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When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
— Cersei Lannister, A Game of Thrones
My Queen, all you say is true. But Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle, he lost the war, he lost the kingdom, and he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and the Usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.
— Jorah Mormont, A Storm of Swords
A bestselling Doorstopper epic fantasy series written by George R. R. Martin. The first book of a projected seven was published in 1996, and the series is soon to reach its fifth book and has also spawned two prequel short stories:
- A Game of Thrones
- A Clash of Kings
- A Storm of Swords
- A Feast for Crows
- A Dance with Dragons - not yet published
- The Winds of Winter - not yet published
- A Dream of Spring, formerly A Time For Wolves - not yet published
- "The Hedge Knight" (a "Dunk & Egg" story)
- "The Sworn Sword" (a "Dunk & Egg" story)
- "The Mystery Knight" (as "Dunk & Egg" story) - not yet published
The series is primarily set on the continent of Westeros, in a world where the seasons can last for years. Fifteen years ago, lords Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon and their foster father, Jon Arryn, rose up in rebellion and overthrew the mad king Aerys. They drove his children into exile, breaking the 300-year dynasty of inbred kings. Now Lord Stark rules the North under King Baratheon and raises his own family. When Jon Arryn unexpectedly dies, the King ventures north to name his friend Eddard as the new Hand of the King, the most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms after the king himself. During the King's visit, Arryn's widow sends a message claiming that the queen, Cersei Lannister, plotted her husband's death, and Eddard's son Bran falls from a tower under strange circumstances. The honourable Eddard Stark must leave his home to join the corrupt court in King's Landing and find the truth about Jon's murder, unwittingly setting in motion a civil war. Meanwhile in the east, the heirs of King Aerys plot their return to the Seven Kingdoms, and beyond the Wall, a barrier in the North, ancient enemies thought to be dead prepare to march southward as the end of the 10-year-long summer draws close, and the ominous motto of House Stark rings true: Winter Is Coming.
The complex and byzantine plot of the series focuses on a war between five different factions, while sinister and mysterious forces loom over all. The action is divided across a large number of characters, with arguably no central character to be found. The series is located on the far end of Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism. Moral ambiguity is very prevalent, as there are few, if any, clear-cut heroes or villains; Dan Weiss's (self-described) "crappy" X Meets Y for the series is " The Sopranos in Middle-Earth." Despite the fantasy setting, actual magic is treated as rare and mysterious, generally spared for Wham Moments. There is no Saving The World scenario yet, either, but it is apparent that the separate plotlines are coming together in a much-alluded Mytharc of great scope.
Martin's writing pace has slowed noticeably in recent years. There was a lengthy gap between A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows, and he continues to push back the arrival date for A Dance With Dragons. The series has lately become a non-webcomic case of Schedule Slip; Martin will post a publication date on his website, only to announce a month or two before the date that he has to push it back several months. Repeat this a few times, during which time fellow Fantasy Doorstopper writer Robert Jordan passes away, and the end result is a very worried fanbase. GRRM has, for the time being, decided not to make any more release-date promises whatsoever.
The series has expanded into the "Dunk and Egg" series of prequel short stories, and a TV adaptation is in works by HBO. Scripted by Dan Weiss and David Benioff, the show plans to do one book per season (right now, seven seasons have been planned, the fourth and fifth ones being a combination of books four and five but told chronologically rather than by splitting locations and characters as in the books). It also has a character sheet.
This series provides examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Any weapon made from Valyrian steel.
- Abusive Parents: Tywin Lannister's horrible treatment of Tyrion. Randyll Tarly is even worse, who repeatedly tortured his fat, awkward son Sam and even threatened to kill him.
- And let's not forget Craster, an inbred wildling who worked with the Night's Watch. He regularly raped his daughters and even called them "wives". Male infants born of this incest are left out in the cold as sacrifices to the Others.
- Action Girl: Arya Stark, a little waifish Tomboy who enjoys fencing and collecting nemeses. Brienne of Tarth is an aspiring Knight In Shining Armor, which leads to her being mocked by most men. The women of House Mormont learn weapons and war to defend themselves against Ironmen while the husbands fish. Asha Greyjoy is an Ironwoman reaver.
- Aerith And Bob: Justified due to the wide variety of ethnic groups in the series.
- Affably Evil: Littlefinger, so very much.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: A large number of characters, specifically Catelyn, Stannis and Daenerys.
- Angst Aversion: Many are hesitant to read the novels for the first time, because of the sheer hell the author puts the protagonist Stark children through.
- Animal Motifs: Noble houses have heraldic animals as their symbols, much like the real Middle Ages. Stark - wolf, Lannister - lion, Targaryen - dragon, Baratheon - stag. Comparisons are inevitable, and this is taken to the point of becoming an important theme, especially with the direwolves of the Stark children, and is used as symbolism before the first chapter is over. The author seems to have fun with this, and it's often justified by Houses deliberately chosing the animal based on their personal philosophies and raising their children with the specific intention of moulding them into the correct images. This is especially noticeable in the Lannister family.
- Antihero: Depending on which characters are your favorite, it's hard to say who you'll consider the main Antihero or AntiVillain.
- Anti Villain: Tyrion Lannister, most of all. Sandor Clegane in later books, and eventually Jaime Lannister...although as above, any of them could be called an Anti Hero just as easily.
- Anyone Can Die: A hallmark of the series, begun with Viserys Targaryen and finally cemented in the death of Eddard Stark. The trope turned things up to eleven with the Red Wedding. However, as the series progresses, it becomes easier to recognize which characters will probably stick around for a while. For example, No POV character except Eddard has been confirmed dead. Catelyn was resurrected, Theon is held captive, and most assume that Davos is still alive.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The Targaryen family has attempted to resurrect dragons and find the Prince Who Was Promised amongst themselves for at least a hundred years. Another conspiracy, the Maesters of the Citadel, appear to want to destroy magic in favor of science.
- Arc Words: Several:
- "Winter is Coming," the grim and enigmatic words of House Stark. It's noted that the Stark motto is unusual for being a warning rather than a boast.
- "Valar Morghulis," a phrase which Arya learns and repeates frequently, but does not understand its meaning. Ultimately she learns that it means "All men must die," the motto of the Faceless Men.
- The "Song of Ice and Fire" has only received one cryptic appearance in the story so far, but it is the namesake of the series and so has obvious importance.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Partly used, as most of the point-of-view characters are nobles. However, the cruelties of feudalism are emphasized, especially in warfare. Every major battle is followed by months of marauding bands sacking villages and slaughtering or raping peasants, by both sides.
- A Real Man Is A Killer
- Arranged Marriage: Quite a lot of them, most notably the one between Daenerys and Khal Drogo early in the first book, and later, the one between Tyrion and Sansa. This trope sometimes leading to uncomfortable moments where a 16-year-old girl marries an 8-year-old king (Margaery and Tommen) to cement an alliance, or a 16-year-old lordling marries a one-year-old babe (Tyrek Lannister and "Lady" Ermesande) to bring her lands under his family's control. Nobody is expected to consummate in these situations, with the notable exception of Dany, who was married at 13 and with child at 14.
- A Storm Is Coming: "Winter is coming".
- Attempted Rape: A rioting mob tries to gang-rape Sansa but she is rescued by Sandor Clegane. Much later, Vargo Hoat tries to rape Brienne, who bites off his ear.
- Author Appeal: While it's not true author appeal, Martin enjoys writing detailed sex scenes involving characters who, in a typical fantasy series, probably wouldn't be seen getting laid on screen. To date, we've had fat, shy, ugly, elderly, disabled, and underage characters given sex scenes, as well as incest.
- Ax Crazy: The Bloody Mummers, a mercenary band as dangerous to its employers as to its enemies. The insane cannibal Biter and the jester Shagwell seem to delight in pointless violence more than anything else.
- Back From The Dead: Beric Dondarrion and Catelyn Stark.
- Bad Moon Rising: The red comet.
- Badass: Several, though that doesn't save them from a painful death.
- Badass Army: The Unsullied, The Night's Watch, and several others.
- Badass Bookworm: Prince Rhaegar started as a bookworm, then read a prophecy and became badass. Sam the Slayer might be a gentle poke at the trope, as well.
- Badass Creed: The Oath of the Night's Watch.
- Barbarian Horde: The Dothraki are Expys of the Mongol steppe-horsemen archetype.
- Bazaar Of The Bizarre: Daenerys encounters this in Qarth.
- The Beard: Margaery was this to the gay King Renly. It's implied that the Merryweathers, Taena and Orton, are this for each other.
- Beast And Beauty: A general theme, but especially the relationship between Sandor and Sansa, and - as an inversion - the one between Jaime and Brienne. (This is rather fitting, as Martin was a former staff writer for the 1980's Beauty and the Beast television show.)
- Beat Still My Heart
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted by many beautiful villains, such as Cersei and her son Joffrey. Many characters in-world believe in this trope, assuming that the beautiful Joffrey is a pawn of the deformed Tyrion.
- Because Destiny Says So: The Prince Who Was Promised. Subverted with the Stallion Who Mounts the World prophecy.
- Big Badass Wolf: The Starks' direwolves.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jaime Lannister, previously a cold-blooded villain, saves Brienne from the Bloody Mummers. Sandor Clegane also has a moment like this when he protects Sansa from an angry mob trying to rape her.
- Big Screwed Up Family: The Targaryens and Lannisters.
- Bishonen: Loras Tyrell, the "Knight of Flowers". Also, Joffrey Baratheon, who is described as a combination of his sister Myrcella and his uncle Jaime who also happens to be his father. It's been speculated by several characters that Tommen will become this trope too, once he grows out of being a chubby eight-year-old.
- Black And Gray Morality: There are a great number of quite loathesome characters in the series. Most of the sympathetic characters occasionally take morally questionable actions as well, and are often shown to be in conflict with other sympathetic characters.
- Black Magic: Magic is generally presented as this, a mysterious and dangerous force that requires some pretty serious sacrifices to invoke. Mirri Maz Duur knows how to wield it and shows Dany some of the rules. Melisandre and Thoros, both red priests of R'hllor, also have great powers. Though Thoros comes off as a nice guy, his powers aren't fully understood and come at great price; Melisandre has performed great magical feats, but these usually involve her burning people alive.
- The Blacksmith: Gendry.
- Blondes Are Evil and Blond Guys Are Evil: The entire Lannister family, except for Tyrion and (arguably) Jaime.
- Blood Knight: Jaime Lannister says he doesn't feel alive unless he's fighting or having sex. Former pit-fighter Strong Belwas delights in showing off his prowess so much that he allows his opponents to slash him once before he kills them, even after he's freed from the pits. Sandor Clegane deliberately seeks out violence, though he does not enjoy it.
- Boat Lights: Tyrion and Shiera Seastar.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Jaime Lannister, a member of the Kingsguard who slew the King and was thereafter branded the Kingslayer. This is also believed to have happened with Renly when his murder was pinned on Brienne.
- Bodyguard Crush: Shows up a number of times, and unrequited in every instance bar one. Sansa and Sandor have an odd relationship. Jorah Mormont and Daenerys Targaryen, too. In a rare gender inversion, Brienne of Tarth and Renly Baratheon. The only reciprocal example, Loras and Renly, ended badly when Renly was murdered by Melisandre and the blame was pinned on his other bodyguard crush, Brienne.
- Boisterous Bruiser: King Robert Baratheon and "Greatjon" Umber. Thoros of Myr is hinted at having been one.
- Break The Cutie: Poor, poor little Arya and Sansa. Especially the sensitive and naive Sansa goes through a lot of pain in the first three books.
- Break The Haughty: Sansa again, at the same time as her Break The Cutie. Jaime Lannister got a prolonged and nasty breaking over the course of the first three books culminating in the loss of his sword hand, and as of A Feast For Crows, two other characters have had them; Tywin Lannister, who was fatally broken, and Cersei.
- Brother Sister Incest: House Targaryen wed brother to sister to keep their ancient bloodline "pure"; as a result, the "Blood of the Dragon" tends to degenerate into deformity and insanity. And WhiteHairedPrettyBoys or girls. Not to mention the incestuous relationship of Jaime and Cersei.
- Burn Baby Burn: Hoster Tully's ship burial/funeral pyre.
- Butt Monkey: Tyrion Lannister (until he finally snapped), Brienne of Tarth by all men, and Theon Greyjoy by his family members. Not to mention pretty much the entire Stark family.
- Cain And Abel: Stannis and Renly Baratheon, who fight over the throne. Stannis seems to be the Cain in this equation.
- The Caligula: King Aerys "The Mad" and King Joffrey Baratheon.
- Call A Rabbit A Smeerp: Lizard-lions seem to be crocodilians. A "zorse" is probably a zebra, though in real life the word is used to describe a horse/zebra hybrid.
- Calling The Old Man Out: Tyrion, with a crossbow, in the privy.
- Came Back Wrong: Catelyn Stark and Beric Dondarrion. However, Catelyn comes back as a Knight Templar after being dead for several days and starting to rot, whereas Beric is resurrected through black magic and loses his memories. Finally, Mirri Maz Duur does a healing spell on Khal Drogo which leaves him a catatonic shell; since he never actually died, this is more like Healed Wrong.
- Catch Phrase: "A Lannister always pays his debts," said by all Lannisters as a threat. "I will cut off his manhood and feed it to the goats," said by the Mountain Men as a less subtle threat.
- Celibate Hero: What the Night's Watch and the Kingsguard are supposed to be. In practice? Not so much.
- Character Alignment: Tends towards the nasty:
- Lawful Good: Eddard Stark, Robb Stark, Samwell Tarly, Jon Arryn, Aemon Targaryen, Brienne of Tarth, Davos Seaworth. This is frequently not a safe alignment.
- Neutral Good: Catelyn Stark, before she dies. Jon Snow starts as such, but gets more Lawful as time goes on.
- Chaotic Good: What Arya and Tyrion are both set up as at first, until they start murdering people for personal reasons.
- Lawful Neutral: Stannis Baratheon is a dour and rigid man who puts honor and duty above all else. His dual punishment and reward of Davos Seaworthy encapsulates his unbending code. Jaime Lannister might be considered this in later books once he starts taking his duty seriously and gains a little compassion. Melisandre qualifies due to her strict adherence to the tenets of her religion, and the evil acts she believes are justified in the name of the greater good.
- True Neutral: Bronn and his company of sellswords. This is basically the default alignment in the dog-eat-dog, Crapsack World of the series.
- Chaotic Neutral: Tyrion, and Arya after murdering more than a few unsuspecting victims.
- Lawful Evil: Tywin Lannister is great at keeping the peace and maintaining law and order, but he's also power-mad and thoroughly vicious. Roose Bolton is another ambitious and ruthless lord, but firmly entrenched in the Westerosi power structure.
- Neutral Evil: Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is hellbent on ruling Westeros, and doesn't care whom he has to manipulate to do it. Cersei depends on the Westerosi power structure, but plays fast and loose with its rules.
- Chaotic Evil: Craster, Euron Greyjoy, Ramsay Bolton, all of the Bloody Mummers, and quite a few more.
- Chekhovs Armoury
- The Chessmaster: Littlefinger, Tywin Lannister, Varys, Illyrio and Roose Bolton are the masters of this. Also, Tyrion tried it in book two. He did it very well until his dad interfered.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Daenerys Targaryen, Bran Stark, and Joffrey Baratheon.
- Child Soldiers: Arya Stark's descent into senseless violence in order to survive is tragically reminiscent of real-life child soldiers' mindsets.
- The Chosen One: The Prince Who Was Promised, also called Azor Ahai. The Stallion Who Mounts the World. Both prophecies are subverted.
- Christmas Cake: Margaery Tyrell, twice widowed and still claims to be a virgin. At the age of 16. Also Arianne Martell, who is still unwed at the age of 23 in a world where marriage at 14 isn't considered unusual although her father has ensured that she remains unmarried as part of his Batman Gambit.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: People assume this of Jaime Lannister because he killed the King he swore to defend (even though he was insane), calling him "Kingslayer".
- Church Militant: The Swords and Stars, ushering in a new era of religious zealotry. So far, however, they haven't been doing a bad job of things.
- City Of Canals: The Free City of Braavos is loosely based on Venice.
- The Clan
- Cliff Hanger: The ending of A Storm of Swords.
- Collectible Card Game
- Complete Monster: Due to the series' grey morality, many "villains" in the series often have very legitimate reasons to be fighting against the more sympathetic characters. For example, Queen Cersei, the villain of the first book, did everything to protect her children and twin brother Jaime. However, a few minor villains are extremely evil and despicable.
- King Joffrey Baratheon earns the distinction of being the worst of the worst, showing all the signs of a complete psychopath. As a young child, he would butcher pregnant cats, and it's implied he sexually abused his little siblings (both are under ten). Joffrey revels in his total power over life and death, and takes pleasure in tormenting his subjects. During the starvation, he would stand in a window with his crossbow and shoot the starving people outside for sport. His first act as King is to have Eddard Stark executed out of spite, against the will of his mother Cersei because it would start a war. And that was only his first act.
- Gregor Clegane, also known as the Mountain That Rides, is a freakishly large man who suffers from constant migraine headaches that seem to keep him on the brink of a murderous rage. Not only does he sack and massacre many villages, but he is a sexual sadist who takes a special pleasure in rape. It's implied that he is a serial killer in peacetime, murdering several wives as as well as uncounted peasant girls around his keep. But Gregor's most infamous crime - at age 17 - was raping and murdering the former Princess immediately after smashing apart her baby son's head against a wall.
- Ramsay Bolton. A sadist to the extreme, he skins people alive for his own amusement. His signature method is to peel the skin off his victims' fingers, flaying them inch by inch, until they bite off their own fingers only to stop the pain. Before that, Ramsay kept a mentally retarded servant whom he forced to rape the corpses of his female victims. And let's not forget his disturbing penchant for Mind Rape and tormenting his victims into insanity. And his "victory" over the Ironmen was him sucker-punching them under a flag of truce. And worst of all, he is a Karma Houdini.
- Rorge from the Brave Companions, a depraved serial killer and pedophile. It's implied that he was castrated as a punishment, and he compensates for it by sexually mutilating his victims. During his attack on the village Saltpans, he tortured a girl of twelve by cutting off her nose and lips, then throwing her to his fellow psychos who raped her. Impotence Makes You Evil, you know.
- Corrupt Church: The Faith of the Seven becomes this, as the High Septon is blatantly in the pocket of Lannisters. It gets so bad that zealous smallfolk and war refugees overthrow the clergy and install a lowborn reformer.
- Cross Dresser: The Epileptic Trees say Alleras is Sarella in disguise, via Sdrawkcab Name. It's also speculated that Lyanna dressing up as the Knight of the Laughing Tree at the tournament to beat the shit out of some snotty squires.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Plentiful.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Faith of the Seven is based on the medieval Catholic Church.
- Cut His Heart Out With A Spoon: "I'll chop off your manhood and feed it to goats!"
- Dangerous Deserter: Mance Rayder. Also the Night's Watch deserter who attacks Bran and briefly holds him hostage. In the quote for the trope, Ned explains that deserters are the most dangerous kind of outlaws.
- Dark Action Girl: Arya, arguably.
- Dark Messiah: Melisandre wants to unite the world under the Lord of Light. Unfortunately, she is a dark sorceress and worships the Lord of Light by burning people alive.
- Dead Little Sister: Lyanna Stark.
- Deadpan Snarker: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister and Dolorous Edd are the most obvious examples.
- Death By Childbirth: The source of Oedipus Rex for the runt of the Lannister litter, Tyrion. Also Daenerys, whose mother's death by childbirth is the reason for her abuse by her older brother. And probably Lyanna.
- Death By Irony: Tywin Lannister and Viserys Targaryen
- Death Glare: Tywin Lannister, who has never smiled since his wife died decades ago. Cersei relates a story of how a man at a feast once made an off-hand joke at his expense, causing Twyin to drive him from the room simply by glaring at him.
- Deadly Decadent Court: Oh God, is it ever deadly.
- Deconstructed Trope: Knight In Shining Armor — Jaime Lannister — Boisterous Bruiser - King Robert — The Ingenue — Sansa Stark — Rebellious Princess — Arya Stark.
- Deconstruction: The series has been described as a deconstruction of High Fantasy.
- Decoy Protagonist: Eddard Stark
- Development Hell: A Dance With Dragons - leading some fans to call Fallen Creator.
- Depraved Bisexual: Cersei Lannister is a possible example. She uses sex to manipulate men, and has an affair with a woman with whom she shares a close relationship. In her affair with the woman, however, it's not completely clear who is manipulating whom.
- Disease Bleach: Lancel Lannister. And Theon Greyjoy, in one of the online spoiler chapters.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Sandor Clegane's facial burns. His brother Gregor punished him for playing with a discarded toy, pressing him face-down on burning coals. The Red Wedding is another example: Walder Frey has Robb Stark, his mother Catelyn and half his bannermen murdered because Robb broke a marital promise.
- Doorstopper: The books are huge even for epic fantasy, and the latest had to be split in two because it was too big to bind.
- Draco In Leather Pants: Littlefinger is wildly popular, despite being one of the most scheming and villainous characters in the series. More than one fan has even expressed a wish to see Littlefinger come out on top in the game of thrones.
- Dragon Rider
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Alliser Thorne.
- Drop The Hammer: King Robert's Weapon Of Choice.
- The Eeyore: Dolorous Edd.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Guildhall of the Alchemists is a labyrinth of underground tunnels and halls in black marble. This is justified as they make wildfire down there; if it goes out of control, the labyrinth is to slow it's progress, and the basement is situated below rooms full of sand, designed to collapse and smother everything down there.
- Enforced Method Acting: An in-universe example. During a major battle at the end of the first book, Lord Tywin Lannister tries to lure Robb Stark into a trap by having one flank of his army crumble under assault, with the pikemen to sweep in after the Northmen over-commit themselves. To accomplish this, he composes that flank solely of freeriders and entirely green recruits... and then gives command to his youngest son, Tyrion.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Sandor Clegane and Bronn, though not necessarily more popular than the main characters, are indeed unexpectedly popular. Prince Oberyn Martell also manages this despite the fact that he dies in the same book he's introduced.
- Epileptic Trees: The various mysteries surrounding Robert's Rebellion, Jon Snow's parentage, and Prince Rhaegar. The Others are one big Epileptic Tree.
- Equivalent Exchange: Only life can pay for life. Jaqen H'Gar, Mirri Maz Duur and Melisandre all assert this, and most magic seems to follow the rule.
- Evil Albino: Ser Brynden Rivers was the albino bastard son of King Aegon IV, and later became an Evil Chancellor (Master of Whisperers, then Hand of the King) for King Aerys I before falling from grace during Egg's reign and being thrown in prison. When Maester Aemon was sent to the Wall, the dungeons were emptied of prisoners to accompany Aemon - including Brynden, who became the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Whether he was actually evil or just the subject of scary rumors is uncertain.
- Evil Chancellor: Littlefinger is the embodiment of this trope. Tryion gets called this because he's deformed and ugly, even though he's the only thing protecting the realm from Joffrey's tender mercies. Tywin Lannister is an inversion; when he was the Hand of Aerys, he was more beloved than the king he served, even though he is completely ruthless in wartime. Because of this, Tywin is a very interesting case - the Big Bad of the first three volumes, he has made his lands and people the richest in the Seven Kingdoms, and was very competent as Hand of the King. Even though he will destroy anyone who īstands in his way, no one remembers Tywin as an Evil Overlord unleashing Psycho For Hire war bands on civilian lands.
- Evil Detecting Dog: The direwolves.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Others.
- Evil Is Dumb: Viserys, Theon, and Cersei
- Evil Matriarch: Cersei Lannister, and possibly Olenna Tyrell, depending on exactly what she intended to gain by having Joffrey murdered.
- Evil Redheads: Melisandre.
- Evilly Affable: Vargo Hoat might lead a gang of the worst psychos for hire in the known world, but he's got a humorous lisp that even his victims mock. He's also rather dim-witted, getting outsmarted and outmaneuvered many times before meeting a very ignominious end.
- Exact Words: No blood can be shed in the Vaes Dothrak, the Dothraki people's holy city. So when Khal Drogo wants to kill Viserys, he does it by dumping a pot of molten gold over his head, ensuring no blood is spilled.
- Eyepatch Of Power: Euron Greyjoy wears an eyepatch over his mysterious "Crow's Eye."
- Failure Knight: Cruelly subverted with Ser Dontos, who is forced to become Joffrey's jester and then killed by his secret employer Littlefinger.
- Fake Defector: Jon Snow fakes a switch over to the Wildlings to save his life.
- Fallen Princess: Sansa Stark. Maybe, Myrcella Baratheon and Margaery Tyrrell
- Fan Nickname: Un-Cat, Gregorstein/Qyborg/Franken-Gregor.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Dothraki and the Ironmen are vague analogues for Mongols and Vikings, respectively. The Free Cities are loosely based on the medieval Italian city-states. Dorne is also roughly an analogue of Spain combined with Welsh culture. Westeros overall is vaguely West European.
- Westeros (minus Dorne) bears an unmistakable similarity to Medieval England. If you cut Dorne off its even shaped almost like Britain, with King's Landing in place of London and a prominent wall up north separating Westeros from the northern barbarians. The "War of Five Kings" bears a fairly strong resemblance to the War of the Roses. Even the successive historical waves of population and the religions they brought with them are close parallels to those of Britain. Even though Westeros is a continent the size of South America.
- And about Dorne - while it's not a direct counterpart, it is a southern peninsula of the landmass with a distinct language, culture, and people whose name rhymes with Ornish.
- Fatal Flaw: Eddard and Robb's Honor Before Reason.
- Feed The Mole
- Femme Fatale: Cersei Lannister (for a while).
- Fence Painting: Eventually subverted.
- Feuding Families: Fantasy version of the War of the Roses with even more factions.
- Fighting For A Homeland: The Golden Company.
- First Episode Spoiler: Jaime and Cersei Lannister are screwing each other. Also, Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark die in the first book.
- Flaming Sword: There are three different varieties: Thoros buys cheap swords and coats them in flammable oil for battles and melees. Stannis Baratheon's Lightbringer is a magical sword that appears to be on fire, but the fire sheds no heat. Beric Dondarrion makes a real flaming sword with his own blood and the magical power of R'hllor.
- Four Lines All Waiting: A Feast for Crows. It's also been revealed recently that Sansa Stark won't get another POV chapter until The Winds of Winter.
- The irony of aFfC working out that way is that the series as a whole is Third Line Some Waiting, and the book covers only one of those lines; the other two will be in A Dance with Dragons.
- Freak Out: Catelyn Stark comes Back From The Dead as an absolutely pitiless Knight Templar.
- The Fundamentalist: Melisandre is out to spread the good news about R'hllor. The good news is that all your false gods will be thrown in a fire. Aeron Greyjoy is another example. His insistance on drowning unbelievers goes farther than murderous raiders care to go.
- Funetik Aksent: Generally averted. Many characters are described as having an accent, but this is never conveyed through spelling. Some characters from foreign cultures, such as the Free Cities, will use eccentric or crude syntax instead. However, the trope ith played thtraight with Vargo Hoat, leader of the Bloody Mummerth, who thpeakth with a thignificant lithp.
- Genre Shift: The Hedge Knight.
- Gentle Giant: Hodor.
- Get Thee To A Nunnery: employed deliberately, due to the story's (mostly) strict medieval setting. A man having "horns" means his wife is cheating on him. Also, the following passage is funnier if you remember that the term "pussy", as used on women as opposed to felines, derived from the German word for a handbag:
- Gilded Cage
- The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry: Sansa and Arya Stark, before It Got Worse.
- God Save Us From The Queen: Cersei Lannister, who will let the world burn to protect the sovereign rights of her children.
- Good Scars Evil Scars: Sandor Clegane.
- Good Shepherd: The wandering priest, Septon Meribald, who is encountered by Brienne in the fourth volume.
- Go Through Me: Yoren.
- Grim Up North: The Wall is there for a reason.
- The Grotesque: Tyrion Lannister, Vargo Hoat, Shagwell, Sandor and Gregor Clegane, undead Catelyn. The series is absolutely chock-full of characters who are defined by either moral or physical grotesquerie (and more often than not, both).
- The Gwen Stacy: Ygritte.
- Half Human Hybrids: Legend holds that giants from the north can interbreed with humans. Wildlings sometimes suspect particularly large people of having giant blood in their ancestry.
- Half Identical Twins: Jaime and Cersei Lannister.
- Happily Married: Eddard and Catelyn Stark, at least if little Jon Snow is staying out of the way.
- Harmful To Minors: And how!
- Hatedom: Internet fans have become increasingly vocal about their displeasure over Martin's turnaround time, goings as far as to create blogs
 for the purpose of complaining. Even Neil Gaiman chimed in on the matter: "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch."
- Have A Gay Old Time: Despite being written in the last couple of decades, the series uses the word "queer" in its original sense of "strange," possibly because it makes a deliberate effort at having realistic medieval linguistics.
- The Hecate Sisters: The three goddesses of the Seven.
- Helping Hands: The wights.
- Here There Were Dragons: Dragons are believed to be extinct at the beginning of the series.
- Heroes Want Red Heads: The north-dwelling wildlings explicitly favor those "kissed by fire" as lucky.
- Heroic Albino: Ghost, Jon Snow's albino dire wolf companion.
- Heroic Bastard: Jon Snow, whose parentage os subject to wild mass guessing by the fanbase.
- Heroic Sociopath: Arya Stark has a list that she repeats to herself every night before she goes to sleep of the people she's going to kill. She's already removed some herself, and caused others to die. She's approximately eleven years old. Of course, most of them deserve it.
- He's Just Hiding: Arya, Bran and Rickon Stark, also Sandor Clegane, and Davos Seaworth. Those only apply as far as the end of A Clash of Kings, though. After that, all bets are off.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The demonic shadow creatures used by Stannis to assassinate people. Even more disturbing is the revelation that they are his children, birthed by Melisandre.
- Anything with Gregor Clegane. His most disturbing deed was Vargo Hoat's fate; Gregor had him tied to a stake and parts of his body gradually sliced off. Whenever he starved, he was fed parts of himself.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: The Good Masters of Astapor seal their own doom out of greed. Daenerys comes to them to buy an army of Unsullied, Super Soldier slaves with unquestioning obedience to their masters who are also used to defend Astapor. Greedy to get one of Daenerys' dragons in exchange, the Good Masters sell every single Unsullied they have, and no one thought it was a bad idea to sell them all to a young warrior queen, turning their entire garrison into a foreign army inside their own walls.
- Homage: Ser Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers is an homage to Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone, and Samwell to Samwise Gamgee. There is also a stealth reference to Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn with the mention of two brothers, Josua and Elyas, constantly bickering with each other.
- Honor Before Reason: Eddard Stark.
- Hope Spot: Two in the third book, to this editor's memory. If you already get the series' macabre themes, you can see both of them coming several paragraphs ahead of time. One of them is subverted, however, when the newly dead guy promptly comes back to life.
- The Horde: Wildlings are perceived to be The Horde by the people in the Seven Kingdoms, though it turns out that the Others were the real threat all along.
- Hot Skitty On Wailord Action: Humans and giants. Human men sometimes survive... human women rarely do.
- Ho Yay: Renly and Loras (as confirmed by Word Of God) as well as a number of other random characters. Interestingly, according to Word Of God, Renly's Rainbow Guard was not supposed to reference the popular symbol for homosexuality. It was simply a product of Renly's fondness for bright colors and fashion, which is however a stereotypical gay trait. There's also a fair amount of Les Yay between Cersei and her friend Taena Merryweather.
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Khal Drogo, who towers over a roomful of other men, gets married to the 14-year old Daenerys, who is slight in figure even for her age.
- Huge Rider Tiny Mount: Gregor Clegane and his horse.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Tywin Lannister was this to the mad King Aerys, to the point that the people cheered twice as loud for him as they did for the actual ruler, and visitors would sometimes mistake him for Aerys.
- I Call It Vera: Needle. Valyrian swords are usually very rare family heirlooms and all have names, including Ice, Lady Forlorn, Oathkeeper, Red Rain etc. More comically, Joffrey's swords "Lion's Tooth" and "Hearteater".
- I Coulda Been A Contender: Bran Stark.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Chapters are named either for the POV character they're being told through, or with a title that character holds.
- I Got Better - Several members of The Brotherhood Without Banners.
- I Have A Family
- I Have No Son: Tywin disowns Tyrion after he's implicated in Joffrey's murder.
- Incest Is Relative: Theon.
- Incurable Cough Of Death: Lord Gyles Rosby, suffering from a disease that also causes Blood From The Mouth.
- Infant Immortality: So very much averted.
- Inferred Survival
- Infodump
- Inherent In The System: The World Half Empty of the last book is a result of the oncoming Winter and the aftermath of a devastating civil war, the War of the Five Kings.
- Innocence Virgin On Stupidity: Sansa, though she grows smarter in the last book.
- Instant Messenger Pigeon: Ravens, actually.
- Involuntary Battle To The Death
- Ironic Echo: In, of all people, Eddard Stark, when he doesn't tell his dying best friend a hard truth.
- It Was His Sled: Guess who dies at the end of the first book? Oh, wait, you already knew.
- Jack Attack: Jon is a very common name, in part due to the influence of Jon Arryn. Jon Snow is the most notable Jon of the series.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
- Karma Houdini: Littlefinger ...so far.
- Karmic Death: Tywin Lannister, Amory Lorch, Vargo Hoat - and most satisfyingly, Joffrey.
- Kids Are Cruel: The series contains several examples:
- Robert Arryn is a sickly child who develops a fondness for sentencing people to be thrown off a cliff. He's simply too young and sheltered to know any better.
- Arya Stark is a sympathetic character, but at a young age has become quite proficient at getting people killed.
- Joffrey Baratheon epitomizes this.
- Killed Off For Real: Eddard, Catelyn and Robb Stark, and many other characters, major and minor, going along with the series's Kill Em All style.
- Kill Em All: As a phrase, A Feast For Crows really sums up the series' plot and theme. When the War of the Five Kings is over, the only original King alive is Stannis Baratheon, and he wasn't even the one who won. Things are still so chaotic and unsettled that it should start up again in earnest very soon (and in truth barely stopped in some places)
- Knight In Shining Armor: Ser Loras, Ser Barristan, Ser Garlan, the old Kingsguard and many characters from from the ''Dunk & Egg" novels. Most of them are deconstructed.
- Knight Templar: Stannis Baratheon, a merciless straight-arrow man who never compromises in anything, and has an even bigger Knight Templar advisor, the priestess/sorceress Melisandre, who wants to burn all false gods in preparation for the last battle against evil. The rise of the Church Militant of the Swords and the Stars provides even more opportunities for the trope.
- Left For Dead: Sandor Clegane, who is now the gravedigger on the Quiet Isle.
- Legion Of Lost Souls: The Night's Watch can be seen as bearing a number of similarities with the real-life French Foreign Legion. The Brotherhood Without Banners is a quite literal legion of lost souls.
- Lightbulb Joke: "How many Dornishmen does it take to shoe a horse? Nine. One to do the shoeing, and eight to lift up the horse!" *Rim Shot* (Ahh, Joffrey...)
- Lighter And Softer: The Dunk & Egg books, owing to its smaller scope and bittersweet endings.
- Light Is Not Good: Seemingly part of the "ice and fire" theme of the series overall, in which all extremes are destructive. The red priests describe R'hllor as the champion of life and goodness, but all signs point to a much more malevolent force. The reverse is not true, as the darkness to R'hllor's light is overtly evil.
- Line In The Sand: Theon in A Clash of Kings.
- Little Miss Badass: Arya Stark.
- Living Shadow: Introduced in A Clash of Kings, these are pure High Octane Nightmare Fuel. These shadow-beings are revealed to be the children of Melisandre.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters: How many? Well, for a long time, the huge character sheet wouldn't tell you who the five kings in the "War Of Five Kings" were, just because some of them weren't important enough to list. This is partially balanced by a very high attrition rate.
- Lost Technology: Valyrian steel can be reworked by experts, but no one knows how to make more of it anymore. Some marvels of engineering, such as the Wall, Harrenhal and Winterfell's hot-springs heating system, are probably beyond the tech for the current age. Magic is also something of a lost technology.
- The Lost Woods: Most weirwood forests in the north, especially those with heart trees, due to their association with the children of the forest and the "green men". Also, the Haunted Forest beyond the Wall, due to the Others.
- Lovable Traitor: Littlefinger.
- Love Dodecahedron: Renly is married to Margaery but spends a lot of time, "praying" with her brother Loras, and in the meanwhile is being crushed on by Brienne of Tarth. Robert Baratheon loved Lyanna Stark, but married Cersei Lannister, who loved Rhaegar Targaryen, who was married to Elia of Dorne but might have loved Lyanna Stark. Lysa Tully married Jon Arryn but loved Petyr Baelish, who loved Catelyn Tully, who loved Brandon Stark but married Eddard Stark, who loved Ashara Dayne.
- Love Makes You Evil: "The things I do for love..."
- Low Low Fantasy: A Game of Thrones does an excellent job on convincing you the series is this, with all the references to magical and unearthly things being just old myths and legends blown out of proportion. Then, at the end, Daenerys hatches her dragons. The series still retains a distinct Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane feel, but things are never quite the same.
- The Magic Comes Back: And does it ever. Thus far, its mostly Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane, but with dragons hatching, people rising from the dead, the Others, et cetera, there's no doubting the existence of at least some sort of magic.
- Magic Realism: Most of the magic in the series, at least early on, fits here.
- Magnificent Bastard: Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, Tywin Lannister, Euron Greyjoy, Roose Bolton. Yeah, it's that kind of series.
- Mama Bear: Cersei Lannister, while a horrible leader, has protecting her children as her strongest motivation. Catelyn Stark gains a darker shade with this trope as well. Ironically, their protective instincts only serve to make things worse. Cersei screws up everything she touches, and Catelyn — while a more sympathetic character — doesn't do much better. Her kidnapping of Tyrion (who was innocent), led to a Lannister retaliation and was the final catalyst for the War of the Five Kings.
- Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane: There's plenty of magic, but there is also plenty of coincidence, not to mention plenty of cases where people will call an event magic because of their own beliefs, superstitions, ignorance, or gullibility. In some of these cases we may never know for sure.
- Medieval Stasis: Westerosi technology has improved very slowly over its extremely long history. The continent was once ruled by The Children of the Forest, with stone age technology, who were then conquered by the First Men with Bronze Age technology, who were then partially replaced by the Andals with Iron Age technology. In the last thousand years, technology has not significantly improved. In fact, some ancient marvels of engineering, such as the Wall, Harrenhal, and the hot-springs-heated Winterfell, are probably built on Lost Technology.
- According to Word Of God the timeline is suspect within the stories themselves...
- Meet Cute: Tyrion and Jaime, to Distressed Damsel Tysha, leading to Smooch Of Victory. Then subverted to horrific effect by their father, Tywin Lannister. See Moral Event Horizon below.
- Memetic Badass: Internet fandom for the series has latched onto Randyll Tarly for this trope, mostly in imitation of the "Chuck Norris Facts." Tarly himself is a very minor character, with an admittedly fierce reputation.
- Mentor Archetype: Littlefinger for Sansa Stark; Syrio Forel and Jaqen H'ghar for Arya Stark; Jeor "Old Bear" Mormont and Qhorin Halfhand, for Jon Snow.
- Mildly Military - The Night's Watch is a combination of a military order, a monastic order, and a gulag. Naturally, it doesn't run quite the same as a normal army.
- Missing Mom: Jon Snow's not-officially-identified mother.
- Monster Clown: Shagwell of the Bloody Mummers wears motley and pretends to be a jester, though he is really an Ax Crazy mercenary and psychopath.
- Moral Event Horizon: A number of characters have crossed the boundary from grey to black morality:
- When King Joffrey orders the execution of protagonist Eddard Stark, who was meant to be spared. At that point, even Joffrey's youth could not excuse him from his behavior.
- Tywin Lannister crossed this line before the beginning of the series: When his son Tyrion fell in love with a thirteen-year old orphan, he lied to Tyrion that the girl was a paid whore. Tywin then had his entire garrison of soldiers brutally gang-rape the poor girl, forcing Tyrion to watch it all and then participate. Nothing Tywin ever does afterwards can redeem him from Complete Monster status because of this. Tywin got off easy; he deserved to be gang-raped to death by the Bloody Mummers.
- Theon Greyjoy has perhaps the most notable one. Starting as something of a Jerk Ass with a downtrodden history that made him sympathetic, Theon crosses the line in a shocking way when he leads an Ironman invasion of his former home, Winterfell. His most heinous deed is when he murders two miller's boys, aged 8 and 3, (and the little one was probably his son) and spiked their tarred heads to his gate only to cover up the escape of Bran and Rickon Stark. When Theon assassinates three of his own Ironmen so the truth won't leak out, he blames these deaths on his old drinking buddy Farlen. Then he sits in judgment and sentences Farlen to death.
- The Red Wedding caused two characters to cross the line, namely Roose Bolton and Walder Frey. The former slaughtered his fellow Northmen only out of opportunism and personally killed Robb Stark. The latter orchestrated the massacre out of spite and laughed while it happened. However, the mastermind behind the Red Wedding was Tywin Lannister, but he had already crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
- Morality Pet: Brienne, for post-Heel Face Turn Jaime. The two Stark girls, for Sandor Clegane.
- Murder Inc: The Faceless Men are a foreign religious order who worship death, even having a black potion in their temple that provides painless death. They are also the most skilled assassins in the world, able to murder anyone for the right price. Contract killing is considered a sacred act by them. There is also a lesser guild of assassins called the Sorrowful Men, who apologize to their victims the instant before they kill them.
- My Master Right Or Wrong: Most of the Kingsguard.
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Subverted with the climactic duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane, where Oberyn is out to avenge his sister's murder. It ends with Gregor gloating over his horrible crime and re-enacting it on Oberyn.
- However, even though Gregor wins, Oberyn's spear was coated with a deadly poison, so Gregor dies a long, agonizing death.
- My Nayme Is: Petyr, Rickard, Walder, Joffrey, Catelyn, Lysa, Roose, and on, and on, and on.
- Myth Arc: The Prince Who Was Promised. The Others.
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: a standard of Westeros. The Kingslayer, The Mountain That Rides, the Bloody Mummers, the Crow's Eye, the Red Viper, the Titan's Bastard, and so on...
- Subverted (perhaps unintentionally) with Darkstar, whose primary contribution, despite his ostensibly badass intro, is trying to kill a ten year-old girl when nobody is looking, and succeeding only in giving her a nasty scar. Of course, his cousin, the Sword of Morning Arthur Dayne, was a prime example of the real trope in action.
- Never Found The Body: Bran and Rickon Stark. Partially subverted, however, in that in this setting some off-screen implied deaths are real.
- Nightmare Fuel Unleaded - The Others, The Bloody Mummers, The Brotherhood Without Banners, undead Catelyn, Euron Greyjoy, Aemon Greyjoy's deranged religious fanaticism, and close to every scene that takes place at Harrenhall. Not to mention Stannis' and Melisandre's method of assassinating their enemies. As if overly graphic scenes of dwarf sex and a six year old sucking on his mother's tits weren't already enough to give this troper several weeks' worth of ghastly, frightening dreams.
- Night Of The Living Mooks - The Others and The Brotherhood Without Banners. The latter is somewhat subverted in that it (or much of it) consists of plot-central characters previously established as dead.
- Nobody Poops: Heartily averted in a number of occasions. Some notable examples include Belwas taking a dump on his dead opponent, and Tywin Lannister's last
movement moment.
- Non Human Sidekick: Dany's dragons and the Starks' direwolves.
- Noodle Incident: Summerhall. The Tower of Joy, though this is something of a fan nickname.
- If the Epileptic Trees play out the way the fandom thinks they will, the events at the tower of joy will eventually be revealed.
- No Periods Period: Averted. A girl flowering means she's ready to produce heirs.
- Used for a Squick effect when Jaime has sex with Cersei while she has her period.
- Also, Sansa's somewhat traumatic first period. She even sets fire on her bloodied bedsheets, knowing that Joffrey will rape her because she's now a woman and he's determined to have a kid.
- No Pronunciation Guide: GRRM is of the opinion that you should be allowed to decide on pronunciations for yourself. This is probably because he didn't want to have to decide how to say "Xaro Xhoan Daxos". Or "Daenerys Targaryen". Even "Jaqen Hghar" is kind of intimidating.
- Not Helping Your Case: Tyrion Lannister in the third book.
- The Noun Of Adjective: Book titles.
- Oedipus Rex: Tywin and Tyrion Lannister.
- Off With His Head: Happens quite a few times, most notably to Eddard Stark at the end of book one.
- Old Master: Ser Barristan Selmy and Jeor "Old Bear" Mormont.
- One Liner
- One Steve Limit: Averted throughout the series. Many characters have the same name, often due to being named after the same person. House Frey is a particular example, due to a number of members with the first and last name, "Walder Frey" or Walda Frey. Nicknames help distinguish between characters with similar names.
- Especially averted with so many Jons in the series.
- One Thing Led To Another: Robb, being "comforted" by Jeyne Westerling. Lysa doing the same with a delirious Littlefinger.
- Oracular Urchin: Jojen Reed.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons look like like winged, legged serpents with thick scales. They breathe fire and cook their meat. They lay scaled eggs, but are hermaphrodites. Like fish, they grow according to the size of their environment. They have animal level intelligence and can be trained to accept a rider, making them useful weapons of war. Their presence seems to be linked to the effectiveness of magic. They are a highly endangered species and were believed extinct for many years, though they got better. They may also have a taste for human flesh...
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Called skinchangers, beastlings, and wargs, and they take control of animals rather than turn into them..
- Out Of The Inferno: The end of A Game of Thrones.
- Parental Abandonment
- Parental Favoritism: Tywin Lannister hates Tyrion for his deformity and for causing his mother to die at birth. He grudgingly tolerates his presence in the family but refuses to grant him any inheritance. On the other hand, Randyll Tarly is so openly disgusted with Samwell that he threatens him with murder if he does not disinherit himself.
- Pet The Dog: Tywin Lannister when lecturing Joffrey or Cersei. Also in aunt Gennas story about her wedding.
- Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Sansa tries one of these to save her father's life and Cersei obliges. Then Joffrey has him executed anyway.
- Posthumous Character: Many the characters in the series have already died by the first page, including Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys Targaryen, Jon Arryn, Lyanna Stark, Ashara Dayne, Elia of Dorne, etc.
- Powder Keg Crowd: During the starvation, the hungry poor people of King's Landing become this when King Joffrey deliberately provokes them.
- Praetorian Guard: The Kingsguard, the Queensguard, and the Rainbow Guard. Especially Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard, who eliminated his King like the historical Praetorians sometimes did to the Roman Emperors.
- Prank Date: Tyrion and Tysha, ultimately and horribly subverted when his father Tywin has her gang-raped.
- Precursors: Valyria.
- Prequel: "Hedge Knight" and "Sworn Sword", aka the "Dunk & Egg" stories.
- Private Military Contractors
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Dothraki and arguably the wildlings.
- Promotion To Parent: Robb Stark, who fails for the most part.
- Psychic Dreams For Everyone: Prophetic "green dreams," as defined by Jojen Reed, are a power held by some humans as well as the greenseers of the children of the forest. Skinchangers control their host animals through their dreams.
- Jaime's dreams about his missing hand may be this
- As well as Daenerys' dream-flashbacks
- Psycho For Hire: Tywin Lannister is so fond of using these for his foraging missions that Arya wonders how many monsters are on his payroll. The Brave Companions mercenary band is made up of rapists, child killers, a cannibal, an Evil Clown, and other psychopaths. Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch's gangs of soldiers are little better.
- Punctuation Shaker: Jaqen H'ghar, amongst others.
- Raised By Wolves: Rickon Stark ... albeit no so much raised by a wolf as increasingly taken over by one.
- Ravens And Crows: Simultaneously ominous and helpful.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Lord Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort and his pale pink robes. In the past, the Boltons really wore the flayed skins of their enemies as capes.
- Reformed But Rejected: Jaime Lannister will probably never get over his reputation.
- Regent For Life: Several characters make a go at becoming this, with varying success.
- Religion Is Magic: Most religions other than the Faith of the Seven. Although that's more because the fundamentalist Faith may have been fervently suppressing magic...
- The Remnant: The Brotherhood Without Banners, post-Beric.
- Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Sansa, for many readers.
- Robin Hood: The Brotherhood Without Banners, a merry band of outlaws, with a Straight Arrow, a revered leader, and a priest. Later, they're a lot less merry, becoming obsessed with hanging others for war crimes, Knight Templar-style.
- They do deserve it however.
- Rouge Angles Of Satin: A raven is shown eating an egg, pecking out bits of "white and yoke".
- Royal Blood
- Royal Brats: And how. One of the names proposed for this trope was "The Joffrey".
- Royally Screwed Up: The Targaryens and Lannisters (although with the Targaryens it seems to be touch and go: there's an equal chance that each new Targaryen baby will be a total nutter like Aerys or a reasonably capable leader like his son, Rhaegar).
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Most characters in the series.
- Running Gag: Shagga's "I'll chop off your manhood and feed it to the goats!" among others.
- Tyrion even gets in on the act.
Tyrion:I'll chop off your manhood and feed it to the goats.
Bronn: You don't have any goats.
Tyrion: I'll get some, just for you.
- Sacred Hospitality
- Sacrificial Lamb: The POV character in the prologue or epilogue will, without exception, die, but this may change as the series has not been finished.
- Sad Clown: Tyrion Lannister is a deeply unhappy man and copes with sharp humor even when it's unwise. Dolorous Edd embraces the trope literally with morbid, deadpan wisecracks.
- Sadistic Choice: King Joffrey Baratheon is very fond of these. When he punished a minstrel for mocking his mother Cersei, he gave him the choice of keeping his fingers or tongue.
- Randyll Tarly also uses these when he judges the people of Maidenpool. One victim was a guy who did nothing worse than cheat at dice; Randyll sentenced him to having one hand broken and the other pierced by a nail. He let the guy choose which hand.
- Samus Is A Girl: Brienne of Tarth wins a tournament before it's revealed that she's a woman. Also the Straight Arrow Alleras is generally assumed to be Sarella Sand, one of Oberyn Martell's bastard daughters.
- And quite possibly, historically, Lyanna Stark was the mystery knight at the Harrenhal tournament.
- Sarcastic Confession: Littlefinger.
- The Scrappy: Darkstar, introduced in A Feast for Crows. Martin admitted that he wanted to recapture some of the aspects that fans liked about Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne, but some fans rejected the character's overt attempts at Evil Is Cool.
- Screw Politeness I Am A Senior: Walder Frey, to the extreme. Olenna Tyrell has the nickname "The Queen of Thorns" for this very reason as well.
- Seasonal Rot: A Feast for Crows, which only included half the usual characters, is seen by many fans as an interlude below the series standard. Thatīs not saying much, though.
- Sense Freak: The narration (particularly in Sansa's chapters) loves to indulge in what people are wearing and what they're eating.
- Shipping: Many examples, such as Sansa/The Hound, Lyanna/Rhaegar (they've both been dead fifteen years, but nothing will stop the ship), Jon/Dany (the latter might be his aunt, plus they've never even met), Tyrion/Sansa, etc.
- Ship Tease
- Shout Out: Archmaester Rigney, who believes that "time is a wheel", and Lady Jordayne of Tor are both references to The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan (real name Jim Rigney), which is published by Tor. House Stark was confirmed to be a reference to IronMan, there are heraldic sigils in Tywin Lannister's army referencing the Blue Beetle, Green Arrow and other comic book characters as well.
- Shrug Of God: All the time.
- The Siege: The Battle of Blackwater and the Battle of Castle Black. Historically, the battle at Storm's End.
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The series is noted for its cynical take on many tropes popular in High Fantasy, such as the Distressed Damsel and the Knight In Shining Armor. However, the overall bleakness tends to be a bit overstated on the internet.
- Smug Snake: Cersei Lannister is the most obvious example.
- Sobbin Women: Wildlings and Ironborn in particular; the Wildling women won't accept a man as a husband if he's not tough enough to kidnap them.
- The So Called Coward: Samwell "The Slayer" Tarly. Who is really a coward and killed the Other purely by luck.
- The Spartan Way: The Unsullied, but much worse than anything in real life. Seriously, Ghis is one of the most evil fictional societies ever created.
- Sociopathic Soldier:...yes. The idea of regular men turning into killer and rapists before returning home and being good husbands and fathers again is openly discussed a few times. Of course, the worst of them are just like that all the time.
- Speech Impediment: Vargo Hoat, so very much. This is the main reason why he is Evilly Affable.
- Squick: In every book. Despite being medieval fantasy, this series contains some of the most disturbing scenes this troper ever read about. See Author Appeal. Often the squick is played for black humour.
- Every sex scene with the dwarf Tyrion. Enough said.
- Another disgusting but darkly hilarious scene is when the siblings Jaime and Cersei Lannister have rough sex next to their son Joffrey's tomb. While Cersei bleeds from her period.
- Tywin Lannister in the end of book three is shot in the gut with a crossbow while sitting naked on the privy, and takes a postmortem dump.
- The Starscream: Westeros is ruled by seven Great Houses: Stark, Lannister, Tully, Arryn, Baratheon, Tyrell and Martell. But each Great House has a second-in-command House which is almost as powerful, kept only in line through intimidation, and who will use any opportunity to rise up and destroy its lord. A perfect example is House Frey, which is more powerful than House Tully, technically its superior.
- Stay In The Kitchen: Typical reaction that minor male characters have to Brienne. Though Catelyn instantly pities and later warms to her, Randyll Tarly has a decidedly less friendly take, deeming Brienne "unwomanly" and deserving of rape.
- Straight Arrow: Stannis Baratheon and Theon Greyjoy.
- Street Urchin: Arya.
- Succession Crisis: Starts the War of the Five Kings.
- Survival Mantra: Arya makes a habit of listing the people she wants dead before going to sleep each night.
- "Fear cuts deeper than swords."
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: When the musicians at Edmure Tully's wedding strike up The Rains of Castamere. Justified in that this was preselected as a signal for its appropriateness.
- Sympathetic POV: Jaime Lannister becomes a lot more sympathetic after he becomes a POV character. Reactions are mixed whether Cersei receives the same benefit.
- Sword Fight: Since this is fantasy after all, it happens in every book.
- Tabletop Games: A Game of Thrones d20, which is now discontinued, and A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, released in 2009.
- Tactful Translation: Seen in the discussion between Dany and the merchants of Astapor when she goes to buy an Unsullied army.
- Takahashi Couple: Jaime and Brienne.
- Tall Dark And Snarky: House Lannister, particularly Jaime. Even though they are all blond.
- Tasty Gold: Comes up regularly, with one Lampshade Hanging.
- Tear Jerker: any time you see the Hound cry.
- Teens Are Monsters: Joffrey, you ARE this trope.
- Third Line Some Waiting: Daenerys's chapters take place on another continent in the east.
- Third Person Person: Strong Belwas and Syrio Forel speak like this. Slaves in Astapor speak in the third person. Unsullied use their names, at least after they're free, while other slaves call themselves "this one."
- Thunderbolt Iron: Dawn, the ancestral sword of House Dayne, is made from meteoric iron.
- Title Drop: Daenerys has a dream in which she sees her brother Rhaegar say of his son, "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." This is meant to be mystifying, since Rhaegar's only known son died before the beginning of the series. The phrase "ice and fire" is also used in the Reeds' loyalty oath to Bran.
- Thwarted Coup De Grace: Oberyn's apparent victory over Gregor Clegane, and Biter's attack on Brienne.
- Too Dumb To Live: Eddard Stark, Lysa Arryn and Viserys Targaryen. Just narrowly averted with Theon Greyjoy. More recently Cersei Lannister seems quickly headed in this direction.
- Took A Level In Badass: Arya is slowly leveling up throughout the series. By the end of the fourth book, she appears to be in training to became a magical assassin.
- Torture Technician: Several throughout the series:
- The Tickler is Gregor Clegane's designated torturer. He uses a variety of horrible methods to inflict pain while asking the same litany of questions over and over until the prisoner dies. When he is not torturing, he is a perfectly mundane soldier.
- Qyburn is a former maester who was thrown out of the organization for conducting experiments on living creatures, including vivisections. Cersei puts his knowledge to use as a torturer, among other things. "Does she take your nipples in her mouth during your love play? Some men have nipples as sensitive as a girl's...*Slash*"
- Ramsay Bolton is well-versed in the old Bolton tradition of flaying prisoners alive. By the end of A Storm of Swords he is reputedly putting his skills to work flaying Theon Greyjoy piece by piece while breaking his sanity.
- Toy Ship: Arya/Gendry, Bran/Meera, and Bran/Daenerys (who, it should be noted, have never met each other).
- Trading Card Lame: Contains some pretty big spoilers on some of the cards, so play at your own risk if you haven't read all the books.
- Tragic Dream: Jaime's dreams about his hand could be this. Or, they could be something else entirely
- Tragic Hero: Eddard Stark, Robb Stark, Rhaegar Targaryen and many more.
- Training From Hell: The Unsullied, who are broken into selfless, robotic, and utterly loyal killing machines.
- Trilogy Creep: Originally envisioned as three books, then six, now up to seven, which would be appropriate to the series.
- Trickster: Littlefinger, Varys, and Tyrion Lannister.
- Truce Zone: The Dothraki city of Vaes Dothrak; spilling blood within carries the death penalty (being strangled to death bloodlessly). Khal Drogo invokes Exact Words in order to kill Viserys.
- Twincest: For a long time in the series, they're the only couple who are honestly in love with each other with no tragic end in sight.
- Tykebomb: The Unsullied are eunuch slaves trained from birth to be perfect warriors. Their horrific training is meant to strip them of all self-worth and individuality, turning them into soulless weapons. It doesn't work.
- Underdog: Several.
- Underdogs Never Lose: of the viewpoint characters who've survived the first four books in spite of constantly being placed in dangerous and potentially fatal situations, one is a bastard or maybe that's just what they want you to think, one is a dwarf, one is fat and clumsy (almost to the point of being unable to function in normal society), two are small children (one of them a cripple), one is the last heir of a dynasty long thought dead, and one is a blind lone wolf. This trope is, however, subverted with Brienne.
- The Unintelligible: Hodor, a mentally challenged seven-foot-tall guy who only ever says "Hodor."
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Littlefinger. He gets even...
- Unnecessarily Large Interior: The Alchemists' Guild has a grand hall filled with green wildfire torches. Tyrion notes that the hall is only used to impress visitors and all the torches will be extinguished as soon as he leaves.
- Unreliable Narrator: As confirmed by Word Of God, Sansa's first kiss.
- Possibly invoked with Robert's narration of what happened to Lyanna Stark when she was kidnapped by Rhaegar, his Arch Enemy. [He insists that she was repeatedly raped, but every character who knows the truth is dead.
- Unusual Euphemism: Mostly averted, actually: characters from the Seven Kingdoms swear the same way their readers do. (Of course, this also breaks the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, since a number of those curse words derive from German slang, a language that presumably does not exist in Westeros. You just can't win if your fantasy characters are supposed to curse.)
- The Braavosi tend to include odd adjectives for their swearwords, possibly to add to their foreign flavor. "Camel's cunt" is the first that springs to mind, and is even funnier because ten-year old Arya says it.
- Swearing occurs not only in dialogue, but in the narrative as well. This leads to some strange dissonance if you're used to typical fantasy, on at least one occasion - one moment a character "screamed and soiled himself", and the next someone "wiped the piss off his boot". Usually justified, as this is actually how people referred to urine in medieval England. Many other standards of English vernacular are equally old.
- The Villain Sucks Song: The Rains of Castamere. Though Tywin Lannister actually likes the song (insofar as he's capable of liking anything); he considers it good PR, as it details exactly what he'll do to you if you cross him. Whenever it's played, something bad's about to go down.
- The Virus: The Others have the ability to make wights from the dead. Whether this is a natural result of being killed by an Other or whether the Others must actively reanimate the dead has yet to be determined.
- Trojan Prisoner: Pulled off brilliantly by Roose Bolton when he captures Harrenhal for the Starks. Initially, Tywin and his armies depart, leaving behind a Lannister garrison and the Bloody Mummers in the monstrous castle. Then, Roose Bolton's force attacks and the Bloody Mummers ride out to fight him (offstage). They bring back dozens of wounded, captured northmen who get locked up. But Arya and Jaqen H'gar later release the northern prisoners, all of whom were waiting for it and join the Bloody Mummers in the slaughter of the drunken Lannister soldiers. What actually happened was that Roose Bolton was attacked by the Bloody Mummers and simply bought them, then arranged to smuggle in his own soldiers as "prisoners". The same evening Roose Bolton rides into Harrenhal, without a single casualty.
- Vaporware: A Dance With Dragons has been "forthcoming" in one way or another for close to 10 years. Martin noted in the afterword to A Feast For Crows that it would be due out "next year"... which was 2005. Four years of promised then missed deadlines later and even a 2010 publication date for Dance is looking sketchy at best.
- Villainous Incest
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: In what's probably a form of glamour, the Faceless Men.
- The Wall Around The World: The Wall serves double trope duty, both as the edge of the world to the North for the Westerosi, and the edge of the world to the South for the Wildlings.
- Wham Episode: The end of A Storm of Swords.
- What Could Have Been: The five-year timeskip.
- White Haired Pretty Boy: Rhaegar Targaryen, Daemon Targaryen, and Ser Brynden Rivers.
- White Haired Pretty Girl: Daenerys Targeryen.
- The White Prince: Joffrey Baratheon, of the cruel bully variety.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Sandor Clegane and fire.
- Wide Eyed Idealist: Sansa. Boy, does she pay the price...
- With My Hands Tied: Jaime Lannister.
- The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask: Daenerys after some developement.
- World Half Empty: Totally justified; unlike many examples of this trope, the world wasn't too bad until a civil war with FIVE major combatants broke out.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Sansa.
- Xanatos Gambit: Pretty much everything involving Littlefinger, including the War of the Five Kings (maybe).
- Xanatos Funeral: Tyrion, although subverted since he doesn't actually die. During his second trial, he arranges matters so that if he dies, Dorne will become extremely unhappy. In the end, several people in Dorne became dissatisfied enough to cause a great deal of trouble, attempting to start a war with the Iron Throne.
- That doesn't really do it justice. Tywin arranged for House Tyrell and House Martell to be his chief allies despite the fact that they'd been at war for centuries. The way Tyrion arranged it, Tyrell and Martell would be at war again regardless, and either Tyrion would live (and piss off House Tyrell) or he would die (and piss off House Martell). Either way, he shoots a hole through Tywin's alliance.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Part of Littlefinger's strategy is simply fomenting chaos and reacting to opportunities as they present themselves.
- Yank The Dogs Chain: Just when it ACTUALLY looks like Oberyn Martell is going to kill Gregor Clegane...
- You Cant Fight Fate: Cersei's prophecy, from the looks of things.
- You Cant Go Home Again: Jon Snow, specifically, and then all of the Starks. Samwell Tarly and the rest of the Night Watch count too. Averted by Euron Greyjoy.
- You Fail Biology Forever: Apparently newly-hatched dragons (reptiles) have a suckling reflex and the ability to digest human milk, traits which are unique (among newborns at least) to mammals. Possibly justified as they are extremely magical creatures; in fact, when they went extinct, magic stopped working altogether, implying that the presence of dragons actually warps the nature of reality.
- You Fail Physics Forever: People can fire arrows from wooden bows at people on a wall 700 feet high and hit.
- You Say Girl Like A Bad Thing: A good part of the Sansa hate comes more from her girliness than anything else.
- Your Mileage May Vary : Dwarf sex, fat people sex, and breast feeding described in detail. Many fans have also criticized what they perceive as a misogynistic attitude present in the series.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The Others.
Tropes present only in the live-action adaptation
- Cue Cullen: The casting of Peter Dinklage as Tyrion. Sean Bean as Ned Stark probably didn't hurt any.
- Dawson Casting: All the major young characters are being aged up. This is a necessary evil, considering the amount of underage sex that goes on in the story, as well as the amount of screentime that will inevitably fall on the young actors' shoulders. Kit Harington and Tamzin Merchant, both 22 years old, are set to play Jon and Dany, who begin the series at 14 and 13, respectively.
- Partially averted by the TV series taking place in a slightly different continuity, with Jon aged up to 17 and Dany up to 15. The author has said he now wishes he'd made all the younger characters at least a few years older, as the books have not covered as much time as he originally envisaged they would (two years as opposed to the seven he thought the first four books would cover) and the characters' young ages are problematic.
- Large Ham: Ian Mc Neice has been cast as Illyrio...
- Non Actor Vehicle: The well-known neo-medieval folk band Corvus Corax is contributing at least one song to the show's soundtrack, and have been confirmed to be performing in the pilot episode as an unnamed fictional band of bards.
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