The series has a lot of sociopathic characters:
- Roose Bolton. Capable of extreme cruelty and betrayal, while never wavering from his Dissonant Serenity. Although his lack of emotions and total detachment from other humans is actually more indicative of a psychotic/schizoid mental disorder. He's just really high-functioning and maintaining a death-grip on his social mask. He's onto wife number three and we have no idea what, exactly, led to the deaths of the first two (his first hasn't even been named, yet)... He's unlike Ramsay, who indulges his impulses at the drop of a hat and doesn't seem to care who knows. He tips more to the sociopathic end of the scale than the psychotic, though. He believes Ramsay murdered their legitimate brother and will probably kill any future children he has and he continues to talk calmly about it. The only time he's been visibly disturbed has been when cracks start showing in those around him and things get heated between the Freys and the Manderlys during the siege. That's a direct threat to his personal safety, that is: no wonder he got outright angry and tried to order them to stop being stupid with not just a raised voice, but a knee-jerk reaction to get the dangerous and/or less dependable people out the place to freeze in snow drifts/ get killed by Stannis in what could be his most badly thought-out move, yet. It's been his only real display of emotion in the entire series — and, schizoid it was not.
- Gregor Clegane. Case-in-point: he burned and scarred his little brother's face over a toy. A toy that he had thrown away. Murdered his little sister. Is strongly implied to have killed his father, and his two wives. Killed a baby and raped then killed the baby's mother and has raped, murdered, and tortured hundreds For the Evulz.
- Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is beginning to show shades of this beneath his Affably Evil, Manipulative Bastard personality, and more disturbingly, he knows how to feign and manipulate emotions to his advantage.
- King Joffrey Baratheon: So psychotic, it hurts. Includes cutting a pregnant cat open as a small child simply because he wanted to see the kittens. He apparently proudly presents an extracted kitten to his father, King Robert, who is mortified.
- He might have gotten it from his grandfather. Now, Tywin Lannister doesn't seem like he would have anything to do with the monstrous brat personality-wise, but that's because he is an older, much more intelligent man who is aware of the benefits of self-control. In fact, he fits the trope very well when you think about it. His first notable act as the Lord of Casterly Rock was to declare the war on a rival house... And when said house holed themselves in their keep, Tywin's reaction was to break into it and slaughter them all, including small children. Then he got the song written about it as a Badass Boast. He spent most of the Robert's Rebellion wriggling his thumbs, and when Robert was on the edge of victory, he suddenly started worrying the new regime might think him disloyal. His solution? To have his most brutal commander (brutal, as in, he is on this list too - and Tywin is all too happy to use his "services") massacre Elia Martell, the old king's daughter-in-law and her two little children (oh, and also rape Elia), thus removing the new king's rivals for the throne. His personal life doesn't paint him in a positive light either - his biggest goal in life is to uplift his house, which is why he constantly emotionally abuses his younger son, who has the audacity to be a dwarf and born after an especially difficult childbirth, which killed his mother He isn't very kind to his other two children either, using them as political pawns and generally not showing them much tender feelings. When they dare to stand up for themselves, he accuses them of being selfish and not thinking about "the good of their house". The scary thing is, a lot of people both in- and out of universe actually admire him for his administrative skills, which is fair, but this often leads them to overlook just how despicable he truly is. This eerily mirrors the way in Real Life many high-functioning sociopaths use their lack of moral qualms to get ahead in business or politics.
- Lord Walder Frey certainly fits the bill as well. This guy plays around with his ridiculously huge family like a three-year old with a sandpit. Then, in the third book, he had no qualms whatsoever to slaughter his allies as guests in his home. He was also non the least reluctant, but rather absolutely willing to trade one of his grandsons' life in exchange for Robb's.
- If you look closely, you'll realize the Sociopaths there needn't be on the Evils' side. Bronn, the sellsword who becomes Tyrion's champion and bodyguard seems to apply rather well. Stabs his dying comrade only because he felt it met social norms and expectations? Check. Volunteers to kill a knight, simply because he thinks it might be fun fighting one? Check. After a long time together suddenly betrays Tyrion for a noble title — granted, not without any warning, nor without giving Tyrion a chance to make a counter-offer to buy him back (he outlined that this was possible from the start)? Check! When it was pointed out that his wife has an older sister who will inherit before her (and thus, him), he just laughs and insinuates that his new sister-in-law might be having a Hunting "Accident" soon. The reason why he named his stepson after Tyrion was more likely because he respected the guy on an intellectual basis, not because he conceived of him being a friend, as such. In fact, once he points out that he has no friends at all and isn't the slightest bothered by it. He has a code, and there's a specific subtrope that applies to him entirely: Moral Sociopathy. However, "moral" may not mean what you'd expect...
- Where his father's status may be in question, Ramsay Bolton is a textbook example, and is in fact a Serial Killer Torture Technician who brainwashes people into submission and hunts down slave girls only For the Evulz.
- Euron Greyjoy can function in society well-enough to be elected King of the Iron Islands via a Kingsmoot, but it's made abundantly clear that he is very, very deeply mentally disturbed from being implied to kill his brother to become king, to sexually molesting another of his brothers in his youth, to wanting to kill his niece, and sending off his third brother off to die in a Uriah Gambit and so much more. He also has his mistress' tongue cut out, and she's stripped naked and strapped to the figurehead of the Silence, and left to die of exposure and starvation.
- Qyburn, anyone? Seriously, the guy was stripped of his Maester's chain for performing inhumane experiments on the living to better understand death... and, doesn't seem to grok the many reasons why the Citadel felt the need to blast him out the order at great speed. Let us reiterate: he was performing vivisection upon human subjects, and didn't stop doing so even after his de-chaining. He's utterly convinced that the whole affair was simply because the Citadel is, as a group, too scared and unimaginative to innovate. He also uses his latterly acquired position at Court to make special "requests" for more subjects (read: people) to work on. His methods of interrogation as part of his new job of Master of Whisperers are nothing short of cruel and unusual torture, made all the more disturbing by the casual (and, occasionally, somewhat too gleeful) manner in which he performs and speaks about such atrocities. He's also a necromancer with the appearance of "a little girl's favorite grandfather", just for that extra creep-factor. Despite being the least physically imposing, he's possibly the most menacing of all.
