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1This page covers tropes found in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
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3ASongOfIceAndFire/TropesAToD | ASongOfIceAndFire/TropesEToI | '''Tropes J to R''' | ASongOfIceAndFire/TropesSToZ | [[YMMV/ASongOfIceAndFire YMMV]]
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9* {{Jerkass}}: When the Night's Watch has to choose a Lord Commander, Sam admits that Alliser Thorne would normally make an excellent candidate -- he's an anointed knight, an experienced man of the Night's Watch and a skilled warrior. And he's also such an unbelievable asshole and bully that the men of the Watch would rather chew gravel than make him their leader.
10* JerkassToOne:
11** Crueler To One with Alliser Thorne, who picks on all the recruits but has a particular disdain for [[HeroicBastard Jon Snow]] and [[LovableCoward Sam Tarly]].
12** Catelyn Stark behaves with cold civility toward Jon Snow. Though she usually acts like a ProperLady, she can't seem to help behaving cooly, and maliciously on one occasion, to her husband's bastard son. She chooses not to have a relationship with her husband's bastard son, which is perfectly understandable given the potential threats of illegitimate children.
13** Tywin is Crueler To One to his son Tyrion. While Tywin has no problem treating everyone around him as pawns, the fact that Tyrion's birth killed his mother means that he is the only person Tywin exhibits outright hatred towards.
14* JigsawPuzzlePlot
15* JoinOrDie:
16** [[spoiler:The wildlings give this offer to Jon Snow when he and his partner Qhorin Halfhand are captured. However, to make sure he's truly switched sides, they also force him to kill Qhorin. Since Qhorin knows a man of his infamy wouldn't last long as their captive anyway, he goes along with it to give Jon a good cover to be a mole among them.]]
17** One of the recruitment methods of the Night's Watch, even those condemned to die may save their lives by choosing the Wall over the headsman.
18* JumpedAtTheCall: Marwyn the Mage. Sam has barely finished giving him Aemon's message [[spoiler:about Daenerys' dragons]] before he's started throwing together the stuff he'll need for the journey.
19* JustLikeRobinHood:
20** The Brotherhood Without Banners starts out as this, with some pretty clear expies of the Merry Men (including a revered leader ShroudedInMyth, an alcoholic BadassPreacher, TheBigGuy, the archer, and TheBard). After a change in leadership, the group increasingly become [[KnightTemplar Knight Templars]], changing its goal from protecting and aiding the victims of war crimes to hanging war criminals, [[KangarooCourt people suspected of being war criminals, and relatives of war criminals]].
21** The Kingswood Brotherhood, which existed in the recent past, was another band of merry outlaws, whose specialty was kidnapping nobles and holding them for ransom. Their leader, Simon Toyne, was a fallen nobleman, and at least once did a very Robin Hood-like act of participating in a tourney in disguise. Initially, the Kingswood Brotherhood were considered defenders by smallfolk, and were shielded from capture so long as this lasted.
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26* KangarooCourt:
27** Both Tyrion's trial for the murder of John Arryn and his trial [[spoiler:for the death of Joffrey.]] Both included tenuously circumstantial evidence, hearsay, surprise witnesses, and biased judges. Tyrion is allowed neither witnesses of their own nor the ability to cross-examine without special leave.
28** The Brotherhood Without Banners crosses into this territory, especially with Lady Stoneheart as their leader. Just being related to the Freys is enough to earn a quick death sentence.
29* KarmicDeath: Due to the high attrition rate of characters, many villains get their just desserts. A few are intentionally karmic in their execution:
30** [[spoiler:Gregor Clegane dies in horrific agony due to Oberyn's poison. Winning the duel only prolonged his suffering.]]
31** The Brotherhood Without Banners are working on making as many [[spoiler:Freys]] as possible pay for [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]].
32** [[spoiler:Janos Slynt played a part in the betrayal and beheading of Eddard Stark. He winds up beheaded as well. By Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and Ned's illegitimate son. Doubly karmic as when Slynt betrayed Eddard, he only gave the command but Jon executed him personally, having been taught by his father that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.]]
33** Some Northern lords are getting in on the [[spoiler:Frey]]-killing as well. Lord Manderly, who lost his younger son in the Red Wedding, brings delicious [[spoiler:Frey Pies]] in ''A Dance With Dragons'', [[spoiler: to other Red Wedding conspirators, including a bunch of Freys, and gleefully [[IAmAHumanitarian eats some himself.]]]]
34** [[spoiler:Tywin's]] death just oozes this. His [[spoiler:abuse and contempt for Tyrion as well as his near suicidal refusal to see beyond his son's whoring, boozing exterior]] finally comes back to kill him in the most embarrassing way possible; and believe it or not, it only got worse for [[spoiler:Tywin afterward]].
35** [[spoiler:The Tickler tortured people to death, while constantly asking them questions. Arya eventually stabs him to death, while asking the exact same questions.]]
36** A teased chapter release from ''The Winds of Winter'' reveals that this also happens to [[spoiler:Raff. He previously killed Lommy, who had an injured leg, because he was too lazy to carry him. Arya cuts his leg, has the exact same conversation with him, and then kills him the same way.]]
37* KickedUpstairs:
38** Although Jaime is immensely proud of his appointment to the Kingsguard at such a young age, it was intended by King Aerys solely as an act of spite against Tywin, whose favoured firstborn would thus be ineligible as an heir.
39** Jon attempts to do this with Janos Slynt, a failed candidate for the post of Lord Commander who has been insubordinate and who Jon believes to be plotting against him with Ser Alliser Thorne. He appoints the man as commander of a new garrison at Greyguard, citing his experience as a guard commander and status as a former Lord in an attempt to flatter him into accepting. [[spoiler:Slynt openly refuses his orders, in public, and Jon executes him for insubordination.]]
40** Tyrion is denied his rightful inheritance of Casterly Rock. Instead, Lord Tywin sets up an ArrangedMarriage with [[spoiler:Sansa Stark, with the chance to rule the North through their son. Tyrion is actually tempted by this, as he's just as eager to get far away from his BigScrewedUpFamily. He's also given Littlefinger's job as Master of Coin]].
41* KickTheDog:
42** The first thing Theon does in the series is kick Will's severed head, revealing his streak of cruelty.
43** Joffrey is introduced refusing to spar with Robb unless they used real swords in place of tourney blades (after losing a previous bout) and insulting the Starks, revealing that he's a cowardly, stuck-up little shit.
44* KidsAreCruel: The series contains several major examples:
45** Robert Arryn is a sickly child who develops a fondness for sentencing people to be thrown off a cliff.
46** Arya Stark is a sympathetic character who is still fairly heroic, but she's also become quite a cold-blooded killer.
47** Joffrey is a teen by the time the series begins, but there are several stories about his childhood cruelty -- and when he becomes king, he starts to like the idea of ordering men to duel to the death to settle disputes.
48** To a much smaller extent, Little and Big Walder. They indulge in some literal kicking the dog and are pretty mean to Hodor. In ''A Dance With Dragons'' they both start palling around with [[TortureTechnician Ramsay Bolton]] and get much worse.
49** In "The Mystery Knight," it's a bit of a shock to learn that GentleGiant Dunk was a sadistic little shit as a street urchin in Flea Bottom.
50* KillItWithFire: The best way to deal with undead wights. There's even a song about it. [[spoiler:Presumably fire works on the Others as well, but they have an ability to quench fires, so you better try some potent [[GreekFire Wildfire]] on them. Obsidian, or "frozen fire," also works. Jon also interprets an ancient passage about "dragonsteel" to mean that Valyrian blades would work as well. Somehow Valyrian steel seems to be imbued with dragonfire.]]
51* KillTheParentRaiseTheChild:
52** After Joffrey has Sansa's father executed, he and his family [[IHaveYourWife hold her hostage]] with the paper-thin excuse that she's a ward of the crown. Joffrey even adopts the role of Sansa's father during her forced wedding to Tyrion, despite being about the same age as her. After [[spoiler:Sansa escapes and is suspected of Joffrey's murder]], Cersei complains to her advisors that Sansa is an UngratefulBitch for not appreciating that Cersei took care of her like her own daughter, when in fact Cersei cruelly tormented her.
53** After being held hostage for months by Lord Denys Darklyn, the first thing King Aerys II did was order the extermination of House Darklyn and their close ally House Hollard. Only young Dontos Hollard was spared at the request of Ser Barristan, who had rescued the king, and he was brought to the royal court where he would spend the rest of his life. Dontos grows up to be a sad, pathetic alcoholic.
54* KindheartedCatLover: There's a very PetTheDog moment where Margaery gives the young King Tommen a trio of kittens, which he names [[FormallyNamedPet Ser Pounce, Lady Whiskers]] and [[Literature/PussInBoots Boots]]. He seems to be more interested in playing with his cats than playing the Game of Thrones.
55* KinslayingIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Killing one's relatives is considered one of the worst things one can do in Westeros, the other being violating [[SacredHospitality guest right]].
56* KingOfBeasts: Lions are a popular sigil among the noble houses of the Westerlands, most notably House Lannister. Lannister propaganda uses AnimalStereotypes to reinforce the idea of their superiority to everyone else.
57-->'''Tywin:''' The lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.
58** A puppet show calls the Lannister's on their boasting where a lion devours the other animals of the kingdom roaring that it is their right as the mightiest of beasts, until a dragon hatches from an egg and devours the lion in turn. [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei orders anyone who attended to be fined half of all their wealth, those who can't pay to lose an eye and for the puppeteers to be put to death]].
59* KingBobTheNth: The Targaryens, with the monarchs' [[TheMagnificent unwieldy official titles]] identifying them as e.g. "Aegon, the Fifth of his Name (etc.)", or "Aegon V Targaryen" for short. The tradition has been kept up since the Rebellion, even though there's so far been no King Anything the Second.
60* KingmakerScenario:
61** House Tyrell serves this function in the War of the Five Kings. When House Lannister and House Baratheon are the dominant forces for the throne, Tyrell first sides with Renly Baratheon, giving him the largest army, then sides with the Lannisters, giving them the victory over Stannis.
62** Samwell Tarly does a version of this during the nomination of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The votes are locked between two major claimants who refuse to back down. Sam convinces each of them to step down in favor of a third party, [[spoiler:Jon Snow]].
63** Criston Cole is remembered as "The Kingmaker" during the succession dispute that started the Dance of the Dragons war. Although the king had proclaimed his eldest child and daughter (Rhaenyra) to be his heir, the king's second child and older son (Aegon) claimed the throne for himself. Cole installed the son, causing a war that would eventually see neither of them holding the throne for more than a few months.
64* TheKingslayer: Jaime Lannister is the TropeNamer. He killed the psychotic, sadistic King Aerys II at the end of Robert's Rebellion via {{backstab}} at the same time as his father Tywin's forces were sacking the city. Unfortunately for him, he was [[TheOathBreaker sworn to protect the king's life]] and when Ned Stark marched into the room he [[NotWhatItLooksLike saw Jaime there sitting on the Iron Throne]]. Also Jaime's kept secret for over fifteen years that [[spoiler: he was prompted to kill Aerys because the king was planning on burning the city and everything in it to the ground]], leading everyone to assume that he did so because Tywin ordered him to.
65* KissingCousins: The people of Westeros find BrotherSisterIncest and ParentalIncest detestable, but first cousin (and more distant family relationship) marriages are fine.
66* KneelBeforeZod
67* KnightInShiningArmor: Ser Loras, Ser Barristan, Ser Garlan, the old Kingsguard (at least according to the rose-tinted glasses of those who remember them) and many characters from the "Dunk & Egg" stories. Most of them are [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype Deconstructed Character Archetypes]] to a greater or lesser extent. Brienne plays the trope more or less straight, with the twist being that she is female. Sandor Clegane so despises this trope that he [[DefiedTrope has refused multiple offers of knighthood]], even when he joins the Kingsguard.
68* KnightTemplar: Stannis Baratheon is a rigid and merciless man who never compromises on anything. He has an even ''bigger'' KnightTemplar advisor, the priestess/sorceress Melisandre, who wants to burn all false gods in preparation for the last battle against evil. The rise of the ChurchMilitant of the Swords and the Stars provides even more opportunities for the trope. Finally, the Brotherhood Without Banners have gone from Robin Hood Expys to this under Lady Stoneheart aka [[spoiler:Catelyn]]
69* KnowWhenToFoldEm:
70** Torrhen Stark became known as the King Who Knelt because he chose to submit to Aegon the Conqueror rather than fight a battle he could not win.
71** After a failed rebellion, Balon Greyjoy accepts his defeat, even though it comes with two of his three sons being killed and the third taken hostage, biding his time until the day when he can rebel successfully.
72** Sharra Arryn also fits as well. Despite fortifying her land defenses, it didn't matter when Visenya Targaryen simply flew over them all and landed at the Eyrie. She rushed out to find her son sitting on Visenya's knee asking for a ride. The two Queens simply exchanged pleasantries and Sharra surrendered then. Then Visenya let the last king of the Vale ride on her dragon. Three times. Becoming the only "King Who Flew" of Eyrie.
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77* TheLadysFavor:
78** Catelyn gave one to Brandon before he went to duel Petyr Baelish, though in this case there was no real possibility that her hero ''wouldn't'' come back in one piece; in fact, she begged him to leave ''Petyr'' in one piece. Still, it wouldn't exactly have been the start of a happy marriage to deny him her favor and bestow it on a rival.
79** Jorah Mormont wore the favor of Lynesse Hightower and won a tourney, defeating all opponents and even gaining her hand in marriage.
80** There is also a gender-swapped inversion in which a knight who has won a tournament can proclaim a spectating woman "Queen of Love and Beauty" by presenting her with a wreath of flowers. One of the events that caused tensions leading up to Robert's Rebellion was at a tourney when Rhaegar Targaryen, despite being married, presented the wreath to Lyanna Stark, then engaged to Robert Baratheon.
81* LamePunReaction: Aeron Greyjoy is [[TheUnfunny not the thigh-slapping kind]] at the best of times (although Theon remembers him being much more good-humoured before he got religion), but Theon tries a joke on him anyway;
82-->''Theon did not need to be told that ''Black Wind'' was Asha's longship. [...] Odd that she would call it that, when Robb Stark has a wolf called Grey Wind. "Stark's is grey and Greyjoy's black," he murmured, smiling, "but it seems we're both windy."\
83The priest had nothing to say to that.''
84* LaserGuidedKarma:
85** A rare example of this in a very cynical series -- Stannis, looking for a lord who can bring the North under his control, offers to [[spoiler:legitimise Jon Snow and free him from his vow to the Night's Watch.]] Jon refuses out of an [[GenerationXerox eerily familiar ironclad sense of honour]]. Later, Jon has been, largely coincidentally, [[spoiler:elected as [[AChildShallLeadThem Lord Commander of the Watch]]]] (for which Stannis' offer would have made him ineligible).
86** An amusing minor version -- the thing Lord Tywin hates the most is being laughed at, but that's exactly what happens when a mean black tomcat stole his dinner in front of King Robert, leading to the king laughing his head off. It's implied that the cat is Balerion, once Rhaenys Targaryen's pet kitten until she was murdered on Tywin's orders.
87* LastMinuteBabyNaming: {{Justified|Trope}}. With the GrimUpNorth conditions behind the wall, the mortality of children is so high that naming one that hasn't yet grown enough to walk is considered TemptingFate. Children are usually given names when they turn two years old.
88* LaughablyEvil: Vargo Hoat might lead a mercenary gang of the worst [[PsychoForHire psychos for hire]] in the known world, but he's got a humorous lisp that even his victims mock. He's also rather dim-witted, getting outsmarted and outmaneuvered many times before meeting an end that is pure NightmareFuel.
89* LaxativePrank: Done seriously. Tyrion is too busy trying to save the city to struggle with Cersei's schemes so he uses a mild poison to get her out of his hair for one day.
90* LeeroyJenkins:
91** Implied for Jaime Lannister. According to his brother Tyrion, he "never untied a knot when he could slash it in two with his sword." The loss of his hand forces him to rethink this approach and become more strategic.
92** Stannis' lords and admirals think any strategy or tactic other than a headlong charge is cowardly, even after [[spoiler:it loses them most of their army and their entire fleet at Blackwater when they refuse to even use scouts or consider the fire from the castle itself.]] To them more danger just means more honor for facing it.
93** [[spoiler:Ser Loras Tyrell]] insists on leading a force over the wall of Dragonstone, and is horribly scalded by boiling oil (but succeeds in taking the castle). ExploitedTrope, as Cersei expected him to do so and [[UriahGambit hoped he would endanger himself in the process]].
94* {{Leitmotif}}: A very rare ''literary'' example with "The Rains of Castamere". Even in-universe this is known as a Lannister song, and while it's especially associated with Twyin Lannister, it's something of a "Lannister anthem" in general. [[spoiler:In terms of the story the song also frequently precedes moments of sudden death of important characters.]]
95* LeftForDead: Sandor Clegane. Arya refuses to MercyKill him as he lies suffering from a festering wound and leaves him to die, [[spoiler:although he is (probably) now the gravedigger on the Quiet Isle]].
96* LeftHandedMirror: Arya and Sansa Stark. Left-handed Arya is a {{Tomboy}} and a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of the RebelliousPrincess archetype, while her right-handed sister Sansa is the [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl girly-girl]] and a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of PrincessClassic.
97* LegacyCharacter:
98** The Hound is becoming one of these. It started out as just a nickname for Sandor Clegane, but later on, Sandor's helmet winds up in the hands of the criminal Rorge who terrorizes the countryside while wearing it. After Rorge's death, Lem Lemoncloak indicates the degree to which he is HeWhoFightsMonsters, as he decides to start wearing the helmet to frighten the enemies of the Brotherhood Without Banners.
99** Following the death of the first Reek, [[spoiler:Ramsay Bolton takes on his identity and pretends to be Reek while helping Theon. After Theon loses control of Winterfell, Ramsay takes him prisoner and mentally and physically breaks Theon in order to make him the third Reek.]]
100** It is theorized that this is the case with Beric Dondarrion, as several characters have killed him/watched him die and assume that someone else is TakingUpTheMantle. However, Beric actually has been killed and resurrected several times.
101* LegionOfLostSouls:
102** The Night's Watch can be seen as bearing a number of similarities with the real-life French Foreign Legion.
103** The Brotherhood Without Banners is a ''literal'' legion of lost souls.
104* ALessonInDefeat: The final lesson to become a new maester is to sit in a dark room with a tall, sharp candlestick made of dragonglass. Many try to light the candles, but are only rewarded with bloody hands and wasted time. The wiser new maesters wait the night. The lesson is that, though maesters strive to understand the world, there are some mysteries that simply cannot be uncovered. [[spoiler:This lesson is broken all to hell when the glass candles in Archmaester Marwyn's study begin burning.]]
105* LessonsInSophistication: Deconstructed. Sansa and Arya receive them. Arya resents the lessons, fails them constantly, preferring swordplay and adventures, and eventually gets stuck as a lost child in the middle of a war-torn land (with all of the dire consequences this has). Sansa likes the lessons and excels at them. They help her survive in a hostile DecadentCourt, though several other characters believe that she's an EmptyShell just going through the motions they taught her. This works to her benefit, since few believe she's capable of anything, even as her skills as a political actor continue to develop.
106* LibertyOverProsperity: The wildlings view themselves as choosing freedom over all else, preferring to live in a very harsh, cold, and sometimes giant-infested land, than to be "kneelers".
107* LieToTheBeholder:
108** Melisandre is able to cast these on people -- they're said to be very difficult magic, and harder to keep up depending on how much they challenge people's {{Weirdness Censor}}s, so wearing the person's IconicItem or IconicOutfit helps the disguise.
109** According to the Kindly Man, The Faceless Men are also able to cast them.
110** In "The Mystery Knight", it's implied that [[spoiler:Maynard Plumm]] may be Bloodraven casting one of these. Dunk mentions that "the harder he looked at him, the less he saw."
111* LifeDeathJuxtaposition: The deity of fire, light, and life (R'hllor) is contrasted by his nemesis, a deity of darkness, cold, and death (the Great Other).
112* LightDarknessJuxtaposition: One of the many things used to compare R'hllor and the Great Other -- the former is associated with light, the latter with darkness.
113* LighterAndSofter: The ''Dunk & Egg'' books, owing to their smaller scope and bittersweet endings.
114* ALighterShadeOfGray: Tyrion Lannister certainly has his unscrupulous moments, but on the whole he's a decent person who just wants a little respect and love.
115* LightIsNotGood: Seemingly part of the "ice and fire" theme of the series overall, in which all extremes are destructive. The red priests describe R'hllor as the champion of life and goodness, but all signs point to a much more malevolent force. [[DarkIsNotEvil The reverse]] is not true, as the darkness to R'hllor's light is overtly evil.
116* LikeFatherUnlikeSon
117** Aegon I the Conqueror and his milquetoast elder son and heir Aenys I.
118** Viserys I was BigFun while Aegon II was sulky and brooding.
119** Prince Daemon embodied everything good and bad about being Targaryen while his sons Aegon III and Viserys II were BoringButPractical. The brothers' sons took after their grandfather.
120** Aegon IV the Unworthy and Mad King Aerys II are the most reviled Targaryen kings while their sons Daeron II and Prince Rhaegar are remembered fondly.
121** Lord Tytos Lannister was weak while his son Tywin is ruthless.
122** Lord Randyll is the stereotypical ProudWarriorRaceGuy Tarly who exiled his elder son Sam to the Night's Watch for being soft. It's only there that Sam proves himself as a master of realpolitik.
123* LineOfSightName:
124** Ser Rolly Duckfield, one of Griff's men in ''A Dance With Dragons''; like other lowborn characters who receive knighthoods (e.g. Davos and Bronn), he wasn't born with a surname, and made up/acquired one upon being knighted. In Rolly's case, while being knighted in a field, he noticed some ducks nearby.
125** In ''A Storm of Swords'', Jaime questions Ser Osmund Kettleblack on who knighted him, and Osmund responds "Ser Robert... Stone". Jaime wonders to himself if this was a real person (presumably a bastard sellsword made good) or whether Osmund made him up, combining the name of the deceased king with a glance at the castle wall.
126* LiteralMetaphor: Telling Tyrion his answer to the riddle of the sellsword and the three powerful men, Varys says political power is a "shadow on the wall . . . yet shadows can kill." Later in the same volume, both [[spoiler:Ser Cortnay Penrose]] and self-styled [[spoiler:King Renly Baratheon]] are literally killed by a shadow.
127* LittleMissBadass: Arya Stark.
128* LittlePeopleAreSurreal:
129** Shows up at the House of the Undying in ''A Clash of Kings'', to play up the weirdness that surrounds the place. At the entrance, the person who brings out the shade of the evening for Daenerys to drink is the "smallest dwarf she had ever seen", and when inside the House, through one of the doors in the long hallway, she sees a naked woman being ravished by four dwarfs (presumably a metaphor for the division of Westeros).
130** The trope is clearly alive and well InUniverse, as the primary interest in dwarf slaves in Essos is as circus freaks.
131* LivingShadow: Introduced in ''A Clash of Kings'', these shadow-beings are revealed to be [[spoiler:the children of Melisandre]].
132* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces:
133** Tyrion, down to the lack of parental affection. Should be noted that [[spoiler:he had actually found it with Tysha, the first girl he loved. He was lead to believe this wasn't the case, however, thanks to [[AbusiveParents Lord Tywin]]]].
134** Sansa, with her infatuation with Joffrey and wide-eyed hero worship of Cersei. [[spoiler:That sure didn't last long.]]
135%%* LordOfTheOcean: The Drowned God worshipped by the Ironborn.
136* TheLostLenore: Lyanna Stark for Robert Baratheon. He's convinced that she was stolen away from him and raped repeatedly by Rhaegar Targaryen. His rage and pain over the incident still hasn't cooled after more than 15 years, though Ned believes he didn't truly know her for who she was.
137* LostTechnology: Valyrian steel can be reworked by experts, but no one knows how to make more of it anymore. Some marvels of engineering, such as the Wall and Winterfell's hot-springs heating system, are probably beyond the tech for the current age. Glass candles ceased functioning for many years before recently lighting again. Valyrian technology as a whole seems to have been higher than current technology anywhere else, considering the great roads and walls that they left behind. [[{{Magitek}} Magical aid]] is credited with many lost pieces of technology -- and [[HereThereWereDragons magic itself is something of a lost technology]] -- but [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane it's unclear]] how much [[ClarkesThirdLaw magic actually had to do with them]].
138* LousyLoversAreLosers:
139** Robert Baratheon was a very poor lover and husband to Cersei (who wasn't even the spiteful woman she became in her later years), seemingly just because she [[LostLenore wasn't Lyanna]]. Cersei reminisces he was rough and brutish, without a care for her pleasure or comfort and she would wake up sore and raw the next morning. It only got worse as the years went on, when he began to drink and became more violent and would not care for her "objections" and claimed he was simply "[[MaritalRapeLicense claiming his rights]]".
140** In ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', when Arianne Martell takes Arys Oakheart as her lover (to [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative him]]) she was actually surprised by how bad in bed he was. She even recalls how their first time having sex ended with him [[SpeedSex climaxing on her thighs before he could even insert himself into her]]. She mentions she spent a long time 'training' and 'instructing' him about lovemaking so she wouldn't be bored and unsatisfied while having him as a lover. Somewhat {{Justified|Trope}} since he's part of the Kingsguard who all take an oath of [[CelibateHero celibacy]], so he's very inexperienced while Arianne is a SexGoddess.
141%%* LovableCoward: Samwell... at first (he becomes somewhat less cowardly but remains lovable).
142%%* LovableTraitor: Littlefinger.
143* LoveAtFirstSight: Subverted several times. A glory-drunk Ser Jorah Mormont falls for fair Lynesse Hightower from afar, and Sansa becomes infatuated with Joffrey. Neither relationship ends well. Robert Baratheon starts a war over the kidnapping of his betrothed Lyanna Stark despite the fact that he barely knew her, and [[spoiler:Robb Stark dooms his cause by sleeping with and then marrying a girl whose castle he had just captured.]] Nearly every instance of love at first sight in the series ends up having negative consequences. Meanwhile, the most stable romantic relationship in the books, Ned and Catelyn Stark, started out as an arranged marriage where neither loved each other at the start, but grew to love each other over time.
144* LoveDodecahedron: A spiderweb:
145** Renly is married to Margaery but spends a lot of time "[[UnusualEuphemism praying]]" with her brother Loras, and in the meantime is being crushed on by Brienne of Tarth, who later seems to have developed (possibly reciprocal) feelings for Jaime Lannister, who is in a secret relationship with his sister Cersei.
146** Robert Baratheon loved Lyanna Stark, but married Cersei Lannister, who loved her brother Jaime but also wanted to marry Rhaegar Targaryen who wound up marrying Elia of Dorne but later kidnapped and supposedly raped Lyanna Stark. [[spoiler:Jon Connington]] is also revealed to have harbored feelings for Rhaegar.
147** Lysa Tully married Jon Arryn but loved Petyr Baelish, who loved Catelyn Tully, who was betrothed to Brandon Stark, who had an affair with Barbrey Ryswell, who later married Willam Dustin. But Brandon died, so Catelyn married and grew to love Eddard Stark, who may have loved Ashara Dayne, who was impregnated by one of the Stark brothers and was beloved by Ser Barristan Selmy.
148** A simple LoveTriangle for contrast: Prince Aerys Targaryen and his HeterosexualLifePartner Tywin Lannister both had a thing for Tywin's cousin Joanna. Tywin got her. (LoveTriangle Type 10). This may have been the StartOfDarkness for The Mad King's [[TheResenter resentment]] of his Hand and (now former) best friend.
149* LoveFatherLoveSon: The TangledFamilyTree of the Freys has included at least one example of this trope taken up to eleven: Lord Walder's seventh wife, Annara Farring, is rumoured to have had an affair with his ''great-grandson'' by his first wife, Black Walder (who is also said to have bedded the wives of his two brothers and [[KissingCousins at least one of his cousins]]). Given Lord Walder's taste for MayDecemberRomance, they were probably around the same age.
150* LoveMakesYouEvil: "The things I do for love...", which is given an IronicEcho to show that LoveRedeems as well.
151* LoveRuinsTheRealm:
152** Several characters note that just about all the war and strife afflicting the land can be traced back to Rhaegar absconding with Lyanna Stark when he was married to Elia Martell. Kevan Lannister and Cersei herself think that none of that would have happened had Rhaegar married Cersei instead.
153** Further back in history, Prince Duncan Targaryen's decision to break his arranged marriage to a daughter of Lyonel Baratheon to marry a commoner (Jenny of Oldstones) and abdicate the crown led to Lyonel Baratheon rising up in rebellion and calling himself "Storm King" immediately afterwards (further damage was only averted due to the intervention of Ser Duncan the Tall). It's also implied that this situation might have led to Duncan and his father's deaths in the Tragedy at Summerhall, and it certainly contributed to the downfall of the Targaryen line.
154** The same happened with Prince Duncan's younger siblings: Jaehaerys (the future King Jaehaerys II) was betrothed to Celia Tully and his sister Shaera to Luthor Tyrell, but both rejected those matches [[BrotherSisterIncest to run away together and marry in secret]], having been in love since childhood. Their brother Daeron was betrothed to Olenna Redwyne (the Queen of Thorns, who amusingly ended up marrying Shaera's former betrothed) and also ended up putting the match aside, though he never married (it's implied he was gay and possibly in a relationship with his "friend" Ser Jeremy Norridge).
155** In ''A Dance With Dragons'', Ser Barristan notes several examples from the past where royalty chose to marry for love with disastrous consequences (see above), and finds himself agreeing with Shavepate that it might not be so terrible if Dany's sellsword boyfriend were [[UnfriendlyFire killed in the upcoming battle]].
156** Robb Stark breaks his marriage pact with Walder Frey and instead marries Jeyne Westerling, which [[spoiler:sparks a revolt within his kingdom that kills him and fractures the North]].
157** A more roundabout case is Tyrion and Tysha, he's a dwarf son of a High Lord and she's a crofter's daughter, so it's not exactly the usual example, but they MarryForLove which provokes a vicious response from Tywin Lannister. The horrific consequences of that, [[spoiler:lead to Tywin Lannister suffering a much belated Karmic Death from his vengeful son but the context of that event, the end of a bloody war with Tywin having secured the realm for a new king and restore the peace, ends up restarting hostilities in Westeros.]]
158[[/folder]]
159
160[[folder:M]]
161* MachiavelliWasWrong:
162** The Lannisters, who rule primarily by fear, are despised by the small folk. On the other hand, the small folk completely adore the Tyrells, with Margaery at the forefront, who spends time with them, hand out food donations and the like. Sansa also comes to this conclusion after spending time with paranoid queen mother Cersei. [[spoiler:After Tywin, who was consumed by making House Lannister feared and respected, is murdered by his son Tyrion, his family devolves into infighting and chaos.]]
163--->'''Sansa''': If I am ever queen, I will make them love me.
164** Then there are the various Northern Houses, who love their liege lords the Starks. They loved the Stark family so much that they, lord and commoner alike, are prepared to march through blizzards or bone-chilling cold in a state of near-starvation, or keep on fighting even when all hope is faded, for the sake of the Starks. Even after being [[spoiler:usurped by the Boltons, the North would not bend the knee to them, and House Manderly[[labelnote:*]]Which actually was originally an Andal noble house that was adopted by the Starks into the North after being usurped from their homelands further south[[/labelnote]] are conspiring against the Boltons to bring the Starks back as liege lords]].
165** Stannis himself was able to walk the fine line between respected and disliked. He isn't the most charming individual, and is willing to use a religion that encourages fanaticism to its followers. Still he has a strict code of honor, and always listens to his advisors who give him reasonable and pragmatic advice. When Night Watch call for help against the Wildlings, and the Others, he is only one who heeds their call and make his way to North. Eventually he starts a campaign in conquering the North from the Boltons, and this results in several Northern houses to pledge their aid to him, as they consider him to be a better option than the sadistic Boltons.
166* MadDoctor: Qyburn is a nightmarish medieval-fant version of Joseph Mengele.
167* MadLibsCatchphrase: [[MadnessMantra Reek, Reek, it rhymes with ______]]. Usually the word in question is relevant to the situation ("sneak" when he's being asked to spy, "weak" when he's cursing his own cowardice, etc).
168* MadLove: [[spoiler:The loony Lysa Tully Arryn, whose [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter terrible taste in suitors]] makes her an easy pawn for Petyr Baelish]].
169* MadnessMantra
170** [[spoiler:Theon Greyjoy]] has: "Reek, Reek, it rhymes with..."
171** Also from [[spoiler:Theon Greyjoy]] is "(S)He needs to know (her) his ''name''.";
172** Arya's prayer might fit: [[spoiler:"Ser Gregor, Dunsen, Raff the Sweetling. Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei."]] She's not insane, [[spoiler:but it seems to have become a compulsive behavior by the end of the last book]];
173** Oberyn Martell goes berserk in his battle with The Mountain while trying to get him to confess to killing his sister and her children. "You raped her! You murdered her! You killed her children!";
174** Patchface sings a lot of creepy and strangely foreshadowing songs but his scariest and most common is "The shadows come to dance, my lord... The shadows come to stay, my lord...";
175** Tyrion is haunted by his father Tywin's snarking reply [[spoiler:before killing him]] that his first wife Tysha has gone "Wherever whores go";
176** Ned Stark's POV shows how his [[PosthumousCharacter sister Lyanna's]] last words - "[[ThePromise Promise me, Ned]]..." - have taken a notable toll on his mental health in the fourteen years that have already passed.
177* MageTower: Lord Leyton Hightower is said to have not come down from his titular tower's solar for ten years, and there are rumours he has been consulting spellbooks along with his daughter, "the Mad Maid".
178* TheMagicComesBack: Dragons are linked to the presence of magic in the world. With the return of dragons, magic becomes far stronger.
179* MagicFire:
180** Wildfire is [[TechnicolorFire green]] in color and cannot be extinguished until there is nothing left for it to burn on. And seeing how it can burn on pretty much ''anything'', it is usually treated as a DangerousForbiddenTechnique. While its exact makeup is a closely guarded secret, dragons are believed to be involved in its creation, as wildfire created after their extinction isn't quite as potent. It's also implied that wildfire might not actually be true magic and is made through mundane if secret means, but that's what the Alchemist Guild tells people to keep them from trying to figure it out for themselves.
181** Firemages can create and control flames, with one trick being to create a ladder of fire for them to climb up without getting burned.
182** After being resurrected by Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion can set his sword ablaze using his own blood.
183* MagicVersusScience: ''A Feast for Crows'' reveals that the maesters running the Citadel, apart from "eccentrics" like Marwyn, want to eliminate magic.
184* {{Magitek}}: Many of the feats of engineering are thought to be aided by magic. The Wall, for example, is built far larger than normal architecture would seem to allow, and Qyburn's experiments into human anatomy seem to involve necromancy.
185* TheMagnificent:
186** [[LongList Tormund]] Giantsbane, [[TheMunchausen Tall-talker]], [[{{Foreshadowing}} Horn-blower and Breaker of Ice]]; Tormund [[BoisterousBruiser Thunderfist]], [[BestialityIsDepraved Husband to Bears]], the [[TheNeedForMead Mead-King of Ruddy Hall]], Speaker to Gods and [[ReallyGetsAround Father of Hosts]].
187** Most of the Targaryen kings and several princes have titles of their own: Aegon I [[TheParagon the Conqueror]], Maegor [[BloodKnight the Cruel]], Jaehaerys I [[TheGoodKing the Conciliator]], Aegon III [[MagicIsEvil the Dragonsbane]], Baelor [[TheFundamentalist the Blessed]], Aegon IV [[TheCaligula the Unworthy]], and so on and so forth.
188** Many other historical Westerosi kings bore such titles too, such as Argilac [[DefiantToTheEnd the Arrogant]] of the Stormlands, Bran [[OurFounder the Builder]] of the North, or Lann [[TheTrickster the Clever]] of the Westerlands.
189* MaidAndMaiden: Many highborn young ladies are entrusted to the care of a an older septa, who serves as a governess, tutor and chaperone. Sansa and Arya Stark have Septa Mordane, Margaery Tyrell has Septa Nysterica, and Cersei Lannister had Septa Saranella.
190* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Despite the books having such a huge cast of characters, there are a few examples where there is a definite shortage of required administration. Eddard Stark is the Lord Paramount of the North, a region the size of about half of South America, yet his administration seems to be just six people: Himself, his wife Catelyn, Maester Luwin, Captain of the Guards Jory Cassel, Master-Of-Arms Rodrick Cassel, and Steward Vayon Poole. For a much worse example, Varys runs a spy network of hundreds or ''thousands'' of individuals scattered all around the world and yet they all report directly to him. That's like having the CIA composed of the Director and a few thousand Field Agents. It's amazing he has time to get involved in all of these conspiracies personally.
191* MalignantPlotTumor: The re-awakening of the Others and the return of the long night begins almost as a sub-plot to the main stories of Dany's experiences in Essos and the civil war in Westeros, and gradually snowballs in importance, so much so that people stop rooting for who they like and start rooting for whoever is most likely to mobilize the kingdoms against the Others.
192* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Cersei's children don't really look like Robert. Like, at all. This is what leads Jon Arryn, Stannis Baratheon and Ned Stark on their quest to figure out if they really are his children.
193* MamaBear:
194** Cersei Lannister, while a horrible leader, has protecting her children as her strongest motivation. Ironically, her protective instincts only serve to make things worse. Cersei screws up everything she touches. Complicated by the fact that she may have partially selfish motivations, as there was a prophecy that she would outlive her children.
195** While Catelyn is full of good advice, her [[spoiler:kidnapping of Tyrion (who was innocent) due to suspicion that he tried to murder Bran]], led to a Lannister retaliation and was one of the major catalysts that created the perfect storm for the War of the Five Kings.
196** The women of Bear Island are a fitting example. While their husbands fish, it often falls to them to fight off ironmen raiders. On the gate of the ruling House Mormont's keep is a carving of a bearskin-clad woman with a suckling baby in one arm and a battleaxe in the other.
197* ManipulativeBastard: Cersei, although she's hampered by being petty and full of bad ideas. Littlefinger's a much smoother operator. Tyrion can sweet talk his way in and out of anything. Varys may trump them all.
198* TheManTheyCouldntHang:
199** One of the members of the Kingswood Brotherhood outlaws was known as Oswyn Longneck the Thrice-Hanged because of this.
200** Zig-zagged with Beric Dondarrion. While his reputation is for surviving a hanging and other should-be-fatal injuries, he actually died and was resurrected a bunch of times. However, he has ''also'' been hanged non-fatally once, when his band cut him down before he could die.
201* MaritalRapeLicense: In full effect, along with a Marital Abuse License.
202** Cersei despises her husband and avoids sex with him whenever she can, only giving in when he's drunk and might become violent. She reflects on the injustice of the law on a couple of occasions, and takes revenge by aborting any children he might have given her. And ultimately by having him killed, of course.
203** Ramsay Bolton manages to test people's tolerance of it to breaking point -- Barbrey Dustin advises him that if he wants to keep Stark loyalists on his side then the screams of pain coming from [[spoiler:his and "Arya's" bedchamber]] had better stop.
204** Jaime recalls standing guard over the royal bedchamber when Aerys was on the throne, and arguing with his sworn brother [[ConflictingLoyalties whether their vows extend]] to protecting the queen ''from'' the king.
205** Averted when [[spoiler:Tyrion and Sansa]] get married. For all his faults, [[spoiler:Tyrion]] is mostly a decent guy, and despite his father's insistence that he consummate the wedding (since even if there are no children, an unconsummated marriage can be set aside), he flatly refuses to do so, knowing that [[spoiler:Sansa]] doesn't trust or want him.
206* ManyFacedDivinity: The Many-Faced God's name invokes this, although he seems to be a variation that swaps between faces, rather than have several at once. Its followers also literally use many faces as masks to shift their identity.
207* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Many lordly households have more than five kids, but the ones to stand out are Oberyn's eight daughters by five different women, and Walder Frey's ''twenty-nine'' legitimate children by eight wives (as well as a number of bastard children, including seven acknowledged ones), ranging in age from men in their sixties to an unborn child.
208* MasterPoisoner:
209** All Maesters have at least the potential to be this, as they are trained in making both the substances that save life and those that end it.
210** Oberyn Martell is also very knowledgeable about poisons, and his daughter Tyene Sand is likewise, having learned from him.
211** Unsurprisingly, being a bunch of assassins, the Faceless Men are adept in the use of poisons. One of them, referred to the as the Waif, specializes in them. While an adult woman, she looks like a child as a result of spending all of her time surrounded by dangerous substances.
212** Littlefinger is no slouch in the poisoning department, either. He's been behind most of the major plot-relevant poisonings we've come across, and [[spoiler:may even have supplied the poisons in at least two. Oberyn's poisoning of Gregor Clegane even occurred thanks to a situation he set up, even if he didn't do the actual poisoning himself]]. And, he has been known to surprise at least one maester with his in-depth knowledge of sedatives and their side effects.
213* MasterSwordsman: Multiple people in the series are noted as being formidable fighters for one reason or another. Jaime Lannister (best swordsman alive prior to losing his hand), Loras Tyrell, Robert Baratheon (in his youth), Gregor Clegane (due to his strength, size and borderline invincibility), Barristan Selmy, Arthur Dayne (when he was still alive), Oberyn Martell.
214* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: Many of the viewpoint characters are teenagers or younger, with Bran Stark beginning the series at age 7. As a MedievalEuropeanFantasy in a CrapsackWorld, their age doesn't spare them from mortal danger and {{death|OfAChild}}, [[AltarDiplomacy political marriages]], [[AChildShallLeadThem dangerous leadership positions]], [[EnfantTerrible assassin training]], or other perils of the setting's dynastic war.
215* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In Westeros, magic has existed at a low-to-nonexistent level for generations as of the start of the series, and much knowledge of magic is lost or unreliable, so this trope is very common. Characters within the series often try to label events or objects as magically influenced, often coming up with conflicting interpretations. Various [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone dreams and visions]] may or may not be actually prophetic. It doesn't help that some characters known to have real magical powers supplement them with mundane chicanery.
216** Melisandre has demonstrated a certain level of real magic on several occasions. In ''A Storm of Swords'', she performs a ritual to cause the deaths of three other characters. All three other characters do die soon thereafter, but each as a result of unrelated plots that started well before Melisandre cast her spell.
217** Beric uses Rh'llor's magic to light his sword on fire during a trial by combat, but the sword breaks during his duel. Did the fire simply weaken the sword, like any mundane fire would, or did his magic backfire because his cause was unjust?
218** The process of making [[GreekFire wildfire]] is deliberately shrouded in mystery by the Alchemists' Guild, which is as much just protecting trade secrets as it is ''trying'' to look mysterious. The process supposedly involves magic, which Tyrion is skeptical about, but wildfire manufacturing does become much more efficient once Daenerys's dragons hatch, suggesting a magical component.
219** Was the red comet at the beginning of ''A Clash of Kings'' an omen, or just a coincidence?
220** Although the evidence is TheGodsMustBeLazy, several people who pray to the Old Gods nevertheless have their prayers answered, albeit not in the way they expect. [[spoiler:Sansa prays for a knight to rescue her -- she gets Ser Dontos and the Hound. Arya's prayer for vengeance appears to summon the assassin Jaqen H'ghar. Theon begs a chance to be the man he once was, then finds himself facing the wildling women who've been sent to rescue "Arya Stark". That the weirwoods they pray to are revealed to be an information network for Bloodraven also blurs the issue.]]
221* MeaningfulGift: Jon gives his {{Tomboy}} half-sister Arya a specially-sized sword as a going-away present, knowing that she envies her brothers their swordsmanship training. It remains a cherished heirloom of her old life for long after.
222* MeaningfulName:
223** Bran Stark and Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers are the two main sources of the CreepyCrows motif in the series, and have names that are respectively the Welsh and Irish Gaelic words for raven.
224** A number of family names suggest their house's character. The Starks are known for being rigid and stern about honor, the meaning "barren" fits well with the situation the family and their lands face over the books and Stark in German translates to "strongly". The Greyjoys have a reputation as a Jerkass family and a number of their actions make things much worse for those around them. Tully derives from the Irish word for flood, an appropriate choice for the overlords of the Riverlands.
225** Several characters have names that are references to folklore and mythology:
226*** ''Janos'' Slynt turns out to be two-faced, as the Roman god Janus.
227*** ''Lancel'' Lannister is (one of several people) having an affair with the queen, reminiscent of Arthurian Lancelot.
228*** Cersei, whose name is a homophone of the temptress [[Literature/TheOdyssey Circe]], who was famous for turning men into beasts.
229*** Hodor may be an approximation of Höðr, a disabled (blind) god in Myth/NorseMythology.
230** The ''Kettleblack'' brothers (as in "the pot calling the...") are involved in a scheme by Cersei to accuse Margaery of crimes that Cersei herself is guilty of.
231** Amerei "Ami" Frey ("''ami''" being French for "friend") is a very [[ReallyGetsAround friendly]] young woman.
232** Though Dany leaves a council to rule Astapor after she leaves it, it is quickly overthrown by tyrant named Cleon the moment she leaves. The choice of name is undoubtedly a reference to the Athenian statesman [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleon Cleon]].
233** Varys, as a master of disguise and manipulation, has several personas of which he frequently "varies". A possibly unintentional extension of the [[CreepyCrows corvid symbolism]] in the series is that his name is a homophone for the Finnish word for crow, "varis".
234** Bronn acts as brawn for Tyrion.
235** Lem Lemoncloak is nicknamed for his yellow cloak, but has a suitably sour personality.
236* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: The series is primarily set in Westeros, a fictional continent primarily based on medieval [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom Britain]] in terms of geography and culture, through Dorne and the Iron Islands draw inspiration from other cultures such as Moorish Spain and Viking Age Scandinavia respectively. The medieval European influences are downplayed with the other locations in Essos which have a variety of influences: The Free Cities of Essos are based on the city-states of Italy, Greece and Phoenicia, while the Slaver's Bay and Qarth are inspired by ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and the Barbary Coast.
237* MedievalPrehistory: Westeros is a MedievalEuropeanFantasy world whose extant wildlife also includes equivalents of several real-life prehistoric animals, from mammoths to bipedal reptiles whose description is a dead-ringer for ''Jurassic Park''-style [[RaptorAttack "velociraptors"]].
238* MedievalStasis: Played with. Going by generally told timelines Westerosi technology has improved very slowly over its extremely long history. The continent was once ruled by the Children of the Forest, with stone age technology, who were then conquered by the First Men with Bronze Age technology, who were then partially replaced by the Andals with Iron Age technology. In fact, some ancient marvels of engineering, such as the Wall and Harrenhal are probably built on LostTechnology or long forgotten magic. However, it's outright-stated that much of the timeline is cobbled together from legend and myth; Sam discovers that the written records only go back to the Andal invasion (which going by the numbers of Night Watch Commanders was 2/3 of the way into it's history), and points out many discrepancies and outright impossibilities in the established timeline in ''A Feast for Crows''.
239** However, it appears that no new real technology (as opposed to MagiTek like [[GreekFire wildfire]]) is ever created in Westeros; everything new is brought by conquerors, such as the aforementioned First Men and Andals. Maybe the next big step in progress will be heralded by an Age of Sail invasion fleet with cannons.
240** It goes beyond technology as well. The same families have ruled mostly the same territories from the same castles for thousands of years. The dynasties that ruled the kingdoms when Aegon arrived had been in place since prehistory, with the notable exception of the Dornish princes. These families have been around for so long, that House Frey is still considered "New" and an "Upstart" house even though they have existed for 600 years.
241** Outside Westeros no other part of the known world sees any type of extreme advancement either places like the Free Cities, Slavers Bay, and Quarth have existed as very wealthy trade centers for thousands of years and yet have made no signifcant advancements to science nor any military expansion either. Nothing has changed for them in terms of standard of living, culture or system of government since before the Doom of Valyria.
242* MegaCorp: The Iron Bank of Braavos lends money to kingdoms. It's not above taking sides in foreign political conflicts that suit its interests.
243* MenActWomenAre:
244** The Faith of the Seven, a quasi-Catholic Church based around worshiping seven aspects of one godhood. Aside from the Mother and the Father, the male aspects are the Warrior and the Smith, whereas the female aspects are the Maiden and the Crone. In the south of Westeros, men are defined by craftsmanship and valor whereas females are defined by simply being marriageable, and their religion is constructed to support that. Justified in that George RR Martin isn't particularly enamored with the feudal socioeconomic system in his books.
245** Averted fiercely with many female characters: some are straight-up {{Action Girl}}s (Arya, Asha, Brienne, Ygritte, some of the Sand Snakes), and many of those who aren't are playing the Game on the battlefield of diplomacy. Special mention goes to Daenerys who [[spoiler:started out as this trope played straight until she took control of her sex life (and the other aspects of her life in general)]].
246* MentorArchetype: Littlefinger for Sansa Stark; Syrio Forel, Jaqen H'ghar and the Kindly Old Man for Arya Stark; Jeor "the Old Bear" Mormont and Qhorin Halfhand for Jon Snow; the Three-Eyed Crow for Bran; Ser Arlan of Pennytree for Duncan the Tall.
247* MercyKill:
248** "The gift of mercy," most notably given by Sandor Clegane to a mortally wounded soldier. Arya refuses to give it to [[spoiler:Sandor himself after one of his battle wounds festers. She abandons him to his suffering]].
249** When [[spoiler: Rattleshirt disguised as Mance Rayder]] is being burned alive, Jon orders archers to finish him off.
250* MildlyMilitary: The Night's Watch is a combination of a military order, a monastic order, and a gulag. Naturally, it doesn't run quite the same as a normal army.
251* MilesGloriosus:
252** Ser Creighton Longbough, who is quite happy to tell you about how he slew Ser Herbert Bolling and fought valiantly against the "Knight of the Red Chicken" at the Battle of the Blackwater.
253** Joffrey has aspects of this, giving his swords ostentatious names and boasting about military successes as though he were personally involved.
254** Ser Godry Farring. Calls himself the Giantslayer after the Battle of Castle Black for killing a giant. It was running away at the time, and he put a lance in it.
255* MilitaryMage:
256** Mance Rayder's wildling army uses [[TheBeastmaster wargs]], who are able to possess animals, for intelligence-gathering, scouting out enemy strength and positions from the bodies of birds. They also use animals such as wolves and bears as {{Attack Animal}}s in battle.
257** As Stannis Baratheon's CourtMage, Melisandre uses her ability to see visions in fire to counsel him on military strategy. She tells him that if he marches on King's Landing his brother Renly will defeat him, but if he attacks Renly at Storm's End he will be victorious. [[spoiler: Both are true thanks to ProphecyTwist.]]
258** In preparation for what would later be called the Battle of the Blackwater, Tyrion Lannister employs a guild of pyromancers to create mass quantities of what they call "the Substance" and others call "wildfire" to be flung by catapult at Stannis' ships. From the audience' perspective it appears to be similar to GreekFire, which in RealLife is not, of course, magical, but the pyromancers report that "certain spells" have become "more efficacious" after TheMagicComesBack, so its creation is apparently magical in-universe.
259* MindlessSheep: Maesters are the doctors and scholars of Westeros, but their order is not really interested in pursuing new knowledge or improving technology, only immersing themselves in what knowledge already exists. They also firmly believe that magic does not exist [[spoiler:and are implied to be involved in a conspiracy to suppress all knowledge of it]]. Archmaester Marwyn, one of the few people who believes in magic and studies it extensively, calls them "the grey sheep."
260* MindRape:
261** Warging into a sentient mind is described this way. Bran later does it to Hodor, and both of them find it intensely unpleasant.
262** Ramsay Bolton performs the more mundane TwoPlusTortureMakesFive, doling out such horrific physical and mental torture, that eventually they become almost completely receptive to his reality.
263* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Shitmouth, a man-at-arms of Gregor Clegane -- at least, relative to his peers. Most of [[SquadNickname the Mountain's Men]] are the scum of the earth, but Arya notes that Shitmouth isn't as bad as the others, his name merely derived from being SirSwearsALot.
264* MinoredInAssKicking: Despite being a GuileHero who relies primarily on his wits, Tyrion Lannister participates in the battles of Green Fork and Blackwater, revealing himself to be a reasonably competent fighter. Oh, and he once bludgeoned a mountain clansman to death with a shield.
265* MinorFlawMajorBreakup: Played for drama given the horrible consequences it caused. Elia Martel had been visited by numerous suitors, the best of whom was Baelor Hightower. However, her brother Oberyn had a habit of making fun of them all, and when Baelor farted in their presence, Oberyn dubbed him "[[EmbarrassingNickname Baelor Breakwind]]", and after that, Elia couldn't look at him without laughing, which put the chances of them wedding at zilch. Elia ended up marrying Rhaegar Targaryen instead, with [[FromBadToWorse negative consequences]]. In the present, Tyrion idly wonders [[ButterflyOfDoom how many lives were snuffed out by that fart]].
266* MissingMom: Jon Snow's not-officially-identified mother.
267* MissionCreep:
268** Robb Stark's Northern Campaign begins with the initial aim to rescue his father and his sisters who are held hostage by the Crown. To that end, he lifts the siege of Riverrun and captures Jaime Lannister as a hostage to force an exchange. But at that time, King Joffrey impulsively executes Ned Stark. Robb knows that the Lannisters won't exchange Jaime for his sisters, and that at the same time the other Riverlords oppressed by the Crown look to him as the only force to protect them from the Crown. So they appoint him, and he accepts in turn, the offer to become King in the North and Riverlands, with his new aim being to secure independence for both territories from the Seven Kingdoms. Robb's motive of revenge against the Lannisters doesn't change but circumstances provide him additional responsibilities to achieve that, [[spoiler:which tragically backfire when he fails to reconcile his original purpose with his new responsibilities]].
269** Daenerys' overall purpose is to return to Westeros with her three dragons and reclaim her birthright. The manner in which she seeks to achieve that goal however leads her to take additional goals and ideals along the way, even if she, to her mind, has not changed her original purpose. A need for her own army, leads her to follow Jorah Mormont's suggestion to purchase Unsullied, slave soldiers, whose treatment so appalls her that she spontaneously sets forth on an abolitionist campaign and conquers an entire region of Essos, and ends up becoming ruler of three. However, upon achieving this, she realizes that the consequences of her actions would need her to stay back and rule her conquered territories especially since her control over her dragons starts to weaken, and TheRemnant of the slavers seek to send freedmen back into slavery.
270** Robert's Rebellion likewise began with Robert, Ned and Jon Arryn trying to arm themselves to protect them from Aerys II's death warrant. Slowly it expanded to becoming a rebellion to oust a 300 year old dynasty with Robert as King, a position he did not really want, but was more or less expected to accept to better protect the rebels and the soldiers from recrimination.
271* MobileMaze: The House of the Undying.
272* MoneyDumb: King Robert Baratheon is a careless spendthrift who manages to plunge the kingdom deeply into debt despite beginning his reign with a full treasury, something that has major implications for the plot. Half his debt is owed to his wife's family, the Lannisters, meaning they have tremendous influence at court because he literally cannot afford to upset them. After his death, his widow Cersei Lannister refuses to pay the portion of the debt owed to the Iron Bank of Braavos. In response, the Iron Bank begins financially supporting Stannis Baratheon, who the Lannisters are at war against, because he promised to pay them back the whole sum once he took the throne.
273* MonsterClown:
274** Shagwell of the Bloody Mummers wears motley and pretends to be a jester, though he is really an AxCrazy sellsword. He uses a [[EpicFlail morningstar]] as a parody of a jester's bladder-on-a-stick.
275** Stannis' jester Patchface has just been pretty creepy so far, but in ''A Dance With Dragons'', Melisandre (fairly creepy herself) notes that she senses great evil in him.
276* MonsterMunch: The prologue to the first novel features three characters, two of whom immediately die at the hands of the Others, proving that they do exist after all (the third one escapes... only to be summarily executed for desertion). Somewhat subverted in that they both come back as wights, so this isn't, strictly speaking, their only role
277* MonumentOfHumiliationAndDefeat: The Iron Throne is this; Aegon the Conqueror made it out of the swords of the men who surrendered to him. It's supposed to exalt his power, but there's a twist: it's also supposed to be impossible to sit in comfortably, forcing the king always to be alert.
278* MoodWhiplash
279* MoodyMount:
280** Stranger (ridden by The Hound) and Smiler (ridden by Theon). This is a JustifiedTrope, since these are war mounts, trained for battle.
281** Ser Loras [[ExploitedTrope exploits this trope]] when Ser Gregor rides one in a joust; he rides a mare in heat, driving the stallion wild and uncontrollable.
282* MookHorrorShow: There's several similar instances (at Winterfell when Theon held it; at Harrenhall under the Lannisters; and at Winterfell again under the Boltons) where "good guys" spook "bad guys" by committing undetected murders of their forces.
283* MoralityKitchenSink: Almost no one is unambiguously good or incorruptible in this series, but on the flipside, only a very few characters (Joffrey, Ramsay, Gregor, Euron) are irredeemably evil. Most characters are generally either good people in service to bad masters, seeking to do the right thing for the wrong reasons (or vice-versa), or acting in their own self-interest without necessarily intending to be ''deliberately'' malicious (though they may not care if someone else gets hurt as a consequence).
284* MoralityPet: Brienne, for [[spoiler:post-HeelFaceTurn Jaime]]. The two Stark girls, for Sandor Clegane.
285* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: {{Defied|Trope}} by the Citadel regarding Qyburn; he's kicked out when they find out he's been performing [[PlayingWithSyringes human vivisection]], and he's no longer allowed to style himself "maester".
286* MoralMyopia: All over the place due to DeliberateValuesDissonance. Examples include:
287** The Sand Snakes are very vocal in their desire to utterly destroy House Lannister in revenge for [[spoiler:their father Prince Oberyn's death]], yet are horrified when they hear [[spoiler:Cersei Lannister is plotting the death of their young cousin]].
288*** Though the Sand Snakes at least have the excuse of wanting to avenge those killed by House Lannister, [[spoiler: Cersei wants to kill Trystane just so she can frame Tyrion for the murder]].
289** The Ironborn have some laws which explicitly only condemn crimes committed against other Ironborn (for example, they can't be taken as thralls or salt-wives).
290* MortonsFork: While traveling incognito back to Winterfell from King's Landing, Lady Catelyn Stark and Ser Rodrik Cassel stop at the Inn at the Crossroads. Tyrion Lannister, a member of a rival house enters the inn's common room as their eating. Despite Catelyn's efforts to stay inconspicuous, Tyrion spots them and publicly addresses Cat as "Lady Stark." Even if she didn't already (mistakenly) believe Tyrion played a role in her son's near-death, Catelyn has no good options now that her first choice, [[TakeaThirdOption "pass like ships in the night"]], has been eliminated. She can let him continue on to King's Landing where he can tell his family, aka the royal family, that he saw one of the most powerful women in the realm traveling in disguise and without an entourage, knowing that he's smart enough to suss out from that that the Starks are on the move. Or she can apprehend him and risk the wraith of [[TheDreaded Tywin Lannister,]] a man known to commit war crimes. She opts for apprehending Tyrion, knowing that it's the least bad, rather than the best option, and in the process attempts to mitigate the damage.
291%%* MosesInTheBulrushes: [[spoiler:Aegon VI Targaryen.]]
292* TheMourningAfter: Tywin's heart is forever hardened after his wife Joanna's death, to such an insane extent that he never smiles [[spoiler:though he does get it on with whores]]. Hoster Tully is also never quite the same. Robert, one of the most epic cases, goes so far as to get hammered and then call Cersei "Lyanna" on their wedding night. And then there's Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, whose long [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend fixation]] on Catelyn (not to mention the severe BreakTheCutie process he went through because of it) led to him turning severely {{Yandere}} and [[ReplacementGoldfish creepy consequences]] regarding Catelyn's daughter, Sansa.
293* MrSmith:
294** Highborn, acknowledged bastard children are given surnames which differ depending on the region: "Snow" for the North, "Rivers" for the Riverlands, "Hill" for the Westerlands, "Stone" for the Vale, "Waters" for the Crownlands, "Storm" for the Stormlands, "Flowers" for the Reach, "Pyke" for the Iron Islands, and "Sand" for Dorne.
295** Ser Osmund doubles this by claiming that "Ser Robert Stone" knighted him, a name far too generic to actually track down. Jaime suspects that it's a LineOfSightName.
296** Qyburn calls his towering creation "Ser Robert Strong." The first name comes from King Robert Baratheon, his patron's late husband, and the surname refers to the creation's enormous size. The actual House Strong is [[ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory conveniently extinguished]].
297* MultipleChoiceChosen: There is an oft-mentioned prophecy about the prince that was promised, or Azor Ahai, who will save the world from darkness. In-universe, it has been speculated at different times to refer to Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys Targaryen, and Stannis Baratheon. Out of universe, fans will use the vagueness of the criteria of the prophecy and applicable parallels to stories of the hero to argue in favor of dozens of characters it could refer to, with Dany and Jon Snow being the most popular candidates.
298* MultipleChoicePast: The Blackwoods and Brackens each claim to have been kings until they rebelled against each other.
299* {{Mummers}}: Mummers' shows are a frequently-mentioned form of entertainment in the form of traveling troupes of actors ranging from practiced performers to barely rehearsed amateurs. They mostly perform in tourneys, faires, and other temporary events but are also a common sight in the streets of King's Landing, and their performances are a mixture of popular folktales and occasional retellings of historical stories in ways calculated to appeal to the audience (or not offend the powers that be). Arya spends some time with a troupe in Braavos who are performing a bawdy, sensationalised version of the War of Five Kings.
300* TheMunchausen: Tormund Giantsbane, who admits as much with one of his [[TheMagnificent many nicknames]], "Tall-Talker."
301* MundaneMacGuffinPerson:
302** A male example is Edric Storm, King Robert's bastard son. Some people just want to protect him; his StrongFamilyResemblance to his father is considered evidence for [[spoiler:the illegitimacy of Cersei's children]]; and one faction wants to [[spoiler:burn him alive [[PoweredByAForsakenChild to bring a stone dragon to life]] and save the world]].
303** [[spoiler:After the death of her older brother and the presumed deaths of her younger brothers]], Sansa Stark becomes this as several factions try and get their hands on her claim to Winterfell.
304* MurderInc: The Faceless Men are a foreign religious order who worship death, to the point that one of their two primary services is painless euthanasia. They are also the most skilled assassins in the world, able to murder anyone for the right price. Contract killing is a sacred act to them. There is also a lesser guild of assassins called the Sorrowful Men, who apologize to their victims the instant before they kill them.
305* MusicalEpisode: Songs play a vital role in social life of the Seven Kingdoms. Serving as propaganda, storytelling or as noisy cover to discuss treasonous ideas. ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' in particular features almost all of the most notable songs in the series : "The Dornishman's Wife", "The Last of the Giants", "The Kingswood Brotherhood", "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" and most famously of all, "The Rains of Castermere".
306* MutilationConga: Beric Dondarrion still bears all the scars of the many fatal injuries he was resurrected from, including [[EyepatchOfPower a missing eye]] and [[TheManTheyCouldntHang the mark of a hangman's noose]].
307* MyBelovedSmother:
308** Cersei Lannister gave Joffrey free rein, but does this with Tommen after [[spoiler:Joffrey's death]].
309** Lysa Arryn does this with Robert. Both of these examples find a strange balance between coddling their children's flaws so they don't outgrow them and smothering them to prevent them from maturing.
310** Olenna Tyrell makes no apologies for running her son Mace's life, stating, "All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers." Averted in that Olenna is way more competent than her son is.
311* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: See [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone/ASongOfIceAndFire here]].
312* MyMasterRightOrWrong:
313** Most of the Kingsguard. Jaime relates being informed by one of his compatriots that his job is to guard the king, not judge him--in response to Jaime suggesting they intervene and stop Aerys from savagely raping his wife. Jaime ends up [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten famously]] averting it.
314** The common soldier also has this trait; when [[spoiler:the Karstarks are discovered to have been plotting betrayal, it's suggested that their soldiers be tortured for information on the plot. Stannis points out that they wouldn't know anything beforehand; when the time came for them to turn on their allies, they would have obeyed their lord as they always do.]]
315* MyNaymeIs:
316** Westerosi culture features a lot of archaic, alternate, or non-English spellings of common names, such as "Eddard" instead of "Edward". The letter "Y" crops up quite often in names, especially as a vowel. Knights are titled ''ser'' rather than the traditional English "sir".
317** There's a whole lot of surnames that are unusual spellings of animals, fruit, etc. (typically those featured on the family's coat-of-arms): i.e. Plumm, Codd, Hogg, etc.
318* MythArc: The Others, The Prince Who Was Promised.
319* MythologyGag: One of the numerous gods of death with a statue in the House of Black and White is Bakkalon, also known as the Pale Child, which also happens to be the name of a deity in Martin's "The Thousand Worlds" setting, and figures heavily in his 1975 novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man!"
320[[/folder]]
321
322
323[[folder:N]]
324* NamedAfterTheInjury:
325** Qhorin Halfhand is a HandicappedBadass and LivingLegend in the Night's Watch. He got his name (and lost three fingers) from a fight when he [[BareHandedBladeBlock caught his enemy's axe]], blinded him with the blood spray, and cut him down.
326** Orys Baratheon, the founder of House Baratheon, became known as Orys One-Hand after losing his sword hand during the war in Dorne.
327** Dagmer Cleftjaw, one of Theon Greyjoy's raiders, got his nickname after taking an axe to his face as a child, leaving a deep scar splitting the lower half of his face apart.
328** Bran Stark starts calling himself Bran the Broken after a fall from the tower renders him unable to walk.
329** Harwin Strong was once known as Breakbones for his strength, until he got beaten and humiliated at a tournament by Criston Cole and the fool Mushroom started calling him Brokenbones, which stuck with him.
330* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Far too many to count, both in universe and meta.
331* NamedWeapon: A lot, see AncestralWeapon. ''Ice'' is Ned's sword, [[spoiler: and is later divided into ''Oathkeeper'' and ''Widow's Wail'']], Jon has ''Longclaw'' which formerly belonged to House Mormont and was given to him by Jeor Mormont, the Lannisters once had ''Brightroar'' but lost it, the Tarlys have ''Heartsbane'' and are very proud of it, the Targaryens once had ''Blackfyre'' and ''Dark Sister''. Weapons that are not Valyrian steel and much more mundane are sometimes given names too: most notably Arya's sword ''Needle''.
332* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: A standard of the series. The Hound, the Leech Lord, Bloodraven, the Mad Huntsman, the Mad King, the Kingslayer, the Mountain That Rides, the Bloody Mummers, the Crow's Eye, the Red Viper, the Titan's Bastard, the Darkstar, the Drowned God and so on.
333* NarrativeFiligree: The series' enormous length can largely be attributed to Martin's "it's about the journey" approach to storytelling, as the books are filled with many details that are unimportant to the overall plot (and provide plenty of camouflague for {{Foreshadowing}} and [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]]).
334* NastyParty:
335** Edmure Tully's wedding gains the moniker "The Red Wedding" for this very reason. In revenge for a political slight and open treason (respectively), Walder Frey and Tywin Lannister arrange to have Robb, Catelyn, and a large percentage of their bannermen slaughtered at the reception, with the [[TheStarscream treacherous Northern Lord]] Roose Bolton personally murdering Robb. This is considered especially shocking as all cultures respect SacredHospitality and as a result, nearly everybody in the Seven Kingdoms despises the [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Freys]].
336** Later in the same book, Lady Olenna Redwyne (probably, the culprit is not explicit) murders Joffrey at his own wedding, framing Tyrion for the act. She was motivated as Joffrey was a {{Sadist}}ic [[TheCaligula King]] who was marrying her granddaughter and his death means his kinder and weaker-willed brother Tommen succeeds.
337** There is also the Dothraki party in Vaes Dothrak. Viserys turns up drunk and threatens his pregnant sister Daenerys, telling her husband Khal Drogo he was promised an army to take back the Seven Kingdoms, and mocking them as they can't use weapons or shed blood in the city. Drogo promises Viserys a crown of gold and pours molten gold over his head.
338** [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton's]] wedding to "Arya Stark" (really Jeyne Poole, who is being forced into this role to help the Boltons hold the North) begins becoming this. The Northern Houses hate the Freys present due to the Red Wedding, and [[TenLittleMurderVictims people keep turning up dead]]. Also the three Freys travelling with Lord Wyman Manderly from White Harbor, who lost one of his sons at the Red Wedding with the Freys lying and claiming Robb Stark murdered his son, have disappeared, though Wyman brings three [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies pies]] which he serves to the Freys and Boltons and [[ImAHumanitarian eats with gusto]]. When he insults the Freys on Little Walder Frey's death, Little Walder's uncle Hosteen Frey tries to kill him, leading to a fight in which Frey and Manderly men die. Lord Bolton is forced to send the Frey and Manderly men out of Winterfell against Stannis Baratheon.
339** Over two centuries prior to the story [[TheEvilPrince Maegor the Cruel]] had all the architects for the Red Keep murdered at a banquet to protect its secrets. There are rumors one of them escaped and later murdered Maegor, though it is more likely Maegor killed himself on hearing of his nephew's rebellion against him.
340* NearAndDearBabyNaming: Invoked. Nobles often name their children after their relatives, allies, and lieges as a public demonstration of respect and loyalty.
341** Jon Arryn fostered Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon, who became best friends and saw Jon as a father figure. Ned names one son Robb and another Jon, while Jon Arryn names his son Robert.
342** Davos helped the Baratheon garrison survive the Siege of Storm's End by smuggling them food, and Stannis Baratheon rewarded him with a knighthood. Davos later named one of his sons after Stannis.
343** Many of Walder Frey's children and grandchildren have named their kids after him in an attempt to win his favor, but he finds this annoying rather than flattering. Some Freys are named after members of the royal family for the same reason.
344* NebulousEvilOrganization: The Band of Nine, derisively referred to as "The Ninepenny Kings". As well as the Golden Company mercenaries run by followers of House Blackfyre [[spoiler:with a plan to seat the supposed to be dead son of Rhaegar Targaryen on the Iron Throne.]]
345* {{Necromancer}}:
346** The Others, who raise the corpses of people and [[RaisingTheSteaks animals]] as wights.
347** Qyburn aspires to become one for a long time, but lacked test subjects. [[spoiler:After Cersei gives him the pick of the dungeons, Qyburn is able to create Robert Strong, his enormous undead champion.]]
348** Thoros of Myr [[spoiler:who brought back Beric Dondarrion a bunch of times, with him losing more of himself/his humanity with each resurection]], although he sees it as a HealingHands type power.
349* NeutralInNameOnly: Houses Arryn and Martell are both neutral in the continent spanning [[CivilWar War of Five Kings]]. However, both families have a stake in the conflict. The Arryns have blood and cultural ties to the Starks and Tullys, and many of House Arryn's vassals [[WarHawk want to join the war]] on the side of the Starks; however, Lysa Tully, mother and regent of the underage Lord Robin Arryn, refuses to intervene despite even her sister Catelyn Stark's pleading. Meanwhile House Martell has a grudge against the Lannisters, and thus the royal family, for the murder of Elia Martell and her children during the sack of King's Landing in the {{backstory}}.
350* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Or in this series' case... an army (or three of them) to a dragon-fight. Or, build the continent's most impressive, land-assault-proof castle and hole up in it when facing flaming, aerial attackers.
351* NeverFoundTheBody: Jaime is wary of the reports of Raynald Westerling's death at the Twins, given that they consist of him jumping into the river with a couple of crossbow bolts in him. Likewise for the case of young Tyrek Lannister, who disappeared during a riot in King's Landing; he even wonders if Varys arranged the riot to cover him being snatched.
352* NeverSayThatAgain:
353** Just about the only time Tyrion ever really loses his temper with Shae is when she makes fun of his height and compares him to a child. Clearly something of a BerserkButton.
354** After discovering [[spoiler:the truth about Tysha]], Tyrion warns Tywin against using the word "whore" again. [[spoiler:He does, and Tyrion shoots him.]]
355* NeverSplitTheParty:
356** Jaime is criticised for splitting his siege of Riverrun into three camps, allowing them to be overrun separately. Kevan immediately shoots down the criticism, pointing out that the Tullys sited the castle at a river fork specifically to force their enemies to split, thus making defense that much easier.
357** The rivers work a little bit against Robb Stark by only allowing him to attack two of the three Lannister camps at once, leaving the third camp free to retreat and continue the war.
358* NiceToTheWaiter: Ned is always pleasant and polite with his servants and the common folk, even if he remains rather aloof and distant.
359* NightAndDayDuo: The Dothraki believe that the sun and moon are married gods, with the sun being masculine and the moon being feminine. This is reflected in how Daenerys refers to Khal Drogo as "[her] sun and stars", while he refers to her as "moon of my life".
360* NightOfTheLivingMooks: People killed by the Others come back as nearly unstoppable wights who kill people. Jon becomes convinced that the Others can reanimate ''any'' corpse they find, whether or not they made it a corpse in the first place. [[RedHerring Is he right]]? ...[[ZergRush Would you take the risk]]?
361* NobleTongue: In addition to speaking the "CommonTongue" (i.e. English), Westerosi nobility are shown knowing High Valyrian, the Latin-like language of a likely Rome-like lost civilization. It often functions as a lingua franca in the series, as dialects of Valyrian are spoken on the continent of Essos, and so Westerosi who travel there will draw from their knowledge of Valyrian to communicate.
362* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted:
363** In ''A Storm of Swords'', [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister very obviously defecates after being shot. With a crossbow. On the toilet. And [[BrickJoke he does not, in the end, shit gold]]]].
364** In ''A Dance with Dragons'', [[spoiler:Grand Maester Pycelle shits himself after he's dealt a fatal head wound. Varys had to open a window because of the stench]].
365* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Before telling Robert of Cersei's incest, Ned first confronts Cersei to give her a chance to flee the country, knowing Robert will surely have her killed once he knows. Unbeknownst to him, Cersei has already arranged for Robert's assassination; his attempt at mercy only tips his hand and puts him firmly in her crosshairs.
366* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Brienne of Tarth. Doesn't help that she's widely described as being pretty ugly into the bargain; she suggests that growing up big and ugly and being bullied a lot was part of the reason she wanted to become a knight. She's openly mocked and the one time men showed her any interested it was because they had a bet over which one could take her virginity. Possibly averted with Jaime, with whom she appears to share a growing mutual attraction.
367* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Robb Stark]] is crossbowed, stabbed in the heart, and decapitated, before having [[spoiler:his direwolf's head sewn onto the corpse as a final insult]].
368* NonIndicativeName:
369** The term "the Seven Kingdoms" originally referred to the seven nations of Westeros that existed during Aegon's Conquest: The Kingdoms of the North, the Mountain and Vale, the Isles and Rivers, the Rock, the Reach, and the Stormlands, and Dorne. "The Seven Kingdoms" is still used in the present, but since Aegon's Conquest, the continent has been united as several ''provinces'' of ''one'' kingdom. Additionally, the Kingdom of the Isles and Rivers split into the riverlands and the Iron Islands, while the Kingdom of the Stormlands was split into the stormlands and the crownlands--as such, "the Seven Kingdoms" now refers to ''one'' kingdom with ''nine'' provinces.
370** The War of the Five Kings actually has only four kings at the beginning[[note]]Robb, Joffrey, Stannis, Renly[[/note]] and never has five kings fighting each other at the same time. [[spoiler: Balon only becomes a king after Renly's death, so at that point, there is still only four kings.]]
371* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: In ''A Dance With Dragons'', some of Stannis' men end up eating their dead when they are trapped by a massive snowstorm during the march to Winterfell. They get burned alive for it.
372* NobleFugitive: Viserys is a bit of a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype. Straighter examples in Daenerys, [[spoiler:Ser Barristan, Jon Connington, and Tyrion]].
373* NominatedAsAPrank: During the election for Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the cook Three Finger Hobb is put forward as a candidate. He receives a small number of votes in each ballot. When one character asks why people support him, to which someone speculates that his supporters just want him out of the kitchens.
374* TheNondescript: The Tickler, Gregor Clegane's TortureTechnician, could disappear in a crowd of three; Website/TelevisionWithoutPity described him as an "[[http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/game-of-thrones/garden-of-bones-1.php?page=8 interestingly casual man]]".
375%%* NonHumanSidekick: The Stark's direwolves and [[spoiler:Dany's dragons]].
376* NoRespectGuy: A couple examples:
377** Catelyn and her uncle Brynden tend to verbally smack around Edmure for either understandable mistakes (he made a successful stand against the Lannisters, but in doing so ruined Robb's bigger plans, a situation which could have been prevented if Robb had just shared those plans to begin with) or relatively minor things- Catelyn even realizes how unfair she's being after snapping at him for hoping that his unseen fiancee is attractive.
378** Theon Greyjoy's sister and father treat him like absolute shit when he returns to the Iron Islands, mainly because he spent a decade living with the Starks. But, as Theon points out, that wasn't his choice -- his father gave Theon up as a ward/hostage when he surrendered to Robert Baratheon, so why in the world is ''he'' catching so much flak for it? Theon being Theon, he doesn't help his cause by acting as though he's Balon Greyjoy's heir simply because he's the old man's oldest living son -- this is how it works on the mainland, but not on the Iron Islands.
379* NormalFishInATinyPond: Jon Snow is head and shoulders above his fellow recruits to the Night's Watch simply by virtue of the fact that he grew up in a castle training under a master-at-arms and they are largely from low-born backgrounds.
380* NoodleIncident: A number of incidents are referred to early on, with clues popping up over the course of the series. Examples include the tragedy at Summerhall, the Doom of Valyria, and the events at the "Tower of Joy."
381* NotJustATournament: "The Mystery Knight" takes place during a tournament that's [[spoiler:secretly a gathering for conspirators trying to start a second Blackfyre rebellion]].
382* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Beric Dondarrion [[spoiler:giving his life to resurrect Catelyn Tully]] seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but resulted in [[spoiler:his idealistic Brotherhood without Banners becoming a brutal, violent force driven by revenge under her command]].
383* NotSoDifferentRemark: Tywin Lannister's hatred towards Tyrion blinds him to how alike they are. Tyrion himself admits this [[spoiler:as Tywin dies]]. Genna, Tywin's sister, expresses a similar opinion.
384* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Small Council of the Seven Kingdoms. Individually, they all know important bits of most of what's going on. Collectively...it's each man for himself, working towards their own ([[HiddenAgendaVillain often mysterious]]) agenda and backstabbing/replacing each other whenever possible. It's often suggested that a monarch who can put together a capable and cooperative council will need to do little else, although Cersei's attempt to do this merely creates a coterie of [[YesMan Yes Men]].
385[[/folder]]
386
387
388[[folder:O]]
389* TheOathBreaker:
390** Jaime Lannister. He killed the king he was sworn to protect, and everyone -- even the people who acknowledge that Aerys needed killing -- treat him like the lowest of the low, even in a CrapsackWorld full of child rapists, {{Torture Technician}}s, and [[TheCaligula mad kings]] (like the one he killed to save King's Landing).
391** Runaways from the Night's Watch, who are summarily executed. Failing to obey direct orders is met with the same treatment.
392** Jon breaks his vows under orders from Qhorin Halfhand and never lives it down in the eyes of some members of the Night's Watch. He also breaks his vows with Ygritte, which leaves him much more emotionally conflicted.
393* ObfuscatingStupidity:
394** Lord Wyman Manderly when dealing with the Freys and Boltons [[spoiler:following the Red Wedding and the Bolton takeover]].
395** Lampshaded by Dontos TheFool to Sansa Stark. She laments her own naivete in the game of thrones, but Dontos points out that all TheChessmaster characters watch each other like hawks, but pay little attention to those they think are stupid. [[spoiler:Sure enough no-one suspects Sansa is planning an escape with Dontos until after it happens.]]
396* OccultBlueEyes: Someone who has been raised from the dead by the Others has uncanny shining blue eyes with no life in them, usually described as looking like the cold light of distant stars.
397* OddNameOut:
398** Noble-born, acknowledged illegitimate children are given surnames which reflect a natural phenomena each of the kingdoms are known for: Storm for the Stormlands, Snow for the North, Rivers for the Riverlands, Waters for the Crownlands, Flowers for the Reach, Sand for Dorne, Stone for the Vale, and Hill for the westerlands. Iron Island bastard children, however, aren't named something like Salt or Iron, but are called "Pyke" after the capital of the region.
399** Dorne is the only one of the Seven Kingdoms with an actual name whereas the rest are more like simple descriptions of the region (e.g. the hurricane-pounded Stormlands or the Westerlands on the west coast).
400* OfficerAndAGentleman: The Kingsguard, which in theory is supposed to be comprised of the best, most honorable knights around. In reality, appointments are made as favors to allies or slights to adversaries, rather than to the best candidate.
401* OffstageVillainy: Done chillingly well with Ramsay Bolton. Pre-''Dance'' he had only appeared in person under his own name in one chapter at the end of the third volume, yet was already one of the biggest sources of NightmareFuel in the series. Once he comes onstage he manages to get ''worse''.
402* OhLookMoreRooms: The House of the Undying. Navigating it is part SecretTestOfCharacter, part VisionQuest, [[spoiler:and part labyrinthine prison, as the Warlocks don't want Daenerys to leave.]]
403* OlderThanTheyLook: The waif is a Faceless Man (Faceless Woman?) who is thirty-six years old but looks like a child close to Arya's age. Her body is unnaturally small because she is around dangerous poisons all the time - and the face she has probably isn't her real one anyway.
404* OldMaid:
405** Arianne Martell, who is still unwed at the age of 23 in a world where marriage at 14 isn't considered unusual, [[spoiler:although her father has ensured that she remains unmarried so that she can marry a Targaryen]].
406** Lollys Stokeworth is fat and simple-minded, causing her to remain unwed at the age of 33 despite her mother's best efforts to find a match. It doesn't help when she's gang raped by dozens of rioters, leaving her pregnant and emotionally fragile. Finally she settles for [[spoiler:Bronn, who quickly works his position into a lordship by making Lollys's elder sister into a widow.]]
407%% * OldMaster:
408%% ** Ser Barristan Selmy
409%% ** Syrio Forel
410%% ** Jeor "Old Bear" Mormont.
411%% * OldRetainer:
412%% ** Ser Rodrik Cassel, Master-at-Arms of Winterfell, to House Stark.
413%% ** Maesters Cressen
414%% ** Luwin
415%%%
416%%% ZCE are not allowed.
417%%%
418* OldSoldier: Practically overloaded with them.
419** Barristan [[TheMagnificent "the Bold"]] Selmy is around sixty years of age, which in the medieval setting is fairly ancient considering he is able to singlehandedly take down a few soldiers unarmed. Later he defeats a noted and dangerous sellsword captain with only a wooden staff. In Meereen, several people take potshots at his age, calling him "Ser Grandfather" and "Barristan the Old."
420** At the age of 60, Brynden Tully serves as commander of scouts in Robb's campaign, then goes on to hold Riverrun against a siege by the Lannisters and the Freys. When he is finally convinced by political pressure to give in to the besieging army, he has his nephew raise a gate leading out into a river and swims away, escaping from his would-be captors.
421** [[InSeriesNickname "Bronze"]] Yohn Royce is probably one of the best fighters the Vale has to offer despite his old age. He's described as being as tall as the Hound and still looks strong enough to break younger men in two. He's also mentioned to have curb-stomped both Eddard Stark and his master-at-arms Ser Rodrik with a sparring sword during a visit to Winterfell.
422* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the Citadel; maesters wear a chain with each link representing a field of study they've mastered, and are expected to earn [[JackOfAllTrades as many as they can]]. The very best maester in any given field is offered a managerial/tutelary position as "Archmaester" within the Citadel, but they still tend to have earned many links in other fields as well.
423* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:
424** Jaime's murder of Aerys. It doesn't help that he tells almost no one why he really did it.
425** There are people on all sides who are appalled at the actions of House Frey at Edmure's wedding, and they never show up but someone reminds them of it. The Brotherhood begin a campaign to hang any Frey on sight, and [[PersonAsVerb their very name has become an insult]].
426* OneGenderSchool: The Citadel, much like the medieval universities it was inspired by.
427* OneLiner: "There are no men like me. There's only me."
428* OneSteveLimit: Averted, especially as families often name children for [[DeadGuyJunior ancestors]] or those with whom they're attempting to curry favor.
429** Ned Stark names two of his children Brandon and Rickon, probably after his brother and father who were killed by the Mad King. Robert Arryn (and possibly Robb Stark as well) is named after King Robert Baratheon; there are quite a few Jons running around (Arryn, Connington, Snow, two Umbers, a Fossoway, and many others); there are several Balons (Swann, Greyjoy, some others); it seems to be a House Stark tradition to ''always'' have a Brandon in each generation (The Builder; The Shipwright; The Burner; The Daughterless; The Broken, and so on); and there are ''many'' names constantly used throughout the generations among Targaryens (with a particular mention going to "Aegon" - no less than 12 Targaryens bearing that name are mentioned in ''The World of Ice and Fire'').
430** House Frey is a particular exception for all the Walders and Waldas, named to suck up to family patriarch Walder Frey -- even the ''other characters'' get confused, and good luck trying to remember whether you're reading about Black Walder or Red Walder or Bastard Walder without [[AllThereInTheManual referring to the family tree]]. Winterfell takes on two young wards, ''both'' named Walder Frey. They're called Big Walder and Little Walder in reference to their age, but Little Walder is bigger than Big Walder, which greatly amuses the two boys but confuses everyone else.
431* TheOneThatGotAway: Lyanna, for Robert. Tysha, for Tyrion. Catelyn, for Littlefinger. Lynesse Hightower, for Jorah Mormont.
432* OnlyFriend:
433** ''Friend'' might be stretching it a little, but its made pretty clear that Davos is the only person that Stannis trusts and respects completely. With Stannis, that's probably as close to friendship as you're going to get.
434** Robert asks Eddard to be Hand of the King because, despite being surrounded by capable people in King's Landing, Eddard is the only one that Robert can fully trust.
435* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Plenty of people, such as Spare Boot, Kegs, Shitmouth and the Tickler. Actually discussed with the character of Hot Pie when Arya ponders whether he remembers his real name.
436* OpenSecret:
437** Cersei gets so used to everyone knowing the truth about her affair with her twin brother that she almost forgets that it's supposed to be a secret, and hardly bothers to keep it.
438** Everyone around Renly and Loras appears to be aware of their homosexuality, to the extent that after Renly's death the argument is plausibly made that his widow is still a virgin.
439* OracularUrchin: Jojen Reed, with his prophetic "green dreams."
440* OrderReborn:
441** Attempted by Jon Snow, who believes the Night's Watch needs to be whipped back into shape in order to face the return of the Others. [[spoiler:Deconstructed -- he pisses too many people off by trying to change things too drastically and too quickly, and eventually gets several knives in the back for his trouble.]]
442** The High Septon is more successful with the Faith Militant and Warrior's Sons, abolished by the rulers of Westeros because they threatened their power. Queen Regent Cersei allows them to be reestablished, much to the dismay of the Lannisters who've paid a bit more attention to history.
443* OrderVersusChaos: Symbolised by the lands of the South and the lands beyond the Wall. The civilized Southerners actually represent chaos because of their endless intrigues, wars and power plays while the free folk represent order in that they unite under the leadership of the Kings Beyond The Wall.
444* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: One of the faces of the Faith of the Seven, called the Stranger, is neither male nor female and signifies death.
445* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Dragons look like like winged, legged serpents with thick scales. They breathe fire and cook their meat before eating it. They are hermaphrodites, and lay scaled eggs that must be bathed in fire before they hatch. Like fish, they grow according to the size of their environment. They have animal level intelligence and can be trained to accept a rider, making them useful weapons of war. Their presence seems to be linked to the effectiveness of magic. When the story starts, they have been extinct for over a century [[spoiler:though they got better, thanks to Daenerys]]. They may also have a taste for human flesh. Their internal body temperatures appear to be tremendous: steel weapons stuck in them almost immediately are red, melting hot. Similarly, their blood is so hot it glows, akin to molten metal.
446** The series also has stories of ice dragons, which are supposed to be made of living ice and live in a frozen waste beyond the northern seas, although whether they really exist is as yet unconfirmed. The ironborn also have legends featuring marine monsters known as sea dragons.
447** There are also creatures related to dragons mentioned here and there in the series. Firewyrms, which breathe fire but have no wings and can tunnel through soil and stone, inhabited the volcanoes of Valyria before the doom came, and lived there long before the Valyrians and dragons. There are also [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent wyverns]], which resemble dragons but cannot breathe fire, and inhabit the swamps and jungles of Sothoryos. There is speculation in-universe that the Valyrians may have bred dragons from wyvern stock.
448* OurElvesAreDifferent:
449** The Children of the Forest are literal elves; they were a non-human race of short brown-skinned forest dwellers, said to be beautiful by human standards, with magical powers and longer lifespans than humans. They warred with the First Men when they arrived in Westeros, but eventually a peace was made, called the Pact. When the Others attacked the lands of the Children and Men during the Long Night, the two races stood together in the War for the Dawn. They were victorious, but the steady encroachment of human civilization, and the arrival of another group of humans, the Andals, caused the children to dwindle and eventually die out. [[spoiler:Or that's what the maesters say. In ''A Dance with Dragons'' the children finally put in an appearance, in the cave of the three-eyed crow.]]
450** The Valyrians are in a way ''kinda'' Elf-like, albeit more in a metaphorical sense: inhumanly beautiful and radiant, gifted with supernatural abilities (their mastery of dragons), and having a bunch of [[TheAce paragons]] among them (Aegon I, Daemon Blackfyre, Rhaegar etc.). Also their obsession with keeping their bloodline pure and the way they're treated as not-quite-human by the more ordinary people of Westeros (the Targaeryens not being subject to laws of the Gods, but being almost a race apart). And of course they're better than other humans.
451* OurHippocampsAreDifferent: The coat of arms of the House Velaryon of Driftmark is a "silver seahorse on sea green" and official art switches between using a seahorse and a hippocamp.
452* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: "Merlings" are mentioned in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' but never actually seen except as statuary or pictures (a merling is on the banner of [[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Manderly House Manderly]], for example), and are most likely mythical. Tyrion sarcastically says that the fisherfolk of Lannisport sometimes see them, when Lord Commander Mormont mentions that wildlings have recently seen white walkers, another mythical race which, unfortunately for the characters, turns out to be very, very real.
453* OurNudityIsDifferent: The Qartheen fashion for women means leaving one breast exposed.
454* OurVampiresAreDifferent: If the Valyrians (Targaeryens) are elf-like, the Boltons are the metaphorical vampires of the setting. the Boltons share several traits with both Vlad Tepes as well as his fictional counterpart Dracula; like their borderline soulless cruelty, their horrific presence, their penchant for torture and terror (the main difference is that they're more of the flaying than the impaling types), their reign of quiet terror over their land including a dark and foreboding ancestral seat, and the recurring trope of consumption of human material (vampires drink the blood of their victims, the Boltons are not above reworking them into clothes). Roose Boltons adds a presumed agelessness and an disconcerting paleness to the mix.
455* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They're called skinchangers, beastlings, and wargs, and they [[spoiler:take control of animals rather than turn into them, and can do this with other animals besides wolves]]. There's a notable piece of humor over this when Jared Frey makes a description much closer to the one traditional of a werewolf.
456-->'''Jared''': The Red Wedding was the Young Wolf's work. He changed into a beast before our eyes and tore out the throat of my cousin Jinglebell, a harmless simpleton. He would have slain my lord father too, if Ser Wendel had not put himself in the way.\
457'''Davos''': Is it your claim that ''Robb Stark'' killed Wendel Manderly?\
458'''Jared''': And many more. Mine own son Tytos was amongst them, and my daughter's husband. When Stark changed into a wolf, his northmen did the same. The mark of the beast was on them all. Wargs birth other wargs with a bite, it is well-known. It was all my brothers and I could do to put them down before they slew us all.
459* OurWightsAreDifferent: The corpses reanimated by the Others are described as such. They have blue eyes, black hands and [[FireKeepsItDead can only be killed by fire]].
460* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: Wyverns, mentioned and described in supplemental material, resemble dragons but cannot breathe fire, and inhabit the swamps and jungles of Sothoryos. There is speculation in-universe that the Valyrians may have bred the first dragons from wyvern stock. The fire-breathing dragons all originate from the volcanic area of the Valyrian peninsula, so this is presumably the source of that ability, whether through breeding or some kind of magic.
461* OurZombiesAreDifferent:
462** The people resurrected with the flames of R'hllor are the Revenant variety, and Coldhands is likely one of these as well.
463** Qyburn's "creation" Ser Robert Strong is a Construct type.
464** People killed by the Others end up as the traditional Voodoo type. They seem to retain their memories, but lose the ability to talk and any shred of humanity. The can keep fighting even after being decapitated. Their severed limbs are still animate as well, but will eventually rot away. The only sure way to kill them quickly is [[FireKeepsItDead setting them on fire]].
465** The stone men are a [[TechnicallyLivingZombie technically living]] Plague-bearing type, especially toward the end of their lives.
466* OutlivingOnesOffspring:
467** The death of [[spoiler: Joffrey Baratheon as his mother looks helplessly on. Even though both characters are villains, the scene is portrayed sympathetically. Cersei is thereafter even more paranoid about her children's safety]].
468** [[spoiler: Catelyn believes that her husband and children have all been lost. Her husband is executed, one daughter is married off to an enemy family, her oldest son is murdered in front of her, while her youngest children are missing and/or believed to be dead]].
469** Alannys Greyjoy became an empty shell of a person after losing all three of her sons. The two eldest were killed in a war her husband started, and the youngest was taken hostage for many years. The one remaining child, her daughter Asha, is quite saddened to see her mother reduced to this state and its likely the reason Asha doesn't want children.
470* OutsideContextProblem:
471** The Seven Kingdoms are embroiled in war and intrigue, almost completely unaware that supernatural ice-demons are threatening to invade from the North.
472** The Seven Kingdoms were completely unprepared to fight dragons when Aegon arrived on their shores. Consequently, Aegon managed to conquer six of them in short order.
473* OverzealousUnderling: This is a recurring problem for many sides:
474** Tywin Lannister loves [[TheDreaded the terror inspired]] by his [[TheBrute brute]] [[WorldsStrongestMan Gregor Clegane]]. Mostly Tywin sends Gregor out to add onto that reputation by doing all the thug work for the Lannisters, meaning a whole lot of RapePillageAndBurn. Gregor is ''so'' enthusiastic in these tasks that it sometimes backfires. Multiple characters note that Gregor is [[AxCrazy too bloodthirsty and sadistic]] to take highborn captives, often killing them just because when he could get rich ransoms for them or use them strategically as hostages. And Gregor's needless rape and murder of Princess Elia years before the start of the story drove one of Elia's brothers to carefully plot to overthrow and destroy the Lannisters and everything they care about, while the other brother would eventually give Gregor a poisoned spear in the gut that caused him to die slowly and in horrific agony.
475** In the book, Robb Stark's uncle Edmure disobeys orders to stay put, (orders which are admittedly vague) and decides to move his army to block Tywin Lannister's army from crossing a river, repelling the large force with minimal losses in a series of minor skirmishes. Edmure believes he's doing the right thing by his nephew and that it was the only reasonable course based on what he knew, but this prevents Tywin from crossing the river and being caught in an ambush where Robb might have been able to crush the entire army. In the TV adaption he acts on his own initiative and wins a PyrrhicVictory against Gregor Clegane instead, but Clegane and most of his force escape and it ruins a trap Robb had planned for Clegane.
476[[/folder]]
477
478
479[[folder:P]]
480* ParentalAbandonment: Ned and Cat are forced to leave behind their children when the political situation of their House is getting more and more unstable.
481* ParentalFavoritism:
482** Tywin Lannister hates Tyrion for his deformity and for causing his mother to die in childbirth. He grudgingly tolerates his presence in the family, but refuses to grant him any inheritance.
483** Randyll Tarly is so openly disgusted with Samwell that he threatens him with murder if he does not disinherit himself.
484** Even the happier Stark family suffer from this as Ned Stark treats his daughter Arya preferentially over his daughter Sansa. Conversely, his wife Catelyn prefers the more proper Sansa, and doesn't always see eye-to-eye with Arya due to her rebellious nature.
485* ParentalIncest:
486** Craster's Keep is a nightmare of polygamous WifeHusbandry.
487** Aegon IV's mistress Jeyne Lothston is ''rumoured'' to have also been his daughter by another mistress, Falena Stokeworth. To just ''pile on'' the squick, he's said to have [[ThreeWaySex shared a bed with both of them together.]] Oh, and then he gave Jeyne the pox.
488* ParentheticalSwearing: This line regarding Jon's unpopular and derided decision to employ [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores a former rent boy]] as his personal manservant;
489-->Ser Malegorn stepped forward. “I will escort Her Grace to the feast. We shall not require your... steward.” The way the man drew out the last word told Jon that he had been considering saying something else. ''Boy? Pet? Whore?''
490* ParentsSuckAtMatchmaking: Prince Doran Martell arranges the marriages of his heir and eldest child, Arianne, to several old lords. Arianne isn't pleased with what he is doing and believes that he's trying to pass her inheritance to her brother, Quentyn, once she marries a lord from a lower house. [[spoiler:Turns out Doran actually plans to betroth her to Viserys Targaryen, making her the future queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Though Viserys died unexpectedly before the plan could be fulfilled. Because of this, Quentyn takes his sister's place instead where he must woo Daenerys Targaryen, who is already married to someone else]].
491* PartyScattering: The Starks, gradually. {{Foreshadowed}} when Rickon complains that he doesn't want anyone to leave Winterfell because he fears they'll never come back. The Starks are first split into Ned/Sansa/Arya at King's Landing, Jon/Benjen at Castle Black, and Catelyn/Robb/Bran/Rickon at Winterfell. Catelyn leaves after the murder attempt against Bran. [[spoiler:After Ned's death, it becomes Sansa in King's Landing, Arya a fugitive in the eastern Riverlands, Robb/Catelyn at war in the western Riverlands, Benjen missing and presumed dead, while Bran/Rickon are at Winterfell and Jon is beyond the Wall. After the sacking of Winterfell, Bran goes beyond the Wall ''just'' as Jon is coming back to the Wall while Rickon is ''somewhere'' [[note]] rumored to be Skagos [[/note]] with Osha. Finally, after the Red Wedding during which Robb and Catelyn are murdered, Catelyn returns as an undead zombie terrorizing the Riverlands, Sansa escapes to the Vale, Arya is in ''Braavos,'' Jon has returned to Castle Black, Bran is still beyond the Wall while Rickon is still... somewhere. It's gotten to the point where none of the family members even know if any of the others are still alive]].
492* ThePatriarch: Naturally, any of the Lords. Walder Frey, Tywin Lannister and Doran Martell are probably the best examples of the trope, if only for having such {{Big Screwed Up Famil|y}}ies to keep in line.
493* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage:
494** Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully. Catelyn was originally betrothed to Ned's elder brother Brandon; after Brandon's death she was married to Ned without ever having met him to shore up a political alliance between their houses, but they grow to love each other deeply and are very happily married at the start of the series.
495** Khal Drogo and Daenerys. Daenerys is promised to Drogo in marriage with the expectation that he will provide warriors for her brother's campaign to retake Westeros. That doesn't work out but the couple grows close, with Drogo respecting and valuing Dany's opinions, and Dany growing in confidence and embracing Drogo's language and culture.
496** Deconstructed with Sansa and Joffrey - she's expecting it to work out this way, [[WrongGenreSavvy having been brought up]] on stories of [[CourtlyLove courtly romance]]. It doesn't.
497** Roose Bolton and Walda Frey seem to greatly enjoy each other's company; they were only matched because he was offered his choice of bride's weight in silver as a dowry, and picked the fattest one.
498** Edmure and Roslin Frey, despite the horrific circumstances of their wedding.
499%%** [[PuppyLove Myrcella Baratheon and Trystane Martell.]]
500* ThePerformerKing:
501** Mance Rayder, aka The King [[GrimUpNorth Beyond the Wall]] is a talented musician who also happens to be badass enough to unite the fractious wildling clans into a single force and a capable military commander.
502** PosthumousCharacter Prince [[TheWisePrince Rhaegar Targaryen]] was known for playing lovely music on the harp.
503* PersonAsVerb: By ''A Feast for Crows'', "Frey" has already become a byword for "untrustworthy person", even among people on the same side as them.
504* ThePeterPrinciple:
505** Given form in the person of Robert Baratheon, whose skill at arms resulted in him becoming King of the Seven Kingdoms... a position which he is utterly unsuited for.
506** There are background references to prior [[NumberTwo Hands of the King]] who performed competently (at worst) in their prior positions but made for terrible Hands once they received that job. [[spoiler:Given his performance, Ned Stark might fall into that category as well.]]
507* PetMonstrosity: Ned Stark is initially hesitant to let his children adopt the direwolf pups in the beginning of the series out of concern that they won't be able to control them when they mature (adult direwolves are bigger than ponies). Daenerys Targaryen also faces this problem when her dragons grow large enough to eat livestock [[spoiler:and children]]. Drogon in particular gives her a lot of trouble.
508* PetTheDog:
509** Both Jaime and Cersei have several moments.
510** The small bits of (relative) tenderness Sandor Clegane regularly shows Sansa during her forced stay in King's Landing.
511** Melisandre reveals that she's kept Devan near her to spare Davos the loss of another son. The trope is taken literally in ''A Dance With Dragons'', when Ghost takes an instant liking to her. The moment is spoiled, however, when Ghost seems to forget who Jon is while in her thrall, making his approval seem unnatural.
512** The generally haughty and unfriendly Theon has a few sweet moments with [[spoiler:Jeyne Poole/"Arya Stark" in ''A Dance with Dragons'', culminating in his rescuing her from Ramsay]].
513* PeopleOfHairColour: A major plot point more than once. The Baratheons' dominant tendency towards black hair is enough to convince Ned that Cersei's children are not the King's, and the Targaryens' white hair is so distinctive that they're forced to disguise it if they wish to go incognito (leading inevitably to veritable forests of "X is a secret Targ" EpilepticTrees.
514* PinballProtagonist: Arya Stark. She starts off with the goal of reuniting with her family, and is dragged all over the countryside by various protectors in pursuit of that. Ultimately the Red Wedding brings an end to that plan, and after more wandering the countryside, she escapes to Braavos and [[spoiler:joins an assassins' guild.]]
515* {{Pirate}}: Okay, not your typical 17th century Long John Silver types, but still.
516** The Greyjoys and most of the ironborn make this into a way of life (they're evocative of the ThemeParkVersion of Vikings).
517** Sallador Saan makes his living as a pirate, and from the sound of it piracy is a pretty common problem in the Free Cities (not surprising, when your economy is based on trade and you live near the sea). His associate Davos, however is a [[InsistentTerminology ''smuggler'']].
518** Ghiscari ships go up and down the River Rhoyne acting as raiders... mostly to fuel the bustling slave market.
519* PitySex: The pity-sex-by-proxy version is subverted. Tyrion's first sexual experience is with a woman who seems to just love him for who he is. [[spoiler:Then it turned out that his brother Jaime hired a prostitute to play the part of Tyrion's loving girlfriend. Then it turned out that that was a lie Tywin forced Jaime to tell Tyrion -- the woman wasn't a prostitute and really did just love Tyrion for himself.]]
520* ThePlague:
521** The bloody flux, also figuratively called "the pale mare," is an acute and virulent disease that is virtually identical to dysentery, going so far as to sharing its medieval name, "the flux." It gallops through [[spoiler:the Yunkai forces outside of Meereen, handicapping their seige]].
522** Greyscale is a chronic, disfiguring disease that causes numb grey lesions to spread across the body, making the victim appear to be turning to stone. Victims in an advanced state are called "stone men" and live together in isolated colonies. Its symptoms share similarities with leprosy and smallpox. Supposedly it's relatively harmless in children, merely leaving them disfigured (notably Shireen Baratheon), but the wildlings disagree and kill afflicted children as a matter of course. Victims of Greyscale are so scorned that [[spoiler:Jon Connington hides the fact that he has it rather than seek treatment because he won't risk abandonment by his followers]]. The main reason for fear of this disease is that at the terminal stage the victim manifests rabies-like aggressive insanity, spreading the disease further.
523** The Great Spring Sickness that killed Daeron II, his eldest grandsons (and immediate heirs) and many others.
524* PlatonicCoParenting: Jon Snow and Val share responsibility for Val's orphaned nephew. Though they do have some ShipTease, it doesn't go anywhere due to Jon's VowOfCelibacy.
525* PlayingWithSyringes: Qyburn, who is struck off by the Citadel but continues his research (which at its most explicit is described as "cut[ting] open the living in order to better understand death") on prisoners in Cersei's {{oubliette}}s.
526* PolitenessJudo: Sansa Stark's main defence and weapon when she engages in PassiveAggressiveKombat. Epically used to block Tyrion's snark on numerous occasions. She uses it on several characters to greater or lesser effect and is slowly raising it to an art form.
527* PoliticalHostage:
528** Theon Greyjoy begins the series as the ward/hostage of the Starks, who is treated well by them and even came to see the Starks' children as his adoptive siblings. He was given to them after his family led the Iron Islands' failed rebellion against King Robert Baratheon, who forced his father to give Theon up as a hostage to ensure the Greyjoys would not attempt another rebellion.
529** After the events of the first book, the ruling-in-all-but-name House Lannister keeps Sansa Stark as a ward of the court even after her engagement to their son Joffrey falls through as political leverage over her older brother Robb, who is rebelling against the crown.
530** In the backstory, Aerys Targaryen kept his daughter-in-law Elia Martell and her children as hostages in King's Landing instead of sending them to Dragonstone with Rhaella and Viserys, to ensure Dorne remained loyal to him throughout Robert's Rebellion. House Martell actually considered this insulting as they would always support whatever side Elia was on, although Aerys was well-known for being paranoid. This backfired horribly, as it meant Elia and children were stuck in the Red Keep during the Sack of King's Landing and ended up being murdered by enemy forces.
531** During the reign of King Jaehaerys I, one mildly rebellious lord came to him apologizing for some poor behavior, and offered up some of his children as potential wards to prevent it happening again. Jaehaerys calmly and politely showed him his fully grown dragon. Maester Bennifer caught the implication; While the Targaryens had dragons, everyone was their hostage.
532* {{Polyamory}}:
533** Aegon the Conqueror was married to both of his sisters; each of them rode one of the three famous Targaryen dragons.
534** It's been suggested to Daenerys that she should have two husbands likewise.
535** Aegon's son Maegor the Cruel had a total of six wives.
536** Oberyn Martell and his concubine Ellaria Sand don't shy away from sleeping with other people, but are both fine with that and despite not being married are one of the most loving couple of the saga.
537* {{Ponzi}}: Care of Lord Petyr "Just-a-Reminder-that-I'm-Kind-of-Braavosi" Baelish. Tyrion gets a peek at it when he gets hold of the accounts of the Seven Kingdoms, and immediately spots fraud — including the relatively easily detected petty aspects of, say, paying more prison guards than actually exist with the gold obviously going somewhere else. But, there're more than a few hints that whatever Littlefinger has been up to as Master of Coin includes self-sustaining pockets of "investment" dotted about the Seven Kingdoms quite indebted to him, along with more traditional forms of till-dipping, economic speculation, padding, and bribery. Tyrion knows there's more to find than the penny-ante layers of smokescreen he manages to pry apart, but gets removed from the Seven Kingdoms' side of the board in a suspiciously well-timed manner before he can really start getting to the heart of it.
538** Hints we get: The Crown borrows money from the Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown loans money to lords of the realm or pays debt to Lannisters, at interest (or just spends it on such things as tourneys, most of which magically ends up in Littlefinger's pockets, because he owns almost all brothels and eateries in King's Landing and beyond). The Crown borrows money from Lannisters to re-pay the Iron Bank. And in circles we go. Until a point in later book when Cersei defaults on payments to Iron Bank. The end result for the kingdom is Iron Bank refusing to lend to anyone from Westeros, calls already outstanding debts from them and starts looking to fund a different king who would pay Crown's debts once he sits on the throne, namely Stannis. The end result for Littlefinger: he gets to change his gold into a lot of political power by loaning (or gifting) the money to lords to pay their suddenly urgent debts to Iron Bank, pushes some of his rich merchant friends into nobility by marrying off their daughters and sons into noble houses and generally tightens his political grip on society.
539* PoorCommunicationKills:
540** The relationship between Tyrion and his father has broken down so much by ''A Storm of Swords'' that Tyrion doesn't pass on that Littlefinger tried to frame him for the attempted murder of Bran Stark (Tyrion may also have been trying to protect Jaime, given ''why'' he threw Bran out the window). This means Littlefinger is free to claim both the Vale and the Riverlands in the belief that he's no threat to House Lannister. When Tywin sent Tyrion to King's Landing to be a Hand in his stead, he was very open to "Behead, Pike, Outer walls" route (kill everyone on Joffrey's small council, put their heads on pikes and put the pikes as warning on outer walls of the keep), even before the first murder attempt on Tyrion's life. If Tyrion told Tywin that, Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys would have either lost their heads or ended up powerless and exiled, while running for their lives. Joffrey would have probably been alive and thus Tywin as well...
541** The whole plot by [[spoiler:Arianne to crown Myrcella]] could have been avoided if her father hadn't kept her in the dark regarding his plans for her, and she hadn't [[OutOfContextEavesdropping read one conveniently-vaguely-worded letter]] and then refused to confront him about it, instead fostering a bitter sense of betrayal for years before [[spoiler:initiating a plan which almost results in the deaths of her and Princess Myrcella]].
542** Robb Stark's single biggest mistake in the whole war was not telling his uncle Edmure Tully about his plan to lure Tywin into the Westerlands. If he had told him, then Edmure wouldn't have made his disastrous YouShallNotPass stand against Tywin; Tywin's forces would have been decimated by Robb's on Lannister home ground, putting the pressure on them instead of the Riverlands, Stannis would have sacked King's Landing, destroying the Lannister's central power-base, and Tywin would have been forced to surrender. [[spoiler:Bolton would have never had cause to turn traitor, and Walder's reaction to the arranged marriage falling through would have been sulking in a corner.]]
543* PosthumousCharacter: Many of the characters in the series have already died by the first page, including Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys Targaryen, Jon Arryn, Lyanna Stark, Ashara Dayne, Elia of Dorne, Ser Arthur Dayne, etc. Ser Arlan of Pennytree is one for the ''Tales of Dunk & Egg''.
544* PostRapeTaunt: Euron Greyjoy raped his brother Victarion's wife and claimed it was consensual, in order to force Victarion to kill her under Ironborn law.
545-->'''Euron:''' She came to me wet and willing. It seems Victarion is big everywhere but where it matters.
546* ThePowerOfFamily: The Starks. Robb goes to war in The War of Five Kings both to [[spoiler:avenge his father, Ned's, death]] and return his younger sisters; Catelyn is capable of fighting off several Frey men [[spoiler:and killing one in a futile attempt]] to save [[spoiler:Robb]] and nearly bites a guy's thumb off to stop him killing Bran, and even after becoming "No-one", Arya still clings to the memories of her family, with the implication that they stop her from becoming truly faceless.
547* PraetorianGuard: The Kingsguard, the Queensguard, and the Rainbow Guard. Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard killed his king, just as the historical Praetorians were prone to doing to the Roman Emperors. The Dothraki have bloodriders, sworn to defend their ''khal'' and be put to death when he dies. Robb Stark surrounds himself by a personnal guard of close friends. TWOW will see Robert Arryn creating his own personnal guard of winged knights.
548* PragmaticVillainy: Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton both make a point of putting political exigency before immediate personal gain -- a lesson their respective heirs, Cersei and Ramsay, have both failed to learn. Despite being horrible people, they're both shown to be effective peacetime rulers (albeit in a very Machiavellian mould) for this reason.
549-->'''Roose Bolton:''' A peaceful land, a quiet people. That has always been my rule.
550* PrankDate:
551** Tyrion and Tysha, courtesy of Jaime, who paid her to do it. Horribly subverted when [[spoiler:his father Tywin has her gang-raped, and orders Tyrion to participate. Or so Tyrion's told. The truth is even worse; she was exactly what she said she was, and Tywin's punishment was just for having the audacity to think she could marry a Lannister]].
552** In a more normal, but still somewhat malicious example, A number of Renly's knights had a bet going regarding who could seduce Brienne and take her virginity and consequently, all treated her with false kindness and flattery in hopes of winning the bet. Brienne was deeply hurt when she found out about this because their flirtation marked the first time she was treated with anything other than scorn by men.
553* PrayerOfMalice: Before she goes to sleep, Arya recites to herself a mantra which lists the names of her enemies, all of whom she plans to kill, and at one point, when she has an opportunity to engage in prayer, she recites the same list.
554* PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal: The Wildlings burn the dead to prevent them from being resurrected as [[OurWightsAreDifferent wights]] by the [[TheFairFolk Others]].
555* {{Precursors}}: The Valyrian Freehold is the setting's equivalent of Ancient Rome and the mythical Atlantis -- an expansionistic empire and advanced civilization that was once the dominant political and military power of the known world before eventually collapsing four centuries before the storyline's present in a cataclysmic event.
556* PrehistoricAnimalAnalogue: We're shown mammoths and dire wolves living beyond the Wall, and a case could be made for the giants being the extinct ape, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus Gigantopithecus]]. The unicorns of Skagos have also been theorised to be the extinct [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmotherium Elasmotherium]]. At one point a reptile from the jungles of Sothoryos that sounds an awful lot like a ''Velociraptor'' is also described.
557* {{Prequel}} / PrequelInTheLostAge: "The Hedge Knight", "The Sworn Sword," and "The Mystery Knight" (aka the ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg''). More recently, we have "The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens" and "The Rogue Prince, or, the King's Brother" (''Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories'').
558* PreemptiveApology: The modus operandi of the Sorrowful Men, a guild of assassins.
559* PreemptiveDeclaration:
560-->'''Jaime Lannister to [[SmugSnake Ryman Frey]]''': "Only a fool makes threats he's not prepared to carry out. If I were to threaten to hit you unless you shut your mouth, and you presumed to speak, what do you think I'd do?"
561-->'''Ryman''': "Ser, you do not unders-" (cut off by Jaime backhanding him in the face)
562* PregnantBadass: A minor one, but dothraki khaleesis are supposed to ride along side their khals until they're ready to give birth.
563* PrettyBoy:
564** Loras Tyrell, the "Knight of Flowers" is noted as being slender, [[LongHairedPrettyBoy long-haired and pretty]], though he is just as masculine as the other knights.
565** Also, Joffrey Baratheon, who is described as a combination of his sister Myrcella and his uncle Jaime, [[spoiler:who also happens to be [[BrotherSisterIncest his father]]]].
566** Jaime was apparently one in his early youth, when he and his beautiful sister were almost spitting images of each other.
567** Lancel Lannister is said to resemble a younger Jaime.
568** Rhaegar Targaryen was described as incredibly beautiful.
569** [[spoiler:Aegon "Young Griff" is described as taking after his true father, with eyelashes "as long as any woman's", purple eyes, and a lithe, skinny build. And once he gets all that hair dye out...]]
570* ThePresentsWereNeverFromSanta: Edric Storm got regular presents from his father King Robert, but Stannis says they actually came from Varys.
571* {{Pride}}: On at least two occasions that we know of, Jaime has an opportunity to explain to somebody the very good reason that he [[BodyguardBetrayal killed Aerys]] -- first to Ned immediately after the fact, and later to Brynden Tully. But the idea of being contrite, of explaining his actions in the hope of forgiveness to somebody who looks down on him for what they think he is, sticks in his throat and he can't bring himself to do it.
572* PrivateMilitaryContractors: There are many named sellsword companies. Each has their own traditions and reputation, ranging from scum like the Brave Companions to the elite and expensive Golden Company. The world is also filled with independent sellswords and [[KnightErrant hedge knights]], who bounce from job to job. Bronn is the series' most notable sellsword.
573* PrivateTutor: Syrio Forel teaches the Braavosi style to Arya Stark.
574* PromotedToScapegoat: House Frey gets promoted to scapegoat by [[spoiler:Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister as a "reward" for the Red Wedding]]. To a lesser extent, [[spoiler:Roose Bolton is also Promoted To Scapegoat by Tywin, who makes him Warden of the North so he'll have to deal with the Ironborn invaders and Stannis Baratheon and probably die in the effort-- which will conveniently leave leadership of the North open for Tyrion and Sansa's future sons in the spring]].
575* PromotionToParent:
576%%** Robb Stark, who fails for the most part.
577** Griff raises [[spoiler:Aegon Targaryen]] on his riverboat with the help of a few tutors, and seems to have done a pretty good job.
578** Viserys is this with regards to Daenerys (from the age of ''eight''), and firmly lands in AbusiveParents territory.
579* ProphecyPileup: There are a lot of prophesies and much speculation as to what they mean. Examples include Azor Ahai and the Prince That Was Promised prophecies as well as the various prophesies given by Melisandre, Jojen, Maggy the Frog and others.
580* ProphecyTwist: Many.
581** Melisandre foresees that if Stannis marches against King's Landing, his brother Renly will crush him, but if he attacks Storms End he'll defeat his brother. [[spoiler:Turns out both happen; at Storm's End, Stannis uses Melisandre's sorcery to kill his brother, forcing the majority of Renly's army to come over to his side. He then marches against King's Landing, only to be crushed by a combined Lannister/Tyrell army led by "Renly's ghost" (actually someone wearing Renly's armour in an ElCidPloy).]]
582** The [[MessianicArchetype prince that was promised]] is a prophecy made in High Valyrian at least 5,000 years ago, and has become central to at least one religion (which is why the red priests call him "Azor Ahai reborn"). The prince that was promised will be "born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star." Candidates include Rhaegar Targaryen (born during the Tragedy at Summerhall; the "smoke" is from the tragedy, and the "salt" the tears of those weeping for King Aegon V Targaryen, who perished during it), and then Rhaegar's son Aegon (born whilst a comet was overhead). However, there's a linguistic twist that no one could have seen coming -- especially because it relies on a detail of Martin's {{Fictionary}}: ''Valyrian pronouns are gender-neutral''. The prince could be a girl.
583** Daenerys is, at one point, told that something will happen "When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves." When taken literally, this is of course impossible. But when taken ''figuratively?'' [[spoiler:During the fifth book: Quentyn Martell, whose sigil is a rising sun, is raised in Westeros but dies on Essos. Pyramids built in the city of Meereen are destroyed by dragonfire. The great glass plain called the Dothraki Sea begins to wither from drought.]] Has the prophecy been fulfilled? We'll see!
584** A prophecy serves as the FreudianExcuse for an entire ''character'', driving their PapaWolf tendencies: [[spoiler:Cersei. She was told that she would not wed the prince (IE Rhaegar Targaryen), but rather the king. She's told she will be queen... "until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." She was told they would have children: the king would have 16, and Cersei 3. (It's know that Robert had many {{Literal Bastard}}s.) "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds, she said. And when your tears have drowned you, the ''valonqar'' shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."]] This has also awakened in them a quest to TranslateTheLoanwordsToo. It means "younger brother". [[spoiler:Cersei believes that this younger brother is Tyrion... completely ignoring the fact that Jaime is younger than her by two minutes.]] Even worse, [[spoiler:the prophecy specifies '''the''' ''valonqar'', '''the''' younger brother. There is no one in the story who is primarily known as ''the'' younger brother, but anyone who has an older brother -- from Bran Stark to Loras Tyrell to Victarion Greyjoy to Sam's brother Dickon Tarly to Viserys Targaryen (were he still alive) to Tommen Baratheon to Sandor Clegane to ''Osney Kettleblack'' -- could qualify.]] Even ''worse'', [[spoiler:remember the fictionary? Valyrian pronouns are gender-neutral. If "''valonqar''" is better described as the "younger ''sibling''," this opens the door to Margaery Tyrell, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Asha Greyjoy, and even Daenerys.]]
585* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The novel's immersive POV structure is such that even when the actions are presented in third person (i.e. objective) we tend to view them with the biases of the characters:
586** A good example is Melisandre versus Cressen and Davos. In the POV chapters of Cressen, he sees Melisandre as a foreigner evil sorceress who worships a GodOfEvil and openly tries to assassinate her, ignoring her warnings and gentle reproaches. Later Davos in ''A Storm of Swords'' also blames Stannis' defeat at Blackwater on her and openly tries to outright murder her. Both actions were viewed sympathetically by readers since Melisandre seemingly fits a lot of "villain" tropes, and the two protagonists were both heavily sympathetic. Yet we later learn in ''A Dance With Dragons'' from Melisandre's own POV that she has a compassionate, sympathetic and deeply sincere side. She even protects one of Davos' sons and that the likes of Cressen need not have feared her at all.
587** This is also the case of the Starks and their opinions of Lannisters. Ned Stark for instance detests Jaime Lannister and his father, as does Catelyn and others. Yet we later learn that Jaime had very good reasons to be TheKingslayer. Some of the Stark practises, such as personally executing men condemned to death are seen as barbaric by Southerners but is seen as AtLeastIAdmitIt by Eddard Stark and Northmen. Stannis is presented as a fearsome KnightTemplar by the likes of Varys to Ned Stark and others, but he ends up becoming in the eyes of Jon Snow, Davos and Sam Tarly, "the King who cared".
588** A particular variation is that the mainlanders hate and resent the Ironborn for their RapePillageAndBurn ethos, and then we enter the perspective of Ironborn characters like Aeron and Victarion who see RapePillageAndBurn as a religious duty, and see it as entirely ''normal'' and have a code of honour that is self-contradictory and inconsistent, and they pass judgments on other characters and situations on a code of conduct entirely alien [[BlueAndOrangeMorality to both mainland Westeros and the readers themselves]].
589* ProudWarriorRaceGuy:
590** The Dothraki, who live to conquer. They have no system of commerce, only gifts and plunder.
591** The wildlings are ruled by strength rather than bloodlines.
592** The Ironborn, who look down on paying for anything with gold, or even working for their food. They take pride in stealing what they want and living on the labor of thralls.
593* PsychicDreamsForEveryone:
594** "Green dreams," as defined by Jojen Reed, are prophetic dreams had by some humans, but most commonly by greenseers. Several characters have what appear to be prophetic dreams, some of which have come true by ''A Dance With Dragons''.
595** Skinchangers have a different type of psychic dream, being able to control their bonded animals in their sleep.
596* PsychoForHire:
597** Tywin Lannister is so fond of using these for his foraging missions that Arya wonders how many monsters are on his payroll. Of particular note are the Brave Companions, better known as the Bloody Mummers, a sellsword company made up of killers, rapists, sadists, a cannibal, a pedophile, a MonsterClown, and other psychopaths. The Boltons happily make use of them when they turn their cloaks.
598** Tyrion himself has the sellsword Bronn and the raiding Mountain Clans as minions.
599* PsychoticLoveTriangle: Between Littlefinger, Catelyn, and [[spoiler:Lysa]]. Littlefinger fell in love with Catelyn while they were young, but Catelyn only saw him as a little brother, while [[spoiler:Lysa fell in love with Littlefinger. Unfortunately, both Littlefinger and Lysa turn out to be massive [[{{Yandere}} Yanderes]]. Littlefinger, it's revealed, manipulated Lysa into murdering Jon Arryn and helping him frame the Lannisters, sparking off [[CivilWar the War of Five Kings]], in large part because he was bitter that he DidNotGetTheGirl. Lysa, for her part, raped Littlefinger when they were teenagers, making him [[BedTrick think she was Catelyn]] while he was drugged and delirious. Then she agrees to help with Littlefinger's psychotic plan, getting her own sister killed and destroying her family, because Littlefinger convinced her it would allow them to be together. Not to mention she tries to kill Sansa (her 12-year-old niece) when she sees Littlefinger forcefully kiss her, after which Littlefinger kills Lysa, partly since he sees Sansa as a ReplacementGoldfish for Catelyn]].
600* PsychoRangers - The Frey/Bolton alliance is like a disturbing parody of the Stark/Tullys.
601%%* PsychopathicManchild: Viserys.
602* PunctuatedPounding:
603** Brienne when killing [[spoiler:Shagwell]]. Both of them are momentarily berserk with rage by the end of it.
604** Used as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior when [[spoiler:Arya Stark]] encounters [[spoiler:the Tickler]] again; she stabs him to death while repeating the interrogation questions he'd ask all of his victims.
605-->"Is there gold hidden in the village? Is there silver, gems? Is there food? Where is Lord Beric? Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights, how many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many?"
606* PunctuationShaker: Jaqen H'ghar, amongst others. Lampshaded when Arya is unable to pronounce "R'hllor".
607* PunnyName: Ser Ill In Pain, sorry, Ilyn Payne. Also, Dickon Manwoody and Dick Crabb. (Seriously, GRRM?)
608* PuppyLove: Bran has a crush on Meera Reed. Trystane and Myrcella are said to make a very sweet "couple".
609* PyrrhicVictory:
610-->''I've lost a hand, a father, a son, a sister, and a lover, and soon enough I will lose a brother. And yet they keep telling me House Lannister has won this war.'' -- Thoughts of Jaime Lannister
611[[/folder]]
612
613[[folder:Q-R]]
614* QueerFlowers: Loras Tyrell is known as the Knight of Flowers, and his armor is adored with the sigil of his house, the rose. He's the first of the Tyrells shown in the series, and his homosexuality is eventually revealed to the audience, with the rose imagery being the first implication that he's gay.
615* TheQuest: Brienne's search for Sansa Stark. Quentyn Martell seeking the hand of [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Daenerys Targaryen]].
616* RacialRemnant: The Targaryen family are refugees from the Doom of Valyria and, together with Houses Celtigar and Velaryon, are the last remnant of the Valyrian people in Westeros. They're easily identifiable by their distinct white/silver haired appearance, sometimes combined with purple eyes.
617* RagsToRiches:
618** Davos grew up in [[TheCityNarrows Flea Bottom]]. He became a smuggler, working his way up to captain of his own ship; he rescued Stannis Baratheon from a siege and was knighted for it, also becoming firm friends with the high lord and being taken into his confidence as TheConsigliere. His BrutalHonesty and UndyingLoyalty in this role eventually see him made Lord of the Rainwood, Admiral of the Narrow Sea and Hand of the King.
619** Littlefinger is a deconstruction of the same concept; he's worked his way up from the very lowest dregs of the nobility to Lord of Harrenhal and Lord Protector of the Vale by being a ManipulativeBastard and deliberately instigating upheaval so as to further his own chances of advancement. More prosaically, his ancestors worked their way up from a sellsword, to a landed knight, to a petty lord in only three generations.
620** Bronn begins the series a sellsword, who becomes a sworn sword of Tyrion Lannister. He is knighted after the Blackwater, then marries into the small but important House Stokeworth. From there, his advancement gets shadier: he kills the ruling Lady's husband after being challenged to a duel, evicts her and names his wife Lady Stokeworth. His wife may also inherit the nearby lands of Rosby, if Bronn presses her claim (and/or gets rid of the other claimants...)
621* RagtagBunchOfMisfits:
622** The Night's Watch. Once an honorable "border patrol" organization, it is now comprised mostly of common criminals who "took the black" to avoid execution for their crimes.
623** The Brave Companions. Only they call themselves that; everyone else calls these sellswords the Bloody Mummers. The play up the image, riding zebras and hiring mercenaries from all over with various garish hair and beard colors, tattoos, etc. Includes a MonsterClown, TortureTechnician, and SinisterMinister.
624** The Brotherhood Without Banners. Originally sent out by King Robert to rein in a rampaging Gregor Clegane, they lost their royal mandate and became outlaws when the Lannisters took power. Many similarities to Robin Hood's Merry Men, but with much more brutal methods.
625* RainbowMotif: The Faith of the Seven uses rainbows to symbolize the seven aspects of God. Prisms are also used because they create rainbows, notably on the High Septon's crown. Renly's Rainbow Guard is a reference to the Faith.
626* RaisedByRival: Theon Greyjoy was a child of ten when he became a ward of House Stark, held as a hostage to deter a second rebellion by his father, Balon. Brought up in Winterfell for nine years under the just hand of Eddard Stark, he returns home hoping to win his father's approval, only to be met with ridicule; the tension between these [[ChildOfTwoWorlds disparate identities]] drives his inner conflict and underlies many of his actions.
627* RapeAndRevenge:
628** Lysa has sex with Petyr Baelish where [[DudeShesLikeInAComa he is not in a fit state to give consent]] and [[BedTrick believes she is her sister Catelyn]], on at least two occasions: once when Catelyn rejects him and he drinks until he passes out, and the other after his duel with Brandon Stark where he is injured and feverish. Lysa appears to think of it as having been consensual, but she's insane; Petyr appears to genuinely believe he had sex with Cat on at least one occasion. [[spoiler:He later ends up killing Lysa, although his motivation is not made clear.]]
629** Oberyn Martell wanted nothing more than to kill Ser Gregor Clegane, the man who raped and murdered his sister Elia at the Sack of King's Landing. He eventually exacts his revenge years later, [[spoiler:but at the cost of his own life.]]
630* RapeByProxy:
631** It is revealed that Tyrion once married a prostitute, but the marriage ended when his father Tywin found out about it, and as punishment made Tyrion watch as his guards raped her, finally forcing Tyrion to go last. [[spoiler:This becomes arguably even worse when we find out that she wasn't actually a prostitute; she was what she claimed to be, a crofter's daughter met by chance on the road.]] This is generally considered to be Tywin's Moral Event Horizon [[spoiler:and directly leads to his death when Tyrion finds out that Jaime had lied and Tysha was not a prostitute]].
632** Also, Ramsay Bolton forces "Reek" [[spoiler:aka Theon Greyjoy]] to perform oral sex on Ramsay's thirteen-year-old bride [[spoiler:Jeyne Poole]].
633* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: the narrative practically overflows with both sexuality and gruesome violence, but for some reason the author shies away from having any POV character raped, even though it would be expected at various points.
634* RapePillageAndBurn: Happens quite a lot. The Brave Companions, Gregor Clegane and his men, and the Dothraki are particularly fond of it. This is more-or-less what the traditional Ironborn culture is all about. While some rulers will geld rapists, it's done more out of a need to maintain law and order than because RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil. When King's Landing looks like it's about to fall, it's accepted that even the notoriously strict Stannis will be unable to prevent the mass rapes that will ensue, and neither he nor Lord Tarly (also tough on rapists) will stop their men taking plunder. For his part, Tywin Lannister [[ExploitedTrope exploits the trope]] in the Sack of King's Landing by blaming the deaths of the Targaryen children on rampaging soldiers rather than his orders.
635* RashomonStyle:
636** ''A Feast For Crows'' and ''A Dance With Dragons'' each feature a different POV of the same conversation between Samwell and Jon.
637** This trope shows up quite a bit in Archmaester Gyldayn’s Histories, which are written in the third person by an in-universe historian. His sources give differing accounts of the same events that are so wildly contradictory that one could hardly believe they’re talking about the same people.
638* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[spoiler:Tyrion losing his nose]] is inspired by Martin's work on ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985''. In an episode he wrote it was decided that [[spoiler:two knights would fight without helmets]]. The result was [[spoiler:a stuntman losing his nose]].
639%%* ARealManIsAKiller
640* RealMenWearPink: Some characters wear costumes that would be considered "girly" in real life western culture, but have more masculine significance in their own culture.
641** The warrior class of Slaver's Bay wear outlandish costumes and styled hair, though they prove to be pretty worthless in combat.
642** Lord Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort and his pale pink robes. In the past, the Boltons really wore the flayed skins of their enemies as capes. Westeros doesn't seem to see pink as a feminine color to begin with.
643** Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, bedecks himself in armor and costumes with a flower theme, the symbol of his great house.
644** The members of Renly Baratheon's Rainbow Guard each wear a color of the rainbow, which is a symbol of the Faith of the Seven.
645* ReassignedToAntarctica: The Night's Watch often serves this purpose for criminals, disgraced ex-soldiers and BlackSheep members of noble houses. This backfires on the Watch big time when [[spoiler:some of these former criminals kill Lord Commander Mormont]].
646* ReassignmentBackfire: Happens to several characters who are sent to join the Night's Watch.
647* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lord Tywin delivers a brutal (and ironically, undeserved) one to his son, Tyrion.
648* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Rare, but Eddard Stark and Jeor Mormont both do their best to keep this ideal, even if they aren't perfect.
649** As Hand of the King, Tyrion is often this.
650** For that matter, for all his flaws, Lord Tywin Lannister is this when he's serving as Hand (not so much as a battle commander). His steady hand is able to balance out the psychopathy of both Aerys and Joffrey, and the smallfolk's love for him is largely the reason the Mad King's reign is remembered as a time of peace and prosperity until the very end (after Tywin had already been replaced).
651** Kevan Lannister seems to have learned well from his brother, and while not quite as decisive balances it by also being slightly less ruthless. [[spoiler:This is why Varys has him killed]].
652** Surprisingly, Grand Maester Pycelle has elements of this in Books 4 and 5 when working with Kevan [[spoiler:which is why he meets the same fate]].
653** Daenerys tries to be this in Meereen. [[spoiler:She fails miserably.]]
654** [[spoiler:Jaime Lannister]] of all people is beginning to show signs of this, especially in his sole chapter in ''A Dance With Dragons''. While he still has a way to go in perfecting it, he goes out of his way to come to fair settlements with the rebelling Riverlands families, and is understanding when the locals won't let his men garrison inside Pennytree Holdfast, even ordering his men not to steal provisions from the abandoned houses they end up taking shelter at.
655** Strangely enough and in the similar way to Stannis and Tywin Lannister, Randyll Tarly, Sam's father. Both Jaime and Kevan Lannister recommend him as Hand to Cersei, with explicit caveat that he is a Hand to bring the war to a quick end but possibly a bad one for the time of peace. For what we see of Westeros ideals of justice and being reasonable, Randyll Tarly is both just and pragmatic. Too pragmatic for the readers to love him, though, because he first tried to make his heir Sam shape up in CruelToBeKind way and when that failed disenherited him for the good of his other son because he feared that Sam would be too weak to rule and used in a plot against his younger brother.
656* RecruitedFromTheGutter: Smuggler Davos Seaworth delivered a lifesaving ration of onions to Stannis Baratheon while his fortress was under siege and starving. As repayment, the lawful Stannis raised him to knighthood and [[RestrainedRevenge shortened the fingers of his left hand]] to punish him for his smuggling. Davos remains one of Stannis' most loyal servants.
657* RecruitersAlwaysLie: Yoren is implied to use any tactics available to drum up recruits for the Watch, though as most of them [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores are in prison to begin with]] they don't exactly have much to lose. [[WordOfGod Martin]] has jokingly commented that Dolorous Edd was convinced to join the Watch when Yoren told him [[BlatantLies it was a good place to meet girls]].
658* RedRightHand:
659** Sandor Clegane's scars and Tyrion's deformity cause most people to assume that they're monsters. Although both can be pretty brutal when they want to be, they ultimately subvert the trope.
660** Roose Bolton is normal-looking except for his creepy "pale" eyes.
661** A literal example in Victarion Greyjoy, whose infected hand becomes [[spoiler:magically healed by a red priest. It appears horrifically burned, but it's apparently painless and supernaturally strong. This coincides with Victarion becoming increasingly convinced that he is favored by the gods to seize Dany's dragons for himself and kill anyone in his path.]]
662** Biter's filed teeth and Rorge's slit nose, both directly caused by their villainy.
663* RedOniBlueOni: All over the place in accordance with the "Ice and Fire" contrast being a central theme:
664** The [[EvilIsDeathlyCold deathly cold Others]] and the [[LightIsNotGood fire-themed R'hllor]].
665** The Starks and the Lannisters/Targaryens, which is even reflected in their house colours.
666** Stoic Ned Stark and BoisterousBruiser Robert Baratheon.
667** Doran and Oberyn Martell, to the point of being SiblingYinYang. However, in ''Dance'', Doran explains to his nieces that it was an ExploitedTrope: like long grass, his calm, harmless demeanour "hides [[InSeriesNickname the viper]] from his enemies and shelters him until he strikes".
668** Ygritte (who even has red hair) and Jon.
669** Melisandre (who also has red hair) and Stannis.
670** For a completely villainous example, Roose and Ramsay Bolton.
671* ReformedButRejected: Jaime Lannister will probably never get over his reputation.
672* RefugeInAudacity: After [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]], the Freys say that [[spoiler:Robb Stark and his men all simultaneously warged into wolves and began slaughtering people, so they had to kill them in self-defense]]. Suffice to say, almost no one believes this particular version of the story.
673* RegentForLife: Several characters make a go at becoming this, with varying success.
674* RejectionRitual: Eddard Stark, then-Hand of the King, issues a formal decree declaring [[SociopathicSoldier Ser Gregor Clegane]] a "false knight", stripping him of lands and titles, declaring him an outlaw and sending a party to apprehend him. However, the legal consequences of this are soon cancelled as Stark is deposed by a coup (and the apprehending party themselves are declared outlaws).
675* ReligionIsMagic: Magic is left vague and mysterious, but a good portion of the magic we see is rooted in a religion of some form. Several followers of R'hllor are able to perform magical feats. Other types of magic, such as skinchanging and prophetic dreams, are linked with greenseers and the old gods.
676* ReligionOfEvil:
677** The faith of the Ironborn tends to come across this way, since their deity is basically [[Creator/HPLovecraft Cthulhu-plus-Dagon]] and a popular form of worship is drowning people in the course of their typical [[RapePillageAndBurn raping and pillaging]].
678** The faith of R'hllor presents itself as good and loving and as a necessary bullwark against the "Great Other", who aims to wipe out humanity. However, their sinister priests are shown burning people alive as sacrifices and practicing necromancy.
679** The Many-Faced God worshiped in the House of Black and White is rather hard to pin down. The priests offer painless euthanasia to the suffering, and their founder led the Braavosi out of bondage. They also offer Arya Stark shelter and support in return for a debt. However, their priests are Faceless Men, a feared and ShroudedInMyth guild of shapeshifting assassins who are brainwashed into a total LossOfIdentity.
680** Craster sacrifices his male children to the Others. It's unclear if he does this to eliminate male rivals in his home, to keep the Others at bay, because he worships the Others, or some combination of the three.
681* TheRemnant:
682** The Brotherhood Without Banners is the remnant of a group sent out to bring the King's justice on Gregor Clegane. [[spoiler:They turn into LaResistance after the Lannisters take control of the throne, thus becoming the law. After their leader Beric Dondarrion dies for good, they turn into a sad remnant of their former selves when they get a new leader who steers them toward personal vengeance.]]
683** The Sons of the Harpy, [[spoiler: a "resistance" to Daenerys' rule over Meereen, killing freedmen and "Shavepates", who are regarded as collaborators.]]
684* RepetitiveName: A historical figure named Shiera Seastar. "Shiera" ''means'' "seastar", by the way. There is also Nissa Nissa, the wife of the legendary hero Azor Ahai.
685* ReplacementGoldfish:
686** [[spoiler:Sansa]] for [[spoiler:her rescuer and mentor Petyr Baelish]] due to her striking resemblance to [[spoiler:Catelyn, her mother and his [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend ill-fated love]]]]. He's currently planning a match between her and another heir for political reasons, though.
687** Ser Jorah confesses to Daenerys that she reminds him of [[LoveAtFirstSight Lynesse]].
688** Cersei's musings on Aurane Waters include comparisons (of whim-dependent favorability) to Rhaegar.
689* RescueThePrincess:
690** The whole point of Robert's Rebellion (as far as Robert himself was concerned) was to rescue the kidnapped Lyanna Stark. The various great lords, however, joined the rebellion in order to rid themselves of a mad king.
691** The push by Stannis on [[spoiler: Winterfell]] has shades of this. While he's doing it to destroy a powerful ally of his enemies, an explicit reason for why [[spoiler: the various Northern clans]] are fighting for him is to save [[spoiler: the girl they think is Arya Stark]].
692* ResurrectionRevenge: [[spoiler:Catelyn Stark]] is resurrected at the end of the third book after being murdered along with most of her family in a massacre called the Red Wedding. Now known as Lady Stoneheart, she haunts the Riverlands with a band of outlaws executing anyone even loosely associated with the people responsible for the Red Wedding: [[spoiler: the Freys, the Boltons, and the Lannisters]].
693* RevealingCoverup: The Starks might have continued to believe that Bran's fall was an accident, if an assassin had not botched the job of killing him. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}}: a close reading reveals that the assassin was NOT a cover-up attempt, but Joffrey seeking King Robert's approval after Robert makes a chance comment that he'd rather be dead than a cripple.]] Cersei considers Jaime pushing the child in the first place to be this; she thinks that she could have scared or tricked him into silence.
694* RewatchBonus: Aside from being stuffed to the gills with {{Foreshadowing}}, the early books in particular are full of notes and references that carry a lot more weight when reread as opposed to being oblique, such as Eddard's thoughts about his sister and the Targaryens.
695* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: Jaime speculates that Joffrey overheard a comment from Robert that Bran Stark would be better off dead than a cripple, and arranged for him to be murdered in an attempt to win his father's approval.
696* RidiculouslyLonglivedFamilyName: All noble families have them, with the oldest having existed since the mythical Age of Heroes and even a newer family like [[NouveauRiche the Freys]] is 600 years old. The Stark name lasts about 8,000 years as of the start of the series.
697* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Martin enjoys PlayingBothSides of this debate:
698** On the whole the series subverts a lot of fantasy and chivalric tropes by presenting a very cool Enlightenment view on feudal traditions, militarism, government and ideology, by emphasizing a heavy sense of {{Realpolitik}}. However at the same time, Martin does empathize and identify with those who ''do'' believe or are inspired by romantic tropes (such as Brienne, Davos, Dunk, Arya Stark, Samwell, Jon Snow and Sansa) who come to value and hold on to these ideals in the face of violence and extremism, because in a world without ideals, it's up to [[UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}} people to define and embody them to give it any meaning]].
699** In a romantic work, the magical faction would be right while the non-magical MeasuringTheMarigolds type; in an enlightenment work, it would be the reverse. In the books, magic ''always'' comes at a price, is likened to CosmicHorror and the people who practise magic (such as Melisdanre and Moqorro) have BlueAndOrangeMorality and despite having genuine powers are shown to have limited understanding of them. The non-magical scholarly folks are shown to be [[ProfessionalButtKisser lackeys]] of the ruling classes, TooCleverByHalf, tending to belittle and marginalize the genuinely curious and knowledgeable (knowledge is for preserving and hoarding, not expanding the boundaries of). Then there's Qyburn, an ex-maester who brings a scientific spirit of inquiry to the study of magic and becomes a competent doctor ''and'' a {{Necromancer}} who harvests the dead and the living, showing that mixing the tropes might not work. Ultimately both the magical and non-magical folks have a very limited understanding of the world and forces beyond their control.
700** The contenders for the Iron Throne invoke a lot of romantic justifications for their cause. Balon Greyjoy (and later Euron), as well as Robb Stark AppealToTradition, reviving dead titles, and past glory, rather than remain in the unified Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys Targaryen believes that the throne belongs to her by right of blood since her father's throne was usurped, and whose tyranny she is generally in denial about. Renly Baratheon believes that since everyone likes him, and since he commands the largest armies he should be King, law of succession be damned. Stannis Baratheon is Team Enlightenment, in that he seeks to restore rule of law, order and reform Westeros, wants the Throne because of his legal claim and duty. He also agrees with his Hand that, "A king protects his people, or he is no true king at all."
701* {{Ronin}}: Hedge knights are basically the Westerosi version of ronin by description and reputation.
702* RoyalBastard:
703** In general, it's quite common for the nobility of all ranks, from common knights to kings, to have extramarital dalliances that result in noble and royal bastards. These are not legally considered children of their parents, meaning that they cannot inherit land or titles unless made legitimate by royal decree, although it doesn't stop some from trying to claim what they feel is their birthright anyway. Traditionally, they're given a shared last name used throughout each of the kingdoms, rather than taking their father's -- Snow in the north, Stone in the Vale, Rivers in the Riverlands, Waters in the crownlands, Hill in the Westerlands, Pyke in the Iron Islands, Flowers in the Reach, Storm in the Stormlands and Sand in Dorne. They cannot usually take their noble father's coat of arms, but many use it with its colors inverted, with a bend sinister -- a bar running from top right to bottom left -- across it, or both.
704** The Blackfyre Rebellions were caused by Aegon the Unworthy, who fathered a notorious number of children outside of his marriage, legitimizing all of his bastards on his deathbed, while also spreading claims [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe his legitimate son was sired]] [[AFamilyAffair by his brother]]. The four "Great Bastards" are noted for playing important roles in the Targaryen family rather than Aegon merely being a GlorifiedSpermDonor like most nobles; one, in particular, Daemon Blackfyre, funded a splinter branch of House Targaryen named after himself, using its parent house's heraldry with inverted colors (a three-headed black dragon on red, rather than a red one of black), which despite being exiled contested the Targaryen throne on and off for several centuries.
705* RoyalBlood:
706** The Targaryens and their related cadets of the Blackfyres and Baratheons, obviously. However, all the Great Houses barring the Tullys and Tyrells can claim direct descent from kings of the time before the Seven Kingdoms were united, which causes some political friction.
707** Melisandre at least is of the opinion that RoyalBlood has [[RoyaltySuperpower inherent magical potential]], being a significantly more powerful resource than the ordinary stuff when used in BloodMagic.
708* RoyalInbreeding: The Targaryens often (though not always) wed their sisters, which is generally seen as an abhorrent, unholy practice when done by anyone ''other'' than the Targs, and a slightly questionable one even for them. Most of the noble houses have no problems with first cousins marrying, however (Tywin Lannister and his late wife Joanna, for instance).
709* RoyallyScrewedUp:
710** The Targaryens, though it's touch and go: each Targaryen seems to teeter on the line between being either a total nutter like Aerys, or a great leader. Barristan suggests that the gods flip a coin when the baby is born, but in Aerys' case he seems to have been driven to insanity later in life.
711** The Baratheons are hardly any better; Robert was a lazy, inconsistent ruler as well as a drunk and adulterer, his brothers went to war over his throne, and the two sons who've succeeded him are actually his wife's bastard children by her own brother. Joffrey in particular seemed to share the worst qualities of both his biological parents and his legal father, and the graces of none of them.
712* RoyaltySuperpower: Melisandre certainly believes in this ("there is [[BloodMagic power]] in the blood of kings"), which is one reason why she's stapled herself to Stannis Baratheon as the only rightful descendant she knows of from the Targaryen line. Daenerys seems to have legitimately inherited the once-thought-extinct ability with dragons apparently restricted to Targaryens and those related to them. And several of the Starks can warg, an uncommon skill south of the Wall these days and linked to their First Men heritage as Kings of the North.
713* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Most characters in the series. [[AdiposeRex Robert Baratheon]] is a notable exception, at least by the time of the novels.
714* RuleOfThree: The RuleOfThree runs through Dany's whole story - contrast the RuleOfSeven in the Westeros chapters. She's one of three children (as are a lot of past Targaryen generations), she has three handmaidens, three dragons, three ships. She sends her three bloodriders out from Vaes Tolorro to find civilisation, and only the third succeeds, returning with three envoys from Qarth, only the third of which is any help. The Undying's prophecy is stacked to the gills with threes - the famous line that "the dragon has three heads", along with "three fires must you light, one for life and one for death and one to love... three mounts must you ride: one to bed and one to dread and one to love... three treasons will you know: once for blood and once for gold and once for love". She conquers three Ghiscari cities, with only the third being successful long-term.
715* RulingFamilyMassacre:
716** The Targaryen family that ruled Westeros for centuries had been all but wiped out by Robert Baratheon's rebels. Tywin Lannister sent his men to murder Prince Rhaegar's children as he had remained neutral during the war and wanted to establish his loyalty, though Ned Stark remained angry at Tywin for murdering children. Only two (possibly three[[note]]Young Griff is said to be Rhaegar's son Aegon, supposedly switched out with another baby who was then killed in his place; there is some discussion whether this is true, or he is an imposter[[/note]]) very young children were successfully smuggled to another continent by their retainers.
717** The infamous Red Wedding between Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey saw the traitorous houses of Frey and Bolton try to slaughter every member of the Starks, former ruling families of the North, to usurp said lands. It wasn't as successful as they wanted, because there were some Starks who were falsely presumed dead and thus not targeted. They also move against the Tullys but aren't actually planning to kill them all yet. Though they kill Edmure Tully's sister Catelyn they originally intended to keep her alive but after she goes insane murder her (which backfires on them horribly when she is resurrected). As for Edmure they keep him alive but imprisoned, though his wife fears her father will have Edmure killed if she bears him a son. Also Brynden Tully did not attend the wedding at all.
718** Aegon the Conqueror wiped out two ruling Houses, the Hoares and the Gardeners using his dragons. However when he killed Harren "The Black" Hoare and all their sons by burning their castle of Harrenhal he had the support of most of the Riverlands due to Harren being a brutal tyrant. As for Mern IX Gardener he and all his family were killed at the Field of Fire, the only survivor being a nephew who died from his wounds three days later.
719* RunningGag:
720** Shagga's "I'll chop off your manhood and feed it to the goats!" It's Shagga's catchphrase until Tyrion starts getting in on the act. He says he'd rather do it to himself than marry Lollys. When he tries the line on Shagga, he points out that Tyrion has no goats. Tyrion replies, "I'll get some, just for you." There's even a version showing up in the Dunk and Egg stories, though with dogs instead of goats.
721** People asking "Which king?" during the War of the Five Kings in response to another party referring to ''their'' king.
722** "As useless as nipples on a breastplate" is quipped by multiple people throughout the series. The gag continues when [[spoiler:Ser Jorah Mormont]] scrounges up a breastplate with pierced nipples in ''A Dance With Dragons''.
723** Lemon pies (and lemons in general) as a measure of ridiculousness. An example being "Tyrion wouldn't have been more shocked if Aegon Targaryen flew in at that moment on his dragon juggling lemon pies." and guardsmen arguing where lemons grow. Sansa Stark's favorite sweets also contain lemons and she gets to eat them less over time, matched with her losing her naivety.
724** Everyone insisting that [[TheMagicGoesAway "the dragons are dead"]], [[TheMagicComesBack despite evidence to the contrary]].
725[[/folder]]

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