History Literature / AGameOfThrones

* GeniusBonus: At one point Ned Stark observes that Tywin Lannister is "as much fox as lion". NiccoloMachiavelli noted in his classic work on politics, ''ThePrince'', that a successful lord should be able to combine the traits of these two animals

** Catelyn tells Jon this after Bran's fall puts him in a coma. It doesn't make sense, as Jon had nothing to do with Bran's accident, but she was just bitter with grief and wanted to remind Jon that she had no love for him.
** And Arya says it to Sansa, telling her that the should have cut off her head instead of Lady's.

* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Catelyn tells Jon this after Bran's fall puts him in a coma. It doesn't make sense, as Jon had nothing to do with Bran's accident, but she was just bitter with grief and wanted to remind Jon that she had no love for him.

The first book in GRRM's {{doorstopper}} ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fantasy series, released in 1996.

* Nightmare Sequence: Ned has recurring dreams about the death of his sister Lyanna and of the mysterious promise that he made to her. Later on, after being thrown in the dungeon, he has a particularly creepy nightmare of the late King Robert mocking him for putting HonorBeforeReason and endangering his family, only Robert's face begins to crack and then shatters, revealing a horrifyingly surreal image of Littlefinger.

** Maester Aemon of the Night's Watch is a [[spoiler:Targaryen]].

** [[spoiler:Eddard Stark's first appearance has him beheading a man for deserting the Night Watch. Ned himself is later beheaded as a traitor to the realm, right after having made a false confession in front of the whole city.]]

** Viserys demands the golden crown that is rightfully his and the Dothraki have promised him. [[spoiler:Khal Drogo proceeds to melt gold into a pot and empty it on Viserys's head.]]
** Eddard Stark's first appearance has him beheading a man for deserting the Night Watch. [[spoiler:Ned himself is later beheaded as a traitor to the realm, right after having made a false confession in front of the whole city.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar - In universe. It's said that the song about Robert's death because of a boar is really about Cersei.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!" Said by Joffrey, sealing Ned's death even though the action is basically a declaration for war.]]

** Joffrey told Sansa that he that he would be merciful. [[spoiler:He never said that he would spare Eddard. Had he not been merciful, Ned would have been drawn & quartered as well.]]

* ConvenientComa: Bran finds out about [[spoiler:Jaime and Cersei's adultery,]] and promptly (with a little help from Jaime) goes into a prolonged coma, waking with Laser-Guided Amnesia about the whole thing. All this prevents him from telling Ned, who spends the rest of the book trying to dig up the very same secret.

* DecoyProtagonist - The highborn Waymar Royce who joins the Nights Watch. With his fancy clothes, great fighting ability and can-do attitude, he seems like the typical epic fantasy hero. Then a White Walker turns him into a zombie. And after that [[spoiler:there's Ned Stark]].
* DiabolusExMachina

* ExactWords: A double-whammy from Khal Drogo. "No blood can be shed" in Vaes Dothrak, the Dothraki people's holy city, and Viserys repeatedly demands that Khal make good on his promise to give him a "golden crown". [[spoiler:When Drogo has had enough of him, he dumps a pot of molten gold over his head, killing him without spilling a drop of blood.]]
** [[spoiler:Joffrey told Sansa that he never said that he would spare Eddard, only that he would be merciful. Had he not been, Ned would have been drawn & quartered as well.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}} - [[spoiler:"You Starks are hard to kill."]]

* MonsterMunch: The prologue features three characters, two of whom immediately die at the hands of the Others, proving that they do exist after all. Somewhat subverted in that [[spoiler: they both come back as wights, so this isn't, strictly speaking, their only role]].

* PoorCommunicationKills - [[spoiler:Lysa Arryn's letter pointing to the Lannisters as the ones who killed her husband was a warning, telling them to stay away. Instead, it convinced Ned to accept Robert's offer of being Hand.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!.]]
* YankTheDogsChain: See WhamEpisode. It looks like Ned will be able to take the black and see Jon again if he only confesses to his crimes...[[spoiler:which is blown to pieces when Joffrey decides to execute him against everyone's better judgement.]]

* WhamEpisode: Ned confesses his supposed crimes in front of the whole city as he has been promised exile to the Wall instead of execution. [[spoiler:Joffrey, however, being the cruel little brat that he is, orders his execution throwing a spanner in the Lannisters' plans.]]

* ArcWords: "The seed is strong." The dying words of Jon Arryn which [[spoiler:he repeated after discovering that ALL Baratheons in recorded history have black hair... save for the three children of Robert and Cersei.]]

* SweetAndSourGrapes: A minor example in the discovery of the direwolf pups in the first chapter. Jon persuades Ned that they're an omen as there's one for each of his five children, which only works because he's discounted himself (despite his desire [[LikeASonToMe to be treated as a trueborn Stark]] being his fundamental source of {{angst}}). Bran notices this and finds it very moving, but as they set off Jon discovers a sixth pup in the snow - a mute albino runt whose mother had abandoned it.

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