MY 30 FAVORITE GAME OF THRONE CHARACTERS
For eight almost painstakingly anxious years, HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones was the best show on television or at the very least the best one to feature gore, profanity, magic, zombies, naked people, and dragons. Also incest, rape, dicks getting caught off, and more incest. The most expensive television program ever produced, (with its final season hitting a staggering fifteen million per episode budget), it was cinematic and what many would call "epic" in every sense. Spanning several years and following about a trillion character arcs when all was said and done, the show's broad concept was essentially a bunch of people killing and plotting against each other to sit on top of a big chair made of swords. It was all even more awesome than that sounds.
A show like Game of Thrones was ripe with complex, ever-evolving plot elements and characters that ranged all over the spectrum, many of whom were unrecognizable from when we first meet them to when we say farewell to them. Also, (spoilers), a whole fucking lot of them got very murdered which gave the show a tense edge to say the least. Anything could happen to anyone in Westeros at a moment's notice, a hard reality that was proven time and time again and at the same token, made the show obsessively compelling.
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| Some could not get murdered fast enough amiright? |
Many have complained that the quality of GoT went downhill once the writers caught up to George R. R. Martin's books, but I very much defend the later seasons. For one, it is Martin's infamously slow-ass fault that they had to continue without his finished source material in the first place since fat chance you were going to stop the momentum of a show this popular. Yet even though some story developments certainly came off as rushed, the one thing that was nearly consistent was how well-layered and explored the main characters were. With maybe one exception, (cough, Daenerys, cough), every character evolved at a believable rate and I applaud the way that it wrapped up, all things considered. For seventy-three episodes with so very much riding on each one and so many people's tales to juggle, it never stopped being fascinating to experience. Well, at least when Sam was noton screen, but I digress.
As I have done before, it is once again time to rank the blokes and blokettes I enjoyed the most on a TV show. I have made a separate, more silly list of the ten Game of Thrones characters I could not stand, but for now let us stay on the positive and look at the thirty that I could stand very well. Why thirty? Well, because of the sheer volume of people on this program alone, I of course left a generous amount of them out, even including some major players, (sorry Bran, but you needed to change your facial expression more than zero times for the last several seasons to even be "a character" at all). Also, there were plenty of Ladies and Lords to choose from where going any less than thirty would have left too many wonderful entries out. As always, no one will agree with all my choices or where I put them, but that is where the whole assholes are like opinions, (or something), cliche comes from so without further ado, fuckin' Game of Thrones yo!
A squire turned pretty competent soldier under the strict tutelage of Brienne of Tarth, Podrick Payne was a likeable minor character in Game of Thrones who ended up doing pretty alright for himself. Podrick had it somewhat rough for a while, getting by on his family name yes, but also routinely picked on and passed off to squire for various people who would be quick to poke fun at him even if they liked him. Once he was under the reluctant service of Brienne though, he finally charmed someone over enough to seriously prepare him for some serious battle. Ever since then, he held his own in the thick of a war far, far, far more believably than say Samwell Tarly ever should have. Also, he allegedly had a giant, woman-pleasing hog so, go him.
While Ned Stark's beheading in season one was the single event that kicked almost-everything in Game of Thrones into serious motion, he certainly did not know that. By leaps and bounds, Eddard Stark was the most noble and overall "good" person to ever be the Lord or Head of any house or landmass in this entire series it seems. Of course in hindsight he was far too naive and perhaps too honorable for his or his family's own good, which was a lesson his bastard "son" Jon Snow also took to heart for better or wose. Yet Ned Stark was not a pussy either. An unparalleled swordsman to boot, his track record was mighty impressive before it all went to shit. Granted it all needed to go to shit to begin the game of the show's title proper, but even if Ned Stark was a mere springboard for all that followed, still, nice fella.
Out of all the dangers in Westeros, the Night King and his undead minions seemed to pose the most pants-shitting threat. Their impending march down south, (once winter had finally come to kill literally everyone and in effect wipe-out the era of man's history), loomed heavier and heavier over every season until the final one where at last the Night King got bested. Even if it was in the first full-blown battle of their intended takeover no less, duh-oh. While his death at the hand of superninja leapfrog Arya was as applause worthy, (and kind of silly), a scene as the show ever delivered and the threat of the White Walkers got stumped out surprisingly swift, this guy was still the silent, icy, and terrifying non-living embodiment of actual death. Especially near his final moments on screen, all of the main arcs of who sits on the throne seemed like a kids game compared to how quickly this guy could get his zombie army up off of the ground and just keep on coming.
Yeah Cercei underwent that whole walk of shame thing, but was there really another character on this show that suffered more unbridled humiliation than Theon Greyjoy? First his father gives him up after failing to overthrow House Stark where he is then raised, then desperately trying to please said father who could not be more ashamed of the nothing he did wrong, Theon embarrasses himself taking a practically deserted House Stark back, at which point ole Ramsay the bastard kidnaps him and tortures the ever loving shit out of him. Those moments where he was helpless and broken, (which was only the beginning), at that hands of Ramsay were for my money the most uncomfortable out of several to watch and Theon only just barely regained enough dignity by the series end to redeem himself. Whether Bran was simply telling him what he wanted to hear by declaring Theon a "good man" seconds before his inevitable death or not, good lord the guy suffered enough at that point.
One of the fiercest female warriors on Game of Thrones not to be fucked with was the Lady of the Iron Islands Yara Greyjoy. Raised by her evil and rather moronic father Balon to be the warrior son he did not have, (since he got his oldest kin murdered and his youngest Theon taken prisoner by the Starks), Yara eventually became the most respected member of her house, not to mention the only one who survived it all. She got herself captured yes, but no fool was she either, standing up to those she knew would doom herself and her people, allying herself with those that at least appeared would not. Yeah it would have been nice to see her slowly and hilariously murder the shit out of her raving scumbag uncle Euron as she very much wanted to do, but at least Jaime took care of that and her and Theon found a mutual respect for each other before the latter's demise.
One of the most logical fellows to ever be an advisor to any would-be King(s), (all without the ability to read for most of his life), Lord Davos Seaworth was also one of the most all around benevolent and good characters in the entire series. A master smuggler yes which may not be the most lawful thing one could excel at, but he was also pretty damn skilled at killing things with a sword and always acted as the voice of reason, wisely counseling many in their darkest, most difficult times to not only do the smartest thing, but also the best thing for the largest amount of people. His relationship with Stannis Baratheon's deformed daughter Shireen was so heartfelt that the, (of course), horrible way it ended hit even harder. This made Davos even more determined to get behind the right man or woman for the whole ruling the Seven Kingdoms thing everybody was always talking about.
The wildling Ygritte, (and also real life Mrs. Jon Snow), had two things going for her early on. She was Jon Snow's first love and made him break his sworn vow to never get his wiener tickled by a lady and in typical free folk fashion, she was a mighty exceptional warrior. Her demise was one of the show's most bullshit moments, (fuckin' Olly), but as we naturally witnessed, there was plenty more for Jon Snow to do at least romantically afterwards so it probably would have been impractical to keep her around anyway. Something her and another ridiculously awesome character had in common, (read on). Stubborn and proud yet awesome at killing people, even if it was irritating that Ygritte would not chill out a bit sometimes, she was still an easy one to approve of.
Khaleesi's endlessly loyal cuckold Jorah Mormont had a rather rough ride long before we were even introduced to him in season one. A disgraced former Lord who bankrupted himself and eventually had to flea Westeros to please his tirelessly spoiled wife, (who ended up ditching him for a wealthy merchant anyway), Jorah willingly put himself at the forefront of much danger and many battles. Though he initially was a spy when he met Daenerys Targaryen, he quickly fell once again in unwavering love and spent the rest of his days doing all that was humanly necessary to stay in the Mother of Dragon's good graces. Then she exiled him for a bit and he got leprosy so yeah, no stranger to misfortune was he. As a veteran fighter, Jorah was a pretty goddamn solid warrior and his death at the hands of countless undead White Walker minions while hopelessly trying to save Daenerys was absolutely fitting. His was a character destined to die fighting at the service of the woman he loved and that he did.
Besides maybe Ricky Henderson, the one guy who made talking in the third person sound cooler than it should was Game of Thrones' premier Faceless Man who for the sake of calling himself something besides "a man", at one point went by the name Jaqen H'ghar. One of the most mysterious figures in all of Westeros and easily the most cryptic, the no name guy consistently seemed to hold way more answers than he would ever divulge. Just how large of a preordained role he played in the entire outcome of the series was wisely left open-ended, (did he put himself in the exact location and time to meet Arya in the first place, knowing he would train her for what she would later accomplish?), and the last time we ever see him was kept equally ambiguous. It certainly would not have been surprising at all to see him at the Great War, silently smirking and nodding like a proud papa at Arya after she stabbed the shit out of the Night King.
Red Viper of Dorn, we barely knew ye. Prince Oberyn Martell showed up solely in season four and was hilarious and awesome for the handful of episodes we got him in. He was an almost insultingly dashing fighter who proudly fornicated with any and everyone, drank, partied, and then kicked the every loving fuck out of the Mountain with the type of showmanship that no one else in this show possessed. In the quite cruel world of Game of Thrones though, brutality ten times out of ten wins the day over pizazz and naturally that did end up being the case. Oberyn's head-liquifying was by far the most gooey and unwholesome death scene in Game of Thrones history, (saying something), made even more awful by how absolutely close he got to coming out on top. Yet for one brief season at least, this pussy and man-ass hounding gentleman was impossible not to rally behind.
For the first handful of seasons, I honestly did not care all too much about the doings of Jon Snow. When the show was frantically trying to balance itself between dozens of character arcs before most of them got killed to make more room, every trip to Jon and the Night's Watch got me closer to tuning out. Yet when he died in a brutal cliffhanger and then...came back to life just as dramatically, it was a testament to how good Game of Thrones was that such a comic book-worthy moment derailed nothing and instead served as a perfect catalyst to instill that this guy was undoubtedly important. What made him so compelling was that even though it was revealed he was a Targaryan, he upheld the values and morals of the man who raised him, (Ned Stark), more than anyone, which meant doing the moral and honest thing even when it was the most illogical thing. Jon got himself in some deep shit and kept getting saved in the nick of time, which though annoying after awhile, further proved that whatever godlike, fate-protecting magic was going on in this universe, the plans they had for him were ultimately paramount.
Though most of us are sad face that Brienne of Tarth and Tormund Giansbane never got around to making gargantuan warrior babies, her nearly unrequited love for Jaime Lannister proved a powerful if preordained moment late in the series at least. Before all that of course, she was yet another Game of Thrones asswhooper who also happened to be taller and stronger than most men she ever came across. Having her become the first woman in Westeros to be knighted and then the first to be given the title of Lord Commander of the Knights Guard was thoroughly fitting and when it came to staunch loyalty, Brienne of Tarth was second to none. She killed lots of guys, (and zombies), in lots of battles and throughout her life was in the fiercest of pursuits to prove herself to virtually everyone out there, making her a driven force to persistently be reckoned with. It was hard not to cheer for everything she accomplished and thankfully, she was one of the few that made it all the way through the series alive.
Hardly ever will I admit that a character finding their religion will equal them being even better, but thus was the case with Queen Margaery Tyrell. Married thrice to as many Kings or men who claimed to be as such, Margaery made no qualms to us viewers as to her power-lust and charitable for the sake of public appearance nature. She wanted to be the Queen and she wanted as many people to like her as possible, no matter who the King was or what the cost was. Yet her late conforming to the Faith of the Seven seemed wholly believable, even if it was most likely just one more sneaky move by her to get herself out of a jam. Whether sincere or not, either scenario makes just as much sense and makes Margaery just as much of a likeable, smart, and missed ex-Queen. All of that said, Cercei still kinda owned and deserved the last laugh.
For reasons I still do not fully comprehend myself, I always liked this guy. Even by Game of Thrones character standards, the middle brother, Lord of Dragonstone Stannis Baratheon was a tremendously flawed, would-be King who got swept up with the Fire Witch's mojo, converted to the Lord of Light, and then proceeded to commit a number of unforgivably horrid acts on his quest to take what he and about twenty other people logically assumed was rightfully there's. Yet amazingly, Stannis never once comes off as being manically insane. From the second we meet him, he is just a desperate, emotional mess. By the time that he is done in, he has been so close yet also so consistently far from victory and gone so very far to achieve it that it is hard not to feel or even champion him. Even if his demise was rather preordained and well, justified.
The Red Witch Melisandre was one of the many Game of Thrones people whose arc shifted considerably, at least for the emotional backbone of the audience. When we first meet her advising Stannis Baratheon with an ominous combination of black magic and nakedness, she was a conniving, unlikable, smug, and frightening presence who seemed to be leading her almost King either to prophesied victory or a staggering defeat, (spoilers, it was the latter). Yet once the reality set in that she was backing the wrong horse, Melisandre underwent an almost immediate change, becoming brutally humbled and using her fire god-given powers far more cautiously and without the fanatical blindness she once had. As it turned out, she was a mere victim of her psychic abilities and once she was proven very wrong, she then only did right in her Lord of Light's eyes.
If there was a single bloke to emerge on this show that one logically could put money down on surviving the entire ordeal, it was the delightfully red-bearded Tormund Giantsbane. This guy was probably killing things mere moments out of the womb and his random and hilarious speech bragging about being fed giants milk as a baby, (whether that was just a put-on to get in Brienne of Tarth's pants or not), is easily believable. While the writers understandably had fun at Tormund's expense with him being a wildling fish-out-of-water for a good amount of his time on the series, he was so barbaric in battle and ridiculously tough that ultimately whatever side he was fighting for was not likely to lose. The growing respect he and Jon Snow had for each other ended rather excellently, giving us the final shot of the entire series as they slowly ride off together back into the far north to presumably kill more things and drink more ale.
House Tyrell matriarch Lady Olenna was a splendid, hilarious, wise-ass old lady who acted as the Game of Thrones equivalent of your cool grandma who has no filter on her opinions on everybody and consistently had the best one-liners during Thanksgiving dinner. Played rather awesomely by none other than Dianne Rigg, she was great even before the bomb was dropped during season seven which revealed that her, (and not solely Little Finger as we were all willingly led to believe), was the one who orchestrated Joffrey's death, which is still probably the single most satisfying moment this show ever had. So she may not have made it to the end of the series and her entire family may have been successfully snuffed out by those crafty Lannisters, but she took it all with a well-earned nod and a wink and again, by killing Joffrey, her legacy got one last severe, (if unneeded), lift into enduring territory.
Presenting a character where from the moment we meet them, they become a whole different person by the last time we see them was the case in point with the eventual Queen Sansa Stark. A bratty, wining teenager who made some of the absolute worst decisions imaginable in hindsight besides maybe those of Theon Greyjoy, Sansa learned her lesson and then some the very hard way. Held hostage by two enemy families and nearly married to the two most sadistic and vile people who ever breathed air in Westeros, (in the end she was only married to one such raving scumbag), Sansa like many was also played like a flute by Petyr Baelish. Yet along the way, she picked up every trick she needed to know and which ones not to use to become the Queen of the independent North, reclaiming her home land in her family's name once again. Hers was the kind of fantastic transformation that this show did best and now she sits where she most rightfully belongs.
Big Pappa Lord Tywin Lannister was that rare kind-of-not-really-bad-guy that I regularly found myself nodding my head in agreement with. Yeah he treated his son and everyone's favorite drunk Game of Thrones dwarf character Tyrion with utter disdain, (and was relentlessly demanding with the rest of his spawn as well), but he rather got his comeuppance for that anyway with his Elvis-esque death scene. Huh, huh, dying on the toilet. While he was alive and championing his mostly-despicable family name around with an iron fist though, he was one of the smartest and most intimidating Lord's in Westeros even if he did not foresee his rather funny demise coming. It also helps for me that the actor who played him, (Charles Dance), was the villain in The Golden Child, so admittingly I fancied him before he even said or did anything.
On the long list of Game of Thrones villains, the High Sparrow is probably the only one who seemed like a genuinely benevolent person. Which is the major thing that was so creepy and excellent about him. What this program had in spades and perhaps the single thing that made it so very compelling was how not black and white nearly every character consistently seemed. On that note, there may not have been a more gray player than the Sparrow's high leader. The moment where he unflinchingly tells a ravenously pissed and murder-happy Jaime Lannister that when united, his religious army can "even topple an empire" is one of the absolute best and this is juxtaposed with the tale of his humble origin into selflessness a mere two episodes later. Also his death was the result of the absolute coolest thing Cersei ever did, so he even gets points for that in my book.
As always, Varys was right all along. Severing under various rulers and would-be Kings, (and Queens), the "Spider" Varys' network of spies garnished him with more information than anybody else in the Seven Kingdoms. This essentially made him arguably the smartest guy in the entire series. Varys knew when to support the winning team just as much as he knew when to jump ship, whether it was motivated by keeping himself alive long enough to do the just thing or knowingly putting himself at terminal risk by sticking to his guns. No decision he made was without the backing of all of the pieces to make it and he saw more of the ins and outs of monarchy at its worst/potential best to be a man worth listening to until his final moments. He was also the best male character on the show who did not have any testicles so there is that.
Making his way from a, (not so), humble mercenary all the way to being a Lord, Warden of the South, and Master of Coin, Bronn of the Blackwater rather humorously charmed, fought, defended, double-crossed, and even sang through most major dangers that befell Westeros in general. All the while, he was one of the show's most brutally honest players, hardly ever hesitating to do what was in his best interests at all times while having almost as cynical and blasé an attitude towards getting murdered as the Hound did. He still always protected his neck first and foremost, but when being employed or promised a great reward by someone he was fond of, he would also vigorously oppose whatever was about to kill them. Say like jumping in front of Jamie who was a second away from getting BBQed by a dragon, per example. Not sure he can be trusted with the job he holds at series end, but at least his proposing that Kings Landing needs new whore houses was perfectly in character.
By leaps and bounds, the most controversial character on Game of Thrones, (and possibly in all of television?), ended up being Daenerys Targaryen. The Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, (and about forty-five other titles), was poised to be the greatest hero in the Seven Kingdoms while at the exact same time, little clues were dropped both subtle and not-so that her family's ancestral madness would end up getting the best of her. I admit as many do that her eventual turning to the dark side could have been handled better and seemed a bit too abrupt to really connect the way it should have, making her an unfortunately tragic case in the sense that she could have been a superb or even the best example of a character believably becoming the worst version of themselves so gradually before our eyes. Instead, it felt more like a harsh rug being yanked out from under us. Along the way though, she was still extraordinarily captivating and her very final moments seemed like the most predictable at the time. If only the road to get there was peppered with a few more cracks in her psyche.
If judging Game of Thrones villains by their unwatchable despicableness, Cersei Lannister lags a bit behind her unbearable son Joffery, Ramsay Bolton, and even her obnoxious rebound lover Euron Greyjoy. Yet as far as the show's most compelling bad guys go, she easily triumphs. Cersei was endlessly antagonistic and every time her unwavering narcissism ended up putting her on top, the consequences would always come right back to fuck her over worse than before. Her extreme selfishness caused her to be so short-sighted yes, but the flipside of that was that she inadvertently became a diabolical mastermind at the same time. If only for a little while. Ultimately none of her acts went unpunished and when her ego truly suffered was when you saw the smirking, arrogant, revenge-obsessed facade obliterate and all that was left standing was a defeated and helpless monster who could not accept her defeat until it was all too overwhelming.
One of the most interesting character transformations amongst all of the major players was that of the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister. As vile, arrogant, spoiled, and awful as anyone else in his mostly shitbag family, Jaime started out as a straight-up villain, a clear "this is what's wrong with the family in power" example for House Stark particularly to rile against. Yet Jaime was yet another one who got severely humbled and had a conscious that ever so slowly emerged to the point where he temporarily could no longer stand beside the love of his life Cercei; the woman he saw himself doing his most horrendous acts for. In the end, he was a broken man and when push came to life-ending shove, he could not deny it to himself and had to take every conceivable effort to once again be reunited with his sister-lover-Queen, (eeewww), and die rather pathetically in her arms proclaiming, (or more or less desperately trying to convince both of them), that "Nothing else matters. Only us.".
There probably was not a single person on this show that more people wished with bated breath was not going to die than its tiniest one, the Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister. "That's what I do; I drink and I know things" is possibly the finest line of Game of Thrones dialog as well. Born as a dwarf and tormented by nearly all of his power-hungry family, Tyrion grew up rather bitter as many others did, but he chose to prove himself gradually over time with his alcohol-laced brain. Both due to his physical limitations and consistently intoxicating wit, Tyrion was likeable whether or not he was efficiently defending his villainous bloodline, consulting Daenerys to do or not do whatever she was doing, or having heartfelt, funny, and logical moments with pretty much everyone at one point or another. No one waxed poetic the way Tyrion did and he probably turned more ears and heads to his side than one could count. It was all rather fitting that he single-handedly, (whilst in chains no less), convinced the surviving Lords of Westeros to begin electing their Kings instead of letting grossly unqualified royal spawns fight over such a position. At the same time, he got his old job back with that ever present, "Welp, I'm still alive so let's just keep on being alive" attitude.
I have very conflicting feelings on the fate of Khal Drogo. Really, his death rather needed to happen to launch the rest of Daenerys entire arc, an arc that seemingly made her the single most important person in the Seven Kingdoms. Otherwise, she simply would have been liberating, conquering, and murdering a few thousand people along the way with her Khal at her side. The conundrum lies in the fact that all of that still would have been fucking great. If his screen time was not so ultimately minuscule, (one season, wah), Drogo could have been this show's most ridiculously brutal badass. Jason Momoa was probably born to play him, (being all cartoonishly scowly and enormous looking), and he went down as my very first favorite thing on this entire show. Plus he ripped a dude's fucking throat out with his bare hands and was responsible for two of the greatest speeches and murders in this entire program. All of these years later and AquaConan is still sorely missed.
If I were to dub Game of Thrones' actual greatest villain, (which I now am), Little Finger would assuredly be that recipient. Born into a meek family and forced to build himself up from ground zero, the eventual Lord Petyr Baelish worked his diabolical ways even before the first season began. He masterminded more fiendish plots against practically everyone in Westeros than any other character. The War of the Five Kings, the death of Ned Stark, the framing of Tyrion Lannister against Brandon Stark, the feud between the Lannisters and Starks, and in some capacity, good ole Joffery the Ass Cancer's death, were all the work of this beautiful, perpetually smirking, dangerous, dangerous man. His conniving would have continued to go on endlessly it seemed, but his undoing at the hands of the Stark girls was both inevitable and wonderfully fitting as it marked the only time in the show's history that he acted both genuinely surprised and terrified. I gleefully looked forward to every scene with Little Finger in it, but surely the world of Westeros is much safer place without him.
Sure Bran survived a fall, got chased by White Walkers, got turned into the Three-Eyed Raven, and then became King, but fuck all that. Arya Stark had the best story out of anyone on this show, let alone in her family. The youngest daughter of House Stark, Arya was never once cut out for wearing gowns and being a proper Lady of anything. She wanted to kill things with pointy things. So many elements played into her revenge-seeking assassin adulthood, (from witnessing her father get beheaded, to seeing the cruelty of House Lannister at close range, to training with the master-swordsman Syrio Forel, to being on the run with the Hound, to then getting tutored into becoming a Faceless Girl), that by the time she was ready to unleash her vengeance upon the world, she was a straight-up superhero. She never abandoned her family's just and lawful heritage either and eventually finished her "list", (or at least tweaked a few names off of it), to be one of the last surviving Starks who still refused to take a seat. Once her work in Westeros was done, having Arya decide not to stay put was the only move she could make and though we will probably never get a spin-off of Arya Columbus "Discovers" New Lands, one can only imagine how many bad guys who deserve to die that she is still going to brilliantly keep putting down.
As this series went on and on, the Hound consistently became the greatest thing about Game of Thrones. When pretty much every other character was solely motivated by doing the right or selfish thing, bickering about who is on the Iron Throne or who deserves to be, or fiendishly concocting various schemes, Sandor Clegane knew it was all just a waste of time. Everyone ends up dead in the end and life in Westeros is shit, pure and simple. Having far and away the most nihilistic attitude was no fluke for Sandor as he was tormented by his brother so much throughout his younger years that by the time he became a man, his was not a choice to make. He had to become the living, breathing, unstoppable hard-ass to rival all others. There was no finer relationship to watch on this show than the surrogate father/daughter one between he and Arya Stark. Sure Arya trained as a no name assassin, but her time spent under the, (lets just call it what they would not admit it was), "care" of the Hound was what really gave her the brutal, honest dose of reality that she needed to become the beyond diligent warrior that she ended up as. Their final moment where Arya called him by his real name for the first and only time just before Sandor completed his arc, (finishing the all-consuming business against his literally monstrous brother the Mountain), was the most beautiful farewell of all of them. This guy just fucking ruled, pure and simple.
