Who is the most deplorable character in Game of Thrones? The eight-season show, which is based on George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel series, focuses on various family dynasties fighting for control of the Iron Throne to become the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
And if Game of Thrones has shown us anything, it’s that these families are not afraid to fight dirty. The land of moral grays that our favorite Game of Thrones characters inhabit is a prime reason why the show is considered one of the best TV series of all time. We might not agree with a lot of the decisions these characters make, but they make for great television. And sometimes, we can even understand their point of view.
But while Game of Thrones depicts some characters as good people who do bad things, there are others who, quite simply, are just the worst. And according to a user on the r/GameofThrones subreddit, no character is worse than Catelyn Stark, the matriarch of the Stark family, played by Game of Thrones cast member Michelle Fairley.
Catelyn might have only been around for the first three seasons, later being slaughtered during the infamous Red Wedding, but by that time, she had committed more than enough misdeeds, according to this Redditor.
“I understand why she makes the decisions she makes, but her judgment is TERRIBLE across the board, and she causes so many more issues than there needed to be,” the user wrote. More specifically, the Redditor called out how Catelyn treated characters like Tyrion and Jon Snow.
In both the books and the show, for instance, she accuses Tyrion of being the one who pushed her son Bran out the window, paralyzing and nearly killing him. “Deep down, she knows he’s innocent, but she deliberately lets prejudice and hatred cloud her judgment and continues to accuse him of trying to kill Bran, despite all reasonable evidence to the contrary, even after he quite literally saves her life,” the Redditor added. “Just because she wants a scapegoat and he’s a dwarf and a Lannister and is therefore easy to hate.”
As for Jon Snow, it is believed by everyone he is the bastard child of Ned Stark: the product of infidelity in his marriage to Catelyn. While it later transpires that this was a lie to keep people from hunting down Jon because of his Targaryen heritage, Catelyn spent her whole life believing that Jon was, in fact, her husband’s bastard child.
“She literally dismisses and ignores Ned’s assumed infidelity and instead transfers all her bitterness and hatred onto Jon and blames him… for existing… and treats him terribly,” the Redditor continued. “Even as he is raised and beloved by her husband and children as part of the family.”
Still, when it comes to the cruelest woman in Game of Thrones, Catelyn still has nothing on Cersei — she burned down the whole of the Sept, after all. Her twin brother/lover Jaime might not be much better (he’s the one who tried to kill Bran from the beginning, after all), but together, the two of them really did create the Devil’s spawn with Joffrey. His relentless tormenting of people like Sansa and determination to execute Ned Stark even made Cersei wince.
In fact, it’s probably good that Joffrey died when he did because if he had grown up, he would’ve probably ended up just as bad as Ramsay Bolton — a literal sadist whose torture of Sansa and Theon remains difficult to watch even to this day. But, if the show brought Catelyn back as Lady Stoneheart as they did in the books, we reckon she’d put even Ramsay Bolton to shame.
For more on the world of Westeros, check out our guides to all the Game of Thrones dragons, the Targaryen family tree, the House of the Dragon cast, and learn all there is to know about House of the Dragon season 2.