History YMMV / ASongofIceandfire

** "Oh sweet summer child" [[labelnote:Explanation]]A phrase from the books used to lightly mock the naivete of new readers who still haven't figured out how bad things are going to get.[[/labelnote]]

** Howland Reed's shotgun. [[labelnote:Explanation]]Thus far it hasn't been explained how Howland helped defeat the famed swordsman Arthur Dayne. Redditors have decided this means he [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight blasted him with a shotgun]], and provide "evidence" by inserting lines mentioning the shotgun into quotes from canon.[[/labelnote]]

** Theon Greyjoy has been shipped with: Theon/Catelyn, Theon/Roose, Theon/Ramsay ([[{{Squick}} Yes, really]]), Theon/Asha, Theon/Myrcella, Theon/Jeyne Poole, Theon/Jeyne Westerling, Theon/Arya, Theon/Stannis, Theon/Barbarey Dustin, Theon/Cersei, etc.

** Some fans refer to certain characters with bastard surnames even if they don't canonically have them, such as "Gendry Waters" or "Satin Flowers". Only acknowledged bastards with at least one highborn parent are given a bastard surname.

*** The R+L=J hypothesis receives all it's strongest evidence in the first book, and subsequent books introduce more information that makes that hypothesis less likely and the other possibilities more so. Many fans believe that R+L=J seems too obvious and must be a red herring. GRRM asked Benioff and Weiss asked them who Jon Snow's mother was and they say he did not confirm it, he just smiled. GRRM may have chosen them because they would reinforce the red herring so readers will be surprised when they find out his parents are Benjen and Lyanna or Eddard and Ashara or one of the other strong contenders.

** Euron Greyjoy has so far only appeared in one book but he quickly became of the most popular villains with his awesome design, his incredible charisma, and how terrifyingly evil he is even by Ironborn standards. This increased exponetially with the release of The Forsaken preview chapter for ''Winds of Winter'', due to hinting at his higher ambitions and plans for achieving them, and being generally regarded by those who have read it as possibly the most NightmareFuel-inducing chapter ever written for the series, entirely due to Euron's presence and actions.

** Euron Greyjoy has so far only appeared in one book but he quickly became of the most popular villains with his awesome design, his incredible charisma, and how terrifyingly evil he is even by Ironborn standards. This increased exponetially with the release of The Forsaken preview chapter for ''Winds of Winter'', which hints at his higher ambitions and plans for achieving them, and is generally regarded by those who have read it as possibly the [[NightmareFuel single most chilling and terrifying chapter Martin has ever written]].

** Euron Greyjoy has so far only appeared in one book but he quickly became of the most popular villains with his awesome design, his incredible charisma, and how terrifyingly evil he is even by Ironborn standards.