GRRM's Use of Villains in the ASOIAF Universe (Spoilers Extended)

Background

In this post, I thought it would be interesting to discuss some of GRRMs comments that he has made on the use of villains in the series. With how ASOIAF has morphed and changed over time (originally a trilogy, an abandoned 5 year gap, etc) I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how he has used some of them on a macro level.

Which death was the saddest to write? And which you enjoyed more?
GRRM: The Red Wedding was the hardest thing I´ve ever written. I don´t know that I have actually enjoyed any of them. Even when you kill a bad guy, it can be hard... he´s one of your children too. Besides, good villains are hard to find, and you always have the nagging doubt that maybe you´ll need him down the line. -SSM: Asshai.com Forum Chat

The Creation of Ramsay Bolton

With the deaths of his biggest "first act" villains (Joffrey/Tywin), it seems that GRRM orginally intended to have Tyrion as more of a defined villain:

Question: Do you have a favorite character?

GRRM: I've got to admit I kind of like Tyrion Lannister. He's the villain of course, but hey, there's nothing like a good villain. -SSM, Amazon.com Interview: 13 Oct 1999

and:

and Tyrion Lannister will besiege and burn Winterfell. -Original Outline

If interested: Changes to GRRM's Original Outline

and with GRRM in need of a good villain/unable to get Tyrion back to Winterfell in order to besiege/burn it, he came up with Ramsay:

QUESTION: What inspired you to create Ramsay Snow? And also, the Bolton House is a very strange and interesting family, a complete mystery. Will there be more told about them, both ancient and modern?

GEORGE MARTIN: Boy, a lot of interest in the Boltons here! What inspired me? I needed another bad guy - I killed a few good ones. -SSM, AssemblyCon (St. Petersburg): 2017

If interested: The 2017 GRRM St. Petersburg Interview

Cersei's Status

From a narrative perspective, it really makes sense that Cersei wins her trial/"returns to power". She is too good of a villain not to keep around for a bit. And while Mercy is an old chapter that can still be revised, right now our best info is that she did:

If interested (GRRM gave a no comment about it): The "Queen" in TWoW Mercy I

Euron Greyjoy

The last thing that I wanted to mention in this quick post on villains, is the development of Euron Greyjoy. While GRRM was always seemingly setting him up a major villain (since the beginning of ACoK at least), it seems that he may have intended for Euron to be Dany's villain but he decided to elevate him to Bran's.

GRRM originally had both Euron/Victarion go to Slaver's Bay, before changing it and now Euron seems to be setup for endgame things with Bran/Bloodraven (not necessarily saying he won't be an enemy for Dany as well).

If interested: The Split Greyjoy Plotline

TLDR: Just some quick thoughts on villains and on how GRRM has used them/created them and what he could continue to do with them.