History Monster / ASongOfIceAndFire

* Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal, is a far more subtle example. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], [[EvilIsCool stylish]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated the War of the Seven Kings that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees and left the Seven Kingdoms a total political and economic wreck, all for his own personal gain. It ''is'' debatable whether even he could have actually foreseen how disastrously things would turn out (though admittedly he doesn't seem to have any remorse for it either way). Worth mentioning also is how he [[ConsummateLiar lies]] to Ned Stark(whose honor and honesty he has already exploited consummately) about Goldcloaks siding with him before they turn against Ned. The televised adaptation has a scene near the end of Season 1, where Petyr's nature is more apparent: when Joffrey [[spoiler: orders the execution of Ned Stark]], both Cersei and Varys, while Cersei isn't goodhearted herself and Varys' morality is ambiguous at this point, are visibly shocked and appalled. Baelish, then? Just stands there and watches. It wasn't part of the plan, but he really ''doesn't'' seem to care about how catastrophic this action will undeniably be. There's also the theory that Littlefinger actually convinced Joffrey to [[spoiler: execute Ned rather than exile him to the Night's Watch]], which is one reasonable guess. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation You could argue to his credit on grounds that we don't really know all that much about his mind works]]. He does have quite a strong [[FreudianExcuse an explanation for his actions offered]], starting out as an adorable, naive little boy unfortunate enough to fall in love with a girl way too high up on the food-chain for him and going through too many incidents [[BreakTheCutie that strike deep into his then-idealistic self]]. In short, [[LoveMakesYouEvil an illustrated case of how love can become perverted]]. Then again [[SubvertedTrope it's just that, an explanation and how much weight you give this implied reason is up to you]], even though it gives something to think about. Whether his apparent MoralityPet in "Alayne" is simply an extremely creepy use of her as a ReplacementGoldfish for an originally desired sex object or he is trying to express genuine affection and just does it in a really bad way [[AmbiguouslyEvil may also affect your judgment of him]]. [[SubvertedTrope Then Littlefinger definitely crosses the MoralEventHorizon, when you find out that he [[spoiler: sold poor Jeyne Poole into sexual slavery in order to prepare her to be wed to Ramsay Snow]]]].

* Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal, is a far more subtle example. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], [[EvilIsCool stylish]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated the War of the Seven Kings that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees and left the Seven Kingdoms a total political and economic wreck, all for his own personal gain. It ''is'' debatable whether even he could have actually foreseen how disastrously things would turn out (though admittedly he doesn't seem to have any remorse for it either way). Worth mentioning also is how he [[ConsummateLiar lies]] to Ned Stark(whose honor and honesty he has already exploited consummately) about Goldcloaks siding with him before they turn against Ned. The televised adaptation has a scene near the end of Season 1, where Petyr's nature is more apparent: when Joffrey [[spoiler: orders the execution of Ned Stark]], both Cersei and Varys, while Cersei isn't goodhearted herself and Varys' morality is ambiguous at this point, are visibly shocked and appalled. Baelish, then? Just stands there and watches. It wasn't part of the plan, but he really ''doesn't'' seem to care about how catastrophic this action will undeniably be. There's also the theory that Littlefinger actually convinced Joffrey to [[spoiler: execute Ned rather than exile him to the Night's Watch]], which is one reasonable guess. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation You could argue to his credit on grounds that we don't really know all that much about his mind works]]. He does have quite a strong [[FreudianExcuse an explanation for his actions offered]], starting out as an adorable, naive little boy unfortunate enough to fall in love with a girl way too high up on the food-chain for him and going through too many incidents of BreakTheCutie. In short, [[LoveMakesYouEvil an illustrated case of how love can become perverted]]. Then again [[SubvertedTrope it's just that, an explanation and how much weight you give this implied reason is up to you]], even though it gives something to think about. Whether his apparent MoralityPet in "Alayne" is simply an extremely creepy use of her as a ReplacementGoldfish for an originally desired sex object or he is trying to express genuine affection and just does it in a really bad way. Then Littlefinger rdefinitely crosses the MoralEventHorizon, when you find out that he [[spoiler: sold poor Jeyne Poole into sexual slavery in order to prepare her to be wed to Ramsay Snow]].

* Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], he may be [[EvilIsCool stylish]], he may be [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated a war that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees and left the Seven Kingdoms a total political and economic wreck, all for his own personal gain.
** This depends to some extent on whether you believe his implied LoveMakesYouEvil FreudianExcuse, and whether his apparent MoralityPet in "Alayne" is simply an extremely creepy use of her as a ReplacementGoldfish for an originally desired sex object, or whether he is trying to express genuine affection and just does it in a really bad way. Also, while his actions may have kick-started the War of the Five Kings, it is debatable whether even he could have actually foreseen how disastrously things would turn out (though admittedly he doesn't seem to have any remorse for it either way).
*** The televised adaptation has a scene near the end of Season 1 which really emphasises the final point - when Joffrey [[spoiler: orders the execution of Ned Stark]], both Cersei and Varys are visible shocked and appalled. Baelish... just stands there and watches. It wasn't part of the plan, no, but he really ''doesn't'' seem to care about how catastrophic this action will undeniably be.
**** But there's also the theory that Littlefinger actually convinced Joffrey to [[spoiler: execute Ned rather than exile him to the Night's Watch]].
** There is a lot of AlternateCharacterInterpretation regarding Littlefinger as we don't really know all that much about his mind works. Arguably he does have quite a strong FreudianExcuse, starting out as an adorable, naive little boy who was unfortunate enough to fall in love with a girl way too high up on the food-chain for him, and just went through too many incidents of BreakTheCutie. Not that it excuses his actions, but it is something to think about.
** Littlefinger really crosses the MoralEventHorizon when you find out that he [[spoiler: sold poor Jeyne Poole into sexual slavery in order to prepare her to be wed to Ramsay Snow]].

** Roughly half of the Targaryens have the potential to be this due to their never-ending [[BrotherSisterIncest inbreeding]]. An in-universe saying puts it quite nicely: all Targaryens have the capacity for "madness" or "greatness", and whenever one is born the gods flip a coin to determine which it is. Rhaegar and Daenerys apparently got "great" but poor Viserys got the other side of the coin, like his father the Mad King. His final scene is a good example, though several scenes - [[spoiler: his [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel truly horrifying]] KarmicDeath]] - at least manage to slightly humanise him to the audience, averting this trope (although he is still a huge jerk).

** Their leader, Lord[[hottip:*:"He's no fucking lord, just some jumped-up sellsword, but you better ''call'' him lord if you want to keep all your parts."]] Vargo Hoat deserves his own mention. One of Tywin Lannister's mad dogs, his charming habits include: [[BodyHorror cutting off the feet of people who annoy him]], [[AttemptedRape raping people]], killing anyone who dares to say he isn't a proper lord (he isn't), [[TheStarscream betraying his employers when it looks like he is about to lose]], murdering, horribly, anyone who makes fun of his [[SpeechImpediment thpeecth impediment, whith makeths him thlobber and lithp hilariouthly]], [[RapePillageAndBurn burning the Riverlands]] and thieving. He gets a horrible KarmicDeath when [[AttemptedRape he tries to rape]] [[LadyOfWar Brienne of Tarth]], who bites off his ear. The wound drives him feverish and thus so mad that he doesn't notice Ser Gregor, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness who he betrayed, storming his castle]]. Ser Gregor, [[CompleteMonster being Ser Gregor]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel feeds him his own limbs before eventually killing him.]] Despite his truly horrific passing, it is almost impossible to drum up any sympathy for him.

* Joffrey Baratheon shows all the signs of a complete psychopath. As a young child, he cut open a pregnant cat because he was told she had kittens inside her, and while this could have been the act of a child who didn't really understand what he was doing, his later acts show an extreme sadistic streak. Joffrey revels in his total power over life and death, and takes pleasure in tormenting his subjects. During the starvation, he would stand in a window with his crossbow and shoot the starving people outside for sport (this may be a ShoutOut to the scene in SchindlersList where concentration camp commandant [[CompleteMonster Amon Goeth]] would do the same to the starving Jews, which tells you quite a bit about Joffrey). His first act as King is to [[spoiler:have Eddard Stark executed out of spite]], ignoring his advisors and their silly complaints that doing so would start a war or something. He then went on to inflict cruel and prolonged physical and mental abuse on young Sansa Stark, having his knights beat her, and on one occasion had her publicly stripped naked and beaten with the flats of their swordblades. [[ItGotWorse As if this wasn't enough]] after [[spoiler: the little bastard is [[KarmicDeath killed]],]] his younger brother (who is a genuinely sweet kid) starts to say he would "go away inside" when Joffrey would... but he's interrupted before we find out exactly what Joffrey would do to his little brother.

* Joffrey's predecessor, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mad King]] Aerys Targaryen, wasn't exactly a paragon of justice either: The people of Westeros had been living under the [[RoyallyScrewedUp Targaryen dynasty]] for almost 300 years, even though it meant putting up with monarchs like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Maegor the Cruel]] and [[TheCaligula Aegon the Unworthy]], yet all it took was 20 years of Aerys' rule to cause [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating five of the seven kingdoms]] [[CurbStompBattle to rise up against the Iron Throne in open revolt]]. He was really just [[UpToEleven that bad]]. Among his worst acts was his execution of Rickard Stark; after the former demanded a fair TrialByCombat, Aerys had him [[NightmareFuel slowly roasted over an open flame]], reasoning that [[InsaneTrollLogic fire was his personal champion]]. [[ForTheEvulz Just for kicks]], [[KickTheDog he also had Rickard's son Brandon]] [[ForcedToWatch forced to watch]] [[ColdBloodedTorture while strapped to a torture device that slowly strangled him to death]] [[SadisticChoice as he struggled to rescue his father]]. Aerys also made the StupidEvil decision to replace all of his competent councillors with [[MadScientist deranged alchemists]] [[{{Pyromaniac}} who shared his "enthusiasm" for burning people alive]]. To top it all off, when Aerys finally realized he had lost his war against the rebels, he decided to go out with a bang [[MoralEventHorizon by ordering his pyromancers to burn Westeros' capitol city to the ground]]- knowing that it would result in the deaths of ''hundreds of thousands'' of people- ''purely out of spite''. Thankfully, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his own sworn bodyguard realized that Aerys was going too far]] and [[TheOathbreaker took matters into his own hands]] before the plan could be carried out.
** Roughly half the Targaryens had the potential to be this due to their neverending [[BrotherSisterIncest inbreeding]] - there's a saying in-story that every time a Targaryen is born the Gods will flip a coin to determine if they are completely insane or healthy of mind. Viserys Targaryen - the Mad King's 2nd son and Daenerys' brother - came ''very'' close to this trope as well in his final appearance in the first book, but several scenes in both mediums [[spoiler: not least of all his [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel truly horrifying]] KarmicDeath]] at least managed to slightly humanise him to the audience, averting this trope (although he is still a huge jerk).

** Roughly half the Targaryens had the potential to be this due to their neverending [[BrotherSisterIncest inbreeding]] - there's a saying in-story that every time a Targaryen is born the Gods will flip a coin to determine if they are completely insane or healthy of mind. Viserys Targaryen - the Mad King's 2nd son and Daenerys' brother - came ''very'' close to this trope as well in his final appearance in the first book, but several scenes in both mediums [[spoiler: not least of all his [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel truly horrifying]] KarmicDeath]] at least managed to slightly humanise him to the audience, averting this trope(although he is still a huge jerk).

''ASongOfIceAndFire'' has many complex antagonists with very understandable motives. For example, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Cersei]] acted to protect her children and twin brother Jaime. However, as in most works, there exist several people who are indeed [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]].

* Joffrey Baratheon shows all the signs of a complete psychopath. As a young child, he cut open a pregnant cat, (because he was told she had kittens inside her,) and while this could have been the act of a child who didn't really understand what he was doing, his later acts show an extreme sadistic streak. Joffrey revels in his total power over life and death, and takes pleasure in tormenting his subjects. During the starvation, he would stand in a window with his crossbow and shoot the starving people outside for sport (this may be a ShoutOut to the scene in SchindlersList where concentration camp commandant [[CompleteMonster Amon Goeth]] would do the same to the starving Jews, which tells you quite a bit about Joffrey). His first act as King is to [[spoiler:have Eddard Stark executed out of spite]], ignoring his advisors and their silly complaints that doing so would start a war or something. He then went on to inflict cruel and prolonged physical and mental abuse on young Sansa Stark, having his knights beat her, and on one occasion had her publicly stripped naked and beaten with the flats of their swordblades. [[ItGotWorse As if this wasn't enough]] after [[spoiler: the little bastard is [[KarmicDeath killed]],]] his younger brother (who is a genuinely sweet kid) starts to say he would "go away inside" when Joffrey would... but he's interrupted before we find out exactly what Joffrey would do to his little brother.

''ASongOfIceAndFire'' has many complex antagonists with very understandable motives. For example, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Cersei]] acted to protect her children and twin brother Jaime. However, as in most works, there exist several people who are indeed CompleteMonsters.

''ASongOfIceAndFire'' has complex main villains with very understandable reasons, for example, Queen Cersei, the villain of the first book, did everything to protect her children and twin brother Jaime. However, there are a few repulsive villains who ''are'' this trope. What gives the series its BlackAndGrayMorality is that even monsters have their uses, which those in power know all too well. When they ''are'' those in power, then those without it have reason to not rise up. You'll notice the list is pretty long.

* Tywin Lannister. He is is the man who calculates how much of Gregor's cruelty and horror he needs and applies it, knowing the results perfectly well. Gregor is a monster, but almost animalistic: it is Tywin, by his orders or his indifference, who is responsible for Gregor's worst crimes. He is the one who ordered the deaths of Prince Rhaegar's baby son and toddler daughter, and sends Gregor out with orders to rape, pillage and burn. Tywin's care for his family only extends as far as he can control them: he coldly disowns Jaime when he rejects Tywin's plans and treats Cersei as a political bargaining chip-- but it is what he does to Tyrion pushes him over the edge. When Tyrion was married to a girl named Tysha, Tywin was so disgusted his son married such a common girl, he has his entire garrison brutally rape her.., [[ForcedToWatch and made Tyrion watch]]. And have her last. The sheets were soaked in blood by the time Tyrion got to her. Tywin is a capable ruler and administrator, but his callous indifference completely removes any sympathy the readers could have for him.
* [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]] is possibly the worst of all [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] in the series -- and by the end of ADWD he has [[UpToEleven arguably surpassed Gregor Clegane and Joffrey]]. How does he manage this? Well, he skins people alive for his own amusement, [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts down women]] on his father's feudal lands, and rapes them when he catches them. Once he’s finished, he kills them then skins them...if they’ve given him good sport. If they haven't he [[FateWorseThanDeath begins with the flaying]]. He also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures captives]] into insane and broken shells of their former selves, [[StockholmSyndrome eager to obey him]]. His signature method is to strip the skin off their fingers and let the exposed flesh fester until the victims beg him to cut their fingers off. And if they bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he flays another as punishment. Before he rose high enough to enjoy his sports properly, he also had a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is [[spoiler: up to this point, at least]] a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind.
** His father, Roose Bolton, also qualifies for the same reason that Tywin Lannister does. He knows exactly what his bastard son is and has not lifted a finger to stop him. He even admits that Ramsay killed his other, nobler son and will probably kill his other children by his new wife Walda Frey. He looks the other way as long as Ramsay's extracurricular activities remain discreet and serve Roose Bolton's ultimate purposes. Not to mention the fact that he was the one who actually [[spoiler: [[TheStarscream killed Robb Stark]] after deliberately weakening the Northern army by sending men of other houses to suicide missions.]]
* Another one of the main orchestrators of the Red Wedding is [[EvilOldFolks Walder Frey]]. The old man has a vast family at his command yet only ever shows contempt and distrust for all of them. Along with his lack of redeeming features is his VerbalTic: "heh". It's an impressive feat, when readers are rooting desperately for your death with you being in the same book series as the other illustrious bastards mentioned. And then there's the Red Wedding where he [[spoiler: assists Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton is massacring almost everyone sided with the Starks. Was it his plan? No. He just went along for sheer spite for Robb Stark, because the latter fell head over heels with Jeyne Westerling in a moment of weakness and canceled his promised marriage with Walder's daughter before coming back to apologize at Catelyn Tully's suggestion. Even though you can, in a way, understand Walder's reason for orchestrating the Red Wedding, he goes about it in such a petty, assholish way by mocking Robb's attempt to make amends.]] Despite his apparent "family is everything" creed, what does he do when [[spoiler: Catelyn]] takes his severely retarded grandson, Jinglebell, hostage at the big MoralEventHorizon? Laughs, says he's not much use and lets Jinglebell's throat be cut.

* Tywin Lannister. Gregor Clegane is a monster with almost no empathy whatsoever. Tywin is the man,who calculates how much of Gregor's cruelty and horror he needs and applies it, knowing the results perfectly well. Gregor is a monster, but almost animalistic. Tywin, by order or indifference, is the one responsible for Gregor's worst crimes. He's the one who ordered the deaths of Prince Rhaegar's baby son and toddler daughter. He's the one who sends Gregor with orders to rape and pillage. Then as it comes to Tywin's care for his family, only extends as far as he can control them. He coldly disowns Jaime when he rejects Tywin's plans, treats Cersei as a political tool and Tyrion? What he does to Tyrion pushes him over the edge. When Tyrion was married to a girl named Tysha, Tywin was so disgusted his son married such a common girl, he has his entire garrison brutally rape her. [[ForcedToWatch And made Tyrion watch]]. And have her last. The sheets were soaked in blood by the time Tyrion got to her. Tywin is the sort whose complete, callous indifference to everything lands him here. He's a capable ruler and administrator, but a vicious control freak, hypocrite and megalomaniac, who treats the lives of people as any other currency to be spent or wasted. Taken objectively, he's worse than Gregor Clegane.

** His father, Roose Bolton also qualifies for the same reason that Tywin Lannister does. He knows exactly what his bastard son is and has not lifted a finger to stop him. He even admits that Ramsay killed his other, nobler son and will probably kill his other children by his new wife Walda Frey. He looks the other way as long as Ramsay's extracurricular activities remain discreet and serve Roose Bolton's ultimate purposes. Not to mention the fact that he was the one who actually [[spoiler: [[TheStarscream killed Robb Stark]] after deliberately weakening the Northern army by sending men of other houses to suicide missions.]]
* Another one of the main orchestrators of the Red Wedding is [[EvilOldFolks Walder Frey]]. The old man has a vast family at his command yet only ever shows contempt and distrust for all of them. Along with his lack of redeeming features is his VerbalTic: "heh". It's an impressive feat, when readers are rooting desperately for your death with you being in the same book series as the other illustrious bastards mentioned. And then there's the Red Wedding where he [[spoiler: assists Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton is massacring almost everyone sided with the Starks. Was it his plan? No. He just went along for sheer spite for Robb Stark, because the latter fell head over heels with Jeyne Westerling in a moment of weakness and canceled his promised marriage with Walder's daughter before coming back to apologize at Catelyn Tully's suggestion. Even though you can, in a way, understand Walder's reason for orchestrating the Red Wedding, he goes about it in such a petty, lowly way(mocking Robb's attempt to make amends) it's no wonder if you find yourself wanting to strangle him.]] Despite his apparent 'family is everything' creed, what does he do when [[spoiler: Catelyn]] takes his severely retarded grandson, Jinglebell, hostage at the big MoralEventHorizon? Laughs, says he's not much use and lets Jinglebell's throat be cut.
* The Brave Companions (a.k.a. the Bloody Mummers) are an entire team of CompleteMonster PsychoForHire thugs, who perform sickening deeds throughout Westeros for nothing more than their own amusement. They're also known as The Footmen...why? Because they like to cut people feet off, of course. They're exceptionally cruel and, worst of all, have an incredibly twisted sense of humour about it, humiliating people even as they kill them horribly. The ''closest'' one of their members comes to being sympathetic is the Septon Utt, because he at least feels ''bad'' about raping and killing young boys. Rorge, a disgusting rapist and killer of children, stands out as the worst among them.

* Maester Qyburn, who's basically an {{Expy}} of Joseph Mengele, basically a MadScientist and TortureTechnician that believes he acts ForScience. It says something about the series that he's this far down on the list.

* Ditto Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], he may be [[EvilIsCool stylish]], he may be [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated a war that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees and left the Seven Kingdom's without any chance at economic or political stability, all for his own personal gain.
* The series as a whole is quite even-handed towards the cultures that practice slavery, giving pro-slavery arguments a fair hearing, acknowledging that slavery is NotSoDifferent from the sort of "free" servitude that is used in Westeros, and using DeliberateValuesDissonance to have several admirable characters who don't see a problem with it. Despite this, when the Great Masters of Meereen nail one hundred and sixty three slave ''children'' (still alive and dying slowly from disembowelment) to the milestones to their city as a challenge to Daenerys, it's ''really'' hard to see them as anything but depraved bastards.

** Joffrey's age should also be noted; he is only 12 when he starts doing most of these horrible things, and so many readers would say he's too young to be considered fully responsible for his actions. The fact that he not only provides the alternate name for the RoyalBrat trope ("The Joffrey") but also manages to achieve CompleteMonster status in just about everyone's eyes is quite an achievement.
* Joffrey's predecessor, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mad King]] Aerys Targaryen, wasn't exactly a paragon of justice either: The people of Westeros had been living under the [[RoyallyScrewedUp Targaryen dynasty]] for almost 300 years, even though it meant putting up with monarchs like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Maegor the Cruel]] and [[TheCaligula Aegon the Unworthy]], yet all it took was 20 years of Aerys' rule to cause [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating five of the seven kingdoms]] [[CurbStompBattle to rise up against the Iron Throne in open revolt]]. He was really just [[UpToEleven that bad]]. Among his worst acts was his execution of Rickard Stark; after the former demanded a fair TrialByCombat, Aerys had him [[NightmareFuel slowly roasted over an open flame]], reasoning that [[InsaneTrollLogic fire was his personal champion]]. [[ForTheEvulz Just for kicks]], [[KickTheDog he also had Rickard's son Brandon]] [[ForcedToWatch forced to watch]] [[ColdBloodedTorture while strapped to a torture device that slowly strangled him to death]] [[SadisticChoice as he struggled to rescue his father]]. Aerys also made the StupidEvil decision to replace all of his competent councillors with [[MadScientist deranged alchemists]] [[{{Pyromaniac}} who shared his "enthusiasm" for burning people alive]]. To top it all off, when Aerys finally realized he had lost his war against the rebels, he decided to go out with a bang [[MoralEventHorizon by ordering his pyromancers to burn Westeros' capitol city to the ground]]- knowing that it would result in the deaths of ''hundreds of thousands'' of people- ''purely out of spite''. Thankfully, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his own sworn bodyguard realized that Aerys was going too far]], and [[TheOathbreaker took matters into his own hands]] before the plan could be carried out.
** Roughly half the Targaryens had the potential to be this due to their neverending [[BrotherSisterIncest inbreeding]] - there's a saying in-story that every time a Targaryen is born the Gods will flip a coin to determine if they are completely insane or healthy of mind. Viserys Targaryen - the Mad King's 2nd son and Daenerys' brother - came ''very'' close to this trope as well in his final appearance in the first book, but several scenes in both mediums [[spoiler: not least of all his [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel truly horrifying]] KarmicDeath]] managed to at least slightly humanise him to the audience.

* Tywin Lannister. Gregor Clegane is a monster with almost no empathy whatsoever. Tywin is the man who calculates how much of Gregor's cruelty and horror he needs, and applies it knowing perfectly well the results. Gregor is a monster, but almost animalistic. Tywin, by order or indifference, is the one responsible for Gregor's worst crimes. He's the one who ordered the deaths of Prince Rhaegar's baby son and toddler daughter. He's the one who sends Gregor with orders to rape and pillage. Tywin's care for his family only extends as far as he can control them. He coldly disowns Jaime when he rejects Tywin's plans, treats Cersei as a political tool and Tyrion? What he does to Tyrion pushes him over the edge. When Tyrion was married to a girl named Tysha, Tywin was so disgusted his son married such a common girl, he has his entire garrison brutally rape her. [[ForcedToWatch And made Tyrion watch]]. And have her last. The sheets were soaked in blood by the time Tyrion got to her. Tywin is the sort whose complete, callous indifference to everything lands him here. He's a capable ruler and administrator, but a vicious control freak, hypocrite and megalomaniac who treats the lives of people as any other currency to be spent or wasted. Taken objectively, he's worse than Gregor Clegane.

* Another one of the main orchestrators of the Red Wedding is [[EvilOldFolks Walder Frey]]. The old man has a vast family at his command, yet only shows contempt and distrust for all of them. Along with his lack of redeeming features is his VerbalTic: "heh". It's an impressive feat when readers are rooting desperately for your death when you're in the same book series as the illustrious men above. And then there's the Red Wedding where he [[spoiler: massacres almost all the heroes. Was it his plan? No. but he went along for sheer spite to the groom's nephew not marrying his daughter.]] And despite his apparent 'family is everything' creed, what does he do when someone takes his retarded grandson, Jinglebell, hostage at the big MoralEventHorizon? Laughs, says he's not much use and lets Jinglebell's throat be cut.
* The Brave Companions (a.k.a. the Bloody Mummers), an entire team of CompleteMonster PsychoForHire thugs, who perform sickening deeds throughout Westeros for nothing more than their own amusement. They're also known as The Footmen...why? Because they like to cut people feet off, of course. They're exceptionally cruel and worst of all have an incredibly twisted sense of humour about it, humiliating people even as they kill them horribly. The ''closest'' one of their members comes to being sympathetic is the Septon Utt, because he at least feels ''bad'' about raping and killing young boys. Rorge, a disgusting rapist and killer of children, stands out as the worst among them.
** * Their leader, Lord[[hottip:*:"He's no fucking lord, just some jumped-up sellsword, but you better ''call'' him lord if you want to keep all your parts."]] Vargo Hoat deserves his own mention. One of Tywin Lannister's mad dogs, his charming habits include: [[BodyHorror cutting off the feet of people who annoy him]], [[AttemptedRape raping people]], killing anyone who dares to say he isn't a proper lord (he isn't), [[TheStarscream betraying his employers when it looks like he is about to lose]], murdering, horribly, anyone who makes fun of his [[SpeechImpediment thpeecth impediment, whith makeths him thlobber and lithp hilariouthly]], [[RapePillageAndBurn burning the Riverlands]] and thieving. He gets a horrible KarmicDeath when [[AttemptedRape he tries to rape]] [[LadyOfWar Brienne of Tarth]], who bites off his ear. The wound drives him so mad that he doesn't notice Ser Gregor, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness who he betrayed, storming his castle]]. Ser Gregor, [[CompleteMonster being Ser Gregor]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel feeds him his own limbs before eventually killing him.]] Despite his truly horrific passing, it is almost impossible to drum up any sympathy for him.

* Euron Greyjoy may have trappings of a MagnificentBastard and he still can be said to have lots of emphasis on the latter part. He probably raped ''one of his own brothers'' when the two were younger and seduced/raped the other one's wife, fully aware that his brother would feel forced to kill his wife to keep his face. [[EvenEvilHasStandards No wonder Balon kicked him out]].
* Ditto Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], he may be [[EvilIsCool stylish]], he may be [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated a war that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees, and left the Seven Kingdom's without any chance at economic or political stability, for his own personal gain.
* The series as a whole is quite even-handed towards the cultures that practice slavery, giving pro-slavery arguments a fair hearing, acknowledging that slavery is NotSoDifferent from the sort of "free" servitude that is used in Westeros, and using DeliberateValuesDissonance to have several admirable characters who don't see a problem with it. Despite this, when the Great Masters of Meereen nail one hundred and sixty three slave ''children'' (still alive and dying slowly from disembowelment) to the milestones to their city as a challenge to Daenarys, it's ''really'' hard to see them as anything but this.

* Lord[[hottip:*:"He's no fucking lord, just some jumped-up sellsword, but you better ''call'' him lord if you want to keep all your parts."]] Vargo Hoat is the leader of the Brave Companions (a.k.a the Bloody Mummers) mercenary company. One of Tywin Lannister's mad dogs, his charming habits include: [[BodyHorror cutting off the feet of people who annoy him]], [[AttemptedRape raping people]], killing anyone who dares to say he isn't a proper lord (he isn't), [[TheStarscream betraying his employers when it looks like he is about to lose]], murdering, horribly, anyone who makes fun of his [[SpeechImpediment thpeecth impediment, whith makeths him thlobber and lithp hilariouthly]], [[RapePillageAndBurn burning the Riverlands]] and thieving. He gets a horrible KarmicDeath when [[AttemptedRape he tries to rape]] [[LadyOfWar Brienne of Tarth]], who bites off his ear. The wound drives him so mad that he doesn't notice Ser Gregor, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness who he betrayed, storming his castle]]. Ser Gregor, [[CompleteMonster being Ser Gregor]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel feeds him his own limbs before eventually killing him.]]

* Ditto Lord Petyr Baelish, Lord Protector of the Eyrie, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and Lord of Harrenhal. He may be [[MagnificentBastard magnificent]], he may be [[EvilIsCool stylish]], he may be [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely wicked]], but that in no way excuses the fact that he, almost single-handedly, orchestrated a war that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, turned even more into refugees, and betrayed Ned Stark, for his own personal gain.

* Tywin Lannister. Gregor Clegane is a monster with almost no empathy whatsoever. Tywin is the man who calculates how much of Gregor's cruelty and horror he needs, and applies it knowing perfectly well the results. Gregor is a monster, but almost animalistic. Tywin, by order or indifference, is the one responsible for Gregor's worst crimes. He's the one who ordered the deaths of Prince Rhaegar's baby son and toddler daughter. He's the one who sends Gregor with orders to rape and pillage. Tywin's care for his family only extends as far as he can control them. He coldly disowns Jaime when he rejects Tywin's plans, treats Cersei as a political tool and Tyrion? What he does to Tyrion pushes him over the edge. When Tyrion was married to a girl named Tysha, Tywin was so disgusted his son married such a common girl, he has his entire garrison brutally rape her. [[ForcedToWatch And made Tyrion watch]]. And have her last. The sheets were soaked in blood by the time Tyrion got to her. Tywin is the sort whose complete, callous indifference to everything lands him here. He's a capable ruler and administrator, but a vicious control freak, hypocrite and megalomaniac who treats the lives of people as any other currency to be spent or wasted. Taken objectively, he's worse than Gregor Clegane.

* Joffrey's predecessor, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mad King]] Aerys Targaryen, wasn't exactly a paragon of justice either: The people of Westeros had been living under the [[RoyallyScrewedUp Targaryen dynasty]] for almost 300 years, even though it meant putting up with monarchs like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Maegor the Cruel]] and [[TheCaligula Aegon the Unworthy]], yet all it took was 20 years of Aerys' rule to cause [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating five of the seven kingdoms]] [[CurbStompBattle to rise up against the Iron Throne in open revolt]]. He was really just [[BeyondTheImpossible that bad]]. Among his worst acts was his execution of Rickard Stark; after the former demanded a fair TrialByCombat, Aerys had him [[NightmareFuel slowly roasted over an open flame]], reasoning that [[InsaneTrollLogic fire was his personal champion]]. [[ForTheEvulz Just for kicks]], [[KickTheDog he also had Rickard's son Brandon]] [[ForcedToWatch forced to watch]] [[ColdBloodedTorture while strapped to a torture device that slowly strangled him to death]] [[SadisticChoice as he struggled to rescue his father]]. Aerys also made the StupidEvil decision to replace all of his competent councillors with [[MadScientist deranged alchemists]] [[{{Pyromaniac}} who shared his "enthusiasm" for burning people alive]]. To top it all off, when Aerys finally realized he had lost his war against the rebels, he decided to go out with a bang [[MoralEventHorizon by ordering his pyromancers to burn Westeros' capitol city to the ground]]- knowing that it would result in the deaths of ''hundreds of thousands'' of people- ''purely out of spite''. Thankfully, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his own sworn bodyguard realized that Aerys was going too far]], and [[TheOathbreaker took matters into his own hands]] before the plan could be carried out.

* Ser Amory Lorch is Gregor's partner-in-crime and almost as horrible. He murdered Princess Elia's children along with Gregor. To be specific, Lorch stabbed a crying three-year old girl ''[[BeyondTheImpossible fifty]]'' times [[DisproportionateRetribution because she kicked him]]. Notable for being a FatBastard, an incompetent SmugSnake, and getting fed to a bear, although considering how people like above-mentioned Gregor use their (much more terrible) abilities, that's probably for the best.

* [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]] is possibly the worst of all [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] in the series -- and by the end of ADWD he has [[BeyondTheImpossible arguably surpassed Gregor Clegane and Joffrey]]. How does he manage this? Well, he skins people alive for his own amusement, [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts down women]] on his father's feudal lands, and rapes them when he catches them. Once he’s finished, he kills them then skins them...if they’ve given him good sport. If they haven't he [[FateWorseThanDeath begins with the flaying]]. He also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures captives]] into insane and broken shells of their former selves, [[StockholmSyndrome eager to obey him]]. His signature method is to strip the skin off their fingers and let the exposed flesh fester until the victims beg him to cut their fingers off. And if they bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he flays another as punishment. Before he rose high enough to enjoy his sports properly, he also had a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is [[spoiler: up to this point, at least]] a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind.

* Joffrey Baratheon shows all the signs of a complete psychopath. As a young child, he cut open a pregnant cat, (because he was told she had kittens inside her,) and while this could have been the act of a child who didn't really understand what he was doing, his later acts show an extreme sadistic streak. Joffrey revels in his total power over life and death, and takes pleasure in tormenting his subjects. During the starvation, he would stand in a window with his crossbow and shoot the starving people outside for sport (this may be a ShoutOut to the scene in SchindlersList where concentration camp commandant [[CompleteMonster Amon Goeth]] would do the same to the starving Jews, which tells you quite a bit about Joffrey). His first act as King is to have [[spoiler:Eddard Stark]] executed out of spite, ignoring his advisors and their silly complaints that doing so would start a war or something. He then went on to inflict cruel and prolonged physical and mental abuse on Eddard’s young daughter, Sansa, having his knights beat her, and on one occasion had her publicly stripped naked and beaten with the flats of their swordblades. [[ItGotWorse As if this wasn't enough]] after [[spoiler: the little bastard is killed,]] his younger brother (who is a genuinely sweet kid) starts to say he would "go away inside" when Joffrey would... but he's interrupted before we find out exactly what Joffrey would do to his little brother.

* Roose Bolton also qualifies for the same reason that Tywin Lannister does. He knows exactly what his bastard son is and has not lifted a finger to stop him. He even admits that Ramsay killed his other, nobler son and will probably kill his other children by his new wife Walda Frey. He looks the other way as long as Ramsay's extracurricular activities remain discreet and serve Roose Bolton's ultimate purposes. Not to mention the fact that he was the one who actually [[TheStarscream killed]] [[spoiler: Robb Stark.]] after deliberately weakening the Northern army by sending men of other houses to suicide missions.

* [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]] is possibly the worst of all [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] in the series -- and by the end of ADWD he has [[BeyondTheImpossible arguably surpassed Gregor Clegane and Joffrey]]. How does he manage this? Well, he skins people alive for his own amusement, [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts down women]] on his father's feudal lands, and rapes them when he catches them. Once he’s finished, he kills them then skins them...if they’ve given him good sport. If they haven't he [[FateWorseThanDeath beggins with the flaying]]. He also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures captives]] into insane and broken shells of their former selves, [[StockholmSyndrome eager to obey him]]. His signature method is to strip the skin off their fingers and let the exposed flesh fester until the victims beg him to cut their fingers off. And if they bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he flays another as punishment. Before he rose high enough to enjoy his sports properly, he also had a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind [[spoiler: so far]].

** Joffrey's age should also be noted; he is only 12 when he starts doing most of these horrible things, and so many readers would say he's too young to be considered fully responsible for his actions. The fact that he not only provides the alternate name for the RoyalBrat trope ("The Joffrey") but also manages to achieve CompleteMonster status in just about everyone's eyes is quite an achievement.

* Roose Bolton also qualifies for the same reason that Tywin Lannister does. He knows exactly what his bastard son is and has not lifted a finger to stop him. He even admits that Ramsay killed his other, nobler son and will probably kill his other children by his new wife Walda Frey. He looks the other way as long as Ramsay's extracurricular activities remain discreet and serve Roose Bolton's ultimate purposes. Not to mention the fact that he was the one who actually killed [[spoiler: Robb Stark.]]
* Another one of the main orchestrators of the Red Wedding is Walder Frey. The old man has a vast family at his command, yet only shows contempt and distrust for all of them. Along with his lack of redeeming features is his VerbalTic: "heh". It's an impressive feat when readers are rooting desperately for your death when you're in the same book series as the illustrious men above. And then there's the Red Wedding where he [[spoiler: massacres almost all the heroes. Was it his plan? No. but he went along for sheer spite to the groom's nephew not marrying his daughter.]] And despite his apparent 'family is everything' creed, what does he do when someone takes his retarded grandson, Jinglebell, hostage at the big MoralEventHorizon? Laughs, says he's not much use and lets Jinglebell's throat be cut.
* [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]] is possibly the worst of all [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] in the series -- and by the end of ADWD he has [[BeyondTheImpossible arguably surpassed Gregor Clegane]]. How does he manage this? Well, he skins people alive for his own amusement, [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts down women]] on his father's feudal lands, and rapes them when he catches them. Once he’s finished, he kills them then skins them...if they’ve given him good sport. If they haven’t he [[FateWorseThanDeath skins them alive before killing them]]. He also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures captives]] into insane and broken shells of their former selves, eager to obey him. His signature method is to strip the skin off their fingers and let the exposed flesh fester until the victims beg him to cut their fingers off. And if they bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he flays another as punishment. Before he rose high enough to enjoy his sports properly, he also had a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his mentally-retarded servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind [[spoiler: so far]].

* Maester Qyburn, who's basically an {{Expy}} of Joseph Mengele. It says something about the series that he's this far down on the list.
* Craster is a particularly loathsome wildling with dozens of "wives" - most of them his own daughters and granddaughters. He rapes the female children, and leaves the males as sacrifices for the Others.

* The series as a whole is quite even-handed towards the cultures that practice slavery, giving pro-slavery arguments a fair hearing, acknowledging that slavery is NotSoDifferent from the sort of "free" servitude that is used in Westeros, and using DeliberateValuesDissonance to have several admirable characters who don't see a problem with it. Despite this, when the Great Masters of Meereen nail one hundred and sixty three slave ''children'' (still alive and dying slowly from disembowelment) to the milestones to their city as a challenge to Daenarys, it's ''really'' hard to see them as anything but this.

** Joffrey's age should also be noted; he is only 12 when he starts doing most of these horrible things, and so many readers would say he's too young to be considered fully responsible for his actions. The fact that he still manages to achieve CompleteMonster status in just about everyone's eyes is quite an achievement.

* [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]] is possibly the worst of all [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]], by the end of ADWD he has [[BeyondTheImpossible arguably surpassed Gregor Clegane]]. How does he manage this? Well, he skins people alive for his own amusement, [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts down women]] on his father's feudal lands, and rapes them when he catches them. Once he’s finished, he kills them then skins them...if they’ve given him good sport. If they haven’t he [[FateWorseThanDeath skins them then kills them]]. He also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures captives]] into insane and broken shells of their former selves, eager to obey him. His signature method is to strip the skin off their fingers and let the exposed flesh fester until the victims beg him to cut their fingers off. And if they bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he flays another as punishment. Before he rose high enough to enjoy his sports properly, he also had a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his mentally-retarded servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind [[spoiler: so far]].

''ASongOfIceAndFire'' has complex main villains with very understandable reasons, but there are a few repulsive villains who ''are'' this trope. What gives the series its BlackAndGrayMorality is that even monsters have their uses, which those in power know all too well. When they ''are'' those in power, then those without it have reason to not rise up. You'll notice the list is pretty long.

* When it comes to {{Complete Monster}}s, teenage King Joffrey Baratheon distinguishes himself. [[spoiler:When he ordered protagonist Eddard Stark's execution ForTheEvulz, it earned him the readers' eternal hatred]]. His cruel and prolonged abuse of Eddard's young daughter Sansa, his fiancée, was infuriating as well, and when there was a city-wide hunger, he killed starving people with his crossbow for sport. Not only that but it's implied that he sexually abused his two siblings (Tommen and Myrcella, both of them under ten years old) as well. There is something about the sadistic teenage brat that makes him so much more despicable than the other villains in the series.
* Joffrey's predecessor, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mad King]] Aerys Targaryen, wasn't exactly a paragon of justice either: The people of Westeros had been living under the [[RoyallyScrewedUp Targaryen dynasty]] for almost 300 years, even though it meant putting up with monarchs like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Maegor the Cruel]] and [[TheCaligula Aegon the Unworthy]], yet all it took was 20 years of Aerys' rule to cause [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating five of the seven kingdoms]] [[CurbStompBattle to rise up against the Iron Throne in open revolt]]. He was really just [[BeyondTheImpossible that bad]]. Among his worst acts was his execution of Rickard Stark; after the former demanded a fair TrialByCombat, Aerys had him [[NightmareFuel slowly roasted over an open flame]], reasoning that [[InsaneTrollLogic fire was his personal champion]]. [[ForTheEvulz Just for kicks]], [[KickTheDog he also had Rickard's son Brandon]] [[ForcedToWatch forced to watch]] [[ColdBloodedTorture while strapped to a torture device that slowly strangled him to death]] [[SadisticChoice as he struggled to rescue his father]]. Aerys also made the StupidEvil decision to replace all of his competent councillors with [[MadScientist deranged alchemists]] [[{{Pyromaniac}} who shared his "enthusiasm" for burning people alive]]. To top it all off, when Aerys finally realized he had lost his war against the rebels, he decided to go out with a bang [[MoralEventHorizon by ordering his pyromancers to burn Westeros' capitol city to the ground]]- knowing that it would result in the deaths of ''hundreds of thousands'' of people- ''purely out of spite''. Thankfully, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his own sworn bodyguard realized that Aerys was going too far]], and [[TheOathbreaker took matters into his own hands]] before the plan could be carried out.
* Ser Gregor Clegane, [[TheDreaded the Mountain that Rides]]. Even WordOfGod said that he was the most despicable character in the series. A terrifying giant of a knight, Gregor is a monster fueled by migraine headaches that keep him in a constant state of anger. He is a sexual sadist who takes a sick pleasure in slaughter, torture and ''especially'' in rape. Inventing gruesome tortures of his own, Gregor has an extremely black sense of humor. His MoralEventHorizon was burning his little brother Sandor's face in a brazier just because the latter played with Gregor's discarded toy. Another shocking (and fateful) act was when he smashed apart a baby's head against a wall, then raping the mother with his hands still covered in her baby's brains. [[spoiler:Thankfully, his karmic death is a particularly nasty one that involves being stabbed with a poisoned spear and dying by agonising inches, pissing blood and pus. Unfortunately, it may be that he's not dead after all with those creepy experiments...]]

* Ramsay Bolton makes his father more than proud. This extremely sadistic young man enjoys skinning his victims alive for fun. To be specific, he plays a game where he strips the skin off their fingers and lets the exposed flesh fester until the victims [[strike:''bite off their own fingers'' to relieve the excruciating pain]]. Scratch that. As of the latest ''Dance with Dragons'' preview he doesn't get them to bite off their own fingers, but makes them beg ''him'' to cut their fingers off. And if they ''do'' go and bite their own fingers off and rob him of that pleasure, he'll flay another as punishment. He also has a penchant for raping girls, killing them, and forcing his mentally-retarded servant to rape the corpses. Infuriatingly, he is a KarmaHoudini of the worst kind [[spoiler: so far]].
** The horrific tortures Ramsay inflicts on people he controls would take up this entire page. In A Dance With Dragons, if he's not on par with Gregor for most horrific man in this series, he is fast closing the gap.
* The Brave Companions (a.k.a. the Bloody Mummers), an entire team of Complete Monsters who perform sickening deeds throughout Westeros for nothing more than their own amusement. They're also known as The Footmen...why? Because they like to cut people feet off, of course. They're exceptionally cruel and worst of all have an incredibly twisted sense of humour about it, humiliating people even as they kill them horribly. The ''closest'' one of their members comes to being sympathetic is the Septon Utt, because he at least feels ''bad'' about raping and killing young boys. Rorge, a disgusting rapist and killer of children, stands out as the worst among them.

* Euron Greyjoy may have trappings of a MagnificentBastard and he still can be said to have lots of emphasis on the latter part. He probably raped ''one of his own brothers'' when the two were younger and raped the other one's wife, forcing the latter to kill his wife to keep his face. [[EvenEvilHasStandards No wonder Balon kicked him out]].
* The series as a whole is quite even-handed towards the cultures that practice slavery, giving pro-slavery arguments a fair hearing, acknowledging that slavery is NotSoDifferent from the sort of "free" servitude that is used in Westeros, and using DeliberateValuesDissonance to have several admirable characters who don't see a problem with it. Despite this, when the Great Masters of Meereen nail one hundred and sixty three slave ''children'' (still alive and dying slowly from disembowelment) to the milestones to their city as a challenge to Daenarys, it's ''really'' hard to see them as anything but this.

----

* Tywin Lannister. Gregor Clegane is a monster with almost no empathy whatsoever. Tywin is the man who calculates how much of Gregor's cruelty and horror he needs, and applies it knowing perfectly well the results. Gregor is a monster, but almost animalistic. Tywin, by order or indifference, is the one responsible for Gregor's worst crimes. He's the one who ordered the deaths of Prince Rhaegar's baby son and toddler daughter. He's the one who sends Gregor with orders to rape and pillage. Tywin's care for his family only extends as far as he can control them. He coldly disowns Jaime when he rejects Tywin's plans, treats Cersei as a political tool and Tyrion? What he does to Tyrion pushes him over the edge. When Tyrion was married to a girl named Tysha, Tywin was so disgusted his son married such a common girl, he has his entire garrison brutally rape her. [[ForcedToWatch And made Tyrion watch]]. And have her last. The sheets were soaked in blood by the time Tyrion got to her. Tywin is the sort whose complete, callous indifference to everything lands him here. He's a capable ruler and administrator, but a vicious control freak, hypocrite and megalomaniac who treats the lives of people as any other currency to be spent or wasted. taken objectively, he's worse than Gregor Clegane.