Now that the season 7 of Game of Thrones has ended, many core characters have died. Those who have survived will be the key characters in the next season. In this season, finally all the threads join together to form a rope, linking all the loose ends which have been miasmatic before. Jon, Daenerys , Cersei, Sansa and many more fight over control of power to rule over Westeros. Each player, succeeding and failing in their strategy which was planned in this season. Now that the season has ended, it is the perfect time to assess and judge which player played the best with the tools they had available. Who played the Game of Thrones the Best…let’s find out:

 Daenerys Targaryen

She definitely was the strongest character in the start of the season with the largest army at her disposal, namely the Dothraki’s (140,000 riders), The Unsullied (8000 infantry sward and spearmen), The Reach( 80,000+ ships), The Dorne ( 20,000+ships), The Greyjoy rebels (3000 men+100 ships). And let’s not forget about her three dragons. By all rights, she would have ended atop the Iron Throne. But she failed miserably. She lost two of her three allies, Dorne and Highgarden, and the leader of Greyjoys- Yara was captured. She did gain a new ally, Jon Snow, but he didn’t make up for her losses. And she idiotically delivered one of her dragons to the Night King, one of her serious rival for military hegemony. So yes, Daenerys Targaryn bottoms our list.

Petyr “littlefinger” Baelish

Now dead by the end of the season, all of his scheming amounted to nothing. Arya Stark cut his throat, while his Knights of Vale stood and watched. His failure is second to Daenerys as all his efforts backfired on him. In the plan to turn the two Stark sisters against each other, Sansa accused him of murder and treason on multiple occasions. Brandon Stark giving the specifics of his crimes and Arya giving the killing blow ended littlefingers little games.

Olenna Tyrell, Ellaria Sand and the Greyjoy siblings

Daenerys’s three allies all started off the season with a bang being a part of world’s strongest allied army, but it all ended in a disaster. Olenna is dead. Ellaria was forced to see her daughter die. Yara Greyjoy was captured by Euron Greyjoy and now Theon Greyjoy is on a dangerous mission to rescue her.

The alliance definitely made sense in the beginning with Olenna seeking for vengeance against the Lannisters, Yara/Theon needed help to overthrow their uncle Euron. But problem with bandwagon’ing’ is that when allied with the strongest force, Daenerys proved too timid and uncreative with her strategies. Which backfired on these three houses.

Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion’s case is a little bit different from the players we have talked about so far. He being the Hand of the Queen Daenerys, he was supposed to outsmart his sister Queen Cersei. Clearly he didn’t perform that well in that department, but being Dany’s Hand it was about maintaining his position and using it to steer her towards right course of action.

He did alright, as by the end of the season he was her Hand, and Daenerys clearly trusted him.

Arya Stark

Arya is the first character we are looking at who succeeded more then she failed. Her strategy was plain and simple. Kill her House’s enemies. She started off her season by killing Walder Frey and all his male heirs, in retaliation to the Red Wedding, and ended it with killing Littlefinger at the end for his numerous crimes against Starks.

It worked out all right; as eliminating the Freys helped reduce a powerful force in Westerosi politics, and killing Littlefinger has actually solidified Stark control over Knights of Vale.

Euron Greyjoy

Euron started off as a weak ruler of a divided Island Kingdom, but ended with a real shot to the Iron Throne as he was promised a marriage with Cersei.

Sansa Stark

Being a timid and scared little girl in the previous seasons, Sansa had a lot of responsibility this season. She had to maintain North’s loyalty towards Jon while she was fending off Littlefinger’s schemes. She succeeded brilliantly. Sansa was probably the only character seen on-screen preparing for the long winter.

Jon Snow

Jon being the only character who faced and survived the White Walkers, he had the job of spreading a word about the impending threat coming for the living; the Dead. But no one believed his plea at the beginning as whatever he was saying belonged to an old folk lore which no one believed. But by the end of the season he managed to convince all the rulers about the fact that these internal squabbles will gain nothing against the Dead who are marching for the living.

Jon may have failed to rally Cersei, but he did manage to convince Daenerys to fight alongside him. As having her beside him brings in two major military assets; Dragons and the Drangonglass.

Cersei Lannister

Yes, this season belongs to her. At the start of the season Cersei was friendless, she was surrounded by enemies, and the kingdom was under a huge dept to the Iron Bank. Yes she was in the worst situation possible. Anyone would have betted against her.

In fact, she ended up in a position where she has most chances of winning the war. She neutralized most of her enemies, got Euron as an ally and bought along the all powerful Iron Bank. Used Iron Banks money to buy a strong mercenary force and pitted her two strong rivals, Daenerys and the Night King against eachother.

Thus, concluding the fact that it was Cersei Lannister who played the Game of Thrones best …agree or not? Let us know in the comment box below.