balon into submission. Years later, Theon returns to convince Balon to ally with Robb Stark, but Balon mocks him for his upbringing and ties to the Starks.
Desperate for his father’s approval, Theon feels pressured to betray the Starks and attempts to conquer Winterfell to gain respect. Despite Yara, his sister, urging him to abandon the plan, Theon believes this is his only way to earn Balon’s love. After Theon is captured and castrated by Ramsey, Balon immediately gives up on his son because he can’t further his line. Balon meets his fate when his younger brother Euron returns. Euron, whom Balon had exiled years ago, throws him off the drawbridge.
9. Meryn Trant Goes Against Everything the Kingsguard Stands for
Portrayed by: Ian Beattie
Trant is a dishonorable Kingsguard, first serving Robert Baratheon, then Joffrey. In the show, the audience witnesses Trant killing a baby, the bastard child of Robert Baratheon. He also enacts any of Joffrey’s wishes, whether cruel or unjust. Trant repeatedly beats Sansa and even aims to undress her in the Throne Room by order of Joffrey before he gets interrupted by Tyrion.
Trant is one of the people on Arya’s kill list for murdering Syrio Forell. When Meryn arrives in Braavos to accompany Lord Tyrell, Arya spots a chance for revenge. She follows him into a brothel and witnesses another cruel streak of Trant. Meryn is a child molester. Arya uses a face of the Faceless Men to pose as a young girl and finally kills Trent. She stabs him in both eyes and cuts his throat.
8. Stannis Baratheon Sacrifices His Daughter After Falling Victim to Melisandre’s Influence
Portrayed by: Stephen Dillane
Book Stannis differs significantly from his TV show counterpart, which earns him a place on this list. As the older brother of Robert Baratheon, Stannis is entitled to the Iron Throne as his true heir. However, Stannis’s methods illustrate exactly why he should never be king. He is not acting of his own volition; instead, he is completely enthralled by the fire priestess Melisandre. He permits the sacrifice of innocents to further his ambitions and shows no remorse for his actions.
When Melisandre gives birth to a shadow demon that kills his younger brother Renly, Stannis displays no emotion. He is willing to sacrifice anyone, including his daughter, Shereen, who is burned at the stake. After Stannis loses to Ramsay’s army, Brienne finds him and executes him for the murder of Renly. Many characters on this list have committed heinous acts, but none have shown the willingness to kill their own child in the pursuit of the throne—not even Cersei.
7. Joffrey Baratheon Is Insecure Brat Who Wants to Torment the World
Portrayed by: Jack Gleeson
Joffrey is sadistic and insecure, and influenced by Cersei, who fills her firstborn’s mind with false values such as “The truth is what we make it.” When Joffrey ascends to the throne after the death of King Robert, Cersei realizes how cruel he has become. On his first day in court, he had a man’s tongue cut out because he disliked his singing. Joffrey has Ned beheaded out of pettiness, then later forces Sansa to look at his decapitated head on a spike. When Tyrion sends him two prostitutes as a gift, Joffrey forces one of the women to nearly beat the other to death.
Joffrey brags about cutting Stannis a red smile from ear to ear, yet when he attacks King’s Landing, he retreats from the battlefield to avoid confrontation. Deep down, Joffrey is a coward who gets off on flaunting his power. His cruel nature results in his assassination by poison shortly after marrying Margaery Tyrell, a plot orchestrated by her grandmother, Olenna.
6. Cersei Lannister Transforms Into a Vindictive Queen Driven by Paranoia
Portrayed by: Lena Headey
In the TV show, Cersei is depicted as smarter than in the books, revealing small glimpses of her humanity through her love for her children and her somewhat questionable guidance of young Sansa for her future role as queen. She cares for her brother Jaime and admits that she had feelings for Robert once. However, Cersei can be petty and destructive when cornered. She arranges Robert’s murder to place her cruel son Joffrey on the throne and frames her brother Tyrion for Joffrey’s poisoning in an attempt to settle her hatred towards him.
Later on, Cersei empowers the Faith Militant to eliminate the Tyrells. However, when this strategy backfires, and she is arrested for fornication, she embarks on a revenge quest. Cersei destroys the Sept, killing many highborn individuals, including most of the Tyrells and the High Sparrow. She then captures Septa Unella and subjects her to torture at the hands of the Mountain. When Euron brings her Ellaria Sand and her daughter, Cersei poisons the daughter and tells Ellaria that she will remain there to watch her daughter die and her body decompose. Cersei kills Missandei, an innocent, to antagonize Tyrion, who is now Hand to Daenerys, as well as Daenerys herself. Ultimately, Cersei dies in the arms of her twin, Jaime.
5. Daenerys Targaryen Transforms From Savior to Tyrant
Portrayed by: Emilia Clarke
Dany was a character that almost everyone supported throughout eight seasons. Although the Mother of Dragons had moments of ruthlessness, her actions were often justified. However, her character arc in Episode 5 of Season 8 led many to reconsider their support for her. Up to that point, Daenerys had valid reasons to feel betrayed, and while she was entitled to some form of revenge, destroying an entire city filled with innocent civilians was utterly atrocious.
In the final episode, she doubled down on her decision and showed no remorse for her actions, fully embracing her new role as a tyrant. In her speech to her troops, she emphasized that the war was not over and threatened to destroy all parts of Westeros to “break the wheel.” When Jon confronts her in the devastated Throne Room, she declares that others do not get to choose their destiny, ultimately sealing her fate. Jon stabs her in the heart, and the audience witnesses the demise of this once fiercely beloved character.
4. Ser Gregor Clegane Plies His Craft as a Ruthless Brute
Portrayed by: Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Ian Whyte, and Conan Stevens
Ser Gregor Clegane is absurdly tall and muscular, possessing a strength unmatched by anyone in the realm. Gregor is cruel and merciless. Even as a boy, Gregor, nicknamed the Mountain, showed signs of his brutality. When his younger brother Sandor played with one of his toys, he pushed his head into a fire, melting off half of his face. Gregor was knighted by Rhaegar Targaryen, but that didn’t stop him from betraying his Prince. Once his liege Lord, Tywin Lannister, laid siege to the capital, Clegane raped, then killed Rhaegar’s wife, Elia Martel, and their two young children.
Gregor decapitates his horse in a fit of rage after he loses at jousting. Later, Gregor becomes Cersei’s champion in Tyrion’s Trial by Combat and almost loses to Oberyn Martell. But when Oberyn becomes distracted by his emotions concerning his dead sister Elia, the Mountain turns the tide in his favor. The audience witnesses Oberyn’s shocking death, as the Mountain trips him and gouges his eyes out. In the series finale, the seemingly indestructible Mountain finds a fitting end when Sandor pushes him over the edge of the Red Keep and both brothers face a tragic death by fire.
3. Roose Bolton Is a Cruel Leader With No Loyalty to Anyone
Portrayed by: Michael McElhatton
Anyone who chooses a flayed man as their banner must be, at the very least, a bloodthirsty and cold individual with no mercy. In the case of Roose Bolton, his family’s sigil reflects their dark history. House Bolton is an ancient Northern house with roots that trace back to the Age of Heroes. The Red Kings of House Bolton fiercely resisted the Stark rule over the North, killing multiple members of the Stark family until they finally gave up. In the earlier seasons, Roose supports Rob Stark in his war efforts against the Lannisters but later conspires with Walder Frey and Tywin Lannister to murder the Starks.
In a conversation with his son, Roose reveals how Ramsay was conceived. Ramsay’s mother was a low-born woman and married a man without Roose’s consent. He killed the man and then forced himself on her to punish her. Roose shows little sympathy for his own son. He frequently uses Ramsay’s status as a bastard as a means of intimidation, which offers some explanation for why Ramsay became such a monster. Ultimately, Ramsay murders his father upon discovering that Roose’s new wife has given birth to a son.
2. Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish Operates as the Evil Mastermind Behind the War
Portrayed by: Aidan Gillen
Petyr Baelish, known as Littlefinger, manipulates others to do his bidding and is responsible for the feud between the Starks and the Lannisters, which subsequently triggered the War of the Five Kings. Baelish takes revenge on Ros, who is an informant to Varys, by allowing Joffrey to murder her with a crossbow. Littlefinger conspires with the Tyrells to kill Joffrey, but also betrays those he loves. He deceives Catelyn Stark about Arya’s whereabouts to have Jaime released and offers Sansa Stark’s hand in marriage to Roose Bolton’s son, Ramsay.
When Lysa Arryn poses a threat, he pushes her through the moon door. Ultimately, his downfall comes when Sansa and Bran expose his manipulations. Sansa has him executed for murder and treason, with Arya carrying out the act.
1. Ramsay Bolton Becomes The Worst Psychopath in Westeros
Portrayed by: Iwan Rheon
As the saying goes, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” but in the case of Ramsay Bolton, the apple is far worse than the tree. Roose Bolton’s son is as cruel as he is dishonorable. Ramsay takes pleasure in instilling fear in others, a trait he has exhibited since his teenage years. After the death of his lover Myranda, he recalls how she was the only person who wasn’t afraid of him. However, when his Maester asks if they should bury her, Ramsay callously orders him to feed her to the dogs. After capturing Theon Greyjoy, he plays a cruel mind game with him, pretending to be his savior, only to return him to the Bolton home. For many episodes, the audience is horrified watching him mutilate Theon, culminating with his castration.
When Ramsay marries Sansa Stark, he tortures her in the bedroom every day. Later on in a conversation with Littlefinger, Sansa reveals that he permanently injured her intimately in ways that she can still feel. Ramsay murdered his father and then proceeded to feed his baby half-brother and his stepmother to his dogs to become the uncontested Lord Bolton. Ramsay is undoubtedly the worst character in Game of Thrones.
