9. Jack Gleeson – Joffrey Baratheon
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Narrowly beating out Iwan Rheon’ Ramsay Snow as the most contemptible character on the show, King Joffrey is just an awful human being. The internet isn’t exactly shy about expressing their hate for this guy, and even George R. R. Martin has declared himself impressed with just how much loathing Jack Gleeson has managed to drum up for the part.
Make no mistake, you don’t hate him because he’s a bad character or badly performed. You hate him because Gleeson’s awesome performance makes you hate him. His Joffrey isn’t quite pure pantomime villainy, but it’s a close-run thing and that makes the role all the harder. It can be very easy to dial it up to 11 when you’re faced with such a straightforward character, but Gleeson plays it masterfully well. Despite the presence of the similarly unhinged Ramsay he remains one of the most uproariously evil individuals in Westeros, but he never comes across as unbelievable.
You’re appalled by his hints that he’ll rape Sansa Stark, you’re horrified when he wants to present Robb’s head to her at his wedding and you’re furious when he crossbows Ros to death, but he’s never anything less than a believable study of a spoilt brat given all the keys to the kingdom.
7. Emilia Clarke – Daenerys Targaryen (lol idts)
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It’s safe to say that Daenerys didn’t have the best second season. While her first season had a clear dramatic arc, she spent the majority of her time in Qarth looking vaguely confused before locking a conman in a safe. It’s not the most dramatic thing to ever happen, is what I’m saying. But damn, did season three ever make that up to us.
We’ve all been aware that Emilia Clarke is good actress – you don’t pick up a gig as huge as this as a first-timer without being astoundingly talented – but when her character is in a position where she lacks any real power, her earnest, forceful line delivery makes her hard to sympathise with. Yet season three gave her the power, and in spade-load
Yes, this was the season we got to see Daenerys actually achieve real power. Gone are the days where she had to live vicariously through her husband, or when she was the head of a travelling Dothraki freak show. The mother of dragons now has an actual army, and Clarke carried off her new-found confidence brilliantly, with authority now coursing through her honeyed words. Even when she has to speak in a completely different language, you can always buy that this is a woman you do not cross.
More than any other character, Danaerys has to be viewed in the context of all three seasons. Clarke’s done extremely well in making her transformation from quivering waif to battle-hardened Queen-Messiah look believable, and for that she deserves the highest praise.
6. Maisie Williams – Arya Stark
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Seriously, how awesome is Maisie Williams as Arya Stark? Sorry to lose my poise there, but the girl’s just excellent. She pretty much sets the bar for young actors these days, and watching her work is a real game-changing moment – you can’t possibly go back to how it was before, when kids used to phone it in. Her performance in the last two series was astonishing, and continues to be so here.
What’s so impressive about Williams’ portrayal of Arya is that really, the whole character is one gigantic balancing act. Deep down, she’s just a girl who wants her family back, and everyone can sympathise with that. However, what sets Arya apart is that if anyone threatens her dream, she’ll respond with a huge helping of righteous fury. Keeping these two opposing natures together without making your character look insane is where the challenge comes, but Williams doesn’t appear fazed at all.
It’s so easy to be on her side throughout the whole season because her ambitions are inherently simple, and it’s awesome to be on her side because of how she acts to achieve her goals.
From threatening to kill the Hound – who narrowly missed out on this list – to calling Beric and Thoros out on their hypocrisy, watching the younger Stark girl get chucked around the various factions in Westeros is always enthralling, and that’s all thanks to the actress playing her. And when it comes time to be nakedly emotional, such as when Gendry leaves or when she sees her brother’s frankenwolf body – grim, by the way – she excels there too. She’s consistently fantastic, and long may that continue.
2. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – Jaime Lannister
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On paper, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau had the hardest job this season. Simply put, he had to make us feel for a smug dick. Scratch that – the smuggest dick. The Jaime Lannister of season one and two were supposed to be utterly contemptible, and a real contradiction in terms. After all, here we have a man who looks like a knight and fights like a knight, but acts like anything but. It was made very clear from the start that this was a man who deserved your contempt when he threw a ten-year-old boy out a window – there’s no coming back from that.
Yet Coster-Waldau has managed the impossible. While before we could find Jaime entertaining when fired out sardonic quips, we could never truly be on his side. Yet this season, he went through a narrative arc no-one else has gone through yet in Game of Thrones – he found redemption. Understandably, he’s still got a long way to go to make up for his past crimes, but he’s well on his way, and the fact we’re actually happy for him marks Coster-Waldau out as an excellent actor.
What makes the performance even better is that Coster-Waldau was imbuing Jaime with the correct sense of honour even before he got his hand chopped off. He managed to find the correct balance between actually caring for Brienne and wanting to be seen as cocky, absolutely nailing every character beat along the way. Yet what put him head and shoulders above most of the cast was the bathtub scene – it was a monologue so powerful, so sincere and so emotionally charged that if you weren’t even slightly moved by it, I think you need to check where your heart is. Frankly, if Coster-Waldau isn’t on the Emmy nominations list for this episode alone, I’ll be astounded.
1. Charles Dance – Tywin Lannister
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Nobody owned season three like Charles Dance. He bestrode the whole production like a perma-furious colossus and took down all comers, whether they were mortal enemies, political vipers or even his own family. It’s obvious that Charles Dance is an excellent actor – we’ve known that through all of Thrones’ seasons, but it was only this year that he got a chance to really show us how ferocious Tywin is. Granted, his scenes with Arya last year were air-punchingly awesome, but they were too brief for my liking and in season one he was more a boogeyman than anything else. Now Tywin was in the capital, we could really see how formidable he was.
When given these opportunities, Dance didn’t disappoint. We’d gone through two seasons with the script establishing how many of the King’s Landing characters were kings of their own world. But while Littlefinger (who sparred with Tywin in season two), Varys, Cersei and Tyrion are all great game-players, even they were swept off the board by the sheer intensity of Tywin Lannister. He’s the closest thing Game of Thrones has to a primary antagonist, and Dance handled that burden with aplomb.
But it can’t all be shouting in council chambers – where there’s shade, there must also be light or the character comes across as a one-note caricature. This was the case with Tywin – yes, we saw he could be a callously cruel monster, but he’s nuanced too. Dance put this across excellently – witness the scene when he admits he came very close to drowning Tyrion. His voice actually cracks, and you feel for this awful human being. That’s a sign of how good an actor Dance is, and he’s dominated Thrones this year.
SOURCE
who are favorite got actors ONTD? my top 5 are charles dance, lena headey, nikolaj coster waldau, sophie turner, and maisie williams
Narrowly beating out Iwan Rheon’ Ramsay Snow as the most contemptible character on the show, King Joffrey is just an awful human being. The internet isn’t exactly shy about expressing their hate for this guy, and even George R. R. Martin has declared himself impressed with just how much loathing Jack Gleeson has managed to drum up for the part.
Make no mistake, you don’t hate him because he’s a bad character or badly performed. You hate him because Gleeson’s awesome performance makes you hate him. His Joffrey isn’t quite pure pantomime villainy, but it’s a close-run thing and that makes the role all the harder. It can be very easy to dial it up to 11 when you’re faced with such a straightforward character, but Gleeson plays it masterfully well. Despite the presence of the similarly unhinged Ramsay he remains one of the most uproariously evil individuals in Westeros, but he never comes across as unbelievable.
You’re appalled by his hints that he’ll rape Sansa Stark, you’re horrified when he wants to present Robb’s head to her at his wedding and you’re furious when he crossbows Ros to death, but he’s never anything less than a believable study of a spoilt brat given all the keys to the kingdom.
7. Emilia Clarke – Daenerys Targaryen (lol idts)
It’s safe to say that Daenerys didn’t have the best second season. While her first season had a clear dramatic arc, she spent the majority of her time in Qarth looking vaguely confused before locking a conman in a safe. It’s not the most dramatic thing to ever happen, is what I’m saying. But damn, did season three ever make that up to us.
We’ve all been aware that Emilia Clarke is good actress – you don’t pick up a gig as huge as this as a first-timer without being astoundingly talented – but when her character is in a position where she lacks any real power, her earnest, forceful line delivery makes her hard to sympathise with. Yet season three gave her the power, and in spade-load
Yes, this was the season we got to see Daenerys actually achieve real power. Gone are the days where she had to live vicariously through her husband, or when she was the head of a travelling Dothraki freak show. The mother of dragons now has an actual army, and Clarke carried off her new-found confidence brilliantly, with authority now coursing through her honeyed words. Even when she has to speak in a completely different language, you can always buy that this is a woman you do not cross.
More than any other character, Danaerys has to be viewed in the context of all three seasons. Clarke’s done extremely well in making her transformation from quivering waif to battle-hardened Queen-Messiah look believable, and for that she deserves the highest praise.
6. Maisie Williams – Arya Stark
Seriously, how awesome is Maisie Williams as Arya Stark? Sorry to lose my poise there, but the girl’s just excellent. She pretty much sets the bar for young actors these days, and watching her work is a real game-changing moment – you can’t possibly go back to how it was before, when kids used to phone it in. Her performance in the last two series was astonishing, and continues to be so here.
What’s so impressive about Williams’ portrayal of Arya is that really, the whole character is one gigantic balancing act. Deep down, she’s just a girl who wants her family back, and everyone can sympathise with that. However, what sets Arya apart is that if anyone threatens her dream, she’ll respond with a huge helping of righteous fury. Keeping these two opposing natures together without making your character look insane is where the challenge comes, but Williams doesn’t appear fazed at all.
It’s so easy to be on her side throughout the whole season because her ambitions are inherently simple, and it’s awesome to be on her side because of how she acts to achieve her goals.
From threatening to kill the Hound – who narrowly missed out on this list – to calling Beric and Thoros out on their hypocrisy, watching the younger Stark girl get chucked around the various factions in Westeros is always enthralling, and that’s all thanks to the actress playing her. And when it comes time to be nakedly emotional, such as when Gendry leaves or when she sees her brother’s frankenwolf body – grim, by the way – she excels there too. She’s consistently fantastic, and long may that continue.
2. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – Jaime Lannister
On paper, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau had the hardest job this season. Simply put, he had to make us feel for a smug dick. Scratch that – the smuggest dick. The Jaime Lannister of season one and two were supposed to be utterly contemptible, and a real contradiction in terms. After all, here we have a man who looks like a knight and fights like a knight, but acts like anything but. It was made very clear from the start that this was a man who deserved your contempt when he threw a ten-year-old boy out a window – there’s no coming back from that.
Yet Coster-Waldau has managed the impossible. While before we could find Jaime entertaining when fired out sardonic quips, we could never truly be on his side. Yet this season, he went through a narrative arc no-one else has gone through yet in Game of Thrones – he found redemption. Understandably, he’s still got a long way to go to make up for his past crimes, but he’s well on his way, and the fact we’re actually happy for him marks Coster-Waldau out as an excellent actor.
What makes the performance even better is that Coster-Waldau was imbuing Jaime with the correct sense of honour even before he got his hand chopped off. He managed to find the correct balance between actually caring for Brienne and wanting to be seen as cocky, absolutely nailing every character beat along the way. Yet what put him head and shoulders above most of the cast was the bathtub scene – it was a monologue so powerful, so sincere and so emotionally charged that if you weren’t even slightly moved by it, I think you need to check where your heart is. Frankly, if Coster-Waldau isn’t on the Emmy nominations list for this episode alone, I’ll be astounded.
1. Charles Dance – Tywin Lannister
Nobody owned season three like Charles Dance. He bestrode the whole production like a perma-furious colossus and took down all comers, whether they were mortal enemies, political vipers or even his own family. It’s obvious that Charles Dance is an excellent actor – we’ve known that through all of Thrones’ seasons, but it was only this year that he got a chance to really show us how ferocious Tywin is. Granted, his scenes with Arya last year were air-punchingly awesome, but they were too brief for my liking and in season one he was more a boogeyman than anything else. Now Tywin was in the capital, we could really see how formidable he was.
When given these opportunities, Dance didn’t disappoint. We’d gone through two seasons with the script establishing how many of the King’s Landing characters were kings of their own world. But while Littlefinger (who sparred with Tywin in season two), Varys, Cersei and Tyrion are all great game-players, even they were swept off the board by the sheer intensity of Tywin Lannister. He’s the closest thing Game of Thrones has to a primary antagonist, and Dance handled that burden with aplomb.
But it can’t all be shouting in council chambers – where there’s shade, there must also be light or the character comes across as a one-note caricature. This was the case with Tywin – yes, we saw he could be a callously cruel monster, but he’s nuanced too. Dance put this across excellently – witness the scene when he admits he came very close to drowning Tyrion. His voice actually cracks, and you feel for this awful human being. That’s a sign of how good an actor Dance is, and he’s dominated Thrones this year.
SOURCE
who are favorite got actors ONTD? my top 5 are charles dance, lena headey, nikolaj coster waldau, sophie turner, and maisie williams