Game Of Thrones: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Locke

There are so many iconic television characters who have emerged from Game of Thrones. While many of the central characters come from George R. R. Martin’s novels, some supporting characters were created specifically for the show. One such character is Locke who was introduced in Season 3.

Locke is a ruthless Bolton bannerman who comes across Jaime and Brienne on their way to King’s Landing. He reappears in Season 4 as he is sent to find and capture Bran Stark. Locke may not be remembered by many fans now, but even in his brief appearance, he left a lot of questions and confusion about his character.

10 Taking Jaime’s Hand

Certainly, Locke’s biggest contribution to the story was when he viciously cut off Jaime Lannister’s hand while he was Locke’s prisoner. The moment was a huge shock and changed the character of Jaime forever.

However, it’s still unclear what motivated Locke to do such a thing. When he cuts off the hand, the audience gets the sense that he is just a sadistic man who doesn’t think about the consequences. However, it’s clear later on that he is actually quite cunning. It feels like a random act from someone who appears to be smarter than that.

9 Plan To Find Bran

When Locke is brought back in Season 4, he is ordered by Roose Bolton to find Bran Stark and capture him. Roose knows Bran is alive and is worried the North will rally around a surviving male Stark.

However, Locke’s plan to find Bran seems pretty farfetched. Since Jon Snow is Bran’s half-brother, Locke decides Bran will likely go to Castle Black to find Jon. Locke then joins the Night’s Watch, buddies up to Jon, then goes on a mission Beyond the Wall where he happens to find Bran by pure coincidence.

8 Becoming A Ranger

Even though Locke had no idea Bran would be Beyond the Wall, he decides that is the best place to go looking for him. Therefore, he attempts to become a ranger with the Night’s Watch so he can join Jon’s mission.

However, Locke is only at Castle Black for a few days when he offers to join Jon’s team. Somehow, Jon decides it would be a good idea to allow a new recruit to come with them. It seems like that is done out of convenience for the story rather than something that makes logical sense.

7 Leaving The Reeds Alive

When Locke does somehow manages to locate Bran and his friends, they are being held hostage by the Night’s Watch mutineers at Craster’s Keep. Locke attacks the keep along with Jon and his men, then splits away from the group to find Bran.

He takes Bran and leaves, even though Jojen and Meera Reed saw his face and know that he is apparently a member of the Night’s Watch. By leaving them alive, Locke was pretty much ensuring he would be caught as the Reeds could easily tell Jon who took Bran.

6 Ransoming Brienne

When they take Jaime and Brienne captive, Locke instantly shows what a despicable person he is by planning to assault Brienne. Jaime manages to dissuade Locke from the assault by claiming that Brienne comes from a rich family who will pay for her release if she is unharmed.

However, after Locke takes over Harrenhal, he is insulted by the initial ransom offered to him for Brienne and he immediately decides to kill Brienne. If he really didn’t care about the ransom that much, it seems unlikely he would have listened to Jaime in the first place.

5 Keeping Brienne

When Jaime and Brienne are taken to Harrenhal, they meet with Roose Bolton. He is apologetic for Locke’s abuse and agrees to let Jaime go to King’s Landing to make up for the crime. Little does Jaime know, but Roose is planning to switch sides and betray Robb Stark for Tywin Lannister.

However, when Jaime insists Brienne goes to King’s Landing with him, Roose refuses and says Brienne will be Locke’s prisoner. But if Roose is trying to please the Lannisters, it’s unlikely he’d be willing to anger Jaime just to allow his henchman to keep Brienne.

4 The Bear

There have been a lot of creatures in Game of Thrones, from the direwolves to the dragons. But Locke is the only character who had a bear as a pet. He somehow kept the bear in Harrenhal and even made a pit where the bear could fight prisoners.

But how did Locke ever come to have a bear? Where did he find it? How did he capture it? It seems like such an impractical animal to keep inside of a castle and there is no explanation for it at all.

3 Unpunished

Despite the way that he talks down to him and doesn’t seem to care at all when he dies, Roose Bolton shows an awful lot of loyalty to Locke. As he is attempting to become an ally of the Lannisters, Locke chops off the hand of the heir to the Lannister family.

It seems like the Lannisters would want revenge for that act, but Roose does not offer Locke as a sacrifice and ends up rewarding him. There is no way a Lannister ally would be able to get away with such an attack on the Lannisters.

2 Pointless Return

An argument could be made that Locke was not given as a sacrifice to the Lannisters because the show had other plans for the character. But after seeing when the character was used for in Season 4, it’s clear his return was pointless.

Locke is sent on a mission to capture Bran, he manages to track him down and is almost immediately killed. It is one of the most pointless storylines in the show and it could have been any other character who filled that role.

1 Book Origins

Some characters in the show were created to fill in gaps or add to a new storyline. What is strange about Locke is that he serves the same purpose as a character from the books but the show decided to change his name and personality.

In the books, Jaime and Brienne are taken captive by a group of sellswords known as the Brave Companions. Vargo Hoat is their slimy heads who orders Jaime’s hand to be cut off. It seems strange that the show would choose to go with a much more plain character rather than the more interesting one the books already established.

About The Author

Colin McCormick
(2027 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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