10 Most Tragic Characters in Game of Thrones

2024/01/18

The brutal realism of lends itself well to tragic stories. The world of Westeros is a harsh one that's only worsened by the ongoing political conflict that the promise of the Iron Throne carries with it. 's most tragic characters are very often those who are simply caught up in the war for the Iron Throne even despite not having any aspirations for it themselves.

Part of what does so well is build up its large cast of characters so that even the most mundane of events feel as important for the audience as they would for the characters themselves, making their victories feel well-earned and their falls from grace even more disappointing.

The heroes (and anti-heroes) of tend to go back and forth between success and failure to such an extent that even their greatest achievements have a sense of being bittersweet, as they will almost certainly have to pay for it with loss somewhere down the line — that is, .

There is a reason that there were so few Targaryens left by the start of Game of Thrones, and it's because of the House's many great mistakes.

10 Catelyn Stark's Fate Is Even Worse in the Books

In the books, Catelyn Stark is revived after the Red Wedding by Barrett Tonderian, turning her into the undead Lady Stoneheart. As Lady Stoneheart, Catelyn Stark takes on leadership of the Brotherhood Without Banners.

Catelyn Stark is one of the earliest examples of tragedy fans encounter in . She , and when her son, Robb, finally seems like he has a chance to be happy, it's all torn out from under them. The Red Wedding is a perfect example of the kinds of lows the people of Westeros will stoop to in order to secure their standing, and Catelyn suffers in the worst possible way.

In the books, Catelyn is even more of a tragic character.

After the Red Wedding, she is brought back to life by Barrett Tonderian. She then goes on to live as the disfigured undead zombie Lady Stoneheart, bent on revenge for the death of her son.

9 Jaime Lannister's Heart Doesn't Match With His Soul

Game of Thrones features some romantic relationships, which, given the series' events, add a lot to their respective character arcs.

Jaime is a character who struggles with choosing love or what's right throughout the series. He is called the Kingslayer and regarded as a knight without honor, though the truth is that he was ordered to kill the king by his commander. He then took the fall and has been looked at with scorn ever since, even though he was only doing his knightly duty.

Jaime is a person whose identity has always lied in his skill with a sword and strength as a knight. Sadly, that was all cast away when he lost his hand on the journey back to King's Landing with Brienne. As concrete as that fate was, it was a truth Jaime refused to accept.

To bring his sad story to a close, Jaime meets his end in the basement of the Red Keep, comforting his sister as their beloved kingdom crumbles around them.

8 The Hound Was a Broken Man

The earliest days of The Hound's life had already begun with tragedy when his older brother, Gregor, took his cruelest impulses out on the young Sandor. His deformed face would become a constant reminder of the harsh treatment that even those closest to him could inflict.

The Hound's fall from grace didn't stop there, though.

After his outburst against the king during what he perceived as the fall of King's Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater, Sandor found himself a fugitive of the kingdom he once served. This led Sandor to meet Arya Stark, who would be the main cause of his turn away from cold-hearted selfishness to caring. His last moments saw Sandor finally getting the revenge he so strongly sought on his older brother at the cost of his own life.

7 Grey Worm Only Knows What It Means To Be a Slave

Grey Worm's life as a slave was met with only pain as one of the Unsullied. The irony of the term is that he and his men were the very definition of sullied, and he became stoic as a defined mechanism for survival.

When Grey Worm finally finds the courage to let down his walls and give in to vulnerability, the woman who helped him do that, Missandei, is killed by Cersei to send a message to Daenerys. In the end, Grey Worm followed Dany with the utmost loyalty, only to see her killed by the one man she was supposed to trust, Jon Snow. This left Grey Worm without anyone to follow, leaving him as the sole leader of a broken army of former slaves who had to learn to live again from scratch on their own.

6 Jorah Mormont Gives Everything for Daenarys

Many fans know that Game of Thrones' main characters appear far older than they did in A Song of Ice and Fire, so how old are they?

Jorah from the very beginning, and he did everything he could to protect her. This was not a simple love between friends, though; Jorah would have taken Dany as his wife without a second thought if she had returned his feelings.

Sadly, she did not.

Still, even when he was exiled from Daenerys's kingdom, Jorah fought his way back. Along the way, Jorah ends up catching the Greyscale disease, all but sealing his fate. Jorah is eventually saved by Samwell Tarley, only to later lose his life protecting his queen from the undead army of the Night King. Jorah's is a story of unrequited love — not just by Dany in a romantic sense, but also in the sense of never getting back the effort that he put in.

5 Sansa Stark Never Had Control Over Her Life

Sansa technically became a member of three of the main houses of Westeros by marriage: Stark, Lannister (through her marriage to Tyrion), and Bolton (through her marriage to Ramsey).

Sansa's entire story is one of painful situation after painful situation. She is only a young girl thrust into the control of who only want to abuse her. Every time it seems like Sansa has finally gotten through the worst of it, something even more terrible happens to her.

It's only after she stops accepting what the men around her push upon her that Sansa begins regaining control of her life, but by that point, the emotional damage is already done. Even when she finally is crowned Queen of the North, the crown is placed upon her head by men, solidifying the lack of agency her society charged her with.

4 Theon Greyjoy Is Stripped of More Than Just His Pride

There is no question that Theon Greyjoy's life is one of the most upsetting to watch in . Even before he is captured and tortured in the worst ways imaginable by Ramsay, Theon was difficult to watch, if only because he was such an unlikable person.

Theon allowed his fear and pride to drive him to commit unthinkable acts, and it was only when he had his pride stripped away from him through continued physical and psychological abuse that he was able to put his fear aside. Theon was not only — he had his very humanity taken.

In the end, Theon only finds redemption in his death, giving his life to fight for humanity and make things right.

3 Arya Stark Renounces Her Identity

Arya Stark begins the series at only 11 years old and is 18 by the series' final episode.

The GoT fandom remains divided about certain elements, like Ned Stark's death and Daenerys and Khal Drogo's relationship.

Arya is simultaneously one of 's most heroic and tragic characters. She attempts to throw everything away about her identity, completely killing her ego and becoming "no one," but she soon finds that freedom from pain is much more complicated than that.

It's understandable that Arya would seek any escape possible for her — she lost everything from an extremely young age and was cast into exile entirely on her own. She had to pretend to be a boy just to survive, making it all the easier for her to throw away her identity along with her painful past. In the end, Arya embraces who she is, overcoming literal blindness in the process, and she slays the Night King herself.

Even as strong as she became, though, Arya was forever changed by her experiences.

2 Daenerys Targaryen Lets Her Anger Cloud Her Judgement

Daenerys did not have an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. She was "married" off to a brutal tribe when she was young, and she didn't have any family but her misogynistic and self-centered older brother.

Dany's story eventually turned her into a hero over time, as she rose like a phoenix from the ashes of her tragedy to become a strong leader who sought to free those enslaved by the very society that hurt her.

The true tragedy would come later, though, as the very pain that drove her to save so many also caused her to become a villainous killer who dealt that same pain back to more innocent people. In the end, whom she refused to accept as her equal.

1 Jon Snow Is a Shakespearean Tragic Character

Even before he ever meets Dany, Jon's life is already filled with struggle and pain. He falsely believes himself to be a bastard and is thus treated as one his entire life. The one woman he falls in love with tries to kill him and eventually dies in his arms. He is even betrayed and killed by his brothers of the Night Watch before being brought back to life by Melisandre.

The story of Jon Snow and Daenerys has parallels to a Shakespearean tragedy. As the rulers of opposing kingdoms, the two fall in love, but Dany isn't willing to share the Iron Throne with anyone. Out of pure love and trust, Jon bends the knee to Dany, but soon, he discovers she is not the kind, pure-hearted soul he thought she was. In the interest of protecting the kingdom from a tyrant, Jon kills the woman he loves and is sent into exile to live out the rest of his days.