10. Conleth Hill Varys
With Littlefinger taking his creepy pervert parade to the Vale halfway through season three, we were left with only one schemer to hold our attention a hardship which Conleth Hill fashioned into a luxury. Effecting the persona of a man who is three steps ahead of his opponent, Varys made his presence felt throughout season three and though his plans didnt exactly pan out he was never anything less than watchable. Seeing Westeros liar-in-chief actually act sincere throughout this season was oddly uncomfortable usually Varys can be relied upon for a wry smile and the veiled warnings, but this time around the Spider acted with disarming urgency. Sure, the veiled warnings were still there, but strangely for an espionage master Varys spent a lot of his time downing tools and telling it straight. Witnessing him admitting his fear of Littlefinger made Hills performance extremely memorable because it wasnt what we expected of such a measured man. Its a credit to the actor that Varys monologues became compulsive viewing throughout this season, to the extent that he even made his obligatory want-to-know-how-I-lost my-balls scene compelling. After all, hes the living embodiment that the cleverest men, not those with the biggest swords, win the Game of Thrones, and Conleth Hill shoulders that burden brilliantly. You really believe this man is moving the pieces around in his own masterminding way for example, trying to get Shae to leave for Tyrion's sake and what else can actor ask for, if not that?