This is an editorial ranking of women in HBO’s Game of Thrones, not an official HBO list, a book ranking, or a fan poll. “Best” here means most compelling across five factors: contribution to the central story, character development, agency, performance, and memorability. The order reflects judgment, not a mathematical score; readers may reasonably weigh those qualities differently. Spoilers for the television series follow.
How this ranking works
HBO describes Game of Thrones as a story set in Westeros, adapted from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, where people pursue power and act from ambition, desire, duplicity, nobility, and honor. Those competing motives make a single definition of a “strong” or “best” character too narrow. This list considers what each woman contributes to the series, how she changes, the choices she makes within her constraints, the performance, and how vividly she stays with the viewer. The weighting is subjective.
The ranking applies only to the HBO adaptation. The series is based on Martin’s books, but adaptation choices mean the show and novels should not be treated as interchangeable versions of every character. Nor does this list claim a consensus: no authoritative top-30 ranking or representative popularity survey establishes an official order.
The 30 best female characters in Game of Thrones
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Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys is central to the series’ largest questions about power, liberation, and the danger of believing that a righteous cause makes every choice righteous. Her journey changes dramatically, and Emilia Clarke gives its ambition, vulnerability, and commanding scale a distinctive screen presence. Clarke said she prepared by watching material about strong female leaders; that is a comment on her research for the role, not a verdict on Daenerys herself.
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Cersei Lannister
Cersei turns exclusion from formal power into a relentless drive to control it. Her intelligence and capacity for cruelty make her a formidable antagonist, while her family attachments complicate any easy reading of her as simply monstrous. Lena Headey’s tightly controlled performance makes even her silences feel strategic.
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Sansa Stark
Sansa’s development is among the series’ most sustained transformations: a character who begins with an idealized view of courtly life learns to read danger, manage appearances, and make political choices. Her evolution is not just a change in temperament; it is a gradual acquisition of agency in circumstances that repeatedly deny it. The official costume book’s publisher description specifically identifies Sansa as an example of visual design conveying character evolution.
Rank #2
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Arya Stark
Arya rejects the role expected of her and builds an identity through survival, training, and an increasingly personal pursuit of justice. Her story gives the series a sharp counterpoint to the politics of inheritance and marriage, and Maisie Williams makes her stubbornness and humor as memorable as her violence.
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Brienne of Tarth
Brienne’s honor is not naïveté: it is a deliberate standard she keeps even when others mock or exploit it. Her loyalty and skill challenge the series’ assumptions about gender and knighthood without reducing her to a symbol. Gwendoline Christie brings both physical authority and emotional openness to the role. The publisher description of Game of Thrones: The Costumes also names Brienne as a character whose evolution is expressed through design.
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Olenna Tyrell
Olenna understands that wit can be a weapon and that political survival often depends on knowing which truths to say aloud. Her scenes are brisk, funny, and unsentimental, and Diana Rigg makes her command of a room feel effortless.
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Melisandre
Melisandre’s faith gives her certainty, but the series steadily exposes the human costs and errors that certainty can conceal. She is compelling because belief, fear, and power remain tangled in her choices rather than neatly separated. Carice van Houten lends the character a striking mix of mystery and doubt.
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Yara Greyjoy
Yara brings a different model of leadership to the show: direct, practical, and tested in a culture that prizes toughness. Her ambitions are tied to the fate of her people, and Gemma Whelan gives her confidence without making her invulnerable.
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Catelyn Stark
Catelyn’s choices are rooted in family loyalty, grief, and the responsibilities of a political house. Her perspective gives the early series an emotional anchor, while Michelle Fairley plays her not as a flawless mother but as someone whose love can both guide and cloud her judgment.
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Lyanna Mormont
Lyanna has limited screen time, but she makes it count. Her bluntness and refusal to be patronized turn her into a vivid presence in a world where authority is often treated as the preserve of adults and men. Bella Ramsey’s performance supplies the character’s force without making her seem like a miniature caricature.
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Missandei
Missandei’s intelligence and composure make her a trusted presence in Daenerys’s circle. Her story also raises questions about freedom, loyalty, and what it means to choose a life after enslavement. Nathalie Emmanuel gives her warmth and steadiness, though the series could have made more room for her perspective beyond her relationships to other characters.
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Ellaria Sand
Ellaria is driven by grief and a desire for revenge, and the series uses her to show how pain can harden into a political program. Indira Varma brings conviction to a character whose decisions become increasingly difficult to defend.
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Margaery Tyrell
Margaery’s public generosity is also political intelligence: she knows that affection can become influence. Natalie Dormer plays her as attentive to the people around her, not merely as a schemer, which makes her approach to power more interesting than simple charm.
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