WiCnet Awards: And the Best Performance As A Villain award goes to….

The winner of the WiCnet Award for Best Performance As A Villain in Season 4 of Game Of Thrones is Iwan Rheon, as Ramsay Bolton.

Ramsay Bolton, apparently, won the award the only way Ramsay Bolton could: by cheating. When we planned this out I expected Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister to win. On Friday, Dance was winning. On Monday, Dance was winning, although by less of a margin than he had been. On Wednesday…several hundred votes had not merely put Iwan Rheon’s Ramsay ahead, but they’d done so quite decisively.

You know what, though? I’m letting it stand. First, it’s the Best Villain vote, and stuffing ballot-boxes is a sure sign of modern villainy. Second, well, it’s worth taking a look at just why Iwan Rheon has such dedicated fans, and how impressive his Game Of Thrones performance is in those terms….

Unlike our News Editor, Ani Bundel, I didn’t first meet Iwan Rheon in Game Of Thrones. No, I met the future Bastard Of Bolton while reviewing Misfits for The A.V. Club. Simon, Rheon’s character, slowly went from the black sheep even of the Misfits to becoming the show’s hero, and being part of one of the hottest sex scenes on television. (Not the world’s greatest clip—Hulu has the entire series for free, though. The scene in question is in the first 15 minutes of Season 2, episode 3.)

Simon was sweet and shy, then confident and heroic. Even when he was at his darkest, and there was no shortage of that on Misfits, there was always something that puppyish about him, something that seemed worth protecting. That’s why Iwan Rheon has fans out there who love him enough to flood a poll for him.

And that’s what makes his Ramsay Bolton performance so goddamn frightening. The same puppyish charm, the same sly smiles, the same good looks, they’re all used in pursuit of the closest thing Game Of Thrones gets to pure evil from its human characters. He’s so nasty he makes the traitor and child murderer Theon Greyjoy into a figure of sympathy. He’s so nasty that even King Joffrey’s death couldn’t be celebrated, knowing there was someone who might even have been worse waiting to claim the title of Game Of Thrones’ “Big Bad.”

Ramsay and Iwan Rheon both benefited from a better structure for the character this season. As inspired a choice as Rheon was to play the Bastard in Season 3, being stuck in a repetitive torture story with Theon for the entire season was frustrating. He had more to do out in the world in Season 4, particularly in interacting with his father. With his newly acquired legitimacy as the heir to the Bolton lands, and the power in the north recentering to that family, Ramsay Snow should have even more chances to shine as Game Of Thrones’ biggest villain. And Iwan Rheon will make that terrifying.

Thanks for voting! Look for Best Comedic Moment in Season 4 tomorrow, and check the results below!

• Published on 10/23/2014 at 10:28 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/23/2014 at 10:28 PM CDT