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1! House Stark
2-> Winter is coming.
3
4-->--
5
6->The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
7
8!! Eddard "Ned" Stark
9->The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.
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12
13->'''Bran:''' Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?
14->'''Eddard:''' That is the only time a man can be brave.
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17
18->'''Eddard:''' We are not the boys we were.
19->'''Robert:''' You were never the boy you were.
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21-->--
22
23->'''Eddard:''' You're too fat for your armor, Robert.
24->'''Robert:''' Fat? Fat, is it? Is that how you speak to your king? Ah, damn you, Ned, why are you always right?
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27
28->[[AFatherToHisMen Know the men who follow you and let them know you. Don't ask your men to die for a stranger.]]
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30-->--
31
32->Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you... and I need both of you, gods help me.
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35
36->Some secrets are safer kept hidden. Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love and trust.
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39
40->Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth.
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43
44->You send hired knives to kill a fourteen-year-old girl and still quibble about honor?
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47
48->If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know, against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would I do? Even more so, what would Catelyn do, if it were Jon's life, against the children of her body? He did not know. He prayed he never would.
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51
52->In this world only winter is certain. We may lose our heads, it's true... but what if we prevail?
53
54
55!! Catelyn Stark
56
57->She did not know what was more satisfying: the sound of a dozen swords drawn as one or the look on Tyrion Lannister's face.
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60
61->'''Catelyn:''' A woman can rule as wisely as a man.
62->'''Brynden:''' The right woman can. Make no mistake, Cat. Lysa is not you.
63
64-->--
65
66->I was born a Tully and wed to a Stark. I do not frighten easily.
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69
70->Robb, if that sword could bring him back, I should never let you sheathe it until Ned stood at my side once more... but he is gone, and a hundred Whispering Woods will not change that.
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73
74->If I must trade our four Lannisters for their two Starks, I will call that a bargain and thank the gods. I want you safe, Robb, ruling at Winterfell from your father's seat. I want you to live your life, to kiss a girl and wed a woman and father a son. I want to write an end to this. I want to go home, my lords, and weep for my husband.
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77
78->I want to weep, she thought. I want to be comforted. I'm so tired of being strong. I want to be foolish and frightened for once. Just for a small while, that's all... a day... an hour.
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81
82->Wars need not be fought until the last drop of blood.
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84-->--
85
86->'''Tyrion Lannister:''' All his life Tyrion had prided himself on his cunning, the only gift the gods had seen fit to give him, yet this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn. The knowledge was more galling than the bare fact of his abduction.
87
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89
90->'''Catelyn:''' Brienne, I have taken many wellborn ladies into my service over the years, but never one like you. I am no battle commander.
91->'''Brienne:''' No, but you have courage. Not battle courage perhaps but... I don't know... a kind of woman's courage.
92
93-->--
94
95->[[spoiler:'''Catelyn:''' On my honor as a Tully, on my honor as a Stark, I will trade your boy's life for Robb's. A son for a son.]]
96->[[spoiler:'''Walder:''' A son for a son, heh. But that's a grandson... and he never was much use.]]
97
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99
100->[[spoiler:It hurts so much, she thought. Our children, Ned, all our sweet babes. Rickon, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robb... Robb... please, Ned, please, make it stop, make it stop hurting... The white tears and the red ones ran together until her face was torn and tattered, the face that Ned had loved. Catelyn Stark raised her hands and watched the blood run down her long fingers, over her wrists, beneath the sleeves of her gown. Slow red worms crawled along her arms and under her clothes. It tickles. That made her laugh until she screamed. "Mad," someone said, "she's lost her wits," and someone else said, "Make an end," and a hand grabbed her scalp just as she'd done with Jinglebell, and she thought, No, don't, don't cut my hair, Ned loves my hair. Then the steel was at her throat, and its bite was red and cold.]]
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103
104->[[spoiler:'''Merrett Frey:''' Her cloak and collar hid the gash his brother's blade had made, but her face was even worse than he remembered. The flesh had gone pudding soft in the water and turned the color of curdled milk. Half her hair was gone and the rest had turned as white and brittle as a crone’s. Beneath her ravaged scalp, her face was shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails. But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated.]]
105
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107
108->[[spoiler:'''Thoros:''' The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And... she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.]]
109
110
111!! Robb Stark
112
113->Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself ... swore to myself ... that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies ... now I can't even tell one from the other. How did it all get so confused? Lord Rickard's fought at my side in half a dozen battles. His sons died for me in the Whispering Wood. Tion Frey and Willem Lannister were my enemies. Yet now I have to kill my dead friends' father for their sakes.
114
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116
117->I have won every battle, yet somehow I'm losing the war.
118
119-->--
120
121->'''Catelyn:''' The crown is crushing him, she thought. He wants so much to be a good king, to be brave and honorable and clever, but the weight is too much for a boy to bear.
122
123-->--
124
125->If you keep all your treasures in one purse, you only make it easier for those who would rob you.
126
127-->--
128
129->Love's not always wise, I've learned. It can lead us to great folly, but we follow our hearts ... wherever they take us.
130
131-->--
132
133->[[spoiler:'''Tyrion:''' He foreswore himself, shamed an ally, betrayed a solemn promise. Where is the honor in that?]]
134->[[spoiler:'''Kevan:''' He chose the girl's honor over his own. Once he had deflowered her, he had no other course.]]
135
136
137
138!! Sansa Stark
139->'''Joffrey:''' After my name day feast, I'm going to raise a host and kill your brother myself. That's what I'll give you, Lady Sansa. Your brother's head.
140->'''Sansa:''' Maybe my brother will give me your head.
141
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143
144->'''Joffrey:''' Silence, fool. [lifts his crossbow and points it at her face] You Starks are as unnatural as those wolves of yours. I've not forgotten how your monster savaged me.
145->'''Sansa:''' [[DefiantToTheEnd That was Arya's wolf, Lady never hurt you, but you killed her anyway.]]
146
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148
149-> Lancel was one of them, yet somehow she still could not bring herself to wish him dead. I am soft and weak and stupid, just as Joffrey says. I should be killing him, not helping him.
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152
153->'''Cersei:''' Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you'll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.
154->'''Sansa:'''I will remember, Your Grace," said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.
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157
158->She sang along with grizzled old serving men and anxious young wives, with serving girls and soldiers, cooks and falconers, knights and knaves, squires and spit boys and nursing mothers. She sang with those inside the castle walls and those without, sang with all the city. She sang for mercy, for the living and the dead alike, for Bran and Rickon and Robb, for her sister Arya and her bastard brother Jon Snow, away off on the Wall. She sang for her mother and her father, for her grandfather Lord Hoster and her uncle Edmure Tully, for her friend Jeyne Poole, for old drunken King Robert, for Septa Mordane and Ser Dontos and Jory Cassel and Maester Luwin, for all the brave knights and soldiers who would die today, and for the children and the wives who would mourn them, and finally, toward the end, [[AllLovingHero she even sang for Tyrion the Imp and for the Hound. He is no true knight but he saved me all the same, she told the Mother. Save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him.]]
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161
162->"Willas, Willas, Willas." Willas was as good a name as Loras, she supposed. They even sounded the same, a little. What did it matter about his leg? Willas would be Lord of Highgarden and she would be his lady. She pictured the two of them sitting together in a garden with puppies in their laps, or listening to a singer strum upon a lute while they floated down the Mander on a pleasure barge. If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya.]]
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165
166->''They are children'', Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They've never seen a battle, they've never seen a man die, they know nothing. Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father's head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them.
167
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169
170->My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.
171
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173
174->She had last seen snow the day she'd left Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. Robb had melting flakes in his hair when he hugged me, and the snowball Arya tried to make kept coming apart in her hands. It hurt to remember how happy she had been that morning. Hullen had helped her mount, and she'd ridden out with the snowflakes swirling around her, off to see the great wide world. [[BrokenBird I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done.]]
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177
178->She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
179
180-->--
181
182->She wondered where this courage had come from, to speak to him so frankly. From Winterfell, she thought. I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell.
183
184----
185
186!! Arya Stark
187-> Valar Morghulis.
188
189-->--
190
191->The monsters were still there, but the fear was gone.
192
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194
195->It was the easiest thing in the world for Arya to step up behind him and stab him. “Is there gold hidden in the village?” she shouted as she drove the blade up through his back. “Is there silver? Gems?” She stabbed twice more. “Is there food? Where is Lord Beric?” She was on top of him by then, still stabbing. “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? is there gold in the village?"
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198
199->[[spoiler:They are not my Seven. They were my mother's gods, and they let the Freys murder her at the Twins. She wondered whether she would find a godswood in Braavos, with a weirwood at its heart. Denyo might know, but she could not ask him. Salty was from Saltpans, and what would a girl from Saltpans know about the old gods of the north? The old gods are dead, she told herself, with Mother and Father and Robb and Bran and Rickon, all dead. A long time ago, she remembered her father saying that when the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies and the pack survives. He had it all backwards. Arya, the lone wolf, still lived, but the wolves of the pack had been taken and slain and skinned.]]
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202
203->She dreamed she was a wolf, running free through a moonlit forest with a great pack howling at her heels.
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206
207->Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther even Sansa.]] Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.
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210
211->'''The Priest in Black and White:''' Men may whisper of the Faceless Men of Braavos, but we are older than the Secret City. Before the Titan rose, before the Unmasking of Uthero, before the Founding, we were. We have flowered in Braavos amongst these northern fogs, but we first took root in Valyria, amongst the wretched slaves who toiled in the deep mines beneath the Fourteen Flames that lit the Freehold’s nights of old. Most mines are dank and chilly places, cut from cold dead stone, but the Fourteen Flames were living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire. So the mines of old Valyria were always hot, and they grew hotter as the shafts were driven deeper, ever deeper. The slaves toiled in an oven. The rocks around them were too hot to touch. The air stank of brimstone and would sear their lungs as they breathed it. The soles of their feet would burn and blister, even through the thickest sandals. Sometimes, when they broke through a wall in search of gold, they would find steam instead, or boiling water, or molten rock. Certain shafts were cut so low that the slaves could not stand upright, but had to crawl or bend. And there were wyrms in that red darkness too.\
212'''Arya:''' Earthworms?\
213'''The Priest:''' Firewyrms. Some say they are akin to dragons, for wyrms breathe fire too. Instead of soaring through the sky, they bore through stone and soil. If the old tales can be believed, there were wyrms amongst the Fourteen Flames even before the dragons came. The young ones are no larger than that skinny arm of yours, but they can grow to monstrous size and have no love for men.
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216
217->'''Arya:''' Did they kill the slaves?\
218'''The Priest:''' Burnt and blackened corpses were oft found in shafts where the rocks were cracked or full of holes. Yet still the mines drove deeper. Slaves perished by the score, but their masters did not care. Red gold and yellow gold and silver were reckoned to be more precious than the lives of slaves, for slaves were cheap in the old Freehold. During war, the Valyrians took them by the thousands. In times of peace they bred them, though only the worst were sent down to die in the red darkness.\
219'''Arya:''' Didn't the slaves rise up and fight?\
220'''The Priest:''' Some did. Revolts were common in the mines, but few accomplished much. The dragonlords of the old Freehold were strong in sorcery, and lesser men defied them at their peril. The first Faceless Man was one who did.\
221'''Arya:''' Who was he?\
222'''The Priest:''' No one. Some say he was a slave himself. Others insist he was a freeholder's son, born of noble stock. Some will even tell you he was an overseer who took pity on his charges. The truth is, no one knows. Whoever he was, he moved amongst the slaves and would hear them at their prayers. Men of a hundred different nations labored in the mines, and each prayed to his own god in his own tongue, yet all were praying for the same thing. It was release they asked for, an end to pain. A small thing, and simple. Yet their gods made no answer, and their suffering went on. ''Are their gods all deaf?'' he wondered... until a realization came upon him, one night in the red darkness. All gods have their instruments, men and women who serve them and help to work their will on earth. The slaves were not crying out to a hundred different gods, as it seemed, but to one god with a hundred different faces... and ''he'' was that god's instrument. That very night he chose the most wretched of the slaves, the one who had prayed most earnestly for release, and freed him from his bondage. The first gift had been given.
223
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225
226->'''The Priest in Black and White:''' The Nine Free Cities are the daughters of Valyria that was, but Braavos is the bastard child who ran away from home. We are a mongrel folk, the sons of slaves and whores and thieves. Our forebears came from half a hundred lands to this place of refuge, to escape the dragonlords who had enslaved them. Half a hundred gods came with them, but there is one god all of them shared in common.\
227'''Arya:''' Him of Many Faces.\
228'''The Priest:''' And many names. In Qohor he is the Black Goat, in Yi Ti the Lion of Night, in Westeros the Stranger. All men must bow to him in the end, no matter if they worship the Seven or the Lord of Light, the Moon Mother or the Drowned God or the Great Shepherd. All mankind belongs to him... else somewhere in the world would be a folk who lived forever. Do you know of any folk who live forever?\
229'''Arya:''' No. All men must die.
230
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232
233->Arya rolled headfirst into the tunnel and dropped five feet. She got dirt in her mouth but she didn't care, the taste was fine, the taste was mud and water and worms and life. Under the earth the air was cool and dark. Above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. She moved her belt around so Needle would not be be in her way, and began to crawl. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell. Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. For whom, she could not say.
234
235----
236
237!! Bran Stark
238-->--
239
240->The ground was so far below him he could barely make it out through the grey mists that whirled around him, but he could feel how fast he was falling, and he knew what was waiting for him down there. Even in dreams, you could not fall forever. He would wake up in the instant before he hit the ground, he knew. You always woke up in the instant before you hit the ground. And if you don't? the voice asked.
241
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243
244->Bran was relieved... but disappointed too. So long as there was magic, anything could happen. Ghosts could walk, trees could talk, and broken boys could grow up to be knights. "But there isn't," he said aloud in the darkness of his bed. "There's no magic, and the stories are just stories." And he would never walk, nor fly, nor be a knight.
245
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247
248->They stood huddled together with ruin and death all around them.
249
250-->--
251
252->At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell's chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either.
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255
256->[[spoiler:'''Theon Greyjoy:''' No one had expected the broken boy to live. The gods could not kill Bran, no more than I could. It was a strange thought, and stranger still to remember that Bran might still be alive.]]
257
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259
260!! Jon Snow
261
262->Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.
263
264-->--
265
266->'''Catelyn Stark:''' Whoever Jon's mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned's sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse.
267
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269
270->First lesson: stick them with the pointy end.
271
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273
274->Tyrion Lannister had claimed that most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, but Jon was done with denials. He was who he was; Jon Snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. For the rest of his life—however long that might be—he would be condemned to be an outsider, the silent man standing in the shadows who dares not speak his true name.
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277
278->Jon was not afraid of death, but he did not want to die like that, trussed and bound and beheaded like a common brigand. If he must perish, let it be with a sword in his hand, fighting his father's killers. He was no true Stark, had never been one... but he could die like one. Let them say that Eddard Stark had fathered four sons, not three.
279
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281
282->There's no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it.
283
284-->--
285
286->The more you give a king, the more he wants. We are walking on a bridge of ice with an abyss on either side. Pleasing one king is difficult enough. Pleasing two is hardly possible.
287
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289
290->[[spoiler:Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand. The Night's Watch takes no part. He closed his fist and opened it again. What you propose is nothing less than treason. He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell... I want my bride back...I want my bride back... I want my bride back... "I think we had best change the plan."]]
291
292
293! House Targaryen
294
295-> Fire and Blood.
296
297
298!! Daenerys
299-->--
300-> Eight thousand Unsullied they would offer me. Eight thousand brick men. Eight thousand dead babes. Eight thousand strangled dogs.
301
302-->--
303
304->'''Missandei:''' "You have brought freedom as well."
305->'''Daenerys:''' "Freedom to starve? Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?" [To herself] Am I mad? Do I have the taint?
306
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308
309->If I look back, I am lost.
310
311-->--
312
313->I will take what is mine with fire and blood.
314
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316
317->Dragons die, but so do dragon slayers.
318
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320
321->The thought of home disquieted her. If her sun-and-stars had lived, he would have led his khalasar across the poison water and swept away her enemies, but his strength had left the world. Her bloodriders remained, sworn to her for life and skilled in slaughter, but only in the ways of the horselords. The Dothraki sacked cities and plundered kingdoms, they did not rule them. Dany had no wish to reduce King's Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father. But before she could do that she must conquer.
322
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324
325->You are the blood of the dragon. You can make a hat.
326
327-->--
328
329->She could not bear to look at him just now. If she did, she might well slap him again. Or cry. Or kiss him. And never know which was right and which was wrong and which was madness.
330
331-->--
332
333-> '''Daenerys:''' You are in difficulty.
334-> '''Kraznys mo Nakloz:''' He will not come.
335-> '''Daenerys:''' There is a reason. A dragon is no slave. ''*CRACK*''
336
337-->--
338
339-> Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad.
340
341-->--
342
343-> ''Dracarys!''
344
345-->--
346
347->Safe. The word made Dany's eyes fill up with tears.
348
349-->--
350
351->'''Daenerys:''' I want to keep you safe. No one ever kept me safe when I was little. Well, Ser Willem did, but then he died, and Viserys... I want to protect you but... it is so hard. To be strong. I don't always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen... the...the...
352->'''Missandei:''' mother,
353->'''Daenerys:''' Mother to dragons. [Daenerys shivers]
354->'''Missandei:''' No. Mother to us all. [Missandei hugs her tighter] Your Grace should sleep. Dawn will be here soon, and court.
355->'''Daenerys:''' We'll both sleep, and dream of sweeter days. Close your eyes.
356
357-->--
358
359->'''Illyrio:''' Daenerys was half a child when she came to me, yet fairer even than my second wife, so lovely I was tempted to claim her for myself. Such a fearful, furtive thing, however, I knew I should get no joy from coupling with her. Instead I summoned a bed-warmer and fucked her vigorously until the madness passed. If truth be told, I did not think Daenerys would survive for long amongst the horselords.
360
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362
363->[[spoiler:''Tyrion:''' Must? [Tyrion makes a tsking sound] That is not a word queens like to hear. You are her perfect prince, agreed, bright and bold and comely as any maid could wish. Daenerys Targaryen is no maid, however. She is the widow of a Dothraki khal, a mother of dragons and sacker of cities, Aegon the Conqueror with teats. She may not prove as willing as you wish.]]
364->[[spoiler:''Aegon:''' She'll be willing. You don't know her.]]
365->[[spoiler:'''Tyrion:''' I know that she spent her childhood in exile, impoverished, living on dreams and schemes, running from one city to the next, always fearful, never safe, friendless but for a brother who was by all accounts half-mad... a brother who sold her maidenhood to the Dothraki for the promise of an army. I know that somewhere out upon the grass her dragons hatched, and so did she. I know she is proud. How not? What else was left her but pride? I know she is strong. How not? The Dothraki despise weakness. If Daenerys had been weak, she would have perished with Viserys. I know she is fierce. Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen are proof enough of that. She has crossed the grasslands and the red waste, survived assassins and conspiracies and fell sorceries, grieved for a brother and a husband and a son, trod the cities of the slavers to dust beneath her dainty sandaled feet.]]
366
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368
369! House Lannister
370-> Hear me Roar.
371
372-->--
373
374-> A Lannister always pays his debts.
375
376-->--
377
378-> They say that Lord Tywin's shit is flecked with gold.
379
380-->--
381
382->''"And who are you", the proud lord said,\
383"That I must bow so low?\
384"Only a cat of a different coat,\
385That's all the truth I know.\
386In a coat of gold or a coat of red,\
387A lion still has claws,\
388And mine are long and sharp, my lord,\
389As long and sharp as yours."\
390And so he spoke, and so he spoke,\
391That lord of Castamere,\
392But now the rains weep o'er his hall,\
393With no one there to hear.\
394Yes, now the rains weep o'er his hall,\
395And not a soul to hear.''
396-->-- '''The Rains of Castamere'''
397
398!! Cersei Lannister
399-> When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
400
401-->--
402
403-> ''[Laughs]'' Wait until you birth a child, Sansa. A woman’s life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you’ll learn that soon enough... and the parts that look like magic often turn out to be messiest of all.
404
405-->--
406
407->'''Tyrion Lannister:''' Cersei is a lying whore, she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy, for all I know.
408
409-->--
410
411->Robert wanted to be loved. My brother Tyrion has the same disease. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.
412
413-->--
414
415->'''Petyr Baelish:''' Every man's a piece to start with, and every maid as well. Even some who think they are players. Cersei, for one. She thinks herself sly, but in truth she is utterly predictable. Her strength rests on her beauty, birth, and riches. Only the first of those is truly her own, and it will soon desert her. I pity her then. She wants power, but has no notion what to do with it when she gets it.
416
417-->--
418
419->A true man does what he will, not what he must.
420
421-->--
422
423->I waited, and so can he (Tommen). I waited half my life. She had played the dutiful daughter, the blushing bride, the pliant wife. She had suffered Robert's drunken groping, Jaime's jealousy, Renly's mockery, Varys with his titters, Stannis endlessly grinding his teeth. She had contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, and her vile, treacherous, murderous dwarf brother, all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn. If Margaery Tyrell thinks to cheat me of my hour in the sun, she had bloody well think again.
424
425-->--
426
427->'''Cersei:''' Do you know why Varys is so dangerous?\
428'''Tyrion:''' Are we playing at riddles now? No.\
429'''Cersei:''' He doesn't have a cock.\
430'''Tyrion:''' Neither do you. ''(internally)'' And don't you just hate that, Cersei?\
431'''Cersei:''' Perhaps I'm dangerous too. You, on the other hand, are as big a fool as every other man. That worm between your legs does half your thinking.
432
433-->--
434
435->'''Tyrion Lannister:''' Cersei is as gentle as King Maegor, as selfless as Aegon the Unworthy, as wise as Mad Aerys. She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honor, for love.
436
437-->--
438
439->They mean to shave me. A little more humiliation, a raisin for my porridge. She would not give them the pleasure of hearing her beg. I am Cersei of House Lannister, a lion of the Rock, the rightful queen of these Seven Kingdoms, trueborn daughter of Tywin Lannister. And hair grows back.
440
441-->--
442
443->'''Kevan Lannnister:''' His niece had been subdued and submissive since her walk of atonement, thank the gods. The novices who attended her reported that she spent a third of her waking hours with her son, another third in prayer, and the rest in her tub. She was bathing four or five times a day, scrubbing herself with horsehair brushes and strong lye soap, as if she meant to scrape her skin off. She will never wash the stain away, no matter how hard she scrubs. Ser Kevan remembered the girl she once had been, so full of life and mischief. And when she'd flowered, ahhhh... had there ever been a maid so sweet to look upon? If Aerys had agreed to marry her to Rhaegar, how many deaths might have been avoided? Cersei could have given the prince the sons he wanted, lions with purple eyes and silver manes... and with such a wife, Rhaegar might never have looked twice at Lyanna Stark. The northern girl had a wild beauty, as he recalled, though however bright a torch might burn it could never match the rising sun. But it did no good to brood on lost battles and roads not taken. That was a vice of old done men. Rhaegar had wed Elia of Dorne, Lyanna Stark had died, Robert Baratheon had taken Cersei to bride, and here they were.
444
445-->--
446
447!! Jaime Lannister
448-> The things I do for love.
449
450-->--
451
452->'''Catelyn:''' Your crimes will have earned you a place of torment in the deepest of the seven hells, if the gods are just.\
453'''Jaime:''' What gods are those, Lady Catelyn? The trees your husband prayed to? How well did they serve him when my sister took his head off?\
454''[chuckles]'' If there are gods, why is the world so full of pain and injustice?\
455'''Catelyn:''' Because of men like you.\
456'''Jaime''': There are no men like me. There is only me.
457
458-->--
459
460->"Ser Jaime?" Even in soiled pink satin and torn lace, Brienne looked more like a man in a gown than a proper woman. "I am grateful, but... you were well away. Why come back?"
461->A dozen quips came to mind, each crueler than the one before, but Jaime only shrugged. "I dreamed of you," he said.
462
463-->--
464
465->'''Jaime:''' I was the youngest man ever to wear the white cloak.\
466'''Catelyn:''' And the youngest to betray all it stood for, Kingslayer.
467
468-->--
469
470->'''Chief Armorer:''' Men shall name you Goldenhand from this day forth, my lord.\
471'''Jaime:''' ''He was wrong. I shall be the Kingslayer till I die.''
472
473-->--
474
475-> This is a time for beasts, for lions and wolves and angry dogs, for ravens and carrion crows.
476
477-->--
478
479->'''Jaime:''' That was Raymun Darry's bedchamber. Where King Robert slept, on our return from Winterfell. Ned Stark's daughter had run off after her wolf savaged Joff, you'll recall. My sister wanted the girl to lose a hand. The old penalty, for striking one of the blood royal. Robert told her she was cruel and mad. They fought for half the night... well, Cersei fought, and Robert drank. Past midnight, the queen summoned me inside. The king was passed out snoring on the Myrish carpet. I asked my sister if she wanted me to carry him to bed. She told me I should carry her to bed, and shrugged out of her robe. I took her on Raymun Darry's bed after stepping over Robert. If His Grace had woken I would have killed him there and then. He would not have been the first king to die upon my sword... but you know that story, don't you? As I was fucking her, Cersei cried, "I want." I thought that she meant me, but it was the Stark girl that she wanted, maimed or dead. It was only by chance that Stark's own men found the girl before me. If I had come on her first...\
480
481-->--
482
483->'''Ilyn Payne:''' ''(opens his mouth and hisses and while rattling whatever is left of his tongue)''\
484'''Jaime:''' ''(realizing that Payne is laughing at him)'' {{You talk too much}}.\
485
486-->--
487
488->You've seen our numbers, Edmure. You’ve seen the ladders, the towers, the trebuchets, the rams. If I speak the command, my coz will bridge your moat and break your gate. Hundreds will die, most of them your own. Your former bannermen will make up the first wave of attackers, so you’ll start your day by killing the fathers and brothers of men who died for you at the Twins. The second wave will be Freys, I have no lack of those. My westermen will follow when your archers are short of arrows and your knights so weary they can hardly lift their blades. When the castle falls, all those inside will be put to the sword. Your herds will be butchered, your godswood will be felled, your keeps and towers will burn. I’ll pull your walls down, and divert the Tumblestone over the ruins. By the time I’m done no man will ever know that a castle once stood here. Your wife may whelp before that. You’ll want your child, I expect. I’ll send him to you when he’s born. With a trebuchet.
489
490
491-->--
492
493->'''Jaime:''' ''[fighting Brienne]'' Not bad at all!\
494'''Brienne:''' For a wench?\
495'''Jaime:''' For a squire, say. A green one. ''[laughs]'' Come on, come on, my sweetling, the music's still playing. Might I have this dance, my lady?
496
497-->--
498
499->''[On Loras]'' He's me. I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young.
500
501-->--
502
503-> I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act.
504
505!! Tyrion Lannister
506-> I learned long ago that it is considered rude to vomit on your brother.
507
508-->--
509
510->'''Tyrion:''' Let me give you some counsel, bastard. Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it and it will never be used to hurt you.\
511'''Jon:''' What do you know about being a bastard?\
512'''Tyrion:''' All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes.\
513'''Jon:''' You are your mother's true born son of Lannister.\
514'''Tyrion:''' Am I? Do tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure.\
515'''Jon:''' I don't even know who my mother was. \
516'''Tyrion:''' Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are. Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.
517
518-->--
519
520->I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.
521
522-->---
523
524->Lord Lefford frowned. "I saw that great hairy one today, the one who insisted that he must have two battle-axes, the heavy black steel ones with twin crescent blades."\
525"Shagga likes to kill with either hand," Tyrion said as a trencher of steaming pork was laid in front of him.\
526"He still had that wood-axe of his strapped to his back."\
527"Shagga is of the opinion that three axes are even better than two." Tyrion reached a thumb and forefinger into the salt dish, and sprinkled a healthy pinch over his meat.
528
529-->--
530
531->'''Tyrion:''' What sort of man do you take me for?\
532'''Cersei:''' A small and twisted one.
533
534-->--
535
536->Those are brave men. Let's go kill them.
537
538-->--
539
540->A dead enemy is a joy forever.
541
542-->--
543
544
545->It all goes back and back, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance on in our steads.
546
547-->--
548
549->For hands of gold are always cold, but a woman's hands are warm.
550
551-->--
552
553->"Sansa, is aught wrong?"
554-->-- ''Possibly the stupidest question in the history of Westeros, as Tyrion realized a nano-second after it passed his lips.''
555
556-->--
557
558->''[hysterical laughter]'' Jaime, I am so sorry, but... gods be good, look at the two of us. Handless and Noseless, the Lannister boys.
559
560-->--
561
562->That might have hurt me once, when I still felt pain.
563
564-->--
565
566->They say I'm half a man. What does that make the lot of you?
567
568-->--
569
570->At least he did not dream. He had dreamed enough for one small life. And of such follies: love, justice, friendship, glory. As well dream of being tall.
571
572-->--
573
574->"Wherever whores go," he heard Lord Tywin say once more, [[spoiler:and once more the bowstring thrummed.]]
575
576-->--
577
578->"The last word Nurse ever said was, 'No.' The last words he heard were, 'A Lannister always pays his debts.'"
579
580-->--
581
582->'''Septa Lemore:''' You have a gift for making men smile, you should thank the Father Above. He gives gifts to all his children.\
583'''Tyrion:''' He does. ''(internally)'' And when I die, please let them bury with me a crossbow, so I can thank the Father Above for his gifts the same way I thanked the father below.
584
585-->--
586
587->'''Galyeon of Cuy:''' ''(singing) The dark lord assembled his legions, they gathered around him like crows. And thirsty for blood they boarded their ships...''\
588'''Tyrion:''' ...and cut off poor Tyrion's nose.
589
590-->--
591
592->'''Varys:''' These tunnels are full of traps for the unwary.
593->'''Tyrion''' Tyrion snorted. 'Unwary? I'm the wariest man who ever lived, you helped see to that.'
594
595
596! Lord Tywin Lannister
597->''[To Tyrion]'' You ask that? You, who killed your mother to come into the world? You are an ill-made, devious, disobedient, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning. Men’s laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors, since I cannot prove that you are not mine. To teach me humility, the gods have condemned me to watch you waddle about wearing that proud lion that was my father’s sigil and his father’s before him. But neither gods nor men shall ever compel me to let you turn Casterly Rock into your whorehouse.
598
599-->--
600
601->When your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you. And any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king at all.
602
603-->--
604
605->You have a certain cunning, Tyrion, but the plain truth is you talk too much. That loose tongue of yours will be your undoing.
606
607-->--
608
609->'''Kevan:''' Tywin seems a hard man to you, I know, but he is no harder than he's had to be. Our own father was gentle and amiable, but so weak his bannermen mocked him in their cups. Some saw fit to defy him openly. Other lords borrowed our gold and never troubled to repay it. At court they japed of toothless lions. Even his mistress stole from him. A woman scarcely one step above a whore, and she helped herself to my mother's jewels! It fell to Tywin to restore House Lannister to its proper place just as it fell to him to rule this realm, when he was no more than twenty. He bore that heavy burden for twenty years, and all it earned him was a mad king's envy. Instead of the honor he deserved, he was made to suffer slights beyond count, yet he gave the Seven Kingdoms peace, plenty, and justice. He is a just man. You would be wise to trust him.
610
611-->--
612
613->'''Pycelle:''' Ser Jaime, I have seen terrible things in my time, Wars, battles, murders most foul... I was a boy in Oldtown when the grey plague took half the city and three-quarters of the Citadel. Lord Hightower burned every ship in port, closed the gates, and commanded his guards to slay all those who tried to flee, be they men, women, or babes in arms. They killed him when the plague had run its course. On the very day he reopened the port, they dragged him from his horse and slit his throat, and his young son’s as well. To this day the ignorant in Oldtown will spit at the sound of his name, but Quenton Hightower did what was needed. Your father was that sort of man as well. A man who did what was needed.
614
615-->--
616
617->[[spoiler:''[Final Words]'']] Wherever whores go.
618
619----
620
621! House Baratheon
622
623-> Ours is the Fury.
624
625-->--
626
627!! Robert Baratheon
628
629->STOP THIS MADNESS, IN THE NAME OF YOUR KING!
630
631-->--
632
633->I will not kill a man for loyalty, nor for fighting well.
634
635-->--
636
637->'''Daenerys:''' They said Robert Baratheon was strong as a bull and fearless in battle, a man who loved nothing better than war.
638
639-->--
640
641->The gods be damned. It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown... it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe... and mine again, as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike.
642
643-->--
644
645->I swear to you, I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I've won it.
646
647-->--
648
649->'''Jon Snow:''' The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups.
650
651-->--
652
653->'''Stannis:'''Robert... He is in my dreams as well. Laughing. Drinking. Boasting. Those were the things he was best at. Those, and fighting. I never bested him at anything.
654
655-->--
656
657->'''Tyrion Lannister:''' Robert was as generous with his coin as he was with his cock.
658
659-->--
660
661->'''Stannis:''' We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right.
662
663-->--
664
665!! Stannis Baratheon
666
667->Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies.
668
669-->--
670
671->Robert could piss in a cup and men would call it wine, but I offer them pure cold water and they squint in suspicion and mutter to each other about how queer it tastes.
672
673-->--
674
675->The seven have never brought me so much as a sparrow. It is time I tried a new hawk, Davos. A red hawk.
676
677-->--
678
679->"I am not without mercy," thundered he who was notoriously without mercy.
680
681-->--
682
683->It is law. Law, Davos. Not cruelty.
684
685-->--
686
687->'''Catelyn:''' This one will never bend, she thought, yet she must try nonetheless
688
689-->--
690
691->'''Bowen Marsh:''' Who better to command the black cloaks than a man who once commanded the gold, sire?\
692'''Stannis:''' Any of you, I would think. Even the cook.
693
694-->--
695
696->These pardoned lords would do well to reflect on that. Good men and true will fight for Joffrey, wrongly believing him the true king. A northman might even say the same of Robb Stark. But these lords who flocked to my brother’s banners knew him for a usurper. They turned their backs on their rightful king for no better reason than dreams of power and glory, and I have marked them for what they are. Pardoned them, yes. Forgiven. But not forgotten.
697
698-->--
699
700->Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne.
701
702-->--
703
704->'''Stannis:''' I defeated [[spoiler:your uncle]] Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time [[spoiler:your father]] crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. [[spoiler:I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers.]] Tell me, [[spoiler:turncloak,]] what battles has the [[spoiler:Bastard of Bolton]] ever won that I should fear him?
705
706-->--
707
708-> Laws should be made of iron. Not pudding.
709
710----
711
712!! Renly Baratheon
713
714->'''Stannis:''' The Iron Throne is mine by rights. All those who deny that are my foes.\
715'''Renly:''' The whole of the realm denies it, brother, Old men deny it with their death rattle, and unborn children deny it in their mothers’ wombs. They deny it in Dorne and they deny it on the Wall. No one wants you for their king. Sorry.
716
717-->--
718
719->'''Petyr Baelish:''' Though much better dressed. Lord Renly spends more on clothing than half the ladies of the court.
720->'''Renly:''' There are worse crimes. The way you dress, for one.
721
722-->--
723
724->'''Stannis:''' Robert was my elder brother. You are the younger.
725->'''Renly:''' Younger, bolder, and far more comely...
726->'''Stannis:'''...and a thief and a usurper besides.
727->'''Renly:''' The Targaryens called Robert usurper. He seemed to be able to bear the shame. So shall I.
728
729-->--
730
731->'''Catelyn:''' Small wonder the lords gather around him with such fervor, she thought, he is Robert come again. Renly was handsome as Robert had been handsome; long of limb and broad of shoulder, with the same coal-black hair, fine and straight, the same deep blue eyes, the same easy smile.
732
733-->--
734
735->'''Stannis:''' What has Renly ever done to earn a throne? He sits in council and jests with Littlefinger, and at tourneys he dons his splendid suit of armor and allows himself to be knocked off his horse by a better man. That is the sum of my brother Renly, who thinks he ought to be king.
736
737-->--
738
739->'''Stannis:''' Do you think a few bolts of cloth will make you king?
740->'''Renly:''' Tyrell swords will make me king. Rowan and Tarly and Caron will make me king, with axe and mace and warhammer. Tarth arrows and Penrose lances, Fossoway, Cuy, Mullendore, Estermont, Selmy, Hightower, Oakheart, Crane, Caswell, Blackbar, Morrigen, Beesbury, Shermer, Dunn, Footly... even House Florent, your own wife's brothers and uncles, they will make me king. All the chivalry of the south rides with me, and that is the least part of my power. My foot is coming behind, a hundred thousand swords and spears and pikes. And you will destroy me? With what, pray? That paltry rabble I see there huddled under the castle walls? I'll call them five thousand and be generous, codfish lords and onion knights and sellswords. Half of them are like to come over to me before the battle starts. You have fewer than four hundred horse, my scouts tell me-freeriders in boiled leather who will not stand an instant against armored lances. I do not care how seasoned a warrior you think you are, Stannis, that host of yours won't survive the first charge of my vanguard.
741
742-->--
743
744->'''Cressen:''' The bold little boy with wild black hair and laughing eyes was a man grown now, one-and-twenty, and still he played his games. Look at me, I'm a king, Cressen thought sadly. Oh, Renly, Renly, dear sweet child, do you know what you are doing? And would you care if you did? Is there anyone who cares for him but me?
745
746-->--
747
748->'''Loras Tyrell:''' I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.
749
750-->--
751
752!! Syrio Forel
753-->--
754
755->The First Sword of Braavos does not run!
756
757!! Magister Illyrio
758->In Pentos we have a prince, my friend. He presides at ball and feast and rides about the city in a palanquin of ivory and gold. Three heralds go before him with the golden scales of trade, the iron sword of war, and the silver scourge of justice. On the first day of each new year he must deflower the maid of the fields and the maid of the seas. Yet should a crop fail or a war be lost, we cut his throat to appease the gods and choose a new prince from amongst the forty families.
759
760-->--
761
762->You Westerosi are all the same. You sew some beast upon a scrap of silk, and suddenly you are all lions or dragons or eagles. I can take you to a real lion, my little friend. The prince keeps a pride in his menagerie. Would you like to share a cage with them?
763
764!! Jorah Mormont
765
766-> My Queen, all you say is true. But Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle, he lost the war, he lost the kingdom, and he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and the Usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar '''died'''.
767
768-->--
769
770->The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.
771
772
773
774! Melisandre
775-> The night is dark, and full of terrors.
776-->--
777
778-> ''[To the Onion Knight]'' If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil.
779
780-->--
781
782-> There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows.
783
784-->--
785
786-> '''Melisandre''': I am like this torch, Ser Davos. We are both instruments of R’hllor. We were made for a single purpose - to keep the darkness at bay. Do you believe that?
787-> '''Davos''': No.
788
789-->--
790
791-> The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good. Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war.
792
793-> There are two, Onion Knight. Not seven, not one, not a hundred or a thousand. Two! Do you think I crossed half the world to put yet another vain king on yet another empty throne? The war has been waged since time began, and before it is done, all men must choose where they will stand. On one side is R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. Against him stands the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror. Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light.
794
795-> So tell me, Ser Davos Seaworth, and tell me truly - does your heart burn with the shining light of R’hllor? Or is it black and cold and full of worms?
796
797----
798
799! Sandor Clegane
800-> Bugger that. Bugger him. Bugger you.
801
802-->--
803
804-> ''[To Sansa]'' What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it’s all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing.
805
806-->--
807
808-> There are no true knights, no more than there are gods. If you can’t protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Sharp steel and strong arms rule this world, don’t ever believe any different.
809
810-->--
811
812-> A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with the ribbons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons, and shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don't stink. ''You hear me?!''
813
814-->--
815
816-> This cave is dark too, but I'm the terror here.
817
818! Barristan Selmy
819-> Bricks and blood built Astapor, and bricks and blood her people.
820
821-->--
822
823-> Every time a Targaryen is born, it is said, the Gods flip a coin to determine his nature, on one face, greatness, the other, madness. The entire world holds its breath to see how it lands.
824
825!! The Wildlings
826-> There is a wall at the end of the world, vast, cold and bleak. The laws of man end at the wall, they say.
827
828-->--
829
830-> Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.
831-> The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth,
832-> Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.
833-> And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills,
834-> In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.
835-> Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.
836-> They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.
837-> For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.
838-> Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.
839-> For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.
840
841-->--
842
843-> You know ''nothing'', Jon Snow.
844-->-- '''Ygritte'''
845
846-->--
847
848-> The gods made the earth for all men t’ share. Only when the kings come with their crowns and steel swords, they claimed it was all theirs. My trees, they said, you can’t eat them apples. My stream, you can’t fish here. My wood, you’re not t’hunt. My earth, my water, my castle, my daughter, keep your hands away or I’ll chop ‘em off, but maybe if you kneel t’ me I’ll let you have a sniff. You call us thieves, but at least a thief has t’ be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has t’ kneel.
849-->-- '''Ygritte'''
850
851
852!! The Unsullied
853-> Unsullied!
854
855-->--
856
857-> It was four hundred years ago or more, when the Dothraki first rode out of the east, sacking and burning every town and city in their path. The khal who led them was named Temmo. His khalasar was not so big as Drogo's, but it was big enough. Fifty thousand, at the least. Half of them braided warriors with bells ringing in their hair.
858
859-> The Qohorik knew he was coming. They strengthened their walls, doubled the size of their own guard, and hired two free companies besides, the Bright Banners and the Second Sons. And almost as an afterthought, they sent a man to Astapor to buy three thousand Unsullied. It was a long march back to Qohor, however, and as they approached they saw the smoke and dust and heard the distant din of battle.
860
861-> By the time the Unsullied reached the city the sun had set. Crows and wolves were feasting beneath the walls on what remained of the Qohorik heavy horse. The Bright Banners and Second Sons had fled, as sellswords are wont to do in the face of hopeless odds. With dark falling, the Dothraki had retired to their own camps to drink and dance and feast, but none doubted that they would return on the morrow to smash the city gates, storm the walls, and rape, loot, and slave as they pleased.
862
863-> But when dawn broke and Temmo and his bloodriders led their khalasar out of camp, they found three thousand Unsullied drawn up before the gates with the Black Goat standard flying over their heads. So small a force could easily have been flanked, but you know Dothraki. These were men on foot, and men on foot are fit only to be ridden down.
864
865-> The Dothraki charged. The Unsullied locked their shields, lowered their spears, and stood firm. Against twenty thousand screamers with bells in their hair, they stood firm.
866
867-> Eighteen times the Dothraki charged, and broke themselves on those shields and spears like waves on a rocky shore. Thrice Temmo sent his archers wheeling past and arrows fell like rain upon the Three Thousand, but the Unsullied merely lifted their shields above their heads until the squall had passed. In the end only six hundred of them remained . . . but more than twelve thousand Dothraki lay dead upon that field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons. On the morning of the fourth day, the new khal led the survivors past the city gates in a stately procession. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand.
868-->-- '''Jorah Mormont'''
869
870-->--
871
872-> '''Kraznys mo Nakloz''': The Unsullied have something better than strength, tell her. They have discipline. We fight in the fashion of the Old Empire, yes. They are the lockstep legions of Old Ghis come again, absolutely obedient, absolutely loyal, and utterly without fear.
873
874-->--
875
876-> '''Kraznys mo Nakloz''': In Yunkai and Meereen, eunuchs are often made by removing a boy’s testicles, but leaving the penis. Such a creature is infertile, yet often still capable of erection. Only trouble can come of this. We remove the penis as well, leaving nothing. The Unsullied are the purest creatures on the earth.
877
878-->--
879
880-> '''Kraznys mo Nakloz''': To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied must go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find some wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother’s eyes. In this way, we make certain that there is no weakness left in them.
881-> '''Daenerys''': You take a babe from its mother’s arms, kill it as she watches, and pay for her pain with a silver coin?
882-> '''Kraznys mo Nakloz''': Tell the whore of Westeros that the mark is for the child’s owner, not the mother. The Unsullied are not permitted to steal. Tell her that few ever fail that test. The dogs are harder for them, it must be said. We give each boy a puppy on the day that he is cut. At the end of the first year, he is required to strangle it. Any who cannot are killed, and fed to the surviving dogs. It makes for a good strong lesson, we find.
883
884
885
886
887! Qyburn
888-> Once, at the Citadel, I came into an empty room and saw an empty chair. Yet I knew a woman had been there, only a moment before. The cushion was dented where she’d sat, the cloth was still warm, and her scent lingered in the air. If we leave our smells behind us when we leave a room, surely something of our souls must remain when we leave this life?
889
890-->--
891
892-> The archmaesters are all craven at heart. The grey sheep, Marwyn calls them. I was as skilled a healer as Ebrose, but aspired to surpass him. For hundreds of years the men of the Citadel have opened the bodies of the dead, to study the nature of life. I wished to understand the nature of death, so I opened the bodies of the living. For that crime the grey sheep shamed me and forced me into exile... but I understand the nature of life and death better than any man in Oldtown.
893
894! Littlefinger
895-> ''[To Ned Stark]'' Not trusting me was the wisest decision you have ever made.
896
897-->--
898
899
900-> Whose peace do the Goldcloaks enforce when the Hand proclaims one king and the Queen other? ''[Laughs]'' The man who pays them.
901
902-->--
903
904-> Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you.
905
906-->--
907
908-> Men of honor will do things for their children that they would never consider doing for themselves.
909
910-->--
911
912-> '''Lyn Corbay''': All this talk makes me ill. Littlefinger will talk you all out of your smallclothes if you listen long enough.
913
914-->--
915
916! Aeron Damphair
917-> What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger!
918
919-->--
920
921-> Glory to the Lord, our God, he who drowned for us!
922
923-->--
924
925-> Even a priest may doubt. Even a prophet may know terror. Aeron Damphair reached within himself for his god and discovered only silence.
926
927-->--
928
929-> No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!
930
931! Areo Hotah
932-> You shall not pass.
933
934-->--
935
936-> Serve. Obey. Protect. Simple vows for simple men.
937
938-->--
939
940-> '''Arianne''': ''[Crying]'' How could he know? I was so careful. How could he know?
941-> '''Areo Hotah''': Someone told. ''[Shrugs]'' Someone always tells.
942
943! Euron Crow's Eye
944-> '''Baelor Blacktyde''': Balon was mad, Aeron madder and Euron maddest of them all.
945
946-->--
947
948-> '''Euron''': I am the storm, my lord. The first storm, and the last. I have taken the Silence on longer voyages than this, and ones far more hazardous. Have you forgotten? I have sailed the Smoking Sea and seen Valyria.
949-> '''Rodrik''': Have you?
950
951-->--
952
953->Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray.
954
955-->--
956
957-> When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly, When I woke, I couldn’t... or so the maester said. But what if he lied?
958
959-->--
960
961-> Shade-of-the-evening, the wine of the warlocks. I came upon a cask of it when I captured a certain galleas out of Qarth, along with some cloves and nutmeg, forty bolts of green silk, and four warlocks who told a curious tale. One presumed to threaten me, so I killed him and fed him to the other three. They refused to eat of their friend’s flesh at first, but when they grew hungry enough they had a change of heart. Men are meat.
962
963-->--
964
965-> The bleeding star bespoke the end. These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits. Kneel, brother. I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.
966
967
968! Dolorous Edd Tollett
969-> The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints - 'the ground's too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does HE get more worms than I do...'
970
971-->--
972
973-> Once they figure a way to work a dead horse, we'll be next. Likely I'll be the first too. 'Edd,' they'll say, 'dying's no excuse for laying down no more, so get on up and take this spear, you've got first watch tonight.' Well, I shouldn't be so gloomy. Might be I'll die before they work it out.
974
975-->--
976
977-> '''Cotter Pyke''': We will defend the wall to the last man!
978-> '''Edd''': ''[resigned]'' Probably me.
979
980-->--
981
982-> '''Pyp''': ''[about the contest to see which of the straw soldiers could collect more wildling arrows]'' You were leading most of the way, but Watt of Long Lake got three in the last day and passed you.
983-> '''Edd''': I never win anything. The gods always smiled on Watt, though. When the wildlings knocked him off the Bridge of Skulls, somehow he landed in a nice deep pool of water. How lucky was that, missing all those rocks?
984-> '''Grenn''': Was it a long fall? Did landing in the pool of water save his life?
985-> '''Edd''': No. He was dead already, from that axe in his head. Still, it was pretty lucky, missing the rocks.
986
987-->--
988
989-> '''Jon''': ''[in a house with a packed dirt floor and no furnishings]'' What a dismal place to live.
990-> '''Edd''': I was born in a house much like this. Those were my enchanted years. Later I fell on hard times.
991
992-->--
993
994-> '''Dolorous Edd''': ''[To Jon Snow]'' This wind's like to push us off the wall, and I never did learn the knack of flying.
995
996-->--
997
998!! Hodor
999
1000-> Hodor.
1001
1002-->--
1003
1004!! Other
1005
1006->''Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel... and the coldest hearts.''
1007-->-- Blurb for ''A Clash of Kings''
1008
1009->'''Ned:''' I looked for you on the Trident.\
1010'''Ser Gerold:''' We were not there.\
1011'''Ser Oswell:''' Woe to the Usurper if we had been.\
1012'''Ned:''' When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.\
1013'''Ser Gerold:''' Far away, or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.\
1014'''Ned:''' I came down on Storm's End to lift the siege and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.\
1015'''Ser Arthur Dayne:''' Our knees do not bend easily.\
1016'''Ned:''' Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.\
1017'''Ser Oswell:''' Ser Willem is a good man and true.\
1018'''Ser Gerold:''' But not of the Kingsguard, the Kingsguard does not flee.\
1019'''Ser Arthur:''' Then or now.\
1020'''Ser Gerold:''' We swore a vow.\
1021'''Ser Arthur:''' And now it begins. ''(draws his sword)''\
1022'''Ned:''' ''(with sadness in his voice)'' No. Now it ends.
1023
1024->There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They’ve heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.\
1025Then they get a taste of battle.\
1026For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they’ve been gutted by an axe. They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that’s still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.\
1027If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it’s just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don’t know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world...\
1028And the man breaks.\
1029He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them... but he should pity them as well.
1030-->-- '''Septon Meribald'''
1031
1032->''Seven'', Brienne thought again, despairing. She had no chance against seven, she knew. ''No chance, and no choice.''
1033->She stepped out into the rain, Oathkeeper in hand. "Leave her be. If you want to rape someone, try me."
1034
1035->There is much I do not understand, I have never pretended elsewise. I know the seas and rivers, the shapes of the coast, where the rocks and shoals lie. I know hidden coves where a boat can land unseen and I know a king protects his people or he is no king at all.
1036-->-- '''Ser Davos Seaworth'''
1037
1038->History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.
1039-->-- '''Archmaester Rigney'''
1040
1041->"Oberyn wanted vengeance for Elia. Now the three of you want vengeance for him. I have four daughters, I remind you. Your sisters. My Elia is fourteen, almost a woman. Obella is twelve, on the brink of maidenhood. They worship you, as Dorea and Loreza worship them. If you should die, must El and Obella seek vengeance for you, then Dorea and Loree for them? Is that how it goes, round and round forever? I ask again, where does it end? I saw your father die. Here is his killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night? Will it make me laugh, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick?"
1042-->-- '''Ellaria Sand'''
1043
1044->"The Water Gardens are my favorite place in this world, ser. One of my ancestors had them built to please his Targaryen bride and free her from the dust and heat of Sunspear. Daenerys was her name. She was sister to King Daeron the Good, and it was her marriage that made Dorne part of the Seven Kingdoms. The whole realm knew that the girl loved Daeron's bastard brother Daemon Blackfyre, and was loved by him in turn, but the king was wise enough to see that the good of thousands must come before the desires of two, even if those two were dear to him. It was Daenerys who filled the gardens with laughing children. Her own children at the start, but later the sons and daughters of lords and landed knights were brought in to be companions to the boys and girls of princely blood. And one summer's day when it was scorching hot, she took pity on the children of her grooms and cooks and serving men and invited them to use the pools and fountains too, a tradition that has endured till this day."
1045->...
1046->"I told the story to Ser Balon, but not all of it. As the children splashed in the pools, Daenerys watched from amongst the orange trees, and a realization came to her. She could not tell the highborn from the low. Naked, they were only children. All innocent, all vulnerable, all deserving of long life, love, protection. 'There is your realm,' she told her son and heir, 'remember them, in everything you do.' My own mother said those same words to me when I was old enough to leave the pools. It is an easy thing for a prince to call the spears, but in the end the children pay the price. For their sake, the wise prince will wage no war without good cause, nor any war he cannot hope to win.
1047-->-- '''Doran Martell'''
1048
1049->'''Ser Loras Tyrell:''' [''discussing love''] Once the sun has set, no candle can replace it.
1050----
1051
1052->Promise me, Ned.

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