A Game of Thrones - 6 of the Most Evil Characters

George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is brimming with badness. There are swarms of characters oozing with evil, and readers - and now television viewers - can spend their time debating which ones are the most foul and despicable. Based on my reading of the series, I have some thoughts on the worst of the worst.

Some of my omissions may surprise you. Surely, many people might think Queen Cersei Lannister deserves a spot on the list. But she's simple, two-dimensional maliciousness. She lacks the depth of character and hands-on depravity of the people one my list.

Caution: Spoilers follow.

Walder Frey

The Lord of the Crossing who betrays Robb Stark would make any list. He's too old to ever rise higher in the Westeros hierarchy. His sole motivation is to force others to kowtow to him. And he pays the Young Wolf's impetuous breaking of a marriage contract with murder - in violation of Westerosi society's rules. Frey shows no decency or generosity in any of his dealings, and the Red Wedding is just the low point of his misdeeds.

Vargo Hoat

Like Cersei Lannister, The Goat is two-dimensional evil. He's little more than a Westerosi terrorist with a speech impediment. But his lack of discrimination and sheer glee at wreaking havoc make him more imminently dangerous than the queen. He'll terrorize the smallfolk as well as ordering Jamie Lannister's hand cut off. Hoat has no motivation besides instilling fear, plus lining his pockets.

Roose Bolton

This highborn lord of the north is quiet. Methodical. Crafty. Competent. And completely untrustworthy with a bucketful of mind-boggling cruelty. The emblem of his house is a flayed man - fitting, since Bolton loves peeling the skin from his enemies. His motivation for betraying the Starks is still not fully clear; some speculate the betrayal is born from the centuries-old, on-again, off-again enmity between the Bolton and Stark families. Regardless of its origins, Roose Bolton is one of the most frightful characters in the series.

Tywin Lannister

A cold, unsmiling autocrat, Tywin Lannister devotes himself to garnering power. And even when he succeeds, he seems to take no joy in his accomplishments. He willingly puts innocent people to the sword through puppets like Vargo Hoat and Ser Gregor Clegane. It's worth speculating about what Tywin might've been like before his wife died giving birth to his son Tyrion the Imp. That just might be when Tywin's remaining humanity passed on.

Gregor Clegane

The knight's eight-foot stature is only exceeded by his eagerness to kill and rape. Gregor will perform any atrocity at Tywin Lannister's orders. His maiming of younger brother Sandor, though, was purely recreational - as was the deliberate murder of a young knight at the Tournament of the Hand (UPDATE: A reader pointed out that the young knight's murder may have helped cover up John Arryn's murder.). A thoroughly hateful character with absolutely no chance at redemption.

Theon Greyjoy

As a ward of Eddard Stark, Theon grows up well. He learns warcraft and statesmanship. In the end, he appreciates nothing the Starks gave him. He repays the family by sacking Winterfell, killing many of its people and eventually losing it to Roose Bolton's bastard son. Even worse, he has people convinced that he killed Bran and Rickon Stark. Through the fifth book, Theon lives in nearly constant physical and emotional agony at the hands of the Boltons.