Fatal Flaw examples in Game of Thrones.
- Prince Doran Martell is too forgiving and doesn't want a Cycle of Revenge to consume his family. His own nieces kill him and his son after he had just pardoned them for trying to kidnap Princess Myrcella, who they had also killed.
- Doran's son Tystane exhibits stupidity born of a lack of or inadequate prescience. It screws him over twice in his few appearances. After seeing the blood on Jaime and Bronn's clothes, he immediately reaches for his sword and gets socked in the face. Surely, he must have known that Jaime was The Kingslayer and trying to take him on would be a death wish. Later on, his two bastard cousins come to assassinate him and he decides to turn his back on the one with the spear because he wanted an honorable fight. This earns him a window through his skull.
- Lord Roose Bolton is such a Smug Snake that he constantly taunts his bastard Ramsay about his status and dangles the possibility of being replaced with his newborn son. Ramsay kills him and his baby.
- Lord Ramsay Bolton likes to "play" with his enemies too much. Because of this Theon Greyjoy and Sansa Stark escape and he wastes a golden opportunity to kill Jon Snow or escape by killing Wun Wun the Giant (who was likely going to die anyway) For the Evulz. It also earns him one of the most agonizing deaths in the entire show when Sansa Stark, his latest victim, has him at her mercy.
- Blackfish feels guilty for failing to save his family at the Red Wedding. He dies defending Riverrun because he didn't want to run again.
- Ned chooses pride and Honor Before Reason, (though the alternatives do mostly involve children suffering) which leads to all kinds of problems, and eventually his death. That said, he is aware of this. And refuses to change anyway.
- Catelyn's need to protect her family drives her to impulsive actions that often work to the detriment of her family (such as kidnapping Tyrion and releasing Jaime). Her release of Jaime, in particular, is one of the major factors that leads to the death of her and Robb.
- Robb Stark chooses to Marry for Love despite the strategic consequences. Furthermore, he's honorable and assumes honor in others. He assumes he can win back Walder Frey's loyalty by making amends. He assumes that Lord Walder will honor Guest Right. He assumes Roose Bolton's unwavering loyalty as his bannerman. All of this culminates in betrayal and murder. Like his father, he also suffers heavily from Honor Before Reason, which causes him to execute Lord Karstark in retaliation for killing two Lannister boys when it would have been far wiser (if somewhat less noble) to simply hold him prisoner until the war was over. Because Karstark's men leave him after their lord's execution, Robb is put in the position of needing Walder Frey's help in the first place.
- Sansa's status as The Ingenue leaves her Genre Blind in a Crapsack World. She's learning, though.
- Queen Daenerys Targaryen has three major ones:
- Her Chronic Hero Syndrome keeps distracting her from returning to Westeros.
- Idealism. While Daenerys is nowhere near as arrogant and horrible as her brother and is, in fact, a sweet and genuinely kind-hearted young woman who wishes for the end of slavery, she is also very prone to going off on one about her ideals and why everyone should do what she says for what she believes to be for the Greater Good — even when taking this course of action would make getting it less likely.
- Pride is also apparent in Season 2, where she threatens to burn down Qarth (a task for which her Dragons are way too young yet to actually do) if she isn't allowed inside, and rages against the Spice King when he refuses to give her ships to return to Westeros. It earns her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from said Spice King. Although she eventually managed to grow into her own hype, her pride (manifesting alternatively as Protagonist-Centered Morality and Moral Myopia) is still very much there and has earned her, more than once, warnings about turning out like her father.
- Entitlement is another one, as she believes that she should have the throne mostly just because her father had it before her and it takes Barristan Selmy pointing out that her ancestors conquered Westeros not because they had a right to, but because they could. She also Wants a Prize for Basic Decency, as she feels insulted by the Northerners' chilly reception to her by complaining she's here to help them, even though helping them also directly ties into her own goals to take the Iron Throne, as if the White Walkers successfully take Winterfell, then it will only be a matter of time before they march South and take everything North of King's Landing, this making her victory pointless unless she deals with them first.
- Prince Theon Greyjoy has ambition, pride, and a thirst for approval. He gets most of them beaten out of him by hard experience.
- Oberyn Martell's lust for vengeance.
- The intense pride that the Vale Lords hold for their homeland has blinded them to any flaws within them, and whenever danger comes knocking at their door, they are more than content to simply hole up in their mountains and ride it out relatively unscathed. Notably averted during Robert's Rebellion when Jon Arryn rallied the Houses of The Vale against the Mad King and then played brutally straight during the War of the Five Kings while under the leadership of Lysa Arryn.
- The Starks' reoccurring flaw is that they often assume that others share their morals and principles. This naivety often leads to the Starks being manipulated and contributes to several of their deaths.
- The flaw for the Lannisters is they don't know when to shut their mouths:
- Cersei makes spiteful remarks to almost everyone she meets, earning her enemies. She immediately sets Ned against her and helps set in motion events that lead to war, and continually sabotages her other political schemes.
- Jaime attempts to snarkily bribe his way out of Locke's custody after saving Brienne, but it backfires and he loses his hand.
- Tyrion has on more than one occasion gotten himself into as many bad situations as he has out of them because of his mouth. His repeated calling out of Joffrey and the endless stream of insults he hurls in his direction end up making him the prime suspect when the latter is murdered and his words are used against him at his trial for Joffrey's murder. His finally snapping at his trial and hurling insults at everyone in the court seals his fate.
- Tywin continues to dismiss the dead Shae as a whore even though a very angry and crossbow-toting Tyrion has very clearly told him not to and just threatened to kill him. Tywin pays dearly for not shutting his mouth with a thoroughly undignified death.
- The Karstarks' Revenge Before Reason tendencies are what ultimately do them in, as shown by both Rickard and Harald.
- Rickard's rage and grief over the death of Torrhen and Harrion drives him to commit a war crime by murdering two Lannister boys in cold blood. When confronted by Robb Stark, he does nothing but further antagonize him through insults. The boys were completely innocent; he just wanted to inflict pain on all and any Lannisters. His actions lead to Robb executing him, though the aftermath of his death plays with this trope, as his men then abandon Robb's army and save themselves from being slaughtered at the Red Wedding.
- In season 6, Harald takes it to both intensely stupid and extremely horrifying levels. As soon as he hears about the brewing conflict between Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow, he immediately allies with the Boltons for revenge on the Starks because Robb executed his father. Never mind that Robb killed Rickard for war crimes, that Robb, his mother, his wife, and pretty much everyone who fought with him are long dead after being betrayed and murdered in the most horrific and cruel manner possible, and that House Stark is pretty much gone and none of its remaining members had anything to do with Rickard's execution. Not to mention that the Boltons are despised by pretty much everyone in the North, Harald is further endangering his house by siding with them, and the White Walkers are on their way. Harald's best bet would have been to simply bury the hatchet and team up with Jon Snow, where his house could have survived. Instead, his insatiable desire for vengeance leads to his possible death and his men getting wiped out in the battle for Winterfell, which would mean House Karstark is now more or less extinct.
- Lord Tywin Lannister's obsession with the Lannister family's glory results in a lack of emotional intelligence and in his utter inability to give a shit about his children as individuals. This turns into a literal fatal flaw, as his abuse of his son Tyrion earns him a terminal case of crossbow-to-gut.
- Tyrion Lannister's love for his family. He hates Cersei, but also loves her at the same time, as shown when he tries to talk her down in Season 7 to form a truce against the White Walkers because he doesn't want her dead. He also loves Jaime, even though Jaime is the idiot who started the feud with the Starks in the first place and enables Cersei. Dany accuses him of letting his love for his brother blind him to the reality that Jaime has a reputation for being a man without honor and maybe he's sabotaging her campaigns subconsciously. In Season 8, when Cersei manages to take Missandei hostage, he begs her to surrender and free Missandei or her life and her baby's life is forfeit. Cersei considers that point for a moment and then kills Missandei. And for all his smarts and ability to see what he assumes to be threats to the kingdom when it comes to himself, he ends up holding the Idiot Ball, and he has been betrayed/harmed at one point by almost everyone bar Jon and Jorah. He seems to have a blind spot for people showing him even a slight bit more than a veneer of kindness.
- Queen Cersei Lannister:
- Hubris. Cersei thinks she's way better than she really is and better than anybody else, which makes her think nothing about hurting people, and in her arrogance, she is reckless, deaf to the council, and unable to evaluate herself or make any kind of amends.
- Additionally, her complete inability to play any sort of long game. Cersei only ever seems to plan for the moment, and this almost always blows up in her face later. To get back at Margaery, she empowers the Faith Militant with no consideration as to how this would affect King's Landing, only caring that Margaery would suffer. They turn on her as soon as it's convenient, and King's Landing comes within a hair's breadth of becoming a theocracy.
- Her "Everyone who is not us is an enemy" policy doesn't help either. Cersei is good at manipulation, but negotiation and compromise are anathema to her. She desires the absolute authority of her father but fails to understand that House Lannister is no longer as wealthy and powerful as it was before the war, and therefore the Tyrell alliance is a necessity. And the "us" quickly becomes "me" where her own family is concerned.
- Whilst Jaime Lannister has his own brand of cunning like his father and brother, his impulsive behaviour makes him say 'fuck you' to patience and gets him captured by Robb Stark.
- Even Petyr Baelish has one. It turns out to be his infatuation for Sansa Stark and his belief that she would never turn on him and always be dependent on the resources and knowledge he happily provides. He also fails to consider that he has no actual allies in the North (and the Vale Knights are all loyal to Sansa rather than to him), as well as the supernatural element of Bran's newfound powers letting him know his dirty secrets. He tries to drive a wedge between her and Arya at Winterfell and is completely blindsided when the two sisters lead him along and expose his crimes before the Northern and Vale lords. He has no backup plan or convenient lie, and he dies tearfully and pathetically pleading to Sansa for his life.
- The Hound's over-the-top cynicism has gotten him into trouble many times and caused him to pick a fight with Brienne due to thinking she was allied with the Lannisters.
- Where to begin, really, but King Joffrey Baratheon's cruelty, pettiness, impulsiveness, and lack of intelligence are definitely up there. He throws his weight around and needlessly antagonises people whom he actually depends on, has a lot of enemies gunning for him as a result of his viciousness, and it is explicitly mentioned by those who actually do conspire to murder him that if he had been a bit kinder or at least a bit smarter and capable of suppressing his baser impulses, they might actually have allowed him to live.
- Viserys Targaryen's arrogance and Jerkass tendencies. If he'd just been more patient and diplomatic, or heck, just been nicer to his sister, he might not have pissed off the Dothraki enough to warrant his gruesome death and Dany might've been more willing to intercede on his behalf.
- Rhaegar was known as an elegant, able man who played harp for commoners in disguise, but everything goes out the window when he goes full fantasist mode: His love for Lyanna (and her love for him) led to diplomatic disaster and really callous handling of his wife and kids. Charging in single combat against Lyanna's hammer-wielding betrothed in an epic duel didn't end well for him, either.
- Robert's alcoholism and need to prove he can still fight despite his sub-standard physical condition.
- Varys holds people, particularly leaders, to standards no human can possibly hope to reach, and his first instinct once they fail to live up to his impossible standards is to betray them. It finally catches up to him once Daenerys learns that he is attempting to put Jon Snow on the throne instead of her due to his fears of her growing instability.
- Alliser Thorne has high arrogance (bordering stupidity) that causes problems for him and others. He refuses to seal the tunnel simply because Jon advised it, and he believes the Night's Watch will win because they have for thousands of years. This makes it easier for a giant to get into the tunnel, and six brothers die as a result. Later, he murders Jon because Jon let the Wildlings down south. Okay, but he doesn't say how murdering the lord commander will fix the Wildling problem. And he doesn't put a defense in case the Wildlings come back. It costs him dearly.
- Olenna Tyrell never listened to anyone and only did things her way while rarely sharing her thoughts, even hiding her role in Joffrey's poisoning from Margaery, this ends up costing her house's extinction and death. As she didn't even bother sharing info on Casterly Rock being dried, came back to Highgarden herself to mobilize her troops.
- Just like her grandmother, Margaery is very dismissive of Cersei Lannister to Smug Snake levels, not realizing that her pettiness and cruelty significantly outweigh her pragmatism until it is too late — in her case being locked in the High Sparrow's dungeons. She's wised up and in, she's the only one in the Season 6 finale to realize that Cersei has cooked up some scheme against the High Sparrow, but it doesn't help her survive.
