House Lannister

"Hear me Roar"

-Lannister Slogan

House Lannister is one of several great houses in the fictional setting of Westerns as featured in both A Song of Ice and Fire, and the TV adaptation "Game of Thrones". They are represented by a golden lion against a red background, and are known for their great wealth acquired from gold mines, but also notorious for their ruthlessness, underhandedness, and general lack of honor. Though that said, not all of the Lannisters are wicked (Tyrion, Kevan, Lancel, and Myrcella Baratheon, for instance). Nevertheless, the house as a whole frequently serve a villainous/antagonistic role, and also employ other brutal characters, such as Gregor Clegane and Set Amory Lorch.

They war with the Starks and the Baratheon over the right to rule the Seven Kingdoms (as the Lannisters support King Joffrey Baratheon, while the Starks wish Joffrey dead for his killing of their patriarch Ned Stark).

After the Red Wedding massacre (secretly orchestrated by Lannister patriarch Tywin Lannister), the Lannister appear to achieve victory, but it proves short-lived, as Joffrey is shortly thereafter poisoned, and then Tywin Lannister is killed by his long-abused son Tyrion shortly after that. In addition, the Lannister gold mines go dry, most of their men are dead by the time the War of the Five Kings ends, and they lose most of their power and influence.

In the TV Series, Cersei Lannister becomes the new Queen of Westeros after destroying the Great Sept of Balor and slaughtering most of her enemies (and dozens if not hundreds of innocent people too). However, the Lannister victory is again short-lived, as Daenerys Targaryen comes to Westerns intending to take it from the Lannisters. Even after the common enemy of the White Walkers is revealed, Cersei arrogantly refuses to work with Daenerys and Jon Snow against them, prompting a disgusted Jamie Lannister to abandon her.

Trivia

 * They are loosely based off of Houses Lancaster and York from the real life War of the Roses, but as something of a reversal; typically House York were considered the "bad guys" by most historians, while the Lancasters (whose name most resembles the Lannister name), were seen as the "good guys" by most historians.
 * Ironically, their sigil greatly resembles that of House Gryffindor from Harry Potter, despite being in many ways the opposite of Gryffindor (villainous instead of heroic, dishonorable and treacherous instead of loyal and courageous, etc.)