20 Most Hated Characters In TV History
2. Game Of Thrones - Ramsay Bolton
Over the course of decades and decades, television has thrown some of the worst excesses of humanity at us in shows about mass murderers, assassins, genocide and conservative politics.
And then there’s Game Of Thrones, the show that collects enough of these grim horrors together to form their own NFL team roster (the Valyrian Villains? The Westeros W*nkers?). Out of all of the monstrous inhabitants of George R.R. Martin’s world, the former Ramsey Snow, illegitimate son of the Lord Of The Dreadfort, is without doubt the worst.
A sadistic torturer, rapist and mass murderer, Ramsey is essentially a violent serial killer in a position of feudal power and commanding an army, which is the worst kind of serial killer you can possibly imagine. Coming from a long tradition of flaying his enemies alive, he skins them until they pass out from loss of blood or die from shock.
Almost feral, a rabid animal walking upright, Ramsey brutalises others for his own amusement, crazy little eyes lighting up whenever he has the opportunity to humiliate or mutilate anyone that crosses him, or anyone that looks at him funny. Really, anyone that crosses his path.
He’s a sexual sadist, taking a fetishistic delight in causing real suffering, not just pain - that’s why he emasculates Theon Greyjoy and turns him into his traumatised, self-loathing slave. It’s not just the agony of the maiming that turns him on, but the fact that Theon is emotionally crippled from the horror of it.
That’s also why he rapes Sansa Stark on their wedding night: not just because the creepy little weasel wants to, or because it’s required of him to sire a son to legitimise the marriage in the eyes of the law (although both those things are true), but because she’s inexperienced and frightened, and he knows it’ll haunt her.