Game of Thrones is well-known for its Black and Gray or Gray-and-Grey Morality, to the point it can come across as a World of Jerkass with some plotlines. And as the examples below demonstrate, sometimes it's even to the point that characters who weren't intended to be jerks in a given situation still come off looking pretty bad to the audience.
- Jaime Lannister in the sex scene between him and Cersei in "Breaker of Chains". According to the director, it's Jaime who's been abused in this relationship and audience sympathies should be with him. However, because the scene appears to be a rape in the eyes of many viewers (Cersei repeatedly begs Jaime to stop, right up to the time the camera cuts away), Cersei becomes unintentionally sympathetic as a rape victim, and Jaime unintentionally unsympathetic as a rapist. Even if you see it more as Questionable Consent (it apparently wasn't intentionally written and filmed as a rape scene), Jaime still comes off as unsympathetic; he roughly has sex with Cersei next to their son's corpse while she cries, calling her a "hateful woman" and saying he doesn't care about the ethics of the situation. It doesn't help that the corresponding scene in the books was clearly consensual, happens immediately after Jaime returns to the city shortly after Joffrey dies and after Jaime being away at least a year in captivity. Cersei says "No"initially since they're in the Sept and they might be caught, before finally giving in and begging him to have sex with her. There's even a scene afterwards where she speaks to him and says they shouldn't have done it THERE(while the show simply cuts to another scene following the apparent rape and it is never mentioned again.)
- Renly Baratheon's Adaptational Heroism was intended to make him the "right man" in his contest against Stannis, but the story still has Renly asserting to be King by force of arms rather than Popularity Power and likewise leaves unaddressed Robb Stark's defense of the Succession Crisis, as well as the consequences of his actions. Renly and Loras' dismissal of Stannis for his "personality of a lobster" and his churlish attacks on Stannis' character during the parley, especially as Stannis showed himself willing to negotiate very reasonable terms with Renly, makes him even more unsympathetic. Also, there's the fact that despite the criticism Stannis gets for killing Renly, Renly makes it clear he intends to kill Stannis, meaning that rather than a villainous murder, his death can seem like a vain traitor being killed in self-defense.
- Olly is taken in by the Night's Watch after his entire family and village is wiped out by vengeful wildlings. He's a young boy, scared, helpless, and weak. Killing Ygritte was something that most people found upsetting, but not wholly unreasonable —she helped kill his family, after all, shooting his father in the back of the head with an arrow and he believed he was protecting Jon. However, the second he drove his knife into Jon Snow, one of the series' most beloved and iconic characters, it became nigh-impossible to feel sympathy for him, especially as Jon had shown nothing but kindness to Olly, even treating him like a younger brother. No one shed a tear at his death. The writers may have meant for Olly to be a Woobie with sympathetic motives, but the fact that he has so little screentime and does nothing of value instead turned him into a rather useless hero killer. It also doesn't help that Olly was explicitly told why Jon was bringing the Wildlings south of the Wall, to keep the Night King from adding them to his army, but instead chose his desire for revenge over his duty to Night's Watch.
- Yara Greyjoy got a lot of flak in "The Broken Man" for dragging Theon to a brothel in Volantis where Theon is obviously uncomfortable and depressed (since he was castrated). Instead of showing him any real empathy, Yara gives him a very mean-spirited "inspirational speech" to either drink or die, all while dandling a half naked prostitute on her lap. While at least somewhat intended as Deliberate Values Dissonance since psychology isn't understood in Westeros compared to 21st century Earth, the fact that Yara's treatment of Theon works and is described by Benioff as "the kind of tough love that Theon needed
" implies that Yara's behavior was completely correct despite it making anyone with a cursory understanding of actual psychology cringe. - Rhaegar Targaryen after the revelation that he loved and married Lyanna (making Jon the rightful heir to the Seven Kingdoms), which was apparently intended as heartwarming. While not being a rapist is always a good thing note his treatment of Elia Martell (annulling their marriage, which would degrade and humiliate her if she lived long enough to learn about it) and their two children (making their status dubious at best and illegitimate at worst, since it was an annulment not divorce) was really appalling, especially considering that they soon died specifically for being his family. The icing on the cake was the decision to name his new son Aegon, when he already had a son named Aegon; to many, this came off like the older child was an unperson in Rhaegar’s eyes. In the light of those events, you can now really pity Oberyn and almost pity Ellaria and the Sand Snakes. Beyond this, there's little said of what he told his new bride of the deaths of her father and brother at his insane father's hands (if he told her anything).
- Lyanna Stark, for similar reasons as Rhaegar. Her romance with Rhaegar is meant to be a case of "love conquers all", but given how Elia is brushed aside this makes Lyanna a homewrecker and shows both parties as incredibly irresponsible for insulting the two powerful Houses that their significant others belonged to by breaking off their engagements/marriages and setting off a civil war. This is especially perplexing since her nephew Robb's spur-of-the-moment marriage to Talisa is treated as a political blunder that would prove to be Robb's undoing. Combining this with Rhaegar's own unsympathetic attitude, it makes Robert's Rebellion look like the direct result of two stupid young people eloping without bothering to mention this (rather important) fact before it's too late. Or even after it's too late, for that matter; it might not have changed anything but they could've at least tried to fix things. The only justification is the significant age gap between the two, but anything which makes Lyanna more sympathetic would make Rhaegar seem downright predatory.
- Talisa's backstory. Talisa grew up in a wealthy, slave-owning Volantene family but when a slave saves her brother's life she realizes slavery is wrong and vows to never again live in a place that allowed slavery and to not "waste her life" dancing with nobles. So she becomes a nurse and goes to Westeros. We are clearly supposed to be moved by Talisa's selfless act. However, moving to Westeros was an empty gesture. In Volantis, Talisa could have used her wealth and status to help slaves and fight for their rights. Ironically, by dancing with nobles, something that Talisa clearly looks down on, she could've done more good than she ever did in Westeros. note Talisa also snottily upbraids Robb for daring to start a war that causes people to suffer, ignoring the fact that Joffrey kicked off the civil war by beheading his father under false charges, took his sisters hostage, had all Robert's bastards (sans Gendry) murdered and has been wreaking far more havoc than Robb. She doesn't seem to have any alternate suggestions for Robb, nor does she acknowledge what kind of evil Robb is fighting against; instead she just bitches and snarks at him that a wounded soldier was "unlucky [you] were there".
- Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes' coup and assassination of Princes Doran and Trystane Martell, and Myrcella Baratheon. Ellaria is motivated by her wrath over Oberyn's death and views Doran being an Orcus on His Throne, willing to lick the Lannister's boots while they continue to inflict slights on their family. This even stretched to Word of God, as during the Season 5 exit interview, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss admitted that they viewed Ellaria's coup as just because Doran was a "weak leader." The fandom disagreed. This particular plot point is one of the most hated plots of the entire series, with viewers finding Ellaria's motivations and actions to be irrational. In Season 7, two of the Sand Snakes, Obara and Nym, were killed by Euron Greyjoy while Cersei delivers her own brand of justice on Ellaria and Tyene for killing Myrcella. Not a lot of viewers feel sorry for them, given that they deserved to suffer the consequences of their actions.
- Daenerys Targaryen in Season 7. Despite her having suffered a great deal, she can come across this way to some in her demands that Jon bend the knee if she is to help him save his people and battle the army of the undead, unwilling to help the North until Jon pledges allegiance to her (prior to seeing the army of the dead for herself in 7x06). This is after she gives a extremely minor apology for her father murdering his uncle and grandfather.
- In the Season 8 premiere, Yara headbutting Theon after he rescues her, saying "now we're even". This is because Theon had abandoned her during Euron's attack the previous season, and apparently she is in the right for doing this. However, this comes off as really petty when you remember that Theon literally had no choice but to leave Yara, as he was surrounded by Euron's men, and Euron had a knife to her throat, making rescuing her impossible. Had he not run away, Yara would have never been rescued. It also comes off as hypocritical, since Yara was forced to leave Theon at the Dreadfort for similar reasons, but didn't even bother trying again.
- Season 8 saw many people's opinions actually turning against fan-favorite Tyrion, particularly in "The Bells", where he sells out Varys to Daenerys, knowing full well that Daenerys will have Varys executed. The event was meant to show Tyrion's loyalty to Daenerys and his belief she would be a just ruler. However, not only did fans consider it highly out of character for Tyrion to betray a close friend like that, but some felt that it was an example of Tyrion losing his cunning and perceptive traits that made him so popular in earlier seasons. Some people also took issue with Tyrion stating that Robert's Rebellion and the subsequent political turmoil was all because "Robert loved someone who didn't love him back", as it's a rather inaccurate oversimplication of what happened and places a disproportionate amount of blame on Robert, which Tyrion knows. note It gets worse when one considers that the War of the Five Kings was actually caused by the Lannisters, and Tyrion actively helped them stay in power for a time.
- Grey Worm has caught flak in Season 8 since despite being a professional soldier, he massacres surrendering Lannister soldiers without a second thought, executes POWs out of spite and lets his Unsullied and Dothraki troops rampage through King's Landing and slaughter civilians. While the audience is supposed to sympathize with him since he's reeling from the death of Missandei, his response to it feels overly excessive, especially since many of the people who were suffering had nothing to do with it.
- For a lot of viewers, Cersei in Season 8's "The Bells". Her death scene is portrayed as an Alas, Poor Villain moment as Daenerys continues the attack even after Cersei surrenders and she's trapped in the collapsing Red Keep, sobbing that she doesn't want to die and wants her unborn child to live. However, considering what an utterly horrible person Cersei has been up to this point and that she only surrendered purely to save herself when she realized she couldn't win (as opposed to preventing her people from dying), it's hard to feel too bad for her. Not to mention the attack is partly her fault; she stubbornly refused to consider that she was outmatched and in the previous episode had Missandei killed purely out of spite, knowing it would enrage Daenerys. Most viewers' attitude towards her demise was less "poor Cersei" and more "ding dong, the witch is dead".
- Jaime's actions at the end of "The Last of the Starks" and in "The Bells" are apparently intended to paint him as a Tragic Hero, but actually left a lot of viewers either dismayed, frustrated or both for the wrong reasons. He goes to King's Landing to save Cersei even though he knows she's an irredeemably dreadful person who tried to kill him and his little brother and didn't even care all that much about their last child killing himself because he "betrayed" her; in the process, he pulls a Redemption Rejection and breaks Brienne's heart (after sleeping with her). He also claims not to care about anyone else, including the people of Kings Landing (who he actively gave up his honour to save and became the Kingslayer) and shows it through his actions, not helping any of the innocent civilians escape the carnage but going to a lot of effort to save Cersei, ultimately getting himself killed in the process (Cersei also dies, so it was all pointless anyway).
- Sansa dislikes Daenerys on sight and is openly hostile towards her, despite knowing very little about her personally and Dany at least attempting to find common ground with her. While it's understandable that Sansa would be wary of her, at this point Dany hasn't done anything as far as Sansa herself knows to suggest she's a terrible ruler and is willingly there to help the Starks fight the Army of the Dead. Thus, Sansa can come off as being unnecessarily hostile towards Dany; some viewers also question why Sansa would go out of her way to antagonize Dany if she truly thought she was dangerous and therefore might just decide to incinerate her (remember that a large part of Sansa's arc was supposed to be her becoming a smart, diplomatic politician). She also continues to try to push for Northern independence despite her liege lord, Jon, having willingly bent the knee to Daenerys, working behind his back when the matter should already have been considered settled. Later, Sansa breaks Jon's trust by telling Tyrion about his real parentage with the intention of undermining Dany, even though she swore she'd keep it secret and Jon made it clear he didn't want to be king. This ends up playing a large role in kicking off Dany's Sanity Slippage, leading to disastrous consequences in the following episode, and Sansa's actions could have seriously endangered Jon. She never really expresses remorse or grief over this beyond briefly asking Jon if he can forgive her, while insisting there was no other way.
- Daenerys, for all good it would do her to keep the higher ground in the conflict, right on indulges Sansa's resentment. She makes a show out of having her dragons fly into Winterfell right from the beginning to make clear nobody stands a chance against her, has no compunctions to talk about how she burned Southern Westerosi lords alive for not submitting to her,note has her dragons flippantly eat up Winterfell's provisions withing days when Sansa potentially has to feed her subjects through years of winter. Add in that Daenerys not only has taken away the independency both of Sansa's brothers have fought for but also demands Jon to lie so he cannot claim his birthright, and she comes off as fuelling Sansa's distrust rather than trying to mend bridges.
- Varys insists that everything he does is for the good of the realm, but his actual track record in this regard can come off as sketchy. He did little to undermine the Mad King Aerys during Robert's Rebellion despite not approving of his actions. Although he himself admits that Robert was only a better ruler than Aerys by virtue of the fact that he just didn't care about ruling, rather than use his skills and resources to try and stabilize the realm under Robert, he plots with Illyrio to put Viserys on the throne, even though — as Daenerys points out — he must've known that Viserys would be a horrible choice. Had Varys supported Viserys because he didn't know what Viserys was like, then he failed to do his research properly. Upon learning Jon has a better claim to the throne than Dany, he immediately starts to throw his support behind him instead, despite knowing little about him and Jon having no interest in ruling. Varys states one of the reasons Jon would be a good choice as king is because he doesn't want to rule but just a season ago, one of his main criticisms against Robert was that he was uninterested in ruling. Varys also seems to think Dany is crazy because she's feeling vengeful and isolated after losing many of her friends and supporters. Rather than help her, he plots to oust and replace her, contributing to her descent into madness, as his actions all but confirm her worst fears that she's completely alone and unable to trust anyone. As a result, Varys's actions come off as hypocritical to some and contributing toward his own demise.From the books
- Jon in the first half of "The Iron Throne" slips into this when he tries to find justifications for Daenerys's actions in "The Bells", even though there's not much, if any, justification for it beyond "she's fucking crazy". It's understandable Jon really doesn't want to kill somebody he loves and he's struggling with this, but it seems odd that Tyrion must underline to Jon that Dany's grief is not a good reason for killing thousands of innocent civilians, she's lost it, she will continue to kill innocents to expand her power across every land beyond Westeros and so she needs to be stopped pronto. In fact, Jon only seems to kill Daenerys after Tyrion points out that Arya and Sansa will never bend the knee.
- Bran Stark during the final episode. Tyrion makes Bran king by proclaiming he has the best story out of all other lords and ladies, and props him as a wise ruler. Problem is, Bran isn't shown to do much of about anything at all, excluding giving Arya Littlefinger's dagger, telling Sam about Jon's heritage, and telling Theon he will die. The series is filled with characters who have more interesting stories than his. The last two examples are even more egregious as Bran's omniscience meant he possibly foresaw Dany going mad and burning down King's Landing, and did nothing to stop it in any way in order to become King, as well as letting Theon die and not trying to save him by informing him that Arya was about to kill the Night King. All this has a side-effect of making Bran the worst possible choice to become King, as he got rid of all his rivals in pursuit of the Iron Throne, even exiling Jon to the Night's Watch because he's the legitimate ruler of the Iron Throne - not the traits of a good and wise King the showrunners wanted to portray Bran as.
- In hindsight, Randyll Tarly was perhaps meant to evoke more sympathy from the viewers than he really deserved. Much like Cersei's death in "The Bells", Randyll's execution after refusing to bend the knee to Daenerys is framed as an Alas, Poor Villain moment, with him dying alongside his beloved son Dickon. Even Tyrion seems put off by it. Considering that in the next season Daenerys actually does go off the deep end and becomes an Ax-Crazy tyrant, Randyll Tarly's Defiant to the End sacrifice comes off more than a bit like martyrdom, and is perhaps foreshadowing for Dany's turn to darkness. Except...Randyll Tarly absolutely brought this all on himself. Not only did he betray his liege Olenna Tyrell (a big no-no in a feudal society) to follow Cersei Lannister - the woman who blew up his former liege lord Mace Tyrell and his family in a church - he also sacked Highgarden, demonstrating that he has really no moral high ground over the Rape, Pillage, and Burn ways of the Dothraki. In context, Daenerys giving him the option to take the black to avoid execution comes off as relatively lenient. It doesn't help that Tarly's refusal to bend the knee basically boils down to xenophobia (ignoring the fact that Daenerys isn't even a "foreign queen", as she was born in Westeros). Even his love for his son Dickon rings hollow when you remember how he treated his other son. All in all, Randyll Tarly comes off less like a Doomed Moral Victor and more as someone who's facing some Laser-Guided Karma.
