Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search
0 reviews
A Song Of Ice And Fire
alt title(s): So Ia F; A Game Of Thrones; A Clash Of Kings
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: Randyll Tarly, and especially Tywin Lannister, whose horrible treatment of his son went far beyond the Moral Event Horizon.
    • 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.
  • Accidental Marriage: Well, what passes for marriage for the wildlings anyways. Female wildlings will only stay with a man if he's able to capture her. Jon Snow captured Ygritte and was unable to kill her when commanded to. She took that to mean that he wanted her and therefore chased after him until he was finally forced to give in.
  • 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.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: All over the place, including asymmetry in nonromantic relationships (lots of children feeling unloved).
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: A large number of characters, specifically Catelyn, Stannis and Daenerys.
  • Ancestral Weapon: Ice, of House Stark; Dawn, of House Dayne, and Heartsbane, of House Tarly.
  • 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 choosing 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 repeats frequently, but does not understand its meaning. Ultimately she learns that it means "All men must die," the motto of the Faceless Men.
    • The phrase "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.
  • A Real Man Is A Killer
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • Tyrion was expected to consummate, he just couldn't bring himself to.
  • 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 Brave Companions/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.
  • 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.
  • Bad Moon Rising: The red comet is widely considered an omen, but everyone interprets it differently.
  • Barbarian Tribe: 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 may be 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.
  • Becoming The Mask: Arya's apprenticeship at the House of Many-Faced God (that is, death) requires that she cast off her identity. She can't complete the process, as a part of her is still running around Westeros.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jaime and Brienne.
  • 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 loathsome 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 blood sacrifices or her burning people alive.
  • The Blacksmith: Gendry.
  • Blondes Are Evil and Blond Guys Are Evil: Invoked with Joffrey, Cersei, and Tywin. Jaime plays the role to the hilt in the first book, being a cocky, vain, and murderous bastard. Interestingly, the start of his trend towards Heel Face Turn coincides with a head shave, though he grows it back later.
  • 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 to vent his rage, but he does not seem to 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. Sandor and Sansa 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, ends 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 and Aeron Damphair were both examples before their religious awakenings.
  • 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 and Arya again, at the same time as their 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 White Haired Pretty Boys 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 snaps), 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.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Some of the guns have been fired, many more are primed to go off at any moment, and there's at least one cannon that everyone's been waiting on for a while now.
  • 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 Tywin interfered. Doran Martell has been moving his pieces into place for the better part of twenty years.
  • 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, calling him "Kingslayer," but it's something of an undeserved reputation. He had considerable justification for his regicide, and he shows great loyalty on a number of occasions.
    • It's rather endemic throughout Westeros.
    • But especially Petyr Baelish. It's a wonder that anyone still trusts him after all the knives he's lodged firmly in his allies backs.
  • 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: Noble houses in Westeros share physical traits and generally wear similar hats. The free folk have literal clans, most with some distinguishing feature or custom.
  • Cliff Hanger: The ending of A Storm of Swords.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Lysa Tully.
  • Coitus Interruptus
  • 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:
    • Joffrey Baratheon shows all the signs of a complete psychopath. As a young child, he would butcher pregnant cats, and it's implied he abused his younger siblings. 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.
    • 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 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 (like Gregor Clegane, he's implied to "hunt" and rape peasant girls even in peacetime). 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 so far.
    • The Brave Companions (the Bloody Mummers when their backs are turned) are an entire regiment of Psycho For Hire Complete Monsters. Led by the Evilly Affable Vargo Hoat, their only member who is even close to sympathetic is the priest...because he at least feels bad about his penchant for raping and killing young boys.
  • 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 - who becomes a literal Knight Templar.
  • 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.
  • 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 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 to Eddard. The unnamed sister of Sandor Clegane.
  • 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 Tywin 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.
  • 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.
  • Development Hell: A Dance With Dragons - leading some fans to call Fallen Creator.
  • 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.
    • Sandor Clegane is also extremely popular despite his violent behavior. He is a very gray character and a real Bad Ass, which certainly helps.
  • Dragon Rider: Hasn't happened yet in present-day Westeros, but did occur historically.
  • 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 the blaze goes out of control, the labyrinth is to slow its progress, and the experiment rooms are situated below rooms full of sand that are 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.
    • Epileptic? They've got red leaves and white bark: They're albino.
  • 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. Tyrion 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.
  • Evil Detecting Dog: The direwolves.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Others.
  • Evil Is Dumb: Viserys, Joffrey, Theon, and Cersei. Averted a lot by Tywin and Littlefinger.
  • Evil Matriarch: Cersei Lannister.
  • Evil Old Folks: Walder Frey, Olenna Tyrell, Craster.
  • Evil Redheads: Melisandre.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Euron and Melisandre, to a Nightmare Fuel extreme.
  • Evilly Affable: Vargo Hoat might lead a mercenary 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 an end that is pure High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
  • 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, and even thinks of becoming a real defector. The turning point is when the Wildling chieftain tries to make Jon execute an innocent civilian.
  • Fallen Princess: Sansa Stark and Margaery Tyrell.
  • Fan Nickname: Un-Cat, Gregorstein/Qyborg/Franken-Gregor. The "Tower of Joy" is generally treated like a proper name to a tower and an incident there, though the phrase comes from an offhand description.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Dothraki are vague analogues for Mongols. The Free Cities are loosely based on the medieval Italian city-states, with Braavos being a City Of Canals like Venice. The regions of Westeros are the North (Scotland, especially beyond the Wall), the Iron Islands (Ireland/Scandinavia), the Riverlands (North France/Brittany), the Vale (Alps/Holy Roman Empire), the Westerlands (England), the Stormlands (North Italy), the Reach (South France/Provence), and Dorne (Moorish Spain). The continent as a whole has many similarities to Britain, including waves of conquering cultures, a wall up in the cold north to keep out barbarians.
  • Fatal Flaw: Eddard and Robb's Honor Before Reason.
  • Feed The Mole: Tyrion tries this with several people he believes are in the employ of Cersei.
  • 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. The feuding Stark and Lannister families sound noticeably similar to the historical York and Lancaster families.
  • Field Promotion
  • 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: Sometimes 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.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Euron and Melisandre, to a Nightmare Fuel extreme.
  • Genre Shift: The Hedge Knight.
  • Gentle Giant: Hodor, and to an extent, Small Paul. Fantastically averted with Gregor Clegane.
  • Get Thee To A Nunnery: Used deliberately, due to the story's 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:
    Varys: "You can match the queen coin for coin, but she has a second purse that is quite inexhaustible."
  • Gilded Cage: Arianne Martell, for a time. Sansa starts in one which rapidly deteriorates.
  • The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry: Sansa and Arya Stark, taking it so far it almost becomes Cain And Abel.
  • 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: Jon Snow has good scars, Sandor Clegane evil ones.
  • Good Shepherd: The wandering priest, Septon Meribald, who is encountered by Brienne in the fourth volume.
  • Grim Up North: The Wall is there for a reason.
  • The Grotesque: Tyrion Lannister, Sandor Clegane, and 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 is this to Jon Snow.
  • 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," because it makes a deliberate effort at having realistic medieval linguistics.
  • 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 wildlings explicitly favor those "kissed by fire" as lucky.
  • Heroic Albino: Ghost, Jon Snow's albino direwolf companion.
  • Heroic Bastard: Jon Snow, whose parentage os subject to wild mass guessing by the fanbase.
  • 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.
    • The Red Wedding especially Catelyn's insanity just before she dies. Sweet Jesus, that bit just about borders on Nausea Fuel in the extreme as well.
  • 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: Samwell Tarly is a homage to Samwise Gamgee, the fat best friend of the protagonist. 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.
    • Daenerys' marriage to Khal Drogo is a possible homage to the Nibelungenlied legend, where Grimhild marries Attila the Hun in order to avenge her heroic brother Siegfried's death.
  • Honor Before Reason: Eddard Stark.
  • Hope Spot: Two in the third book. 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: All wildlings are The Barbarian Horde to the people in the Seven Kingdoms, though it turns out that the Others were the real threat all along.
  • Horrible Judge Of Character: Eddard Stark and Lysa Arryn. Cersei is a slight subversion in that she may be easily be distrusting the wrong people. Sansa Stark starts off this way, but shows improvement later on.
  • 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. Note that the horse is actually a massive, barded war destrier...it's just that Gregor is so big he makes it look like a pony.
  • Humiliation Conga: Tyrion Lannister, Theon Greyjoy and Samwell Tarly live this trope, but A Clash of Kings proves to be this for the Lannisters in general, and A Strom of Swords is this for the Starks.
  • 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.
  • Inferred Survival: Sandor Clegane.
  • 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.
  • In Love With Love: Ned suggests that despite Robert's epic love for her, he really didn't know Lyanna that well as a person.
  • 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 Has Only Just Begun
  • 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 and Ramsay Bolton...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.
    • Arya Stark is a sympathetic character who is still fairly heroic, but she's also become quite a cold-blooded killer.
  • Killed Off For Real: Eddard 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.
  • The Lady's Favour: Catelyn gave one to Brandon before he went to duel Petyr Baelish, though in this case there is no real possibility that her hero won't come back in one piece.
  • 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 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.
  • Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places: Tyrion, down to the lack of parental affection.
  • 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: The vast weirwood forests in the north, especially those with white 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 At First Sight: A glory drunk Ser Jorah Mormont falls for fair Lynesse Hightower from afar, but life is not a song.
  • 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 again.
  • Lying To The Perp: Tyrion uses this to ferret out the three traitors in his midsts: Littlefinger, Varys, and Grand Maester Pycelle. He gets ample dirt on each of them but only manages to trap Pycelle, the least-dangerous of the trio; and even then he's quickly reinstated by Tywin.
  • Mad Love: The eventually loony Lysa Tully Arryn, whose terrible taste in suitors makes her an easy pawn for Petyr Baelish.
  • The Magic Comes Back: And does it ever. George RR Martin has stated many times that he prefers Magic Realism over flashy spells, but with dragons hatching, people rising from the dead, and the shadow babies of Melisandre, there's no doubting the existence of at least some sort of magic.
  • Magic Realism: Most of the magic in the series fits here.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Tyrion Lannister, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, 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 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.
    • Of course, Catelyn also gets her son's army across the Green Fork, advises him rightly about Theon Greyjoy, and brings in Brienne of Tarth who is the only one of good intention looking for Robb's heirs, so not only is she more sympathetic, she also has more successes than people seem to want to credit her for.
  • 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. Samwell Tarly even says it outright when he dismisses the stories of "ancient kings who lived for hundreds of years, and knights riding around centuries before there even were knights".
  • 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 sellsword.
  • 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, and kills several people he grew up with. His most heinous deed is when he murders the miller's two young boys, (the younger one possibly his own son) and spiked their tarred heads to his gate to cover up the escape of Bran and Rickon Stark.
    • 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.
  • The Mourning After: Tywin is forever hardened after wife Joanna's death. Hoster Tully is also never quite the same. Robert, one of the most epic cases, goes so far as to call Cersei "Lyanna" on their wedding night. And then there's Petyr Baelish, whose fixation on Catelyn Tully leads to outright creepy consequences .
  • 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.
  • Murder The Hypotenuse: Littlefinger's role in Eddard Stark's fate may fall somewhere between this and plain old opportunistic placement alongside a Death Of The Hypotenuse. Some fans believe he had a little Romancing The Widow action in store before fate forced a change of plans.
  • My Beloved Smother: Cersei Lannister and Lysa Arryn.
    • Contended point of interpretation. As Olenna Tyrell says, "All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers." The author may be invoking the unfortunate dismissal of mothers through his characters and society without necessarily condoning it. The only unmitigated criticism seems to actually come with Lysa Arryn.
  • My Master Right Or Wrong: Most of the Kingsguard.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: In the climactic duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane, Oberyn is out to avenge his sister's murder. It ends with Gregor gloating over his horrible crime and re-enacting it on Oberyn, though Gregor ultimately dies an agonzing death from Oberyn's poison.
  • My Nayme Is: Eddard, Petyr, 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 Hound, the Mad King, 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 Brotherhood Without Banners with undead Catelyn, the House of the Undying, Ramsay Bolton's atrocities, the carnage at Harrenhal, and Melisandre's shadows. Even scenes that aren't scary tend to be very unpleasant depending on your sensitivity. Overly graphic scenes of dwarf sex and a six year old sucking on his mother's tits don't lend themselves to pleasant dreams.
  • 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 Doom of Valyria. 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 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 H'ghar" 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.
  • Offstage Villainy: Done chillingly well with Ramsay Bolton. He is already the biggest Complete Monster in the series and a source of High Octane Nightmare Fuel, but his single appearance so far (while not in the "Reek" disguise) was in one chapter at the end of the second volume. However, he also appears in a spoiler chapter from A Dance With Dragons.
  • Old Master: Ser Barristan Selmy, Syrio Forel and Jeor "Old Bear" Mormont.
  • One Liner: "There are no men like me. There's only me".
  • The One That Got Away: Lyanna, for Robert. Tysha, for Tyrion. Catelyn, for Littlefinger. Lynesse Hightower, for Jorah Mormont.
  • 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 Genna's 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 (by shooting with his crossbow into the crowd).
  • 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: There are many named sellsword companies. Each with their own traditions and reputation, ranging from scum like the Brave Companions to the elite Golden Company. The world is also filled with independent sellswords who bounce from job to job. Bronn is the series's most notable sellsword.
  • Promotion To Parent: Robb Stark, who fails for the most part.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Dothraki and arguably the wildlings.
  • 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-flashback in the House of the Undying about her dead brother Rhaegar. This is also the only scene so far where the words "the song of ice and fire" are spoken in the books.
  • 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 are a particularly notable example, being made up of rapists, perverts, sadists, a cannibal, an Evil Clown, and other psychopaths.
  • Punctuation Shaker: Jaqen H'ghar, amongst others.
  • Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits: The Night's Watch, The Brave Companions, and The Brotherhood Without Banners
  • 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.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses: A good part of the Sansa hate comes more from her girliness than anything else.
  • Reassigned To Antarctica: The Night's Watch often serves this purpose for criminals, disgraced ex-soldiers and Black Sheep members of noble houses.
  • Reassignment Backfire: Happens to several characters who are sent to join the Night's Watch.
  • Red Right Hand: Sandor Clegane's scars and Tyrion's deformity cause most people to assume that they're monsters. Although both can be pretty brutal when they want to be, they ultimately subvert the trope.
  • The Red Sonja: Wildling women believe that a man must be able to kidnap her to be worthy of marrying.
  • 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: Doubtful. Melisandre believes her powers are from the red god R'hllor, but she was a "shadowbinder" long before she entered Stannis' service.
  • The Remnant: The Brotherhood Without Banners, post-Beric.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Sansa for her rescuer and mentor Petyr Baelish due to her striking resemblance to Catelyn, his illfated love . Ser Jorah confesses to Daenerys that she reminds him of Lynesse. Cersei's musings on Aurane Waters include comparisons (of whim-dependent favorability) to Rhaegar. Renly actually hopes that Margaery could act as one for Robert, who is still not over Lyanna.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • There's a reference to this running gag in the Dunk and Egg stories, but with dogs instead of goats.
  • Sacred Hospitality: The laws of hospitality are considered very important in Westeros. The legend of the Rat King suggests that the gods will take vengeance on those who break them. Catelyn urges Robb to request bread and salt from a hostile host as soon as possible to ensure that his stay is safe. It doesn't work. The Red Wedding is considered an audacious breach of feudal loyalty as well as 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 who 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. Many fans also suspect that 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.
  • Second Love: Eddard and Catelyn, depending on your interpretation. Brienne and Jaime coming on the heels of Renly's death and Cersei's philandering, respectively. Mostly, though, nobody ever moves on.
  • Secret Relationship: Jaime and Cersei, since incestuous adultery doesn't go over well.
  • 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 Iron Man, there are heraldic sigils in Tywin Lannister's army referencing the Blue Beetle, Green Arrow and other comic book characters as well. Three soldiers who escort Catelyn to the Eyrie are references to The Three Stooges in name and appearance.
  • 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: Played ambiguously with Samwell "The Slayer" Tarly, who is a self-confessed "craven," but manages to kill an Other mostly by luck. Over the course of the series, he shows more initiative and bravery, but is still far from a badass.
  • 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: The idea of regular men turning into killers and rapists before returning home and being good husbands and fathers again is openly discussed a few times. The soldiers in Gregor Clegane's war band are a perfect example of this, since at least Raff the Sweetling is a Punch Clock Villain and a likeable guy when Gregor is not around. Of course, Gregor is just like that all the time.
  • Speech Impediment: Vargo Hoat's slobbery lisp. This is the main reason why he is Evilly Affable.
  • Squick: The series is known for its grittiness, gore, and creepy sex scenes. Often the squick is played for black humour.
    • Some people really react poorly to the sex scenes involving Tyrion. Other than him being an ugly dwarf, however, they're pretty normal.
    • 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.
    • Littlefinger and his creepy obsession with Sansa Stark, which is wrong on so many levels.
  • Star Crossed Lovers: According to various fan theories, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and Eddard Stark and Ashara Dayne.
  • The Starscream: It's a standard situation of the feudal Westerosi society that smaller houses will often try to usurp or bring down the greater houses to which they are sworn. House Frey is sworn to House Tully, but frequently tries to throw its weight around, and during a past war witheld its support until Tully was sure to win. House Stark has engaged in a thousand-year struggle with House Bolton over control of the North. At the beginning of the series, Bolton is sworn to Stark, but they clearly don't want to stay that way. Ultimately both houses betray their sworn overlords in a single gambit.
  • 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: Anguy the Archer of the Brotherhood Without Banners, and Aggo, one of Dany's bloodriders. Theon Greyjoy also seems to favor his bow.
  • 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.
  • Sword Fight: Since this is fantasy after all, it happens in every book.
  • Sympathetic POV: Jaime Lannister becomes a lot more sympathetic after he becomes a POV character. Reactions are mixed whether Cersei receives the same benefit.
  • 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 hilarious discussion between Dany and the Good Masters of Astapor when she goes to buy an Unsullied army.
  • 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: Many, many examples. Also, any time you see Sandor Clegane 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." Jaqen, at least as Jaqen, refers to everyone almost exclusively in the third person, and not with pronouns — he is always "a man," Arya "a girl," et cetera.
  • 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.
    • The title of A Game of Thrones is dropped in Cersei's quote at the top of this page.
  • Thwarted Coup De Grace: Oberyn's apparent victory over Gregor Clegane, and Biter's attack on Brienne.
  • Too Cool To Live: Syrio Forel so much.
  • 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 and a Punch Clock Villain.
    • 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 cruel 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.
  • Ugly Cute: Brienne elicits sympathy from Catelyn, and from many readers, for the combination of her impossibly brutish looks and resolutely romantic outlook.
  • Ugly Guy Hot Wife: Jorah (he's not ugly, but he's plain) and Lynesse, which does not end well. Ned (also plain) and Catelyn, which does. Tyrion (actually ugly) and Sansa, which is a possible subversion of Give Geeks A Chance. Lysa felt this way about the old and onion-breathed Jon Arryn, though she ultimately lets herself go. Robert and Cersei, after he lets himself go. Partly a reflection of the woes of women in this society, but could also be partly because of other things. May explain the popularity of the rare reversal, the Jaime/Brienne pairing.
  • 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.
    • Though if they aren't a viewpoint character or it's the last few hundred pages of the book; all bets are off.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Whip It Good: Jhogo.
  • 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 Are In Command Now: Jon, when everyone of rank on the Wall is either dead, absent or incapacitated.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Cersei's prophecy, from the looks of things.
  • You Can't 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.
  • Youngest Child Wins: Largely averted except for the case of Dickon Tarly, who's birth provided his father Randyll Tarly an excuse to disinherit his firstborn, Samwell. Whether Daenerys Targaryen "wins" or not is still up in the air, but most other youngest children (Tyrion, Renly, Sandor, Lyanna, Rickon, Theon, et al.) get screwed over quite handedly.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: The Others.

Tropes present only in the live-action adaptation

  • And The Fandom Rejoices: 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 McNeice 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.

TerminatorTrope OverdosedGrand Theft Auto
Something Wicked This Way ComesLiteratureThe Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries
new edits
forum
page history
edit page
view source
discuss
Creative Commons License
This wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.