Game Of Thrones / Tropes L to O

Game of Thrones
Tropes A | Tropes B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to F | Tropes G to K | Tropes L To O | Tropes P to S | Tropes T to Z

Tropes with their own subpages:

• Leitmotif
• Oh, Crap!
• Outliving One's Offspring

L

• Lady and Knight: This is one of the traditional fantasy tropes the series loves to play with.
  • The beautiful Daenerys Targaryen is served by the valiant Ser Jorah Mormont, but for the first half of the first season, he is also The Mole. Later, Daenerys receives a second, non-romantic knight when Ser Barristan Selmy arrives to join her Queensguard.
  • Handsome and gentle King Renly Baratheon is guarded by two highly-skilled warriors: Brienne of Tarth (a non-knight gender inversion) and Ser Loras Tyrell (a romantic same-sex variation).
  • Brienne goes on to serve the gracious Lady Catelyn Stark (a non-romantic same-sex variation), and, in that capacity, serves as both guardian and Damsel in Distress to the crippled knight Jaime Lannister and finally, swears herself to Catelyn's daughter Lady Sansa Stark, who is in dire need of protection.
  • The beautiful maiden Sansa Stark starts off dreaming of being served by a noble knight, but instead is physically and mentally abused by her JerkAss prince and his knights. Several genuine knightly protectors do end up serving her, although they're far from the ideal she initially envisioned, with the disfigured anti-knight Sandor Clegane, drunken fool Dontos Hollard and finally the female, not-technically-knighted but truly honourable Brienne of Tarth.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Jaime thinks Brienne is far too masculine-looking for a woman. She wears short hair, masculine clothing, and even bows rather than curtsies.
• Lady Macbeth:
  • Cersei Lannister is behind some of her husband King Robert's and twin/lover Jaime's callous or outright evil decisions.
  • Loras provides a rare male example when he suggests his lover Renly should be king instead of his brothers and nephews with the help of Highgarden.
• The Lady's Favour:
  • Loras giving Sansa a rose before his joust appears to be a gender inversion until he makes eyes at his secret lover, Renly, who is sitting behind her.
  • Gender-flipped when Sam gives Gilly his mother's thimble, his sole keepsake from his former life before he joined the Night's Watch.
• Lampshade Hanging: As the Torture Technician said to the victim: "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
• Large Ham:
  • The delightful Syrio Forel combines this with Strange-Syntax Speaker to give Arya lessons in both fencing and scenery-chewing.
  • Joffrey and Viserys are deliberately played quite hammily to illustrate their emotional instability and inflated self-importance. Rather than being played for laughs, Viserys being over-dramatic underscores how pathetic he truly is, and Joffrey being a Boisterous Weakling makes him dangerously capricious as king.
  • Drogo channels the Maori haka dance during his Rousing Speech proclaiming a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the assassination attempt on Daenerys.
  • Daenerys herself loves to ham it out with an intimidating speech whenever she has the chance, always including her string of titles ('I am Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen...'). Whether she's in any position to make good on her threats varies greatly.
  • King Robert Baratheon nearly scrapes the castle walls clean while arguing with Ned about Daenerys' assassination.
  • Greatjon Umber is a prime cut of Northern ham able to laugh off losing two fingers to a direwolf.
  • Melisandre's hammy prayers to the Lord of Light enhance her creepy Hot Witch persona.
  • Boisterous barbarians like Tormund Giantsbane and Shagga son of Dolf.
  • Roy Dotrice's One-Scene Wonder performance as Pyromancer Hallyne does credit to his equally hammy readings of the A Song of Ice and Fire audiobooks.
  • Oberyn Martell hams it up during a duel partially to throw his opponent off.
• La Résistance: Tywin's occupation of the Riverlands is hampered by the "Brotherhood without Banners," a group unseen until the third season.
• Last Chance to Quit: The ambassador of the Slaver City of Yunkai offers Daenerys Stormborn the ships she needs to sail her army to Westeros (one of them filled with gold) if she leaves Slaver's Bay. She makes him a different offer: his life, on the condition that the Masters abolish slavery.
• Last-Minute Baby Naming: Justified in the case of Gilly's son, since she had every reason to believe he would be given to the White Walkers within days anyway.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Roose Bolton to Jaime Lannister.
  "I would have thought you'd learnt not to overplay your... position."
• Last Stand: Yoren refuses to surrender his charges even in the face of certain death.
  • In the backstory of Robert's Rebellion, the Kingsguard at the Tower of Joy was the Last Stand of the Targaryen forces who refused to surrender. Ned Stark managed to slay them and then found out they were protecting Rhaegar Targaryen's last surviving son.
  • As the Bolton cavalry ride out towards his diminished army from Winterfell, Stannis, already dealing with his wife's suicide overnight, realizes this is it but nonetheless exhorts his troops to take up the fight.^note The ensuing "battle" is the real end of the War of the Five Kings (practically over since the Red Wedding), as Stannis's death afterwards means all five of the kings are now dead
• The Last Thing You Ever See: Cersei makes this threat to Septa Unella, the septa torturing her to make her confess during her imprisonment by the Faith Militant. In the season six finale, Cersei has most of her enemies killed with a wildfire explosion, but has Unella imprisoned in her dungeon. Cersei visits her captive and reminds her of her promised threat. Unella maintains her stoicism, declaring she's prepared to meet the gods. Cersei clarifies that Unella is not going to die for a long time, since she's got an even worse punishment in mind for her: leaving her with Ser Gregor Clegane.
  • In the Season Six finale, a maid in the Frey household serves Walder a minced meat pie while he asks where his sons are. She then reveals that his sons had been in the dining room all along, while he's in a state of shock she pulls out her blade, and reaveals she's actually Arya Stark. She then grabs his head so he'll be looking directly at her face and kills him while saying, "The Last thing you'll ever see is a Stark smiling down at you as you die."
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • You'd be hard-pressed when discussing the show with fans who don't bring up the dragons. Their arrival at the end of the first season is perhaps one of the most pivotal scenes in the series.
  • Ned Stark's death was a huge twist and shock. But, at this point, it's not even considered a spoiler.
  • The Lannister's Twincest was a big twist at the end of the first episode. But now it's entered pop culture and is well known even by people who have no interest in the show.
  • So are Robb and Joffrey's deaths.
  • Jon's death and subsequent resurrection has reached peak level publicity, making everyone know.
• The Leader:
  • Tywin Lannister and Robb Stark are both a Type I.
  • Tyrion Lannister is also a Type I, but manages to throw in some Type IV during the Battle of the Blackwater.
  • King Robert was a Type IV, but proved much better at warfare than governance.
  • Renly Baratheon is a Type IV. His charismatic personality wins him the support of the Tyrells, giving him the largest army. Renly also uses diplomacy to defuse the tension between Catelyn and his two overprotective Kingsguards.
  • Stannis Baratheon is a Type II. He is the most levelheaded and straightforward leader, and often relies on his advisors Melisandre and Davos for council.
  • Daenerys is a Type IV who binds her followers together by their personal devotion to her as a dragon-birthing slave-liberator. The team's goals are her goals.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Ramsay Snow does it.
  "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
  • Bran does it as well in the Season 6 teaser:
  "They have no idea what's going to happen."
  • From "Stormborn":
  Ebrose: I'm not writing A Chronicle of the Wars Following the Death of King Robert I so it can sit on a shelf unread!
  (Beat)
  Ebrose: What? You don't like the title? What would you call it, then?
  Sam: Possibly something a bit more...poetic?
  Ebrose: We're not poets, Tarly!
• Leave No Survivors: After House Bolton wins the battle against Stannis' forces outside of Winterfell, Ramsay Bolton kills the last wounded enemy soldier who was about to surrender.
  Ramsay: I accept your surrender.
• Lecture as Exposition:
  • Maester Luwin teaches Bran, and the audience, about the Houses of Westeros.
  • Sansa gets quizzed by her septa about the history of the Seven Kingdoms.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • The poor wildling who tried to charge Stannis.
  • Jon Snow charges the entire Bolton force after Ramsay shoots and kills Jon's brother Rickon.
  • Jaime Lannister when he charges at Daenerys atop her wounded dragon.
• Legend Fades to Myth: The White Walkers. As exemplified in the Histories & Lore videos, they've passed out of common knowledge. Tywin Lannister dismisses the White Walkers as a fairy tale and even Lord Eddard Stark does not believe they have returned (though he seems to believe they had existed). Tyrion also mocks the notion of "snarks and grumpkins" beyond the Wall.
• The Legend of Chekhov: It becomes pretty obvious what Bran's dreams really are when Maester Luwin tells Bran that sure, there are stories about people who can form a spiritual link with animals, but they aren't true and would be long gone even if they were.
• Leitmotif: The show has enough to have its own page.
• Legion of Lost Souls: The Night's Watch.
• Let the Bully Win: Discussed in the episode 01x05 "The Wolf and the Lion". King Robert Baratheon has a fondness for fighting and is widely praised for being a strategist in war times, which allowed him to win all his battles in his Glory Days (save for one). After becoming king and getting out of shape, he gets a reality check by Ned, who wisely remarks nobody in the Seven Kingdoms would dare to injure the king (let alone one too fat for his armor) in a tournament and any finalist would rather let him win to save their face. His reaction? He ''orders'' his Hand to drink a glass of wine and reluctantly follows his advice to leave younger men jousting.
• Liberty Over Prosperity: Ygritte admits the wildlings have poorer industry and weapons than the rest of Westeros, but they are free.
• Lie Back and Think of England
  • A very dark version of this trope is presented when Jaime advises Brienne to think of Renly when her would-be rapists have their way with her, knowing she will be killed if she resists.
  • This also occurs when Queen Margaery tells the High Sparrow that she hasn't been in the mood to "share the marriage bed" with King Tommen, and the High Sparrow retorts that a wife doesn't need to be in the mood in order for her husband to impregnate her.
• Lie to the Beholder: It is implied that all the Red Priestesses of R'hllor are Really 700 Years Old, but use a magical necklace to appear like young attractive women to make the religion more appealing to prospective converts. The only person to have ever removed it, Melisandre, immediately looked like a withered old crone.
• Life/Death Juxtaposition:
  • R'hllor and the Great Other have a fire-and-ice and life-and-death dichotomy.
  • Right as Sansa's direwolf, Lady, is killed, the scene immediately cuts to her brother Bran waking up from his coma. Their family has a wolf theme, meaning that one wolf dies as another wakes from a death-like slumber.
• Life Will Kill You: Maester Aemon dies of old age, in his bed, just about the only character to die a completely natural death in the show.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • The "White Walkers."
  • Melisandre is adamant that the Lord of Light is good, but her propensity for ominous threats, shadow magic, and burning people alive makes her quite malevolent.
• Lighter and Softer: While the show is often Darker and Edgier than the books, there are also times when it pales before them.
  • Arya witnesses far more carnage in the Riverlands, suffers more personal degradation, and kills more people in combat as well as in cold blood in the books.
  • The young characters are all aged up in part so that all this sex and violence isn't happening to even younger characters.
  • Bodily mutilations are less pronounced for practical reasons. For example, the Hound's scars are less grotesque, and Tyrion and Rorge both keep their noses in the series. This is Lampshaded in "Valar Dohaeris," where there were rumors that Tyrion had lost his nose during the Battle of Blackwater.
  • Some of the murders committed or ordered by characters the showrunners wish to keep more sympathetic are omitted or at least given a veneer of self-defense.
  • While certain villains such as Ramsay are not given anything resembling an Adaptational Heroism treatment, their actions and traits are somewhat scaled down. Ramsay's Hunting the Most Dangerous Game for example, while extremely disturbing on the show, is still particularly more gruesome in the novels. The other changes is that Ramsay has Adaptational Attractiveness and engages in consensual relationships with women, some of whom become Monster Fangirl and he sends them on hunts when he gets bored of them, whereas in the books, all his victims were innocent women. In addition some of his more inhumane tortures of Theon are left out, notably smashing all of Theon's teeth with a hammer.
  • A number of characters receive Adaptational Heroism, removing some of their more villainous characteristics or actions and making them more sympathetic. Examples include Tywin, Tyrion, Renly and Sandor.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: Despite the series' overwhelming Black-and-Gray Morality, characters like the Starks, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen are portrayed sympathetically despite their more heinous actions.
• The Lightfooted: Seen in Game of Thrones (and the book it's based off of) because many characters are trained to be agile instead of being true fighters.
  • Syrio Forel's combat technique is named "Water Dance" and is only focused on dance-like movement patterns. He claims, however, to be the best fighter of Braavos.
  • Bronn is considered a deadly fighter because he prefers to stay mobile and dodge attacks, instead of blocking with a shield, like Westerosi knights do.
  • Oberyn is, during his duel with Gregor Clegane, revealed to be very agile, being able to perform flips and stunts to entertain the crowd.
  • Arya develops into one of these, her agility and stealth compensating for her small size.
• Lightning Bruiser: Sandor Clegane and Brienne of Tarth.
• Lipstick-and-Load Montage: The finale of season 6 opens with assorted characters getting dressed in preparation for the trial of Loras Tyrell and Cersei Lannister with a sharp contrast between the elaborate clothes of the nobility and the old sack worn by the High Sparrow. The montage lingers on Cersei for longer than the others as she is fitted in a new black leather and chains number because she is about to have them all killed by blowing up the Sept of Baelor where the trial is taking place.
• Little Miss Badass: Arya Stark.
• Little People Are Surreal: Notably averted with Tyrion Lannister, who just happens to be a little person. Peter Dinklage has noted how he is actually presented as a character in the show and not as his condition.
• Living Shadow: Melisandre gives birth to one in "Garden of Bones" to kill Renly Baratheon.
• Long Game: Littlefinger's entire storyline for the whole series can be considered a long game, as everything he does is all part of his plan to gain the Iron Throne for himself.
• Looking Busy:
  • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Master of Coin) shows Lord Ned Stark (newly appointed Hand of the King) people in the gardens in King's Landing. He notes that they are all spies who pretend to be doing something else. A little boy playing with another kid is one of spymaster Varys' 'little birds'; a man who is working in the garden is the Queen's spy, while Septa pretending to read a book is his.
  • When Cersei Lannister becomes Queen Regent to her son King Tommen and starts a feud with their House Tyrell allies, she's visited by the no-nonsense Lady Olenna Tyrell. Cersei tries to ape her father Tywin's habit of writing letters while receiving visitors as a dominance play, but while Tywin actually did have important matters to attend to, she's just faking it. Lady Olenna isn't impressed, and tells her to just get down to business.
• Lost in Translation: A lot of official translations fail to recognize the difference between a "wight" (a re-animated corpse) and a "White Walker" (the ice demons who create them). Admittedly, the same applies to many English-speaking viewers since it hasn't quite been explained yet.
• The Lost Lenore:
  • Robert Baratheon's rage and pain over Lyanna Stark still hasn't cooled after 17 years.
  • Although she is probably alive somewhere, Tyrion's first wife Tysha is still a deep source of grief for him, as Tyrion poignantly indicates whenever she comes up.
  "I was wed; or don't you remember?"
  • The way Tywin holds his wife Joanna's Death by Childbirth against Tyrion and the fact he has not remarried seems to indicate this trope.
• Lost Technology: Valyrian steel can be reworked by experts, but no one knows how to make it anymore.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Warlocks of Qarth attempt to lure Daenerys with a vision of her dead husband and stillborn son in "Valar Morgulis".
• Lovable Coward:
  • Samwell Tarly is not much of a fighter but he has a plucky charm and becomes friends with Jon Snow.
  • Hot Pie is even less of a fighter than Sam but his optimism and cooking skills makes Arya a lifelong friend.
• Love at First Sight: Sansa thinks she has this with Joffrey until he turns his sadism on her.
• Love Dodecahedron:
  • Robert Baratheon was betrothed to Lyanna Stark, who was kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen, who was married to Elia Martell. After everyone else's death, Robert married Cersei Lannister, who was in a secret relationship with her twin brother Jaime.
  • Lysa Tully married Jon Arryn but loved Petyr Baelish, who loved Catelyn Tully, who married Eddard Stark (but was previously engaged to his older brother, Branden), who has a bastard son by another woman.^note Actually, Eddard was faithful to Catelyn. His "bastard son" Jon Snow is actually his nephew by Ned's sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen, with Jon's true heritage kept secret from everyone so he wouldn't be killed by his real father's enemies.
  • Margaery Tyrell marries Renly Baratheon, who is in love with Loras Tyrell while being crushed on by Brienne of Tarth.
• Love Father, Love Son:
  • Littlefinger plants a kiss on Sansa after her mother Catelyn, his original crush, had died. She gradually wises up to his advances (especially after he has her married off to Ramsay) and has no intention of further humoring him once she comes into a position of power herself. Additionally, her brother Jon Snow outright threatens to kill him if he gets any funny ideas.
  • Shae, a prostitute Tyrion falls in love with but sends away for her own safety, eventually betrays him and frames him for the murder of King Joffrey before he later finds her in his father Tywin's bed. Portrayed a bit differently than in the books since the whole Tyrion-Shae relationship is played up as a romance for the ages as opposed to Tyrion looking for love in the wrong place, with Shae becoming more of a Woman Scorned in this situation than someone driven purely by greed.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • Catelyn frees the Kingslayer behind her son's back in an attempt to get her daughters back.
  • Robb Stark falls in love with Talisa Maegyr despite his engagement to one of Walder Frey's daughters. His mother warns him what a stupid political move this is, but he marries her anyway. Lord Karstark remarks that Robb lost the ongoing war the day he married Talisa.
  • Sansa is convinced that Joffrey is a great guy until he chops off Ned's head.
  • Petyr Baelish is totally convinced that he has Sansa wrapped around his little finger. He never entertained the possibility she could have exposed his crimes at any given time.
• Love Makes You Evil:
  • Jaime Lannister pushes a 10-year-old out a window to hide his secret affair, even saying, "The things I do for love..."
  • Cersei Lannister was, like many women at the close of the rebellion, quite in love with Robert when they married, but years of arguments, inattention, and occasional domestic abuse end in her plotting her husband's death.
  • Petyr Baelish's unrequited love for Catelyn feeds his obsession with achieving power over his social betters.
  • Maester Aemon warns Jon that love is the one thing that can make a man ignore his duty.
  • Tyrion remarks that he would kill for Shae and expects he will have to someday.
  • Elaria Sand loses it after watching Oberyn getting his skull crushed by The Mountain, changing her from a lovable Ethical Slut to a vengeful and crazy Crusading Widow War Hawk against all the Lannisters.
  • Somewhere between this and Love Makes You Dumb, Jorah Mormont explains that he sold poachers into slavery to finance his beloved wife's lavish lifestyle.
• Love Ruins the Realm:
  • By marrying for love, Robb angers the Freys, who join with the Boltons to kill him and divide his kingdom between them.
  • Lysa Arryn's love for Petyr Baelish led her to poison Jon Arryn, an act that eventually snowballs into the War of the Five Kings.
  • In the backstory, the love affair between Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, which conceived Jon Snow, produced a mass-scale war that killed thousands of people and ended a dynasty.
  Petyr Baelish to Sansa Stark: How many tens of thousands had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt?
  
  Bran: Robert's Rebellion was built on a lie. Rhaegar didn't kidnap my aunt, or rape her. He loved her. And she loved him.
  • Likewise, Jon and Daenerys consummating their love has Tyrion looking apprehensive about the negative consequences of their union.
• Ludicrous Gift Request: When unshackling Danaerys' dragon so they can sleep in contact with each other, Tyrion tells the story of how he asked for a small dragon as a child, only to learn that they'd gone extinct long ago.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Loras' shield saves his life when the Mountain attacks him after their joust.
  • Jon Snow seals the defeat of Lord Ramsay Bolton by shielding three arrows from his opponent, with a quickly borrowed shield, all the while he doesn't even charge him, then using it to strike him down and then punch him several times with fists.
• Lured into a Trap: Robb and most of his supporters are wiped out when Walder Frey turns their renewed marriage alliance into "The Red Wedding".
  • Likewise, the news that Benjen has returned is a ruse to set Jon up for assassination.
• Lysistrata Gambit: In a rather atypical same-sex example, Loras not only withholds sex from Renly because he feels slighted by Brienne's Rank Up, but punishes him further by sending in Margaery, knowing Renly utterly dreads having to consummate their marriage.

M

• Machiavelli Was Wrong:
  • Invoked by Loras when he argues that Renly should be the next king because he would rule through love and respect rather than strength and fear.
  • Margaery is adored by the smallfolk of King's Landing because of her kindness and generosity towards the poor.
• Macho Masochism:
  • The Greatjon laughs off a direwolf eating two of his fingers.
  • Drogo shows his badassery just before a duel by deliberately cutting himself on his opponent's weapon. This comes back to bite him when the wound gets infected and would have killed him if not for blood magic.
  • During an attack on the Dreadfort, Ramsay enters the kennels covered in cuts and smiling.
• Mad Doctor: Qyburn was stripped of his maester's chain for experimenting on living men.
• Made a Slave: This is quite common in Essos, where slavery has been practiced widely for centuries, with frequent raids to gain slaves for the places where it's the basis of the economy.
  • Doreah was sold to a brothel at age nine (by her own mother) and first "touched a man" three years later.
  • Grey Worm and Missandei were also captured through raids as children, then made slaves.
  • The Dothraki take many Lhazareen as slaves to be sold for buying ships so they can buy ships which will take them off to Westeros, horrifying Daenerys (this helps fuel her later anti-slavery campaign).
  • Tyrion and Jorah are later caught by raiders then sold outside Mereen, but it doesn't last long.
• Made of Incendium: Wights are extremely flammable, even when they're fresh. Jon Snow turns a wight into a walking bonfire in short order by smacking it with a lit torch.
• Mad Love: Lysa's Yandere love for Littlefinger makes her easy to manipulate.
• Madness Mantra:
  • Will the ranger mutters, "The White Walkers... I saw the White Walkers..." over and over before his execution.
  • According to Jaime, the Mad King had been saying, "Burn them all!" for hours before his death.
  • "Reek, Reek, I'm Reek."
  • Hodor's "Hodor" also counts as such.
• The Magic Comes Back: Fantasy elements are gradually introduced into the story, but most characters insist magic is just a story or went away long ago. It is also implied that there is a correlation between the return of magic and the return of the dragons and White Walkers.
• Magitek: Many of the feats of engineering seem aided by magic. The Wall is far larger than normal architecture should allow and Valyrian steel is supernaturally sharp.
• The Magnificent:
  • Any claimant to the Iron Throne lays claim to the following style: X of House Y, the Number of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.
  • Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons.
• Make It Look Like an Accident:
  • Robert Baratheon falls victim to a Hunting "Accident" facilitated by his wife.
  • Jon Arryn dies of a mysterious fever and it's eventually discussed that he was killed using a rare and untraceable poison known as the Tears of Lys. In a devious touch of misdirection, the perpetrators do want people to suspect that he was murdered for knowing too much about Joffrey's real lineage.
  • Samwell Tarly joined the Night's Watch because his father threatened to kill him this way.
• Make Way for the New Villains:
  • Joffrey has been more of a Big Bad Wannabe who Cersei have tries to control, but when Tywin becomes Joffrey’s new hand he becomes the true Big Bad of the King’s Landing story arc.
  • In season five, Cersei thinks she can use The High Sparrow as pawn in her scheme to piss off The Tyrells by imprisoning Margaery and Loras to atone for their ”sins”. However, The High Sparrow is well aware of Cersei’s sins as well, imprisoning her too which heavily reduces her antagonistic role, so he practically becomes the Big Bad of King’s Landing’s story arc untill his demise in the season six finale.
  • In the beginning of season six, Euron Greyjoy is introduced and quickly kills his own Big Bad Wannabe brother Balon. After that, he becomes the new king of Iron Islands and the main antagonist towards the Greyjoys’ storyline for the remainder of the series.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
  • Jaime and Cersei are discovered by Bran in Winterfell's derelict First Keep. Of course, with the two of them it's not just the place that's wrong about their lovemaking.
  • Stannis and Melisandre on The Big Board table in The War Room of Stannis, which also makes a bit of a metaphor/Visual Pun.
  • Jon and Ygritte get it on in a cave complete with a hot spring for a Two-Person Pool Party.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: The books were written to avert this trope with its large cast and Hyperlink Story. While still an ensemble, the show has generally been reluctant to readily introduce new characters past Season 3, and instead combines and composites characters and situations so that the regular cast is involved.
  • Examples include Jaime going to Dorne in Season 5 rather than Ser Arys Oakheart and Ser Balon Swann, and the point of view character Arianne Martell who was the protagonist of that section but ended up being Adapted Out as well as Sansa taking over Jeyne Poole's role in Book 5.
  • In the books, it is Stannis who rallies the North, liberates them from the Ironborn remnants, attracts the Glovers, the Mormonts and other houses to his side. In the show, Stannis suffers Death by Adaptation and this arc is taken over by Jon Snow and Sansa in Season 6.
  • Later seasons also have main characters participate in combat under circumstances that in previous seasons would have realistically gotten them killed, most prominently Jon Snow. He needs cavalry to save him from overwhelming odds no less than five times, three of them the literal kind.
• Main Character Final Boss: An interesting case. The show slowly consolidated its cast until it was following three storylines and had a protagonist or two for each, with Jon Snow in the North, Jaime Lannister in the South, and Daenerys Targaryen in Essos, eventually culminating in all parties meeting and (briefly) allying to fight the Night King. Once the Night King is dealt with, however, the show frames Cersei Lannister as the final villain, only for Daenerys to dive headfirst off the slippery slope in the runup to the Battle of King's Landing and completely ransack the city, killing innocents and burning the city to the ground, making her the show's true last antagonist that Jon has to kill.
• Male Frontal Nudity:
  • Played for Laughs in "The Pointy End", when simple-minded Hodor, fresh from his bath, barges in on Osha and Bran talking, leading Osha to comment favorably on his size.
  • Olyvar leaves nothing to the imagination during his scene with Loras in "The Climb"
  • There's also the close-up of the member of the Braavos actor portraying Joffrey, covered with a genital wart...
  • One of the citizens of King's Landing taunts Cersei during her walk of shame this way. After he's seen bragging about it in a pub, Gregor takes care of him while he's taking a leak.
• Male Gaze:
  • The camera basically becomes Jory's POV during his Distracted by the Sexy moment in "The Wolf and the Lion".
  • In "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", the camera lingers on Talisa lying naked in bed while Robb lampshades it by asking how he's supposed to get any work done.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The Sons of the Harpy.
• Malicious Slander: Tyrion Lannister is often on the wrong end of it. Littlefinger claims that the dagger found on Bran's would-be assassin belonged to Tyrion, starting a conflict that eventually snowballs into the War of the Five Kings.
• Mama Bear:
  • Cersei's main motivation is to protect her three children. Her brother Tyrion describes this as her only redeeming feature besides her cheekbones.
  • Catelyn abducts Tyrion on suspicion of trying to murder her son, which provokes a civil war. Later, she releases Jaime Lannister without her son's approval in exchange for her daughters. During the Red Wedding, she takes Walder Frey's terrified wife hostage in an attempt to save her son.
  • Daenerys has the woman who tricked her into sacrificing her unborn child to turn her husband into an Empty Shell burned alive. Now she's this for her dragons and freedmen.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Essentially all the Lannisters. Also Littlefinger.
• Man on Fire: Several in "Blackwater" when Tyrion pulls his trick with the wildfire and blows up much of Stannis's fleet. It becomes a plot point when noted pyrophobe Sandor Clegane flees the battle after confronting one.
• The Man They Couldn't Hang: Zigzagged with Beric Dondarrion, who actually died but was resurrected later.
• Marital Rape License:
  • In "Winter is Coming", Daenerys' involuntary wedding ends with Khal Drogo exercising his marital privileges in spite of her meek protests. The arrangement gets better for her once she gets some tips on lovemaking from Doreah, allowing her to exercise more power in the bedroom and their relationship.
  • Averted in "Second Sons" when Tyrion declares he won't share Sansa's bed until she wants him to, even if that never happens. This is culturally odd enough that nobody else believes it really happened.
  • Played horribly straight in "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken," when Ramsay brutally rapes Sansa.
• Market-Based Title: In France, the series is known as "Game of Thrones" in Gratuitous English. In French Canada, the title is changed to "Le Trône de fer" (literally, "The Iron Throne"), the French title of the book series, due to the fact that Gratuitous English is more frowned upon in translated media titles aside from video games.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Oberyn Martell has eight daughters and Walder Frey has twenty-nine legitimate children by eight wives as well as numerous bastards.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • When Ser Barristan Selmy draws his sword at court following his forcible retirement, everyone's laughter instantly turns to terror. It's only when Barristan throws his sword at Joffrey's feet and storms out that everyone starts breathing again.
  • In "Baelor", the majority of the nobles and councilors attending the confession of Ned Stark suffer one when Joffrey decides to behead him, something that wasn't in the plan. Also, you can notice one person who isn't surprised, and who is actually smiling: Littlefinger.
  • When Joffrey mouths off to his Dragon-in-Chief grandfather Tywin in "Mhysa", the entire Small Council and even Joffrey himself have their own version of an "Oh Shit!" expression.
  • When Jon Snow tells the senior leadership of the Night's Watch that they will be facing giants and mammoths everyone goes very quiet and the older members turn visibly pale.
  • The White Walker attack in the episode "Hardhome" is basically a chain of these for the human characters.
  • Pretty much the entire Lannister Army at the Battle of Tumbleton in "Spoils of War." Not only are they ambushed and badly outnumbered, they are facing a horrific dragon who is invulnerable to their weaponry and is slaughtering them by the hundreds with absolute impunity.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Daenerys toward Jorah, though it's important to note Dany is not doing it on purpose. It's pretty clear to the audience that Jorah is in love with Dany while she considers him more of a father-figure, but Jorah cuts a pretty sympathetic figure when trying to figure out the subtext. For instance, in "Mockingbird", Jorah spots the team Pretty Boy Daario exiting Dany's quarters half-dressed, only for Dany to declare she's sending Daario away and that Jorah's position as her Number Two is assured.
• Master Poisoner:
  • Littlefinger turns out to be one. Not only does he work with Olenna Tyrell to have King Joffrey poisoned during a lavish banquet, it's later revealed that he had Lysa Arryn poison her husband Jon Arryn, kicking off the War of Five Kings storyline.
  • "The Children" reveals Oberyn poisoned his spear with manticore venom.
  • One of Oberyn's bastard daughters, Tyene Sand, is knowledgeable about poisons just like daddy. She poisoned Bronn with her daggers during their fight in the Water Gardens and later, gave him the antidote for it while in prison. In "Mother's Mercy", she also the one who gave Ellaria the poison to kill Myrcella Baratheon when she left for King's Landing.
• Master Swordsman: Jaime Lannister, Eddard Stark, Loras Tyrell, and Syrio Forel all display great skill at swordsmanship, while Jaime himself speaks particularly highly of Barristan Selmy, calling him a painter who only uses red. The Clegane brothers Sandor and Gregor are also formidable for their combination of skill and brute strength. Brienne of Tarth also shows significant skill, but is generally underestimated because of her sex.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Like the books, Tywin Lannister makes no effort to hide the fact that he blames his dwarf son for his wife's Death by Childbirth. Cersei also blames Tyrion for their mother's death, and after Tyrion makes a joke about her hidden relationship with Jaime she makes an even crueler taunt that Joanna died for his sake, which should be Tyrion's greatest joke. Jaime is in fact Tyrion's only immediate relative who loves him unconditionally.
• Mathematician's Answer:
  • Shae to Tyrion:
  Tyrion: [noticing her foreign accent] What sort of accent is that?
  Shae: Foreign.
  • Jaime to Catelyn:
  Jaime: I pushed him out a window.
  Catelyn: Why?
  Jaime: I hoped the fall would kill him.
• Mature Work, Child Protagonists: Some core members of the Ensemble Cast are children or teenagers, but it's definitely not a children's fantasy series; although many characters have been aged up from the books, the show still includes plotlines such as 10-year-old Bran getting paralyzed after being shoved out of a window (to cover up Brother–Sister Incest), 11-year-old Arya being forced to go on the run, witnessing the grisly effects of war on civilians and training as an assassin, 13-year-old Sansa witnessing her father's beheading, being held hostage and regularly physically and psychologically abused, and 16-year-old Daenerys being forced into an Arranged Marriage with a much older man by her abusive brother and suffering a Tragic Stillbirth when she's about 17. And that's without mentioning all the graphic violence (including child murder) and explicit sex scenes.
• Mauve Shirt: Poor Jory, Rakharo, Irri, Alton and Matthos.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • Osha warns that the old gods cannot help the Starks in the south because the weirwoods there were all cut down, and as it happens no Stark who goes south has a good time.
  • Was the red comet in "The North Remembers" an omen or just a coincidence?
  • Beric Dondarrion's flaming sword breaks during a trial by combat. Did the fire weaken the steel, or did his god judge against him?
  • Stannis performs a magic ritual cursing his rival kings. Robb Stark, Joffrey Baratheon, and Balon Greyjoy all die from various means, but it may just be coincidence. Furthermore, Stannis is killed by Brienne, but then the ritual was only meant to curse them, not protect himself.
• Meaningful Look:
  • Lord Renly Baratheon and Ser Loras Tyrell share a lingering one at the Tourney of the Hand as the viewer's first clue they are more than friends.
  • When Brienne asks to join Renly's Kingsguard, Loras gives Renly a look that basically reads, "Tell her 'No,'" but Renly disregards it, much to Loras' irritation.
  • After Brienne is appointed to his Kingsguard, Renly winks at her◊ as he applauds to further communicate his warmth and reassurance that he's on her side, regardless of his followers' unfavourable opinion.
  • When Joffrey summons Loras in "Valar Morghulis," the latter quickly glances at Margaery as if to say, "Do I really have to do this?", and his sister's non-verbal reply is "You have to do your duty."
  • Another occurs between Margaery and Loras in "Valar Dohaeris" after they witness Cersei and Joffrey's snarky discussion. The Tyrell siblings, who are Thicker Than Water and work as a Brother–Sister Team, are surprised that mother and son have used veiled insults against each other in front of their future in-laws.
  • In "Second Sons," Tyrion raises his glass in pity to Loras, and his eyes say, "You're next to get married." Loras, who is already quite frustrated from the day's events, sighs and turns his head away.
  • Edmure and Roslin's wedding scene consists mostly of meaningful looks. Without anyone saying a word, Catelyn tells Edmure, "Thanks for going through with this;" Edmure says "Score!" when he sees his unexpectedly lovely bride; Walder Frey says "Hah, look what you missed out on!" to Robb; Robb and Talisa exchange "I love you"s; and the Blackfish says "Oh, gods no!" after seeing Walder's other female descendants eyeing him up.
  • Fear spreads across Catelyn's face as the band strikes up "The Rains of Castamere." Later, in the same scene, Catelyn looks to Roose Bolton for reassurance and finds only a Psychotic Smirk and an eyes-only hint to look at the chainmail under his clothes, showing he's in on the impending betrayal.
  • After an entire season of Snark-to-Snark Combat, the look between Fire-Forged Friends Brienne and Jaime in the Season 3 finale "Mhysa" speaks volumes.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • There are multiple blink-and-you'll-miss-it hints in "The Lion and the Rose" that Olenna Tyrell poisoned Joffrey. First, the necklace Dontos gives to Sansa has seven crystals. However, after Olenna fiddles with the necklace as she talks to Sansa, there are only six crystals. Finally, when Tyrion gives Joffrey his goblet, the camera lingers on Olenna as she watches events unfold.
  • When Joffery decides to behead Ned Stark regardless of his mother and fiancee's requests and the advice of his council members the only person smiling is Littlefinger
• Meaningful Echo: While Tyrion is attempting to persuade a skeptical Missandei and Grey Worm of his plan to make at least a temporary peace with the Masters in Danaerys's absence, he tells them "We make peace with our enemies, not our friends." A few minutes later Missandei repeats this line herself (in Valyrian) in conversation with the Masters.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In-universe, bastard children with noble blood have special surnames determined by region (Snow, Sand, Rivers, etc) so anyone meeting Jon Snow or Ellaria Sand already know something about their parentage, place of origin, and that they are of noble blood. Bastard children born to common folk have no surnames at all.
  • The family names Lannister and Stark are thinly veiled references to the War of the Roses, a civil war in England fought between the houses of Lancaster and York.
  • "Stark" has several meanings, including "rigid," "bare," "harsh," and "strong," all of which apply to the Stark family and the land they rule.
  • "Tully" derives from the Irish word for flood, an appropriate choice for the overlords of the Riverlands.
  • Janos Slynt turns out to be two-faced, like the Roman god Janus.
  • Lancel Lannister has an affair with the queen, reminiscent of the Arthurian Lancelot.
  • Brandon Stark, whose name derives from the Welsh word for raven, spends most of his time dreaming of a three-eyed raven. And later becomes the three-eyed raven.
  • Shireen Baratheon is one of the sweetest characters in the show. Shirin means "sweet" in Farsi.
• Meaningful Rename:
  • Averted when Grey Worm tells Danaerys he will keep his slave name rather than revert to his birth name since he was "Grey Worm" the day he was freed.
  • At the end of Season 6, we learn that Dany has renamed the region around the cities she rules to "Bay of Dragons" from "Slaver's Bay".
• The Medic: Talisa of Volantis accompanies Robb's army to tend the wounded on both sides.
• Medieval Prehistory: Mammoths and direwolves prowl beyond the Wall.
• Medieval Stasis: Westerosi technology has not improved significantly over at least the last thousand years. In fact, ancient marvels of engineering such as the Wall are implied to be built on Lost Technology, and no one has been able to figure out how to make more Valyrian steel (though experts can rework it).
  • However, some of its medical knowledge is more advanced. It is widely known that wounds must be cleansed so that they do not become infected (Arya even explicitly says this to the Hound; and Drogo's death results from disregarding this), something not fully understood in Real Life until the late 19th century, and moon tea is as effective at inducing abortions early in pregnancy as any early 21st-century morning-after pill.
  • Politically, as well, the Free Cities (Qarth especially) seem to have moved beyond feudalism to mercantile capitalism, even if some of them remain slave states.
  • Lampshaded by Qyburn's criticisms of the Maesters for not advancing the Seven Kingdoms' technologies despite having accumulated the knowledge that could make this possible.
• MegaCorp: The Iron Bank can finance entire kingdoms and are not above taking sides in foreign conflicts to secure their investments.
• The Mentor: Several, for most of the younger characters and some of the older ones.
  • Jon Arryn was this to his wards Robert and Ned.
  • Ned Stark to sons Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and Bran Stark before their family was split apart.
  • Rodrik Cassel, Jeor Mormont, and Qhorin Halfhand to Jon Snow.
  • Syrio Forel, Yoren, and the Hound to Arya.
  • Margaery Tyrell, Cersei Lannister, and Petyr Baelish to Sansa.
  • Maester Luwin and Jojen to Bran.
  • Rodrik Cassel and Dagmer Cleftjaw to Theon.
• Mercy Kill:
  • In a variation, Ned kills the direwolf Lady himself because she deserves better than a butcher.
  • Daenerys smothers Khal Drogo rather than leave him an Empty Shell.
  • Maester Lewin asks Osha to finish him off when he's been stabbed in the gut.
  • Sandor Clegane stabs a farmer dying of a gut wound in the heart while Arya looks on. Later, severely wounded and miles from help, Sandor begs Arya to kill him as she has long threatened. Instead, Arya robs him and leaves him to die slowly.
  • Later, after entering the House of Black and White, Arya discovers it has a fountain with poisoned water that any person can come and drink from. A man brings his daughter, who is dying from a painful and incurable sickness. Arya tells the girl that the water will cure her, letting her die in a painless way. Many other people also come to the temple for this purpose.
  • Joffrey claims that his ordering Ned Stark's beheading was meant as this in deference to Sansa...he was originally going to have Stark drawn and quartered.
• Me's a Crowd: The Warlocks of Qarth seem to consist entirely of duplicates of Pyat Pree.
• Meta Twist: HBO gleefully marketed the show as if Sean Bean was the main character, and thus the one star with Contractual Immortality.
• Mid-Season Twist:
  • Season 1: King Robert Baratheon and Viserys Targaryen die, Eddard is arrested.
  • Season 2: Renly is assassinated, Theon captures Winterfell, and Daenerys' dragons are stolen.
  • Season 3: The Hound captures Arya, Robb decides to attack Casterly Rock, Tyrion is engaged to Sansa.
  • Season 4: Sansa and Littlefinger arrive at the Eyrie, Daenerys decides to stay in Slaver's Bay, Tyrion demands trial by combat.
  • Season 5: Jon decides to ally with the wildlings, Tyrion meets Daenerys, and Margaery and Loras are arrested by the Faith.
  • Season 6: Daenerys controls the entire Dothraki horde, Tommen and Margaery become the Faith's allies, the Night's King kills the Three-Eyed Raven and wights kill Summer, Leaf and Hodor, the Hound is revealed to be alive, and Jon and Sansa begin retaking the North.
  • Season 7: Arya and Bran return to Winterfell, Jon allies with Daenerys, Daenerys loses all her earlier allies, the Lannisters take Highgarden and kill Olenna (who spites Jaime with her last words), Daenerys finally demonstrates her true military might by attacking the Lannister army, and Jon is revealed to be Rhaegar's legitimate son.
• Might Makes Right: Daenerys enforces her will through annexation by massive force of arms, banning slavery and other unjust practices on the way through the constant threat of violence.
• Mildly Military: Justified by the Night's Watch, a combination of a military monastic order and a gulag. Naturally, although fairly disciplined, it doesn't run quite the same as a normal army.
• Miles Gloriosus: Joffrey Baratheon is a coddled Royal Brat who likes to pretend he's a Warrior Prince by prancing around in his armour and making vain boasts. No one believes him, but nearly everyone humors him because he's The Caligula. He later commissions a Monument of Humiliation and Defeat of himself slaying the sigil of his enemies despite having absolutely zero part in their demise.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Discussed when characters call others out for heinous actions that might actually prevent greater bloodshed.
  • While debating whether to assassinate Daenerys, Grand Maester Pycelle questions how many thousand innocents will die in the war that must come if Daenerys invades Westeros.
  • Tywin notes that the Red Wedding prevented thousands of deaths by ending the Northern rebellion without the friendly losses required to kill the same army in battle.
  • Stannis, Melisandre, and Davos debate whether sacrificing a single innocent to end the war with magic is preferable to the thousands (including civilians) who would die in conventional warfare.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Despite being a Guile Hero who relies primarily on his wits, Tyrion proves a reasonably competent fighter in the Battle of the Blackwater.
• Minor Insult Meltdown: Wildlings refer to everyone south of the Wall as "Southerners," which annoys several Northerners.
• Misblamed: In-Universe, Tyrion, in light of Jon's true parentage, now believes that all of Westeros' problems were because Robert loved someone who didn't love him back. Rhaegar's (false) kiddnapping of Lyanna Stark is what eventually led to Robert's Rebellion as we know it, but what actually started it was the Execution of Rickard and Brandon Stark by The Mad King. While their may have been trying to get Lyanna back at the time, it was their deaths that showed Houses Baratheon, Stark, and Arryn how insane and cruel the Mad King had become and that is why they rebelled. Robert's feelings had little to do with it.
• Missing Mom:
  • Jon Snow grew up as the illegitimate son of Ned Stark, never knowing who his mother is or if she is even alive. In season 6, it's revealed that his mother was Ned's sister, Lyanna Stark, who died after giving birth to him and passing her infant son into the care of her brother. Ned claimed his nephew Jon as his own son to protect him from Robert Baratheon as Robert would kill Jon if he knew Jon's true parentage.
  • Tyrion Lannister's mother died giving birth to him, causing his father and sister to resent him.
  • Similar to Tyrion, Daenerys was raised by her brother because her mother died giving birth to her.
• Missing Steps Plan: In Season 5, Littlefinger convinces Sansa to go along with marrying Ramsay Bolton in the interest of avenging her family. The question of how her marrying the son of the man who murdered her mother and brother and thereby helping to legitimize the usurpation of her family will get her the revenge she wants is neither raised nor answered in-universe. Thus: Step 1. Marry Ramsay, Step 2. ???, Step 3. Profit!
• Mistaken from Behind: In an episode Arya is shown looking for her friend Jaqen among the Lannister soldiers at Harrenhal, so that she can request that he assassinate someone for her. Jaqen has red hair with some black and white streaks in front, and Arya initially grabs the wrong person, a random Lannister with red hair that he wore at the same length as Jaqen.
• The Mistress:
  • Loras becomes the same-sex male version of this trope after Renly marries Margaery.
  • Shae after Tyrion marries Sansa.
  • Melisandre for Stannis, though they only have sex once to spawn the Living Shadow that kills Renly.
• Mock Millionaire:
  • Xaro Xhoan Daxos, whose conspicuous treasure vault is completely empty, has cunningly leveraged his fictional fortune into a lavish lifestyle and political power.
  • "First of His Name" reveals that the Lannisters' gold mines ran dry several years ago, leaving them in a very precarious position without their main source of income.
• Moe Greene Special: Lady Mormont does this to the wight giant who also kills her in "The Long Night".
• Moment Killer: In "What Is Dead May Never Die", Renly unexpectedly kills the mood by kissing the bruises on Loras' chest, reminding him of the humiliation he suffered earlier in the day.
• Money Is Not Power: A theme of the TV series (moreso than the books):
  • When Baelish doubts Ned Stark for antagonizing the Lannisters because gold, not soldiers, is what wins wars, Ned retorts that how come Robert is king and not Tywin Lannister then. Ned is proven wrong in that the Lannisters and the Tyrells are major powers thanks to their gold and resources, and the support and loans from the Iron Bank can bring a nearly defeated contender (Stannis) Back from the Brink.
  • Ned, however, is also right in that neither the Lannisters or Tyrells can openly rule even after defeating their opponents, because they still need the appearance of legitimacy, i.e. a King named Baratheon who is descended from the Rebel King who won the Iron Throne. The Lannisters who are wealthy and have a reputation for "paying debts" also suffer the consequences of Bad PR and poor heirs since the Iron Bank have faith in Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King, but have none whatsoever in any of his descendants, while Stannis can count on relative youth and dependability.
  • Peter Baelish who is an embodiment of nascent Corrupt Corporate Executive is also seen as a "money grubber" by the High Lords of Westeros and ultimately the word of a teenage daughter of a High Lord counts for more than that of a longtime successful finance minister.
  • Jaime gets a lesson in this from Locke, who is enraged by Jaime's arrogant attempts to buy him off with promises of gold. To prove the point, Locke cuts his hand off.
• Monster Fangirl: Myranda to Ramsay; when we see her we soon realize she's as bad sa Ramsay herself.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat:
  • The Iron Throne was forged from the swords of men who surrendered to Aegon the Conqueror.
  • The statue of Joffrey killing a direwolf in the gardens of King's Landing also underlines his Miles Gloriosus personality.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Jory's humorous Distracted by the Sexy moment in the brothel is immediately followed by a violent ambush resulting in his death.
  • This sometimes happens when switching between different plot threads. Arya training with Syrio? Cool, and even a little funny, but the next scene is Dany eating a horse's heart.
  • In "Baelor," a humorous drinking game turns into the tragic story of Tyrion's first marriage.
  • In "Walk of Punishment", Jaime believes he has successfully bribed Locke, who orders his shackles removed and offers him some partridge. Moments later, Jaime is screaming as his hand is chopped off, immediately followed by a bawdy punk cover of "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" played over the credits.
  • Theon's torture starts with a sudden, comically timed blowing of a horn.
  • In "The Rains of Castamere," Edmure and Roslin's wedding is full of funny and heartwarming scenes with a light and happy atmosphere until the eponymous song begins playing.
• Moody Mount: Ser Loras Tyrell exploits this trope to win a joust by riding a mare in heat against Ser Gregor Clegane's bad-tempered stallion.
• Moral Disambiguation: Like the books it is based on, it generally started out as a Grey-and-Grey Morality deconstruction of fantasy, showing that no character is really good or evil and war is a murky affair at best. With few exceptions, there's not really any fighting for the greater good or justice, only dynastic interests. Over time, it has become closer to Black-and-White Morality, with many characters experiencing changes to their personalities to make them more clearly heroic or villainous, and the appearance of an Always Chaotic Evil faction that has been foreshadowed since the start of the show.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Or rather, white and black plus a thousand shades of grey. Between Ned Stark on the one hand and Ramsay on the other, every one of the numerous characters has his own unique shade of grey.
• Moral Myopia: In one conversation, Davos advocates hiring sellswords like the Golden Company to bolster Stannis's numbers. Stannis, who is dealing with Blood Magic in his attempt to become King of the Seven Kingdoms, for some reason finds this objectionable even though it's the only way that he can bolster his ranks.
• Morality Pet:
  • Brienne for Jaime.
  • Sansa and later Arya for Sandor Clegane.
• Morton's Fork:
  • King Robert explains how a Dothraki invasion would put him in a Morton's Fork. If he faces the Dothraki horsemen in open battle, he'll be defeated. If he barricades himself in his castles, the Dothraki will rape and pillage the countryside so badly that he'll lose his kingdom anyway.
  • In Season 5, Stannis finds himself in one. If, as Davos advises him to, he keeps his army at Castle Black for the winter, it is ill-equipped and insufficiently provisioned for that many men. But, as Davos warns him, his preferred course, marching on Winterfell, also is unpromising as it depends on ideal weather conditions which are hardly likely at this time of year, and with which most of his soldiers have little experience. Stannis somewhat fatalistically chooses the latter, arguing that the Boltons' hold on the North, having so recently taken Winterfell, will never be weaker. As Davos warned him, the weather turns bad, his army starts deserting en masse, and even a thaw supposedly resulting from sacrificing his own daughter doesn't help matters much. He loses not only the battle but his life.
  • Lampshaded by Sansa when she confronts Baelish after having escaped from Ramsay. As she says, if he didn't know about Ramsay's depravities before marrying her off to him he's an idiot^note given that information is what he trades in, but if he did then he's truly a horrible person.
  • Jon winds up in a multi-layered Morton's Fork over the course of the final seasons. He needs allies to stand a chance against the White Walkers, but the only helps available are the Lannister or the Targaryen. Both Houses caused a great deal of suffering to the North, so either option will come with a huge uproar. Not only that, but both options require Jon to renounces his crown. Not complying will result in the North being alone in a Hopeless War. Complying and giving up the independence of the North will earn him the ire and desertion of his vassals. There is simply no way Jon can please everyone.
• The Mourning After: Robert Baratheon has never gotten over the loss of his betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
• Moving the Goalposts: In "No One", the Mountain, Cersei's designated champion in her upcoming trial by combat, kills one of the Sparrows who have been sent to take her to a meeting with the High Septon, Tommen makes a royal announcement that "after much prayer and reflection", he has decided to abolish trial by combat as a barbaric relic of the Targaryens that does not truly reflect the will of the gods, and henceforth all trials will be heard by a panel of seven septons. Cersei responds by making her diabolical plans for the season finale.
• Mr. Exposition:
  • In the first season, Jorah Mormont exists mainly to inform Daenerys (and the viewer) about the Dothraki and the setting. Fully aware of this, the producers even refer to him jokingly as "Jorah the Explorer."
  • Peytr Baelish is also a big vehicle for exposition.
• Mr. Fanservice: There's pretty much some male for just about every taste in this show.
  • Olyvar rarely keeps his clothes on through an entire scene.
  • Khal Drogo's choice of attire, extreme manliness, and (for some fans) Guy Liner make him a common female fan favorite.
• Mr. Smith: Noble-born bastard children are given special surnames based on region such as "Snow" for the North and "Sand" for Dorne.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Ros the gorgeous prostitute, played by burlesque performer Esme Bianco, didn't have a single scene in Season 1 where she kept all her clothes on. From Season 2 on she serves as Littlefinger's aide, and thus wears more clothes, but remains a major source of fanservice.
  • Daenerys' wardrobe is especially revealing in the first few episodes of the series.
  • Margaery Tyrell specializes in this.
• Murder, Inc.: The Faceless Men easily qualify as this.
• Murder-Suicide: At the beginning of Season 7, we see that the farmer and daughter that Sandor had, his statement to Arya that he would never steal from anyone notwithstanding, taken silver from after spending the night there three seasons before because he didn't think they would be able to survive the onset of winter, have indeed died ... the farmer stabbed his daughter, then himself, as they huddled, starved, in one of their rooms.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Loras is considered one of the best knights in the Seven Kingdoms, yet his shirtless scene shows that he's slender and not particularly muscular. Since this reputation was earned in peace time, it likely stems mostly from his prowess at tourney jousting.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: On the eve of the Army of the Dead's arrival at Winterfell, Arya, after taking delivery of her double-dragonglass-tipped spear from Gendry, asks him about his experience with women, then tells him she wants to "know what it's like" before she slowly strips down, and he follows her lead.
• Mutilation Conga: Lord Beric Dondarrion bears the scars of all the fatal injuries he was resurrected from, including a missing eye and the mark of a hangman's noose.
• The Mutiny: A bunch of hungry, pissed-off Night's Watchmen rebel in "And Now His Watch Is Ended", with violent results.
• My Beloved Smother:
  • Lysa Arryn keeps her son Robin with her in a small mountain-top fortress, caters to his every whim, and breastfeeds him until he's at least six.
  • The Battle of Blackwater worsens for the Lannisters because Cersei recalls Joffrey to the Red Keep despite him being in little danger.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Theon has one as his invasion of Winterfell becomes a complete disaster and then later admits the Starks were more of a family to him than the Greyjoys ever were.
  • Tyrion has one in "Spoils of War." When he watches thousands of Lannister bannermen slaughtered, he's obviously upset. After all, it was Cersei he was out to get, and these men were his countrymen, and probably several of them were under his command not so long ago at The Battle of Blackwater.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Jaime Lannister is widely despised as an oathbreaker for not following this trope.
• My Nayme Is: Random "y"s are particularly rampant, though vowels, especially "a" and "e", and the occasional "j" get abused too.
  • Many of the character's names are very similar to modern names, such as Eddard, Robb, Joffrey, Petyr, Jaime, Margaery, and Alliser.
  • Knights are titled "ser" rather than the traditional English "sir."
• Mythology Gag:
  • In "Valar Dohaeris," Cersei says it was rumored Tyrion's nose had been cut off in the Battle of the Blackwater, referencing the books, where Tyrion really did lose his nose.
  • In "A Man Without Honor," Jaime asks Alton if his mother is "the fat one," a reference to Jaime's very fat aunt Genna, a minor character in the books who, incidentally, is the mother of the character Alton more or less replaces in the show.
  • During the Battle of the Wall, a wildling archer attempts to shoot an arrow to the top of the Wall and doesn't even come close. Then a giant steps up and shoots a ballista-sized arrow from a giant-sized bow, sending a ranger atop the Wall and flying. This is a reference to a passage in the books where wildling archers manage a few hits on the brothers 700 feet up, which GRRM has admitted he didn't realize was physically impossible.
  • In "The Children" Brienne bites Sandor's ear off, a reference to Sandor's burned-off ear in the books.

N

• Named After First Installment: It's named after the first book of its source A Game of Thrones, which is part of the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
• Named Weapons:
  • House Stark's ancestral greatsword is called "Ice."
  • Jon Snow receives House Mormont's ancestral bastard sword "Longclaw."
  • In "The North Remembers," Melisandre stages a ritual in which Stannis retrieves a burning sword that she proclaims is the mythical sword "Lightbringer."
  • As part of his Miles Gloriosus personality, Joffrey gives his swords names like "Hearteater" and "Widow's Wail".
  • Brienne of Tarth names her Valyrian steel sword "Oathkeeper," referencing the oath she and Jaime swore to return Catelyn Stark's daughters to their home.
  • The Tarly family heirloom, "Heartsbane".
  • Arya names her rapier "Needle" as an ironic jab at her distaste for girly pursuits like needlework.
  • Arya recounts that Visenya Targaryen, sister-wife of Aegon the Conqueror, had a sword called "Dark Sister."
  • The Hound disapproves of this practice.
  Arya: Lots of people name their swords!
  The Hound: Lots of cunts.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Characters with nicknames like the Hound, the Mountain, the Kingslayer, and the Young Wolf make this a staple of the series. Nearly all of them live up to the names.
• Nature Tinkling: Happens a lot sometimes accompanying plot developments:
  • Early in the series, Tyrion fulfills his desire to piss off the top of the Wall.
  • Ser Alliser tells Jon and Sam about a previous mission he went on north of the Wall during a previous winter when he and his fellow Watchmen were stranded without shelter in weather so severe and cold that they stood to lose a finger to frostbite if they dared to do this.
  • A few seasons later, Arya and the Hound spot the men who killed one of her previous companions and stole her sword when they leave a bar to take a leak outside.It leads to their deaths in a Bar Brawl at the hands of Arya and the Hound.
  • After fleeing King's Landing and his likely execution, Tyrion is urinating out of an open entryway in a Volantis brother when Jorah kidnaps him.
  • A citizen of King's Landing who tauntingly exposed himself to Cersei during her walk of shame across the city stops to piss in an empty alley after self-aggrandizingly re-enacting it in a pub. He's killed by the Mountain.
  • In Season 6, after the Hound helps Lord Deric and the Brotherhood hang their rogue members who had killed all the members of the religious group that rescued him, he relieves himself in a nearby stream while Deric tries to persuade him to join the Brotherhood.
• "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Gilly names her son Sam after Samwell Tarly, who helped her escape her abusive home and later became her love interest. When she gets pregnant with her second child, she plans to name it after her friend Jon Snow if its a boy.
• Necromancer:
  • The White Walkers reanimate those they kill as undead wights.
  • Thoros of Myr has resurrected Beric Dondarrion six times, although he sees it as a Healing Hands type power.'
  • Melisandre brings Jon Snow back from the dead at the beginning of Season 6.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: At Winterfell, Theon Greyjoy and his force of twenty men are about to do battle against a force of five-hundred. He gives them a Rousing Speech about how their deaths will be glorious and the battle will live in history only to get clubbed in the back of the head by Dagmer Cleftjaw. Who leads the rest of the men in deserting, taking Theon with them to hand over to the enemy in exchange for a pardon.
• Nephewism: Ned Stark raised and loved his nephew Jon Snow as his own son since his parents died and posed him as his illegitimate child to protect Jon, potentially the legitimate heir of a formerly ruling dynasty, from the current king, Robert Baratheon, who wanted all members of the aforementioned dynasty dead.
• Neutrality Backlash: What Jaime points out to Cersei could result after she tells him she didn't mean her promise to aid Danaerys and Jon in fighting the White Walkers—either winner would come after Cersei next. The former cannot be negotiated with, and the latter would be extremely pissed.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight:
  • Harren the Black (the founder of Harrenhal) should have known better than to spend decades building the world's largest castle when his neighbors had dragons.
  • Pyat Pree though he could keep Daenerys and her dragons chained up for eternity. Bad idea.
• Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: Apparently averted in the fifth season finale when Pip comes to tell Jon that his uncle Benjen has returned to Castle Black. Subverted when he follows Pip outside and learns, too late, that it's really just a ploy to set up his assassination.
• Never Heard That One Before: Salladhor Saan relates a certain joke to a couple of prostitutes, who beat him to the punchline. Davos asks them if there's any pirate in Braavos who hasn't told that one.
• Never Say That Again: Tyrion and Tywin on using the word "whore" to describe Shae. Tyrion keeps his word.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Margaery tries to invoke this trope when Joffrey demands to know why she didn't provide an heir to Renly while they were married. It doesn't work because Joffrey considers him to be a traitor undeserving of any respect even after death. Margaery then does her best to answer her betrothed's question without being too brusque about Renly's sexuality.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The second trailer teases Jon speaking to someone, saying that their families fought together for centuries despite their differences; because the narration is laid over scenes of Dragonstone and Dany's dragons in flight, the viewer assumes that this is a speech to Dany, leading to the ire or confusion of book fans who found no such evidence for a Targaryen/Stark alliance and chalked it up to the writers playing with the lore. In the show, Jon is speaking instead to a Karstark and an Umber, which makes his statement accurate.
• News Travels Fast: Varies depending on characters' proximity to each other and messenger ravens, and generally handwaved by an implied Dashed Plot Line.
  • News of Ned Stark's death spreads across Westeros over the course of the next episode, with characters in the North, the Riverlands, and at the Wall reacting to it.
  • Justified when Stannis Baratheon publishes the illegitimacy of Cersei's children very widely and it catches by Word Of Mouth. By Season 4, it's spread across the Narrow Sea to Braavos and Meereen.
  • Since Daenerys has been living with the nomadic Dothraki and wandering the Red Waste, she learns Westeros has plunged into a Succession Crisis only after arriving at the port of Qarth. Later, when she's settled in the major port at Meereen, she receives news much faster.
  • Arya and the Hound spend most of Season 4 out of the loop as they cross the Riverlands, hiding out as fugitives, and learn far later than the other cast that Joffrey is dead.
  • Played straight in Season 6, wherein the first two episodes, implied to take place mere days after Stannis' defeat at Winterfell, news of his downfall and defeat spreads far and wide, all the way to the Iron Islands.^note Although Davos only learns of the defeat from Melisandre a day or two after arriving at Castle Black, and Brienne, hearing this, informs both of them that she personally killed Stannis to avenge Renly, which seems to be the first time that anyone learns of Stannis' death.
• Nice Guy:
  • Renly is one of the few characters who treats Brienne with respect and kindness. He even accepts her into his Kingsguard despite knowing it will cause a scandal with his bannermen, his wife, and his lover, perhaps because he knows the sting of not adhering to defined gender roles.
  • Davos stands out as a down-to-earth, morally-upstanding man able to relate amiably to nearly everyone from king to commoner.
  • Brienne of Tarth can be surly at times but she is also loyal, honourable, and compassionate.
  • Barristan Selmy is famed in-universe as a paragon of knighthood and proves polite enough to give an accused spy a heads-up before informing his queen.
  • Samwell Tarly never so much as raises his voice to another character until he really wants Pyp to open the fucking gate in "Watchers on the Wall," which Pyp immediately lampshades.
  Pyp: "I never heard you curse before."
  • Gendry who despite growing up as the lowest of the low in Flea's Bottom is introduced scaring off bullies, looks after Arya throughout their journey and wants to join the Brotherhood to defend innocent smallfolk.
  • The Starks start out as a family of caring, honorable nice guys and girls^note  between them they've got Ned The Paragon, Catelyn the Mama Bear, Robb The Good King, Jon with Chronic Hero Syndrome, Sansa the The Ingenue, Anya who is Nice to the Waiter, Bran the Big Good and Rickon a case of Children Are Innocent but the relentless injustices and trials they suffer hardens the remaining members up.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Congratulations, Sansa! Lying to the king and queen about Joffrey got your own direwolf killed!
  • Congratulations, Ned! Ignoring Littlefinger and Renly's advice has led to Cersei and Joffrey ruling, your guards all being killed, and you being arrested and eventually killed!
  • Congratulations, Catelyn!
    • Capturing Tyrion Lannister has compromised the safety of your husband and daughters in the capital, and caused his father to unleash Gregor Clegane on the lands of your own family!
    • Releasing Jaime Lannister has undermined your son's authority, enraged his bannermen, and deprived your side of an extremely valuable hostage with nothing in return.
  • Congratulations, Robert! Sending assassins after Daenerys managed to piss off Drogo enough that he changed his mind about not invading Westeros!
  • Kudos, Daenerys! Saving a wise woman from rape and then asking her to save the life of your husband has led to said husband winding up as an Empty Shell and your son to be stillborn.
  • Good job, Mirri! Destroying everything of value to the naive queen you sought revenge against has made her more cunning and dangerous than her deceased husband or stillborn son could ever have been. Bonus points for teaching her that mercy is for the weak, giving her a crash course in blood magic, and providing the means for her to hatch three dragons.
  • Congratulations, Robb!
    • Sending Theon home in an attempt to gain military support resulted in the exact thing your father prevented by keeping Theon as a hostage in the first place, and now you have to fight a war on two fronts!
    • Breaking a sacred vow that you will marry the daughter of an important ally (who allowed your army to cross his territory in addition to providing you with several thousand troops) will likely get you tagged as an oathbreaker, not to mention harming your military position and giving the notoriously prickly and treacherous head of the family a good excuse to betray you.
    • Executing Lord Karstark despite all counsel lost you the support of his soldiers, forcing you to turn to the infamously untrustworthy Freys whom you already pissed off by breaking a marriage pact!
  • Kudos, Loras!
    • By inciting Renly to make a bid for the throne you made a civil war worse and got your lover killed.
    • By telling Olyvar about your secret betrothal, the information is passed to the Lannisters, who move to block your family's plan.
  • Jaime lies about Brienne's family wealth to prevent Locke from raping her, but later Locke refuses to ransom her because he expects more.
  • Congratulations, Tyrion and Jon! Your plan to capture a wight so you could convince Cersei to send her army to help you battle the Army of the Undead coming for everyone ultimately lead to Viserion's death, giving the Night King a faster way to take down the Wall! Even better, Cersei went back on her word!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Congrats Joffrey! By killing all of Robert's bastards you've confirmed in the eyes of many that you know they had a better claim to the throne than you and given your enemies the rallying cry, "The Queen kills babies!" If Tyrion wanted to slap you before, imagine how he thinks of you now.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between:
  • Tywin's three Lannister children. Tyrion is the nicest of them and is sympathetic from the start. Cersei is a straight up villain. Jaime is initially an antagonist but is revealed to have Hidden Depths and makes something of a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Cersei's children: Myrcella is a sweet Princess Classic. Joffrey is a complete sociopath. Tommen is well-meaning but ineffective.
  • Out of the Baratheon brothers, Renly is charming and carefree (nice), Stannis is very cold and unsociable (mean), and Robert is an obnoxious, drunken yet jovial Big Fun (in-between).
• Nice to the Waiter:
  • In "What Is Dead May Never Die", Renly shows concern for the common soldiers in his army, making the effort to remember their names and keep track of their problems.
  • Right after chiding his underlings, Lord Tywin treats his cupbearer Arya with a surprising amount of respect and warmth. Combined with some exposition of his backstory, their interactions effectively show Tywin's more humane side. Then he leaves her behind with Gregor Clegane.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Ramsay Snow, whose appetite for torture seems to know no bounds.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The White Walkers are amassing a massive undead army beyond the Wall and send one against the Fist of the First Men in "Valar Morghulis" and a much larger one against the wildlings in "Hardhome".
• The Night That Never Ends:
  • Winter is coming, and with it, the days grow shorter. There is an in-universe Fairy Tale of a Long Night that lasted a generation the last time the White Walkers invaded Westeros.
  • Stannis mentions it by name in "Second Sons" when discussing Melisandre's prophecies with Davos.
• Nipple and Dimed: It's beginning to look like most of the adult actresses have clauses in their contracts that require them to appear at least partially, if not fully, nude at least once.
• Noble Fugitive:
  • Viserys and Daenerys are the last scions of their deposed dynasty and are served by the exiled lord Jorah Mormont and later by the exiled knight Ser Barristan Selmy.
  • Later, the surviving Starks and Tyrion Lannister.
• No Dead Body Poops: Robert discusses this one when he's reminiscing on old war experiences and how everything gets romanticized.
  Robert: You never hear about how [the slain] all shit themselves. They don't put that part in the songs.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Daenerys believes this of Mirri Maz Duur's betrayal until Mirri points out that Daenerys' beloved husband was the cause of all her woes in the first place.
  • Jaime Lannister intercedes to prevent Brienne from getting raped, is spite of dueling with her just hours before. This compounds his captors' enmity, leading them to chopping off his hand.
  • Ned tries to protect Cersei's children and is killed on orders from one of these chuldren as a result.
  • Davos becomes a prisoner after he risks his life to protect Gendry from Stannis and Melisandre.
  • Before the events of the story Catelyn stopped Ned's brother Brandon from killing Littlefinger who then goes onto help arrange Ned's death and tries to have their son killed.
  • Jaime's murder of Aerys to protect innocents sullied his reputation.
  • Some of Tyrion's noble acts are used against him at his trial as the witnesses remove context to make Tyrion look worse than he is.
  • Jaime prvents Tyrion from being unfairly executed for Joffrey's death. Tyrion then kills their father,leaving him with a tremendous ampunt of regret.
  • Varys willingly aiding Jaime in freeing Tyrion forces him to leave Westeros.
  • Sandor almost ends up dying due to his efforts to keep Arya safe.
  • Jon's decision to help the wildlings gets him killed.
• No Kill like Overkill: Robb Stark is shot with crossbows, stabbed in the heart, and decapitated.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: In the finale, Drogon destroys the Iron Throne. With the symbol of Targaryen rule destroyed and the only surviving Targaryen imprisoned for regicide, Westeros is forced to adopt elective monarchy.
• No Name Given:
  • The Spice King insists his name is too long and hard for foreigners to pronounce, perhaps because he is a Canon Foreigner.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Artifact Title "Seven Kingdoms" originally referred to the seven independent nations of Westeros that existed before Aegon's Conquest: The North, the Mountain and Vale, the Isles and Rivers, the Rock, the Reach, the Stormlands, and Dorne. Following the Conquest, the Riverlands and Crownlands were separated from the Iron Islands and Stormlands respectively and Dorne was only added two centuries later, creating one kingdom with nine provinces.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: Ser Alliser Thorne tells Jon and Sam that he and some others were reduced to cannibalism when stranded beyond the Wall the previous winter.
• No Periods, Period:
  • Averted in "Winter is Coming." The second thing Cersei ever says to Sansa is the question, "Have you bled yet?"
  • Later, in "A Man Without Honor," Sansa has a Catapult Nightmare of being stabbed brought on by the cramps of her first period. Realizing her period means she can now be married to Joffrey, she panics and tries to hide the evidence.
• No-Sell:
  • While watching Arya practice her swordplay, the Hound scoffs at her delicate, graceful maneuvers, asking her what she's doing. When she proclaims that she was taught by a master swordsman, the Hound provokes her until she attempts to stab him in the chest, and then doesn't even flinch when the thin blade of her smallsword bounces off of his armor.
  • Monster Gregor watches a member of the faith militant swing a spiked cudgel into his breastplate with no reaction, then performs a Neck Lift.
  • Theon does this against a three-in-a-row Groin Attack, thanks to being victim of a previous Groin Attack.
  • The battle plan against the Night King was simple; hold off the Wights until the Night King could be brought under direct Dragon fire which - everyone hoped - would kill him, his subordinate Walkers and destroy the army of the dead. Crossed very much into an oh crap! moment when he came out from under full power of Danny's Dracarys simply smiling in amusement at her.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Dothraki Sea is not even remotely a large body of salt water. Rather, it is an area of rolling grassy plains, so named for its immense size and how easy it is to get lost in there.
• Non-Specifically Foreign: Shae, played by Turkish-German actress Sibel Kekilli, playfully refuses to tell Tyrion where she's from, but Cersei pegs her as Lorathi, perhaps because Jaqen H'ghar (who claims to be from Lorath) is played by fellow German actor Tom Wlaschiha.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Tyrion's list of "confessions" in "A Golden Crown" is cut off before he can describe an escapade involving bringing a jackass and a honeycomb into a brothel.
  Robin Arryn: What happened next?
  • What Podrick did with/to the prostitutes that they liked so much they refused to accept payment. This one borders on Running Gag in Season 4.
  • When Tyrion is drinking with Bronn, the latter admits his first kill was a woman when he was a child. When he gets frowned at, the only background given to justify it is that she swung an axe at him.
• North Is Cold, South Is Hot: The farther north you go in Westeros, the colder it gets, progressive from the southernmost deserts of Dorne to the arctic glaciers beyond the Wall in the north.
• Nostalgia Filter: King Robert likes to muse about the good old days, before he was king. You know, when the entire country was either ruled by an insane dictator or in a state of civil war. His younger brother Renly does not hesitate to call him out on this.
• "Not How I'm Dying" Declaration: Invoked by Syrio, who teaches Arya to respond to death by saying "Not Today".
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Tyrion muses that the difference between the people of the Seven Kingdoms and the wildlings is that when the Wall was built, their ancestors just happened to be on the right side.^note A point Ygritte will later make to Jon in a different way
  • Ygritte and the other wildlings Jon meets point out that both they and the Northerners are alike: they worship the old gods still, and are similarly descended from the First Men rather than Andals.
  • Ned insists in "The Wolf and the Lion" that assassinating Daenerys will make them no better than the Mad King they overthrew.
  • Maester Luwin asks Theon if he should really be mocking Osha for her situation in Winterfell, because "a prisoner and a guest" describes his situation almost exactly.
  • Maester Aemon reveals to Jon Snow that he knows all about the pain and devastation Jon is feeling of being torn between duty and love for family as Jon is deeply worried over his father and sisters after hearing of his father's arrest in King's Landing and wants to help them by joining his brother Robb to get them back. Master Aemon, even as a blind old man, chafed at remaining on the Wall while his entire family, even the little children, were overthrown and slaughtered. Bonus points for identifying with Jon despite Jon being the bastard son of Ned Stark, who helped overthrow the dynasty (but was adamantly against the killing of the children.)
  • Tywin telling a disguised Arya how much she reminds him of his daughter. Surely Arya was thrilled.
  • The Hound claims that Bronn is a Blood Knight much like himself. The jury's still out on how much either of them actually qualifies.
  • Tyrion remarks that Robb Stark has a "certain belligerence" and thinks his father would like him. As a young man, Tywin himself raised an army and successfully led it against the enemies of his house.
  • Tyrion's final words to the father he has just fatally wounded: "I am your son. I have always been your son."
  • As she repays Septa Unella the torture inflicted on her, complete with Ironic Echo, Cersei tells Unella she thinks Unella, like her, secretly did it for pleasure whatever other higher purpose she ascribed it to.
  • Invoked by Tyrion when he advises Daenerys; when Daenerys states her intention to destroy the cities of the Masters, Tyrion tells her how the Mad King planned to destroy Kings' Landing with wildfire to punish his perceived traitors, an act that would punish those loyal to him as well. When Daenerys insists, "This is entirely different," Tyrion answers, "You're talking about destroying cities. It's not entirely different. I'd like to suggest an alternative approach."
• Not So Extinct: People from Westeros and Essos believe that the ice-demonic White Walkers and fire-breathing dragons are creatures only found in tales and songs from the past. People are proven wrong by the end of Season 1.
  • Likewise in Season 5 we learn that some of the Children of the Forest survive in the far north beyond the Wall.
• The Nothing After Death:
  • According to Beric, the "other side" is just darkness.
  • Discussed when Arya and Sandor come across a dying farmer. Wondering why he doesn't kill himself to end the pain, Arya says, "Nothing could be worse than this." The farmer replies that maybe nothing is worse than this. Arya argues it couldn't be, based on nothing being well, nothing. In the end, Sandor kills him.
  • Likewise, after Melisandre brings Jon back to life, she asks him what he saw. "Nothing".
• Nothing Is Scarier: Invoked by D. B. Weiss in the commentary for "Oathkeeper" in S4, re: how they handle showing the White Walkers.
  "Having grown up as a kid watching some of the old monster movies, you realize that the most effective, mysterious, horrible things were the ones that remained mysterious. The more you showed of something, the less mysterious and horrible, and the more mundane it started to seem."
• No Woman's Land: In a world where women are raped on a daily basis almost in every episode and are viewed by the world as nothing more than child bearers to give birth to a man's son, Westeros is certainly a Crapsack World where it doesn't give women an advantage of getting ahead in life.
• Nudity Equals Honesty: The Boltons invoke this trope by their infamous secondary motto: "A naked man has a few secrets; a flayed man, none."
• Number Two: The office of Hand of the King could be considered this, but depending on where the individual who holds the title falls on the morality scale, or where their king falls for that matter, this could also be The Dragon.
  Jaime: "What's the line? 'The King shits, and the Hand wipes.'" ^note The books put it much more nicely, with the phrase "What the King dreams, the Hand builds".

O

• The Oathbreaker:
  • Deserters from the Night's Watch are summarily executed as oathbreakers.
  • Jaime Lannister is widely reviled for killing the king he swore to protect, and provides the page quote.
  • In "Two Swords," Jon Snow must defend himself from accusations of oathbreaking for his unplanned stint as The Mole among the wildlings.
  • Ramsay does it constantly. At Moat Cailin and at Winterfell, he kills men who surrendered after he promised them safe conduct home. In the books Roose points out that Ramsay is known as an oathbreaker, meaning their enemies will now fight to the death rather than surrender to them.
• Obfuscating Disability: Grand Maester Pycelle's hidden spryness and sharpness of mind, despite his age and apparent senility. One deleted scene with Tywin makes it particularly explicit.
• Obligatory Joke: Anything related to Tyrion's height.
  • Bronn's advice for surviving his first battle. "Stay low."
  • Pycelle's snarking after Tyrion's been deposed as Hand of the King.
    "These quarters are smaller than you're used to. But you don't take up much room, do you?"
  • Littlefinger's advice on becoming Master of Coin. "Keep a low profile."
    Tyrion: If I had a gold dragon for every time I heard that joke, I'd be richer than you are.
    Littlefinger: You are richer than I am.
    Tyrion: (beat) Good point.
• Obi-Wan Moment:
  • Ser Rodrik takes a moment to smile at and reassure Bran right before he's executed by Theon, and says that he'll be with Ned soon.
  • In his own final moments, Maester Luwin calmly instructs Bran and Rickon to head for the Wall to their half-brother Jon, who will protect them and let their mother know they are safe.
• Oblivious Adoption: Jon hasn't the slightest idea of that he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Ned Stark, whom he believes to be his biological father. Jon's biological parents are actually the deceased Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, who have been dead for all of his life. As Lyanna knew she was dying, she manages to pass her infant son (Jon) into the care of her brother, Ned, and asks him to protect her son from Robert Baratheon before she dies. Ned brings Jon home with him, raises and loves Jon as his own son alongside his other children, and spends the rest of his life protecting his sister's son by hiding Jon's biological parentage by claiming Jon as his own illegitimate son since the current-reigning regime, the Baratheons, would kill Jon if they ever found out he was the hidden son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.
• Ocean of Adventure: In the series finale "The Iron Throne" with all the entries on her kill list all dead, Arya decides against heading back to Winterfell. She instead decides to say goodbye to Sansa, John, and Bran and said west from Westeros as the area beyond the Sunset Sea as no one knows what is beyond the sea.
• Occult Blue Eyes: The eyes of the wights and White Walkers. The wight from "Winter is Coming" even provides the page image.
• Odd Friendship: Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow, Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion and Bronn's odd friendship has received the buddy comedy treatment.
• Oddly Small Organization: The "Warlocks of Qarth" apparently consist entirely of a single guy: Pyat Pree.
• Offhand Backhand: Jaime shoves Bran out the window with a sudden but casual shove while not bothering to look at him.
• Offing the Offspring:
  • Old Nan tells a story about women smothering their babies rather than see them starve during a winter that lasted a generation.
  • Tyrion suspects his father is putting him in the vanguard of a battle to invoke this, and Tywin is not particularly excited to see him alive afterward.
  • Tyrion remarks to Jon Snow that if he had been born a peasant he might have been left in the woods to die. In "Mhysa," Tywin confesses he considered it, but changed his mind becaue Tyrion was still a Lannister.
  • Craster sacrifices his baby sons to the White Walkers. Subverted in that the Walkers don't kill them, they turn the babies into White Walkers as well.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • In "Baelor," two major battles occur, but only the aftermaths are shown. First Tyrion gets knocked unconscious by the rush of clansmen following a Rousing Speech and only wakes up after the battle, then Robb is shown returning triumphant from battle with Jaime Lannister as his prisoner.
  • The sack of Yunkai happens almost completely offscreen. Dany's three champions fight off an initial wave of guards, then report back that they've fomented a slave uprising. Later, the sack of Meereen only shows a single master getting swarmed by angry slaves in a narrow alley.
  • In "No One," Brynden Tully stages a one-man last stand against Lannister soldiers, and Arya fights a Faceless Man assassin in the dark with Needle. Both fights are performed off-screen.^note The latter is probably justified in that there would have been nothing to see
  • Beric, Tormund and their men presumably had to fight their way through or sneak past an invading army of wights to regroup with Edd at Castle Black. Pretty impressive considering that the White Walkers have a dragon and several giants with them.
• Off with His Head!:
  • Ned Stark has an enormous greatsword called Ice made of Valyrian steel that he uses for beheadings, as he does a Night's Watch deserter in "Winter is Coming." In "Baelor," he himself is beheaded with his own sword.
  • In "The Old Gods and the New," Theon beheads a man using an ordinary longsword and botches it, eventually kicking the head off. Proof if proof were needed that Theon is no Ned Stark.
  • In "Kissed By Fire," Robb beheads Lord Rickard Karstark for treason in a scene with obvious parallels to Theon's, but Robb takes the head off clean.
  • "The Last of the Starks" ends with Missandei getting brutally executed by The Mountain in front of her best friend Daenerys, and her lover, Grey Worm. It's even worse to see her body plop several feet from the wall of King's Landing onto the ground below.
• Oh, Crap!: Has its own page.
• Old Master: Ser Barristan Selmy.
• Old Money: The Lannisters have been the richest house in the Seven Kingdoms for centuries due to the fact that their ancestral stronghold of Casterly Rock is built on top of a gold mine.
• Old Retainer: Ser Rodrik Cassel and Maester Luwin to the Starks.
• Old Soldier: Qhorin Halfhand, Jeor Mormont, and Rodrik Cassel.
• Older Than They Look: In the season 6 premiere, the young and beautiful Melisandre is revealed to be an old crone who hides her appearance with her magical ruby choker.
• Ominous Message from the Future: Hodor's name turns out to be an inadvertent, corrupted version of this that leaves him unable to say anything else for the rest of his life.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Maesters wear a chain with each link representing mastery of a different field of study, and they are expected to earn as many as possible.
• One-Man Army: The show, filled with badasses, has several:
  • Barristan Selmy scoffs that he can cut through the other Kingsguard "as easily as carving a cake" (and no one in the throne room dares to make the next move) and cuts down over two dozen Sons of the Harpy on his own.
  • Jaime Lannister fights his way through Robb Stark's personal guard, single-handedly killing most of them (including Lord Karstark's sons), before finally being captured.
  • Syrio Forel easily takes down four Lannister soldiers with only a wooden sword in a matter of seconds.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • Jaime Lannister is derogatorily known and addressed as "Kingslayer" by everyone for his Bodyguard Betrayal, even by his allies and people who knew said king was insane and whose successful rebellion forced Jaime into that position. Jaime insists that people should be grateful for it. And, once we learn the rest of the story, it turns out he's right. Still, people despise him less because he killed the king and more because he broke his oath as a member of the Kingsguard. So, properly, he should simply be known as Oathbreaker, but that's not as punchy or specific as Kingslayer, so he's stuck with the latter. Jaime has struggled with Then Let Me Be Evil ever since.
  • Catelyn never quite forgives or forgets Ned bringing home his infant illegitimate son.
  • The Lannisters and perhaps the Boltons are careful to officially distance themselves from the Red Wedding, since they know such a blatant violation of Sacred Hospitality will stain them for generations.

    Tyrion: Oh, I know. Walder Frey gets all the credit... or the blame, I suppose, depending on your alliegence.

  • Theon Greyjoy is never going to live down his actions in season 2; even after being tortured for years on end, permanently mutilated and sexually assaulted, the Starks reclaiming and rebuilding Winterfell and Bran's return, characters still feel the need to abuse the suicidal ironborn man for betraying the people who held him hostage.
  • Arya will always despise the Hound for killing Mycah. Killing Mycah was despicable, but for the most part, his later actions range from petty crimes to outright heroism. By the end of the fourth season, he has come to care for Arya and serves as her loyal guardian. In the end, the trope reaches it's logical conclusion and Arya, unable to forgive him for killing Mycah, leaves him to die slowly and painful of wounds received while trying to protect her.
• One Dose Fits All: The poison "Essence of Nightshade". It's not seen being used, but Pycelle (the setting's equivalent of an apothecary) claims one drop is a powerful sleeping agent while ten is fatal, which ignores the body mass of the victim.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Stannis talks to Shireen about having to make a difficult choice and needing her help. She assumes that he needs a pep-talk and supports him, but he tells her that she has no idea what he's actually talking about. He's apologizing for his intent to sacrifice her to R'hllor.
• One Degree of Separation: Normally justified, as the relatively small size of the noble class in Westeros means most families will have met or at least heard of each other.
  • Played straight with Arya's experiences wandering among the much more populous small folk - out of all the people she could have bonded with between Kings Landing and Winterfell, her closest/only friend is naturally the son of her Dad's best friend. (On other occasions she ends up serving her family's Arch-Enemy, travelling with her sister's former protector and hanging out her mother's knight).
  • Tyrion Lannister is the only main character (as of Season 6) to have visited almost every theater of action in Westeros (North, The Wall, Riverlands, King's Landing, Meereen) and met the largest pool of characters (Jon Snow, Ser Alliser, Maester Aemon, Jeor Mormont, Robb Stark, Theon Greyjoy, Bran Stark, Catelyn Stark, Lysa Tully, the Royal Court of King's Landing, Sansa Stark, Oberyn Martell, Ellaria Sand, the Tyrell family, Jorah Mormont) and he's the first major political figure in Westeros to personally visit and pay court to Daenerys Targaryen. This becomes relevant in the plot when Tyrion breaks the news of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's passing to his son Jorah, and when Theon and Yara Greyjoy visit Meereen at the end of S6, and he dresses down Theon by bringing up their one and only meeting in Season 1.
• One Free Hit: Arya attempts to kill Sandor Clegane in his sleep by crushing his skull with a rock. Sandor is awake enough to catch her in the act, but confidently mutters that he'll give her a shot. If she misses, he'll beat her face in until it's unrecognizable. Having already lost the element of surprise, Arya wisely backs down.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Robert Arryn is named Robin (after a nickname from the books) to avoid confusion with King Robert Baratheon.
  • Asha Greyjoy is named Yara to avoid confusion with Osha the wildling.
  • Averted with the White Walkers and their zombie minions, the wights since "white" and "wight" are homophones.
  • Averted with the Freys. This is because everyone is trying to curry as much favor with the original Walder Frey as possible to get a bigger chunk of the inheritance money when he finally kicks it, and one of the ways they do it is by naming their kids after him. One of the two descendants Lord Walder Frey sends to arrange Edmure and Roslin's marriage is known as Black Walder to differentiate him.
• The One That Got Away: Lyanna for Robert and Catelyn for Littlefinger.
• Only a Flesh Wound: The series generally averts the trope, but some primary characters do seem to be Made of Iron.
  • When Ned gets speared in the leg in "The Wolf and the Lion," he's unconscious for a long period between episodes and weak for several episodes after, requiring a cane to get around.
  • When Khal Drogo allows himself to be cut by an uppity tribesman, Daenerys and Mirri Maz Duur agree the wound must be washed and sewn. Unfortunately, it festers anyway—possibly due to Mirri's sabotage—and by the next episode he's dying of blood poisoning.
  • Tyrion loses consciousness after being wounded in the face during "Blackwater."
  • Played Straight when Jon Snow recovers from three serious arrow wounds between "Mhysa" and "Two Swords" before wildlings who shot him can even make their next move. In "Watchers on the Wall," Jon also survives having his head smashed on an anvil hard enough to kill anyone not Made of Iron.
  • Arya survives getting shanked several times in the gut, jumps into a body of water likely teeming with pathogens, and is well enough a couple of days later to have a foot chase and win a sword fight.
• Only Friend: "Friend" might be stretching it a bit, but Davos is the only man Stannis trusts and respects completely.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • Bronn makes this clear to Tyrion. When his services earn him a knighthood, he insists on a higher wage. Eventually, Bronn accepts money and an advantageous marriage to not stand champion for Tyrion in a Trial by Combat, a deal Tyrion cannot match.
  • Littlefinger points out that the gold cloaks will support whoever pays their salary.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Hot Pie and the Tickler.
• Only Sane Employee: This seems to be the purpose of the office of Hand of the King.
  • Robert lampshades it when conferring the title on Eddard:
  Robert: "I'm not trying to honour you, I'm trying to get you to run my kingdom while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave!"
  • Tywin Lannister's first term as Hand was the most peaceful and prosperous period in recent history, which says something considering Aerys later became known as "The Mad King."
  • Davos Seaworth is this for Stannis' faction, caught between his inflexibly righteous boss and his religiously fanatical co-advisor.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Renly feels he is this, and as of "You Win or You Die", he might be right.
  • Tyrion has hints of this on his trip to the Eyrie.
  • Varys has shades of this as well. When asked by Ned who he truly serves, he simply says, "The realm, Lord Stark. Someone must."
  • At several points early in her relationship with Khal Drogo and the Dothraki, and with her brother becoming more insane by the day, Daenerys gives the impression she feels this way, until her friendship with Jorah solidifies.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Pyp takes notice when the usually temperate and polite Sam yells at him to "Open the fucking gate!" in "The Watchers on the Wall"
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping:
  • Some of the actors' natural accents do slip through, such as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's native Danish, Richard Madden's Scottish accent and Michelle Fairley's Northern Irish accent. American Peter Dinklage's English accent is not totally correct, but is at least consistent.
  • In "The Door", Euron Greyjoy (played by Danish actor Pilou Asbæk) gives a rallying speech as to why he should be named the new leader of the Iron Islands, during which Asbæk's sing-songy Danish accent comes through multiple times.
• Oop North: Winterfell and the Starks are Northern, and the accents of the actors involved reflect this, especially textbook Yorkshireman Sean Bean as Ned. Bean's contract specified that he be allowed to use his native accent for the role. Conversely, those associated with the Lannisters and/or the South tend to speak with RP (BBC English). The Northerners' general opinion of the South is broadly similar to cultural stereotypes between the South of England and the North.
• Open Secret:
  • Joffrey being born out of incest. As of "A Man Without Honour" in the second season, even Jaime and Cersei have given up denying it (though they don't publicly, officially confirm it, either).
  • Renly and Loras seem to have done a poor job trying to conceal their illicit romance. Even two lowborn Lannister soldiers on the other side of the country have heard the rumors.
• Order Versus Chaos: Personified in the philosophies of Varys and Littlefinger, respectively. Varys works for the good of the realm, and because of his powerless upbringing understands exactly what happens to the weak when there is no order or realm to protect them. Littlefinger, on the other hand, rebels against a system that would relegate him to a life as an irrelevant hedge lord, and sees chaos as a way to ensure his rise to power.
  Varys: But what do we have left once we abandon the lie [of order]? Chaos. A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
  Littlefinger: Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder.
• Orphaned Etymology:
  • The consistent use of the term "pillow-biter" to refer to gay men (usually contemptuously). This is a real term in modern British slang meaning just what it's used to mean, but it dates from the 1979 sodomy trial of former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe (specifically deriving from his accuser Norman Scott's testimony that he "bit the pillow" when Thorpe penetrated him). Needless to say, neither Jeremy Thorpe nor his trial existed or occurred in Westeros.
  • Although earlier seasons have characters correctly say "loose" when commanding archers to shoot, later seasons slip in having the command be to "fire". This stems from firearms, which obviously do not exist in a medieval setting like Westeros.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: The Seven Gods consist of a male trinity (Father, Warrior, Smith), a female trinity (Mother, Maiden, Crone), and the Stranger (Death) who is neither.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are fire-breathing, egglaying wyverns with batlike forelimb wings who exhibit high animal intelligence and a strong link to magic (though the cause-effect relationship is still unclear). Given enough food and space they grow continuously with most able to carry human riders and some large enough to "swallow a horse whole." They also possess a strong imprinting instinct and eat only cooked meat.
• Our Elves Are Different: The Children of the Forest are a race of short forest-dwellers with magical powers who have been slowly pushed out of Westeros by humans. Bran encounters one in "The Children."
• Our Giants Are Bigger: They are about twice the height of a grown man and look like humans with a low brow and oversized thick legs to make them Square-Cube Law compliant.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Although wolves are common, wargs can take control of all kinds of animals, such Orell's eagle and a Thenn who can control an owl. Bran even wargs into Hodor on occasion.
• Our Wights Are Different: The corpses reanimated by the White Walkers have blue eyes and can only be killed by fire.
• Out of Continues: Invoked by Sandor to Beric after Thoros dies in "Beyond the Wall": "You're dead for good this time".
• Out of the Inferno: Daenerys emerges unburnt from a funeral pyre with three baby dragons. In a later episode, she emerges from a burning building in Vaes Dothrak, having just killed all the khals inside.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • The White Walkers are a textbook example: an almost invincible Humanoid Abomination race native to an inhospitable area beyond the periphery of the Known World that can and does convert those who die fighting it into an almost equally invincible army, with which it is prepared to overrun civilization, for reasons not yet known; conversely little knowledge of how to defeat them is available.
  • Dragons used in a military capacity, as demonstrated by the story of the fall of Herrenhal, and Dany's later use of them against the Lannisters.
  • The High Sparrow, for the extended royal family in King's Landing. A devoutly religious ascetic who is blissfully indifferent to any power or wealth that Cersei or Olenna offer him,^note and about the only significant character in the series who actually wants what he says he wants, and does not want anything else he manages to have the former arrested, along with Margaery (the queen, mind you), her brother, and keep Tommen from seeing her as he wishes. Then, he's able to make Cersei walk naked across the whole city while people taunt her and throw garbage and bodily wastes at her in order to secure her release.^note It's no wonder Cersei resorts to extremely drastic methods to get rid of him.
• Overtook the Manga: The show ran out of literary source material around the Season 5 mark; everything onwards is a combination of the showrunners' inventions and Martin's planned ending for the series.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Cersei Lannister proves a competent schemer in her own right by facilitating her husband's death and ingratiating herself to her opponent's judges.^note Mace Tyrell via Margaery, Tywin unsuccessfully, and Oberyn directly. Unfortunately, she happens to be sister to Chessmaster Tyrion, twin to Master Swordsman Jaime, and daughter to Dragon-in-Chief warlord Tywin. Even her own son Joffrey overshadows her in-universe by completely resisting any of her attempts to be the power behind the throne.

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