Best Supporting Actor is my most and least favorite category to vote on, due to the sheer number of strong performances from Game of Thrones actors. They’re a pleasure to watch, and five seems almost like too small a number to be recognizing as finalists.
But here we are, in the final round, and a winner must be chosen. The preliminary round was brutal, with cast members who had great seasons such as Jerome Flynn, John Bradley, and Aidan Gillen just missing the cut.
So let’s get to it. Your top five vote-getters who are moving to the finals are:
Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy/Reek
Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth
Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon
Conleth Hill as Varys
Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell
The complete preliminary poll results can be viewed at this link.
The final round poll will be open for 48 hours, beginning now and running until 10/8/14 at 11AM. Choose wisely, and may the best supporting actor win!
Hodor!
Pedro Pascal because he loves killing Lannisters (but never actually kills one).
Although all the actors nominated were brilliant, Pedro’s performance was phenomenal.
This is so tricky. Let’s run through my contenders:
Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth was wonderful, and Davos is one of my favorite characters, so I am tempted to vote for him. Yet… he didn’t do that much this season.
Conleth Hill as Varys is another one of my favorites, both the actor and the character. However, just like Davos, he didn’t get much to do this season. To be honest, he rarely does. He’s wonderful in every scene he’s in, even if it’s just making his faces of absolute annoyance, but the truth other people got to play a little bit more with their character in Season 4. So, here’s hoping for a lot of Varys in Season 5.
Alfie Allen as Reek is one of those people who DID have a lot to do this season. Such a strong contender. This is an actor I like, a character I find fascinating and a particularly strong performance this season. He’s so close to getting my vote, but in the end it’s gotta be…
Pedro Pascal as Oberyn. Yes, it might be the obvious choice, but what can I say? His was the most impactful performance. Although that’s partly because the character was a newcomer and he was treated wonderfully by the scripts, well, that’s not a bad thing either. This was Pedro’s only chance to make Oberyn shine and he… outshone the competition by exceeding pretty much everyone’s expectations. And the expectations WERE high indeed! So my votes goes for him.
Under normal circumstances I would have given this to Alfie Allen. I think he is the most under-appreciated actor on the series. Alas, season 4 didn’t give him much to work with and Pedro was just outstanding. How could you not get chills from “I will be your champion…” and “Tell your father I’m here…and tell him the Lannisters aren’t the only ones who pay their debts…”?
i absolutely loved pedro as oberyn…i thought he did a great job, however i have to give this one to alfie. it was a tough choice but alfie really has been having to go deep into character.
Well 4/5 of my preliminary choices are here, so…I don’t know. Probably Alfie. Except, probably Pedro. Or Conleth.
Fuck.
Alfie.
I love how in all da threads everyone keeps going on about how Alfie is underrated but when the time comes to vote people actually pass him over time over time
Alfie and Pedro
You’re killin’ me, WOTW.
It broke my heart to not vote for all of these candidates. In the end, I had to go with Pedro.
Alfie’s day will come, as I suspect the next couple of seasons are going to be amazing for him. And Liam just didn’t have enough screentime, even though I love every second of what he does with that character.
This
So tough.
Narrowed it down to Alfie, Liam and Stephen…
I’ll go for Reek.
Wow, I was hoping to choose John Bradley. All five of these were wonderful in their roles, but my heart goes to Pedro. He took a character which to many unsullied was an unknown person from an unknown place. In a short time he managed to become a fan favorite among readers and non alike. I loved watching him even tho I knew what was about to happen. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him at the end. Its gotta be him
Only problem is that I think there is a Best Guest Actor award, correct? Im thinking he’s on it. If he is, I think my vote will go to Alfie, for making a character I hated and wasn’t much interested in, to a character while I still hated what he did, but had many mixed feelings about as the season went on.
Soooo, someone answer my question ,pls.
I know the reasons why he was included in this category, but I simply, can’t vote for Stephen as a supporting actor. Who exactly was he supporting?
Liam and Conleth were both good, but I didn’t see anything exceptional in their performnaces so I will have to pass on them.
So it is between Pedro and Alfie, and I don’t believe Alfie had quite enough to do it this year, although I’m sure his time will come.
Have to feel a bit for Isaac. Even with his small screen time he deserved a much higher percentage.
ash,
Actors are only nominated in one category.
Jeb,
It’s so everyone gets a chance. Otherwise you’d pit Alfie against Peter and that’s just unfair. He had a fairly minor role in season 4, and so he gets to be in the supporting actor vote.
I don’t care if it’s not cool, or if it’s too obvious, Pedro Pascal was absolutely superb – a revelation in a role that everyone had all sorts of expectations for. The other nominated actors are all great, but Pedro was mesmerising.
Pedro, as I will not have an opportunity to vote for him again and he does deserve an award for this season. DO YOU HEAR ME, EMMY?!
Oh and while I understand the needs for adverts on a site like this, what could possibly be the reason for forcing us to watch the same advert I probably watched as a child telling me not to play with matches, before we could watch each and every video?……
Jeb,
gracias
This one was easy. One guy won’t be part of the show moving forward, and was featured more heavily than the others. He also was neck and neck with Rory as being the MVP of season 4. Alfie Allen is great, so are Cunningham and Dillane, but Pedro Pascal has this on lockdown.
Edit: Obviously Conleth is great too.
Alfie Allen gets my vote – just don’t have the unbounded Pedro Pascal luuurrve that others have I’m afraid.
However much I love Conleth Hill’s portrayal of Varys, I don’t recall him doing much this season (that’s all Varys, never seemingly doing anything, he’s just there and knows it all).
It’s between Alfie Allen’s Theon and Pedro’s Oberyn. Oberyn was as memorable as anyone could ever hope to be. Theon has been to some very dark places, which couldn’t have been easy to play, yet was acted wonderfully.
Pedro was the perfect Oberyn. He absolutely killed it
I’m actually quite surprised to see Owen Teale didn’t make the final five here. I thought he was a lock, and I’d have put him third overall this year behind Alfie Allen and of course Pascal.
Not that it matters. This is Pedro Pascal, all the way.
Another reason to vote Alfie for me is the material. Pedro was stunning yes, but he had a role that unless screwed up by too much cheese was win from the start. Hot, sexual, epic oneliners, all around badassness, supports the fan favorites and hates the people fans hate. Alfie had to pull off much more complicated, nuanced, and sometimes plain sucking material
(not to trying to bash Pedro ofc)
OT: Is anyone else pissed at
Not that I expect much from a tabloid, but the spoiling part is what gets me.
is one of the biggest storylines of season 5.
Yeah Im pissed but what are we supposed to do about it here? These days, there is no expectation of personal privacy, let alone courtesy to others when it comes to spoilers
Well, Pedro Pascal is the obvious choice, but Stannis Baratheon is the one true king of Westeros, so I voted for Stephen Dillane… as everyone should.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
however i HATE how the media has been trying to spoil the unsullied, many of my unsullied friends stay away from that. some dont even watch the previews for the next episode because they give away SO much
Has to be Pedro although this is a very strong category. The others just didn’t have as juicier roles as the Red Viper. Special mention to Alfie Allen who was his usual great self this season.
The Varys ‘desire’ scene was one of my favourites this season.
Pedro for sure!
I always vote for Stephen Dillane BUT I had to go with Pedro this time.
I mean C’mon!! Red F’ing Viper!
Stephen is just Stannis in flesh.
jentario,
Maybe my comment wasn’t clear enough. I agree that Alifue should be in this category. I just feel that he didn’t have quite enough to do it for me ovver Pedro, who had bith dramatic, comedic and sexual scenes.
I really think Stephen should have been in Leading Actor though, because in his storyline he is the lead character. How both hi and Liam can be in the same category is beyond me. I also won’t vote for Jack in the Guest Actor spot, because he isn’t a guest actor; he was in it for four seasons!. Now, of course according to the definition provided he met the criteria, but it gives actors who were only in a couple of seasons like Noah and Burn less of aa chance Jack would have definitely made to 5 supporting.
In any case for this category I thik Pedro will walk it, followed by Alfie.
Didn’t even have to give it a second thought: Pedro Pascal.
Pedro came, showed the haters what’s what and dropped the mic on his exit. Bam!
This was tough because they’re all great. Ultimately, it has to be Pedro Pascal though. The others all had down seasons. Not in terms of performance quality, but screen time. This is also our first and last chance to vote for him.
Stannimal!
Such a shame that Alfie is going to lose this.
The only acting award I feel strongly about this season is that Rory McCann simply must win Best Actor. Must. Peter Dinklage great, trial scene, yes yes yes, but…fuck the king, bring me more chicken. Safety? Where the fuck’s that?
Alfie gets my vote here for tackling very difficult material and succeeding, even though he had much more to do in season 2 (and got my vote then as well).
These polls are kind of depressing when they’re this hard!
I had to go with Pedro/Oberyn, as it’s his only season. But I really wanted to vote for Alfie Allen, who has been one of the best supporting actors of the last 3 seasons.
And I’m a big Davos/Stannis fan too.
Normally I have a hard time deciding this stuff, especially in this category. This year it comes so easy: Pedro Pascal. Rocked it, owned it! All were good this season, but for me he was better.
There’s no other RV I can see right now from my ASoS book reading days. The image, the sexuality, the accent, the feelings, the ferociousness, the danger, everything that Oberyn Martell stood for many years before this season, EVERYTHING is Pedro and Pedro’s acting now. That is saying something for a book nerd such as myself.
This is the first year that my vote doesn’t fall on Conleth Hill. He was excellent as always, but this was Pedro’s year.
Alfie motherfucking Allen.
Pedro was fantastic, don’t get me wrong. But…I don’t know. I knew going into this season he was temporary. Theon/Reek has come so far, and has so far yet to go.
Alfie is not winning… what?
All are deserving but I had to go with my beloved Pedro.
Jeb,
I agree with your logic on not voting for Jack Gleeson. Putting a main cast member in the guest category because of how many episodes he was in gives him a bit of an unfair advantage. I’d rather see him in this category, honestly.
For the same reason though I kind of think this is the best category for both Stephen and Liam. Srephen might be the main character of that particular storyline but the storyline itself is kind of a “supporting storyline,” so even the most prominent character there would have no chance against the main actor from the major storylines. For example, Sam was sort of the protagonist of his own storyline in Season 3, but I don’t think there was any controversy over labelling him a supporting actor.
James,
He’s always got next year.
Boy, that was a hard one. I lurve Perdo. I also love Liam Cunningham, I wish he were my uncle or something lol But I have that soft spot for ol Reek which I think would be a difficult character to play and Alfie does an amazing job. So Alfie gets my vote.
I’m sure it has to be the dumbest question ever to grace this board, but how do I see who wins right now?
Strider,
http://i.imgur.com/tohQSv6.jpg
I think… it just shows current percentages of votes. Looks like Pedro is in the lead.
Strider,
You’d need to be an admin. The rest of us has to wait until the winners are announced.
Pedro was great but Alfie…the things that he does physically and emotionally with this role just kill me every time. And he showed that again this season.
Does anyone know the previous winners of these awards? I always forget.
Where’s Hayden Christensen? He should be nominated for every best acting award.
Jeb,
Erm, Davos is the POV character in the books, and I believe he receives more screen time in the show too. So Dillane is right where he belongs, IMO.
Pedro Pascal played Oberyn perfectly in my opinion so there’s no way I can’t vote for him here. Alfie Allen is a close runner-up though.
Apparently I somehow missed the preliminary round. Just wondering, did Iwan Rheon get any mention there? Personally, he’s been one of the best actors on the show, and made Ramsay extremely captivating, at least in my opinion.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
WiC awards supporting actor:
Season 1: Ian Glen
Season 2: Jack Gleeson
Season 3: Michael McElhatton
Matthew,
I remember him being in the Guest Actor category.
Voted for STANNIS!
But Pedro will win
Just to clarify as the guy stupid enough to volunteer as the vote-counter and having had conversations with Sue the Fury on this: With Jack, it was a close call. Really, he appears this year in one episode for any length of time (one scene in the premiere, a corpse in the third episode). The argument that his time on the show means he should be here is a fair one, but we eventually held that his limited time puts him as a Guest Actor.
With Alfie, he only had 3 episodes, but he so thoroughly dominates in his appearances it was hard to keep him out of this category.
And if we consider the WIC awards as the precursor to this (which I do), well, Alfie did win Season 2 best actor, which included his great futile speech in “Valar Morghulis,” his beheading of Ser Rodrik, the baptism, and burning the letter.
Dragonslayer,
Oh ok, thanks for that. Really would have been a shame if he wasn’t praised somewhere.
Alfie was great, but Pedro Pascal was one of the actors who dominated this season; it was of crucial importance to get this character right and make the audience love him, and he did it perfectly. And even made me love the Red Viper much more than I did in the books, which is something that doesn’t happen often with me and ASOAIF/GoT characters.
Those are the results of the preliminary round. You can’t see the current percentage/number of votes unless you’re an admin.
It’s interesting that Peter Dinklage has never won one of these awards. He came the closest in season 2, when he narrowly lost to Alfie Allen.
WiC awards 2011-2013 – acting categories:
season 1:
Best Actor: Sean Bean
Best Actress: Maisie Williams
Best Supporting Actor: Iain Glen
Best Supporting Actress: Natalia Tena
season 2:
Best Actor: Alfie Allen
Best Actress: Maisie Williams
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Gleeson
Best Supporting Actress: Gwendoline Christie
season 3:
Best Actor: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Best Actress: Michelle Fairley
Best Supporting Actor: Michael McElhatton
Best Supporting Actress: Gwendoline Christie
Tom Wlaschiha was the Best Scene Stealer in season 2, and David Bradley in season 3. There was not Guest Actor/Actress category.
Annara Snow,
Maybe not. He gets the most recognition from the public and it’s only natural for a fan site, the people who follow the show the closest, to vote for people who get overlooked more often than not.
Pedro Pascal is the obvious choice, and this is a case where the obvious choice is the correct one.
I’ll go with Alfie Allen. He had few episodes but he totally sold to me the horror in Reek’s storyline.
Man this one was tough, but unfortunately for Alfie the vote has to go to Pedro, he was phenomenal
I have to go for Pedro for that same reason. It is impossible for me to think of the RV without thinking in Pedro, he completely replace my mental image of Oberyn which is something no other actor has donde in this 4 seasons.
Hard indeed. *tips hat to Alfie*
Greatjon of Slumber,
Thanks for the insight. Gleeson is a tough call, and while I maybe would have leaned towards this category, I respect the decision you and Fury made. I do not envy all the work I’m sure you’ve put into this, but I am very grateful for it, despite my nitpicking.
A close one between Pedro Pascal and Alfie Allen, but ultimately I’m going to go with Alfie Allen. It was a great performance.
Annara Snow,
Maisie won best actress for two seasons!? Don’t get me wrong, I love her acting and she’s only gotten better as she’s gotten older. But she bested Lena, Emily and Michelle? Wow
Have we picked best actress, actor yet?
BTW it would help those of us who are too lazy to go to Wiki, if you would put the name of the character they are playing after the actors’ names 🙂
Aryamad,
Dragonslayer,
I was asking because many posters say Pedro wins it right now and I have no idea where they look. Thanks for both answers.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Well that’s certainly debateable. Just because someone isn’t a POV doesn’t mean that they aren’t a leading cjaracter (e.g. Charles Dance, Rory McCann, Richard Madden to name but a few).
At the same time would anyone really consider someone like Areo Hotah a leading character? In this specific case I would argue that Davos is supporting Stannis as he is aiding him in his quest, although this could change in
Does Stephen Dillane stand a higher chance of winning in this category over Lead Actor. Absolutely. Will he win this one? No way, but that is only because of Pedro and Alfie.
@Greatjon of Slumber
I also appreciate it must have been hard to decide which category Jack went in, but then he probably had more screen time than Carice who was in Supporting. In all honesty I probably wouldn’t have voted for him in any category at this stage so it won’t make a great deal of difference from me, but I really hope he doesn’t win because despite his great performance I don’t see him as a Guest.
Strider, they are just saying, in their very humble opinion, that so and so wins right now. We don’t have a way of seeing the tallies; the only tally that is up is for the prelims. And Im glad that we don’t see them – people, even intelligent well read people like us, often will go along with a crowd, so if they see someone is popular they’ll often vote that person.
Pedro Pascal is amazing but Alfie Allen, I mean, come on.
He would deserve this so much, he’s so talented… I couldn’t do anything but voting for him! He needs more support.
Strider,
All that is known are the preliminary votes, and Pedro was ahead of Alfie by 300+ votes, but that was with people being able to choose 5 actors. I’m not sure if the chart shows total first place vote, or number of ballots the actors were listed on. I’m assuming the former, in which case, 2,300+ people will have to change their votes after their choices were cut.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Only slightly related, but I think the numbers of votes this got in the prelims is pretty incredible, and shows the support for this site. I’m sure there will be more votes at this stage as well (less than 5000, but a higher number of unique voters).
Dillane and Pedro are my top two choices from these particular clips. I think that Dillane’s role is more challenging; it can’t be easy taking such an unlikeable character and making so damn charismatic on screen. Pedro is awesome, of course, but I think Dillane deserves the cherry on top here.
The candidates in this category all did some truly fine work, but for me, hands down, it’s all about Pedro.
Everyone was deserving but I had to go with Pedro… that’s not a monster, that’s just a baby… I WILL BE YOUR CHAMPION! Close seconds were Alfie and Liam. Alfie had to dig deep and Liam delivered his Stannis-loving speech with absolute conviction. Normally I agree with others that Conleth Hill is standout but that particular scene was not so inspiring, not his best season for material. I hope Aidan Gillen makes the cut for Best Actor!
ash,
Sorry but we can’t control what ads you’re seeing on YouTube and Daily Motion videos. Those ads don’t benefit WotW in any way.
By the way, any indication as to when the poll at the bottom of the page will change ?
When they cast Manderly!
I almost voted for Stannis because I’m a sucker for his brooding and persistence but Pedro totally deserves it.
“I hate a good many things but I suffer them all the same”
I voted for alfie because, come on, he’s amazing. I’ve been saying that if he doesn’t win an emmy for season 5 (assuming he keeps up his level of acting), I’m going to boycott that awards show forever. I mean, probably not, but he should still win.
Jaime’s girl,
They already announced who the best actor nominees woukd be when they did the supporting actor preliminaries, Gillen didn’t make it, he lost out to Dinkledge, Harington, Coster-Waldeau, Dance and Rory (although this category would have been better suited for him, if any category at all).
Pretty much agree with you in this one. This scene was powerful not only for the champion part, but also because it was so moving when he lets Tyrion know some people consider him a human being and not a freak. After this I’m sure lots of people are eager to know more about the Dornish.
Liam Cunningham, I love him! And this scene is soo important, a pivotal moment in the story, and he delivered it convincingly.
Alfie Allen… Oh man, I could sense the dread and the weight of all the psychological torture his character has been subjected to. Pedro Pascal’s was a very strong and I voted for him, but surely Alfie deserves special awards for consistency throughout the series, character transformation and subtlety!
I’m kind of upset that Aidan Gillen wasn’t nominated just so I could NOT vote for him. How could he have been close in the vote??? I’m currently watching The Wire for the first time (I know, I know, I’m behind the times, sorryyyy), and he was never a good actor. His performance in The Wire is flat and boring, while his performance in Game of Thrones is stiff and underwhelming. He looks constantly bored and unhappy to be there, and how he was chosen by casting to be Littlefinger is beyond me.
Having said that…is there seriously another choice beyond Pedro? Well, sure, there’s always Conleth Hill and the apparently underappreciated Iain Glen, but this vote surely belongs to Pedro. As a terrible movie once proclaimed, VOTE FOR PEDRO!
How is varys there? He was barely in it this season
I sincerely appologize to Alfie, Stephen, Conleth and Liam, all producing award-worthy performances, but this was Oberyn’s year, and Pedro did better than anybody could ever have hoped for.
Pedro was one of the three best actors in this season (besides Rory and Peter), so he should win in this category. But I’m very disappointed that Owen Teale wasn’t nominated. Conleth Hill as Varys is great, but he had not enough screentime in this season to show his acting skills.
It’s a hard vote — Liam had some great scenes, and yeah, Reek Rocks.
But Season 4 was a Napoleon Dynamite World. Vote For Pedro — even if Pedro hates that movie.
Littlefinger is not the main character in the storyline he’s in. Sansa is. Luckily, the showrunners finally seem to have remembered that she is a main character in the series.
There were no first place votes. We simply had a poll where we could vote for five or less.
Hodor Targaryen,
Thanks for the info. I agree with you and Annara Snow that he is best suited to the supporting category but I was sad he didn’t make the cut here (but who would you bump out? There’s no room! Too much talent on this show!) I just thought this was a standout season for Aidan (made better by acting with the fantastic Sophie Turner’s talent, of course), and since that storyline is mostly caught up it’s not clear he will get better material in the future.
batfan,
seconded that, brother.
I love Liam Cunningham as Davos and I’m growing fond every season more of Stephen Dillane’s performance (I think he understands Stannis’ personality better that D&D do), nevertheless my vote goes to Conleth Hill: he doesn’t play Varys, he is Varys.
Annara Snow,
I assume you’re criticizing season 3? Well, it’s not like Sansa had the material there to make her main character. She was a pawn. In season 4 (and the second half of ASOS) that changes.
Had to go with Alfie. Everyone on the list is good, and I think if Pedro had had better material (instead of mostly having sex jokes until his last two episodes), I might have voted for him, but Alfie had some grueling material and played it effortlessly. His work in that “Do you love me, Reek?” scene with Ramsay is something I won’t forget for a long time. Ditto for the Moat Cailin scenes. Superb.
She DID have the material there to make her a main character. The entire King’s Landing storyline in season 3 was about Sansa’s forced wedding. That SHOULD have been HER story, and was her story in the book. But the show somehow managed to make her a supporting character in the story of her own forced wedding, which became about how awesome Tyrion is, how the marriage to the 14-year old hostage may screw up his relationship with Shae, and whether the 14-year old hostage is appreciating the guy she’s being forced to marry so his family would take her claim to her family’s lands. There were also a lot of pointless scenes of people snarking at each other and gay jokes about Loras, and more focus on Cersei being a victim of Tywin’s scheming than Sansa, while powerful moments such as Cersei bringing two Kingsguard members to threaten and drag Sansa to the sept to be married on the same morning when she is told about it, Sansa trying to run away and being told by Cersei that she has no choice and will be wedded and bedded all the same, Sansa refusing to kneel because it’s the only way she can show some defiance, and Sansa going through a traumatizing experience of having to get naked, be groped and see the erect penis of a man she was expecting to rape her aka “consummate the marriage” until the last moment, but maintaining her icy courtesy and emotional distance from the Lannisters and not allowing to be Stockholm Syndromed, were replaced by such things as Margaery telling Sansa how awesome Tyrion is, and Sansa joking around with Tyrion (and showing that she doesn’t know to say “shit” properly, so the audience could laugh at her and think that she’s “stupid”, even though that actually doesn’t make her stupid, just a highborn lady who didn’t hang out with smallfolk).
Being a pawn or not has nothing to do with being a main character or not. Otherwise Varys, Littlefinger, Illyrio or Roose Bolton should have been the main characters of the story, while people like Bran, Arya, and even Ned would be supporting characters and props in their story.
In the second half of ASOS (and AFFC), she’s still as much of a pawn as she was before, and she’s just as helpless to change it.
Annara Snow,
What I meant is that she’s out of reach of all the players in King’s Landing, which means that while she’s still a pawn, Littlefinger is the only one who uses her. Her storyline becomes much more about her and less about political machinations the second she leaves King’s Landing. And most of your complaints come from the actual wedding and how that was handeled. It’s all different because they didn’t want to tell Sansa in the last minute.
And did you really think that they would show Sansa and Tyrion getting naked together? I’m not sure that’s even legal in the UK. What they did in the bedroom scene was enough.
Jesus. Put the mediocre but entertaining books down, grab some booze or some smokes, relax, and enjoy the mediocre but entertaining show.
I went for Alfie but then my phone jumped up a bit as the page loaded and I ended up selecting Liam without realizing it. But each actor on here is deserving so it doesnt really matter now does it?
If there’s a name I can’t stand its Liam. Also Ethan. They are all over the place. I’m a fan of strong male names, like John and Robert and Butch. Fuck these popular tommen names.
No disrespect to the Liam’s and Ethan’s out there.
From Santiago, Chile, Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal. Quite a mouthful 🙂 Flashy, sexy, lusty, liberal and so talented with that sword – which he could have stuck around. The Red Viper for me – hands down!
Clearly Alfie or (more likely) Pedro will win this thing, and I can’t choose one over the other, so I’ll let you guys sort it out. I’ll vote for the third party candidate, Conleth Hill.
Had to give it to Alfie.
Pedro made a great Oberyn, and he will forever be Oberyn in my head. But he had a pretty straight forward bold badass sexy character to play, without much complexity.
On the other hand, Alfie, played Theon playing Reek playing Theon, and made it all believable. This is something only an incredible talented actor could pull off.
So of the two, my vote is for Alfie, as I think he was the greater actor this season.
ender985,
Agreed about Oberyn. He was a “Gyp Rossetti” type character. Amazing and excessively awesome in almost every aspect, but hardly complex.
Mine is the Furry,
Gyp Rossetti was not amazing or excessively awesome in any aspect.
I voted Alfie aka the most underrated actor on TV (because of his screentime), Pedro deserves this too.
Sue the Fury,
Oh ok, I thought they had to pay you to do that. Too bad you can’t get those without the ads if you get no benefit. Ah well, I’ll put up with it I suppose (that is what the mute button is for, after all)
Tyrion Pimpslap,
OK. Sure.
Haters gonna be hatin’.
Gyp had some of the best, funniest, craziest scenes/lines in all of S3. Only Van Alden comes close to his eccentricities.
Her storyline was always about her and not just about political machinations of others. Of course my complaints are about the wedding, when that was the main event of Sansa’s storyline, and not just that, but the main event of season 3 King’s Landing, which was dragged out over several episodes, but done nowhere near as well as in the book. Saying ” It’s all different because they didn’t want to tell Sansa in the last minute” makes no sense – it’s not like someone forced them to do it that way; they decided to not have Sansa told at the last minute. And they also did everything else to water it down, because making Tyrion and Cersei look better was more important than giving Sansa a strong story. Even with stretching it out across several episodes, which they also did not have to do (they could have simply focused more on the meatier storylines and spent more time with, say, Catelyn and Robb, what with the Red Wedding being the main event of the season, or they could have spent more time with Jon and Mance Rayder), it’s not like anybody was forcing them to make Sansa into a prop in the story of Tyrion and his relationship with Shae, or to have her joke around with Tyrion. The entire storyline on the show was like a fanfic written by a Tyrion fan who thinks that Sansa was a bitch in the book for not becoming BFF with Tyrion and feeling “grateful” for being forced to marry him just because he didn’t rape her and because he stopped Joffrey from beating her once.
Do I think they could have shown them naked? No. But there’s lots of ways to show the severity of the situation without getting people naked. Sophie Turner wasn’t naked in the attempted gang rape scene in season 2, nobody was, but that didn’t stop the scene from being really disturbing. Was it illegal to show Cersei threatening Sansa while being accompanied with two KG members and telling her she’ll be wedded and bedded even if she’s dragged to the sept kicking and screaming? Could they have avoided having Margaery go on about how awesome it would be to be married to Tyrion, in a scene presented as Margaery being “wise” and giving good advice to “naive” Sansa, rather than total bullshitting by Margaery, which is actually was even at a not so close inspection? Did they have to have Sansa start reluctantly undressing herself, as opposed to asking Tyrion if she has to do it? Was it illegal to show that Tyrion intended to “consummate” the marriage and do the “duty” until he realized his conscience didn’t let him do it? Did his line have to be changed from “That’s why gods made whores for Imps like me” to “And now my watch begins”. intended to make it look like Tyrion is going to be celibate now (because he can’t break marriage vows or something?! Book!Tyrion never had a problem with that, and I never thought there was anything wrong about it) and make the audience feel sorry for the poor dude who won’t get some? Was it also necessary to completely omit Tyrion’s interest in getting Winterfell? And most importantly, was it necessary to focus on Tyrion and his POV 80% of the time and Sansa only sporadically?
They didn’t have to do any of it that way, they just wanted to. Sansa did have excellent material in the book, which could have been adapted into great material for Sophie Turner in season 3, but it was not.
I didn’t know Jesus was into mediocre but entertaining books. You learn something new every day. 🙂
On my part, however, I’m happy to say that I’ve only read the first book of the Delirium series, I drink booze, smoke and relax when I go out, so I’ve already got four out of your five items done. Now I only have to start watching Once Upon a Time again and I’m good for all five…
tl;dr
Sansa’s story for season 3 was uninspiring book fare turned into uninspiring TV fare though Sophie did her best with it.
My book adoring friend Isaac Gurmov disagrees though.
Annara Snow,
Not sure about the “illegal” part of your post regarding the TV adaptation, but you are on a roll. 🙂 I’ve always wondered how the tale would be told if the Hound had taken Sansa with him.
Co-sign. Dr. Valentin Narcisse of Season 4 is an awesome creation. Gyp Rossetti was a compendium of mobster cliches.
Greatjon of Slumber,
Again haters gonna hate. Sure he was a mobster cliché, but he was funny as fuck and his scene at the end with Gillian was some of the best acting on the show.
And Mr Wright is amazing in every aspect. But his character is also a cliche villain. The one who you wouldn’t think could be the bad guy, but you ultimately know he really is. Soft spoken, calm, and ruthless. Played perfectly by Wright. In essence, he is the exact opposite of Gyp’s more flamboyant and outrageous villain. So what’s your point? Just because something or someone is an amalgamation of cliches doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable.
And that’s exactly what Pedro did with Oberyn. He is an over the top character with very little complexity and he played it to perfection.
Annara Snow,
You DO have a sense of humor. 🙂
Pedro Pascal for me. He was great as The Red Viper! And this is the only we can vote for him.
Already voted for Alfie in the past and I’m sure I will a second time.
But for now… Pedro!
Liam Cunningham is a great actor who nails every single one of his scenes. However, he did not do much this season and he is the only one in the finals whom I didn’t vote for in the prelims.
Stephen Dillane is a really underrated actor with great facial expressions but he did not do much either.
Conleth Hill is another great actor whose facial expressions are a delight to watch in the background. Noone beats annoyed Varys.
The most difficult decision was to choose between Alfie Allen and Pedro Pascal (the actors wih alliterations as names). I won’t say anything about those two (because everything has already been said) other that my vote went to Pedro.
Had to go with Pedro Pascal. As long as they don’t significantly screw up Theon’s storyline, I’m sure Alfie Allen will be my top pick next year.
I don’t feel too badly for Alfie – he did win best actor for season 2, so its not like his talents have’t been acknowledged. Thats not to say he didn’t do well this last season, in fact I think he blew that performance out of the water. I do want to acknowledge how wonderful Pedro is and so chose him. Tho wouldn’t it be funny if we all did as someone above did, not wanting to choose, and picking someone else entirely. IIRC that is how our state ended up with the only governor ever impeached…..
Voted for Cunningham, but all of these guys were outstanding.
I think it’s safe to say the stakes are much lower in this case. And if Conleth somehow ends up winning this thing, suits me, he’s fuckin’ awesome.
Whoa, whoa, whoa… That is the opposite of what is true.
True, but he sadly has never enough material to win. Everyone talks about Alfie being underappreciated, but Conleth Hill and Stephen Dillane really get no recognition.
Voted Pedro Pascal because this season was his. Other contenders just kept on doing their outstanding acting thingses.
As much as I want to judge performances by current season alone, because you never know what the next season may bring, this crop of nominees just begged for it :S
Pedro Pascal has my vote.
Liam Cunningham and Alfie Allen were also very good in every scene they appeared but unfortunately this year neither of them had great scenes.