Dontos Hollard

"I had two cups of wine."

- Ser Dontos the Red

Ser Dontos Hollard is a recurring character in the second season. He is played by guest star Tony Way and debuts in "The North Remembers." Also known as Ser Dontos the Red, he is made a fool by King Joffrey Baratheon after attending a tourney drunk.

Background
Ser Dontos is a knight, and the only surviving member of House Hollard.

Season 2
He enlists in the tournament to celebrate King Joffrey Baratheon's name day, and is set to fight Lothor Brune. When his bout is announced he emerges half armored and drops his helmet. He apologises and Joffrey accuses him of drunkenness. Dontos denies the accusation but admits to drinking two cups of wine. Joffrey offers Dontos as much wine as he likes and Dontos accepts. Joffrey orders Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard to ensure that Dontos drinks his fill. Trant and two of his sworn brothers hold Dontos down and pour wine into his mouth through a funnel. Sansa cries out “You can't.” Joffrey is incensed, but she claims that she meant it would be bad luck for Joffrey to kill someone on his name day. Joffrey is dismissive of this superstition until the Hound backs Sansa. Joffrey reluctantly orders Dontos to be imprisoned until the following day, planning to execute him then and calling him a fool. In an effort to spare Dontos from execution, Sansa says that Joffrey was clever to notice Dontos' foolishness and entreats him to prolong his suffering by making him the court fool.

Dontos is present at court, in his fool's regalia, when Joffrey orders Sansa publicly beaten for her brother Robb Stark's victory in the Battle of Oxcross. She is rescued partway through by the intervention of Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister.

During the Battle of the Blackwater, Dontos is present at Maegor's Holdfast. He juggles to entertain some of the highborn ladies refuged there.

In the books
In A Song of Ice and Fire, Ser Dontos is the only surviving member of House Hollard. The Hollards were close allies and vassals of House Darklyn of Duskendale. When the Lord of Duskendale rebelled against the Mad King in the Defiance of Duskendale, the Hollards joined them. After Aerys II had been held prisoner by the Darklyns for several months and then rescued by Ser Barristan Selmy, he had the Darklyns and most of their vassals executed in a variety of grisly ways. Ser Barristan asked for clemency for the infant Dontos, which Aerys granted. Dontos was taken back to King's Landing and raised as a squire, eventually earning his knighthood.

Dontos's major role in the narrative thereafter is as a confidante of Sansa's, though he is secretly working for Littlefinger. When Sansa shared with him the plot to have her marry Willas Tyrell, Ser Dontos informed Littlefinger, who promptly told the Lannisters. In the series, Sansa is to marry Loras, and Dontos's role as informer is taken by a new character, Olyvar, who learns of the plot by sleeping with Loras.