History Literature / AStormOfSwords

** When Oberyn Martell duels the Mountain, he brings up the [[YouKilledMyFather murder of his sister Elia.]] The Mountain's response is "Who?" Presumably this was a deliberate taunt; it's hard to imagine even Gregor would forget raping and murdering the wife of the heir to the throne...

* DisproportionateRetribution: The Red Wedding is the result of a hodgepodge of various old grudges, resentments and jealousies: [[spoiler:Walder Frey has Robb Stark, his mother Catelyn and half his bannermen murdered because Robb broke a promise to marry one of Frey's daughters.]] Lady Barbrey Dustin backs the Boltons' involvement because she resents the fact that she doesn't get to marry any of [[spoiler:the Starks.]] She expresses a desire to feed [[spoiler:Ned Stark's]] bones to her dogs.

** Roose Bolten actually chuckles in response to one of Jaime's witticisms at dinner.

* ExactWords: Used for a darkly humorous moment in the epilogue, when the Brotherhood Without Banners captures Merrett Frey. Lem Lemoncloak is preparing to hang him, but Tom Sevenstrings presses him for information about the war, promising to tell Lem to let him go if he tells them anything useful. Merrett cooperates, so Tom honors his promise. He tells Lem to let him go, and Lem [[NoSell tells him to go bugger himself]].

* HopeSpot: The fight between Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper and the ''evil, evil'' Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides, includes not merely a hope spot but a giant hope searchlight. At first the Viper looks rather outclassed by the Mountain. Then the Viper turns it around and puts the Mountain on his back, badly wounded by a poisoned spear. He steps on the Mountain's chest to finish him off -- and the Mountain grabs his foot, yanks him down, and taunts him horribly before smashing his skull with one enormous fist.

** [[BreakTheCutie Sansa]] looks like she's about to escape [[DecadentCourt King's Landing]] and [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]] with Ser Dontos, who gets her off the grounds, through a forest, and to a ship, where she finds out the one behind her rescue was none other than [[spoiler:[[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger]], the closest thing the series has to a BigBad who's already given off some creepy vibes for her.]]

* EverythingsWorseWithBears: One of the wights that attacks the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men is a ''bear.''

* KickTheDog: Invoked metaphorically by Varys after Tyrion says he should kill him even though he's come to break Tyrion out of jail the night before his execution:
-->The faithful dog is kicked, and no matter how the spider weaves, he is never loved.

** When Jaime hears from Roose Bolton that Tyrion has been married to [[spoiler:Sansa]] he remembers how happy Tyrion had briefly been with his first wife Tysha, who Jaime remembers as [[spoiler:"his little crofter's daughter". At the end of the book he admits to Tyrion that Tywin had forced him to lie to him about Tysha really being a whore he'd hired to pretend to love Tyrion, with devastating effects on [[DespairEventHorizon Tyrion's psyche]], [[WeUsedToBeFriends their relationship]], and [[{{Patricide}} Twyin's bowels]].]]

* FalseReassurance: Whitebeard tells Daenerys that Westeros still remembers her brother Rheagar as being wise, and noble and brave. When Daenerys asks about [[TheCaligula her father]], he hesitates and replies that [[ExactWords they remember him too]].

* HeirInLaw: Lord Tywin's desire for Tyrion to go through with a marriage to another member of the [[spoiler:Stark family, Sansa]], since she's supposed to be the last heir of the family and also Tywin has no wish of ever letting Tyrion inherit Casterly Rock. [[spoiler:Robb Stark goes so far as to name Jon Snow his heir in the event of him dying childless]].]]

* DramaticIrony: While staying at an inn/brothel called the Peach, one of the "serving girls" jokingly tells Arya and Gendry that she might be King Robert's bastard. Arya does note her Baratheon-esque black hair, but internally dismisses the notion--"That didn't mean anything though. Gendry has the same kind of hair too. Lots of people have black hair."

* NextThingTheyKnew: Robb, injured after a difficult battle and grieving after hearing of Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths, is "[[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow comforted]]" by Jeyne Westerling.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Tyrion Lannister's response to seeing his brother's severed right hand for the first time is to crack up laughing at the apparent conspiracy to chop chunks off of Lannisters. It's at least partly hysterical, given that Jaime is probably his favourite family member.

** A [[RuleOfThree third example]] comes when Bran remembers the legend of The Rat Cook who was [[BalefulPolymorph transformed into a rat and cursed to eat his own young]], the gods cursed him not for committing murder, or for serving his victim in a pie to his father, but because the prince was his guest.

* ChekhovsGunman: Mormont's raven, who disappears shortly after the mutiny at Craster's Kpee, and reappears during [[spoiler:the election of the next Lord Commander to turn the tides in favor of Jon.]]

->''Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends.''

---> [[spoiler:She was no whore. I never bought her for you. That was a lie that Father commanded me to tell. Tysha was... she was what she seemed to be. A crofter’s daughter, chance met on the road.]]

** When Brienne asks Jaime [[spoiler: why she's ordering her to find and protect Sansa if Jaime believes she killed Joffrey]], Jaime's thoughts on his late son are clear.

* SympathyForTheDevil: While Tyrion and Sansa suffer more horrific and relentless abuse under Joffrey than anyone else in King's Landing, they feel perhaps more genuine pity for [[spoiler:his death]] that anyone else (except his mother), as they realize during [[spoiler:his dying moments, as he's choking to death]] that in the end he's just a spoiled, helpless 13-year-old boy.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The murder of prisoners Willem Lannister and Tion Frey by Rickard Karstark. The dead bodies of the young boys who died unarmed are described in detail to drive the point home.

* TournamentArc: The [[LetMeTellYouAStory story told by Meera to Bran]] involves a [[TheTourney tourney]] with a [[BlackKnight mysterious knight]], [[spoiler: which is heavily implied to be the Tourney of Harrenhal, where all the major players of Robert's Rebellion met, and most of all where Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark met, while the mysterious knight is speculated to be Lyanna Stark herself. All this things are probably the reason why Bran has never heard such story.]]

** Stannis also recalls his father taking him and Robert to court and both boys being awed by the man they saw sitting on the Iron Throne. Stannis then relates that years later, King Aerys had injured himself on the throne earlier that day, so the man they saw was Tywin Lannister (Aerys' Hand of the King) sitting in his place.