If you ask a Game of Thrones or A Song of Ice and Fire fan who the main character of the series is, don’t expect a straight answer. Both the show and books kill off the assumed leading man, Ned Stark, towards the very beginning. Since Ned’s death, no actor has appeared in every episode of the HBO show, and very few characters have shown up in all five of the main series books. In fact, only Arya Stark serves as a point-of-view character in each book to date, but her appearances in the later two books, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, are few and far between.
The most common answers as to the series’ main characters include Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister. Numbers-wise, Tyrion has appeared in the most episodes of Game of Thrones, and has narrated the most chapters in A Song of Ice and Fire. Jon and Daenerys, meanwhile, have felt the most like traditional fantasy heroes in their storylines so far. Additionally, these three have always felt linked in George R.R. Martin’s writing. Unfortunately, all three of their stories are connected with the same tragedy: Daenerys, Tyrion, and Jon all have to kill someone they love.
Daenerys kills her Khal out of mercy
When audiences first meet Daenerys Targaryen, she is a frightened girl, forced to marry the terrifying Dothraki horse lord Khal Drogo. At first, Dany is afraid of Drogo, but she quickly grows to love him. However, when Drogo is about to succumb to a wound taken in battle, Daenerys makes a deal with a blood witch named Mirri Maz Duur, unknowingly sacrificing her unborn son to save Drogo’s life.
To make matters worse, when Mirri brings Drogo back from the brink of death, he returns in a vegetative state. After realizing her proud Khal is truly gone, Daenerys puts him out of his misery, smothering him with a pillow. However, Drogo lives on as the namesake for one of Dany’s three dragons, Drogon.
Tyrion kills Shae in a fit of rage
One of the greatest mistakes Tyrion Lannister makes in the early days of Game of Thrones is bringing Shae to King’s Landing. The youngest Lannister sibling meets the foreign prostitute while seeking female companionship before the battle on the Green Fork. He quickly falls in love with her, and takes her with him to King’s Landing when he is called to serve as Hand of the King.
Tyrion soon learns that King’s Landing is no safe place for Shae, so he feigns a breakup in order to convince her to leave his side to go somewhere safer. However, this convinces her that he truly hates her, and she testifies against him in his trial for the murder of King Joffrey. When Tyrion escapes his imprisonment, he comes across Shae in bed with his abusive father, Tywin, and chokes her to death.
Jon Snow helplessly watches Ygritte die
While infiltrating free folk forces, Jon Snow falls in love with the fiery wildling Ygritte. She steals his heart, causing him to break his Night’s Watch vows and lie with a woman. This causes Ygritte to grow to trust Jon, vouching for him on several occasions. However, when Jon betrays the wildlings, Ygritte grows to hate him, filling his body with arrows on his way back to Castle Black.
Jon and Ygritte’s paths cross again during the Battle of Castle Black. Tragically, Ygritte is killed during the skirmish between the Night’s Watch and the free folk. She dies in Jon’s arms, recalling their time together in her final moments.
Ygritte’s death foreshadows another of Jon Snow’s kills
It’s worth noting that Jon doesn’t actually kill Ygritte. While the Night’s Watch, Jon’s brotherhood, is the cause of her death, he doesn’t deal the killing blow against her himself. The books make Ygritte’s killer ambiguous, with Jon only recognizing that the arrow that pierced her was not his own, while the series showcases young Olly firing the killing arrow at Ygritte.
Ygritte’s death acts as a red herring, making audiences think that the worst has already come for Jon. The death of his lover further establishes him as a foil to Daenerys and Tyrion, but being directly responsible for Ygritte’s killing absolves him of some of the same guilt-ridden trauma that the other two must feel.
However, the worst is still ahead for Jon Snow, as in the final episode of Game of Thrones, he murders his lover and aunt, Daenerys. After Daenerys goes mad, burning the city of King’s Landing on the back of her dragon in her conquest of Westeros, killing countless innocents along the way, Jon makes the difficult decision to kill her to stop further destruction.
Jon’s killing of Daenerys further connects his arc with hers, as well as Tyrion’s. Interestingly, all three parallel the legendary hero of Westeros, Azor Ahai, who sacrificed his beloved wife, Nissa Nissa, in order to forge the legendary sword Lightbringer. As such, this horrific act links all three main protagonists with this iconic figure in the series’ lore, and furthers the case that these three serve as the main characters of A Song of Ice and Fire.
For more from the world of Westeros, make sure to catch the newest HBO series set in George R.R. Martin’s world, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, when it airs on HBO and HBO Max on January 18, 2026.
