User blog comment:Gcheung28/Game of Thrones Wikia Awards: Season 3/@comment-5014364-20130823210545

The problem is that these are awards for specifically Season 3, not the series as a whole. Sometimes characters simply spent a book “backburnered” because they logically didn’t have much to do at the time. Season 2 faced a problem the writers later admitted to: while Season 1 was focused around Ned Stark, Season 2 drastically expanded with no central characters – because a major point is that the books themselves have no one core set of characters. In Season 2 they tried to answer this by needlessly inventing scenes where none existed from the books, just to give characters something to do – I’m all for expanding scenes, and it isn’t necessarily bad just because it isn’t directly in the book, but some of these were true “filler” scenes come up with late in production – case in point many of Arya’s scenes were just to have her physically present in an episode. All the more ironic of course is that they originally *cut out* most of Arya’s Harrenhal subplot – which included freeing all of the Northern prisoners held in its dungeons to take the castle from the Lannisters. So they cut it down for time…then invented filler scenes to pad it out? Anyway, the writers themselves admitted that they struggled with this so I don’t hold it against them that much: and by Season 3 you can really tell they got much bolder about “let’s just not have Robb Stark appear for two whole episodes”, then devote a long 15 minute stretch to Robb.

Even so, this occurs on the Season-scale: particularly, Jaime and Daenerys simply have very little to do in the second book. It’s Tyrion’s time to shine. Tyrion remains a prominent character after this but he simply didn’t do much in the first half of book 3.

Similarly, I warn those voting on the poll: vote for how much given characters did *in Season 3 itself*, not overall. Things flip-flopped so that now, Jaime and Daenerys get quite a lot to do, while other characters do not. Particularly, both Tyrion and Cersei simply don’t do much in the first half of book 3 (which was adapted into season 3; season 4 will be the second half of book 3). It isn’t very spoilery to say that Tyrion and Cersei get A LOT to do in the second half of book 3, particularly because with the Stark chapters gone (Robb and Catelyn) there’s physically more page-space for them to do stuff.

So I’m very opposed to those who had a knee-jerk vote for Tyrion: he simply didn’t do as much as Jaime did in Season 3. Tyrion had pleasant moments, but other than his great anguished wedding scenes, he wasn’t the main focus.

Keeping that in mind:

Best Male Character – Jaime really deserves this for the season. For that matter, *Robb Stark* had more to do than Tyrion. Tyrion just wasn’t in Season 3 that much, similar to how Jaime had little to do in Season 2.

Best Female Character – Margaery Tyrell grew by leaps and bounds, but I voted Daenerys Targaryen because it was the best material she’s ever had, on par with and arguably surpassing her stuff from Season 1 – and all of this after her storyline really meandered too much in Season 2 at Qarth – I don’t blame the writers they didn’t have much to work with, but still. I’m surprised you put Yara Greyjoy on here: she IS a major character, on the scale of Jaime or Theon, but she only appeared in literally one scene from Season 3. As stated above, even Cersei didn’t get that much physical screentime. Catelyn was…better than she was in Season 2, but they really didn’t use her as well as in the books. So Margaery does give Daenerys a run for her money, but Daenerys recovered from a really bad plotline and grew by leaps and bounds, so Daenerys.

Best Episode – I hear this a lot, but “The Rains of Castamere” wasn’t the “best episode of the season” – it was a good episode that ended with a great 15 minutes sequence at the end, the Red Wedding, but as an “overall episode”, an overall experience, it wasn’t 60 minutes of balanced storyline. The other parts were good with Jon and such, but it focused primarily on the Starks. My favorite episode of the season is “Kissed by Fire” by Bryan Cogman, because it deftly balanced *almost every set of characters*, giving each something to do: the Starks, the Lannisters, the Baratheons, the Night’s Watch, and even the Tyrells and Targaryens got stuff to do.

Best Supporting Actress – while all were good, it really comes down to a choice between Olenna and Brienne, and I went with Brienne because her role had a lot more range and subtlety – wordless emotions going across her face at times, i.e. when she slowly realizes that Locke is going to do something to harm Jaime even though he’s feigning politeness at first, or during the standout confession scene at Harrenhal when she gradually shifts from disgust with Jaime to curiosity at his tale to horror at the Mad King’s plan.

Best Supporting Actor – stop voting Hodor as a gag entry this is serious (though even I think Nairn did a good job, he’s more of a “Guest Actor”) – all were good but it was really a choice between Davos or Varys, and I ultimately went with Varys; even GRRM has said he’s one of the actors that just utterly nailed the role, and here in Season 3 we learn his past, see him interacting with multiple groups in the political game in King’s Landing; even I can never tell if he’s honestly hoping for “what’s best for the realm”, though he SEEMS to be loosely on the side of realpolitik-good; you can never tell but he honestly seems to feel bad that Ned Stark died (it wasn’t part of the plan) given that unlike Joffrey and Cersei, Ned might not have known how to play the political game but he cared more about the common good and the realm than himself.

Best Couple/Duo – Robb/Talisa fell flat at every turn, Cersei/Jaime were physically barely present in Season 3. Joffrey/Margaery aren’t a duo, but great “Margaery scenes” of her manipulating Joffrey. Particularly, Tyrion/Shae isn’t a great love story because it wasn’t in the books, and the actors *do* get some good moments out of it, but it’s nothing spectacular or with thematic resonance. So it’s either Jon/Ygritte or Jaime/Brienne. The others were no question but these finalists are a tough choice. The problem is they cut out some Ygritte scenes I liked (singing “The Last of the Giants”), and the rest was great, and I felt bad when they broke up. But Jaime/Brienne was just so unexpected, intriguing, and interesting; she’s not used to being thought of as “a woman”, he’s this guy you think is utterly irredeemable and maybe he is, but you find out these hidden depths to him, and in fact, in his own warped way, Jaime is one of the more honorable characters in the series; he’s disgusted by pointless brutality and killed the Mad King to save lives, not for House Lannister, saves Brienne twice; he’s still done things like falling in love with the Queen (who kind of also happens to be his sister), but Jaime isn’t the only character to fall disastrously in love (i.e. Robb’s marriage to Talisa ruins his alliance to the Freys and costs him the entire war).

Best New Character – Mance Rayder was underused this season, which was a letdown. Meera and Jojen Reed are both interesting but in a way, should be one entry instead of two; I’m surprised Missandei wasn’t on the list. Beric Dondarrion is…not technically new, but practically. Thoros was also good. Daario was better than I thought he’d be. Even so….I kind of lament that Shireen Baratheon isn’t on this list in place of one of the Reeds as I was looking forward to her; deformed ugly sad girl who ends up being technically second in line to the throne behind Stannis – also it helps show how morally grey and hard to read Stannis is, because after fighting with Renly in Season 2 we see other sides of him beyond Melisandre, that he has a family who he likes but doesn’t know how to interact with, etc. But that’s just a pet favorite. The real big choice is between Olenna and Ramsay Snow, the Bastard of Bolton. Olenna was great in every scene and I hope she wins that Guest Actress Emmy on September 22nd. On the other hand…Rheon did a great job of fully realizing just how insane Ramsay is. Joffrey, in his own warped way, idealizes the idea of being a strong king; he’s honestly convinced it isn’t “cruel” to kill Ned Stark, he’s acting within his rights. So there’s at least some skewed framework about what “normal” is – even if he ends up having Sansa beaten in front of the entire court. But Joffrey’s more about his walking sense of entitlement. Ramsay Snow on the other hand…is entirely comfortable with being an utter, PROFESSIONAL sadist, serial rapist, and utter maniac. He’s the schoolyard bully writ-large, tearing the wings off a fly. Joffrey rarely acts cruelly out of the blue; he enjoys getting what he perceives as “revenge” on those he feels have “slighted” him. Petty, but some echo of human thought. Ramsay is utterly, openly delighted in “torture” – random torture for no reason, and he’d openly admit it. So I’m going with Ramsay just because I felt they did a good job of it and I’m hoping they bring more of this in later seasons (i.e. the fact that Ramsay hunts women for sport and then *openly* wears cloaks he makes out of their skins. This is a thematic point; he isn’t ashamed, and he feels “the rules” do not apply to him).

Most Shocking Moment – very difficult given that *I’ve already read the books* and was judging these moments as an adaptation. In which case, the only “new” thing was that Ros died; surprising as they hadn’t made her get naked in two seasons, were giving her more depth in Season 3, she seemed to be turning into something more, then just then they kill her off – maybe that’s part of their “set us up to knock us down” routine. Runner-up is Theon’s castration scene; some thought it drawn out or fanservice; I understood that from the moment Theon wakes up he realizes Ramsay is trying to torture him again, doesn’t play along, and as each second ticks by is desperately waiting for him to pop out of a door (which he does); and it was only implied in the books; so it was “brutal” and “horror” but not exactly “shocking” as in a jump surprise.

Character You Love To Hate – I don’t hate the Hound, and compared to the last seasons….again, similar to Tyrion and Cersei, Littlefinger just wasn’t in Season 3 that much – he had a few nice speeches and creepy scenes with Sansa but on the whole, we really only get to his big stuff next season. Cersei, also, didn’t do anything particularly heinous this season (notice that she doesn’t have Sansa to dump on anymore; turns out Cersei was good at terrifying a 14 year old whose father had been killed, but a young confident noblewoman like Margaery who *is not* a prisoner in her home? She can barely handle that, she’s an idiot.  Then we’ve got Tywin, he’s high up there…particularly the speech when you realize *he isn’t seeing reality* and just refuses to believe that Tyrion actually played a real role in saving the city, irrationally and even though there are so many witnesses.  And instead he openly disowns Tyrion from his birthright, calls him a monster simply for being born, blames him for killing his mother, etc.  But all of this “hate” hinges on that one perfect scene in the season premiere.  Even his role in the Red Wedding, while cynical and evil, was at least grounded in some rationality – he wants to win and feels they need to cheat. It helps that he didn’t commit the crime in his own home and get his own hands bloodly. So it sort of comes down to Walder Frey and Roose Bolton. I hate Roose because you realize – or I hope you did – that Roose has been planning to betray the Starks *since the Season 2 finale*, that it was the BOLTONS who burned down Winterfell, and Roose just pretended to be loyal this whole time – I hope they mention what happened in the books, that Roose was in command of the eastern half of the Stark army, at Harrenhal – and before that happened, he intentionally sent all of the Stark men on *suicide missions* to kill off other Stark supporters; sent men trusted to his command on suicide missions at Duskendale and Ruby Ford. Yet even this, while I hate it, had an “air of rationality” behind it. On a loose level he took part in breaking guest right of a sort, personally killed Robb, but it was a calculated risk. Walder Frey on the other hand is just a disgusting old man. His constant “I said some words” excuse, now taken to its logical extreme: he thinks even the sacred oath of guest right is just “some words” easily broken. Roose didn’t think breaking guest right would be easy, but in the books, you get the feeling it was a risk he was willing to take while he scored checkmate against the Starks to rule the North. Frey…doesn’t even know what he’s doing is “wrong”. The Freys are the white trash of Westeros. So I went with Walder Frey.

Best Stark – Really a choice between Arya or Sansa this season, and…Arya didn’t get to do as much. Once again, they had to cut out parts of her storyline for time, just bits here and there. I voted for Sansa, because we got to see a real “range” in her this season; instead of constant “deer in headlights” shock from Season 2 – which was understandable then. But now we get to see “angry Sansa” (He’s a monster!) or “conniving Sansa” starting to appear (when she’s talking with Margaery). So we saw more range to the character than ever before.

Best Lannister – Jaime beats out Tyrion, for reasons given above.

Best House – the Starks are idiots who put honor before reason and got themselves killed by walking into an obvious trap. Robb was an awful king who made bad political decisions at every possible opportunity (name a single political choice he made that turned out right). The Lannisters, meanwhile – the ones in charge that is, Tywin/Cersei/Joffrey – are malicious buffoons who think they can keep getting away with being ruthless and honorless forever, and are ultimately far too vicious to rule pragmatically. The Greyjoys barely appeared this season. Stannis Baratheon & Co….were interesting but didn’t have much to do yet, as they don’t do much in the first half of book 3. The Tyrells are increasingly interesting…so in a choice between Tyrell and Targaryen, I nonetheless went with Targaryen as they’re the ones kicking ass and taking names at the moment.

Best Revenge – I don’t know if some of these were outright “revenge”, but still, given a choice between Arya’s revenge on a Frey soldier) which was cool, I’ll still go with “Daenerys reveals she understood every insult Kraznys said and then promptly kills him.”

Best Tearjerker – Jaime’s painful, defeated confession of why he really killed the Mad King; to save the half a million inhabitants of King’s Landing before the Mad King could burn the city down with wildfire rather than let it fall into rebel hands. In the books, I don’t think Jaime ever even told Cersei why he really did it, and it wasn’t for his father or for House Lannister. It was the right thing to do.

Funniest Moment – not as much dark humor as in past seasons; drunk Tyrion was more painful than said (he was intentionally pretending to be fallover drunk to defuse the situation). Podrick and the brother was a change from the books…though I laughed at the “Meereenese Knot” reference so I guess that’s included. A close second would be Cersei’s blunt threat to Margaery.

Sexiest Male – I wouldn’t know. I voted “Loras” because he hasn’t been getting enough to do this season and I’m annoyed they cut out the scenes in which he is still mourning for the love of his life, Renly.

Sexiest Female – well, based on how much they do and junk…Margaery gets to vamp around a lot, but I’d still put Daenerys Targaryen over that.