15 Most Hated Characters in Game of Thrones

Few fictional worlds have given us more to love, and hate, than George R.R. Martin’s Westeros. Brutal deaths are a mainstay of the show, and the sheer amount of despicable characters can test even the most diehard fan’s patience. But with the knowledge that, in the end, all men must die, to lift our spirits, we press on knowing that however bad things get, vengeance is never too far away. So, with the final season rapidly approaching, let’s look back and explore just which characters we despise the most and rank which characters are the most hated on Game of Thrones.   

15. Olly

Now to be fair, the kid had a tough life. He was forced to watch not only his family but his entire village, be massacred by Wildlings, just to be sent as a messenger boy to the wall. Even by GOT standards, that’s a tough beat. On the other hand, he killed Jon Snow’s one true love Ygritte - sorry aunt Khaleesi - AND set up Jon to be murdered by his Night’s Watch brothers. Yikes. I don’t care how bad you had it, there’s no redeeming that. 

14. Ser Alliser Thorne

Just like Olly, Ser Alliser Thorne played a crucial role in betraying Jon Snow. Unlike, Olly, Ser Alliser was a pain in the ass from season one. He constantly berated Jon, even though Jon was by far his most promising recruit. He failed to blow the tunnel during the Wildlings attack on the wall. A decision that resulted in the death of fan favorite, Grenn. Then, when Jon was chosen Lord Commander over him, Thorne spent all his time undermining Jon’s leadership and plotting his revenge. Olly may have struck the killing blow on Jon, but it was Thorne who masterminded the entire operation. 

13. Craster

As if forcibly marrying and procreating with your own daughters wasn’t enough, Craster took it a step further by sacrificing his own sons. This is a man who is evil to the core. And yet, despite all the other awful things he did, his worst act just might be supplying the White Walkers with a fresh source of humans to turn into undead soldiers. It’s one thing to be awful to your family, it’s another to literally supply the most precious resource to an army set on killing every living being. Our time with Craster was thankfully brief, but he fit in more heinous acts in his short time on screen than most characters did in all seven seasons. 

12. Viserys

Ugh, this one makes me angry just thinking about it. Little whiny Viserys is basically the epitome of an entitled brat. He wanted everything handed to him, and he was even willing to sacrifice his own sister to get it. Every time he comes on screen you instantly want to punch his annoying little face and his smug arrogance was completely underserved. Yes, Viserys was the worst. The only thing that keeps him from ranking higher on this list was his early exit and the rather satisfying way it happens (RIP Khal Drogo).  

11. Gregor Clegane aka The Mountain

Now here is someone that no matter how much you hate them, you can’t blame the other characters for not wanting to end his reign of terror. In just a few scenes of screen time, we see the Mountain decapitate a horse, torture prisoners of war for sport, and that’s before we mention the childhood maiming of his brother, the Hound. All this makes up for an extremely hateable character, but what really sets the Mountain over the top is his murder of our would-be hero, Oberyn Martell. Granted, it was Oberon’s own fault that he lost the fight, but I don’t care. Anytime you squish my favorite character’s skull like a grape, you’re ending up on my most hated list. Just don’t tell his gross undead Frankenstein self I said so.  

10. Stannis and Melisandre

Yes, I realize this is two characters, but in my mind, you can’t really separate one from the other. Stannis starts off as awful by killing his own brother and it’s Melisandre’s smoke baby that does it. In the following seasons, we proceed to watch Stannis turn his back on his most trusted advisor, his wife - although she was crazy enough to earn her own spot on this list - and his people. Melisandre was by his side through all of this, coaxing Stannis along for her own shady purposes. Their reign of terror never reached the throne, but the desperate act of burning the only redeeming member of the Baratheon family, poor Sheeran, alive was too far to come back from. 

 9. Lysa Arryn 

Few characters make your skin crawl like Lyssa Aaron. When we first meet her, we watch as she breastfeeds her teenage son (yuck), followed by an attempt to have Tyrion Lannister killed. Things don’t get better as later seasons reveal just how awful she is. We learn that it was Lyssa, working on Littlefinger's orders, who poisoned her husband Jon Arryn, kicking off the events of the show and leading to Ned Stark's death in Kings Landing. Finally, just when it seems she can’t get any worse, she scars Sansa for life with her loud intercourse and then tries to throw Sansa through the Moon Door. It’s Lyssa that ends up flying and viewers were glad to see her go. 

 8. Theon Greyjoy

I debated this choice more than any other, because of all the people on this list, Theon is the one you can feel for the most. All he ever wanted was to prove himself to a father that gave him up and a father-figure that would never truly embrace him as his own child. That being said, Theon sucks. His betrayal of Robb meant the King in the North had to turn to Walder Frey for support, more on that later. He killed Ser Roderick and his incredible ‘stache and burned two innocent little boys just to cover up his failures. He does get more than his share of karma during his repulsive turn as Reek. But just when you think he is about to redeem himself, he goes and abandons his sister in her time of need. I suppose he still has one season left to make things right, but at this point, I think we’d all rather just see Theon take a meeting with the pointy end of Jon Snow’s sword. 

7. Roose Bolton 

What do you say about the man who raised Ramsay? He was a frequent rapist of his people, even conceiving Ramsay that way. He plotted behind Robb’s back and worked with Tywin Lannister to execute the Red Wedding. All of this is terrible, but I guess what more can we expect from someone whose main hobbies include flaying his enemies alive? 

 6. Tywin Lannister

Let’s just be honest, in some ways, we all love Tywin. He’s brilliant, a capable leader, and has some of the best one-liners on the show. He’s the only one who can put Joffery in his place and he successfully wins the War of the Five Kings. Yet, no matter how much I loved watching him, his evil is impossible to deny. He forced a young Tyrion to watch as Lannister soldiers took turn raping Tyrion’s wife on Tywin’s orders, he orchestrates the Red Wedding, and he raised Cersei. With all that in mind, few scenes in GOT history were more satisfying than watching this evil genius meet his end on the toilet at the hands of his own son. 

5. Littlefinger

Chaos is a ladder, Littlefinger once famously said, and while that may be true, it’s also an opportunity to do a lot of terrible things. Amongst Littlefinger’s greatest hits are his betrayal of Ned Stark, his gross thirst for Catelyn Stark and his complete disregard for her sister. Perhaps his worst crime of all was turning over his supposed “love”, Sansa, to a maniac like Ramsay Bolton all to further his own power. He may claim he didn’t know what Ramsay was, we’re supposed to believe that a man with as many spies as Petyr Baelish didn’t know about Ramsay’s not-so-secret torture fetish? I don’t buy it. Littlefinger knew exactly what Ramsay was and he turned Sansa over anyway, proving he only ever cared about one person, himself.  

4. Cersei Lannister

Where to start with Cersei? She starts off the series as a co-conspirator to the attempted murder of a child and the last time we saw her she was backstabbing our heroes despite the imminent threat from the White Walkers. She helped murder Robert Baratheon, she birthed and raised Joffrey, she has sex with her brother, she empowered Qyburn, the list goes on and on. She’s fierce, she’s at times brilliant, and she took out the entire Tyrell family in a single blow, and she’s the first woman to ever sit on the Iron Throne. In some ways, you do have to admire what she’s doing, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hate her while she’s doing it. 

3. Walder Frey

I hate this guy so much that even when I see the actor who plays him in the Harry Potter movies I get upset. I can just see his disgusting face as he licks his lips and gropes his latest teenage bride. This power-hungry old man was the host for one of the most shocking moments in TV history, the Red Wedding. Sure, Robb was in love and didn’t want to marry one of Walder Frey’s daughters, but so what? Frey may have felt aggrieved but the way he broke guest right - the sacred Westerosi tradition that when a guest eats the food and drinks the drink off a host's table beneath the host's roof, no harm shall come to him - was unforgivable. Still, his awful betrayal gave us one of the best Game of Thrones episodes ever, so that’s something, right? 

2. King Joffrey

Deciding between the top two most hated characters was like choosing between drinking Drano and bleach for breakfast. They’re both terrible, they’ll both probably kill you and they’ll both take their sweet time doing it. I don’t need to remind you of all the awful things Joffrey did, or the infuriating smugness with which he did it. When it comes to TV characters, Joffrey is one of the worst we’ve ever seen, but despite all of his terribleness, he can’t quite match the sadistic resume of our number one. 

1. Ramsay Bolton  

What can I say about Ramsay that hasn’t already been said? He spends the vast majority of his screen time torturing one character or another and the rest of his time he spends plotting how he’s going to get more victims to torture. His smirk makes your skin crawl and he loves feeding people to his dogs. He turned Theon into reek and did terrible things to Sansa Stark. He literally hunts people for sport. Ramsay is a true monster and every time he comes on screen you just wish he would go away. If that’s not hated, I don’t know what is. 

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