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

The third book in Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's {{doorstopper}} ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fantasy series, released in 2000.

The War of the Five Kings still rages strong upon the land. Stannis Baratheon has been confined to Dragonstone, trying to pick up his pieces after his defeat at Blackwater Bay. With the arrival of Tywin Lannister and the newly forged Lannister-Tyrell alliance, House Lannister's grip upon the Iron Throne grows stronger. The King in The North, Robb Stark, still stands fierce, but has to face the disobedience of his subjects when his mother decides to release the captive Kingslayer in a desperate effort to have her daughters returned. All across the Seven Kingdoms, old grudges begin to rear their ugly heads.

In the east, Daenerys Stormborn finally decides to take things in her own hands and raise an army of her own. To reach Westeros, however, she needs to march on the slave-trading eastern continent. But while men fight among themselves in the South and East, savage wildlings gather under the banner of the King-Beyond-The-Wall to descend upon the Wall. The terrifying creatures known as the Others grow stronger as the nights grow colder, and when the dead walk, walls and stakes and swords mean nothing.

The novel has a total of twelve POV characters. Minor characters Chett and Merett Frey provide the prologue and epilogue respectively. Since the Stark children are completely scattered, they each tell a different tale this time:

* Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark continue to show us what's happening in King's Landing.
* Jaime Lannister follows a journey through the dangerous war-torn roads to return to King's Landing.
* Catelyn Stark shows us what's going on with the Northmen's campaign in Riverrun.
* Arya Stark wanders the riverlands and meets the Brotherhood without Banners, a band of Myth/{{Robin Hood}}-esque outlaws.
* Davos Seaworth narrates the tidings on Dragonstone and Stannis's court.
* Bran follows his own story, which takes him through the North and the Wall.
* Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow present differing perspectives on the status of the Wall, the wildlings and the Others.
* Daenerys Targaryen once again gives the events in Essos.

''A Storm of Swords'' is currently the longest book in the series. Due to length, the UK paperback edition was split into two parts: ''Steel and Snow'' and ''Blood and Gold''.

Because it is the longest book in the series, the events were adapted in the third and fourth season of HBO's ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
----
!!A Storm of Tropes:

* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
** Tyrion Lannister's response to seeing his brother's severed right hand for the first time is to crack up laughing at the apparent conspiracy to chop chunks off of Lannisters. It's at least partly hysterical, given that Jaime is probably his favourite family member.
** Roose Bolton actually chuckles in response to one of Jaime's witticisms at dinner.
** Jaime laughs when Ser Balon Swann answers his question about what he'd do if he found himself having to choose between his kin and his king, as Jaime once did, by saying he would ''not'' do what Jaime did. Although Balon was certainly not trying to be humorous.
* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: When Jon is taken to meet Mance Rayder, he initially thinks that Mance must be BoisterousBruiser Tormund or one of the imposing Thenns, and is surprised when he turns out to be the nondescript bard in the room that Jon (and the text) hadn't paid any attention to up until that point.
** Stannis also recalls his father taking him and Robert to court as boys, where both of them were awed by the regal and imposing man they saw sitting on the Iron Throne. Stannis then relates that years later, their father told them King Aerys had injured himself on the throne earlier that day, so the man they saw was Tywin Lannister (Aerys' Hand of the King) sitting in his place.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
-->'''Ser Axell Florent''': Let the false and the fickle feel your flames.
* AlasPoorVillain: While he later gets over it, Tyrion's initial reaction to [[spoiler: Joffrey's horrific death]] is to feel the same feelings he would if it were to happen to any other child.
--> ''"He's only a boy."''
* AnyoneCanDie: This trope applies to the entire series, but major characters go down like flies in ASOS: [[spoiler:Robb Stark, Catelyn Stark, Joffrey, Tywin Lannister, Shae, Oberyn Martell, Lysa Arryn, Ygritte, Jeor Mormont, Balon Greyjoy and (unconfirmed) the Mountain and the Hound.]]
* AppealToObscurity: Use by Roose Bolton when explaining why Vargo Hoat erred in accepting lordship of Harrenhal as a bribe to betray the Lannisters.
-->'''Roose:''' Our goat should have consulted the Tarbecks or the Reynes. They might have warned him how your lord father deals with betrayal.\\
'''Jaime:''' There are no Tarbecks or Reynes.\\
'''Roose:''' My point precisely.
* ArcWords: Ygritte constantly tells Jon, "You know nothing, Jon Snow," for various reasons, but usually just to be playful. In the third book, [[spoiler: they are her dying words.]] Afterwards, Jon hears this phrase from Melisandre, though she has no way (other than perhaps supernatural means) to know that Ygritte used to say this to him. It also becomes the phrase he thinks to himself when his doubts about his decisions as [[spoiler:Lord Commander]] trouble him.
* AskAStupidQuestion: Maege Mormont asks Catelyn Stark if anything is amiss. Catelyn thinks about how stupid a question that is, since she's lost her father, her husband and (supposedly) two of her sons, both her daughters are missing, and her remaining son and brother are angry with her.
* AttemptedRape:
** Vargo Hoat tries to rape Brienne, who bites off his ear.
** Marillion the singer attempts to force himself onto Sansa.
* {{Autocannibalism}}: Vargo Hoat gets hacked to pieces one part at a time by Gregor Clegane while he is imprisoned. The flesh is then fed to Hoat and the rest of the prisoners.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Mereen's champion keeps trying to spit Strong Belwas on his lance dramatically, which the pit fighter easily evades and ultimately uses to kill him. Onlookers remark that he would have been better off riding the big man down.
* AwfulTruth: [[spoiler:Jaime reveals that Tysha, Tyrion's first wife truly did love him and was not a prostitute. The minute Tyrion learns this, he attacks Jaime, cuts off all ties with him and then murders Tywin.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Lady Catelyn's corpse is revived by Beric Dondarrion, who forfeits his own unlife to pay for it.]]
** [[spoiler:CameBackWrong -- she's still sentient, but cold, utterly ruthless and singlemindedly bent on revenge. The Brotherhood nickname her "Lady Stoneheart".]]
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: After [[spoiler: Joffrey's death]], Stannis tells Davos and Melisandre about [[NoodleIncident an incident]] where an infant Joffrey once disembowelled a pregnant cat and then, still [[BloodIsTheNewBlack covered in gore]], brought the kitten fetuses to where Robert and Stannis were having dinner to show off. According to Stannis, Robert was so genuinely shocked and disgusted by this, he hit Joffrey so hard that Stannis briefly believed Robert had killed the boy.
* BaitTheDog: Littlefinger helps Sansa build a snowcastle memento of Winterfell, then [[ForcefulKiss forcefully kisses her]].
* BallisticDiscount: A [[ExaggeratedTrope large-scale example]]: Daenerys Targaryen goes to Astapor to buy an army of slave-warriors who are conditioned to be utterly loyal to their owner, then proceeds to conquer Astapor and take her payment back. The slavers realize that selling ''all'' of their Unsullied would leave them relatively defenseless, but their greed wins out, and they apparently didn't anticipate Dany's immediate attack while still inside their walls. It helps that the dragon she bought them with ''also'' remains on her side, having imprinted on her as its "mother."
* BathtubBonding: Brienne and Jaime's bath in Harrenhal, where a delirious Jaime reveals things to Brienne that he's never told anyone. Namely, he reveals that he killed Aerys II Targaryen (an act which earned him the derisive moniker "Kingslayer") because the Mad King intended to burn the city to the ground as a [[EvilIsPetty last spiteful act]] rather than suffer defeat on his enemies' terms.
* BeardnessProtectionProgram:
** Jaime keeps the beard he acquired in captivity, then shaves his head for good measure. It doesn't fool anyone who's seen him before.
** [[spoiler: Arstan Whitebeard, aka Ser Barristan Selmy.]] He originally grows it in order to flee the Seven Kingdoms unrecognised.
* BigDamnHeroes: Jaime Lannister, previously a cold-blooded villain, saves Brienne from the Bloody Mummers, which is basically the beginning of his HeelFaceTurn (although we later find out he wasn't as much of a Heel as we suspected to begin with).
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Gilly's baby is born as Bannen, a Night's Watch ranger, dies from an infected wound.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Invoked by Kevan on the night before Tyrion's scheduled execution. While telling Tyrion that he completely understands why Tyrion has always hated his father, Kevan reminds him that Tywin restored the family's reputation, which Tytos Lannister had allowed to decline in his later years, and Tyrion himself benefited from that.
* BreadOfSurvival: Inverted -- Craster lets the Night's Watch stay at his keep after the fight at the Fist, but the terrible freezing conditions, meager provisions, and lack of help for their wounded and dying make them resentful, believing Craster has a secret larder of food he's not sharing. At the farewell "feast" he holds for them, receiving only two loaves of bread pisses off the rangers so much that they mutiny, [[spoiler:killing Craster and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont]].
* BrokenPedestal: All her life, Daenerys has believed her brother's insistence that their father being dubbed "[[TheCaligula The Mad King]]" was just [[MaliciousSlander propoganda]] created by Robert and his allies to justify overthrowing Aerys, so she's left shaken when [[spoiler: Barristan Selmy, a former member of her father's Kingsguard]] confirms that Aerys truly was a deranged tyrant whose cruelty united all of Westeros against him.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday:
** Sandor Clegane has trouble recalling who Mycah (a poor butcher's boy he hunted down at Joffrey's orders) was when accused by Arya of his murder.
** When Oberyn Martell duels the Mountain, he brings up the [[YouKilledMyFather murder of his sister Elia.]] The Mountain's response is "Who?" [[spoiler: Considering he then proceeds to recall and repeat the exact circumstances of her murder, it can be assumed this is a deliberate taunt; it's hard to imagine even Gregor would forget raping and murdering the wife of the heir to the throne...]]
** Tywin Lannister doesn't remember [[spoiler:Tysha's name; neither can he recall what happened to her after the gang rape]].
* CallBack: Jaime wore his gilded Lannister armor instead of his white Kingsguard armor when he killed The Mad King but he supposes nobody remembers that. According to book 1, Ned Stark did.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: [[spoiler:Robb's numerous political mistakes catch up to him when the combination of Theon's betrayal, his marriage to Jeyne and his execution of Karstark put him at the mercy of Walder Frey.]]
* TheCavalry: [[GondorCallsForAid Stannis's army]] comes to help the desperately outnumbered Night's Watch defend the Wall at the end of the book.
* ChasteSeparatingSword: DiscussedTrope. While Jon is trying to ward off Ygritte's advances, he uses his pet direwolf Ghost as a barrier between them. He thinks of it as a variation of this trope:
--->''Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor's sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword.''
* ChekhovsGun: In the first chapter after the prologue, Catelyn learns that Hoster's fevered deathbed mutterings include the mysterious word "Tansy". While Catelyn is curious to know what it means, the matter is left alone by Catelyn and the narrative itself until the final chapter before the epilogue. [[spoiler:The flower tansy is an ingredient in moon tea, which Hoster forced Lysa to drink so her child by Littlefinger would be aborted]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Mormont's raven, who disappears shortly after the mutiny at Craster's Keep, and reappears during [[spoiler:the election of the next Lord Commander to turn the tides in favor of Jon.]]
* AChildShallLeadThem: In addition to the already established Joffrey Baratheon and Robb Stark, [[spoiler:the book ends with Joffrey dead and Tommen as the new king]] and with [[spoiler:Jon Snow's election to Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]].
* ClawingAtOwnThroat: [[spoiler:Joffrey]] does this during the Purple Wedding, shortly before his death.
* CompletelyUnnecessaryTranslator: Missandei to Dany in Astapor. Dany is fluent in several languages including Valyrian, but lets the slavers assume she isn't so they'll talk freely in her presence about things they really wouldn't want her to know.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: [[spoiler:Jaime, after losing his sword hand.]]
* DamnedByFaintPraise: When the Tyrell women inquire Sansa about Joffrey, Sansa is unable to think of anything good to say about him except that he is "comely".
* DarkHorseVictory: Jon Snow didn't seek leadership of the Night Watch, but wins it thanks to some astute campaigning by Sam Tarly, pointing out to most of the other candidates how much worse it would be if any of the other candidates won (and Stannis locking them in until they came to a decision).
* DavidVersusGoliath: Prince Oberyn v.s. Ser Gregor.
* TheDeadHaveNames: At the Hound's trial, the members of the Brotherhood give a long list of names of people slaughtered by the Lannister armies.
* DeathByChildbirth: Dalla gives birth to Mance's son and then dies.
* DeathByIrony: toned down to Mutilation by irony. The notoriously brutal sellswords (called the Brave Companions by themselves and the Bloody Mummers by everyone else) who cut off Ser Jaime Lannister's sword hand had been previously employed by Ser Jaime's father Lord Lannister who had brought them to Westeros with the express aim to let them terrorise his enemies.
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: Tywin Lannister tries to put the blame of Elia Martell's murder on the recently deceased Amory Lorch. Oberyn Martell does not believe it [[spoiler:and he's right.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Beric Dondarrion, the altruistic warrior fighting for the good of the smallfolk who has the blessing of the Lord of Light Himself, has all the markings of a major player in the series to come. Psych! He's just there to make space for the resurrected Catelyn Stark (though we don't actually find out he died to give her life until the next book).]]
* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:The Red Wedding.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Tyrion laments to himself that he let Joffrey [[CatapultToGlory execute]] the Antler Men [[note]]A group of rich merchants planning to open King's Landing's gates to Stannis[[/note]] after discovering as Master of Coin how much money they owed the crown, particularly since trying to get the money from their heirs will be an exercise in futility.
** Tyrion regrets having baited Joffrey [[spoiler: by hinting that he knows Joffrey was behind the attempt on Bran Stark's life]], since Joffrey will [[HeKnowsTooMuch likely try to kill him now for it]].
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Sam Tarly kills [[spoiler:an Other (not a wight), when he stabs it with the first thing to hand, a dragonglass dagger.]] He puts it all down to luck, and assumes everyone who calls him "Sam the Slayer" is mocking him, even though he personally discovered their sole KryptoniteFactor.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Joffrey]] dies in his crying mother's arms, and [[spoiler:Ygritte]] dies in [[spoiler:Jon's]] arms.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Red Wedding is the result of a hodgepodge of various old grudges, resentments and jealousies: [[spoiler:Walder Frey has Robb Stark, his mother Catelyn and half his bannermen murdered because Robb broke a promise to marry one of Frey's daughters.]]
* DivideAndConquer: Oberyn implies his family is trying to [[spoiler:convince Princess Myrcella to press her claim as queen of the Seven Kingdoms by Dornish law after Joffrey's death.]]
* {{Doorstopper}}: Even for this series. Martin likes to point out that its word count is similar to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. As in, ''all'' of it. In the UK it was originally published in two parts, titled "Steel and Snow" and "Blood and Gold".
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: After Meera finishes telling Bran the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree (while repeatedly questioning whether Ned had ever told it to him before), Bran criticises parts of it, making suggestions about how he thinks it should have gone. He failed to realise that it wasn't a fable, but a true recounting of the events of Lord Whent's great tourney at Harrenhal involving his own family, and all the characters she mentioned (the little crannogman, the she-wolf, the quiet wolf and so on) were real people (her father Howland Reed, his aunt Lyanna Stark, and his father Ned).
* DramaticIrony: While staying at an inn/brothel called the Peach, one of the "serving girls" jokingly tells Arya and Gendry that she might be King Robert's bastard. Arya does note her Baratheon-esque black hair, but internally dismisses the notion- "That didn't mean anything though. Gendry has the same kind of hair too. Lots of people have black hair."
* DrunkenSong: At the Red Wedding, the Greatjon gets drunk and sings "The Bear and the Maiden Fair"... while the musicians are playing a different song.
* DyeOrDie: [[spoiler: Sansa Stark]] has her hair dyed brown for hiding her identity.
* DyingClue: [[spoiler:Hoster Tully]]'s last word is "Tansy", which all of his family is baffled by. They spend a few chapters looking around for someone named "Tansy" before giving up. Then at the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:he forced his daughter Lysa to drink tansy tea (an abortive drug) after he found out that she was pregnant with Littlefinger's child. Lysa and Littlefinger have been lovers since the first book... which is why Lysa was the one who killed Jon Arryn and blamed the Lannisters at Littlefinger's insistance]].
* EnemyMine:
** Jaime and Brienne's team-up [[spoiler:and [[VitriolicBestBuds eventual friendship]]; ]]
** Arya's brief stint in the company of the Hound could also qualify, since she passed up several chances to run away, and continued to help him [[spoiler:until his death seemed imminent]];
** [[spoiler:Despite hating the Lannisters Oberyn Martell]] becomes [[spoiler:Tyrion's champion]] in his TrialByCombat [[spoiler:because it's the only way he can avenge his sister]].
* EspeciallyYou: An exchange Mance Rayder has with Tormund Giantsbane on two occasions in which he (Mance) tells other wildlings to leave so he can talk privately with Jon Snow. In both instances, Tormund asks, "Even me?" and Mance replies "Particularly you."
* EverythingsWorseWithBears:
** One of the wights that attacks the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men is a ''bear.''
** At Harrenhal, Vargo Hoat throws Brienne in the bear pit with the bear that previously tore apart Amory Lorch. [[spoiler:This time Jaime manages to save her.]]
* EvilVsEvil: The [[spoiler: mutiny]] at Craster's Keep; Craster is a vile, abusive rapist who constantly insults the black brothers [[spoiler: and no reader is going to weep for him when he dies]]. But the [[spoiler: mutineers who kill him also kill their righteous Lord Commander, and rather than set Craster's wives/daughters free take them for themselves. Before this, they were nasty pieces of work; bullying Sam and plotting to kill Mormont beforehand]].
* ExactWords: Used for a darkly humorous moment in the epilogue, when the Brotherhood Without Banners captures Merrett Frey. Lem Lemoncloak is preparing to hang him, but Tom Sevenstrings presses him for information about the war, promising to tell Lem to let him go if he tells them anything useful. Merrett cooperates, so Tom honors his promise. He tells Lem to let him go, and Lem [[NoSell tells him to go bugger himself]]. [[BlackComedy Tom shrugs and starts to play "The Day They Hanged Black Robin".]]
* ExitPursuedByABear: Attempted with [[spoiler:Brienne, until Jaime breaks in to save her]].
* FacePalmOfDoom: How [[spoiler:Gregor Clegane kills Oberyn Martell]], described in gory detail. Also a ThwartedCoupDeGrace.
* FailedState: Daenerys overthrows the slaver aristocracy of the city-state of Astapor, installs a government of freedmen, and moves on to conquer the other cities of Slaver's Bay. Not long afterwards, a man named Cleon claims the new government to be plotting to return power to the slavers, has them excluded, and names himself king. Cleon proves to be an inept ruler and, under his attempted oversight, Astapor rapidly degenerates into an anarchic state, where each ziggurat palace becomes an independent armed camp and the markets grow empty of food and necessities.
* FalseReassurance: Whitebeard tells Daenerys that Westeros still remembers her brother Rhaegar as being wise, and noble and brave. When Daenerys asks about [[TheCaligula her father]], he hesitates and replies that [[ExactWords they remember him too]].
* FanDisservice: Twins Jaime and Cersei having sex [[spoiler:next to the corpse of their son, Joffrey. And as if this wasn't enough, it is also noted that she's on her period.]]
* FearOfThunder: Hodor's almost gets Bran and Rickon's party discovered by wildlings, until [[DieOrFly in a moment of panic]] Bran discovers [[spoiler:he can warg into people.]]
* AFeteWorseThanDeath: Two of the four weddings in this novel have body counts.
* FingerInTheMail: The Brave Companions cut off The Kingslayer's sword hand, intending to send it to his father with a ransom demand.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: At Edmure's wedding, Robb and Roose Bolton discuss the disastrous Battle of Duskendale, and Roose puts the blame for planning it on Helman Tallhart. Thanks to Arya's chapters in the previous book, we know that the entire thing happened at Bolton's orders. [[spoiler:Immediately thereafter, Roose takes part in the Freys' betrayal and murder of Robb.]]
* ForWantOfANail: Oberyn Martell tells Tyrion in conversation how his elder sister Elia was smitten with young Baelor Hightower, until Baelor had [[{{Gasshole}} the misfortune to fart in the presence of the Martell siblings]]. Oberyn promptly nicknamed him "[[EmbarrassingNickname Baelor Breakwind]]" and after that Elia couldn't be in the same room with the poor boy without laughing at him, wrecking any chances of an ArrangedMarriage between the two. After hearing this story and knowing that Baelor Hightower is now a renowned knight, heir to an extremely powerful noble house and considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Westeros, Tyrion thinks that had Oberyn kept his mouth shut, Elia might still be alive and happily married to Baelor, instead of going on to marry Rhaegar Targaryen and ending up being murdered with the rest of the royal family during the final battle of the civil war her husband started when he abandoned Elia to elope with Lyanna Stark.
-->''Tyrion wondered how many lives had been snuffed out by that fart''.
* ForcedMiscarriage: It is revealed that Lisa Tully of Riverun (widowed Lady Lysa Arryn of the Vale in the present) became pregnant as a very young girl after she slept with her father's ward Petyr Baelish. Lysa revealed her pregnancy to her father, hoping that Hoster Tully would let them wed, but Hoster considers Petyr too lowborn to marry a Tully. Instead he forced Lysa to abort her child — she was tricked into drinking moon tea.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In her first chapter, Catelyn hears her father muttering about Tansy in his sleep and wonders if it's the name of a woman he impregnated while he was off at war. Shortly afterward, a raven arrives with the message that Robb has been injured. [[spoiler:While Cat decides that Hoster was actually talking about something else, Robb ''does'' take a girl to bed while recuperating]]. The actual meaning of "Tansy", as it turns out, [[spoiler:is the ''flower'' tansy, an ingredient in the abortion-inducing moon tea Hoster forced Lysa to drink when she was pregnant with Littlefinger's child]], which is eventually revealed in the final chapter of the book.
** Jon hears "The Dornishman's Wife" in the wildling camp. The lyrics parallel [[spoiler:Oberyn Martell's]] fate.
** Mance Rayder telling Jon how he infiltrated Winterfell. He said it didn't matter if he was discovered since he was already protected by SacredHospitality. [[spoiler:The Freys break this in a big way]].
** In Tyrion's second chapter, Tywin tells him that "Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens" as he writes some important letters. In Tyrion's third chapter, Tywin turns down Balon Greyjoy's offer to fight the Starks in exchange for their territory, as "a better option may well present itself". Both of these scenes foreshadow [[spoiler:Tywin's alliance with the Freys and Boltons to wipe out the Starks with the Red Wedding]].
** When The Hound tells Arya that he's taking her to The Twins to ransom her to Robb rather than back to King's Landing like she feared, he finishes by telling her to stop making trouble "and maybe we'll even be in time for your uncle's bloody wedding." [[spoiler:As it turns out, they do arrive literally just in time to catch what turns out to be a ''very'' bloody wedding indeed.]]
** "The Rains of Castamere", a song about the Lannisters annihilating a vassal house that dared to defy them, is introduced and featured a lot in this book.
** Arya finally meets up with one of the stableboys from Winterfell after escaping from Harrenhal. When he doesn't immediately recognize her, she has a minor identity crisis, worried if her already long list of pseudonyms has somehow erased her identity as Arya Stark. [[spoiler:Arya will later travel to Braavos and train as one of the Faceless Men, who discard their own identities and assume those of others]].
** When Tyrion asks Bronn how he'd go about fighting Ser Gregor, Bronn answers that he'd try to wear Gregor down by constantly moving around him and/or try to knock him off his feet, but also that he'd be taking a serious risk, even then: one wrong move and Gregor would kill him. [[spoiler:This is exactly how Oberyn tries to fight him, and exactly how Oberyn dies.]]
** When Jaime is thinking about his family while the Bloody Mummers are taking him and Brienne to Harrenhal he thinks of Tyrion as "his little brother, who loved him [[spoiler:for a lie]]". Later, when he hears from Roose Bolton that Tyrion has been married to [[spoiler:Sansa]] he remembers how happy Tyrion had briefly been with his first wife Tysha, who Jaime remembers as [[spoiler:"his little crofter's daughter". At the end of the book he admits to Tyrion that Tywin had forced him to lie to him about Tysha really being a whore he'd hired to pretend to love Tyrion, with devastating effects on [[DespairEventHorizon Tyrion's psyche]], [[WeUsedToBeFriends their relationship]], and [[{{Patricide}} Twyin's bowels]].]]
* FrameUp: [[spoiler:Tyrion and Sansa]] are framed for [[spoiler:Joffrey's murder]].
* FullCircleRevolution: The ultimate result of Daenerys' Sack of Astapor: a former slave declares himself King and kidnaps noble children to train new Unsullied.
* GlassSlipper: In the Knight Of the Laughing Tree tale, the knight mysteriously disappears as the king declares him his enemy and sends the Dragon Prince (aka Rhaegar Targaryen) to find him. He could find only his shield. [[spoiler:Though [[EpilepticTrees it's also possible that the prince covered up his identity and lied...]] ]]
* GoingNative:
** Jon Snow [[FakeDefector pretends to go native]] when he joins the wildlings, and at the very least gains a lot of insight and respect for them in the process.
** Mance Rayder in backstory really does go native when he joins the wildlings and eventually becomes their king.
* GondorCallsForAid: Maester Aemon sends out so many requests for men for the Wall for so long that most of the characters, not to mention the readers, have given up on anyone answering by the time [[spoiler:Stannis]] shows up.
* HeirInLaw: Lord Tywin's desire for Tyrion to go through with a marriage to another member of the [[spoiler:Stark family, Sansa]], since she's supposed to be the last heir of the family and also Tywin has no wish of ever letting Tyrion inherit Casterly Rock. [[spoiler:Robb Stark goes so far as to name Jon Snow his heir in the event of him dying childless]].
* HitAndRunTactics: Oberyn Martell uses these tactics in his duel against Gregor Clegane. His long spear and light armour keep him out of Clegane's reach. [[spoiler:It worked, up until he assumed that being run through with a spear would be enough to render Gregor helpless.]]
** [[spoiler:To be fair, the spear was also poisoned. Also, he was about to finish him off, while the spear was still in Clegane, with Gregor's own sword. So he also had no weapon.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Good Masters of Astapor are brought down by [[spoiler:their own slave army, which they'd just sold to an ambitious foreign queen within their own city walls. There's a reason they're not called the Ingenious Masters]].
* HoldYourHippogriffs: Before attacking Astapor, Daenerys thinks to herself, ''It is time to cross the Trident'', referencing a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon fateful moment]] in Earth history as well as the largest river in Westeros.
* HopeSpot:
** The fight between Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper and the ''evil, evil'' Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides, includes not merely a hope spot but a giant hope searchlight. At first the Viper looks rather outclassed by the Mountain. Then the Viper turns it around and puts the Mountain on his back, badly wounded by a poisoned spear. He steps on the Mountain's chest to finish him off -- and the Mountain grabs his foot, yanks him down, and taunts him horribly before smashing his skull with one enormous fist.
** After breaking his word to marry the daughter of his ally Walder Frey, King of the North Robb Stark tries to salvage the alliance by suggesting a marriage between his uncle and a Frey daughter in his place. Frey's alliance is desperately important to Robb's campaign. After sulking and rubbing Robb's face in the fact of his broken promise, Frey appears to acquiesce and mend the fences. Then comes the [[spoiler:Red Wedding]], where [[spoiler:Robb and a good number of the Starks and their supporters are massacred by the Freys and the Boltons, including many characters we had come to like.]]
** [[BreakTheCutie Sansa]] looks like she's about to escape [[DecadentCourt King's Landing]] and [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]] with Ser Dontos, who gets her off the grounds, through a forest, and to a ship, where she finds out the one behind her rescue was none other than [[spoiler:[[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger]], the closest thing the series has to a BigBad who's already given off some creepy vibes for her.]] A {{Downplayed|Trope}} example, though, as she ''does'' still get out of King's Landing, and she's still arguably better off with [[spoiler:Littlefinger]] than she was under the Lannisters.
* HuntingTheRogue: A number of Night's Watch brothers commit mutiny at Craster's Keep, murdering Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and Craster, chasing out any loyalists, and setting up the place as their base in the Lands Beyond The Wall, where they can eat, drink, and fuck to their hearts' content. They are all exterminated by Coldhands.
* HyperlinkStory: All the books boast this, but ''A Storm of Swords'' is perhaps the most ensemble novel of the series.
** ''A Game of Thrones'' and ''A Clash of Kings'' largely followed Ned Stark (15 chapters) and Tyrion Lannister (15 chapters) but ''A Storm of Swords'' has Arya Stark with the most chapters (13) followed by Jon Snow (12), Tyrion (11) and Jaime (9), while the first section of the novel [[spoiler:has Catelyn Stark (7) as the DecoyProtagonist until the Red Wedding]]. Daenerys herself gets 6 chapters but since they are the only ones set in Essos, take on greater resonance.
** The Riverlands section of the book is a case in point, since Catelyn, Arya and Jaime traverse the region and briefly overlap the same location, and same characters, the other characters pass by, but all of them have parallel plots by the end of the book. And while Arya has most of the chapters of the book, she is more an observer (of the Brotherhood without Banners) than a protagonist and participant in action (unlike A Clash of Kings)
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Roose Bolton chides Jaime for threatening to kill him under his own roof, pointing out that in the North they still observe the laws of SacredHospitality. Days later, he is an active participant in [[spoiler:the Red Wedding[[note]]although Robb Stark's host were actually guests of the Freys rather than the Boltons.[[/note]]]].
** When Loras complains that Brienne only defeated him through a trick, Jaime remarks that he remembers someone else who won a tourney by riding a mare in heat against a stallion.
* IconicSequelCharacter: We are eventually introduced to Lord Beric, Thoros of Myr and the Brotherhood without Banners (who had small cameos in the first book), Prince Oberyn Martell, Coldhands, Mance Rayder, Tormund Giantsbane, Val the Wildling Princess, Olenna Redwyne.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: To test Jon has truly defected from the Night's Watch, Ygritte sets him one of these that effectively boils down to "If you're really a wildling, fuck me".
* IGaveMyWord: Catelyn has a dark example. She takes [[spoiler:Aegon "Jinglebell" Frey]] hostage to demand that [[spoiler:Walder Frey]] let [[spoiler:her son Robb]] go. After [[spoiler:Walder]] refuses, and [[spoiler:Robb is killed]], Catelyn executes the hostage, with the narrator noting that Catelyn had kept her word.
* ILied: In the epilogue, Merrett Frey goes to ransom Petyr, a relative of his, from the Brotherhood Without Banners... then he sees that the Brotherhood already hanged him.
-->'''Merrett:''' You said if you had the gold by sunset he wouldn't be harmed...\\
'''Tom Sevenstrings:''' Well, you've got us there, my lord. That was a lie of sorts, as it happens.
* TheImmodestOrgasm: Lysa on her wedding night to Littlefinger, loud and long enough that everyone at the feast below can hear it (in fact, they can't ''not'' hear it), to their immense continuing amusement.
** Lampshaded by her asking him to make her scream at the bedding ceremony just before it.
* InstrumentOfMurder: Sort of, at the "Red Wedding", wherein most, possibly all of the musicians were actually disguised soldiers.
* IronicEcho:
** When Jaime first meets Brienne, he continually annoys her by referring to her as wench, ignoring her demands to be called Brienne. After his HeelFaceTurn (and once they're both on first-name terms with each other), there are occasions where someone else will refer to Brienne by an insult and Jaime will emphatically tell them to call her Brienne.
** Tyrion's false accusation and trial for killing [[spoiler:Joffrey]] is a dark echo of his earlier trial in ''A Game Of Thrones'' when falsely accused of killing Jon Arryn and the attempted murder of Bran. Basically, everything that went right in the latter, goes wrong the former, and in both, Tyrion "pleads guilty" of being himself (humorously in ''A Game of Thrones'' and bitterly in ''A Storm of Swords'').
* JustLikeRobinHood: The Brotherhood Without Banners starts out as this, with some pretty clear expies of the Merry Men (including a revered leader ShroudedInMyth, an alcoholic BadassPreacher, TheBigGuy, the archer, and TheBard). After a change in leadership, the group increasingly become [[KnightTemplar Knight Templars]], changing its goal from protecting and aiding the victims of war crimes to hanging war criminals, [[KangarooCourt people suspected of being war criminals, and relatives of war criminals]].
* KangarooCourt:
** Tyrion is again put on trial for murdering [[spoiler:Joffrey]], and on this occasion the judges either hate him or have a political interest in the affair. Although the trial is conducted according to custom, all of the evidence against him is either circumstantial, half-truths or lies told by bribed witnesses [[spoiler:and the reader is aware that he's innocent]].
** The Brotherhood Without Banners puts every person they capture on trial before executing them, though it's clearly just a formality. Sandor Clegane calls them out on it during his own trial. However, they do accept the decision of the TrialByCombat.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The Freys for the most part are a KarmaHoudini for the Red Wedding. [[spoiler:Then Lady Stoneheart starts kidnapping Frey heirs and children, hanging them despite receiving ransom money, and turning the noose on Freys that deliver the coins]].
* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Gregor Clegane dies in horrific agony due to Oberyn's poison. Winning the duel only prolonged his suffering.]]
** [[spoiler:Tywin's]] death just oozes this. His [[spoiler:abuse and contempt for Tyrion, as well as his near suicidal refusal to see beyond his son's whoring, boozing exterior]] finally comes back to kill him in the most embarrassing way possible. And believe it or not, it only got worse for [[spoiler:Tywin afterward]].
** [[spoiler:The Tickler tortured people to death, while constantly asking them questions. Arya eventually stabs him to death, while asking the exact same questions.]]
** After having been gloating about [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]] for most of the book [[spoiler:it's deliciously satisfying seeing Joffrey dying at ''his own wedding'', when he thought to be the winner]].
* KickTheDog:
** Invoked metaphorically by Varys after Tyrion says he should kill him even though he's come to break Tyrion out of jail the night before his execution:
--->The faithful dog is kicked, and no matter how the spider weaves, he is never loved.
** Also invoked by Sandor Clegane when he tells Arya why he's done with serving the Lannisters.
--->Even a dog gets tired of being kicked.
** Kraznys explains that each Unsullied has to kill a child in front of its mother, and then deliver financial compensation. When Daenerys asks if it's for the mother, Kraznys condescendingly says it's for her owner, not only showing himself to be a condescending {{jerkass}}, but showing he has no problem with the murder of children.
* KingmakerScenario: Denys Mallister and Cotter Pyke are convinced by Samwell [[spoiler:to vote for Jon Snow, as they each refuse to allow the other to become Lord Commander and don't like any of the other candidates]].
* LaughingMad: Tyrion after [[spoiler:Ser Gregor kills Oberyn]] and Catelyn after [[spoiler:Robb is killed at the Red Wedding]].
* LetMeTellYouAStory: Meera and Jojen tell Bran about The Mystery Knight at Harrenhall and they're very surprised that Bran has never heard this story at Winterfell. [[spoiler:Probably because of a certain She-Wolf of Winterfell and a Dragon Prince...]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: "The Rains of Castamere" quickly becomes a mark of Lannister strength.
* LightbulbJoke: Joffrey delivers one: "How many Dornishmen does it take to shoe a horse? Nine. One to do the shoeing, and eight to lift up the horse!" This becomes an IronicEcho when The Red Viper, the most notorious Dornishman of them all, comes on the scene.
-->''How many Dornishman does it take to start a war?'' Tyrion thought. ''One.''
* LoveRuinsTheRealm:
** The Starks and the Northern rebellion are brought down when [[spoiler:Robb Stark has a tryst with Jeyne Westerling and breaks his marriage pact with the Freys to marry her]].
** [[spoiler:Tyrion kills his father Tywin to avenge an old wrong done to him and his former wife Tysha.]]
* MassOhCrap: The Night's Watch based at the Fist of the First Men have this reaction when a horn blows three times...warning that the [[EldritchAbomination Others]] are about to attack.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: By the end of the book, [[spoiler:all those cursed by Melisandre are dead (Balon Greyjoy, Joffrey Baratheon and Robb Stark)]]. None by explicitly supernatural means, and at least two with thoroughly-explained mundane causes, but it remains ambiguous whether magic had any influence on things. One possible compromise is that [[spoiler:she magically foresaw their deaths and used that to claim credit for causing them.]]
* MercyKill: A recurring motif in [[spoiler:Arya's arc with Sandor]]. "The gift of mercy," most notably given by Sandor Clegane to a mortally wounded soldier. Arya refuses to give it to [[spoiler:Sandor himself after one of his battle wounds festers. She abandons him to his suffering]].
* MinorFlawMajorBreakup: Discussed by Oberyn and Tyrion and definitely played for drama given the horrible consequences it caused. Elia Martel had been visited by numerous suitors, the best of whom was Baelor Hightower. However, her brother Oberyn had a habit of making fun of them all, and when Baelor farted in their presence, Oberyn dubbed him "[[EmbarrassingNickname Baelor Breakwind]]", and after that, Elia couldn't look at him without laughing, which put the chances of them marrying at zilch. Elia ended up marrying Rhaegar Targaryen instead, with [[FromBadToWorse negative consequences]]. In the present, Tyrion idly wonders [[ForWantOfANail how many lives were snuffed out by that fart]].
* MirroringFactions: When characters come across a burnt out ruin of a village, it's explained that the lord of the area was on the wrong side, and as punishment, Hoster Tully sent soldiers to RapePillageAndBurn and basically kill everyone. It shows the moral greyness of the series that the head of the Tullys (seemingly one of the "good guys") dealt with enemies just as ruthlessly as Tywin Lannister.
* MortonsFork: After demanding TrialByCombat to escape the KangarooCourt his father was trying him in for Joffrey's murder, Tyrion takes some comfort in the fact he's dropped Tywin in a major one of these; if his champion, Prince Oberyn Martell wins, then the Tyrells will be outraged, damaging their relationship with his father. If Oberyn dies, however, the Dornish are likely to be outraged to the point of civil war.
* MoodWhiplash: The story of Edmure's wedding is presented as Lady Stark suffering through an extremely tedious party while her mind wanders... until suddenly it isn't.
* MrExposition: Kraznys mo Nakloz, when we first meet him, gets the job of giving us necessary background information on the Unsullied in paragraph-long answers to Danaerys' and Arstan's questions and comments.
* MrsHypothetical: Lame Lothar Frey mentions that his sister has been taking part in this after hearing of her engagement to Edmure Tully.
-->"Queen Jeyne has a loving heart, I see," said Lame Lothar Frey to Catelyn. "Not unlike my own sisters. Why, I would wager a guess that even now Roslin is dancing around the Twins chanting, 'Lady ''Tully'', Lady ''Tully'', Lady ''Roslin'' Tully."
* MusicalEpisode: Several of the most notable in-page songs in the series are first introduced in this book, many of them acting as {{Foreshadowing}}, {{Leitmotif}}, commentary and counterpoint. This includes "The Dornishman's Wife", "The Last of the Giants", "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", "The Kingswood Brotherhood" and most famously of all, "The Rains of Castermere".
* MundaneMacGuffinPerson:
** A male example is Edric Storm, King Robert's bastard son. Some people just want to protect him; his StrongFamilyResemblance to his father is considered evidence for [[spoiler:the illegitimacy of Cersei's children]]; and one faction wants to [[spoiler:burn him alive [[PoweredByAForsakenChild to bring a stone dragon to life]] and save the world]].
** [[spoiler:After the death of her older brother and the presumed deaths of her younger brothers]], Sansa Stark becomes this as several factions try and get their hands on her claim to Winterfell.
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: In the climactic duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane, Oberyn is out to avenge his sister's murder. It ends with [[spoiler:Gregor gloating over his horrible crime and re-enacting it on Oberyn, though Gregor ultimately dies an agonizing death from Oberyn's poison.]] WordOfGod has confirmed that this is a deliberate ShoutOut to ''Literature/ThePrincessBride''.
* NastyParty: The Red Wedding, [[spoiler:where Robb Stark, his mother and many of his bannermen are murdered by their hosts.]]
* NeverSayThatAgain: Tyrion does ''warn'' [[spoiler:Tywin]] to stop throwing the word "whore" in his face in regards to a certain woman. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't listen.
* NextThingTheyKnew: Robb, injured after a difficult battle and grieving after hearing of Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths, is "comforted" by Jeyne Westerling.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Jaime's lie about the wealth of the Sapphire Isle saves Brienne from immediate rape, but causes the Brave Companions to believe they're being fleeced when her father offers a ransom less than Brienne's weight in sapphires. She ends up getting thrown in a pit with a bear.
* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted spectacularly in the death of [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister.]]
--> ''"...the oft repeated jape about his father was just another lie. [[spoiler: Lord Tywin Lannister in the end did not shit gold]]."''
* NoNameGiven: Sharna's husband and adopted son at the Inn of the Kneeling Man. Even the appendix calls them "her husband, called HUSBAND" and "BOY, an orphan of the war".
* NotHelpingYourCase: Tyrion Lannister grows increasingly angry and snarky in the face of the witnesses and judges when [[spoiler:he's accused of murdering Joffrey because he knows his sister has basically set it up so that all witnesses will incriminate him. He finally snaps.]]
* NotSoDifferentRemark Sandor Clegane calls out the Brotherhood Without Banners in what's both an example of this as well as AtLeastIAdmitIt:
--->''A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and [[TheLadysFavour the lady's favours]], they're silk ribbons tied 'round the sword. Maybe the Sword's prettier with ribbons hanging of it, but it'll 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 your shit don't stink. You hear me?''
** Once again, Lysa and Cersei. [[spoiler:The moment Sansa is reunited with her aunt Lady Lysa, the latter wastes no time dispensing with sentimentality and critically appraises her beauty and suitability as a wife, and arranges for Sansa to marry her own [[MyBelovedSmother badly pampered]] RoyalBrat of a son. When Sansa demurs, Lysa goes into a {{motive rant}} about how she had suffered an abysmal {{arranged marriage}} with a man she loathed, so Sansa will just have to live with hers. Lysa then proceeds to explain all the things her son likes and how he's been accustomed to [[SpoiledBrat always getting his way]], so Sansa will have to learn to be a "grateful and obedient wife." Wait, has Sansa been reunited with her aunt and betrothed to her cousin, or is she still back under the guardianship of Cersei and betrothal to Joffrey?]]
* NotWhatItLooksLike: The truth about Ned Stark catching Jaime Lannister sitting the Iron Throne in book 1 is explained here.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The conquest of Meereen, accomplished by breaking down the ships and using them as rams to batter down the gates, is described when Danaerys recalls it a week later, having taken the city's throne.
* PitySex: Inverted with [[spoiler:Tyrion's]] wedding night with [[spoiler:Sansa]], where pity is described as being "[[MomentKiller the death of passion.]]" Though this might be partly due to his past experience.
* PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd: Jon has something of a one-sided version of this with the dying [[spoiler: Ygritte]]. He tells her that she'll be fixed up, that she'll see a hundred castles, and that they'll return to their cave together. Her response is simply, "[[spoiler:[[ArcWords You know nothing, Jon Snow.]]]]"
** Also Oberyn and Tyrion before his duel with Gregor. He tells Tyrion after it's over that he can come to Dorne and involve himself in some kind of conspiracy with Doran, with the implicit promise of being made Lord of Casterly Rock added as a cherry on top.
* PromotedToScapegoat: House Frey gets promoted to scapegoat by [[spoiler:Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister as a "reward" for the Red Wedding]]. To a lesser extent, [[spoiler:Roose Bolton is also Promoted To Scapegoat by Tywin, who makes him Warden of the North so he'll have to deal with the Ironborn invaders and Stannis Baratheon and probably die in the effort--which will conveniently leave leadership of the North open for Tyrion and Sansa's future sons in the spring]].
* PunctuatedPounding:
** Oberyn punctuates his spear-thrusts at Gregor Clegane with the repeated line "Elia of Dorne. You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children."
** Arya, when frantically stabbing [[spoiler:the TortureTechnician Tickler, repeats the lines of questioning he used when torturing villagers]].
* RapeAndRevenge:
** Lysa has sex with Petyr Baelish where [[DudeShesLikeInAComa he is not in a fit state to give consent]] and [[BedTrick believes she is her sister Catelyn]], on at least two occasions: once when Catelyn rejects him and he drinks until he passes out, and the other after his duel with Brandon Stark where he is injured and feverish. Lysa appears to think of it as having been consensual, but she's insane; Petyr appears to genuinely believe he had sex with Cat on at least one occasion. [[spoiler:He later ends up killing Lysa, although his motivation is not made clear.]]
** Oberyn Martell wanted nothing more than to kill Ser Gregor Clegane, the man who raped and murdered his sister Elia at the Sack of King's Landing. He eventually exacts his revenge years later, [[spoiler:but at the cost of his own life.]]
* RedemptionEqualsAffliction: Jaime's HeelFaceTurn comes at the price of his sword hand.
* RedHerring: Although Robb agonizes over the decision about whether or not to execute Rickard Karstark for his treason and what that will mean to his campaign, the decision ultimately has no impact because most of Karstark's soldiers had already secretly left by that point and it's some of Robb's ''other'' allies that prove his doom. Even two books later, the only reference to the decision is a bare nod to it by Karstark's daughter who ends up asking Robb's brother Jon for help anyway and doesn't seem to show much concern about it.
* ReforgedBlade: Rare villainous example, in which Tywin has Ice, the ancestral Stark greatsword, reforged into two smaller blades. 'Oathkeeper' is intended for Jaime, but he passes it to Brienne, and 'Widow's Wail' is a gift for Joffrey's marriage.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Littlefinger gives this to Sansa as an excuse for killing [[spoiler: Ser Dontos]], who was [[TheMole Littlefinger's spy]] pretending to be her confidant. [[spoiler:To a more cynical reader, it's because HeKnowsTooMuch about Sansa's whereabouts.]]
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: It is revealed that [[spoiler:the attempt to kill Bran after his injury in the first book]] may have resulted from one of these. King Robert, while drunk, remarked how Bran would be better off {{mercy kill}}ed instead of living as a comatose cripple. [[spoiler:Hearing that, Joffrey (who looks up to his supposed father), sent a sellsword to kill Bran, viewing it as an act of kindness.]]
* RuleOfThree: There's a detailed description of how Robb bids farewell to Jeyne Westerling thrice before departing to his uncle Edmure's wedding, [[spoiler:which turns into the Red Wedding, making it the last time the couple bid farewell to each other.]]
* SacredHospitality: Defied by [[spoiler:House Frey]], to their ''very'' great cost. After the Red Wedding (conducted under their roof) essentially ''everyone'' in the Seven Kingdoms hates them.
** To a lesser extent [[spoiler:Craster being killed by Night's Watch Mutineers.]]
** A [[RuleOfThree third example]] comes when Bran remembers the legend of The Rat Cook who was [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a rat and cursed to eat his own young]], the gods cursed him not for committing murder, or for serving his victim in a pie to his father, but because the prince was his guest.
* ScrewTheRulesTheyreNotReal: Catelyn Stark strongly insists that Robb specifically ask Walder Frey for bread and salt, to invoke the Westerosi tradition of [[SacredHospitality guest-right]] against Frey's known grudge over Robb having broken his engagement to one of his daughters. [[spoiler:Walder, however, has conspired with Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister to kill Robb and decapitate the Northern rebellion, and simply ignores guest-right and attacks anyway.]]
* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: "Bowls of Brown", the cheap stew served at pot shops in King's Landing is made of anything the cooks can find or catch. There are rumors that this includes the occasional dead body. When Tyrion sends Bronn to kill a blackmailer, Bronn says he'll dump the guy's body into a stewpot with no one the wiser. Tyrion is slightly disturbed when he meets a mercenary who ''enjoys'' brown.
* SewerGator: Though not identified as an alligator, the sewers of Meereen contain some large white lizard-like creatures that will attack humans if they encounter them, surely inspired by this.
* SexIsViolence: Jaime and Brienne have a fight that Jaime's POV describes in very sexual terms, particularly afterward where he focuses on her clothing being disarranged and heavy breathing and "looking like they had been fucking, not fighting".
* SheCleansUpNicely:
** Catelyn notes that ActionGirl Dacey Mormont looks very nice at the wedding in an elegant dress. [[spoiler: When this turns into the Red Wedding, it evolves into KickingAssInAllHerFinery, as Dacey takes a couple of Freys down until she is dispatched]].
** Absolutely {{Defied|Trope}} by Brienne; when put into a too-small pink dress at Harrenhal she looks even ''worse'' than she usually does. When she reaches King's landing and gets a chance to change into a dress that fits her properly and is a more suitable colour she looks, at best, plain and unattractive.
%% ShoutOut goes on Trivia/ASongOfIceAndFire
* TheSiege: The Battle of Castle Black, where very few sworn brothers stood against an army of thousands of wildlings [[spoiler:until Stannis arrived to save the day.]]
* SomberBackstoryRevelation: Everyone already knows that Jaime betrayed and murdered the previous king, with him being known as the Kingslayer. He's frequently mocked or derided for it. However, while he's badly wounded and feverish at Harrenhal, he ends up talking about it in-depth to Brienne, explaining why he did it. It turns out that Mad King Aerys had refused to surrender to Tywin despite Jaime's pleas, resulting in the city being sacked, at which point the king ordered Jaime to kill his father and gave orders to blow up the city with wildfire. Jaime was unable to kill his own father and watch thousands of innocent people be burned alive, so he killed Aerys to protect them. When Brienne asks why he never told anyone this, Jaime says he doubts he would be believed and that everyone already assumed the worst of him, given kingslaying and treachery are considered heinous actions in his culture (even against a king like Aerys). Brienne views Jaime more sympathetically after this and Jaime starts becoming kinder.
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Sansa idly muses on what an "unsatisfactory sister" Arya had been and how much better the ladylike and beautiful Margaery is. Ouch.
** When Brienne asks Jaime [[spoiler: why he's ordering her to find and protect Sansa if Jaime believes she killed Joffrey, Jaime's thoughts on his late son are clear]].
-->'''Brienne''': Why protect [[spoiler: Sansa]]?
-->'''Jaime's thoughts''': [[spoiler: Because Joffrey was nothing more to me than a squirt of seed in Cersei's cunt. And because [[AssholeVictim he deserved to die]].]]
* SpottingTheThread: An innocuous comment made by or about Joffrey in their presence clue Tyrion and Jaime into the fact that [[spoiler: Joffrey was behind the attempt on Bran Stark's life in the first book. Tyrion figures out the how (after Joffrey brags about knowing his way around Valyrian steel, Tyrion works out Joffrey stole the Valyrian steel dagger used in the assassination attempt from among King Robert's weapons and paid a random cutthroat to do the deed) while Jaime works out the why (when Cersei mentions that Robert [[InVinoVeritas drunkenly said]] [[MercyKill it would be kinder to put the crippled Bran out of his misery]] in Joffrey's presence, Jaime realises Joffrey arranged the killing [[WellDoneSonGuy in a bid to gain Robert's approval]].]]
* SubvertedCatchPhrase: Ygritte is in the middle of telling Jon Snow he knows nothing as per usual, only to trail off when he starts performing oral sex on her.
-->'''Ygritte''': You know nothing, Jon Sno-oh. ''Oh''.
* SympathyForTheDevil: While Tyrion and Sansa suffer more horrific and relentless abuse under Joffrey than anyone else in King's Landing, they feel perhaps more genuine pity for [[spoiler:his death]] than anyone else (except his mother), as they realize during [[spoiler:his dying moments, as he's choking to death]] that in the end he's just a spoiled, helpless 13-year-old boy.
* TactfulTranslation: Seen in the hilarious discussion between Dany and the Good Masters of Astapor when she goes to buy an Unsullied army. The Good Masters act very condescending and insulting but the translator passes their messages in the politest way possible. However, Dany actually [[CompletelyUnnecessaryTranslator understands everything she's been told]] and is struggling to keep a straight face at times.
* TakingYouWithMe: Jaime reveals to Brienne [[spoiler: why he killed the Mad King. After a succession of military defeats, Aerys started to fear Robert's rebellion could actually defeat him, so he had caches of [[GreekFire wildfire]] buried beneath King's Landing, intending to detonate them if the rebels laid siege to the capital and take the entire city with him, [[EvilIsPetty rather than suffer defeat on his enemies' terms]] (Jaime also speculates Aerys was so deranged by that point, he believed he wouldn't die in the blaze, but would be [[OneWingedAngel transformed into a dragon]].]]
* TapOnTheHead: [[spoiler:Arya is knocked unconscious by the Hound while the Red Wedding takes place so that she won't enter the Twins.]] For a book series that's frequently praised for its realism and deconstructions of fantasy tropes, it's jarring that she doesn't suffer long term brain damage.
--> ''His axe took her in the back of the head.''
* ThanatosGambit: Tyrion arranges for one, although [[spoiler:he doesn't actually die. Tywin arranged for House Tyrell and House Martell to be his chief allies despite the fact that they'd been at war for centuries. The way Tyrion arranged it, Tyrell and Martell would be at war again regardless, and either Tyrion would live (and piss off House Tyrell) or he would die (and piss off House Martell). Either way, he shoots a hole through Tywin's alliance.]]
* TournamentArc: The [[LetMeTellYouAStory story told by Meera to Bran]] involves a [[TheTourney tourney]] with a [[BlackKnight mysterious knight]], [[spoiler: which is heavily implied to be the Tourney of Harrenhal, where all the major players of Robert's Rebellion met, and most of all where Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark met, while the mysterious knight is speculated to be Lyanna Stark herself. All these things are probably the reason why Bran has never heard such story.]]
* TooDumbToLive: The slave masters of Astapor not only sell their entire army to the leader of a group known for sacking cities, they even suggest using it against a few neighboring cities in her path to get them bloodied. The reward they were promised is a dragon. They paid dearly for it.
* TragicKeepsake: Sansa still keeps the Kingsguard cloak Sandor left to her before leaving King's Landing.
* TraumaticHaircut: Arya has another one inflicted on her again to make her look more like a boy - and she grumpily notes that the Hound showed less care than Yoren and left her nearly bald on one side of her head.
* TroubledToybreaker: After Arya [[spoiler:witnesses the betrayal and murder of her mother, older brother, and their House's soldiers at the Red Wedding]], she comes very close to falling into the DespairEventHorizon. While she and Sandor are staying at a nameless Riverlands village, the village elder's daughter takes to following her around, no matter how many times Arya tells her to go away. When the girl shows Arya her soldier doll and boasts that it will protect her, she tears out its stuffing, throws it in the river, and snaps, "Now he looks like a real soldier!"
* [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Turn Out Like Her Father]]: When Daenerys [[spoiler: confronts Barristan Selmy over why he posed as Arstan Whitebeard, Barristan confesses he wanted to observe Daenerys for a time, to make sure she hadn't inherited her late father Aerys's capacity for cruelty]].
* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister dies with his last pooping.]]
* UnreliableNarrator: Sansa seems to remember the Hound kissing her when he was in her bedchamber during the Battle of the Blackwater in ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', but the text in ''ACOK'' doesn't mention a kiss. WordOfGod is that this is deliberate, because her brain is tricking her to cope with all of the extended trauma she's dealing with.
* VikingFuneral: A tradition of the Tullys. Lord Hoster Tully is placed on a boat and sent down the river until someone shoots an arrow to set him aflame and lay him to rest.
* VillainBall: [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister]]. His death was akin to someone walking towards a banana peel, then thinking "other people might slip on it and fall, but never me!". And then he steps on the banana peel. And he falls and breaks his neck. [[spoiler:Telling the son he's always shunned and outright reviled (while said son is holding a crossbow, no less) that his first wife was a whore even after Tyrion warned him not to wasn't particularly clever for a master strategist.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: While the mutinous Night's Watch and their decision to [[spoiler:kill Craster and Commander Mormont, and raid Craster's larder and rape his wives]] are genuinely despicable, they ''do'' raise some valid points. Their small party just barely survived a one-sided massacre against [[spoiler:The Others]] and are literally freezing, starving, and dying of untreated wounds on Craster's doorstep, yet the man will barely spare them a few crumbs and blankets, and keeps hurrying them to leave where they'll no doubt just starve and freeze and die in greater numbers in the snow. While Craster and Mormont counter that he doesn't technically ''have'' to give them anything, still...
* VillainRespect:
** Stannis called Tyrion "dangerous" when he had been accused of [[spoiler:killing Joffrey]]. He also gives him his due for his actions at the Battle of the Blackwater.
** Tywin also regards Stannis with grudging respect, if only because of [[TheDeterminator his sheer refusal to give up]]. When word reaches Tywin that Stannis and his followers have left Dragonstone, he concludes it's only because he intends to keep fighting somewhere else.
* VirginTension: When [[spoiler:Jaime rescues Brienne from the Bloody Mummers]], there's some concern that she may have been gang raped, so [[spoiler:Jaime]] checks on the status of her maidenhood by joking about how he only rescues maidens.
* WeddingDeathJuxtaposition: At the wedding of Edmure Tully to Roslin Frey, [[spoiler:Robb Stark, his mother, and a significant chunk of Northern and Riverlander nobility are murdered by the bride's family alongside their Bolton allies]]. The event gets such a reputation as a NastyParty that it is called the Red Wedding after the fact.
* WhamEpisode: This novel itself is one for the entire ASOIAF series, easily taking the cake for the highest number of major character deaths (so far). Let's review:
** [[spoiler:Robb and Catelyn are betrayed and slaughtered, along with their entire army, at the Red Wedding.]]
** [[spoiler:Joffrey is poisoned and killed at the Purple Wedding.]]
** [[spoiler:It is revealed that Littlefinger and Lysa were behind John Arryn's murder. Littlefinger then kills Lysa.]]
** [[spoiler: Jaime's motive for killing the Mad King are revealed as stopping Aerys from razing King's Landing to the ground as a spiteful last gesture of defiance]].
** [[spoiler:Catelyn is resurrected as Lady Stoneheart.]]
** [[spoiler:Tywin is killed by Tyrion, who goes on the lam]].
* WhamLine: Though savvy tropers can probably see it coming.
-->[[spoiler:Littlefinger let Lysa sob against his chest for a moment, then put his hands on her arms and kissed her lightly. "My sweet silly jealous wife," he said, chuckling. "I've only loved one woman, I promise you."\\
Lysa Arryn smiled tremulously. "Only one? Oh, Petyr, do you swear it? Only one?"\\
"Only Cat." He gave her a short, sharp shove.]]
** When Jaime [[spoiler:reveals the truth about Tysha to Tyrion:]]
---> [[spoiler:She was no whore. I never bought her for you. That was a lie that Father commanded me to tell. Tysha was... she was what she seemed to be. A crofter's daughter, chance met on the road.]]
* WhamShot: The sign that things have gotten ''really'' dark is when a Frey child is kidnapped and held for ransom; Merrett Frey delivers the money but [[spoiler:sees the boy has already been hanged, much to his dismay as he's captured. Then he ''really'' goes OhCrap when seeing a familiar woman with a rotted face and slashed throat, who can testify that Merrett was at the Red Wedding. Catelyn Stark is alive, only she's calling herself Lady Stoneheart and likes hanging people who crossed her]].
* WhipOfDominance: When Daenerys buys the slave army of [[BadassArmy Unsullied]], it's represented by the transfer of an ornate whip, symbolic of her status as the dominant leader of the slave army. As soon as she has it in hand, she lashes the slave master across the face and orders the Unsullied to kill its former owners.
* WidowedAtTheWedding: [[spoiler:Joffrey is murdered at his wedding, leaving a widowed Margaery]].
* WithMyHandsTied: Brienne is amazed at how well Jaime Lannister fights after a lengthy imprisonment, with his hands still chained together. Also, Strong Belwas intentionally allows his opponents to slash his belly before he kills them, a bit of showmanship he picked up as an arena champion.
* WorfHadTheFlu: Jaime recovering from imprisonment with his hands chained versus Brienne, who has two arrows in her and is sworn to keep him alive. They're so evenly matched that she wins by sheer endurance.
* YankTheDogsChain:
** Seems that Sansa is going to marry a Tyrell and finally run away from King's Landing. [[spoiler:She ends up marrying Tyrion Lannister.]]
** Various members of the scattered Stark family come within ''inches'' of reuniting multiple times throughout the book. Circumstances always prevent them from meeting.
** The Red Wedding. [[spoiler:It looks like Robb will regain the alliance of the Freys and go retake Winterfell by just having his uncle marry. The Freys and the Boltons proceed to butcher Robb's bannermen under their very house.]]
** The duel between Oberyn and Gregor Clegane. [[spoiler:Just when it looks like Oberyn Martell is going to kill Gregor Clegane and free Tyrion, Gregor manages to grab the careless Oberyn and kill him in cold blood.]]
* YouAreInCommandNow: Donal Noye leaves the Wall to Jon, when he has to go and defend the gate. [[spoiler:Then Jon becomes Lord Commander.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness:
** Littlefinger kills [[spoiler:Dontos]] when he has no further use for him and [[HeKnowsTooMuch couldn't risk him leaking any information]].
** [[spoiler: After Gregor Clegane declares his guilt in the murders of Elia Martell and her children for all to hear, Tywin orders Pycelle to heal Gregor enough for him to be publicly executed. PragmaticVillainy is also in effect, since Tywin has always denied Gregor's involvement in the murders of Elia and her children, and now the world knows otherwise, a combination of this and Oberyn's death at Gregor's hands might tip Dorne into backing Stannis unless Tywin placates them]].
* YouWouldntShootMe: [[spoiler:Tywin]] doesn't seem particularly worried that [[spoiler:Tyrion]] has him at crossbow-point, and flat-out tells him he doesn't have the courage to do it. The only thing he manages to say when he's proven wrong is "You shot me."
* ZombieApocalypse: The Others send [[ZergRush waves]] of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent wights]] at the Night's Watch's position at the Fist of the First Men, and not just humans; an [[RaisingTheSteaks undead]] [[BearsAreBadNews snow bear]] gets sent in as a shock weapon against the crows. Barely a handful of Night's Watchmen are able to fight their way free.
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