With a cast this large and a Crapsack World setting, not every Game of Thrones character was going to be embraced warmly. In a show where just about Anyone Can Die, fans frequently wish these characters would succumb to this as soon as possible.
- Ros had her fair share of detractors in Season 1, due to being perceived as a pointless character only there to provide fanservice, who wasn't even in the books let alone being a supporting character. However, fans began to warm up to her more in Season 2, mostly out of sympathy on account of her Trauma Conga Line, and most of them were horrified by her brutal death at Joffrey's hands in Season 3.
- Talisa Maegyr wasn't too well-received in Season 2, partly because of the changes made to her character and role in Robb's storyline from the books. Talisa's book counterpart Jeyne Westerling is at most a side character; she's a minor noblewoman from the Westerlands who Robb is attracted to after she treats his wounds. He sleeps with her in a moment of grief after learning that his younger brothers were allegedly killed by Theon, then marries her to preserve her honor, thus leading to the Red Wedding. In the show however, Talisa is a Volantene noblewoman who came to Westeros to be a nurse, meets Robb by pure chance and has a prominently-featured romance with him, which some viewers found to be a pretty pointless and implausible change from the books. Some found Talisa annoying and self-righteous because she criticizes Robb for 'his war' getting people maimed and killed, even though Robb is only fighting so as to free the North, the Riverlands and his sisters from the oppression of the Lannisters and get justice for his wrongly executed father. Talisa also explains that she left her life of luxury in Volantis because she opposes slavery, but some viewers have argued she could've actually used her high-ranking position to help improve things for the slaves; her seemingly looking down on other noblewomen for wanting to attend dances can also come off as Real Women Don't Wear Dresses (and isn't the only example of this in the show, none of which is present in the books). Finally, the show presents Robb breaking his marriage vows to House Frey - and thus dooming himself, his mother and most of his men - not out of a misguided sense of honor, but because he falls in love with Talisa, thus making his motives for oathbreaking quite selfish and even more idiotic than they were in the books, and also making Talisa come off as a self-centered fool for agreeing to the marriage. That said, even people who disliked her character thought she in no way deserved to be stabbed to death at the Red Wedding, while pregnant no less; there are also some viewers who genuinely liked her and Robb's romance.
- Though well-received in her introductory season, Ellaria Sand was harshly criticized from Season 5 onwards due to her plan to execute Princess Myrcella to avenge Oberyn and plunge Dorne into a war, a highly irrational plan that Oberyn himself would not approve of. This earned her the Fan Nickname "Malaria Sand". The fact she was the driving force of the utterly loathed Dornish subplot in Season 5, as well as her close connection to the equally-despised Sand Snakes, did nothing to remedy the situation. It got worse with the Season 6 premiere, with Ellaria and the Sand Snakes murdering Oberyn's entire family to "avenge him". Not helping in the slightest is the fact that in the books, Ellaria is portrayed as a kind and gentle woman and a voice of reason in the Dornish arc, who tries to dissuade Arianne and the Sand Snakes from their revenge plot because, as she rightly points out, it will only lead to more violence and won't bring Oberyn back, which is the exact opposite of how she's portrayed in the show.
- As a corollary to Ellaria, the other members of the Sand Snakes, Obara, Nymeria and Tyene, were not received well either due to the clunkiness of their first two scenes, the plain idiocy of their story arc in general and their poor dialogue (particularly the infamous "bad pussy" line). Their attempted characterization as badass, ruthless Dark Action Girls just doesn't jive with the fact that their plotline was been merged with Arianne Martell's disastrous attempt to kidnap and crown Myrcella (which in the books was portrayed as being a stupid idea) and that their sole action scene in Season 5 had incredibly bad choreography. As a result, viewers generally just see them as stupid and petty for trying to hurt an innocent girl who had nothing to do with their father's death. Their reputation was further undermined by their failure in even this pathetic crime, strongly bringing to mind the books' Adapted Out The Scrappy Darkstar, who does pretty much the same thing and is loathed for almost the exact same reasons. It got even worse in Season 6 where they helped Ellaria kill their own uncle and cousin, with no remorse. To top it off, the narrative never really comments on how self-destructive to Dornish society at large their crimes were. While fans of the books are incensed that these fairly popular characters from the books wind up as a wasted opportunity, the fact that they're loathed by casual fans as well shows just how poorly-handled they are. By Season 7, pretty much the entire fandom is Rooting for the Empire when Euron kills Obara and Nymeria in a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle and Cersei disposes of Ellaria and Tyene with some serious Laser-Guided Karma.
- Olly was intended to provide a gray perspective to the Night's Watch and Wildlings face-off and started off as a Tagalong Kid to the Night's Watch, but his role in the denouement of "Watchers on the Wall" was staged in a very narm-y way. Viewers also hate him for killing Ygritte, permanently sinking her and Jon as a couple and breaking Jon's heart, although that overlaps with Ron the Death Eater seeing as it was done to protect Jon and Ygritte had helped slaughter his village. However, subsequent events involving Olly is what really cemented him as a Scrappy. In Season 5, he becomes the embodiment of the Watch losing faith in Jon and the foreshadowing of his betrayal of Jon was heavy-handed to the point of being jarring. The aim was that his betrayal would be an Et Tu, Brute? moment, but his shameless gloating in a short scene after the incident ruined that. Subsequently he is thrown in the Castle Black dungeon following the Wildling attack and executed with the rest of the mutineers by Jon Snow himself. Jon treats executing Olly as a My God, What Have I Done? moment, stating that he's younger than Bran (which again is no longer true, visually at least, as a result of the actors aging), but most viewers didn't feel much sympathy.
- The Waif, who inexplicably hates Arya from the moment she arrives at the House of Black and White, and just escalates from there in her nastiness. Fans are also confused about how her aggressive personality is completely at odds with how Faceless Men are supposed to operate, which goes completely unacknowledged by anyone in the show (even though Arya is criticized and even punished for the same thing). None of this is present in the books, where she is more of a side character than anything and acts as a proper mentor to Arya instead of The Rival.
- Lord Robett Glover. His first scene has him insulting the memory of King Robb and calling Talisa a foreign whore, and harshly refusing to help Jon and Sansa in their darkest hour. He later expresses regret and looks set to become The Atoner. He becomes a Sour Supporter instead in Season 7, criticizing every single one of Jon’s decisions, and ends up abandoning the Starks again in Season 8 after they formed an alliance with Daenerys out of necessity, due to the impending war with the Night King. And from what was said in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", his stupidity might have gotten himself and 500 men killed. Like the Waif, none of this is in the books, where he's also a minor character and a stolid officer in the Northern army, who is in fact working to restore the Starks with other Northern nobles. Unlike the Waif, Glover does not face any comeuppance for abandoning everyone to their fate, and gets rewarded with an independent North for the sacrifices that the other Northern houses like Karstark, Mormont and Umber made.
- A lot of viewers weren't keen on Ed Sheeran's cameo as a Lannister soldier. It wasn't so much anything the character did, but the fact that it was painfully obvious he was Ed Sheeran and the character's only purpose just seemed to be to sing "Hands of Gold", which came off as an unnecessary celebrity cameo that took a lot of viewers out of the show. In Season 8, it's actually mentioned that the poor sod was at the Battle of the Goldroad, got torched by dragonfire and lived. "Hands of Gold" is a pretty good song, though, as is Sheeran's performance of it, so at least he's got that going for him.
- Euron Greyjoy. While he is very popular in the books and he had some fans in Season 7 for Pilou Asbæk's charismatic portrayal, for showing some actual combat prowess and putting the aforementioned Ellaria Sand and Sand Snakes in their place, but this fell apart by Season 8, where Euron was reduced into Cersei's overpowered crony. By the series' end, fans complained about him by name in a petition to re-write the final season — for "merely existing." Other writers
go so far as to call Euron a Marty Stu, as he single-handedly shoots a dragon out of the sky three times, a feat no other character has ever accomplished and the fact he regularly exploits Travelling at the Speed of Plot and Offscreen Teleportation. As he appears in the show, he lacks the interest in the occult and dark magic he has in the books, which explain his motivation for helping Cersei and his uncanny luck as a pirate. Fans of the books dislike him for being a watered-down version of the Sorcerous Overlord that he is in Martin's pages, whereas non-readers dislike him for being a one-dimensional plot device. The most common criticism for Show!Euron is that his over-the-top, wacky personality doesn't really fit in a dark fantasy setting and often leads him to be compared to a Jack Sparrow impersonator.note Even Pilou Asbæk himself, who is a fan of the books, has noted his disappointment in what the show did to the character, as he was hoping to play the much more threatening character from the books. One Youtube comment sums it up perfectly with "Hated [Joffrey Baratheon] because of how good he was written. Hated Euron Greyjoy because of how bad he was written." - Fans started to turn on Bran Stark around Season 6 and the dislike for him was cemented following the end of Season 8. Many viewers find him to be one of the most dull and underdeveloped characters who contributes little to the wider story (he's apparently so irrelevant he was Put on a Bus for all of Season 5). Viewers were very irritated in Season 6 when his reckless actions cause the Night King to find the Three-Eyed Raven's cave, resulting in the deaths of Summer, Hodor, the 3ER and the last of the Children of the Forest, who all sacrifice themselves for Bran. Bran then proceeds to do very little of significance with his powers besides confirming that Littlefinger is a traitor and Jon is actually the heir to the throne. His Death of Personality results in him becoming a monotone creep who spends most of his time sitting around spouting exposition when needed or making people uncomfortable. He expresses little remorse or gratitude for the sacrifices Meera and many others made for him and then proceeds to not really help anyone anyway, does nothing in the Long Night except sitting in his chair, and tells Theon he would die despite knowing Arya is coming and all will be fine in moments. The moment that really made fans turn on Bran was in the finale, as Bran is unanimously elected King of Westeros sans the North despite not having done enough in some people's eyes to earn it and lacking any experience and qualities for leadership. The show then proclaims that Bran has "the most interesting story" out of all the characters, which most fans vehemently disagreed with. There are many articles and posts out there describing Bran as one of the worst characters on the show and some viewers have even taken to calling him "Bran the Boring".
