Game of Thrones’ Ramsay Bolton is Officially the Most Terrible Character on TV

According to a survey conducted in December, Game of Thrones’ Ramsay Bolton is the actual worst. Come and see.

The Atlantic polled its readers to find out who the most hated character on TV might be. Actually, hated might be the wrong term. It’s fun to watch them, so I wouldn’t say we hate them. Worst? No – some of the characters on the list are very well written, so worst isn’t quite right either. I guess the closest thing is to call it a contest of awful.

The bracket placed supporting characters against each other on one side, and stars of the show on the other. Moriarty from Sherlock faced off against Claire Underwood from House of Cards, for example. The other categories were “Plain Evil” and “Just Excruciating.”

The Plain Evil category came down to Ramsay vs Joffrey, a laughable contest since Ramsay is about 4 billion times more evil than petulant little Joff. In the end, the final bracket pitted Ramsay against Hannibal, and Ramsay took the cup.

He’s a bad dude, but there are lots of other bad dudes on TV, especially lately. Frank Underwood, for me, is the maybe the most unnerving – I love him, but what does that say about me? In Ramsay’s case, though, a disproportionate amount of his screen time is cutting right to business. He’s pretty much always doing something awful without much else in between.

He flays, like his forefathers before him. He cuts off manly parts, he keeps broken POV characters as pets, he sexually assaults our third favorite Stark. He’s just so good at making us pissed off. The cherry on the cake, of course, is his damn smirk. We can’t help it – he’s fun to watch. What does that say about us?

The Bolton Horn

I’d have to say that while we had a pretty good hunch you guys would like our House Sigil horns, it came as quite a surprise that so many of you guys were upset we didn’t offer House Bolton as one of our six initial designs.

We made one, of course, cause we like when our skin stays attached to our bodies. While there were many who requested Bolton tankards, one customer request stood out: “After much soul searching, I would like House Bolton. I can’t explain why, because obviously I don’t condone Bolton behavior at all.” The love for House Bolton is confusing, even to folks who love House Bolton.

No matter how we feel about Ramsay, we can’t take our eyes away – some of us just hate ourselves a little more than others for loving it. Whatever he’s got planned, you bet your ass we’ll come and see.