I saw your discussion with Fallen Angel re: Song Of Ice And Fire. I'd have to disagree with your point about Martin's villains really being villainous. Literally EVERYONE in that book except for Joffrey is "shades of grey". Even Jaime. Even Theon, who is a complete dick and my second-least-favourite character. That's why Joffrey sticks out for being so poorly written. It's like Martin set out to purposefully create a conventional, unidimensional villain just so people could have someone to hate. And yeah, it works, but still, it's a little heavy-handed, and at odds with how nobody else is entirely evil.