It's Time We Talk About the High Sparrow on Game of Thrones

Hands down, the second most awful person on Game of Thrones right now (behind Ramsay, duh) is the High Sparrow, that nauseatingly pious, disgustingly humble, and terribly manipulative religious leader who makes Cersei Lannister take the most humiliating walk of shame ever. But who is he, and just how does he get so powerful?

The answer lies in season five's ominously titled episode, "High Sparrow." On the episode, members of "the Sparrows," a religious movement seeking equality for the poor and condemning the excesses of the rich, drag the current High Septon from a brothel and force him to walk naked down the street. Cersei Lannister, sensing an opportunity to root out her enemies, seeks out the leader of the Sparrows, a humble septon who has been mockingly titled the High Sparrow, a name he subsequently adopts because it amuses him.

To Cersei's surprise, the religious leader is not working in a fancy sept, but serving soup barefoot in a grimy alley in King's Landing. Instead of arresting him, Cersei names him the new High Septon, and reinstates "the Faith Militant," a military faction with the power to bear arms and dispense justice. This, of course, does not go so well. The High Sparrow, unlike pretty much everyone else in King's Landing, is a truly devout man. He believes in the Faith of the Seven, equality among men, and rooting out sin wherever it grows. As a result, he cannot be coerced, or bribed — even by the Queen.

Cue Cersei's arrest, which ends with that awful walk. It just goes to show, your chickens — or Sparrows, in this case — do always come home to roost.