Game of Thrones Has a Lot of Characters. Here’s Who Actually Matters at the Start.
You’ve just pressed play on Game of Thrones and within five minutes there are a dozen names being thrown at you. Starks, Lannisters, a king, some brothers, and a girl being sold off across the sea. It’s a lot. This guide cuts through the noise and focuses on the families and people you need to know to follow the story.
The Starks: The Family You’re Rooting For
Think of the Starks as the moral heart of the show. Ned Stark is the Lord of Winterfell in the cold, rugged North. He’s honourable, loyal, and beloved by his people. His wife Catelyn is sharp and strong. Together they have three children you’ll follow closely: Robb (the eldest son), Sansa (who dreams of court life and princes), and Arya (the youngest daughter, a total firecracker who wants to fight, not curtsy).
There’s also Jon Snow, who lives with the Starks as Ned’s supposed illegitimate son. He ends up at the Wall, a giant fortification protecting the kingdom from whatever lives in the frozen north. Jon turns out to be one of the most important people in the entire story.
The Lannisters: The Family You’re Not Rooting For
The Lannisters are rich, powerful, and will do anything to stay that way. Tywin Lannister is the cold patriarch who runs the family like a business. His daughter Cersei is married to the king. His son Jaime is a celebrated knight known as the Kingslayer (for reasons that become important). And then there’s Tyrion, the youngest, who is witty, self-aware, and drinks a lot. Tyrion is the most fun Lannister by a long shot.
The big secret about the Lannisters? Cersei and Jaime are twins, and they are in a relationship with each other. Their children, including the unpleasant young prince Joffrey, are not actually the king’s children. That secret is basically the bomb that blows the whole story up.
The Baratheons: The Royal Family (Sort Of)
King Robert Baratheon won the throne through war and is now mostly interested in eating and drinking. He’s been best friends with Ned Stark since they were young, which is why Ned gets pulled into the chaos at court. Robert has two brothers, Stannis (rigid and humourless) and Renly (charming and popular), both of whom will eventually want the throne for themselves.
The Targaryens: The Exiled Dragon Family
Across the narrow sea, a young woman named Daenerys Targaryen is surviving in exile with her entitled, dangerous brother Viserys. Their family used to rule Westeros with dragons until they were overthrown. Daenerys starts the story with nothing. By the end of season one, she has dragon eggs and a very different future ahead of her.
The One Thing to Remember
Every family wants power, and almost none of them can trust each other. The Starks trust too easily. The Lannisters trust no one. The whole show is about what happens when honourable people play a game where honesty gets you killed.
Once you have these four families straight, the rest of the pieces will fall into place on their own.
Not at all. The show is completely self-contained and does a good job of introducing everyone. The books go into much more detail, but they are not required viewing prep.
There isn’t one single main character, which is part of what makes the show surprising. Season one leans heavily on Ned Stark as the central figure, but Game of Thrones is really an ensemble story. No one is safe, and the focus shifts constantly.
He killed the previous king, Aerys Targaryen (known as the Mad King), while serving as his personal bodyguard. Killing the person you swore to protect is considered the ultimate betrayal in Westeros, so the name stuck. The full story behind why he did it is more complicated and comes out later in the show.
This is one of the show’s biggest mysteries in the early seasons. Without spoiling too much, the answer is no. Jon’s true parentage is a secret that takes several seasons to fully unravel, and it changes everything about his place in the story.
The Wall is a 700-foot-high barrier of ice stretching across the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. It was built to keep out threats from the far north, including creatures called White Walkers. Jon Snow ends up stationed there as part of a military order called the Night’s Watch. It starts as a background detail but becomes central to the whole story.