Karl Tanner

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“	Karl Tanner from Gin Alley, drinking wine from the skull of Jeor f-ckin' Mormont. [Karl starts pretending to have a conversation with Mormont's skull] Any command for us, Lord Commander? What's that? "F-ck 'em 'til they're dead?" D'YOU HEAR THAT BOYS?! F-CK 'EM 'TIL THEY'RE DEAD!	„
	~ Karl Tanner's drunken speech.

Karl Tanner is a supporting antagonist in Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. He is a former criminal who served in the Night's Watch, tasked to guard the Wall between the Seven Kingdoms and the mysterious and dangerous lands beyond the Wall. After the Fight at the Fist, Karl eventually turns on his brothers and Lord Commander for food and shelter at Craster's Keep.

After murdering Craster, Karl becomes the secondary antagonist of the Night's Watch storyline in Seasons 3 and 4.

He was portrayed by Burn Gorman.

What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]

He came to the Night's Watch as a criminal after a career as a successful assassin and brutal mercenary.
In his first active scene, he mutinied against the Night's Watch by murdering Craster and taking over his keep. Though Craster absolutely deserved it, Karl had taken his place and prompted other deserters of the Watch to join him.
- Also, just after murdering Craster, he marks Lord Commander Jeor Mormont for Rast to stab him, proving that Mormont was the primary target.
He raped Craster's daughters out of sheer spite.
He mutilated Mormont's body and drank wine from his victim's skull in order to prove himself superior.
He turned on his fellow black brothers and settled in Craster's Keep, fighting them during the mutiny.
- He also held in chains the brothers who fought against him during the rebellion, such as Grenn and Edd, who only by chance managed to escape back to Castle Black.
He sacrificed Craster's last newborn son in exchange for protection from the White Walkers, like Craster used to do before him. While Karl likely assumed the White Walkers probably killed the babies and turned them into wights, the babies were not killed but turned into living White Walkers, losing their humanity and becoming malicious creatures of ice. Thus, Karl is responsible for turning a person into a demon of ice.
He poorly treats and intimidates his fellow mutineers. He even threatens the life of Rast, who helped him succeed in the rebellion.
His hatred for highborn people was so intense that he was willing to abuse Bran Stark, Meera, and Jojen Reed just because he considered the possibility that they were noblemen. He also held them captive, while his men abused the crippled Hodor.
When he decided he needed only Bran for a valuable hostage's sake and deemed Meera to have outlived her usefulness, his instinctive response was to attempt to rape her and he taunted her brother to watch her get raped.
In his last fight against Jon Snow, he proved that he had no problem fighting dirty or trying to kill his opponent with his hand trapped under his legs. He also tried to kill one of Craster's daughters, only for Jon to use the distraction to impale him in the back of the head.
Although he was forced to grow up in poor conditions in the alleys of King's Landing, this is not shown sympathetically due to him being an extremely cruel and sadistic person.
While he made sure to feed the direwolf Ghost, it was probably to use it to defend Craster's Keep against the Night's Watch and other wildlings.