With a cast this large, some Game of Thrones characters are inevitably underutilized.
- Quaithe, the mysterious shadowbinder from Asshai who wants to help Daenerys for unknown reasons. In the books, she's a recurring character who appears to Daenerys multiple times to offer her cryptic advice or warnings that foreshadow future events and/or contribute to Dany's decision-making and Character Development. In the show, she only appears twice in Season 2 to warn Jorah - rather than Dany - that he must protect the young queen against betrayal (which seems rather obvious already) and that Pyat Pree is the one who stole the dragons, and is then never seen or mentioned again.
- The death of Ser Barristan Selmy is getting this reaction from a lot of fans, as he is still alive in the books and at this point in the books his character actually began to take a more active role after being a mostly passive figure. It doesn't help that he died in a somewhat anti-climactic manner with little fanfare or build-up.
- The two main wildlings in "Hardhome," Karsi the Reasonable Authority Figure and Loboda the Jerkass Thenn. Karsi shows her Action Mom chops, while Loboda offers some timely Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, but both are Sacrificial Lambs for the undead to kill and don't make it out of the episode.
- Doran Martell was given plenty of build up in Season 5 and was widely seen as one of the few good things about the Dorne story arc of that season. Being played by Star Trek alumnus Alexander Siddig probably helped. Come the Season 6 premiere and he is brutally killed without much fanfare, along with his bodyguard and son, having accomplished nothing of importance at all. Especially jarring considering that, as he lies dying, Ellaria snaps how he did nothing after Elia and Oberyn's deaths, while in the books he was revealed to be even more vengeful than Oberyn about such things and had plans to avenge Elia by forging an alliance with the Targaryens, but that entire plot was dropped. It's even worse that Ellaria is now the one forging an alliance with Targaryens, and only because Varys came to Dorne and needed ships. It makes you wonder if it would make more sense if Doran should be the one making the alliance, since he was more personally affected by the deaths of his relatives like Elia, rather than Ellaria, who only did it for selfish reasons. It doesn't help that Alexander Siddig was contracted for ''four episodes'' in Season 6,
only there had been a change of plans during production which he wasn't aware of and this became a sad case of What Could Have Been. - Roose and Walda Bolton. The former is a cunning, ruthless schemer who could have played a relevant role as the Warden of the North, while the latter has very few scenes and almost no lines despite her book counterpart being known for her snarky sense of humour. Just as it seemed that their position as rulers of the North was cemented, they are unceremoniously murdered by Ramsay.
- Howland Reed. He only shows up once in a flashback to the fight at the Tower of Joy, despite arguably being extremely important to the plot: he's the one who sent Jojen and Meera to help Bran, thus enabling him to master his powers and help fight the dead, and he's probably one of the few people left alive who knew all along about Jon's true parentage. He doesn't even show up in Season 8 to help fight the dead even though he'd have every reason to and he's arguably a more credible witness to Jon's parentage than Bran (who's powers aren't well understood by most people) or Sam (who's only going by Bran's visions and Septon Maynard's diary claiming he married Rhaegar and Lyanna, which doesn't prove much about Jon's parentage), and as Daenerys herself points out, it seems awfully convenient that the only people who apparently know this are Jon's brother and best friend; Howland, on the other hand, was actually present at Jon's birth and knew both Eddard and Lyanna personally.
- Osha, the badass wildling girl who basically singlehandedly outsmarted Theon and saved Bran and Rickon from the Greyjoys is killed unceremoniously after she returns in Season 6. She's murdered on the spot by Ramsay in her second appearance before she can do anything of note.
- Rickon Stark, out of all the Stark children, has been the most Out of Focus throughout the first three seasons. For Seasons 4 and 5, he was Put on a Bus with Osha, and when he finally reappears in Season 6, his direwolf and protector are quickly killed, he gets two scenes, no lines, and is killed off by Ramsay prior to his showdown with Jon. Rickon's entire life and death served no purpose in the show but to give Jon another reason to hate Ramsay. Not to mention that after said death no one ever mentions him again, not even returning family members who would probably want to know his whereabouts and status. It's all the more irritating because seeing the influence being raised by wildling Osha had on him would have been an interesting storyline in itself.
- Ornela and the High Priestess of the Dosh Khaleen, who are supporting characters in Dany's Season 6 plotline. The High Priestess is a Cool Old Lady and Reasonable Authority Figure who empathizes with Daenerys and tries to help her in her own way, while Ornela is a young and sympathetic member of the dosh khaleen who quickly develops a bond with Dany, to the point of keeping quiet about her plan to escape Vaes Dothrak for a possible shot at freedom (and a chance to see Dany's dragons). Both are seen kneeling before Dany after she burns down the temple, but we never see either of them again afterwards.
- Meera Reed. She's last seen departing Winterfell in tears because Bran is no longer Bran and is never heard from again. A lot of viewers felt her character arc seemed unfinished and argued that it would make a lot of sense for her to show up at Winterfell to battle the White Walkers, seeing how House Reed have long been loyal to the Starks and Meera has actual firsthand experience in fighting White Walkers. Considering how invested she was in helping guide Bran to the Three-Eyed Raven specifically to stop the White Walkers and that they killed her brother, this also gives her a deeply personal stake in the war, but she apparently just sat in Greywater Watch doing nothing during the entire final season. It also doesn't help the fact that in the books, Bran has one Precocious Crush for Meera.
- The direwolves are criminally underused; as of Season 8, only Nymeria and Ghost are still alive, and the latter doesn't even appear once in Season 7 with a few appearances in Season 8, whereas Nymeria is not seen in the final installment. Since they've grown too large to be played by real dogs and are now created by filming real wolves who are then digitally increased in size for the screen, they're a drain on the CGI budget and often have to make way for the dragons or, in the case of the Battle of the Bastards, Wun-Wun. Their Demoted to Extra status also means that Bran appears to be the only Stark warg, whereas in the books all of the Stark children had the capability to be wargs, and Jon and Arya slipped into the minds of Ghost and Nymeria more than once.
- The Night King was under-utilized in Season 8 when he is unceremoniously killed off in "The Long Night". The character and his plotline are ended without any sort of insight into why exactly he hates the Three-Eyed Raven so much that he's willing to risk appearing on the field himself to personally finish him off, especially when it was evident that his army would prevail. The extremely quick and efficient way the Night King (and with him, all the White Walkers and the much hyped up Army of the Dead) was dealt with made fans feel that despite all the build-up to this battle in the past eight seasons, the Night King was nothing more than a one dimensional generic filler villain who just happened to be in the way of the protagonists. Despite the fact that Daenerys was willing to suspend all hostilities with Cersei and was even willing to forgive her if she helped them against the Army of the Dead, as it was one of the key plots of Season 7 that the White Walkers are, and were always the true threat for Westeros, and stressed that Enemy Mine and forgiveness for past misdeeds for a common cause was the only option for survival.
- Rhaegal and Viserion, aka 'the two dragons that aren't Drogon'. Rather like the underused direwolves, they are frequently sidelined. In the books, they have some unique character traits to mark them as individuals (Viserion is noted to be comparatively more docile and tolerant of people besides his mother, while Rhaegal is more ferocious and cunning), but in the show the only trait that really distinguishes them is that they're different colors. Viserion only really starts to stand out at the end of Season 7 after getting killed and reanimated by the Night King, allowing him to destroy the Wall and upping the stakes even more; at the time some viewers were even confused over which dragon had actually died, demonstrating how little an impression the two had made. In Season 8, it finally looks like it's Rhaegal's time to shine after he becomes the mount of secret Targaryen Jon Snow, only for him to be unceremoniously killed off in an extremely contrived manner in the antepenultimate episode.
- Missandei, especially considering she's aged up from a child of ten to a young woman, which opens up new possible directions her character could take. The only major one is that she develops a romantic relationship with Grey Worm; while most viewers don't mind their romance because the actors have good chemistry and it's probably the most wholesome romance on the show, it's also argued it's not particularly compelling to watch because it lacks dramatic tension. Missandei's only other role is as Dany's best friend/advisor, though she never really gets to do much more with this (unlike, say, Davos for Stannis), despite the fact in the books she's depicted as Wise Beyond Their Years and even helps come up with plans reminiscent of Varys or Littlefinger's to divide their enemies. In fact, later seasons greatly cut down the friendship scenes between Dany and Missandei, to the point that the last time they shared a scene to themselves was in Season 7's fourth episode. Just over halfway through Season 8, Missandei is Stuffed in the Fridge to trigger Dany's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against King's Landing, turning her into the show's final villain, but seeing how they had so few interactions in the last few seasons, some viewers felt it didn't pack nearly as much as an emotional punch. And this is without getting into the issues some viewers have with one of the show's only significant characters of color getting fridged.
- Harry Strickland and the Golden Company. They were hyped up as early as Season 7 as being a potentially huge threat to Daenerys's forces and are well known in-universe for being a badass mercenary army. When the two finally meet in battle, however, the Golden Company end up being basically Cannon Fodder for Dany's army, to the point that Cersei may as well have not even bothered hiring them. Maybe they should have brought those elephants Cersei wanted with them after all.
- Euron Greyjoy was introduced in Season 6, two seasons later than he was originally supposed to, with fans of the books greatly afraid of whether or not he had the time to develop into the menace he is in the books. While he certainly could have had enough screentime to become the next Joffrey or Ramsay, he is left as a plot device for Cersei to use whenever needed. The script also utilizes some foreshadowing akin to his novel counterpart but none of these are never taken into account later on. He never showcases any traits of black magic or alliance with the White Walkers unlike in the books and is ultimately killed by Jaime in Season 8.
- Prince Newguy of House Whatsitcalled note , the new prince of Dorne who pledged to support Daenerys and shows up all of once in Season 8. We find out nothing about this guy and how he came to power.
- Yara Greyjoy in Season 8. In Season 7, Yara's fate was left in the balance after she was captured by her Evil Uncle Euron, with Theon vowing to rescue her. He accomplishes this in a single, rather anti-climatic scene in the first episode of Season 8. After giving him her blessing to return to Winterfell to fight the dead, Yara sets sail to retake the Iron Islands in Daenerys' name... but all of which happens off-screen. Yara doesn't show up again for the rest of the season until "The Iron Throne", where she doesn't do much except push for Jon's execution as retribution for killing Dany and participates in electing Bran as king, even though in the previous season she'd been keen on the idea of having an independent Iron Islands. Nothing happens with the plot point of her Undying Loyalty to Dany and the fact they seemed to genuinely like one another, nor do we see her reaction to her last sibling's death. She doesn't even get a rematch with Euron despite him being set up as her Arch-Nemesis. Some fans also complain about the little screentime that the character had in the TV series in relation to the books, and argue that she could also have participated in the battle of Winterfell together with Theon and thus, showing her reaction to her brother's death.
- Ser Bronn Of The Blackwater is Demoted to Extra to a ridiculous extent in Season 8. He's only given three scenes in the entire season; One where Qyburn hands him a crossbow with orders from Cersei to off Jaime and Tyrion, one where he confronts Jaime and Tyrion with said crossbow and, knowing the way the winds are blowing politically, negotiates a better deal to not kill them, and finally during the ending, where he is now on the Small Council as Lord of Highgarden and Master Of Coin. There's not even any sign of him at either of the season's two major battles, where the services of a sellsword like him would definitely be in demand.
