History YMMV / AStormOfSwords

** For a lot of readers, Jaime Lannister, whom many held with contempt for his previous actions was virtually redeemed in their eyes as he becomes a POV character and we finally get an insight into his mind where he seems to regret every single thing he's done. After his rock road throughout the book which also includes [[spoiler: losing his sword hand]] and his character development, he's on a lot of reader's top 5 favorite character list.

* {{Squick}}: Tywin Lannister in the end of book three is [[spoiler:shot in the gut with a crossbow while sitting naked on the privy, and takes a postmortem dump. Tyrion later suggests that shit was dripping from the wound.]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Jeyne Westerling. She's a girl from enemy territory whom Robb married and fell in love with all because she slept with him after a siege, therefore jeopardizing his relationship with House Frey. Do we get any insight into her character, details about her relationship with the King in the North beyond sleeping with him, any interaction with Lady mother Catelyn? No, unfortunately.

* HolyShitQuotient: The highest in the series, with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, the Red Viper vs. the Mountain, Ygritte's death, the battle for the Wall, Tyrion's murder of Tywin and Shae, and Sam killing an Other, Tyrion killing Tywin, Littlefinger being the BigBad of the first three books]], to name a few.

* HolyShitQuotient: The highest in the series, with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, the Red Viper vs. the Mountain, Ygritte's death, the battle for the Wall, Tyrion's murder of Tywin and Shae, and Sam killing an Other, Tyrion killing Tywin, Littlefinger being the BigBad of the first three books], to name a few.

* HolyShitQuotient: The highest in the series, with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, the Red Viper vs. the Mountain, Ygritte's death, the battle for the Wall, Tyrion's murder of Tywin and Shae, and Sam killing an Other]], to name a few.

* HolyShitQuotient: The highest in the series, with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, the Red Viper vs. the Mountain, Ygritte's death, the battle for the Wall, Tyrion's murder of Tywin and Shae, and Sam killing an Other]], to name a few.

** Beric Dondarrion's fight with Sandor was yet another highlight from the book and as such he's got a respectable fanbase himself [[spoiler: despite the fact like Oberyn, he too dies in this book....after six times before]]

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Walder Frey and Roose Bolton]] both crossed this with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding. Walder crosses it for having Robb and his bannermen murdered for the petty excuse of Robb breaking a marriage vow and for laughing as the entire thing unfolded and Roose Bolton for personally killing Robb himself]].

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: You'll be hard pressed to find a single reader who doesn't say this book is jam-packed full of these from start to finish
** Beric Dondarrion VS The Hound and Oberyn Martell VS Gregor Clegane are considered the two best duels in the series thus far.
** No doubt virtually the entire fanbase after years and two books prior were more than overjoyed [[spoiler: to watch as Joffery Baratheon died a slow and painful death]]. Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny considering [[spoiler: it's at his own wedding and seeing him squirm after all the damage he's caused]].
** Arstan Whitebeard? More like [[spoiler: BARRISTAN MOTHERFUCKING SELMY!!!]]
** Olenna Redwyne [[spoiler: looking out for the safety of her granddaughter and plotting the death and poisoning of Joffery with a little help from Littlefinger.]] Best part? [[spoiler: No one knows she's behind any of it]].
** Arya Stark [[spoiler: reclaiming Needle and killing The Tickler herself]]. Even more awesome as she [[spoiler: recites The Tickler's series of questions he would ask whenever he tortured somebody]] as she does it.
** Tyrion Lannister is the champion of this gaining two moments in the same scene in which [[spoiler: he chokes that lying whore Shae with the hand of the king's chain after she falsely testified against him in court]] AND [[spoiler: finally stands up to Tywin himself and murders the selfish bastard by crossbow to the groin]]. Tyrion manages to gain a CrowningMomentOfFunny as well as he proves once and for all [[spoiler: Tywin Lannister in the end did not shit gold]].
** Jon Snow [[spoiler: becoming the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]]
** Dany [[spoiler: buying the Unsullied, turning them against the masters, and then freeing them, at which point they join her and become her army.]]
** Littlefinger [[spoiler: tossing crazy old Lysa Aryn out the moon door after she attempted to kill Sansa and revealed she was the one that had poisoned Jon Aryn]]. A villianous example as [[spoiler: it was he who convinced her to do it and is the orchestrator behind everything]] , but it's just too awesome.
** [[spoiler: Catelyn Stark brought back from death by Beric Dondarrion's Kiss of Fire, taking leadership of the Brotherhood Without Banners, and hanging both Peytr and Merrett Frey for their parts in the Red Wedding that got her and Robb killed. Walder Frey, Roose Bolton, and all villains beware, hell hath no fury than a vengeful mother on a killing spree!]]
** Stannis Baratheon showing up with his army to [[spoiler: [[TheCavalry save what's left of the Night's Watch from the wildling siege]] ]] and Sam [[spoiler: [[DidYOuJustPunchOutCthulhu killing an Other]] ]] are also pretty awesome.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Walder Frey and Roose Bolton]] both crossed this with [[spoiler: the Red Wedding. Walder crosses it for having Robb and his bannermen for the petty excuse of Robb breaking a marriage vow and for laughing as the entire thing unfolded and Roose Bolton for personally killing Robb himself]].

** Aristan Whitebeard? More like [[spoiler: BARRISTAN MOTHERFUCKING SELMY!!!]]

* Doorstopper: GRRM's claim that this book is longer than LordOfTheRings (it isn't) wouldn't be so bad if ''anything happened'' in the first 500 pages. In contrast, the last 400 pages are a Complete BloodBath, with one Shocking Twist after another.

* Doorstopper: GRRM's claim that this book is longer than LordOfTheRings (it isn't) wouldn't be so bad if ''anything happened'' in the first 500 pages. In contrast, the last 400 pages are a Complete BloodBath.

* Doorstopper: GRRM's claim that this book is longer than LordOfTheRings (it isn't) wouldn't be so bad if ''anything happened'' in the first 500 pages. In contrast, the last 400 pages are a Complete Bloodbath.

** Beric Dondarrion VS The Hound and Oberyn Martell VS The Hound are considered the two best duels in the series thus far.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Oberyn Martell to the max for many readers of this book. His bout with Gregor is often herald the best duel in the series thus far and Oberyn himself is seen as a {{Lovable Sex Maniac}} whom despite being a bit of a {{Jerk Ass}} initially at Tyrion's wedding opts to champion for him to fight his sister's killer. The fact he's so popular even [[spoiler: after he dies not long after being introduced]] speaks volumes of his character.

* CompleteMonster: Both [[spoiler: Walder Frey and Roose Bolton]] crossed the {{Moral Even Horizon}} for [[spoiler: their roles in the Red Wedding]] . It was such disproportionate retribution on [[spoiler: Walder Frey's]] part to [[spoiler: kill Robb]] simply because he [[spoiler: broke a marriage pact]] and on [[spoiler: Roose's]] end for [[spoiler: killing Robb]] himself.