Summary
- Sansa Stark: Naivety leads to intelligence through suffering and harsh mentors.
- Margaery Tyrell: Wins people with charm and intellect to protect power.
- Tywin Lannister: Peerless strategist remains the show's most intelligent character.
As one of the greatest fantasy series of all time, Game Of Thrones features an intense narrative and a rich mythology, never hesitating to dive into its plots and characters, resulting in real and tragic consequences. Across its eight seasons, viewers meet numerous characters who stand out because of their backgrounds.
Faced with extreme situations, the smartest characters in Game Of Thrones rely on their minds to join the political game that drives the series’ entire narrative. With tangible consequences, they must protect both their lives and their ambitions, and whether their goals prove selfish or beneficial for the realm, they discover power in words able to reshape the world everyone knows.
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10 Sansa Stark
Through Suffering And Harsh Mentors, She Became One Of The Series’ Most Intelligent Characters
- First appearance in TV Show: "Winter Is Coming" (Season 1, Episode 1)
Considered one of the most intelligent characters in Game Of Thrones, Sansa overcame her naivety to survive a sadistic political game. Without losing her essence, she absorbed lessons from Cersei and Littlefinger and even from Ramsay Bolton, who subjected her to extreme pain and suffering, and once she understood manipulation and power, she turned them to her advantage.
Thus, Sansa proves herself among the most intelligent characters in Game Of Thrones by showing patience with adversaries and striking at the right moment, toppling them without entering battles or overt power games. She also developed the ability to read people and grasp their hidden intentions, a talent she shows when evaluating Daenerys or Petyr before orchestrating his death.
9 Margaery Tyrell
With Charm And Intellect, She Wins The People To Preserve Her Power
- First appearance in TV Show: "What Is Dead May Never Die" (Season 2, Episode 3)
With charisma and empathy, Margaery wins over the populace, who remain at her side when threats arise, making her one of the most intelligent characters in Game Of Thrones. While most nobles keep their distance, she crafts an image that makes her almost untouchable to commoners and even adjusts to each husband to maintain influence.
A skilled manipulator, she knows exactly what others need to hear, as seen with Tommen, whom she wins by offering affection and support missing from his relationship with Cersei. Thinking ahead like her grandmother Olenna, she plans to strengthen her house through alliances rather than quick victories in war, ensuring its influence endures for generations.
8 Samwell Tarly
His Studies And Discoveries Proved Crucial To Confronting The White Walkers
- First appearance in TV Show: "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" (Season: 1, Episode: 4)
Far from a warrior, Samwell found in his thirst for knowledge the answer that helped prevent the Long Night in Game Of Thrones. After hours with ancient books and historical records, he uncovers crucial information ignored by others and proves his intelligence and strategic sense by learning, for example, how to kill a White Walker, an act once thought impossible.
With humility, he acknowledges his limitations and grows wise by constantly seeking new learning, poring over scrolls, questioning masters, and listening to every tale shared by brothers of the Night’s Watch. Unlike figures like Petyr or Cersei, he employs knowledge to save lives, whether by discovering the greyscale cure for Ser Jorah or advising Jon Snow on strategic choices that shape the final stretch of Game Of Thrones.
7 Bran Stark
Knowing Past And Future, He Stands Among The Series’ Most Powerful Characters
- First appearance in TV Show: "Winter Is Coming" (Season 1, Episode 1)
After becoming the Three-Eyed Crow, Bran Stark emerges as one of the most intelligent characters in Game Of Thrones. With access to past, present, and future, the youngest Stark wields humanity’s collective memory, placing him on a level of wisdom no other character has reached, and his history of trauma and loss never stopped his growth.
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Although he holds such knowledge, Bran has no wish to join the political game, because his understanding of power operates on a deeper scale. Acting with growing rationality, he becomes more efficient at difficult decisions, and by the series’ end this quality positions him as the best candidate to rule Westeros, regarded as someone able to keep both peace and memory intact.
6 Olenna Tyrell
The Character Ranks Among The Series’ Smartest By Orchestrating Pivotal Moments Of The Story
- First appearance in TV Show: "Dark Wings, Dark Words" (Season 3, Episode 2)
With vast experience, Olenna Tyrell understands Westeros’s political game better than most, making her one of the most important characters in Game Of Thrones. While most rivals act with pretense, she speaks directly and deploys strategy, turning perceived weakness into a weapon that catches and destroys anyone bold enough to underestimate her in lethal fashion.
Focused on keeping her house secure and influential, Olenna accepts any means to that end, as shown when she secretly masterminds Joffrey’s death solely to protect Margaery and guarantee House Tyrell’s future. With razor-sharp wit, another sign of brilliance, she delivers some of the series’ most memorable lines in Game Of Thrones, disarming threats with words alone and reminding foes that tongues can cut deeper than steel.
5 Petyr Baelish
Master Of Chaos, He Manipulates Everyone Around Him To Obtain Power
- First appearance in TV Show: "Lord Snow" (Season 1, Episode 3)
Always calculating several moves ahead, Petyr Baelish stands among the most accomplished schemers in Game Of Thrones, weaving plots that most rivals cannot even perceive. A master at manipulating human emotion and ambition, Littlefinger ignites the War of the Five Kings at the very start by persuading Lysa Arryn to murder Jon Arryn, ensuring that no one ever traces the crime back to him.
Born to an inconsequential minor house, Littlefinger had to claw upward through a rigid social order, an extraordinary achievement in Westeros, where the circumstances of birth dictate nearly everything. In one of his most famous declarations, “Chaos is a ladder,” he deliberately sows disorder to seize advantage, possessing the intellect to reshape multiple narratives simultaneously and leave every participant believing the outcome was inevitable.
4 Cersei Lannister
Driven By Malice, Her Intelligence Made Her One Of The Series’ Most Feared Villains
- First appearance in TV Show: "Winter Is Coming" (Season 1, Episode 1)
As one of the most powerful figures in Westeros, Cersei Lannister shows mastery at reading people and bending them to her darkest ends. From childhood she understands that power arises not merely from brute force but from the skill to influence individuals and engineer complex schemes, a realization that makes her among the most intelligent characters in Game Of Thrones.
Living in a misogynistic society, she must be even more cunning to remain in power, a quality reflected in her resilience as she rises after betrayals and humiliations. Ambitious to keep her family secure and dominant, Cersei acts with surgical precision against enemies, most infamously by destroying the Great Sept of Baelor in one decisive stroke.
3 Tyrion Lannister
With Sharp, Insightful Remarks, He Ranks Among The Most Intelligent Characters In The Show
- First appearance in TV Show: "Winter Is Coming" (Season 1, Episode 1)
Regarded as one of the sharpest minds in Game Of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister wields words like blades, whether with piercing logic or disarming humor. Known for constant study, many scenes show him buried in books, he is underestimated by peers, yet he understands the game better than most and escapes betrayals and trials through eloquence alone.
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As Hand of the King, Tyrion safeguards King’s Landing using inventive military strategies, including unleashing wildfire during the Battle of the Blackwater. Perceiving beyond noble courts, he grasps the plight of common folk, which grants broader wisdom, and he embraces his own limitations, particularly dwarf stature, turning an assumed weakness into a reliable strength.
2 Varys
His Spy Network Made Him One Of The Most Powerful And Intelligent Men In The Series
- First appearance in TV Show: "Lord Snow" (Season 1, Episode 3)
Supported by an expansive spy network, Varys ranks among the most powerful players in Game Of Thrones. Present in countless decisive scenes, he wields confidential intelligence to safeguard the realm’s future, using his countless little birds to deliver whispers from every shadowed corner of Westeros and Essos, a trove of secrets no rival can match.
Because of that access, he shifts allegiances with ease, always weighing what best serves the kingdom’s long-term stability. Surviving fallen kings and civil wars alike, he maintains influence through patience and subtle manipulation, letting others believe themselves in control while quietly pursuing one of the series’ purest motivations: the good of the common people.
1 Tywin Lannister
A Peerless Strategist, He Is The Most Intelligent Character In The Show
- First appearance in TV Show: "You Win or You Die" (Season 1, Episode 7)
Determined to keep House Lannister at the height of power and influence, Tywin Lannister stands as arguably the most intelligent character in Game Of Thrones. Exhibiting unmatched mastery in both diplomacy and manipulation, few adversaries can rebut his surgically precise rhetoric or defeat him on the field, and his mere presence inspires as much respect as fear.
Cold and calculating, Tywin advances each move with visionary rigor, arranging marriages such as Cersei’s union with Robert Baratheon and riding to decisive effect during the Battle of the Blackwater. Through unflinching command and strategic foresight, he remains one of the series’ most formidable power brokers, feared even by allies who know their fortunes depend on his favor.
- Release Date
- 2011 - 2019-00-00
- Showrunner
- David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
- Directors
- David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff
Cast
-
Kit HaringtonJon Snow -
Isaac Hempstead WrightBrandon Bran Stark
WHERE TO WATCH
- Seasons
- 8
- Story By
- George R.R. Martin
- Streaming Service(s)
- MAX
- Creator(s)
- David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
