5 Game Of Thrones Characters You’ll Like Much Better On A Rewatch (And 1 You’ll Like Less)
And now, their watch has ended... but will you like them more if you watch again?
Game Of Thrones is a gripping show with a huge cast of characters and because of that, inevitably, there’s a diverse range of favourites. While some, like Tyrion, are almost universally loved, there are others that the fanbase tends to look at with disdain.
Do they all really deserve it?
Though part of what makes Game Of Thrones great is that it exists in grey areas. Characters like Littlefinger, Varys, Bronn, Bran, Daenerys and Jaime Lannister exist on a moral spectrum, making them out as complex. The revelations of their changing allegiances and moral codes could be distracting on the first watch through.
On a rewatch however, without the twists and turns of the plot to distract you, the characters themselves come into focus. This is where you realise that some of the characters got a bad rep the first go around. Some were sullied by poor storylines, others were on the wrong side of the narrative to be appreciated.
And it's time to acknowledge that you can love them more the second time around. First though, the one character you'll like less...
Robb Stark
Richard Madden is a fantastic actor, and could very well be the next James Bond. After brilliant performances in the likes of The Bodyguard, Thrones fans are well and truly missing one of the show's greatest characters.
But should they be? First time around, everyone is blinded by their desire for Robb to march to King's Landing and take the throne for the Starks. It makes you forget that the boy is an idiot. In the books, he's only 16 and some things can be put down to the impetuousness of youth. That's not so when the show clearly aged him and the rest of the Stark children up considerably.
Robb Stark is just what Robert Baratheon would've been like as a boy. Fearless in battle, a decent head for single-minded combat but not much for the rest of ruling. Though Robb doesn't start the war for Talisa in the way Robert does for Lyanna, his selfish notion that a king's love is great than a king's people does cost him the war.
The marriage is just the start. Executing Karstark costs him men, trusting Edmure costs him The Mountain, trusting Roose... you get the idea. He’s infuriating the second time around.
Anyway, now on to the characters you definitely WILL like more...
5. Selyse Baratheon
The makeup department always does a wonderful job, but turning English rose Tara Fitzgerald into a sour-faced trout might just be their masterpiece. Fitzgerald herself deserves praise too, crafting a portrayal that is startlingly unpleasant yet unmistakably real.
Her marriage, to put it mildly, must not have been fun. You get the impression both she herself and her husband Stannis would struggle to even imitate laughter, let alone actually find humour in anything. While Stannis never hits her and is probably the best husband of the Baratheon brothers, her relationship is hugely abusive. Stannis withholds what meagre affection he’s able to give and cheats on her with another woman. She can’t even object to this, as she’s been brainwashed into believing that woman is a conduit for the gods.
But then there’s her treatment of Shireen. Undoubtedly deplorable, the sheer shock of Shireen’s brutal death by flames often sees Selyse’s epiphany go unnoticed. She mistreats her daughter throughout her life, being cold and indifferent. Then burns her alive. Again, obviously terrible. But unlike Stannis (or anyone there) she tries to intervene in the burning, hanging herself out of guilt the next day. That’s at least break-even for Westerosi mothers.