The Importance of Gray/Neutral Characters

Welcome to the final week of my Month of Thrones series. This final part will consist of original essays involving various themes/characters of the show all leading up to Season 4 on April 6th.

One of the best thing about Game of Thrones (and ASOIAF) would be that it goes against typical fictional ideals and tropes that are expected in the fantasy genre. One of the best things that the author George R R Martin does is create a large variety of characters that aren't completely good or completely evil. I feel that this idea really resonates with viewers/readers as it is super realistic and makes them think about what being 'good' and 'bad' really mean to them. This kind of trope breaking is also seen in other popular shows such as Breaking Bad and Dexter, where the protagonist acts as more of an antihero and does some evil/morally ambiguous acts for their own twisted 'good' reason.



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When it comes to gray characters, Stannis Baratheon could be labelled as a lawful neutral type character which means he does what ever he feels is right by the law (or religion), without regards to it being good or evil. During the first season, he leaves King's Landing to plan his next moves as he rightly feels he should be King instead of directly helping out Ned in his fateful investigation. It could be said that he was doing the smart thing by saving himself from the Lannisters, but that can be compared to Ned following his instincts to get to the bottom of the murder despite the consequences. Stannis is also seen sacrificing others once he joins up with Melisandre in the name of the Red God in order to ensure positive outcomes.

One of the more infamous acts he committed was the kinslaying of his brother via a shadowbaby he had with Melisandre, when Renly wouldn't yield to his older brother. I believe that what makes Stannis a neutral/gray character are his motivations. He truly believes that it is his born duty to rule the realm due to primogeniture and he has no selfish desire to rule. Stannis' actions show that he would easily step aside (with the help of the commonsense of Davos) if another legitimate and closer heir were to emerge. This combined with the fact that he is willing to commit unspeakable acts of magic to get his realm show that he's not completely 'bad' or 'good'.

Jaqen H'gar (from season 2) is another character with ambiguous loyalties that make him more of a neutral character. He is from a brotherhood of assassins known as the Faceless Men who call killing 'giving the gift of death' (Valar Morghulis) and have no connections to any other organizations. For a person to utilize the FM, they have to pay an immense price (most of your wealth, someone you love) to have them give said gift to someone that you name. He only rescues Arya from her situation as a result of her naming him as one of the three deaths she was given (for saving him and three others). He has no true motive and does whatever is told (killing good and bad people) which leads heavily to his consideration as a true neutral.

Varys is another character who represents his own interests which don't differentiate between good or evil. As a Master of Whispers, he is privy to all of the secrets in Kings Landing which gives him a significant amount of power, which he uses for his advantage in the Game of Thrones. He purposefully misleads and dilutes information to those he is advising so he can control their reactions. He is the kind of person to bribe or otherwise gain the trust of an individual to gain information, only to abandon them/sever the connection (like Ros), despite having the connections to aid that person. We don't know his endgame but I feel it is important to have him in the story as he is a true mystery of a character.

This is just a small sample of the group of individuals who either have unclear motives, no true motive or are just generally as neutral as possible. Us as viewers are curious to see how their stories play out as we're not sure whether to root for these characters or be horrified at the terrible things that they do (along with the 'good' things they do which balance them out). They don't fit in the category of good like the Starks or bad like the Lannisters and make up their own middle ground. The most interesting thing will be seeing what these characters do and how the can affect the overall story with their ambiguous decisions.