< Game of Thrones < Characters

Game of Thrones/Characters/Nights Watch


Jon Snow (Kit Harington)

"Everyone knew what this place was, but no one told me."

The bastard son of Eddard Stark, he decides to join the Night's Watch and protect the realm from whatever lives on the other side of the Wall.

Tropes:

  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: averted. Even though he was was provided with a local prostitute (Village Bicycle Ros), he was unmanned by the thought of inflicting some poor kid with the problems his own bastardy has brought him.
  • Angst Dissonance: In-universe. He thinks that being a bastard is terrible, his life sucks, and people treat him unfairly. The other characters enjoy pointing out that this is total bollocks.
  • The Apprentice: According to Sam, he's being groomed to become the next Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
  • Badass: Knows his way around a fight and shares his expertise with his Night's Watch brethren after Tyrion calls his attention to the fact that none of them have had the benefit of his training.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's probably one of the nicest people in this entire screwed up world.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Jon towards Samwell.
  • Break the Haughty: So far, his time at the Wall seems to be one long object lesson in not taking himself too seriously.
  • Bully Hunter: He insists on fighting back against the Night's Watch recruits who harass Samwell.
  • Bullying a Dragon: He is a kind-hearted man, but you do NOT want to piss him off.
  • Celibate Hero
  • Conflicting Loyalty: He wants to go and help his brother but he also doesn't want to leave the Watch after swearing to serve.
  • Cool Pet: His albino dire wolf, Ghost.
  • Cool Sword: Longclaw. A gift from the Lord Commander, Jeor Mormont, who felt the sword's name suited a wolf as much as a bear.
    • Stealth Pun: Longclaw is a hand-and-a-half sword, sometimes called a bastard sword.
  • Good Is Not Nice: No one hurts Sam.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: He has been attracted to both Ros and Ygritte
  • Heroic Bastard
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Sam.
  • Missing Mom: His father names her as Wylla, but nothing else is known. [1]
  • The Oathbreaker: Averted. Jon's brothers in the Night's Watch convince him to return to the wall after he leaves to avenge the death of his father.
  • Pride: Seems to be his major character flaw. His confidence in the superiority of his abilities often causes him to lose sight of the bigger picture and complain about the unfairness of his life. Good thing he has Sam and friends to put things in perspective for him.
  • Reverse Mole: As of the Season 2 finale, he has managed to convince the Wildlings that he's a bona fide defector.
  • Quit Your Whining: He often needs to be reminded that even if he is a bastard, he still has a family that loves him--plus, he grew up in a castle, making him one of the most privileged Sworn Brothers of the Night's Watch by far.
  • The Unfavorite: Played straight regarding Catelyn as he's a constant reminder of the one time Ned's honor faltered; as far as she's concerned, his joining the Night's Watch is a much-needed Reassignment To Antarctica . Subverted in that his father, siblings and uncle all clearly love him.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Not kill one, at least. That's quite much by the standards of the show.

Lord Commander Jeor Mormont (James Cosmo)

"A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm."

997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

Tropes:

  • Badass Beard
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Colonel Badass: Has a reputation as a great warrior, which he backs up by personally leading a force of Night's Watch beyond the Wall at the end of Season 1.
  • I Have No Son: Effectively disowned his son, Ser Jorah, for selling slaves and fleeing the King's justice.
  • Like a Son to Me: He doesn't say the words, but gives Jon his family's sword (which was previously given to Jorah) and he's apparently grooming him to be his successor.
  • Passing the Torch: Gives Jon Snow the Mormont ancestral sword, Longclaw, in thanks for saving his life and partly because he could not pass it on to his dishonored son.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Takes his position as Lord Commander very seriously (see the above quote) and wants the Night's Watch to be better prepared for the future. He also takes the oppertunity to send Thorne away on business to ease tensions at the Wall.

Maester Aemon Targaryen (Peter Vaughan)

"I am the Maester of the Citadel, bound in service to Castle Black and the Nights' Watch. I will not tell you to stay or go. You must make that choice yourself, and live with it for the rest of your days - As I have."

Maester serving as a member of the Night's Watch. Extremely old and blind.

Tropes:

Aemon: We all do our duty when there's no cost to it. Honor comes easy then. But sooner or later, in every man's life, there comes a day when it is not easy. A day when he must choose.

  • Not So Different: Tells Jon that he knows what its like to have Conflicting Loyalty to the Night's Watch and the desire to save your family. The Targaryen's were entirely slaughtered, even the children, while he was powerless to stop them, being too old and blind by then to desert his post and fight at their side.
  • Prophet Eyes: Of the 'just blind, not psychic' variety. As far as we know.
  • Offered the Crown: He's the Mad King's uncle and turned down the crown in favour of his younger brother.
  • The Reveal: He has been serving at the Wall so long, his lineage has been largely forgotten by most of Westeros.

Jon: Who are you?
Aemon: My father was Maekar, first of his name. My brother Aegon, reigned after him, when I had refused the throne. And he was followed by his son, Aerys... who they called "the Mad King"
Jon: You're Aemon Targaryen?!

Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale)

"You don't know cold."

Master at Arms for the Night's Watch.

Tropes:

  • The Bully
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Certainly isn't making friends among the recruits and especially has his eye out on Jon Snow.
  • Hidden Depths: In a scene present only in the series, Thorne details to Jon and Sam the horrors that one may face in their duty. Thought he doesn't say he was talking about himself, one can easily see how he came to become so bitter.
  • Jerkass
  • Kick the Dog: Really enjoys rubbing Jon's face in the fact he's now not only a bastard but now the bastard son of a traitor.
  • No Party Like a Donner Party: Being stranded beyond the Wall during the last winter left it's mark on Ser Alliser.
  • Put on a Bus: An in-universe example--Commander Mormont sends him to King's Landing, mostly to put the majority of Westeros between him and Jon Snow.
  • Smug Snake
  • [3]
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Season one -- Thorne is sent to King's Landing to meet with the Small Council and drum up support for the Night's Watch. Season two -- a raven arrives from Castle Black asking for support for the Night's Watch, filling in for the scene in the books in which Thorne arrives and asks for help. Where the heck did he go?

Yoren (Francis Magee)

"Come on, you sorry sons of whores! It’s a thousand leagues from here to the Wall, and winter is coming!"

Recruiter for the Night's Watch.

Tropes:

  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Described in the books as having a twisted shoulder as well as a beard both greasy and full of lice.
  • Annoying Arrows: When a Lannister crossbowman shoots him, all it does is knock him to his knees for a couple of seconds, before getting up and cutting down the shooter.

I never liked crossbows. Take too long to load!

  • Badass: He took down at least three Lannisters single-handed, a feat rivaled only by Eddard Stark in universe. Bonus points in that he did while he had a bolt lodged in his shoulder.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: In most of his conversations, he comes off as amiable, pleasant, and prone to jokes... and then he calmly tells a Goldcloak how he could accidentally knick the artery in his leg and let him bleed to death, unless they turn around and tell Joffrey they didn't find anything. Then he takes the Goldcloak's sword, mostly because its funny.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Travels to King's Landing to find new recruits for the Night's Watch. Some episodes later, he's still at King's Landing. Just in time to be told by Ned to protect Arya and keep her from watching his execution. [4]
  • Died Standing Up
  • Guile Hero: Pulls a knife on a Goldcloak, makes him turn around and even takes his sword for his troubles.

Yoren: Nice sword! *Takes it* We could use good steel like that on the Wall.

  • Honour Before Reason: Why he doesn't turn Gendry over to the Goldcloaks, noting that he belongs to the Night's Watch now and thus the King has no jurisdiction over him anymore.
  • Killed Off for Real: Is slain by Lannister soldiers in the 13th episode, but makes sure to take a few of them with him. Doubles as Heroic Sacrifice since he does it to give Gendry and Arya a chance to escape.
  • Large Ham: "Get up you sons of whores! There's men outside who want to FUCK YOUR CORPSES!"
  • Made of Iron: An arrow to the chest, as if that's going to stop him from killing half your men and telling you why. And then he gets stuck in the back with a spear, and it takes being stabbed in the back of the neck to finally kill him. They might as well have dropped an anvil on him for good measure!
  • Masochist's Meal: In a discussion with Tyrion, he recalls the strangest thing he's ever eaten- a bear's testicles, brains, guts, lungs and heart, all fried in the same bear's fat- and describes the results as "a bit chewy."
  • Parental Substitute: Briefly, to Arya.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I never liked crossbows. Take too long to load!" Sure he's quipping about his own death, but it still counts.
  • Recruiters Always Lie: Subverted. He's pretty much straighforward, to the point of being in the direction of Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die in terms of his speech-making. This is justified since for many recruits, the Watch is just an alternative to the death penalty.
  • Spiteful Spit: His reaction when ordered to throw his sword in the name of King Joffrey.
  • Too Cool to Live
  • You Killed My Brother: Relates to Arya a story of how a man named Willem killed his brother, and how he nursed a desire for vengance for so long that he'd recite the man's name every night before going to bed. When he finally killed Willem, he ended up burying an axe into his skull so deeply that it was unable to be removed.

Samwell Tarly (John Bradley)

"I read it in a book."

A new trainee at the Wall, and the rejected scion of the noble Tarly family.

Tropes:

Commander Mormont: You may be a coward, Tarly, but you're not stupid.

  • Undying Loyalty: To Jon. Its notable that despite being a self-admitted coward, he still chooses to go with Jon beyond the Wall in order to take his vows, despite the fact that he wasn't even raised to believe in the Old Gods.
  • The Unfavorite: He's at the Wall because his father threatened to murder him if he didn't "voluntarily" remove himself from the line of inheritance. Ouch. [5]

Pypar (Josef Altin)

Also known as Pyp. A recruit at the Wall; one of Jon's friends.

Tropes:

  • Justified Criminal: Subverted. He claimed that he was caught stealing cheese for starving sister, but the real reason for being sent to the Wall involved a noble grabbing his cock, which he was too embarrassed to confess to strangers.
    • Might also be a case of Multiple Choice Past as he claims to have been the lord's singing boy and walks away when Samwell asks him to sing something.
  • Those Two Guys: With Grenn.


Grenn (Mark Stanley)

A recruit at the Wall and also in Jon's friend group.

Tropes:

Rast (Luke McEwan)

Another recruit at the Wall. Unlike Pyp and Grenn, he's not one of Jon's friends.

Tropes:

"Dolorous" Edd Tollett (Ben Crompton)

"If the Gods wanted us to have dignity, they wouldn't make us fart when we died."

Part of the group Commander Mormont leads beyond the Wall, who has a cynical wisecrack for any situation.

Tropes:

Qhorin "Halfhand" (Simon Armstrong)

"We are at war. We've always been at war. It's never going to end 'cause we're not fighting an enemy. We're fighting the North and it's not going anywhere."

A legendary ranger of the Night's Watch.

Tropes:

  • Badass: He spent an entire winter beyond the Wall (keep in mind winters may last years) when the snow made it impossible for him to return before the thaw.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • The Dreaded: The Wildlings all know who he is and appear somewhat frightened on him as a result. Which says a lot considering the only other thing they've thus-far shown actual fear towards are White Walkers.
  • Genre Savvy
  • Hyper Awareness
  • Killed Off for Real: He provokes Jon to a fight while travelling with the Wildings in order to allow him to prove his defection from the Watch, in order to better equip him in being able to take down Mance Rayder's army from within.
  • The Mentor: Yet another one for Jon.
  • Mr. Exposition: You need to know about Mance Ryder and the wildlings? Qhorin is your man.
  • Too Cool to Live: Game of Thrones might as well be called Too Cool To Live: The Series, by this point.

Back to the main character listing

  1. ↑ It's revealed in A Storm of Swords that Wylla has been a servant for many years at Starfall, House Dayne's home...and the place that Prince Rhaegar brought Lyanna Stark. Wylla was the wet nurse for both Jon Snow and Lord Edric Dayne, the nephew (by an older brother) of the deadliest of Aerys II's Kingsguard--thus making her Jon's and Edric's "milk mother."
  2. ↑ not Reassigned to Antarctica, given that King's Landing is a nicer place to be than the Wall, which itself is considered Reassigned to Antarctica
  3. ↑ Reassigned to Antarctica: During the Sack of King's Landing he was among those fighting for the Targaryens. Lord Tywin Lannister had him sent to the Night's Watch as a result.
  4. ↑ It's very probable that Yoren was there to take Ned to the Wall, as it was Cersei's plan before Joffrey screwed it up.
  5. ↑ This was after a long series of failed attempts to make him a man, including taking him to whorehouses, making him sleep in chainmail, forcing him to walk around in a dress to shame him into manliness, and bathing him in blood. Eventually Lord Randyll's wife gave him another son, allowing why he could dispense with his girly-man firstborn. Incidentally, Randyll Tarly has achieved Memetic Badass status amongst the book fandom... but do you know, I don't think they meant it entirely as a compliment.
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