Our complete ranking of all 150 major Game of Thrones characters continues with numbers the Top 10. For Part 1, #150-81, read here and for Part 2, #80-11 read here.

10. Joffrey Baratheon

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As much as you despise this smug, sadistic little monster, Joffrey is undeniably one of the absolute best characters on the show, eliciting more passionate gnashing of teeth from viewers than most characters in, well, anything else. To deny Joffrey admittance into the top 10 Game of Thrones characters of all time because you HATE HIM SO MUCH is only further proof that he is one of the Martin’s most indelible creations. No one deserved to die more, but the show now has a huge gap in its villain roster that 100 Ramsay Snows could never fill. King Joffrey Baratheon is a once-in-a-lifetime character. May he rot in hell forever.

9. Lord Varys

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With a cast this large, Game of Thrones can only service so many characters in a given episode. That means we can go for hours without seeing some supporting actors. We’ll just come out and say it: We are never happier than when Lord Varys enters a scene, and every episode that gives him something to do is a cause for celebration. As the most enigmatic character on the entire show (quite an accomplishment), the royal spymaster is simultaneously creepy, hilarious, and sympathetic, navigating the nest of vipers that is King’s Landing with the ease of a seasoned professional. Who else has been a quietly loyal ally to Ned Stark and Tyrion Lannister and (Maybe! Possibly!) Daenerys Targaryen? There are few scenes as entertaining as the conversations between Varys and his frenemies, which are always rich with double meanings and hidden agendas. But through all of the half-truths and secret plans, Varys seems to be the only player in the game of thrones who isn’t lying when he says he only wants to work for the good of the realm. Bonus: Pay close attention to him in those Small Council scenes. No one on the show provides funnier reactions in large group shots.

8. Cersei Lannister

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It’s easy to hate Cersei. When she’s not sleeping with her brother, she’s plotting against the characters we love. When she’s not encouraging Joffrey to indulge himself, she’s manipulating her way into more power. Yet Cersei is a product of her time and place, a woman who has been so shattered by the gender politics of Westeros that she was forced to adapt or die. And adapt she did, creating an emotional suit of armor that rivals anything Gendry could cook up. Cersei is the human equivalent of a vicious, wounded animal, forever trapped in a corner and surrounded by men who mean her harm. She will never stop fighting because it is the only existence she knows. Like the best characters on Game of Thrones, we sympathize with her circumstances even as her actual actions disgust us.

7. Daenerys Targaryen

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Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and the Mother of Dragons. And also one of the greatest and most complex heroines to every emerge from the fantasy realm. Nothing more needs to be said, really. It’s all in her title.

6. Tywin Lannister

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We’ve already talked about the Ramsay Snows and the Gregor Cleganes, the guys who embody pure, undiluted evil. Tywin Lanniser is a far more complex fellow. Sure, he keeps plenty of psychopaths on his payroll, but he’s no psychopath himself. He’s just a pragmatist, a wildly effective strategist, bureaucrat, and negotiator who won’t say no to any tool that can help him achieve his ends. Every person Tywin had killed, every massacre he arranged and every reputation he ruined was in service of protecting the Lannister family. He derives no joy in the suffering of others, but he has developed a professional detachment to human misery. If a few murders can stop a war and save the family fortune, why not go through with it? And yet his dedication to family stops short of actually caring for them. His children, each of them a mess in their own special way, bear little love for him  (his youngest son shot him with a crossbow). The most powerful and feared leader in Westeros died sitting on the privy with a crossbow bolt in his guts. A fitting end for a man who made a business out of war and death.

5. Brienne of Tarth

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Westeros is a man’s world, but Brienne strolls through it in a suit of armor and punches anyone who gets in her way right in the teeth. Like Ned Stark, she’s as noble and virtuous as they come. Like Sandor Clegane, she’s tough and mean enough to survive a world that could kill her at any moment. Like Daenerys and Catelyn and Arya and Sansa, she’s an extraordinary heroine in a world that only values heroes. The brave, uncompromising Brienne makes us want to stand up and cheer. Bonus: In a show filled with unlikely and wildly entertaining duos, her unlikely friendship with Jaime Lannister is the gift that keeps on giving.

4. Tyrion Lannister

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Yeah, we know. Tyrion is your number one. We get it; we won’t deny that Tyrion is a fantastic character whose journey from charming lout to emotionally broken murderer has made for incredible television. As the only genuinely likable member of the Lannister clan, he has been the heart and soul of the darkest corners of the show, using his biting humor and clever mind to expose and destroy his enemies in the most crowd-pleasing ways imaginable. He’s also been the vehicle for all kinds of heartbreak, from his arranged marriage to an unwilling Sansa to the brutally unfair trial for a murder he didn’t commit. In early seasons, Tyrion could avoid his responsibilities through drinking and whoring. He could forget that he was a dwarf and a mistake in the eyes of his sister and father. But now, drained of his spirit and abandoned by his family, he’s evolved into something far more tragic and unsettling than the fan-favorite charmer of the first two seasons. Tyrion’s journey is far from over and we’re terrified that it will destroy him.

3. Sandor “The Hound” Clegane

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Sandor “The Hound” Clegane is everything that’s great about Game of Thrones condensed into one character. A victim of untold trauma and abuse at the hands of his loathsome older brother, Sandor grew into the role that society had created for him: a monster. Reduced to an animal by the powerful men he serves, the Hound doesn’t think twice about running down innocent children if the king commands it. But under that hideously scarred visage is a little boy, a child who is afraid of fire and knows he’s an irredeemable killer. Sandor doesn’t seek redemption. He doesn’t want anyone’s forgiveness or love. He doesn’t even desire power, only enough gold to survive. This royal bodyguard-turned-brigand understands that he’s just one of many bloodthirsty killers playing a useless game that will never end, a pawn in a web of violence that crushes and kills anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way. His self-awareness is often funny and always terrifying. While the Starks and the Lannisters battle for control, only the Hound knows that power is an illusion. Everyone eventually gets what’s coming to them. Everything falls apart. Only the strong and ruthless survive ... and he hates himself for being one of them.

2. Jaime Lannister

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Jaime Lannister is a collection of creepy and fascinating contradictions. He’s in an incestuous relationship with his sister, but he truly loves her and has never been with anyone else. He’s a stone cold murderer who kills without hesitation, but he destroyed his reputation to save the lives of everyone in King’s Landing from the Mad King. He pushed Bran out a window but he risked everything to rescue Brienne from the clutches of Locke. Jaime is a complicated man; a monster one minute and a martyr the next. His transformation into a more noble and selfless man has begun, but it will never be complete because it is not in his nature to be honorable. There is nothing more uncomfortable than discovering the humanity of a villain The greatest trick Game of Thrones ever pulled was making us care about Jaime Lannister.

1. Arya Stark

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Even if the plucky Arya Stark wasn’t one of the funniest, sweetest, scariest, and most watchable characters in Game of Thrones, she’d still rank high because she has the unique ability to make every character she shares a scene with better. But she’s number one because no character has been as effortlessly entertaining with so much screen time. Whether she’s matching wits with Tywin Lannister, road-tripping with the Hound, learning to fight with Syrio, or having a rare sweet moment with her dear, departed father, Arya is always as interesting as the more powerful men (and the more famous actors) in the room. Across four seasons, her tomboyish enthusiasm has transformed into cold-hearted brutality and her adorable sense of humor has become as dark as the Mountain’s soul, but Arya is still the show’s number one underdog, the one character we keep on rooting for no matter what. There is no reason why we should cheer an innocent child’s evolution into a merciless assassin, but Arya watched her father die. She arrived a few minutes too late to the massacre of her brother and mother. Her friends and companions have been stabbed and tortured and shot full of arrows. If anyone deserves to be trained in the art of killing every last motherf---er in the room, it’s Arya Stark. She will survive. Hopefully, her soul survives with her.

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