The Most Underrated Character on ‘Game of Thrones’

Okay, we have a mostly calm, quiet sea of rumours and theories and leaks ahead of us before Season 8. Before that inevitable storm of a season, I just want to take some time out to appreciate a character who has, in my opinion, been rather undervalued on the show.

Let’s talk about Meera Reed. I don’t just choose to write about this because I’ve nursed a little a crush on her ever since Season 3. That took me back by surprise. She doesn’t look my type at all but that just goes to show you don’t really know whom you’re attracted to until you see the way they talk, move, speak, smile, etc etc. It’s not so much the face or the body or the hair as the way that the person inside uses those things that makes them attractive. Not that Meera is conventionally unnattractive, quite the contrary, yet it took two or three seasons of solid characterization before I realized I had a bit of a thing for her.

Unfortunately Bran seems to go from liking and admiring her to becoming completely oblivious to the fact that she has, as she points out, almost died for him. It’s not just the line she’s best known for – ‘Some people will always need help. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth helping’- but everything else, too. Jojen was guided by his green dreams, Bran wanted to fly, Summer is spiritually connected to Bran and Hodor is bound to him in service- this makes Meera the person who is least obligated to make the dangerous journey beyond the Wall, and yet she does it anyway. She could’ve lived a comfy life at Greywater Watch but she chose to follow the boys on a trip to hell.

Compare her to Arya Stark for a moment, and it becomes clear just how much we prefer avengers to protectors. Campaigns of revenge and conquest go down in legend but what happens to the protectors? What happens to the Meera’s and Briennes of the world?

Speaking of House Reed’s ancestral seat, Greywater Watch, it sounds utterly fascinating and eerily similar to Valenwood, the homeland of the Wood Elves in The Elder Scrolls. I’d really like to try conceptualizing it and explore environment design some more once I finish up the storyboard course. Bethesda confirmed the development of The Elder Scrolls VI during E3 last week so that’s something to potentially look forward to, and I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to be set in either Cyrodil or Valenwood.