Mance Rayder

"The freedom to make my own mistakes was all I ever wanted."

- Mance to Jon Snow.

Mance Rayder is a character featured in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. He is a former member of the Night's Watch who defected to the Free Folk (AKA the wildlings) eventually rising to become their leader, officially styling himself as the King-Beyond-the-Wall.

In the television series, Mance is portrayed by Ciarán Hinds and serves as one of the main antagonists of the Night's Watch storyline during Seasons 2, 3, and 4 (despite not being seen in Season 2.)

Though he is considered a villain because he is a major enemy of the Night's Watch, Mance Rayder is not inherently evil and is more of an Anti-Villain, because he genuinely cares for the well-being of his people and has many honorable qualities.

Biography
With the looming threat of the White Walkers and their army of undead wights, Mance manages to unite all of the warring wildling clans into a single army with himself as their King-Beyond-the-Wall, seeking to launch a massive assault on Castle Black and force his way through the tunnel separating the Seven Kingdoms from the lands Beyond the Wall in order to escape the coming winter, though his plans are temporarily derailed when Jon Snow infiltrates his army and learns of his strengths and weaknesses, which he relays to his sworn brothers in the Night's Watch, who use the information to keep Mance's forces at bay in the ensuing battle.

Before Mance can strike again, he and his remaining men are ambushed and captured by Stannis Baratheon. Though Stannis pursues an alliance with Mance in retaking the North from Roose Bolton in exchange for clemency for deserting the Night's Watch, Mance refuses to bend the knee and is subsequently executed.

In the novels, Mance is still alive, but is being held captive at Winterfell by Ramsay Bolton after Jon sent Mance to Winterfell to try and rescue his sister, Arya Stark (actually Jeyne Poole.)

Personality
Mance is a charismatic, calm, and determined man with strong leadership qualities. It is these qualities that allowed him to defect from the Night's Watch to join the Free Folk, and quickly rise to the title of King-Beyond-The-Wall. Mance's exceptional social skills enabled him to unite the diverse wildling clans, no matter how different they were from one another or how much they wanted to kill one another.

Mance is also very aware of the threat the White Walkers will pose to the entire world and used it to his advantage in convincing the wildlings to unite as a singular army. Because of his honest yet stern persona, he earned the respect and admiration of the toughest of wildlings and even giants. Mance states himself, however, that his trusting nature is also a weakness of his; having honestly let himself believe that Jon Snow was truly defecting from the Night's Watch as he did.

However, even when faced with such betrayal or adversity, Mance keeps a calm and level-headed attitude, not even growing overly angry when discovering Snow's attempt to assassinate him. Above all else, Mance cherishes the Free Folk and their culture, performing dangerous and world-changing actions in the hopes of finding them safety from the coming winter.