The Small Council: Who was the best one-season wonder?

In this week’s installment of The Small Council, we take a look at the characters who were only around for a single season, yet left their marks on Game Of Thrones and our hearts. Who was your favorite one-season wonder? 

Rebecca Pahle: If you’re going to call Jaqen H’ghar a one-season wonder, you have to put a whole bunch of asterisks beside it ([SEAON 5 SPOILER] could be [SPOILER], but as [SPOILER]; [A FEAST FOR CROWS SPOILER] is probably [SPOILER]), but we’re close enough that he (at least “this-actor-as-played-by-this-character”—oh, you tricksy Faceless Men) fits the bill. Who didn’t love Jaqen, played with deadpan brilliance by Tom Wlaschiha? A man had just over ten minutes of screen time, total, and yet he was one of the best parts of season two, badassing his way through his scenes in a cloud of murder, sass, and truly marvelous hair….

And it wasn’t just him—his character improved Arya (with whom he had an amazing dynamic) by proxy. The “a man gives a man his own name” exchange was hilarious, in a messed up Game of Thrones sort of way. Plus, without him we wouldn’t have one of the best GIFs the fandom has ever produced (aside from all the drunk Cersei GIFs, which exist on a whole different plane):

Oberyn’s great and all, but preferring Jaqen is easier on the emotions since he didn’t, y’know, die horribly. The man’s a motherflipping magical assassin, and they don’t lose their heads quite so easily.

Andrea Towers: Mark Addy didn’t get enough credit for everything he brought to the show as Robert Baratheon. While Sean Bean was (quite literally in marketing) the face of the Game of Thrones during its first season, Addy brought surprising layers and humanity to King Robert. His ability to marry dry wit and sarcasm, with the very real fear of knowing the what the future held for him at this stage of his life, made him one of the best parts of Season 1. Not only that, everyone around him benefited from the chemistry he brought to a scene–moments with the Lannisters were emotionally charged and made us believe that this was a marriage Cersei was clearly forced into. Likewise, his scenes with Ned were instrumental in allowing us to understand his unwavering love for Lyanna Stark, a plot point you kind of had to take for granted if you couldn’t be afforded the background and exposition of George R.R. Martin’s novels. Oh, and then there were scenes like this – I mean, come on. I feel like no one except Mark Addy could pull this off without it looking and sounding ridiculous, but you better believe he sold you on the idea of a king who no doubt knew how to rule competently, but, underneath, was just a little bit cracked.

But to be serious, relating to the Lyanna conversation mentioned above, let’s take a moment and remember this awesome scene from the crypt. To be able to play both sides of the emotional coin with such intensity makes King Robert a one-season wonder worth remembering.

Rowan Kaiser: It seems to have fallen to me to take the choice that I expected would be first off the board: Oberyn Martell. The Red Viper of the novels was a compelling enough character, so there was plenty of anticipation for his appearance in Season 4, but it’s fair to say that he exceeded expectations. There were two big reasons for Oberyn’s success on the screen. First, Pedro Pascal, with the expected charisma and sensuality, alongside an unexpected depth. Second, The Viper and Pascal benefited tremendously from the story being untethered to the novels’ point-of-view characters. As such, we get to see him have discussions with multiple characters across King’s Landing, primarily his Lannister rivals. 

Pascal’s instant shift from partaking in a an orgy to the business of dealing with Tywin Lannister is a joy to behold. Perhaps even better is his conversation with Cersei Lannister, in which his most notable act is his tasteful, intelligent silence at Cersei’s “Everywhere in the world they hurt little girls.” A character who easily could have been a “hot-blooded” Latin stereotype proved three-dimensional: sensuality included tenderness; cleverness included wisdom.

It’s a pity that Oberyn only was a one-season wonder, but he did receive a death scene for the ages.

Ani Bundel: If you’re going to talk one season wonders, you have to begin at the beginning, and that’s with Ned Stark. I would agree there are some characters who had better page-to-screen transformations, such as Oberyn. But without Sean Bean’s performance as Ned Stark, we’d never have had Oberyn. Arguably, we would not be sitting here right now talking about this at all. Sean Bean drew the audience in. He was the face on the side of the bus. He was the reason many of my “non-genre fiction fan” friends tuned in to Game of Thrones in the first place, and slogged through some of those less accessible early episodes. He carried the first season.

Not only that, but he carried it despite the transition from page-to-screen working against the character we knew and loved from the books. Taking the story out of his eyeballs and putting it in a third person POV was great for presenting the scope of the series, and has done wonderful things for many characters, as we discussed last week. But it was hell on our Traditional Hero. As I like to say, there were no Stupid Ned Stark memes when it was just the books. When you saw it all from Ned’s idealistic moral-to-a-fault worldview, something like “warning Cersei before he turned her in” was the only honorable thing to do.

People who hadn’t read the books didn’t understand that Game of Thrones was going to be different from the genre fiction they were used to. But in order for this to work, the show needed to replicate a virtual “throwing the book across the room” experience for the TV viewer. That “shock of Ned’s death experience” hinged on Bean’s performance, and he delivered. If the show is finally ever graced with the Best Drama Emmy is deserves, the first person they should thank is Ned Stark.

Rowan Kaiser: The fascinating thing about this category for me was that pretty much all of the nominated characters, and potentially nominated characters, are male. Beyond those mentioned, there’s also Khal Drogo, Viserys Targaryen, Brynden Tully, Orell, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Qhorin Halfhand–but I struggle to think of any women who count, as most of them have survived across multiple seasons. One of my core theories about Game Of Thrones is that it’s about how “patriarchy hurts men too,” with men who attempt to exert their power for good or for evil being punished for it, while the women, as Cersei says, are hurt everywhere. That’s what we see here.

Who was your favorite single-season character? Vote here, and let us know in the comments!

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• Published on 09/16/2014 at 6:19 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:40 PM CDT