<P> Jaime Lannister (season 1--present) portrayed by Nikolaj Coster - Waldau . Ser Jaime Lannister of House Lannister is a member of the Kingsguard and an exceptionally skilled swordsman . He is the Queen's twin brother and has carried on an incestuous love affair with her all his life, fathering all three of her living children . He truly does love his sister and will do anything, no matter how rash, to stay close to her . He is nicknamed "Kingslayer" for killing the previous King, Aerys II, whom he was sworn to protect . He was allowed to keep his post in the current Kingsguard as he and his influential father helped Robert win the war, but no one feels he deserves this post, which frustrates Jaime . Despite Eddard Stark's animosity against him for forsaking his oath to protect the King during Robert's Rebellion, Jaime has great respect for Eddard, whom he considers a great warrior and his equal . Unlike his father and sister, Jaime cares deeply about his younger brother Tyrion . In Season 2, Catelyn releases and sends Jaime to King's Landing under Brienne of Tarth's watch in exchange for a pledge to send her daughters home . On the journey, they are captured by the violent Locke, a man - at - arms under Roose Bolton, a Northern Lord . On their way to Harrenhal, now held by Bolton, the lowborn Locke cuts off Jaime's sword hand to taunt his position and privilege . Jaime survives and is allowed to depart Harrenhal on condition that he acquits Bolton from any guilt . During his time in Harrenhal, Jaime reveals to Brienne on why he killed King Aerys II . Once freed, Jaime travels to King's Landing with Brienne and disgraced Maester Qyburn, given by Bolton to tend to his injury, in tow . At the end of Season 3, they arrive at the gates and Jaime reunites with Cersei . In season 4, Jaime is fitted with a golden prosthetic hand and given a new sword, and is trained by Bronn in fencing with his left hand . Jaime is one of the few people in King's Landing who believe in Tyrion's innocence in killing Joffrey, and does his best to comfort his younger brother, while outright refusing Cersei's order to kill Tyrion before his trial . When Tyrion is sentenced to death, Jaime frees Tyrion from captivity and arranges for him to be smuggled to Essos with Varys's help . Jaime tells Cersei that he will travel to Dorne and bring Myrcella back . Myrcella says that she likes it in Dorne and doesn't want to go back to King's Landing . However, she eventually leaves with her uncle and Trystane, after Doran bargains to have his son take his seat on the Small Council . On the journey home, Jaime reveals his incestuous relationship to Cersei to their daughter, who then reveals she knows and is glad that Jaime is her father and hugs him, but moments later Myrcella collapses from poison and dies . In season 6, Jaime returns to King's Landing with Myrcella's body and sends Doran a letter requesting the heads of Ellaria, Obara, Nymeria and Tyene, but later hears that both Doran and Trystane were killed by the Sands . In response to Cersei's humiliation by the Faith Militant, Jaime ponders murdering the High Sparrow and marching on the Great Sept of Baelor with the army of House Tyrell to forcibly rescue Margaery from custody . He is foiled, however, when Tommen declares an allegiance between the Faith and the Crown, and dismisses Jaime from the Kingsguard, clearly on the High Sparrow's orders . Jaime is later sent to the Riverlands with Bronn to oversee the surrender of Riverrun . He parleys with Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully, to no avail, and then falsely threatens Edmure Tully with the murder of his baby son if he does not get his men to surrender the castle . The castle eventually falls to the Lannisters and Freys . Jaime briefly crosses paths with Brienne and Podrick, but allows them to leave peacefully . He returns to King's Landing shortly after the Great Sept's destruction, and enters the Red Keep to see Cersei being crowned Queen . In Season 7 he commands the Lannister army, capturing Highgarden but suffering defeat when ambushed by Daenerys' Dothraki forces and dragons . He clashes with Cersei over the threat from the Army of the Dead, and when she breaks her word over sending military support he leaves her and rides north alone . </P> <P> Catelyn Stark (season 1--3) portrayed by Michelle Fairley . Catelyn Stark of House Stark and House Tully (née Tully), Lady of Winterfell, is the wife of Lord Eddard Stark . Born to the Lord and Lady of the Riverlands, she is the elder sister of Lysa Arryn, Lady of the Vale and Mistress of the Eyrie, and Lord Edmure Tully, Lord of Riverrun . After deducing that the Lannisters are responsible for the attempt on Bran Stark's life, she travels to King's Landing to warn Ned, and on her return trip has a chance encounter with Tyrion Lannister . Since Catelyn does not know about Tyrion's complete innocence, she decides to take him captive because she believes that he is behind the attempt on her son's life . She takes him to her sister, Lysa Arryn, so that he can be brought to justice but is not successful, as Tyrion is found innocent after a trial by combat . After her husband is arrested and her eldest son Robb goes to war for his release, she joins her son's war council . Upon learning that her husband was executed by orders of King Joffrey, she vows to her son Robb that the Lannister family will pay with their lives . Throughout Season 2, she aids her son Robb in the rebellion by advising him and attempting to broker alliances . While trying to form an alliance with Renly Baratheon, another claimant to the Iron Throne, she takes Brienne of Tarth into her service as an armswoman after Renly's assassination . She frees Jaime Lannister, a valuable hostage to the Starks, in an attempt to exchange him for her captive daughters . Robb, feeling betrayed by what his mother has done, puts her under house arrest . Catelyn travels north with her son to her father's funeral at her childhood home of Riverrun . She is killed in the Red Wedding Massacre after her desperate (and futile) pleas to the Freys to spare her son, threatening to slit Lady Frey's throat if Robb dies . She keeps her promise, and is herself killed moments later when "Black" Walder Frey cuts her throat to the bone . In Season 4, it is stated that her body was stripped naked and thrown into the river after the massacre as a mockery of House Tully's funeral traditions . Though House Stark is stripped of all lands and titles by House Lannister as a result of Robb's death and his ultimately failed rebellion against the Iron Throne, Catelyn and her son are later avenged in Season 6 and the first episode of Season 7 when her eldest daughter Sansa Stark and Sansa's half brother Jon Snow successfully overthrow House Bolton and retake Winterfell and Jon is crowned the King in the North by the remaining Northern lords, wildlings, and Knights of the Vale, restoring Stark rule in the North in the process, while her youngest daughter Arya Stark returns to Westeros, murders Walder Frey, and later uses his face to disguise herself as him to poison all his sons and male descendants at the Twins, ultimately avenging the Red Wedding and exterminating House Frey . </P> <P> Cersei Lannister (season 1--present) portrayed by Lena Headey . Cersei Lannister of House Lannister and House Baratheon, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, is the wife of King Robert Baratheon . Her father arranged the marriage when she was a teenager, initiating himself as a political counselor for King Robert . The Lannisters are the richest family in Westeros, which is why Robert was interested in a marriage between them . Cersei has a twin brother, Jaime, with whom she has been involved in an incestuous affair from early childhood . All three of Cersei's children are Jaime's . Cersei's main character attribute is her desire for power and her deep loyalty to her father, children, and brother Jaime . Cersei learns that her husband Robert is in danger of finding out that the children he sees as his heirs to the throne are not his . Robert meets his end as the result of a boar attack on a hunting trip, before Ned Stark tells him of the truth about his children . Cersei works quickly to instate her oldest son, Joffrey, on the throne, with her as his chief political advisor and Queen Regent . Joffrey quits listening to his mother, and by the beginning of the second season her father decides Cersei does not exercise enough control over her son, and her father sends his youngest son Tyrion as an additional political advisor . Cersei and Tyrion do not get along, and constantly try to undermine each other's authority over the crown . As of the end of season 2, Tyrion has accumulated more sway over the Iron Throne, and has shipped Cersei's only daughter off against Cersei's will to be married to the prince of Dorne . In season 3, she takes pleasure in Tyrion's diminished position and taunts him for being forced into a marriage pact with Sansa Stark, only to be told by her father that he intends to marry her to Loras Tyrell . At the end of the season, the two siblings ponder at their respective marriages, and Cersei reunites with Jaime in her bedchamber as he unexpectedly returns from captivity . In season 4, she has Tyrion arrested after Joffrey is fatally poisoned . It is implied that she knows Tyrion's guilt is highly unlikely, but just wants to see him dead, though Jaime refuses to carry out the order . Indeed, at Tyrion's trial, it is obvious that Cersei has manipulated the entire procedure so that the only witnesses (herself, Lord Varys, Meryn Trant, Grand Maester Pycelle and Shae) give either incomplete or entirely false testimonies to implicate Tyrion and Sansa further in the murder . When Tyrion demands a trial by combat, Cersei quickly chooses Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane as her champion to diminish Tyrion's chances of acquittal, and has Bronn betrothed to a noblewoman so that Tyrion cannot choose him as his champion . Cersei's wish comes true when Tyrion's champion, Oberyn Martell, is killed by Clegane, but she still refuses to marry Loras, even threatening her father with revealing the truth about her relationship with Jaime and the parentage of her children . Tywin rebuffs her threats, though he himself is killed by an escaping Tyrion soon afterwards . Cersei attends Tywin's funeral and later orders a bounty on Tyrion's head . Cersei and Jaime receive a message from Dorne: a small viper statue with a necklace in its fangs . Cersei tells Jaime that the necklace belongs to their daughter, Myrcella, who was sent to Dorne by Tyrion . Jaime tells Cersei that he will travel to Dorne and bring Myrcella back . Cersei meets with two hunters who have brought her a severed head, though she is disappointed to find that it is not Tyrion's head . Qyburn lays claim to the head for his research and the two walk to a small council meeting . With the office of Hand of the King vacant, Cersei tells the council that she will stand in temporarily until Tommen chooses a new Hand . She appoints Mace Tyrell as the new Master of Coin and Qyburn as the new Master of Whisperers . When Cersei tries to appoint her uncle Kevan as the Master of War, he declines, telling her that as the queen mother she holds no power, and has no interest in serving in a council filled with her sycophants . In defiance of Cersei's "orders", Kevan states that he will return to Casterly Rock until he hears direct word from Tommen that he is required . Tommen soon weds Margaery Tyrell . Under Margaery's influence, Tommen drops hints that he would like Cersei to return to Casterly Rock, but she refuses, and confronts Margaery, who insults her . Cersei catches the High Septon being punished for entering a brothel by her cousin Lancel, who has become a member of the Faith Militant, an extremist group that worships the Seven . Cersei talks to their leader, the High Sparrow, and instates him as the new High Septon . The Faith Militant then aggressively puncture all barrels of wine and trash Petyr Baelish's brothel . They also arrest Margaery's brother Loras on the grounds of his homosexuality . Tommen, at Margaery's insistence, tries to get Cersei to release Loras, but Cersei swears she had nothing to do with it, After a trial, Loras is arrested after a prostitute named Olyvar testifies against Loras . Margaery is also arrested for lying about Loras' sexual orientation, and both are put in dungeons . All of this delights Cersei, who goes to see Margaery in her cell and brings her a bowl of venison stew . Cersei has one final talk with the High Sparrow about the accomplishments of the pair, but he soon reveals that Lancel has confessed everything (in Season 1, Cersei had sex with him in Jaime's absence). Cersei is subsequently arrested for adultery, incest, and murder (it was her plan to get Robert drunk so that he would injure himself while hunting). She is only visited in her cell by Qyburn, who tells her that Grand Maester Pycelle has seized power of the throne, and that Kevan is serving as hand of the king . Cersei is distraught to learn that Tommen, anguished over his wife's and mother's arrests, has not been eating . Cersei is also visited by a septa, who orders her to confess to her sins . Cersei refuses, and she is hit by the septa . Weakened, Cersei is forced to lick the water off the floors of the cell . She eventually agrees to reveal herself to the High Septon, confessing her incestuous relationship to Lancel Lannister but refusing to admit more serious offences, which would be harder for the Faith to prove . The High Sparrow allows her to leave captivity in favor of house arrest in the Red Keep, pending the trial, but only if she agrees to do "atonement" for her sins by being shaved and walking naked through the streets of King's Landing . Cersei endures the walk with great resolve, bleeding and covered in filth as she eventually reaches the Keep, where she reunites with her uncle Kevan, now Hand of the King, and Qyburn, who introduces her to the newest member of the Kingsguard, a freakishly large, silent giant implied to be the reanimated corpse of Gregor Clegane . In season 6, Cersei remains under house arrest and is not allowed to attend the funeral of Myrcella, who was ultimately killed by Ellaria Sand . Though her initial plan is to demand a trial by combat and name Gregor as her champion, she is foiled when Tommen falls under the control of the High Sparrow and abolishes the practice, stripping Cersei of her trump card . In desperation, Cersei has Qyburn look into an "old rumour", which turns out to be the Mad King's wildfire caches . On the day of her and Loras's trial, Cersei destroys the Great Sept of Baelor with the wildfire and kills hundreds of people, including Margaery, Loras, Mace Tyrell, Kevan, Lancel, the High Sparrow and the entire Faith Militant, and also has Grand Maester Pycelle killed in his chambers . With her enemies out of the way, Cersei crowns herself Queen and names Qyburn as her Hand . In Season 7 Cersei consolidates her position through alliances with the Tarlys and with Euron Greyjoy, who help her to capture Highgarden, destroy much of Daenerys' fleet and take revenge on Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes . She tells Jamie she is pregnant and it pleases him when she says that she will name him as the father . Cersei agrees to Tyrion's request for a parley with the Targaryen party, and is visibly shocked by the wight that has been brought south . She agrees to send a military force north to help the fight against the Army of the Dead, but reveals to Jamie that she has no intention of keeping her word . Jamie argues, and although Cersei threatens to have him killed she takes no action against him as he leaves her to go north . </P> <P> Daenerys Targaryen (season 1--present) portrayed by Emilia Clarke . Daenerys Targaryen is the exiled princess of the Targaryen dynasty . Also called "the Stormborn", she and her brother Viserys were smuggled to Essos during the end of Robert's Rebellion . For seventeen years, she has been under the care of Viserys, whom she fears, as he is abusive to her whenever she displeases him . In exchange for an army, Viserys marries her to the powerful Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo, making her a Khaleesi, a queen of the Dothraki . Daenerys is at first afraid of her new husband but after learning the Dothraki language, she manages to get past their barriers . She begins to understand him and genuinely falls in love with him after learning Drogo is an intelligent leader and a kind man . After embracing the Dothraki culture, she becomes stronger and rebels against her brother . She later becomes pregnant with Drogo's son who is prophesied by the Dothraki to be the "Stallion Who Mounts the World". After her brother's death and an assassination attempt by Robert Baratheon, Drogo vows to Daenerys that he will conquer the Seven Kingdoms for her and their unborn son . However, during their journey Drogo suffers from blood poisoning due to an infected wound incurred during a fight with a Dothraki tribesman . Daenerys is forced to seek the help of healer Mirri Maz Duur to save his life using blood magic . Mirri tricks Daenerys by using her unborn son's life as a sacrifice to heal Drogo, leaving him in a permanent catatonic state, and forcing Daenerys to end her husband's life . Losing both her husband and son, Daenerys punishes Mirri by having her burnt at the stake . She also lays the three dragon eggs she received as a wedding gift onto Khal Drogo's body, then steps into the burning funeral pyre . After the fire extinguishes itself, the Khaleesi and three baby dragons, named Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion, are found alive and unharmed . Daenerys takes the baby dragons and the remaining tribe to gather new allies and reclaim the Iron Throne . She becomes the first female Dothraki leader . In Season 2, she is lost in the Red Waste, a stretch of barren land . She and her khalasar eventually make it to Qarth, where the nobles are more interested in her dragons than her conquering Westeros . When her dragons are stolen by Pyat Pree, she goes into the House of the Undying and retrieves them, killing Pyat Pree . In the second season's finale, she imprisons her host Xaro Xoan Daxos for having helped Pyat Pree . Her horde loot Xaro's mansion to buy a ship . Daenerys travels from Qarth to Astapor, a city in Slaver's Bay, where she negotiates the purchase of elite eunuch soldiers called the Unsullied . She also meets the famed knight Ser Barristan Selmy, and accepts him into her queensguard . On her departure from the city, she frees the slaves and has Drogon torch its elders . By the end of Season 3, although her power has not yet been tested, she has acquired the loyalty of tens of thousands of freed slaves from Astapor and Yunkai, her remaining Dothraki brethren (and two former Westerosi soldiers whom she encountered through the Dothraki, who advise her) 2,000' Second Sons' cavalrymen, 8,000' Unsullied' elite infantry, and three rapidly growing dragons . The stay in Slaver's Bay has made her question her motives, however, and she takes up the cause of ending slavery as well, donning the honorific "Breaker of Chains" as the slaves hold her to the sky, praising her as their Mhysa, or "Mother". Daenerys later frees the slaves from Meereen, the last of the slave cities in Slaver's Bay, but realizes that she is slowly losing control of her dragons, especially when Drogon shows signs of aggression towards her when she tries to break up a fight between them over food . Aware that she does not have enough men to conquer Westeros just yet, Daenerys resolves to remain in Slaver's Bay and rule as Queen for the time being . She eventually learns of Jorah's original purpose, which was to spy on her for Robert Baratheon, and orders him to leave Meereen on threat of execution . After she receives too many complaints about her dragons, Daenerys, locks Rhaegal and Viserion of them in the catacombs beneath Meereen before searching for Drogon . Meanwhile, Daenerys faces a new threat to her rule in the form of the Sons of the Harpy, a resistance movement against her and the Unsullied . She considers freeing her dragons, but they attempt to attack her, making her realize that they are no longer loyal to her . After Daario and Grey Worm arrest a member of the Sons of the Harpy, Mossador implores Daenerys to execute their captive, but Barristan tells her of the Mad King's actions against his enemies, which included burning them with wildfire while laughing . He asks her not to execute the captive without a fair trial, and she agrees with him . Mossador goes against her wishes, and kills the captive Son of the Harpy . Daenerys has him publicly executed, which leads a riot to break out between the old masters and the freed slaves . At night, Daenerys finds that Drogon has returned, but when she tries to touch his face, he flies away . Soon afterward, a group of Unsullied patrolling the streets of Meereen are stopped by a crying woman who points them to an alleyway . The Unsullied head in to investigate, but it is revealed that the entire affair was a set up after they are soon cornered by a group of the Sons of the Harpy . The Unsullied attempt to fight back, but the Sons of the Harpy kill many of them . Barristan Selmy sees the commotion and tries to help, killing many of the Sons of the Harpy, but gets badly wounded, and dies . Grey Worm also sustains serious but nonfatal injuries . Daenerys is furious after learning what has happened to Barristan, and rounds up the leaders of the great Meereenese houses . She takes them into the catacombs where she randomly has one of them shoved forward . The Meereenese lord is promptly killed by dragonfire from Rhaegal, and he and Viserion eat him . Daenerys then has all the lords arrested, including her former adviser Hizdahr zo Loraq, whom she decides to marry to win over the Meereenese nobles . To respect the culture of the area, she agrees to have the fighting pits reinstated (she had previously declined due to her distaste for killing for sport). Hizdahr convinces Daenerys to go to one of the pits to see the contestants battling over who will go to the final competition . Daenerys is sickened by the bloodshed, and gets up to leave, but her attention is turned by one masked competitor who defeats all of the other competitors without killing any of them . This competitor turns out to be Jorah Mormont, who is trying to win over Daenerys' favor after being banished . Daenerys orders the Unsullied to take him away, but Jorah announces that he has brought her a gift, and Tyrion Lannister reveals himself to Daenerys . After a round of questioning, Daenerys banishes Jorah once again, but takes Tyrion on as her adviser . On the great opening of Daznak's Pit, Jorah resurfaces as a voluntary contender on the arena, but Daenerys refuses to stop the games to spare his life . Jorah eventually prevails and saves her life by impaling with his spear an attacker from the Sons of the Harpy, who appear in legions and attack Daenerys' guards . Cornered at the midst of the arena, defeat seems immediate when Drogon returns, killing many Sons of the Harpy despite being wounded by several of their spears . Daenerys manages to rekindle their bond and climbs his back, riding off into the distance to a stunned crowd . She roams the Great Steppe north of the city, where Drogon seems reluctant to obey her commands or even hunt for food . Strolling about on her own, Daenerys is faced with an incoming Dothraki khalasar of great numbers, and after dropping a ring to the ground to leave a trail, she is surrounded . In season 6, the Dothraki take her to Vaes Dothrak, where she identifies herself to Khal Moro as Drogo's former wife . Out of respect for Dothraki traditions, they take Daenerys to join the Dosh Khaleen, which consisted of the wives of deceased khals . Daenerys refuses and instead burns the temple down with all the khals still inside, naming herself as the new leader of the Dothraki . She returns to Meereen with her new army and destroys the slaver fleet assaulting the city with her dragons . In the aftermath, Daenerys meets with Theon and Yara Greyjoy, who offer their support for her claim so that they can overthrow their uncle Euron . Daenerys accepts their aid and secures help from the Reach and Dorne, names Tyrion as her hand, but breaks up with Daario, ordering him to stay behind and govern Slaver's Bay in her absence . With her new army, Daenerys finally sets sail for Westeros . In Season 7 Daenerys finally uses her dragons in battle, annihilating a Lannister force and their baggage train with fire . Daenerys welcomes Jon Snow to Dragonstone, seeing him as a friend and ally, insisting that he bend the knee to her but exhibiting patience with his refusal . She believes his tales of white walkers and agrees to let him mine dragonglass (obsidian) from her land . When Jon's expedition north of the Wall gets into trouble Daenerys takes her dragons to rescue them, and is devastated when the Night King kills one . On the ship back to Dragonstone she and Jon make love . </P>

Who plays joffrey's mother in game of thrones