SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers through Season 6 of Game of Thrones
On Sunday evenings in the spring for the past six years, I have piled onto my big blue couch with my brood of guy friends. We pass out snacks, one moment yelling across the room to comment on the events of last week’s episode and the next violently shushing our neighbor. It is a cacophony of banter that stops dead when that familiar sound comes roaring from the TV…
BA BA BABABABA BABABA BABABAAAA (BA BA BA, BUH, BA BA BA, BUH)
We are all unapologetically obsessed with the magical world of Game of Thrones; a universe chock full of violence, graphic sex, political intrigue, and characters that can’t seem to decide if they’re good guys or bad guys. My friends and I gasped in sync when Jaime threw Bran out of the tower in Season 1. We stood with mouths agape and welling eyes at the betrayal and gore of the Red Wedding. And we pumped triumphant fists when we realized Daenerys was finally heading back home, three grown dragons and an army in tow.
However, there was one subject on which we were never in total agreement. In Season 4, I had to watch my favorite character die. I lay on the ground of my living room, numb, defeated, eyes welling with tears as I watched Ygritte, the strong-willed, kissed-by-fire wildling, succumb to an arrow to the chest while cradled in Jon Snow’s arms. She was a feisty, strong-willed, sassy, totally unapologetic, and independent redhead. I loved her wit and her strength, and who couldn’t fall entirely in love with her and Jon as a couple?
Well, apparently, my guy friends. From my appropriate position of mourning on the floor, I turned to my protective, wonderful, trusted friends expecting a reaction similar to mine. Instead I saw them sniggering at me.
“She’s not even a major character.”
“She had no arc.”
“Why do you care so much?”
I couldn’t believe it. Had they not been watching Ygritte traipse through the last several seasons, threatening to make necklaces of male genitalia and seducing Jon Snow all in the same sentence? She was sexy and tough and appealing, and I couldn’t understand how anyone could love her any less than I did.
Over the next few years and seasons of Game of Thrones, my love of Ygritte became an ongoing joke in my circle of friends. They would occasionally remind me of her death, knowing how dramatically upset I’d become, just so they could laugh at my groans of genuine grief. They would comment on unrelated Instagram posts and send me heart-wrenching gifs of her final moments. To be fair, they were trying to goad me into a theatrical reaction or one of the passionate and escalating rants that I am known for, and each time I indulged them, of course.
Worst of all was when they attacked her legitimacy and importance as a character; I loyally defended her every time. Yes, she was a minor character, and I suspected she would die sooner rather than later (most characters do in Westeros). But she was well written and interesting. She moved Jon forward as a person and stole every scene she was in. I soundly rejected the idea that her only being present for three seasons should determine her quality or importance as a character.
I still don’t entirely know if my guy friends were truly indifferent towards her, or if they simply enjoyed torturing me (probably the latter). Either way, my love of Ygritte has led me to question whether I have ever disregarded a high quality minor character simply due to their status as a just that: a minor character.
I believe it’s very easy to downplay those actors and characters that fill out the credits of movies and television. They flit on and off screen almost like something the viewer just manages to catch out of their peripheral vision. Some leave us wanting more, while others fall out of our consciousness almost the moment they enter it.
Not every minor character can be an Ygritte. They won’t all be engaging, nuanced, and well-acted. But, then again, neither will every major character. It is up to us, as viewers, to assign adoration and importance based on worth, not screen time.
Take Gilmore Girls as a timely example. The show tells the story of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore and their lives in the quaint and quirky town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. While the occupants of the town all function as minor characters, they are absolutely essential to coloring the town with vibrant personality and setting the show’s tone. Miss Patty, Babette, and Taylor are not always essential to the plot, but they serve the critical purpose of creating exposition and making it easier for a viewer to understand why the Gilmore girls are the way they are.
The same can be said for Mr. Filch, the nosy squib and caretaker of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series, Anne, the lost-soul turned do-gooder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, or Mose, a member of the Schrute family somehow even stranger than Dwight in The Office. These characters may not appear often or be of particular importance to the plot, but when they are present they keep us interested and they make us laugh.
Take a moment to imagine your own life without its minor characters. The Diag would be empty as you walked to class every day. There would be no one to take your order at Starbucks or to help you find a book at Ulrich’s. On game day, that swell of togetherness and school spirit would be shrunk to a stadium of the thirty-ish people that are important to you on a regular basis.
Don’t be like my stupid (but very lovable) guy friends. Take some time today to appreciate a minor character. Especially if it’s Ygritte. Have I mentioned how much I love Ygritte?
Images courtesy of Giphy, HBO, Kendall Hecker