Line #2 Fridge/ASongOfIceAndFire


1	!NOTE: Per [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff wiki policy]] on Fridge pages, spoilers may be unmarked!
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8	* It's mentioned several times that Arya Stark is the one of Catelyn's children that looks like Jon Snow, thus seemingly confirming their sibling status. But it's also said that she, despite her homely appearance, looks a lot like her paternal aunt Lyanna Stark when she was her age. It's a good thing that Jon looks like Lyanna or there'd be trouble. At least having them both look like her made Ned's cover story more believable.
9	** Looking at the timeline with Ashara Dayne's pregnancy and assuming R+L=J is true, you might scratch your head and wonder why Ned didn't cover his tracks better: Jon could've easily been passed off as Brandon's bastard instead of Ned's, it would've probably been more believable to everyone, and [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy raising his murdered brother's son alongside his own out of sentimentality for his brother]] would've been A) closer to the truth and B) maybe raised a few less questions about the unconventional way Ned was rearing a mere bastard.\
10	There was also the chance Jon could have also grown purple eyes and/or silver-gold hair instead of having the Stark look like Ned, which would obviously open up a whole can of worms. People already whispered that Ashara Dayne was the mother and her family was known to inexplicably have purple eyes and silvery or pale blond hair like the Targaryens, so it would be most convenient to claim her as the mother from the start in case little Jon grew up to look a little too much like his real dad. It was already believed that Ned had a fling with her, and if Ned didn't want to tarnish his own reputation, well, his brother Brandon ''was'' already known to have slept around with women and it's implied he might've been the one who had the affair with Ashara instead of Ned, so Ned could've honestly said it was his nephew he was raising.\
11	So why not pass Jon off as Ashara's bastard by himself or Brandon when it might be safer? The Daynes probably wouldn't be opposed to helping protect the child Ser Arthur laid down his life to defend. Catelyn might even have been more accepting of Jon if only she knew it wasn't Ned's bastard being inappropriately raised equal to her own trueborn children, but the child of his dead brother.[[note]]Since her problem with Jon wasn't the fact he existed, it was Ned raising him at Winterfell making her worry that Ned loved Jon and Jon's mother more than he does her and their children together[[/note]]\
12	The reason Ned ''didn't'' do all this comes back once again to being a good-hearted man who's not the type to [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead pragmatically twist the reputations of people already dead for his own comfort]]. Ashara died, supposedly killed herself in grief, and Ned would likely balk at passing Jon off as hers if she did kill herself in grief over her stillborn child (particularly if that infant ''was'' either his own or his brother's, giving it a touch more personal grief for Ned over his daughter/niece). Brandon was already dead, gruesomely murdered, and while Catelyn might've been more accepting of Jon as her nephew later once she'd fallen in love with Ned, at the time he originally brought Jon to Winterfell their marriage was still new, neither knew the other particularly well, and Cat might be hurt or offended at the notion that Brandon might've fathered a bastard on Ashara when he was supposed to be engaged to her (or given that Cat's POV suggests it was more the specific circumstances of how Ned was raising Jon that she objected to than the idea Ned cheated on her, at the time Ned ''thought'' his new wife might take it as a slight on her honor that his brother had a bastard with another woman and was trying to protect her feelings and his brother's reputation).\
13	Instead of pinning it on Ashara or Brandon, Ned shoulders the burden himself and claims the dishonor to protect his nephew, in the only way that will leave his sister, his brother, Catelyn, ''and'' Ashara all out of it. Given what Edric Dayne claims about Jon's parentage, it is ''very'' likely that when Ned went to Starfall after the tower of joy, he confided in the Daynes about Jon's true parents and while they didn't pass Jon off as theirs (likely more for reasons of pure grief over Ashara and her real child than honor, given Dorne's more liberal views of affairs and bastardry), they agreed to another cover-story: that Wylla would be claimed as Jon's mother, which is what Ned claims in AGOT and what Edric Dayne was told at Starfall.\
14	In other words, assuming Ned did rope the Daynes into the conspiracy about Jon's parentage, he therefore got reputable people to back up his story if anyone went asking and ''did'' cover up his tracks as best he could without dishonoring or poking at fresh wounds of Ashara or Brandon. The man really deserves more credit for being a pretty good strategist without sacrificing honor -- not to mention [[Heartwarming/ASongOfIceAndFire an awesome uncle, a great brother, and a good man.]]
15	* Sansa is frequently described as a "little bird," because she's kept in a gilded cage, always says sweet things and repeats back whatever is expected of her. She's taken under the wing of Petyr Baelish, masquerading as his natural daughter. Baelish changed his sigil to a mockingbird, which also repeats noises made by others.
16	* There's some definitely StealthPun humor with the Kettleblack brothers. Their accusing others of their own crimes fits with the proverb about what the pot called the kettle.
17	* There's likely a heraldry StealthPun in Stannis' coat of arms that has a the Baratheon stag enclosed in a flaming heart. A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_%28deer%29 hart]] is another word for a stag.
18	* The sigil of house Baratheon is a stag--the term "horns", refering to being cuckolded, is derived from the stag's custom of giving up its mate after losing a fight. House Baratheon is plagued by all kinds of adultery. Robert is constantly cheating on Cersei and is in turn cuckolded by her, Stannis makes shadow babies with Melisandre, and Margaery Tyrell is only "officially" a virgin on marrying Renly.
19	* [[http://store.hbo.com/img/product/catl/00362326-727400.jpg Maps of the world]] show that many coastlings and the land across from them fit together, such as the Sea of Dorne and that headland in the Disputed Lands, or Shipbreaker Bay and that headland north of the Sea of Myrth, or the Sea of Myrth itself and the headland Rain House is on. This is in accordance with real-world plate tectonics, such as how South American and Africa fit together.
20	* Combined with FridgeHorror. In a lot of aspects, Theon is shown to be a {{foil}} to Jon Snow. Because of this, its interesting to note that while Jon performing oral sex on Ygritte is one of the most romantic scenes in the story, Ramsay forcing Theon to perform oral sex on Jeyne Poole is one of the most horrific.
21	* Jalabhar Xho is an analogue to Viserys, another exiled "beggar king." Just like Viserys, he is powerless to do anything but beg those more powerful to return him to his throne. Jalabhar, however, is apparently more content to wait.
22	* Dorne was the one Kingdom able to resist the Targaryen invasion enough to manage to bargain with them, and thereby capitulated only with marriage and cultural concessions none of the others could manage. Dorne has both tricky mountains and sheer expanses of baking hot sand to work with and making it naturally tough to invade, but it was also settled by a large contingent of Rhoynar who arrived as refugees from Essos after fleeing Valyria. In fact, the Valyrians very likely ''specifically'' targeted the Rhoynars ''because'' they had found some effective ways of countering Valyrians' dragons and they kinda might not have wanted them getting too much better at that. This could go a long way to explain why the Dornish were so difficult to conquer with both conventional armies ''and'' dragons; some know-how has survived.
23	* The Baratheons are known for their stubbornness, which is reflected in their sigil the stag. Two Baratheon bastards, Gendry and Mya Stone, are likened to a bull and a mule respectively, which are animals known for their stubbornness, thus hinting at their parentage without being actual stags.
24	* The Ironborn worship the Drowned God, whose eternal enemy is the Storm God. The Iron Islands first fought against the Stormlands for dominion over the Riverlands and the Greyjoys later get crushed by Robert/Stannis Baratheon, who are Stormlords. Currently Aeron, a zealot, is increasingly preaching about the struggle between the two gods and it turns out that a Baratheon is coming for the Ironborn yet again and pushing them back. Both Victarion and Stannis are the younger brothers in charge of two of the biggest fleets in Westeros, are in the shadow of their older brothers, known for their lack of sense of humor, were in direct conflict with each other and ultimately ended up turning to the Red God.
25	* It seems odd that certain Houses have endured for thousands of years and yet there aren't as many members of that House as would be thought. However, looking at Northern Houses explains this. Like with Brandon the Daughterless' grandson, who was a bastard but became the Stark in Winterfell, and Beren Tallhart, who could have taken the Hornwood name from his mother's side, it shows people may have taken the names of the ancient rulers to keep prestige. Meanwhile other branches took the names of the families they married, or started their own house like the Karstarks.
26	* Lord Frey is Lord of the Crossing, which means the bridge that spans the River between the twinned castles either side (the Twins). He is, in short, the Lord of the ''Double'' Crossing, which he is also adept at doing. He's arguably more adept at making people uncomfortable for his own amusement - in other words, Lord Frey is also a [[TrollBridge Bridge]] {{Troll}}. An ugly one, too (he was no easier on the ears or eyes as a kid, either; just ask Dunk).
27	* The Baratheons are called Storm Lords. Robert Baratheon's weapon of choice is a hammer. Combined, it's a reference to [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]].
28	* The fall of the Starks begins when a pair of twins brings harm to one of the Stark family. The culmination happens at a castle named The Twins.
29	* One for ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg:'' The young Aegon V is nicknamed "Egg" because of his bald head, or because it sounds like the first syllable of his name, but it could also be a reference to his young age and immaturity. After all, an egg contains a baby animal that hasn't hatched yet, just as Aegon has yet to grow from a prince into a king.
30	* Unlike the other lords in the series, Tywin Lannister is always called "Lord Tywin", but almost never "Lord Lannister". There were many Lords Lannister before him, but he wants people to fear ''him'' specifically and know that House Lannister under him is not to be trifled with (re: the Reyne-Tarbeck incident). Hence, "Lord Lannister" is not TheDreaded, but "Lord Tywin" ''is.''
31	* In AGOT, Cat reflects that "sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone." In ASOS, she dies and is resurrected as the vengeful Lady Stoneheart.
32	* The Old English name for the month of October was Winterfylleth, meaning "Winter full moon"; speakers of Old English considered winter to begin the day of that month's full moon. Thus, Winterfell is likely named for a literal time in which "Winter is Coming."
33	* The Velaryons, who have a seahorse motif, are closely related to and have intermarried with the Targaryens, who have a dragon motif. The Japanese word for "seahorse" is ''tatsu-no-otoshigo'', meaning "illegitimate child of a dragon." Notably, such a phrase is a perfectly accurate descriptor of Rhaenyra Targaryen's three sons Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey Velaryon, who were supposedly fathered by her husband Laenor Velaryon, but looked much more like her lover Harwin Strong.
34	* While Young Griff and Griff are a GenerationXerox of [[Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg Egg and Dunk]], Daenerys is a YoungConqueror like the first Aegon, and the parallels in their lives go even deeper than that, shaping up for her truly being Aegon come again.
35	** Like him, she is truly fierce and brutal to her enemies, but merciful and dislikes shedding blood unnecessarily, accepting surrenders as they come. It's implied from Aegon's statement that ''"A king should never sit easy"'' that they both view fair rulership as a duty owed to their people, not power to be flaunted and enjoyed for their benefit.
36	** Daenerys had an abusive older brother named Viserys she had a troubled relationship with; Aegon had an older sister named Visenya he wasn't overly fond of. Daenerys is devoted to the memory of her brother Rhaegar and is eager to hear more about him; Aegon was famously in love with his sister Rhaenys and preferred her to Visenya. Thank goodness Dany's mother didn't have the foresight to name her a feminine version of "Aegon" or it'd be so blatant it'd slap you in the face.
37	** Dany's dragons all bear an eerie similarity to the dragons Aegon and his sisters used: both dragons come in [[RuleOfThree groups of three]], Drogon is black-and-red where Aegon's Balerion was all-black, Rhaegal is green-and-bronze where Visenya's Vhagar was ''"bronze with greenish blue highlights and bright green eyes"'', and Viserion is cream-and-gold where Rhaenys' Meraxes was silver with gold eyes. In addition to resembling the dragons of the Conqueror's day, Rhaegal and Viserion were named for Dany's brothers while incidentally sharing the names of conqueror queens of Aegon's day. Daenerys named the third dragon after ''Khal'' Drogo; while Rhaegal and Viserion start with standard Targaryen name prefixes (''Rhae-'' and ''Vise-'' for Rhaegar/Rhaenys and Viserys/Visenya) and having a different suffix, Drogon's name fitting into the pattern is sneakier: it starts off with a non-Targaryen prefix (Drogo), but ends with the same ''-gon'' suffix as Aegon.
38	* On the surface, the three Baratheon wives seem to match the three female faces of the deity worshipped by the Faith of the Seven, with Margaery representing the Maiden, Cersei representing the Mother, and Selyse representing the Crone. However, they are actually more like ironic subversions of the traits that the goddesses represent.
39	** The Maiden represents purity and innocence. Margaery has been married twice and widowed both times, and while her family insists she is still a maiden, multiple characters have cause to question if that is true.
40	** The Mother represents nurturing, compassion and mercy. Cersei has been killing people and ordering their executions ever since she was a young girl at Casterly Rock. As for nurturing, she is not very involved with raising her own children and harshly punishes Tommen whenever he stands up to her.
41	** The Crone represents wisdom and guidance. Selyse does not think for herself and relies upon the decisions of Melisandre, whose own ability to correctly foresee the future is questionable (and Maester Aemon believes she is leading a lot of people down the wrong path declaring Stannis to be TheChosenOne). She also seems incapable of understanding certain facts, such as the fact that the wildlings don't base their leadership on the descendants of royalty, or that leaving all the wildlings at Hardhome to die would leave them vulnerable to becoming Others.
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45	* In Dany's first chapter, her narration quotes Viserys as talking about Westeros saying, ''"Our land. Ours by blood right, taken from us by treachery, but ours still, ours forever. You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers."'' This sounds like typical Viserys ranting, but the exact phrasing, dripping with [[RoyalBrat "mine, mine, mine" possessive sentiment]], ties in again with the Targaryen AnimalMotif when you think of [[DragonHoard a dragon possessively guarding its treasure]].
46	* When Ned is searching for a lead on Jon Arryn's killer, Varys tells him: "There was one boy. All he was, he owed Jon Arryn, but when the widow fled to the Eyrie with her household, he stayed in King's Landing and prospered." Varys is talking about Ser Hugh, Jon's squire, but the exact same thing can be said of Littlefinger. And while Ned suspects that Ser Hugh had a hand Jon's death, it was actually Littlefinger who ordered the murder.
47	* Ned has a fever dream of his sister's death and her crown of [[FlowerMotif blue roses]]. The description is "''A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death''". Who has also such [[OccultBlueEyes blue eyes]]? The Others, [[TheDreaded the original death-bringers]]. So death having blue eyes fits perfectly in Westerosi collective imagination, especially for a Northman.
48	* Arya jokes about her hypothetical coat-of-arms, wondering if it would be a wolf with a fish in its mouth. Later on Arya, warged into Nymeria, pulls Catelyn's corpse out of the river.
49	** In fact, all of Jon's jokes during that conversation turn out to be prophetic, except for the last one:
50	*** Jon chuckled. “Perhaps you should do the same thing, little sister. Wed Tully to Stark in your arms.”“A wolf with a fish in its mouth?” It made her laugh. “That would look silly. Besides, if a girl can’t fight, why should she have a coat of arms?”Jon shrugged. “Girls get the arms but not the swords. Bastards get the swords but not the arms. I did not make the rules, little sister.” - But he could break them, by giving her the sword by lying to the blacksmith that it is for him.
51	*** “I better go. I’ll spend my first year on the Wall emptying chamber pots if I keep Uncle Ben waiting any longer. - This is exactly what happens. Instead of ranger, Jon is promoted into housekeeper like Sam and becomes Old Bear's squire. One of the duties of the housekeeper is to empty chamberpots.
52	*** “You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.” - Arya has named her sword Needle, one of her jobs the Faceless Men had set her up was a gopher in a braavosi theatre and part of her duties was to sew tears on the costumes (and occasional torn GagPenis). Metaphorically, Arya had also killed people with the Needle, which can be called needlework or sewing.
53	* Theon is described joking about Hodor that whatever else you could say about his intelligence, he definitely [[VerbalTicName knows his own name]], though he apparently forgot that "Hodor" isn't Hodor's name. Theon then becomes so tortured that he's been conditioned to forget his own name.
54	* Ned is surprised to see a direwolf south of the Wall. With the Others rising, it's an early indication that the land north of the Wall is becoming uninhabitable. Mance Rayder and the wildlings eventually reveal a similar intention to flee south.
55	* When Daenerys asks her handmaids if they've ever seen dragons, Doreah tells her a story about the moon cracking open like an egg and releasing dragons after wandering too close to the sun, while Irri and Jhiqui claim that the moon is a goddess, wife to the sun. All three of them are right: Drogo is the sun (Dany's sun and stars) and Dany is the moon (the moon of Drogo's life), wife to the sun. Her three dragon eggs hatch when she steps into the flames of his funeral pyre.
56	* The first Sansa chapter after King Robert's death, Sansa realizes everyone in the room is wearing mourning clothes and specifically describes Queen Cersei as wearing, ''"a high-collared black silk gown, with a hundred dark red rubies sewn into her bodice, covering her from neck to bosom. They were cut in the shape of teardrops, as if the queen were weeping blood."'' It isn't until ''A Feast for Crows'' that we learn Cersei was in love with (or [[LovingAShadow "in love" with]]) Prince Rhaegar, has always resented that she did not get to marry him, and part of her hate for Robert is that he killed Rhaegar. Then you remember that the black and red of Cersei's "mourning clothes" actually match House Targaryen's colors, that the rubies in Cersei's dress match the story about the rubies in Rhaegar's armor Robert smashed out when he killed him with his hammer, and realize Cersei was taking the occasion to revel in Robert's death: Robert's widow wearing the colors of the House Robert '''hated''' to rub in his death and non-verbally flaunt her own victory over Robert with a reference to Rhaegar's rubies. Good thing we didn't get Cersei's POV in this book because a full chapter of her EvilGloating after Robert's death would've been truly insufferable.
57	* Daenerys' dragon eggs hatch from Drogo's funeral pyre, with the general logic of the three lives lost (Drogo, Rhaego, and Mirri Maz Duur) being enough of a blood sacrifice to not only hatch the three dragon eggs but also protect Daenerys from harm in the fire. This makes sense with the idea that "Only death can pay for life," but only Mirri was alive to ''actually'' be sacrificed for it while Drogo and Rhaego were already dead and gone when the pyre went up. Another explanation is given in ASOS where Melisandre claims that only king's blood has the power to "wake dragons from stone" and it appears this is pretty literal (she uses leeches filled with Edric Storm's literal blood to work a spell in one instance): as a ''khal'' who was son of another ''khal'', Drogo would be considered a king by blood and in his own right, and his body was still full of blood when it was burned, making his blood able to hatch dragons by Melisandre's logic. While Drogo's blood and the fire of his funeral pyre brought forth the dragons (making him sort of metaphorically "the father" of Dany's dragon "children"), Mirri's claim of "Only death can pay for life" could instead apply to ''Daenerys'' and explain how she inexplicably survived the flames unharmed.
58	-->''"Your brother's blood," Melisandre said [to Stannis]. "A king's blood. '''Only a king's blood can wake the stone dragon.'''"''
59	** Another, less literal interpretation is that Daenerys, the frightened, passive child, "died" in the fire, and from the ashes arose Daenerys, the fearless queen and Mother of Dragons. Illyrio makes the observation that "The frightened child who sheltered in my manse died on the Dothraki sea, and was reborn in blood and fire."
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63	* Melisandre justifies her morality to Davos by claiming "if half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion." Much later, Sam receives an onion at Craster's Keep that is half black with rot. He simply cuts out the rotten portion and eats the rest, inadvertently destroying Melisandre's justifications.
64	* Selyse Baratheon has fertility problems and a moustache that she's constantly plucking out. This sounds a lot like she could be experiencing Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
65	* When Jon Snow first meets Ygritte, he takes her captive and asks if she and her wildling friends were watching for the Night's Watch in the mountains. She responds, "You, and others." Because the chapter is told from Jon's POV, "others" is uncapitalized. He doesn't get it: Ygritte means a capital O.
66	* After Theon captures Winterfell, he fakes the murder of Bran and Rickon, implying first to Maester Luwin that he will kill them. We then hear that Bran and Rickon are "dead" when news reaches Tyrion in King's Landing. However, just prior to that, we are given a hint that they are still alive. While searching the Skirling Pass with Qhorin's party, Jon has a wolf dream, in which he sees and talks to a weirwood tree that is clearly meant to represent Bran himself, though Bran's name is not mentioned. In the same dream, as in others, it's shown that the wolves can tell who from their pack is alive and who is dead. Bran is alive in the dream, and in fact has his "third eye" open and helps to open Jon's as well. Therefore he is alive in the real world, even though we are told just a few pages later he is dead.
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71	* Tyrion thinks: "There was this to say about weddings over battles: it was less likely that someone would try to cut off your nose." As two particular weddings in that book proved, weddings are worse than battles sometimes.
72	* After TheReveal about Lysa and Littlefinger's years-long affair, the joke he told in ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' ''"When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it"'' is pretty much a confession about how he really feels about being intimate with Lysa (and how he managed to ahem...stay strong during their wedding night).
73	* It's revealed that many lords of the Vale wished to join the Starks in fighting against the Lannisters during the War of the Five Kings. This makes sense when you remember that Ned Stark had been fostered in the Eyrie as a boy, which many of them remember, and was [[LikeASonToMe like a son to their lord, Jon Arryn]]; his arrest, forced confession, and wrongful execution likely made many Vale lords as angry as the northmen, as they would've known Ned and that he would never commit the crimes he was accused of. They also fought alongside the northmen and the rivermen against the Targaryens during Robert's Rebellion, and likely feel comraderie for them still (especially given how House Arryn is bound by marriage to House Tully and House Stark), making the horrific attacks on the riverlands and wrongs done to House Stark difficult for them to just sit and watch.
74	* Catelyn thinks about her family's funerary customs that "''The Tullys drew their strength from the river, and it was to the river they returned when their lives had run their course''". After the Red Wedding her corpse is thrown into the river as a mockery of House Tully's [[VikingFuneral traditional funeral]], but it's from the river that her corpse is taken back and [[BackFromTheDead revived]] as the vengeful Lady Stoneheart.
75	* Dany "pointedly" asks Missandei whether Unsullied could be used against her if she decides to resell them. Later it becomes clear that Dany had no intention of selling slaves. She was trying to discover if the Unsullied could be turned against Astapor's Good Masters.
76	* At the Red Wedding, the musicians are described as terrible, then revealed shortly thereafter to be crossbowmen, explaining why their musical talents are lacking.
77	* The Stark family Valyrian steel sword Ice is melted down into two new swords, Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail. While the people who named these swords didn't realize it, the names allude to the Stark parents. Ned was haunted by a promise he swore to his sister on her deathbed and Cat was widowed at the end of the first book.
78	* The murder of Tywin at the hands of his son Tyrion is in several ways poetic justice.
79	** Tywin was found on the privy with his breeches down and took a shit as he died. When Tyrion was young Tywin had forced him to work in Casterly Rock's cisterns and drains to humiliate him.
80	** A dead whore was left in his bed. Tywin had previously expressed disgust over Tyrion's whoring and threatened to hang the next whore he found in his son's bed. It's also worth noting that Tywin publicly humiliated his father's mistress in part because she wore his dead mother's jewelry. Shae wore and was killed with his own jewelry, the Hand of the King necklace.
81	** Tywin accused Tyrion of [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild killing his mother]], though Tyrion's birth was obviously not his fault. When Tyrion ''does'' become guilty of murdering his parent, Tywin is the victim.
82	** Tyrion killed Tywin over what he did to Tysha. His great victories and atrocities, his family name and lineage, his power and reputation -- all the things that mattered most to him in life -- had no significance at all in regards to his death, only a young peasant girl [[ButForMeItWasTuesday whose name he didn't even remember]].
83	* In A Clash of Kings, Sansa receives a silver and amethyst hairnet from Ser Dontos who instructs her to wear it to Joffrey's wedding to Margaery Tyrell. By ''A Storm of Swords'' Sansa learns that the "amethysts" from her hairnet were really a crystallized version of the Strangler, used to kill Joffrey at his wedding feast when Olenna Tyrell slipped one of them into his wine. The ironic brilliance is that throughout history people believed that amethysts would protect the wearer from getting drunk or poisoned, both of which happened to Joffrey in his last moments alive.
84	* Possibly coincidental, but a possible PortmanteauCoupleName for Robb Stark and Jeyne Westerling would be "Reyne". As in the Reynes of Castamere, the song that plays just before Robb is murdered as a direct result of his marriage to Jeyne. {{Foreshadowing}} much?
85	* Oberyn threatens to hunt the Mountain "through all seven hells" if the latter dies before saying Elia's name. Considering that Oberyn was rumored to have been studying dark arts, it's all too possible that he was ''dead serious'' and capable of backing up the threat.
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89	[[folder:A Feast for Crows]]
90	* Out of all the mothers in the series, Cersei has the least qualms about having other children killed, despite being very protective of her own brood. She orders all of Robert's bastard children in King's Landing massacred after his death, threatened to have Mya killed if he brought her to court (and considers Catelyn an ExtremeDoormat for not smothering Jon in his cradle), and was rumoured to have killed two of his bastards and sold their mother to a slaver. This possibly ties into the AnimalMotif of her house; real lionesses will readily kill foreign cubs if given the chance, even though they are very protective of their own. Also, when a male lion takes over a pride, he kills every cub that is not his own to prevent the spread of his rivals' genes and pave the way for his own offspring; this could relate to Cersei's frustration with the societal limitations of her gender and her belief that things would be easier if she were male. When ruling as Queen Regent in ''A Feast for Crows,'' many of her decisions are based on what she thinks her lord father would do in her place.
91	-->'''Cersei's thoughts, in [=ADwD=]:''' Oh, for a sword and the skill to wield it. She had a warrior's heart, but the gods in their blind malice had given her the feeble body of a woman.
92	* A couple of lines from Maggy the Frog's prophecy to Cersei are worded in such a way that they would be likely to come true regardless of any outside circumstances.
93	** "You will wed the king." Whether Cersei married Rhaegar after Aerys' death or married Robert after he took the throne, this line would come true.
94	** "A younger, more beautiful queen shall come to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." No matter how beautiful Cersei is, her looks will inevitably start to fade at some point as she grows older. And of course she will eventually be succeeded by a younger queen, when her sons marry or her daughter comes of age. What does Cersei hold most dear in the world (besides herself and Jaime)? Her children. When her son gets married, making his bride the new queen, that can be viewed as taking away what Cersei values most. This line seems like a SelfFulfillingProphecy: when Cersei hears about a younger, more beautiful queen coming to take what she holds dear, she lives in fear of that queen (or any woman she thinks is that queen) and take action against her, in turn giving said queen more motivation to take her down. And if that queen is highborn and from a powerful family (which she almost certainly will be), that will only make Cersei's downfall more inevitable and more painful.
95	** "Gold shall be your children's crowns, and gold their shrouds." The line about "golden crowns" could refer to literal crowns of royalty, or simply to having golden Lannister hair. No matter who Cersei married, her children world probably end up being fathered by Jaime, considering she doesn't care too much about fidelity in her marriage. The prophecy doesn't say when or how they die, but as highborn Lannisters, they will surely be given lavish funerals. When Joffrey is laid out on a bier at his funeral, he is wearing gilded armor.
96	** "The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat and choke the life from you." This one is not necessarily inevitable regardless of circumstances, but allowing for a bit of stretch, Cersei's tendency to treat nearly everyone around her terribly leads to her making a lot of enemies, even her own family members. Her IrrationalHatred of Tyrion, believing he is her valonqar, has led to him becoming her worst enemy. As of ''A Dance of Dragons'', it seems her AllTakeAndNoGive treatment of Jaime has turned him against her and made him another candidate for the valonqar, as seen when he reads her letter pleading for help when she's imprisoned by the High Sparrow and throws it in the fire. Extra brilliance because it turns out that the valyrian language doesn't have genders, so valonqar means younger sibling and it really doesn't have to be Cersei's sibling either. That leaves possibilities open for Arya, Sansa, The Hound and any other character who has older brother or sister to be the valonqar to Cersei.
97	* The chief jailer of the Red Keep is a man named Rennifer Longwaters, who claims to "have a little dragon in him" and be descended from a Targaryen princess. "Long" is Chinese for "dragon."
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:A Dance With Dragons]]
101	* Some are suspicious of the claims that Varys switched the real Prince Aegon for a "pisswater prince" commoner infant who only looked something like him, since Aegon had the distinctively Valyrian look of purple eyes and silver-gold hair -- not very typical traits outside of Lys and the Valyrian Westerosi Houses. Varys just so happening to find a commoner baby who looked enough like Aegon to fool everyone on short notice is considered a major weak point in his story. Whether or not Young Griff is who he says he is, at least ''this part'' of the story becomes more believable when you remember that this was King's Landing, close to the Targaryen stronghold of Dragonstone and the Velaryon stronghold of Driftmark. Targaryens and Velaryons have left drops of Valyrian blood in "[[https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dragonseed dragonseeds]]" in their lands for centuries, add to that Aegon "the Unworthy" having free rein to father who-knows-how-many bastards on any pretty lowborn girl who caught his eye (the Great Bastards who went down in the history books are the ones with ''highborn'' mothers, after all) a century before, and more recently Aerys II regularly cheating on his wife with mistresses for years until 275 AC and likely not one to be opposed to sleeping with prostitutes or raping girls (given he later raped Rhaella). It's more plausible than it sounds at first that a dragonseed with a drop of blood in common with the real Prince Aegon, born from a commoner parent however generations removed from a Targaryen ancestor, was born with a vaguely Valyrian look in the "right" time and place. Assuming he had the foresight to suspect they might not win the Rebellion after Rhaegar was killed, all Varys need to do was order his little birds to scout the city to find a dragonseed baby around the right age and look.
102	* Hizdahr hates being called "your grace", because in Meereen the Graces are priestesses and prostitutes. In Hizdahr's eyes, every time Ser Barristan calls him "your grace", it's insulting his masculinity at best or implying he's a prostitute at worst.
103	* [[ThePlague The bloody flux]] is also called "the pale mare". In the story of the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, Death rides a pale horse. Daenerys, the woman responsible for the conditions that brought about the disease, rides a literal pale mare, her silver.
104	* Barristan tells Daenerys to show mercy often; this is because he would be dead if it weren't for Robert's mercy after his rebellion.
105	* In retaliation for the Red Wedding, Wyman Manderly killed three Freys and had their flesh served to their unsuspecting kinsmen during Ramsey Bolton's wedding feast, but there's more to this method of revenge than sheer gruesomeness. Ramsey had kidnapped Wyman's cousin, Donella Hornwood, and starved her to the point that she tried to eat her own fingers. His sack of Winterfell resulted in Rickon Stark being stuck on an island inhabited by cannibals. Roose's sabotage of the Northern forces got Wyman's son Wylis imprisoned at Harrenhal, where he was forced to eat human flesh. The Freys slandered Robb Stark by claiming he turned into a wolf and ate people. [[LaserGuidedKarma Lord Manderly in turn tricked the Boltons and Freys into committing cannibalism because they had forced it upon/used it against the people he cared about]]. The legend, lore, religion, and law is that a lord who murders an invited guest is condemned to eat the flesh of his kin until his bloodline is wiped out.
106	** Manderly also very specifically and deliberately waited until Freys stopped being his guests before killing them. There is an old custom that guests are given gifts by the host when they are leaving, accepting such gifts means that their guest rights end. More specifically, once they are out of sight of the host and then return later for whatever reason they have to ask for them again. Manderly gave Freys nice swift horses as a gift then intentionally moved very slowly with his entourage so they would lose their patience and leave his sight while going to Bolton's wedding. That means that by custom, he didn't slay his guests but did have his revenge.
107	* It's never explained, but Jon Connington's alias "Griff" is a reference to his family arms, which feature griffons.
108	* The white raven sent by the Citadel to announce the arrival of winter, the one that Ser Kevan sees right before his death, carries symbolism far more ominous than a simple changing of the seasons. As Varys explains to him as he lays dying, without him, Tommen will have no one to help him secure his hold on the Iron Throne and stabilize the Seven Kingdoms, leaving them ripe for conquest by either Aegon VI or Daenerys. And no matter who gets there first, like as not, they'll be more than ready for a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the family that murdered their relatives and helped oust them from the throne. [[ArcWords Winter is coming]] for House Lannister, and oh, what a brutal winter it's going to be.
109	* There are hints that Edric Storm is not the first child Davos Seaworth has smuggled to safety. Daenerys Stormborn thinks she got her name because she was born during the biggest storm the world has ever seen, which has turned the royal navy into splinters. Except, nobody else remembers the storm. What they do remember is Stannis besieging the Dragonstone. As in, a storm lord storming the castle with his fleet, destroying the royal Targaryen navy completely in the process. The biggest storming of the castle in history, in fact, the one that even Ironborn fear and remember. And part of Stannis's fleet, with his completely black ship, with muffled black oars and black sails? Davos Seaworth. Later, Viserys remembers Ser Willem Derry smuggling him, Dany, wet nurse, a septon and maester from Dragonstone in the middle of the night, on a completely black ship, with black sails and muffled oars. In fact, as he smuggles Edric, Davos says to his co-conspirators: "I don't need noble warriors now, or knights good and true. I need smugglers. Are you with me or not?". Which is almost exactly how Ser Willem Derry is described by the Kingsguard in Ned's chapter (paraphrased:"A good man and knight noble and true. But not of the Kingsguard. We serve and fight until death.") and might be the exact words Davos used to persuade Ser Willem Derry to save the prince and princess by smuggling them out of Dragonstone before Stannis arrives after he defeated the royal fleet. If Davos didn't do it, there was a good chance that Stannis would have now been remembered the same as the Mountain, as the murderer of children.
110	** And Mance Ryder's son, who was also born during battle (against Stannis, accidentally) almost got named by Gilly Aemon Stormborn or Aemon Steelsong.
111	* For her first assignment as a Faceless Man, Arya assassinates a greedy ship insurer by poisoning a golden coin and getting it into the purse of one of his clients coming to pay him. How does she guarantee that the client will give it to the insurer, and not someone else he happens to be paying on the same day, like the owner of the soup shop he buys hot broth from? Well, why does she specifically give him a golden dragon rather than a silver stag or a copper star? A golden dragon is the most valuable Westerosi coin, and buying insurance for his ship will cost more than anything else he buys that day.
112	* Kojja Mo is Sarella Sand's mother. Alleras is using the same bow as Kojja Mo, made from a rare species of wood and being very good with it, like she is. In his chapters, Sam is shown struggling to use it and so is the rest of the crew, except for Kojja Mo's archers. Alleras has described his parents as a Dornish lord and a merchant woman. Kojja Mo is daughter of Quhuru Mo, owner of a merchant ship and thus merchant herself. Sarella is described as loving Oldtown and Kojja Mo and her summer islander group is shown to know Oldtown very well and split with Sam and Gilly while pointing them in the direction where they need to go. In the very next scene, Sam meets with Alleras who seems to know Sam's whole life story and believes him. Kojja Mo says that rare books about dragons and Others that Maester Aemon carried from the wall and they paid the trip with will still find their way to archmaesters in Oldtown, despite most archmaesters scoffing on Others, wights, dragons and prophecies and considering them to be superstitions. Except Archmaester Marwyn and Alleras is one of Marwyn's accolites. And was one of Oberyn's teachers, because Oberyn has a maester's link of valyrian steel among his six maester's links which can only be given by Archmaester Marwyn who teaches the subject. Which makes Kojja's scenes with Gilly's child somewhat tearjerking, because Kojja is missing her own daughter.
113	* Dany's dragons have a special affinity for Ben Plumm due to him having Targaryen blood through Princess Elaena Targaryen and her son Viserys Plumm, but decidedly don't show the same soft spot for Prince Quentyn, who they leave burned alive and slowly dying, despite him being descended from the second Daenerys Targaryen. Given how the books' backstory have Sunfyre burning and devouring Rhaenyra readily enough, it seems this isn't because Quentyn didn't have enough Targaryen blood, but one more incident of bad timing completely screwing him over: the dragons knew Ben when they were free, happy, and well-treated, so they could investigate and respond to him in a happier way. Compare that to how they meet Quentyn: they have been separated from one brother, locked away in the dark in chains, and are '''NOT HAPPY'''. Quentyn tries to replicate Dany's success on using a whip on Drogon by whipping Viserion into submission, but Rhaegal is there to see his brother getting "attacked" and defends him. At this point whatever goodwill they ''might've'' given Quentyn in another time and place for his Targaryen blood is gone.
114	** Alternatively, as Tyrion himself points out, there exists a possibility that the Plumms are actually descended from two Targaryens instead of just one, which would give Ben slightly stronger Valyrian blood than Quentyn. This slight increase in purity might have made all the difference when it comes to taming dragon.
115	* When Quentyn is horribly burned in an ill-fated attempt to tame Daenerys' dragons, Missandei is the only one who is not frightened by his injuries and able to give him comfort as he lays dying. Why is that? Well, having spent a significant portion of her childhood as a slave in Astapor, [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror she's probably seen much worse]], considering what the Good Masters do to their slaves on the regular--feeding children to bears for entertainment and commanding Unsullied to kill babies as their final tests, among other things. And remember, she's only eleven years old.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118
119
120
121
122	[[AC: FridgeHorror]]
123	* The Red Wedding is foreshadowed:
124	** Dany's surreal vision of a wolf-headed king reigning over a feast of dead men. It's not even as metaphorical as it first seems.
125	** Patchface's song: "Fool’s blood, king’s blood, blood on the maiden’s thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye."
126	** Theon's nightmare after conquering Winterfell. In his dream Theon is sitting by a table that is surrounded by people who are dead. Theon wakes up when Robb Stark and Greywind enter the room covered with savage wounds. Theon sitting by the table foreshadows Theon's fate. In book five, Theon often reminds himself that Theon Greyjoy died in Winterfell and that only "Reek" remains.
127	** And the Ghost of High Heart: “I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief. I dreamt such a clangor I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells."
128	** Sandor promises to take Arya to her uncle's "bloody wedding," which turns out to be prophetic.
129	* Petyr claims that he's slept with Catelyn, but we later learn that it was actually Lysa who slept with Petyr after a feast while he was passed-out drunk, and he thought at the time that she was Catelyn. (He later knowingly sleeps with Lysa after the duel, when he's not in the best state of mind either.) The fact that he's been making this claim for years afterwards shows how psychologically damaged he is over Catelyn.
130	** Not to mention how young Lysa was when this happened. Catelyn was 12 when she and Brandon were betrothed, Lysa was around 8 to 10. Brandon was murdered at 21, Catelyn was around 18. She and Lysa were married together, and Lysa might have been as young as fourteen when she was forced to marry Jon Arryn after getting pregnant with Peter's child.
131	* Shae recognizes a disguised Varys because she says a whore has to learn to see the man, not his appearance, or she ends up dead. This is ironic given that she vastly misreads Tyrion when he confronts her after her betrayal, causing her death.
132	* Oberyn says that he'd sooner die with a breast in his hand than a weapon. He dies in battle soon afterwards.
133	* In ''A Clash of Kings'', Bran, Rickon, and their Frey wards are playing a game in Winterfell called "The Lord of the Crossing", which they learned at the Twins. One player is the Lord of the Crossing, who stands in the middle of a bridge with a staff. The player who wants to cross must swear oaths to the crossing, which they must keep unless they say 'mayhaps' without the Lord noticing. In ''A Storm of Swords'', Walder Frey, the real Lord of the Crossing, swears oaths to the Starks immediately prior to the Red Wedding, but sneaks the word 'mayhaps' into his phrasing. He even reminds them that he's given them leave to make the crossing at the Twins on many occasions, "and you never said 'mayhaps'" -- which, according to the rules of the game, is an immediate ''disqualification'' for anyone who manages to disarm the Lord and cross the bridge.
134	* Ned mentions Barra, one of Robert's bastards, in front of Robert and Cersei. In the next book, we learn Cersei has had her killed. She might not have even known about Barra if Ned hadn't mentioned it.
135	* It is heavily implied that Theon has been gelded by Ramsay. Then there is the line: "Lord Ramsay never took anything but skin unless you begged for it."
136	* On the suggestion of 'Reek' Theon has a pair of miller's children killed so he can pass the bodies off as belonging to Rickon and Bran. Theon reflects that he slept with the miller's wife a few times. Given that one of the boys is young enough to pass for Rickon, Theon may well be guilty of OffingTheOffspring on top of everything else.
137	** People who know that Bran and Rickon are alive are still calling Theon kinslayer. That list includes Robett Glover, Barbrey Dustin and some of Mance's spearwomen after he told them that he didn't kill Bran and Rickon.
138	* Littlefinger tells Ned that Starks melt when they come below the Neck. This makes sense with the whole "Starks as ice" thing they've got going, but also remember that Ned's father was burned alive when he went to King's Landing. Also the Stark Greatsword, Ice, is melted in the South. Not to mention both Ned and Robb are beheaded, so what happens to them below the neck...
139	* There are numerous references to weirwood groves being cut down and burned when people change faith. It doesn't look like a big deal (just some religious warfare), right? Then we learn, when Bran is being trained by the One-Eyed Crow, that weirwood groves contain the minds of all the greenseers, and record all the history they've ever witnessed. In other words, burning a weirwood grove is like burning a thousand-year-old library composed of sentient beings.
140	* Combined with FridgeBrilliance. Almost every major castle in Westeros still has a godswood, most of which have at least one weirwood tree. Also, both public and secret messages are usually sent by messenger ravens. Now take note of the fact that this Three-Eyed Crow a.k.a. Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers was one of the most successful and ruthless Masters of Whispers that the Iron Throne has ever had, and that his partial descent from the First Men most likely means he has access to both warging and greenseeing.
141	* The parallel between the Baratheon brothers' health after they become king. Both Robert's and Stannis's health declined drastically once they donned a crown and people are remarking that they have become shadows of their former selves. Both went down a slow self-destructive path with a lot of self-loathing, which is especially hard to swallow for them since, like most members of their house, they were born with great physical prowess and as gifted warriors. Ironically, Renly, who was in his physical peak, was enjoying life in general and didn't care as much for fighting, got a quick death once he became king in his own right.
142	* The Mad King put enough wildfire beneath King's Landing to burn the city and not all of it has been discovered. If a fire breaks out in the wrong place one day...
143	** Or one or more of the caches could be discovered by the Flea Bottom's disreputable types and hit the black market. This way, someone like Walder Frey or Roose Bolton may be revealed to possess wildfire from one of Aerys' caches, and use it against the good guys with disastrous effect.
144	* Sandor Clegane mentions that he first killed someone at the age of twelve. That would put it around the time of Robert's Rebellion. His house was sworn to the Lannisters, who avoided taking part in the war up until the sack of King's Landing. His first kill wasn't on some field of battle the stories would say was glorious, it was probably in the city his side was rampaging, murdering and raping through while their leader was ordering children murdered. Between that and his brother, it's no wonder the guy is so disgusted with everything.
145	* Ramsay married Jeyne Poole/"Arya" so he could have a "half-Stark" child with her and secure the Boltons' claim to Winterfell, but when he decided to torture and rape her, he shot himself in the foot and basically ensured that the chances of her carrying a healthy child to term were practically zero. The constant stress and mental trauma she was suffering from, combined with her young age, would make it very difficult at best to conceive a child. Even if she did manage to get pregnant and carry all the way to term, the resulting childbirth might have killed her ''and'' the baby, considering that she's barely 12-13 years old. Not that he would care.
146	* He was a respected warrior, but was corrupted by a supernatural woman, who drained life from him when they made love and converted him to another religion. He and his brother were both kings (though few other than himself supported his claim to be a king), and were enemies of each other. His MoralEventHorizon was/will be committing human sacrifice to appease his new god(s). He was ultimately defeated by an army from Winterfell. Now are we talking about Stannis Baratheon or the Night's King?
147	* Urswyck the Faithful, a member of [[PsychoForHire the Brave Companions]], is said to have murdered his own wife. He also wears a leather cloak fringed with long blonde hair. [[CreepySouvenir Draw your own conclusions...]]
148	* Rhaego is born dead and deformed, with Mirri Maz Duur telling Dany, ''"I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years."'' Dany protests she had felt him kicking and ready to be born, and ultimately the implication is that Mirri sacrificed the unborn Rhaego as part of her spell, with him warped and transformed by its effects. However, there are other claims in Targaryen history of women having stillbirths with draconic features: Maegor the Cruel's stillborn children, Rhaenyra's stillborn Visenya, and (it's implied) Laena's last child. Add together claims that Valyrian bloodmages liked to experiment with crossbreeding[[note]]dragons are theorized by Septon Barth to be the result of making chimeras with wyverns, and bred slaves with animals to create {{Half Human Hybrid}}s[[/note]] the old Targaryen insistence that they are not normal humans but above them, that they are "blood of the dragon," their unusual tolerance for heat, their unusual resistance to disease,[[note]]Despite spending her life bouncing from place to place in the Free Cities, and not always in good conditions, Daenerys had never been sick until she contracted the pale mare; the Targaryens genuinely thought they were immune to disease before the first Daenerys died[[/note]] their ability to practice incest for centuries with overall healthy descendants, and their old ability to hatch dragon eggs just by sharing a cradle with them, and it begins to look a lot like - thanks to whatever kind of magic they used many centuries back - the Targaryens may not have been ''[[AmbiguouslyHuman entirely]]'' human for a long time.
149	* Obara Sand, eldest of the Sand Snakes, is the daughter of an Oldtown whore and grew up in a brothel. When her father Oberyn came for her as a child, she didn't hesitate to leave with him, even though he was a complete stranger to her at the time. As an adult, she hates Oldtown so much that she wants it destroyed. Connect the dots and it's not hard to imagine what kinds of [[HarmfulToMinors awful things]] might have happened to her during her early childhood.
150	** The way he worded that choice brings further horror. He heard that an Oldtown whore had his child, so he came to see if it is true and to take her with him if it was. Oberyn had an argument with the girl's mother if Obara even was even his daughter until Oberyn finally said "Let the girl choose if she wants to stay or go.". So he put down a short Dornish spear he carried everywhere with him for defense then slapped Obara's mother once. Obara's mother started to cry. Then Oberyn told Obara: "Choose your weapon with which you are going to go through life, tears or spear.". Obara, who has seen how men treat women like her mother in a brothel knew even at her young age that tears don't help and that spear is better. So she chose spear. Oberyn then said "I knew she was my daughter" and took Obara with him. Obara's mother drank herself to death afterwards.
151	* If Penny saw her brother Groat beheaded in front of her because some men thought he was Tyrion, she probably also had to bury his decapitated corpse. No wonder she hates Tyrion so much at first.
152	* Given how many Westerosi lords are willing to support usurpers like the Blackfyres and Renly Baratheon, the entire succession system is doomed in the long run. All it takes is one successful usurper and the precedence for MightMakesRight succession would be set. Westeros will see endless wars as anyone with an army can take whatever they want without proper claim. It should be noted that this reality came dangerously close to pass too, as without Melisandre's magic, Stannis would have absolutely no mean to stop Renly.
153
154	[[AC:FridgeSadness]]
155	* Dontos Hollard is so addicted to alcohol that he can't stop acting like a drunken fool even at tourneys. His entire family having been exterminated by King Aerys II Targaryen when he was just a child as punishment for the Defiance of Duskendale [[DrowningMySorrows might have something to do with it.]]
156	* Jon often wondered who his mother is and fantasized about her being a beautiful highborn lady. With Ned Stark dead and nobody rushing over to tell Jon who she is, one real possibility is that he -- and the readers -- will never know for sure. Fans love to theorize that Jon Snow is in fact the son of Lyanna Stark and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen which has a great deal of backing to it, but taking into account Jon's personality, there's almost no chance he would take that news well.
157	** Yes, he would be highborn with his mother the daughter of a Great House and his father a prince, but the consensus is that Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna, and then she died, which is the version of the story Bran knows and thus the one the Stark children (Jon presumably included) were taught. If he was convinced of the bare facts (his parents were Lyanna and Rhaegar), he would come to this conclusion: his much-loved father is ''not'' his father, his much-loved brothers and sisters are ''not'' his siblings, his real father was a rapist, and his mother suffered greatly at Rhaegar's hand until her death, shattering his romanticized daydreams for good and possibly even assuming that instead of a loving mother, she must've resented [[ChildByRape him]] to her dying breath, same as Catelyn Tully.
158	** If he found out from a more sympathetic or romanticized account, it still leaves him with the knowledge that his whole life was a lie, Ned Stark is still not his father, his brothers and sisters are still not his siblings, everyone he just discovered are his family are all already dead (his grandparents dead, his ''real'' half-siblings Rhaenys and Aegon gruesomely murdered before he could ever meet them, and he already sent Maester Aemon away with the old man dying before Jon could find out the truth)[[note]]Daenerys and possibly Aegon are still kicking, but they're not exactly rushing to the Wall to shake his hand first and neither might react too well to him being Lyanna's kid/a Stark after everything[[/note]], and his parents ''caused a war'' by running off together and breaking marriage vows to their respective partners [[BecauseDestinySaysSo specifically]] to conceive baby [[HonorBeforeReason Jon]], in the process causing many deaths and getting themselves killed. Yeah, as an EmoTeen who spent his whole life growing up with '''''massive''''' insecurity issues, surely none of ''that'' would ruin his life!
159	* When Cinderella story happens in Westeros (a young girl gets mocked and abused, gets married to a prince / into power) it gets twisted beyond recognition and doesn't have a happy ending. It happens to at least six characters.
160	** Daenerys. Physically and verbally abused by her brother Viserys, gets sold to and marries Khal Drogo, a barbarian warlord. Forced to have sex with him as 14 year old, she starts to love him once Stockholm syndrome sets in. He kills her abusive brother, only to get wounded in battle himself. She loses her child she had with him and is forced to kill him herself because the wound gets worse.
161	** Fat Walda Frey. Mocked her whole life by her thinner sisters and cousins, Walda is nevertheless a girl with sharp wit and sharper tongue. The lord she marries who might be called King in the North? SoftspokenSadist Roose Bolton who is over twice her age. He likes her, as much as any sociopath can like anyone, but he is well aware that he can't protect her and their future children from his son Ramsay forever. And he is still a sadist and psycho, who would flay a man as easy as other men kick dogs.
162	** Jeyne Poole. The best friend and lady-in-waiting of a classic princess archetype Sansa Stark, her life sucks. Her father gets killed during a coup when she is 13, Jeyne gets sent to a Littlefinger's brothel where she gets whipped, raped and sexually abused multiple times. She gets let out so she can marry a 'prince'. That prince? CompleteMonster Ramsey Snow, son of above-mentioned Roose Bolton.
163	** Pretty Pia. A pretty teenage peasant girl who lives her whole life in cursed castle Harrenhall. Once the war starts, she gets verbally, physically and sexually abused and raped multiple times. All of her friends get killed and her nose and teeth get broken by her rapist Gregor Clegane. Gets saved by queen's brother who she sees as gallant knight, but doesn't get to marry him. She is instead gently courted by said brother's squire on his urging. The squire is a kind person but the best ending a peasant girl like Pia can hope for is that he will become a knight and lord, marry some highborn lady and keep Pia as his mistress because living in a cursed castle left her barren.
164	** Ellaria Sand. A bastard daughter of Dornish lord, she gets courted by Dornish prince Oberyn Martell and becomes his mistress. It is a happy and loving relationship but they never get married. She has four daughters with him. Then her lover gets killed in front of her eyes by Gregor Clegane in a duel he fought in to avenge the murder of his sister.

Context Fridge / ASongOfIceAndFire