The top 15 best performances on Game of Thrones

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
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Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

3. Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy

It was very difficult to not put this performance at number one. No other actor had the challenge of playing basically two different characters, and to show us the process of turning from one to the other. It’s riveting to go back and watch the early seasons know what will become of Theon later.

Even as the cocky foster child at Winterfell, Alfie Allen provides a lot of wonderful detail to a character who could easily come across as annoying. But Allen gives us an idea of Theon’s vulnerability; this arrogant prick is an outsider, and there’s genuine pain inside.

Theon is essentially a prisoner of the Starks, and although he’s been invited into the family by Ned, he yearns for his ancestral home and takes great pride in being Ironborn. One of my favorite moments early on is when Theon goes to the Iron Islands and sees his father for the first time since he was a small child. He expects a hero’s welcome, but instead finds that the people here don’t know him or respect him and that his own father has no love in his heart for him. Worse, his father asks him to betray the Starks, his adoptive family. Watching Theon grapple with these choices is heartbreaking. Theon does not know where he belongs, and he makes the wrong choice. It’s great material to play, and Allen makes the absolute most of it.

Then we get into the transition from Theon to Reek. This is what solidifies Alfie Allen’s place among the top three actors on this show. I’m most impressed by the physicality of his performance. Widening his eyes and slackening his posture, he makes Reek look so perpetually sad that you just want him to be put out of his misery. And then we watch him bravely climb his way back to being a person, finally dying to protect Bran Stark and completing one of the greatest character arcs of the show. Theon may change more than any other character in the series, and although the journey is long, Allen never steps wrong.