History JerkassHasAPoint / GameOfThrones

** When Tommen is about to become king, Tywin gives him a talk about how everything he does must be dictated by wisdom, and wise people listen to their advisors for wisdom and expertise. It's entirely self-serving (he, himself, being Tommen's chief advisor) and horribly insensitive (he derides Joffrey's lack of wisdom, next to Joffrey's dead body). Still, every point he makes is entirely reasonable.

GameOfThrones/TropesA ([[AdaptationalAttractiveness/GameOfThrones Adaptational Attractiveness]], [[AdaptationalBadass/GameOfThrones Adaptational Badass]], [[AdaptationalHeroism/GameOfThrones Adaptational Heroism]], [[AdaptationalModesty/GameOfThrones Adaptational Modesty]], [[AdaptationalVillainy/GameOfThrones Adaptational Villainy]], [[AdaptationalWimp/GameOfThrones Adaptational Wimp]], [[AdaptationDistillation/GameOfThrones Adaptation Distillation]], [[AdaptationDyeJob/GameOfThrones Adaptation Dye-Job]], [[AdaptationExpansion/GameOfThrones Adaptation Expansion]], [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication/GameOfThrones Adaptation Explanation Extrication]], [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole/GameOfThrones Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole]], [[AdaptationNameChange/GameOfThrones Adaptation Name Change]], [[AdaptationPersonalityChange/GameOfThrones Adaptation Personality Change]], [[AdaptedOut/GameOfThrones Adapted Out]], [[AgeLift/GameOfThrones Age Lift]], [[AnimalMotifs/GameOfThrones Animal Motifs]], [[AscendedExtra/GameOfThrones Ascended Extra]], [[AssholeVictim/GameOfThrones Asshole Victim]], [[AsYouKnow/GameOfThrones As You Know]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesB ([[BadassBoast/GameOfThrones Badass Boast]], [[BaitAndSwitch/GameOfThrones Bait-and-Switch]], [[BullyingADragon/GameOfThrones Bullying a Dragon]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesCToD ([[CallBack/GameOfThrones Call-Back]], [[CanonForeigner/GameOfThrones Canon Foreigner]], [[CompositeCharacter/GameOfThrones Composite Character]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath/GameOfThrones Cruel and Unusual Death]], [[DeathByAdaptation/GameOfThrones Death by Adaptation]], [[DemotedToExtra/GameOfThrones Demoted to Extra]], [[DueToTheDead/GameOfThrones Due to the Dead]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesEToF ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment/GameOfThrones Establishing Character Moment]], [[FamousLastWords/GameOfThrones Famous Last Words]], [[FanDisservice/GameOfThrones Fan Disservice]], [[FantasyCounterpartCulture/GameOfThrones Fantasy Counterpart Culture]], [[Foil/GameOfThrones Foil]], [[Foreshadowing/GameOfThrones Foreshadowing]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesGToK ([[HateSink/GameOfThrones Hate Sink]], '''Jerkass Has a Point''') | GameOfThrones/TropesLToO ([[Leitmotif/GameOfThrones Leitmotif]], [[OhCrap/GameOfThrones Oh, Crap!]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesPToS ([[PragmaticAdaptation/GameOfThrones Pragmatic Adaptation]], [[RealityEnsues/GameOfThrones Reality Ensues]]) | GameOfThrones/TropesTToZ ([[WhamEpisode/GameOfThrones Wham Episode]])]]]]-]

* In "The Last of the Starks," Jaime scoffs at the idea of Bronn being Lord of the Reach because of his background. Thing is, the Reach is the most richest populous region of Westeros and their nobility are tied with the Vale for snobishness. Bronn getting all that and keeping it is unlikely, as Littlefinger's life showed.

** Stannis is practically the poster-child for this trope. While his demeanor is generally unsympathetic, he is usually right in his assesments.

* The High Sparrow is a homophobic and misogynistic religious zealot, and it shows during his conversation with Margaery, but he's not wrong that she needs to give the King an heir. If Tommen were to die without an heir, a Succession Crisis would occur, and when the mere question of Joffrey's legitimacy was enough to start the last one, leading to the War of the Five Kings and thousands of deaths, another one might well tear Westeros apart at the seams.

* The High Sparrow is a homophobic and misogynistic religious zealot, and it shows during his conversation with Margery, but he's not wrong that she needs to give the King an heir. If Tommen were to die without an heir, a Succession Crisis would occur, and when the mere question of Joffrey's legitimacy was enough to start the last one, leading to the War of the Five Kings and thousands of deaths, another one might well tear Westeros apart at the seams.

* The Spice King is rude and condescending, but when Daenerys asks for ships to get to Westeros he raises some very good points: namely, that she has no real strategy for retaking Westeros, just a belief that everyone will flock to her as the rightful queen and that her massive entitlement issues are not going to make people agreeable to doing her any favours.

* [[spoiler: An extreme example, but as smarmy and unbearable as he may be, Walder Frey's reason for turning on Robb does makes sense. Robb did break his deal with him. When Catelyn Stark begs for Robb's life by giving him her word, Frey is quick to point out that he has no reason to trust a Stark's word when they have already broken a promise in the past.]]

* Sansa tells her brother Jon Snow that he needs to give up on rescuing their [[spoiler:little brother, Rickon Stark]] from the [[TheDreaded Boltons]] because he's a DeadManWalking -- even though Jon's primary motivation for taking up arms against the Boltons was to rescue [[spoiler:his brother Rickon]] and protect his sister Sansa from [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]], while Sansa, herself, wanted to fight the Boltons in order to save [[spoiler:their brother Rickon]] and take back Winterfell.
** However, Sansa later tells Jon that they'll never be able to rescue [[spoiler:Rickon]] because he is a threat to Ramsay's rule [[spoiler:as a trueborn son of Ned Stark]] and as a result, [[spoiler:Rickon]] [[DeadManWalking won't live long]]. Jon insists they can't give up on [[spoiler:their brother.]] When Jon is presented with the chance of saving [[spoiler:Rickon]], he rides to rescue him [[spoiler:as Rickon runs for his life toward Jon]] away from {{sadist}} Ramsay, but Ramsay kills [[spoiler:Rickon]] right in front of Jon (just when Jon and [[spoiler:Rickon]] are just about to reach each other) -- letting Jon believe he had a chance to save [[spoiler:Rickon]] right up to the last second.\\

* Robert's plot to kill Daenerys is definitely very underhanded and fueled by his petty hatred of her entire family and fear, but Pycelle's point that a Dothraki invasion would also result in thousands of innocent deaths is quite persuasive. As Robert later pointed out to Cersei, if the Dothraki chose to invade Westeros with the Targaryens, the results would be catastrophic. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Even if the only reason they invade in the first place is because of the attempted assassination.]] It later becomes ProperlyParanoid, as [[spoiler:Daenerys managed to hatch something more dangerous than Drogo and his khalasar combined. And later on, Daenerys is the closest thing to TheUsurper to the Baratheon-Lannister regime. When she eventually comes to Westeros, several kingdoms ally with her to put her on the throne, which involves the Dothraki stampeding an army.]]

** Ebrose was also ultimately proven right about the impending threat to the White Walkers when he stated that the problem will be dealt with soon enough, without any help from the maesters, and it would vanish to the rears of history.

** When Robert demands to know what the Mad King's last words were when Jaime betrayed him, Jaime responds, "He said the same thing he'd been saying for hours. 'Burn them all.'" which tells the viewers that the death of this King was by no means a tragedy.

* The Spice King is rude and condescending, but when Daenerys asks for ships to get to Westeros he raises some very good points: namely, that she has no real strategy for retaking Westeros, just a belief that everyone will flock to her as the rightful queen.

* Qyburn, who was training to be a Maester until he was expelled from the Citadel for his "perversions", brings up a very good point that his experiments on people has made him the most competent Doctor in the Seven Kingdoms, as the Maesters in the Citadel are pedantically obsessed doing everything as they've always done things, thus leaving no room for improvement on outdated, inefficient treatments.
* In "The Last of the Starks," it becomes increasingly clear that Sansa does not trust Daenerys or want her on the Iron Throne, to the point at which Daenerys reasonably suspects that Sansa's decision to hold off on attacking Cersei is yet another attempt to undermine Daenerys. Sansa’s not wrong when she points out their armies(which includes Daenerys' people, as Sansa points out) are wounded and exhausted, and marching them south to fight another war after immediately and barely winning the last one without a chance to recover isn’t a good idea.
** Come "The Bells", Sansa ends up being right about not trusting Daenerys and deeming her unfit for the throne, as she massacres surrendering soldiers and innocent civilians in King's Landing despite having already won, proving herself no different from her father.
* Also from the above episode, Jaime scoffs at the idea of Bronn being Lord of the Reach because of his background. Thing is, the Reach is the most richest populous region of Westeros and their nobility are tied with the Vale for snobishness. Bronn getting all that and keeping it is unlikely, as Littlefinger's life showed.

** When Catelyn tries to insult him by calling him 'Kingslayer', notorious [[TheOathbreaker oathbreaker]] Jaime argues that the king in question was [[TheCaligula an insane monster]] and the [[ConflictingLoyalty numerous and contradictory vows]] knights swear make everyone an oathbreaker eventually. For instance, what if you've sworn to protect the king and defend the innocent, but the king massacres the innocent? Then Jaime points out that Ned Stark, while honourable, was not without his flaws either and Catelyn herself hardly fulfills the ideals of "Family, Duty, Honor" either, since she was never able to love Jon Snow, her husband's illegitimate son and an innocent child, and resented him. [[spoiler: Of course, this loses its effect once it turned out that Ned never broke his vows.]]
** When Ned and Jaime meet in the throne room, Jaime manages to counter all of Ned's criticisms pretty well. For instance, when Ned condemns him for stabbing the Mad King in the back, Jaime asks if he should have stabbed him in the front, exactly what Ned himself had been planning to do, and would have done if Jaime hadn't killed him. He also points out that, while Ned considers Jaime complicit in his father and brother's death, Jaime points out that the entire court, including Ned's WorthyOpponent Arthur Dayne, stood silently and watched it happen.

* Call it cowardly or selfish if you want, Bronn's betrayal of Tyrion did make sense. As he pointed out, he was getting a lot more in helping Cersei out. Even if he did fight for Tyrion, he had a very slim chance of winning against the Mountain. He also pointed out that it was unreasonable of Tyrion to demand him risk his life for him so many times when he never did the same for Bronn.

** Stannis is practically the poster-child for this trope. While his emeanor is generally unsympathetic, he is usually right in his assesments.

** Joffrey also rightfully accuses Tywin of being a DirtyCoward during Robert's rebellion, who only joined the war effort when it was all but decided.

* Ser Alliser Thorne is a brutal, petty and sadistic taskmaster who gives his recruits a TrainingFromHell. When Jon starts protecting Samwell Tarley, however, Alliser correctly argues that men of the Night's Watch need to be hard to survive, and that the other recruits' lives will depend on their brothers protecting them.

** When Robert demands to know what the Mad King's last words were when Jaime betrayed him, Jaime responds, "He said the same thing he'd been saying for hours. Burn them all." which tells the viewers that the death of this King was by no means a tragedy.

** When Bronn complains about not having a castle yet to Jaime, Jaime makes several good points about why owning a castle is not all that great. During times of war they are giant targets, and most of the revenue you earn in taxes would go to basic upkeep costs.[[note]]In the books it was noted that this was one of the main problems with Harrenhal (the other being the belief that the place is cursed). On paper the Lord was considered one of the most powerful lords in the Seven Kingdoms, but the giant size of it meant it was impossible to fully garrison and impossible to properly repair and maintain leading to the owners going broke trying.[[/note]]

* Ser Alliser Thorne treats his recruits cruelly, but given his [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty experience]] of how terrible the winters can be, he may have a point about how strong a man of the Night's Watch must be.

** When Robert demands to know what the Mad King's last words where when Jaime betrayed him, Jaime responds, "He said the same thing he'd been saying for hours. Burn them all." which tells the viewers that the death of this King was by no means a tragedy.

** And the same is true when the lords of the North meet again ''after'' Jon retakes Winterfell. She calls out her colleagues like Lord Cerwyn, who despite seeing his own father flayed alive by Ramsay refused to assist the Starks, as well as the Manderlys and Umbers, who similarly had reasons to resist Bolton rule.

* Rickard Karstark, a man who sought vengeance by killing two unarmed Lannister squires who were being held prisoner, is not exactly wrong in his criticism of Robb's leadership and how foolish it was of Robb to marry Talisa and thus forsake a vow made to Walder Frey, considering how much long term damage was done by Robb's poor choices. He is also right that it ''was'' foolish of Catelyn to free Jaime Lannister.
** And likewise, while Robb's decision [[spoiler: to execute him for that]] seemed like an abuse of power and cost him the Karstarks' support, he was nevertheless correct in doing so since Karstark ''had'' disobeyed orders and custom by killing the squires who, despite being prisoners, were still legally under Robb's protection.
** Theon's execution of Ser Rodrik also involves this trope. Yes, it showed up Theon as insecure and cowardly. But what else is a commander supposed to do to preserve order in the ranks when one of his nominal subordinates spits in his face in front of everybody?

** Despicable as it may be, Cersei's reneging on assisting the undead war is also logical. Daenerys has an army Cersei cannot withstand, and the implication is that the war will pick right up where it left off once the undead are dealt with. Best to let this usurper go it alone -- and whittle down her invincible army, hopefully losing a few dragons in the process -- so the Queen of the Iron Throne will stand a chance when the fighting resumes.
*** Though Jaime -- [[CharacterDevelopment even if he's far less of a jerkass at this point]] -- comes back with a good point of his own: if the White Walkers win, they'll march south and kill them (with their ranks bolstered by Jon and Dany's dead armies). If the Northern alliance defeats the White Walkers, they'll be pissed that Cersei was plotting against them, march south, and kill them in retaliation.