Ranking The Most Charismatic Players In Game Of Thrones

Alright everybody, we're trying something a little bit exciting and new today, which is we're gonna be making a tier list of Game of Thrones characters ranked by their charisma. So the first thing to keep in mind is we're not judging charisma in modern day times. This isn't who you would like to sit down and get a beer with. It's Game of Thrones charisma, which means are you persuasive? Do your plans work out and that might make you a very bad person. You could still be high charisma in the Game of Thrones world. Keep in mind this is just for fun. So if you don't like where I rank someone, please don't firebomb me. Alright, let's start with the first one. We're going with f tier first and I thought a lot about this. I think probably the lowest of the low charisma style in the Game of Thrones world for me is Gregor Clegane. The Mountain guy doesn't talk. He's basically used as a tool by Tywin Lannister for the majority to just kill his enemies. Yes, he survives fairly long until he's made into an undead monster, but that to me is not exactly high persuasion or charisma. So bottom of the tier list, Gregor Clegane, another Lannister lackey making up our second lowest spot is gonna be Maester Pycelle. Now, I give him credit. He makes it to the Small Council, he stays loyal to Tywin for that. Okay, good job. But he's continually outwitted by everyone around him. Tyrion plays him like a fool, exposes him and he just doesn't. He doesn't do so well. I believe he winds up getting stabbed by a bunch of kids in the end, even though he does make it to a right bold age, maybe he deserves D the next one up. I feel confident in my F tier ranking. Viserys Targaryen. So he goes out in book one, he's got a huge head. He believes that despite the fact that he has no sort of measurable power, that people should react and respond to him as if he were a powerful king. And that leads to his own demise when he walks in, demands an army, demands a throne and gets a pot of gold poured on his head. So he's solidly f tier. I feel safe in that one. Next up, someone who, I don't know if this is going to be divisive, but I think when you look at the plot, she ruins everything for the Starks and This is Catelyn Stark. So Stark Mama first off convinces Ned to go south to King's Landing, which is not a very good idea. Stark guys do not do well when they get there. She kidnaps Tyrion, which starts the entire war, then lets him go. She lets Jaime Lannister go, which puts Robb in a very difficult position with his bannermen. The only thing that it seems like she does wisely is advise Robb not to trust Theon, which she is unpersuasive. And ultimately doing so she, she really kind of messes things up with her advice and actions throughout the story. I put her at F tier charisma, even though she seems like a well meaning lady. And then I have to say the next F tier, probably my favorite or second favorite character is Theon Greyjoy. And he just, I mean he does, I think emotionally character wise appear to redeem himself by the end of the series. If he's not there yet in the books, he's working on it. But he's so bad, the decisions he makes are terrible. He sacks Winterfell, he can't hold it. He gets himself in a horrible position with Reek Ramsay in the TV show. He runs away, doesn't recognize that the guy who he's run away with is in fact his captor. There's just he makes horrible, horrible decisions throughout. Low F tier charisma. Moving up now to the people slightly above the D tiers. These are the people who aren't the worst, maybe have a redeeming peace, but are still pretty bad. And for this I start with Joffrey. Right. We're not going to get to every single character, but I think he deserves, I mean, he's maybe F tier, but I gave him D because he actually is. If you go back to early seasons and even read some of his scenes, he's very persuasive and charming when he wants to be. Prior to becoming king, he really lays it on Sansa, makes her want to stay in the South. Acts like he's this Prince Charming, kind of plays into the dream that he knows that she has. He knows how to play that charming prince now. Very quickly upon assuming power, he abuses it, makes enemies with everyone and gets himself killed for it. So that's why he's D tier. But I think that if he had maintained a little bit of that humility, which made him play kinder than he actually was, he might have made it higher up in this list, at least the next one. I might be being harsh here, but I'm gonna put Cersei Cersei Lannister gets a D from me and I know she survives a lot past a lot of the people who I might be ranking above her. But when I look at why, particularly in the books, it's made clear that the powers that be kind of like her in power because she's this destabilizing force so other people are operating around her, they just don't deal with her is kind of how she winds up in a position of power, not because she's making any brilliant power plays. Now I would save the one example of this which is shrewd or horrible is when she blows up the sept, right? That was quite well done. I give her crops for that. Maybe that bumps her up to C tier, but other than that it seems to me that she survives mostly because she's not really truly enough of a political threat enough for the other characters to to handle earlier. Next one Dead Ned Ned Stark, D tier, really nice guy, seems like it'd be good to get that beer with, but in Westerosi charisma I gotta give him a D. Poor decision making throughout maybe prior to the series he did some good stuff, seemed to be very well liked by his bannermen, which is why he gets a D. But as soon as he moves into the political arena, he's just outclassed by everyone around him. He trusts Littlefinger to his own death. He ignores the better advice of some people around him who tell him you need to get out of here, this place isn't for you. And he winds up dead very early on in our story. So sorry Ned. We love you. And then last up I give Janoslin. Janice Lint was that guy who was the commander of the Watch. He got to that position of power, which is why I'm not giving him an F. But then very immediately blows it, gets kicked out by Tyrion, goes to the Wall, mouths off to Jon and gets his head cut off. So that might even be F tier. That's some bad charisma moving up to C tier. I've saved this for some of our favorites here and this might be contentious. We've got John Snow, I'm giving him a C tier and I think why does he get a C tier? In my mind because he is very, I think traditionally charismatic in that people around him when they get to know him, admire him, like him, follow him. But at least in the books where we end up is he's being stabbed by his own men. And if you read into it, we actually did a video on this, it's in large part because he lacks the ability to communicate why he's doing the things that he's doing. He's letting the wildlings through. He has. He's incapable of making the Night's Watch understand that there are literal dead people coming forth them and that this is in their best interest. He's brooding, he's non communicative and it gets him stabbed by several of his own men. But despite that, if you meet him in person, it seems like everybody really likes him. He just isn't good at communicating. He's a brooder. And then the next one. I didn't know where to place this because her story, I don't know how it's gonna get there, but we're looking at Daenerys Targaryen. C tier for me, she is at times brilliantly inspiring. At other times, I don't understand why she's so cold and ruthless to the people that around her she seems to just be. I guess that was kind of how she was asked to portray herself. Emilia Clarke, in some of the scenes, you know, at the. The last scene that she has with Gendry where she starts off very unkind and then winds up giving him Storm's End, she seems to do that a lot. Like she's got this bad attitude, doesn't really make people around her feel good some of the time in her interactions. And then of course, she just goes genocidal at the end of the series. I could see arguments for her being higher for sure, given that she does wind up commanding all of these forces. But I think a large part of that is not due to her personality, but due to the fact that she's like the one magical character that can walk into fire, walk out with three dragons. So C tier for me. Moving up to B tier, this is the hardest one to fill out. I actually think she's not a big political player, but I gave Ygritte B tier. And Ygritte, if you remember, is the redhead who is north of the Wall that falls in love with Jon. I gave her B tier because one, she's living in a harsh environment and seems to be nobody is really taking advantage of her, which I think is impressive when she's living in that place. She's not the biggest, she's not the strongest. There's literal giants around her, but she stands her own ground. Second, she seems to be with exception. She understands John, honestly, she's a good judge of character. She knows that Jon is going to probably betray her before they have that scene, before they climb the wall where she says, I know you're still a crow. She's the one person that really gets. We didn't flip this guy that quick. It's. It's hopeful thinking, wishful thinking that lets her trust John enough to where he actually does betray her. And then, even though he doesn't, she has the opportunity, at least in the show, on a number of occasions, she doesn't kill him. And that's not for lack of knowing that that might be in her best interests. It's because she's emotionally compromised. So I give her a B tier for all of that. Next up, we have Jaime Lannister. I actually think that Jaime is far more cunning than he was portrayed in later seasons of the. The Dave and Dan version of Jaime, who was kind of just a big dope who loves Cersei, right there at the end, where we leave him in the books, at least he took Riverrun after. I don't know if it was months or years of a siege bloodlessly, right? He made a couple threats about throwing a baby over, let Edmure in, and he took the castle completely bloodlessly. We're starting to see him use his head a lot more, and it seems like that was there all along. He just relied on his family name and his sword hand to carry the day. He seems like he could have actually been a very astute political player, but he wound up being a golden boy instead. I think he's got more smart moves to be made in the books. We didn't see a whole ton of them in the seasons, but I'm holding out for that, which is why I gave him a B tier. And then next up, I have Oberyn Martell. Now, Oberyn is probably the most regularly charismatic, right? When we think of charisma, everyone likes him. He seems to turn guys and girls like him very much sexually. He's got his pick of the litter when it comes to that. He's attractive, he's slick, he's got all of that going down. But he actually makes interesting political plays, right? He comes to the capital, he winds up on the trial. He's got a seat there at the trial as a Prince of Dorne. He's weighing in on Tyrion, and he gets what he wanted, which is a sanctioned fight with the man who killed his sister. Now, it's his own hubris, his pride, that busts him at the end, but quite frankly, he wins the fight, right? He should have just stood three steps away, and that was dumb. But I could imagine him going on winning that fight. Now, granted, he's a little bit on the nose with accusing Tywin Lannister at the end there, but you see what he's trying to do. He's trying to get a public confession that Tywin Lannister was the one who ordered the murder of the Dornish princesses. So he's got some political machinations going. I think his emotions get the better of him, and that's why he has his premature death. Moving on, though, to the A tier. This is cream of the crop. These are our movers and shakers in the world of Game of Thrones. And again, I've left a couple of people out. These were just the ones that grabbed me as the most interesting. So I guess I think, well, really, there's two families that make this up for me. Two main players. The first is gonna be Tywin Lannister. Tywin, prior to the whole Game of Thrones series. He's. He's a political genius. He comes in with the Mad King, sets everything straight, runs it. Is a little bit too good at his job, right? This is why he, I think, falls short of someone like Littlefinger, because he lets it be known how powerful he is sometimes. And he seems to have learned that lesson by the time he's in Game of Thrones, for instance. He gets the phrase to take the fall for the Red Wedding, even when he orchestrated it, masterminded it, and provided them safety. But the ones who are getting killed at the beginning of some of the books and who have all this north hatred are the phrase. And it's not directed towards Tywin Lannister, which is genius. I think one of the things that is, well, perhaps similar in the world of Game of Thrones is that the best thing that you can do when you have power is act powerless, right? Is act like you have nothing to do with it. And he does a very good job of that throughout his life, at least in the books. He's a physical presence. We see him intimidate Joffrey. He runs the show as long as he's in town, is the only one, really, who just completely handles Joffrey and overrules him, no problem. So Tywin Lannister, for me, solid a pushing S tier. I didn't give him an S because he underestimates, under uses, and it ultimately kills him. His greatest potential asset, which is his son Tyrion, who I also give a tier to. If Tywin and Tyrion had teamed up, this would be the best duo that Westeros had ever seen, right? They could have. They would have been absolutely unstoppable. Tyrion, on the other hand, excellent frame control, right. Doesn't have Tywin's dominant stature nature. We see him talk himself out of life or death situations on more than one occasion and he understands what other people want. We made a whole video about this and when he's talking he doesn't say, you have to save me. What we see Littlefinger do and it's the worst scene ever in the TV show. I do not think he's gonna go out, but he says, please don't kill me, please. I've been so good. That's not how Tyrion talks. That's not how Tyrion tries to persuade people. He speaks to what is good for you. And that's how he saves his own skin. It's how he gets out of the jail. It's how he convinces the mountain clans not to kill him. He talks to their own needs and it winds up propelling him forward. So absolutely a tier. He's got battle strategy, he's a pushing s and then we have the other family, we have the Tyrells and we have the matriarch of the Tyrells, Olenna Tyrell. Now, we don't see a ton from her in the books. She seems very clever in the scenes that we see from her, at least in the TV show. But one to be a matriarch in a patriarchal society is quite impressive. She's very old, right? She's achieved hyper prominence in the society and then she pulls this coup off, essentially killing the king and is completely unsuspected. There are no negative ramifications that fall to her. They get a more manageable king who her daughter then begins to play like a fiddle. She's incredible. And then I've hinted at the final person for me in a tier, Margaery Tyrell. Margaery, again, if you have Oberyn being like the male charismatic standard, who we might really like, Margaery is the one that would do the best in our world. I mean, she's beautiful, she's likable. Everyone likes her. We've got the small folk who likes her, who she gives back to. She's the only one who controls Joffrey in her own particular way, which is not overt. She controls Joffrey by making him feel special, by convincing him that he can be loved by the masses and in that way keeps a handle over him. Now, it's not necessarily easy for her to do, but she does it and she remains undetected by Joffrey driving a wedge between him and his mother. Very, very impressive stuff. Unfortunately, her one downfall was underestimating the ruthlessness of Cersei. And I didn't give her mad charisma points for blowing up the set because I don't think that's necessarily genius political strategy because I think the political fallout of that would have been far worse than they showed in the TV show. If you kill entire noble families in a fire that you're not at the trial, I think that that's where the show might have fallen short in having consequences to behaviors. That said, I give Margaery top marks. I think she might go out a similar way in the books. And now the coveted. We've arrived at S tier and I saved this. This was for those characters who were the most self made. This was for the people who didn't come from noble houses but still amassed incredible amounts of power. So some of these will be able to guess. I think one might come as a bit of surprise. So the first one, I mean, we have Littlefinger, perhaps the best player in the entire Game of Thrones. George talks about the difference. He says that there's actually a difference between how the show depicts Littlefinger and the books. In the books, he's so likable. Everybody likes him. In the TV shows, he's depicted as this character that they kind of put up with because he can help him, but not in the books. He's so well liked by everybody. He orchestrates a coup, gets Sansa out, is beginning to control the aerie. We see at the very end of. And even in some of the scenes that have been leaked from Winds of Winter, he's still doing these brilliant plays where he's got people who are working for him acting like they don't work for him, acting against him in order to consolidate. He's. He's three steps ahead of everyone else. And people do not realize, perhaps with exception of Varys, how powerful he is, which is in the Game of Thrones. Maybe the best thing you can do for yourself is cover your power tracks, which takes us to the dueling side of that we have Varys. So Varys again comes from nothing, right? Was a street urchin who winds up being master of Whispers. But that's not where his power ends. He actually is making some pretty incredible moves and is only intercepted by Littlefinger a couple of times. He actually negotiates and gets Ned out of jail. We believe at the end he's working on a deal to get him out. And then it seems like Littlefinger has gotten into Joffrey's ears, convinced him he shouldn't go easy on his enemies and Ned gets his head cut off. There's a number of things, and this is why I put Littlefinger slightly ahead of Varys, that are plans that Varys had enacted that are only intercepted in the last second by Littlefinger. He seems to be the only one who is on his level. Hyper power player. Incredible. And then the one person that you may not have guessed up here, self made did it all. And quite frankly, if we'd had scenes of him doing it, it would have been confounding to understand is Mance Rayder. Mance Rayder is the king beyond the Wall. And what he did, I don't even know that you could depict it. Like, how would you show a scene of somebody going and uniting all 100,000 different people under so many different clans, literally different species. I mean, we're talking about giants and people and cannibals and all these different things. Here's a guy that doesn't belong there, who was born south of the Wall, who goes up and in a matter of years has united all of them under his rule. And then in the books we see him die. In the TV shows he's not even dead yet, right? He's still pulling some levers. We think that he might have written something called the Pink Letter, if you know what that is in the book. He's. He's still out there doing incredible stuff. S tier for my man Mance. S tier for the three self made people that I think are really the most incredible power people. And I'm sure I, I there are some people I left out, I should say. I didn't know where to put Sansa in because she, she in the books right now is still very much in a learning stage. We get the impression that she's about to ascend, but I think it wasn't well executed in how the show depicted it. We're told repeatedly how brilliant her plans are. I didn't really see see a ton of her brilliant plans in the show, so I didn't know where to rank her. I suspect by the end she's going to be a tier ish and a serious player, but if there's someone that you think I left out, let me know. The last one that deserves it are at the top, triple S tier. All the direwolves, probably Ghost King lost an ear, fought in the Battle of the Dead. Didn't even get pet afterwards. But luckily he had that one scene with Jon at the end. So hope that you guys have enjoyed this tier list. This is obviously just for fun. If you liked it, you want me to do other TV shows or other groups of characters, maybe even real people, let me know in the comments below. And if you like this style, this is actually our podcast set. We have another channel. We're going to be putting up highlights from that podcast, same sort of theme, just for fun. Not as much charisma stuff, but if you want to check that out, you can do so now. So hope you guys enjoyed this video and I will see you in the next one.