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Since Craster got approved recently, I'd say it's fitting to follow it up with a re-discussion for Craster's direct successor in the TV show continuity.
What's the work?[]
Game of Thrones is a dark fantasy TV show based on the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin which ran from 2011-2019. A basic summary of the show is that multiple noble families, from exiled claimants with pet dragons to conniving backstabbers and warlords, fight for control over the land of Westeros, but concurrently, an ancient race of ice creatures known as the White Walkers have re-emerged from far north in the continent and aim to invade Westeros with an undead army. And the only thing keeping them out? A giant wall made of ice, but more importantly (and on a more relevant note), the Night's Watch: a military order composed of men who give their lives to defend Westeros from wildlings (barbarians living beyond the wall) and later the White Walkers. Anyone can volunteer to join (like Jon Snow, a key character in the universe), but really, much of it is composed of condemned criminals (specifically traitors to the realm, murderers, rapists and thieves) who would rather "take the black" than get executed, castrated or lose their hand.
The candidate in question is the most wicked ranger of the Night's Watch to appear in the show, and he mostly revolves around a notable event in the universe known as the Mutiny of Craster's Keep. While several minor characters are responsible for the mutiny and its aftermath in the books, all of the mutineers' crimes are all condensed into one man in the TV adaptation, and that man is Karl Tanner.
Who is he?[]
Karl Tanner was initially a low-level, but highly skilled and vicious cutthroat who regularly killed people for money. A dagger-wielding psycho, he had something of a reputation for being the most well-paid and deadly assassin in Flea Bottom, the poorest slum in Kings Landing. It's something he takes a lot of pride in and brags about to the present day, proclaiming himself a "legend in Gin Alley" for it. He was eventually arrested and sent to the Wall, where he became a Ranger of the Night's Watch. And if anything, he only gets worse from there.
What has he done?[]
As mentioned above, he killed several people (including knights) for money off-screen until he was sent to the Wall for his crimes, but that's only the beginning. After a battle with the army of the dead leaving the forces of the Night's Watch devastated, Karl and the remaining survivors retreat to Craster's Keep. Angry that Craster is practically starving the rangers to death by hoarding food for himself and his abused harem of daughter-wives, Karl Tanner and fellow ranger Rast start a tense situation between Craster and the rangers by openly antagonizing him, with Craster grabbing an axe and threatening to attack anyone who dares to call him a "bastard". Ignoring Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's orders to leave Craster be and wait outside the keep, Karl provokes Craster into lashing out at him by calling him a "daughter-f-cking wildling bastard" and kills Craster with a dagger to the throat. Karl then takes one of Craster's daughters hostage, threatening to kill her if he doesn't tell him where Craster is keeping his food. A chaotic mutiny triggers once Jeor Mormont is stabbed to death by Rast as a result of Karl's actions: loyal rangers and Karl's fellow mutineers start butchering one another until the mutineers are left victorious.
The remainder of the Night's Watch loyalists at Craster's Keep either flee back to Castle Black, are killed or taken prisoner by Karl's mutineers. Remaining the new undisputed leader of Craster's Keep, Karl Tanner rules the settlement with an iron fist, having many of Craster's daughter-wives routinely raped each night, drunkenly pressuring his own men to "F-CK 'EM 'TIL THEY'RE DEAD" and even keeps one of Craster's daughters as a personal pet, who he seems to have beaten into submission. No one at the keep is able to stop what Karl is doing as he is too good of a fighter to take down and Craster's daughters are too scared of him to try anything against him, and for good reason. Karl even has Jeor's dead body completely desecrated, keeping the late Lord Commander's skull as his personal makeshift chalice, using it to mock Jeor's legacy by gorging himself on wine with it. When Rast refuses to feed Jon Snow's captured direwolf (Ghost) and suggests that they should kill it, Karl reminds him of his former profession as an assassin and more or less threatens to kill him if he doesn't do what he's told, not caring at all about the fact that Rast basically saved him from Jeor Mormont in the mutiny. When one of Craster's wives brings in Craster's last-born son, Karl wastes little to no time to try and have the infant's throat slit, saying that he doesn't need another mouth to feed. He's only stopped once she says that Craster used to sacrifice his sons to the White Walkers, so Karl has Rast leave the baby out in the wilderness instead for the White Walkers to take away.
Later, Karl has Bran Stark, Hodor, Meera and Jojen Reed captured as they pass beyond the Wall. While his men relentlessly bully Hodor, Karl interrogates Bran, Meera and Jojen, correctly assuming that they are highborn and demands to know who they are. Karl claims that even though one highborn makes a valuable hostage, he still doesn't want any more mouths to feed and threatens to slit Meera's throat. Karl only stops once Rast informs him that Bran is the brother of Jon Snow, so he decides he can use them as leverage against the Night's Watch. Karl then sadistically tries to gang-rape Meera (just because he can) while forcing Jojen, Bran and Hodor to watch, but stops because 1. Jojen kept distracting him with threats through the use of his greensight and 2. a squad of Rangers lead by Jon Snow have arrived to avenge Jeor Mormont and to prevent the mutineers from feeding information to Mance Rayder's wildlings. With mutineers dropping left and right, Karl is confronted by Jon and gloats that he relished in the freedom of raping Craster's daughters before finally meeting his end when, during a lengthy duel with Jon, Karl's "pet" from earlier stabs him in the back, distracting Karl long enough for Jon to plunge his sword through the back of Karl's head.
Freudian Excuse(s)/Redeeming Qualities?[]
None at all. Karl Tanner is a traitorous and repulsive sociopath who took pride in his rapes and savagery every step of the way. Even though he mocked Craster's hedonistic lifestyle, Karl hypocritically steals Craster's role for himself, becoming a madman who makes the lives of Craster's daughter-wives a living Hell through mass rape and has no problem sacrificing a baby to the White Walkers just like Craster used to do. Although all he wanted was more food from Craster at first, Karl took full advantage of the mutiny he triggered, which was nothing more than an opportunity to relish in his own freedom and escape from the Night's Watch in the most depraved way possible (as the Wall is in theory a prison for exiled criminals).
He has no sense of honor or dignity either, playing dirty in his fight with Jon, violating the guest right and mockingly defying Jeor's orders when he starts the mutiny ("There are no laws beyond the Wall!"), followed up by desecrating Jeor's corpse after his murder. Even though he was against Rast's idea to kill Ghost, that was mainly Karl keeping Rast under his thumb by being a dick, spending more time hurling a tirade of insults at Rast than thinking about Ghost's well-being ("I could piss in any gutter and soak five of you!"), and his insults additionally highlight how he's completely ungrateful towards Rast for saving his life. And comparing Meera's curly hair to his mother? That was just Karl being a creep.
On a much more minor note, Karl being a serious alcoholic is irrelevant, as his moral agency is still clear as day.
Heinous Standards[]
I won't beat around the bush about this: Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire are both infamous for having exceedingly high heinous standards. Brutal mass murders with callous disregard for human life, horrific executions, sadistic torture, mutilation and rape all constantly being enacted by cruel tyrants like Joffrey Baratheon or The Mad King, or pure savages such as Ramsay Bolton, The Mountain or Rorge. A lot of messed up stuff happens in both continuities, and many characters who don't qualify or fight on the "good side" aren't exactly saints themselves. Then there's Walder Frey, the one who oversaw the Red Wedding, one of the most awful and soul-crushing scenes to be shown in literature or TV today.
Believe it or not though, I think Karl Tanner passes the heinous standards of the show. He's just as bad as Craster in a pretty unique way. Like Craster, Karl has virtually no resources to work with (well, until the rest of the mutineers become his goons, of course) unlike most other candidates, yet he goes all out with everything he's got despite lacking the screentime that PE villains like Ramsay have. To put it into perspective: the contract killings in his past life, instigating the slaughter at Craster's Keep, continuing Craster's horrid legacy by having rape-orgies with Craster's daughter-wives, child sacrifice and an attempting to gang-rape a girl in front of her own brother. For a guy who only appeared in 4 episodes of the show, Karl crammed a lot into his screen time, while more prominent villains committed their atrocities across longer periods of time. His crimes are exceedingly vile and unique for a guy who started out with basically nothing, so I do think it pushes him past the baseline when compared to villains with far more power.
Additional note for those curious about numbers:
- Craster claims he "has more daughters than he can count", and indeed, he has large crowds-worth of them.
- At the absolute most, 100~ rangers reside at Craster's Keep at the time of the rebellion. Many of them are presumably killed, become traitors (or both!), or flee to Castle Black (at least Samwell Tarly, Grenn and Eddison Tollett do).
- What's left of the "the mutineers" are made up of 13 Night's Watch brothers: Karl himself, Rast and 11 unnamed members.
Final Verdict[]
tl;dr: Petty killer-for-hire triggers a small-scale rebellion and turns a settlement full of defenseless women into a rape orgy camp. Also sacrificed a baby to a race of ice demons and tries gang-raping a girl in front of her brother. Make of that what you will.