Alliser Thorne

"Soon we'll have new recruits, and you lot will be passed along to the Lord Commander for assignment. They will call you "men of the Night's Watch," but you'd be fools to believe it. You're boys, still. And come the winter, you will die...like flies."

- Alliser Thorne to Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly

Alliser Thorne is a recurring character in the first season. He is played by guest star Owen Teale and debuts in "Lord Snow." He was originally announced as being played by Derek Halligan, but Halligan withdrew from the role before production began. Ser Alliser Thorne is the Master-at-Arms at Castle Black and is responsible for training new recruits to the Night's Watch.

Background
Ser Alliser Thorne is a member of the Night's Watch. He is from House Thorne, a noble house of the Crownlands sworn to the Iron Throne. Thorne serves as the master-of-arms at Castle Black and is responsible for training the new recruits; he has the habit of giving them demeaning nicknames.

Season 1
Ser Alliser sets Jon Snow against his fellow recruits Rast, Pypar and Grenn, and mockingly refers to Jon as 'Lord Snow'. Jon beats the other recruits easily, due to his previous training at Winterfell, but is unaware that Alliser is making him unpopular by emphasizing his superiority. Tyrion Lannister advises Jon to take into account the less privileged upbringing of the other recruits and suggests that Jon could befriend them by sharing his skills.

Alliser is disgusted by the obesity and softness of new recruit Samwell Tarly, nicknaming him 'Lord Piggy'. Alliser has Rast beat Sam when he will not fight back. Jon convinces the others to refuse to hurt Sam. Alliser angrily confronts Jon and Sam, revealing that he once had to cannibalize the frozen remains of his comrades to avoid starvation during a ranging. He tells them they are soft and that Jon's 'protection' of Sam from the hard training he needs will get him killed.

Alliser is pleased when Jon is made a steward after he takes the oath of loyalty; Jon had hoped to become a ranger. Lord Commander Jeor Mormont takes Jon as his personal steward. Samwell convinces Jon that this means that Jon will be privy to the inner workings of the Night's Watch command structure, and that the Lord Commander may actually want to groom Jon for a high position within the Watch.

Alliser taunts Jon when news arrives that Jon's father Eddard Stark has been arrested as a traitor. Jon draws a knife and is punished by being restricted to his quarters. Jon redeems himself by saving Jeor Mormont's life when two dead rangers, who have been found beyond the Wall, are revived as wights. Later, the Lord Commander sends Alliser to King's Landing with the frozen hand of one of the wights to warn the court of the return of the White Walkers.

Quotes
"Well, Lord Snow, it appears you're the least useless person here."

- Alliser Thorne to Jon Snow

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Alliser Thorne is respected for his service to House Targaryen. During the Sack of King's Landing he fought on the walls of the city against the Lannister forces. After being defeated, he took the black and joined the Night's Watch, being given the choice of this or death; this is most likely the cause of Ser Alliser's animosity towards Jon Snow, as Jon's father Lord Eddard was a prominent leader in Robert's Rebellion which forced Thorne into exile at the Wall. In a notable change, in the TV series Thorne is an experienced ranger who has been beyond the Wall on several occasions while in the books he rarely leaves Castle Black. He's described as having eyes as black as onyx and black hair ridged with white. It is Donal Noye the Blacksmith that tells Jon not to use his superior fighting skills to embarrass his fellow recruits. Jeor Mormont sends Ser Alliser to King's Landing with the severed hand of the animated corpse (it was still jumping and twitching), and he was ordered to lay it at Joffrey's feet. He thought that as a knight Ser Alliser Thorne would be more respected and listened to, and they would see the danger the Night Watch was in and send aid. However, when he arrived and asked for an audience it was Tyrion Lannister who was in charge. Tyrion asked if the one waiting was Yoren, who had become his friend. Remembering Ser Alliser, he told them to give him a room where the rushes hadn't been changed in a while. It was weeks before he got an audience and by then the hand had rotted away.