Davos Seaworth

"You want me to have a god? Fine. King Stannis is my god.  He raised me up and blessed me with his trust. He gave you a future I could never have imagined. You know how to read, you'll be a knight some day. You think a fire-god commanded all of that?  It was Stannis, only Stannis."

- Davos Seaworth to his son Matthos.

Davos Seaworth is a major character in the second season. He is played by starring cast member Liam Cunningham and debuts in "The North Remembers". Ser Davos Seaworth is a landed knight and a former smuggler in the service of Stannis Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone and claimant to the Iron Throne.

Background
Ser Davos Seaworth is a landed knight and a reformed smuggler. His ship used to ply the Narrow Sea, smuggling goods from the Free Cities into the Seven Kingdoms and back again. During Robert's Rebellion, Davos aided Stannis Baratheon while he was besieged in Storm's End by delivering smuggled onions and other foodstuffs into the castle. The supplies helped Stannis's forces survive until the end of the war. For this service, Stannis rewarded Davos by bestowing him with lands and the status of knighthood. Davos was disparagingly called "the Onion Knight" for his actions, but he has embraced this title proudly and adopted a black ship with an onion on the sail as his sigil.

Stannis also cut off four finger tips from Davos's right hand as punishment for his smuggling crimes. Thieves in Westeros are often sentenced to having fingers or the whole hand removed, but Stannis only took the fingertips of his less used hand (his right, as Davos is left-handed). Davos submitted to this punishment willingly, judging it a fair exchange in return for improving his family's future prospects. He wears his severed finger bones in a pouch about his neck and believes they bring him good luck.

Davos is one of Stannis' most loyal and reliable vassals, but is treated with disdain by some of the other lords of Westeros for his low birth. Stannis himself points out that it was the low-born Davos, and not the high-born lords, who saved the lives of Stannis and his castle garrison. Davos is one of the only men who can (even grudgingly) influence Stannis' decisions, because he values Davos' honest advice ahead of that of noble-born flatterers.

Davos has several sons, including Matthos, who serves with him on his ship and is a scribe for Stannis. He is proud of his sons' education but remains illiterate.

Season 2

 * Main: Davos Seaworth Season 2

King Stannis Baratheon converts to the religion of the Lord of Light and allows his priestess Melisandre to burn the statues of the Seven outside Dragonstone. Davos is agnostic but watches with interest beside his son Matthos Seaworth, a devoted convert. Maester Cressen attempts to interrupt the ceremony but is casually dismissed by Melisandre. She proclaims Stannis as a prophesied hero when he draws a flaming sword from one of the statues.

Stannis hosts a council and prepares a letter to be distributed throughout the Seven Kingdoms. He has learned from the late Eddard Stark that Joffrey Baratheon is a bastard born of incest between Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime rather than being Robert Baratheon's true heir. Stannis is therefore the rightful heir and plans to pursue his claims to the throne despite being outnumbered. His younger brother Renly Baratheon has also claimed the throne to Stannis' frustration. Davos urges Stannis to make peace with Renly to fight against Joffrey but Stannis refuses. Cressen attempts to poison Melisandre. Davos sees him put something in the wine cup. Cressen then offers Melisandre that they put aside their disagreement through drinking a toast from the same cup. Davos realizes what he is doing and unsuccesfully tries to stop him. Cressen drinks the poison first to make Melisandre feel safer. She also realizes his plan but drains the rest of the liquid regardless. Cressen quickly bleeds to death while Melisandre stands over his corpse unharmed.

Davos recruits an old friend, the pirate admiral Salladhor Saan, to Stannis's cause, bringing his 30 ships to Dragonstone. Davos and Mathos meet Sallador on them coast and Davos tells him that there are no old pirates, the life will catch up to him eventually. Joining the forces of Stannis Baratheon would give him a safe, legitimate position in the world. Davos accompanies Stannis to a parley with Renly on the coast of the Stormlands. They are unable to reach a compromise and Stannis gives Renly the night to reconsider. Stannis then tasks Davos with smuggling Melisandre into the caves beneath Renly's camp, refusing to say why and ordering Davos not to discuss the mission in the future. Davos delivers Melisandre through the caves, while she asks him if he desires her. She also talks of the battle they face and how she fights for the forces of good. When they arrive at a gate of iron bars, she disrobes, revealing that she is impossibly, heavily pregnant. She births a horrific shadow as Davos cowers in fear.

The Shadow kills Renly and Stannis assumes control of the majority of his forces, save for the Tyrells and their bannermen. With the might of the Stormlords behind him, he plans to move on the capital of King's Landing. Davos urges him to leave Melisandre out of the battle because of rumors that she is controlling him. Stannis is angry with Davos for breaking his orders but accepts his counsel. He names Davos as commander of his fleet for the assault on Blackwater Bay. Davos is concerned that Stannis's bannermen will not respect him because of his origins.

The fleet travels north along the coast. Davos predicts that they are just one days sail from their destination. Stannis admires Davos's loyalty and honesty and the way he copes with the snobbery of the highborn. He recalls Davos's timely intervention saving many lives in the siege of Storm's End. Stannis' wife nearly died of hunger and the castle was down to eating rats, before Davos managed to sneak through the blockade with his ship full of onions, potatoes, fish, and some beef. Stannis asks Davos to serve as his Hand of the King when he takes the Iron Throne.

The fleet sweeps into Blackwater Bay and the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, and approaches the city at night. The original plan was to destroy the royal fleet and land troops under the city walls. However, the royal fleet proved to be absent, Tyrion Lannister having commanded it to leave the area rather than be sunk. Instead, Tyrion has a ship leaking wildfire directly into the bay. Davos realizes it is a trap too late, and screams at his the ships to sail away from the wildfire. At Tyrion's signal, Commander Bronn of the King's Landing City Watch ignites the wildfire with a flaming arrow. This results in a tremendous explosion that obliterates the vanguard of Stannis's fleet, including Davos' flagship, the Black Betha. The blast kills his son Matthos while Davos is hurled overboard by the shockwave before the blast can reach him.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Davos is described as having brown hair and a brown and gray beard. He was born in Flea Bottom, the poorest slum in King's Landing. His father was a poor crabber. He became a sailor while very young and has spent most of his life sailing the Narrow Sea. His black-sailed ship became infamous for sneaking into harbors in the dead of night whilst avoiding detection.

Davos is married to Marya Seaworth, the daughter of a carpenter, who rarely leaves their home on Cape Wrath. They have seven sons: Dale, Allard, Matthos, Marc, Devan, Stannis (named after the king) and Steffon, the eldest five of whom are also in the service of House Baratheon of Dragonstone. Dale and Allard are captains of their own ships, and Mathos is first mate on Davos' ship Black Bertha. The eldest four were killed in the Battle of the Blackwater. The one that survived was Devan, who is a squire to Stannis and and was taken off with Stannis by Sallador Saans ships. In the book Devan tells Davos to convert to the religion of the Lord of Light, in the show, it is Mathos who is scribe to Stannis (the show merges the roles of Devan and Mathos into just Mathos). Davos doesn't seem to belong to any religion very seriously in the show, but in the book he is very faithful to the Faith of the Seven and dislikes Melisandre and her religion's effect on Stannis. He thinks she is leading him into a war he cannot win.

There are two shadow assassinations carried out by Melisandre. The first is Renly and the birth is not seen. Melisandre is said to be in Stannis' tent. At the time Renly was killed Stannis was having a violent dream and none could wake him. The second assassination was Lord Cortnay Penrose, who was Renly's castellan and held Storm's End and wouldn't surrender without a long siege. Stannis wouldn't leave it untaken in his wake or tie down part of his army laying siege. The Castle of Storm's End is ancient, supposedly built in the time of the Age of Heroes, Melisandre says there are spells woven into the walls of the castle (so the shadow can't pass through them). Davos must row her to the caves under the castle which gets the shadow past the walls. This is the exact same journey that he made to get the dried fish and onions to those besieged at Storm's End all those years ago, past the blockade of the Redwynes.

At the Battle of Blackwater, the fleet is under the command of Ser Imry Florent and they have been held up for two days by bad weather. Stannis has been waiting for them to arrive. Davos wants to hold back out of the harbor and advises sending in scouts, but Ser Imry doesn't think it's necessary as they have numerical superiority. And Stannis is impatient, having had to feed a standing army for two days. Davos sees the two towers at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush and realizes it's a chains, he wonders why it hasn't been raised to keep them out. Davos also notices that Joffrey's best ships aren't attacking them. He knows something is very wrong and wishes they had waited and sent scouts.