Even seven seasons in, Game of Thrones is still adding new characters to its lineup. Which ones did we like the most from Season 6? Read our takes, tell us yours, and vote in our poll!
DAN: Look, the fact of the matter is that, although Game of Thrones Season 6 dropped a bunch of new characters on us, one stands tall above the rest. But I’m not going to talk about that person. Instead, I’m going to praise a minor character who showed up in one scene in the final episode of the year: the priggish maester who processed Sam and Gilly at the Citadel in Oldtown.
Unfortunately, the maester doesn’t have a name, although he bears a passing resemblance to Lorcas, a character we meet in A Feast for Crows. In both cases, this character acts as a gatekeeper to the Citadel. But while Lorcas is old and crotchety (he refuses to let Sam see the Archmaester without a bribe), the maester on Game of Thrones is fidgety and fussy, and almost seems to be suffering from a low-grade learning disability. He’s inordinately slow to accept Sam’s stories about the staffing changes at the Wall (like any good nerd, he trusts the record first and foremost), and when Gilly and Little Sam make to join Sam in the library, he’s alarmed, sounding as if Gilly was clothed in oily rags and carrying a flamethrower. “No women or children!”
Every once in a while, you get the idea that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss get tired of writing on such a grim, brutal show, and try to lighten the mood. This is one of those times. The scene has a winking, Monty Python-esque quality to it. As the maester, Danish comedian Frank Hvam earns laughs with his fastidiousness and straight-faced stare in the face of Sam’s attempt at humor.
Game of Thrones only has two half-seasons left, so we won’t be able to spend much time getting to know the Citadel and the people who live there. That’s a shame, because I would be completely behind making this guy a new supporting character. As it stands, I just hope we check in on him again before Sam inevitably heads back north.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGg5tCCPJo
RICHARD: Best new character? I think little powerhouse Lyanna Mormont, with her stern scowl, charisma, and stirring rhetorical skills, wins hands down.
I’ll go ahead and select another new character I really thought brought home the bacon: Melessa Tarly. She is married to Randyll Tarly, a grizzled warrior capable of great cruelty towards his children if they disappoint him. (Recall that he threatened Samwell with “accidental” death if he didn’t leave and join the Night’s Watch.)
Though Melessa is dutiful and deferential to Randyll, she is also capable of speaking her mind to him when she cares about something. Once Randyll learns that Gilly is a wildling and finishes his venomous speech, Melessa lets him have it before she exits with Gilly and Talla at her side, telling Randyll, “You dishonor yourself.” Randyll then appears to soften his stance regarding Gilly and Little Sam, and that’s got to be thanks in part to his wife. Even he, with all his anger, recognizes how lucky he is to be with her.
Although it appears that Melessa was unable to protect Samwell from the wrath of Randyll’s disappointment, it’s obvious she gave him as much affection as she could, and Samwell’s big heart is surely a result of her attentions. Talla’s sweetness is likely all Melessa’s doing, and even Dickon doesn’t seem so much cruel as thick-headed. Good job, Melessa, for loving your children for who they truly are.
RAZOR: Oh, come on, Richard and Dan, you’re just going to give me the easy layup here? Of course I’m choosing Lyanna Mormont, played by the amazingly talented Bella Ramsey. Not only did she steal the scene from seasoned Game of Thrones actors like Kit Harington and Sophie Turner, but she schooled Ramsay Bolton during the parlay before the Battle of the Bastards without uttering a single word. She simply scowled at him, and it was plenty.
Lyanna Mormont was not what I was expecting at all, and as a diehard book-reader, that’s saying a lot. After her first scene at Bear Island, when she put Sansa and Jon in their place and told her own Maester to talk to the hand, I have wanted a Lyanna Mormont spinoff series where she just rides around the Seven Kingdoms scowling at everyone.
Without a doubt, Lyanna Mormont was the best new character in Game of Thrones Season 6, and if you disagree with me, then you can expect a visit from the Lady of Bear Island. She has a withering scowl with your name on it.
COREY: Lyanna Mormont completely obliterated the competition in this category. She’s her own category. I don’t think it’s fair to the other characters on the list; Bella Ramsay is this kid playing rugby down in Australia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4U5S0fR74o
No one else stands a chance. And so in the spirit of fair play, I rename the category “Best new character in Season 6 not named Lyanna Mormont.”
With Lyanna out of the way, I nominate the storm, Euron Greyjoy. Sure, Euron was in only two scenes in Season 6, but they were two pretty memorable scenes. Euron’s speech shortly before tossing his brother Balon off a bridge was the stuff of maniacal nightmares. Euron brought a level of charismatic insanity to the show we had yet to see.
Euron is clearly insane, and yet not an idiot. That’s a hard line to walk, and yet Pilou Asbæk pulled it off. We know Euron is nuts, and yet he makes just enough sense that we want to follow him. The show’s choice to reveal Euron’s murder of Balon (something that is not done in the books) at the Kingsmoot is the perfect example of this. Euron admits to the crowd he killed Balon, and yet the crowd doesn’t seem to care because Euron is telling them what they want to hear. That’s a born leader, ladies and gentlemen. I look forward to seeing what Euron can accomplish with those thousand ships in Season 7.
ANI: WELP Since Bella Ramsay has already walked away with this category, we’ll just have to go with second runner up: Kinvara. The head of a least a segment of the Lord of Light’s order, she not only brought a fearsomeness but a level of mysticism back to the Red God’s followers that Melisandre had ruined by her single-minded stupidity with Stannis.
I mean, most people assumed by this point that Melisandre was a straight-up charlatan, the Tammy Faye Baker of Westeros and all that. I never did, partly because the books had revealed via a POV chapter of hers that she really did believe in Stannis and thought the signs to the contrary (which we the reader knew were trying to point her in the right direction) merely “frustrating.” Show-watchers had no such evidence. Considering that her religion is actually on the right side of history, it was frustrating to me that she was giving them a bad name.
Then Kinvara walked in, and she was bad to the bone. She not only knew which horse to back, but it was like she had read all of George R.R. Martin’s notes that were lying around his office and had more information about the past, present, and future of this planet and it’s inhabitants than anyone else. There was a reason Tyrion was half hiding behind Varys by the end of their scene. And it’s that kind of fear that the Red Priests and Priestesses should be striking in the hearts of those who are trying to win the “Great Game.” Now, if only she would tell us what was really up with Varys’ childhood…
KATIE: Looks like I’m in the minority when it comes to Lyanna Mormont. Bella Ramsey is an exceptional talent, but her character is a poor man’s Arya Stark if you ask me. But to each their own. Moving on…
I don’t expect my pick to return to Game of Thrones, considering she left off as, well, inarguably dead. All the same, for the time when she was still kickin’, Essie Davis stole the show as assuredly as her character Lady Crane was accustomed to. Even though she played in a fictional rendition of an already fictional world, I was just as captivated by Lady Crane’s take on Cersei as I am by Lena Headey’s. Davis lended an enviable confidence to her role all across the board. It’s no wonder that–however short-lived their acquaintance–Arya admired Lady Crane so much.
Truly, at this point I just want Arya to hightail it straight home to Winterfell. But I’ll always be disappointed that she missed out on a deeper bond with Lady Crane. The pair really had something going there for a few episodes. If we had more time to spend on Game of Thrones, that’s one relationship that would have done well with some fleshing out. If only there had been a place for Lady Crane in the greater narrative, outside the theater troupe. Perhaps then we would have seen more of her before the Waif ruined everything again. But, alas, the troupe was where she belonged.
Cheers to you, Lady Crane. We hardly knew ya.
A note on the poll: Because we expect a certain she-bear to run away with the vote, you can vote for two characters: your favorite and your second favorite.