Game of Thrones: Top 10 most evil villains from the books

1. Euron Greyjoy

Viewers of the Game of Thrones TV show got a goofy and watered down version of Euron Greyjoy as he is in Martin’s books. Euron isn’t introduced until the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, because he had been banished from the Iron Islands years prior for sleeping his brother Victarion’s wife. He spent his time pillaging the world on his ship the Silence, which got its name because Euron ripped out the tongues of all his crew members. During this time, Euron claims to have visited Asshai and Valyria while collecting a suit of Valyrian Steel armor, a dragon egg, a group of warlock prisoners and a dragon-binding horn.

Euron’s older brother Lord Balon dies in A Storm of Swords, and it is implied that Euron either killed him or had him assassinated so he could make a claim to rule the Iron Islands. One theory even suggests that Euron used the dragon egg to pay a faceless man to kill Balon.

In any case, Euron conveniently shows up the day after Balon’s death to argues that he should rule at the kingsmoot, the surprisingly democratic meeting where the Ironborn select their next leader. Euron is able to beat out the other claimants on the position, which include his brother Victarion and his niece Asha. He is able to persuade the Ironborn to elect him by calling the other candidates weak and convincing the crowd that he will use the dragon horn to tame Daenerys’ dragons and conquer the world.

While all of this may seem run of the mill as far as your average Game of Thrones bad guy is concerned, things get turned up a notch in a sample chapter from the upcoming sixth book in the series, The Winds of Winter. Euron captures his brother Aeron and doses him with a psychedelic drug called shade of the evening. He then admits to killing three of their brothers: Balon, Harlon and Robin. And it is implied that Euron sexually abused Aeron when they were younger. Aeron has visions of Euron sitting on a bloody iron throne with gods impaled on its swords.

With a fleet from House Redwyne coming to attack Euron, he binds Aeron to the prow of the Silence. He does the same to a woman that he impregnated as well as priests from several different religions from around the world. The implication is that Euron is trying to sacrifice all of these people for some sort of magical purpose. Almost every instance of magic in this world is associated with some sort of blood sacrifice. Theories abound concerning what exactly Euron is trying to achieve through these acts.

Whatever his reasons, pretty much everything Euron does is a heinous crime against humanity. Moving forward, I see him as the main villain of the series since Joffrey and Tywin are dead, and Ramsay and Littlefinger could be soon to follow.

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