Game Of Thrones / Tropes P to S

Game of Thrones
Tropes A | Tropes B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to F | Tropes G to K | Tropes L to O | Tropes P To S | Tropes T to Z

Tropes with their own subpages:

• Pragmatic Adaptation
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome

P

• Paper Destruction of Anger:
  • Before King Robert dies, he dictates his will to his Hand, Lord Eddard Stark. Cersei rips it in pieces in front of the whole court and tosses it on the ground. She then orders to have Ned arrested because Ned found out that Cersei's son Joffrey is not Robert's true heir.
  • At a small council meeting, Cersei reads aloud Robb Stark's peace terms and then she tears the document up. Her brother Tyrion, acting Hand of the King, sarcastically compliments her that she perfected the art of tearing up papers.
  • Balon Greyjoy coldly throws a letter from Robb Stark, delivered by his son Theon, into fire. Balon has no desire to be Robb Stark's ally against the Lannisters. Instead, he means to raid the Northern coast controlled by the Starks.
  • As his wedding present to his nephew and king, Tyrion gives Joffrey a copy of the illuminated Lives of Four Kings, a book that is incredibly rare and priceless. Tywin Lannister gives his grandson a Valyrian steel sword; Joffrey, being the little shit that he is, loses it and immediately uses the blade to destroy the precious book and smashes it to shreds. One of the reasons is Joffrey's hatred for Tyrion.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: "Robert Strong", the newest member of the Kingsguard introduced in the season 5 finale. Despite wearing full plate armor that covers everything but his eyes and never speaking, his true identity (Gregor Clegane) should be obvious to anyone who sees him due to his great size. In Season 8's "The Bells", his rotting visage is finally revealed in all its horrific glory.
• Parental Abandonment: Many characters have dead or missing parents, including: Dany and Viserys, Jon, Bran, Tyrion, Cersei and Jaime, and a number of side characters.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Tywin Lannister favors Jaime (by manipulating him to do what Tywin wants), while generally ignoring or openly despising Cersei and Tyrion.
  • Catelyn Stark loves all her children, but has special affection for her daughter Sansa (whose hair she brushes personally) and her son Bran (whose injury causes her a Heroic BSoD).
  • Balon Greyjoy favors Yara over Theon because Theon spent half his life as a hostage of the Starks. Most of Theon's poor decisions are motivated by a desire to earn his father's respect.
  • Samwell Tarly's father forced him to join the Night's Watch so his younger son could become his heir.
• Parental Incest: Craster and his harem of daughter-wives.
• Party Scattering: The Starks, gradually. By Season 4, each has their own storyline and most are unsure if any of the others are even alive.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat:
  • The Lannisters in particular are masters of it.
  • In both "The Wolf and the Lion" and "Fire and Blood", Varys and Littlefinger have scenes that exemplify this trope.
  • The dinner scene with Cersei, Joffrey, Margaery and Loras in "Valar Dohaeris".
  • In "The Lion and the Rose", Jaime initiates a verbal confrontation with Loras, and Oberyn and Ellaria faces off against Tywin and Cersei.
  • Most of the Spice King's dialogue with Daenerys is this.
  • After Margaery's wedding to Tommen, her conversation with Cersei is filled with this. While smiling through pleasantries, Margaery implies that Cersei is an old drunk who has lost her power. Her handmaidens titter at each indirect slight. Cersei scowls through it all and takes a threatening step toward her, but remains equally civil on the surface.
  • Subverted in "Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken", where Cersei tries initiating this with Olenna only for Olenna to respond by blatantly insulting her to her face. Cersei is not amused.
  Cersei: Ah, yes, the infamous tart-tongued Queen of Thorns.
  Olenna: And the infamous tart Queen Cersei.
• Pass the Popcorn:
  • Walder Frey continues to slurp his wine while watching his men massacre Robb and his followers during Edmure's wedding.
  • After killing Osha, Ramsay goes back to eating the apple he was peeling.
• The Patriarch: All the major houses have one, of course, but Tywin Lannister wins the prize.
  Lord Tywin: The house that puts family first will always defeat the house that puts the whims and wishes of its sons and daughters first.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • Sansa feeds Ramsay to his dogs, as he did with so many of his own victims, including his own family.
  • Tyrion tells the three Slaver Lords that one of them must die for their treachery and attacking Meereen. Razdal and Belicho instantly volunteer Yezzan, who is the lowest caste. Instead, Grey Worm executes both Razdal and Belicho on the spot, sparing Yezzan.
• Peaceful in Death: Despite the horrific manner of his death, Renly's body looks remarkably at peace. When laid out in a regal and dignified way, Margaery can't resist mentioning how handsome he was, and Littlefinger agrees.
• Pensieve Flashback: The Three-Eyed Raven has Bran go through several of them to explore his family's past.
• People of Hair Color:
  • Although not racial, many noble houses are distinguished by their hair color.
    • This becomes a major plot point in Season 1 when the Baratheons' dominant tendency to black hair is enough to raise (perfectly correct) doubts about the parentage of King Robert's three blond children.
    • The Lannisters are jerkass blonds.
    • Platinum-white hair is the most distinctive feature of the Targaryens, who practiced Brother–Sister Incest for hundreds of years to maintain this unique feature.
    • The trope is also subverted by families like the Starks, who are all shades: Ned, Arya, and Bran are brown; Jon Snow is black; Catelyn, Sansa, and Robb are red or reddish-brown; and Rickon is dark blond.
  • Actors playing Dothraki vary fairly widely in their ethnic appearance, but they all have black hair.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage:
  • By "Lord Snow," Daenerys and Khal Drogo seem pretty damn happy together.
  • Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully as well, though it did not start that way.
  • Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey appear to be this at first, but it gets subverted when it turns out the Freys are just invoking this trope to catch their guests off guard.
• Personal Horror: In the episode "Hardhome," Jon Snow and the rest of the Night Watch and surviving Wildlings can only watch as the army of the dead grows by the almost 100,000 Wildlings they went to save.
• Pet Monstrosity:
  • The Stark children each get a direwolf pup that is soon capable of ripping out throats. Robb even becomes infamous among his enemies for taking his into battle. Fortunately, the wolves are also very loyal to their masters and generally don't attack without good reason. They do become aggressive if there really is a good reason, but their owners tend to ignore these warnings.
  • Daenerys's dragons are also this, though as they grow they begin to frighten even her.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After being portrayed as a Would Hurt a Child Jerkass bordering on irredeemable, Sandor Clegane protects Sansa several times during her imprisonment in King's Landing. And he later ends up protecting Arya.
  • Tywin Lannister has a few pet the dog moments when he unknowingly takes Arya as his cupbearer. His speech revealing why he never killed Tyrion as a child also humanizes him.
    • In probably the only perfectly straight example of this for Tywin, he covers Tommen’s eyes as Joffrey dies at the Purple Wedding.
  • Varys stops scheming for a moment to give Tyrion the only credit he'll receive for defending King's Landing from Stannis's invasion.
  • After four seasons of being a total asshole, Alliser Thorne has a brief heart-to-heart with Jon Snow in which he admits a mistake and explains that he's an asshole due to the necessities of wielding authority.
  • When Arya kills all the men of House Frey with poisoned wine, she makes sure that Lord Walder's latest wife doesn't drink any.
  • Drogo awards Jorah with a horse for saving Daenerys.
• Phallic Weapon: In "Dark Wings, Dark Words", Joffrey fires his crossbow from the hip, and the camera angle clearly implies this trope. This is after he has lovingly shown and described it to his fiancée, and he has already shown that he gets turned on by violence and killing.
• Phantom Limb Pain: Discussed in the episode "Mhysa". Ramsay trolls Theon whom he recently castrated with this: "People talk about phantom limbs, an amputee might have an itch where his foot used to be. So I've always wondered, do eunuchs have a phantom cock? Next time you think about naked girls, will you feel an itch?"
• Phrase Catcher: Thenns inspire other Wildlings to state, "I fuckin' hate Thenns!"
• Pinball Protagonist:
  • Arya Stark starts Season 2 with the goal of reuniting with her family, but is dragged all over the war-torn Riverlands by one group after another until a series of devastating disappointments lead her to abandon Westeros altogether.
  • As a valuable piece in the game of thrones, Sansa Stark is deliberately kept powerless, which forces her to always react to events rather than take action herself.
    • Until season six.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Lady Lyanna Mormont may be a 10-year-old girl, but she's wise beyond her years and does not mince words.
• Pity Sex: Inverted when Tyrion takes pity on Sansa by not having sex that would require exercising his Marital Rape License.
• Plague Zombie: Stone men are Technically Living Zombies inflicted with grescale who attack people and spread their disease.
• Planning for the Future Before the End: Jon Snow tells Ygritte that they will go back to their secret cave together. Her response is simply, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."
• Playing Drunk: Tyrion plays up his drunkenness, making very self-deprecating jokes, to get away with threatening the king.
• Playing with Syringes: Qyburn lost his maester's chain for experimenting on the living.
• Plot Armor:
  • Although GRRM has said he deliberately targets characters who should have plot armor, he has also stated that his reputation for killing characters is exaggerated. Primary characters frequently survive situations that require at least some plot armor and Adaptation Expansion sometimes adds or alters scenes in the TV series to require more plot armor for pacing or drama. Basically characters can certainly die, but Plot Armor will prevent them from dying anticlimactically.
  • Davos Seaworth survives the destruction of his ship, washes up ashore without drowning, and is picked up by Stannis loyalists before he can die of exposure.
  • Ramsay Snow fights and wins against an Ironborn raid without even wearing a shirt, despite the importance of armor being lampshaded in the previous episode.
  • A white walker and an army of wights completely ignore Sam and march on the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men. Furthermore, all of the named characters at the Fist of the First Men survive the attack.
  • In "Watchers on the Wall," Gilly sneaks past the wildlings to reach Castle Black, and sitting ducks like Sam and Olly are barely targeted.
  • In "The Battle of the Bastards," we follow Jon Snow through numerous close calls in which his life is often saved by pure luck.
  • "The Spoils of War" has Jaime avoid getting incinerated by Drogon despite being situated right next to soldiers that instantly get turned to ash through the dragon's flame attack. When it looks like Drogon is about to engulf him in flames at the close of the episode, Bronn manages to tackle him out of the way so that they both land in a river, making them the only soldiers on their side of the battle to end up neither killed nor captured by Daenerys and her Dothraki followers.
  • In "Beyond the Wall", out of the entire Band of 7 that ventured into the North at end of "Eastwatch", the only one who ends up dying is Thoros, one of the least-prominent members of the crew (though several other Red Shirt characters are killed off and both Benjen Stark and Viserion perish after coming to Jon Snow's rescue). The trope is exemplified through Tormund, who is overwhelmed by a dogpile of Wights that threaten to simultaneously rip him apart and drag him to the bottom of the lake before the Hound rescues him at the last second, and Jon, who falls into the frozen lake after failing to board one of Daenerys' dragons, doesn't die from the cold, and manages to survive getting swarmed by the oncoming White Walker troops when Benjen comes riding in just in time, out of the blue, and sends him away to safety on a horse of his own.
  • "The Long Night" is rather infamous for this. Despite the massive threat the Night King and his undead army poses and the horrendous causalties among the normal troops, almost all of the named characters gathered at Winterfell survive, with the exception of Edd, Beric, Jorah, Lyanna Mormont, Theon, and Melisandre.
• Plot-Triggering Death:
  • Jon Arryn's death is what causes Eddard Stark and his family to become tangled in the game of thrones.
  • The majority of Season 4's King's Landing arc stems from the death of King Joffrey.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: Tyene Sand insists that Bronn call her the most beautiful woman he's ever seen before giving him the antidote.
• Poisoned Drink Drop: After King Joffrey drinks the wine chalice offered to him by Tyrion, he starts coughing and choking, to the shock of the wedding guests. Joffrey drops the chalice and falls forward, as the wedding guests attend to him. After vomiting and bleeding out of his nose, he dies.
• Poke the Poodle: Tyrion's "confession" in the Eyrie describes a number of acts which, while not exactly innocent, are hardly the stuff villains are made of.
  "Where do I begin, my lords and ladies? I am a vile man, I confess it. My crimes and sins are beyond counting. I have lied and cheated, gambled and whored. I’m not particularly good at violence, but I’m good at convincing others to do violence for me. You want specifics, I suppose. When I was seven, I saw a servant girl bathing in the river. I stole her robe, and she was forced to return to the castle naked and in tears. If I close my eyes...I can still see her tits bouncing. When I was ten, I stuffed my uncle’s boots with goat shit. When confronted with my crime, I blamed a squire. The poor boy was flogged, and I escaped justice. When I was twelve, I milked my eel into a pot of turtle stew. I flogged the one-eyed snake. I skinned my sausage. I made the bald man cry into the turtle stew, which I do believe my sister ate — at least, I hope she did. I once brought a jackass and a honeycomb into a brothel—"
• Pokémon Speak: HODOR! It turns out that this isn't his real name. He just gets called this because it's all he says.
• Politeness Judo: Sansa's main weapon when she engages in Passive-Aggressive Kombat.
  "You're right, Your Grace, I'm stupid. Of course you'll be in the vanguard.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • Joffrey shows basically no respect for women (which is not much less than he shows anyone, really) and considers making homosexuality punishable by death.
  • His grandfather, Tywin Lannister, expresses similar disdain but does make the point that he distrust his daughter because she's a Smug Snake, not because she's a woman. He also does not approve of homosexuality, considering it a mental illness, but is more on the level of Pitying Perversion. He still views Ser Loras Tyrell as an extremely capable warrior who he had assisting him in leading the vanguard in the Battle of Blackwater and has no problem with him being in the Kingsguard for his grandson.
• Polyamory: Aegon the Conqueror was married to both of his sisters, Rhaenys and Visenya.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • The War of the Five Kings results at least partially from very poor communication between the Starks and the Lannisters when Catelyn arrests Tyrion with little evidence and without questioning him at all first. In addition, Cersei never even tries to explain to Ned Stark that she didn't actually kill Jon Arryn.
  • Since Rhaegar hadn't actually abducted Lyanna, but legitimately married her, the whole affair could have been solved more or less peacefully (or at least more peacefully than it ultimately went down). Alas, his batshit insane father insisted on killing Lord Stark and his older son instead, and so Robert's Rebellion was kicked off.
• Porn with Plot: It deserves a mention at least from the opinions of critics who coined the phrase "Sexposition" to refer to how the plot and characters get advanced through dialog during sex scenes. For bonus points, the day job of the extras working as prostitutes in the show's brothels, is as a porn star. In general, though, this reputation is highly exaggerated, since it focuses far more on political scheming and warfare.
• Portal Statue Pairs: Twin battling stallions form an archway over the entryway to the Dothraki capital city, Vaes Dothrak.
• Posthumous Character: Lyanna Stark, Joanna Lannister, Aegon I The Conqueror, Rhaegar Targaryen, "Mad" King Aerys Targaryen and Jon Arryn are among the characters mentioned frequently but already dead by the beginning of the series, though Arryn is seen briefly (lying in state) in the pilot episode.
• P.O.V. Cam: We get these when Stark kids are seeing through the eyes of a direwolf.
• The Power of Love: Averted horribly when Daenerys tries to use this to bring Khal Drogo out of a coma. Of course, it doesn't work, which is on par with the theme of the series.
• Praetorian Guard:
  • The Kingsguard are seven knights sworn to serve for life protecting the king. Traditionally they are supposed to be great warriors and paragons of chivalry, but few actually live up to this and like the real Praetorians one of them was responsible for the death of the previous king, though unlike them it has not become a habit.
  • Dothraki khals are attended by their bloodriders, but their Asskicking Leads to Leadership culture means they are Bodyguarding a Badass.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Has its own page.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Tywin Lannister perhaps embodies this the best, as he has no qualms with employing brutal men, but will berate them if they fall into Stupid Evil territory.
  • Roose berates Ramsay for torturing Theon For the Evulz, since Theon was more valuable as an intact hostage.
• Prank Date: Tyrion and his first wife Tysha met while she was fleeing from an attempted rape. Tyrion fell in love, and the two married. When Tywin arrives, he informs Tyrion that she is, in fact, a prostitute hired by Jaime in a prank now gone wildly out of hand. Then, to drive the point home, he makes Tyrion watch as his soldiers have their way with her, paying her a silver for each one. ^{In the books...}  It's later revealed that Tysha wasn't a whore, but rather a simple commoner who genuinely loved Tyrion, making the last part a brutal gang rape. This is never hinted at on the show, however.
• Prayer of Malice: Before she goes to sleep, Arya recites the names of those who have wronged her, all of whom she plans to kill.
• Precision F-Strike: Despite the show's copious sexual content and violence, characters actually are rarely heard swearing, so when one does utter, for example, the F-word (such as the Hound's Wham Line "Fuck the King!") it carries more impact. Many characters never even utter anything as strong as "damn".
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Daenaerys to the assembled Khal who have rejected her idea that the Dothraki could accomplish great things under her unified rule, because they don't want to serve anyone, much less a woman:

  I don't expect you to serve. I expect you to die. (lights the Khals on fire)

• Pretty Boy:
  • Ser Loras Tyrell; George R.R. Martin even described the character as "...the teen idol of Westeros." Sansa Stark has a crush on him because of his good looks. Two lowborn Lannister soldiers consider him to be prettier than the Queen. In "The Climb", Lady Olenna calls Loras "...the pride of Highgarden, the most desirable bachelor in all of the Seven Kingdoms."
  • Jon Snow is prettier than half of Craster's daughters, according to Craster himself.
  • Lancel Lannister.
  • Olyvar, Littlefinger's spy and brothel employee.
  • Tommen when played by Dean-Charles Chapman as of Season 4.
• Previously on…: Helps a little with the Continuity Lockout.
• Pride: In case the lion on their coat of arms and the motto "Hear me Roar!" didn't give it away, this is a unifying theme for the Lannisters. All of them have a subtly different take on it.
• Prince Charming
  • Deconstructed in Jaime Lannister. He's a handsome and brave knight, but the whole realm knows him for breaking his oath and stabbing his King in the back. On top of that, half the realm is convinced he's fathered all of his sister's children. After the War for the Iron Throne begins in earnest, he spends most of it trapped in a cell covered with mud before murdering his former squire to escape. It's only after losing his hand that he quits snarking and starts becoming a decent person - though only slightly more decent.
  • Joffrey Baratheon poses as this when he wants to woo Sansa early on. His true colours become apparent almost immediately after.
• Princess Classic: Deconstructed with Sansa and Margaery.
  • Sansa was raised by her mother to be the perfect princess and is eager to fulfill this role, only to find her Prince Charming is a petulant psychopath ruling over a Crapsack World.
  • Margaery is an astute politician and manipulator who puts on the persona of a charming and harmless princess to all and sundry. This has gained her the fanatical support of most of the common people, whom she's highly charitable with.
• Prisoner's Last Meal: Referenced in the fifth season episode "The Dance of Dragons". Following Jaime Lannister's arrest on his way to Dorne, Jaime is escorted by guards to speak with Prince Doran. When Doran brings Jaime a tray of food, Jaime quips if this is his last meal before he's beheaded, but Doran assures him he won't kill him, as he does not want to start a war.
• Private Military Contractors:
  • Davos hires his old friend, the notorious pirate Salladhor Saan, to provide additional ships for Stannis Baratheon.In Season 4, he also proposes hiring the expensive Golden Company to aid in Stannis' war.
  • Daenerys goes to Astapor to purchase Unsullied, eunuch slaves who are considered the finest soldiers in the world. Later she also meets up with the Second Sons, one of the many "Free Companies" utilized by the various cities and states of Essos.
  • Westeros is also filled with independent sellswords and hedge knights who bounce from job to job, most notably Tyrion's Lancer Bronn.
• Private Tutor:
  • Septa Mordane is this to Sansa and Arya.
  • Arya also learns Braavosi-style swordsmanship from Syrio Forel.
• Professional Killer:
  • Karl Tanner of Gin Alley, the leader of the Night's Watch mutineers, reveals that he was once a cutthroat who earned seven silvers per hit.
  • The Faceless Men, a guild of hired killers from Braavos capable of completely altering their faces (hence their name) are considered the best, and Arya meets one, who gives her three free kills in return for saving him and the two prisoners he was with.
  • Bronn admits that for the right money he'd kill anyone.
• Promoted to Scapegoat: The Freys and Boltons suffer this after the Red Wedding. Their reward of overlordship forces them to deal with the remaining Stark and Tully loyalists, the Brotherhood Without Banners, the Ironborn, and the devastation and crime spawned by the war, while the Lannisters recuperate at King's Landing.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: From season 2 and onwards, every actor added to the credits has previously been a recurring guest star in at least one season, with the exception of Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon), Carice Van Houten (Melisandre), and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell).
  • Season 2: John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), James Cosmo (Jeor Mormont), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Conleth Hill (Varys), Sibel Kekilli (Shae), and Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister).
  • Season 3: Oona Chaplin (Talisa Stark), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), and Joe Dempsie (Gendry).
  • Season 4: Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Snow), and Hannah Murray (Gilly).
  • Season 5: Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar), and Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton).
  • Season 6: Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow).
  • Season 8: Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm).
• Promotion to Parent: Viserys was this to Daenerys, but unfortunately of the abusive variety.
• Properly Paranoid: The wildlings' insistence that you ''must'' burn dead bodies to prevent them coming back as wights under the control of the White Walkers.
  • Probably also the same reason the Night's Watch ritually commits their dead's bodies to the flames, although they seem to have forgotten this.
  • In "No One", Blackfish is skeptical of Sansa's request that he abandon Riverrun and help her and Jon retake Winterfell, as not only does he not know Brienne, he hasn't seen Sansa since she was a little girl and doesn't know what her signature looks like.
  • By the finale of Season 8, Robert Baratheon's schemes to assassinate Daenerys Targaryen before she has an army and dragons seem downright logical when you see her burn King's Landing after it surrendered.
  • Likewise in Season 8, Daenerys refuses to eat after seeing Missandei executed by Cersei. Varys was attempting to poison in her food with one of his 'little birds' who worked in her kitchens.
• Prophet Eyes: Wargs, when they take on their Bond Creature's skin.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy:
  • The Dothraki live to conquer. They have no economy except gifts, tribute, and plunder, and defeat means a Traumatic Haircut. To them, any man who cannot ride is no man at all, and a dead khal is succeeded only by the strongest warrior(s) among his followers.
  • The ironborn take pride in being reavers. Traditionally, they do not wear jewelry not won in battle and prefer raiding to siegecraft and seamanship to horsemanship. The Greyjoy words, "We Do Not Sow," brag that they live by plunder rather than labour.
  • The wildlings believe that you take what you can get and keep what you can hold, which is why they fight each other as much as the Night's Watch and rarely present much of a threat to the Seven Kingdoms.
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • Viserys Targaryen and Joffrey Baratheon are both childishly petulant and vindictive.
  • Despite layers of The Vamp and Mama Bear, Cersei has never really outgrown being the little girl who had a servantgirl severely beaten for stealing a necklace.
  • Lysa Arryn throws tantrums like a spoiled child when things don't go her way and hides in the Eyrie in hopes the world will forget her.
  • While Littlefinger's plans are certainly mature, his main motivations seem to be his childhood affection for Catelyn Stark and his resentment of the limitations of his humble beginnings.
• Pull The Trigger Provocation: Tyrion has a crossbow trained on his father Tywin for sleeping with Shae and for a lifetime of abuse. But he's wavering and Tywin doesn't believe he'll do it. And he really seems like he might not, especially after Tywin restrains himself from calling Shae a whore. Despite everything, Tywin seems to be winning Tyrion over...until Tyrion refuses to go back into the bedroom where he killed Shae and Tywin says, and promptly gets killed:
  Tywin: Are you afraid of a dead whore?
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • Bronn is pretty mellow when he's not fighting, but he makes it clear that he'll do anything for the right price.
  • Lannister soldiers are shown slaughtering the entire Stark household, even the septas, but when we see a few relaxing at camp, they're pretty normal people.
• Punctuation Shaker: Jaqen H'ghar.
• Puppet King:
  • Robert lets himself become one almost voluntarily, since he never really wanted the crown. Instead he largely leaves governing to his small council while he eats, drinks, whores, and hunts.
  • Subverted by Joffrey, who is installed as one but goes spectacularly off-script at the end of "Baelor" and leaves his puppetmasters powerless.
  • Played straight by Joffrey once Tywin arrives in King's Landing.
  • Tommen becomes one in Season 4.
  • Robin Arryn is nominally Lord Paramount of the Vale, but he is young and childish so the real power is his Beloved Smother Lysa and later his stepfather Petyr Baelish.
• The Purge: Happens multiple times in a time of brutal factional warfare:
  • In "The North Remembers", Joffrey has all of Robert's bastards hunted down and killed. It's rather disturbing to watch, considering many of the people involved are children (including one infant). Before that, Cersei and her men had purged King's Landing of Ned Stark's retinue and household, including soldiers, Septa Mordane and Syrio Forel who were part of his staff.
  • Quite common in Season 6, where the Sand Snakes apparently take over Dorne by killing Prince Doran, his son, and his bodyguard, thereby wiping out House Martell, while Ramsay does the same to Roose Bolton in Winterfell in the 2nd Episode, murdering him, his wife and newborn baby. Daenerys likewise takes over the Dothraki by purging all its great Khals in a single fireball.
  • There are also attempted purges such as Ser Alliser Thorne attempting to complete his purge of wildling sympathizers and Jon loyalists after killing the Lord Commander. Dolorous Edd and his friends, as well as Ser Davos, barely regroup in time to organize and protect themselves from Thorne. In the Iron Islands, Euron usurps the throne after murdering his brother Balon forcing Theon, Yara and their supporters to escape before he kills them.
  • In the Season 6 finale Cersei murders all her enemies in one fell swoop: Grand Maester Pycelle, the High Sparrow, most of his Sparrows, her own Uncle Kevan (Hand of the King), her cousin Lancel, Queen Margaery, Lord Paramount Mace Tyrell, the heir of Highgarden Loras Tyrell, and presumably a significant amount of courtiers and a good chunk of the city as collateral damage. With Tommen being Driven to Suicide as a result of her actions, she becomes the first woman to become Queen and sit on the Iron Throne since Princess Rhaenyra.
  • In the backstory, Tywin purged the Reynes of Castamere in a single fell swoop and did a two-fer with the Sack of King's Landing where he dispatched Gregor Clegane to murder Rhaegar's children, while Jaime, albeit for entirely different reasons, murdered King Aerys II.
• Put on a Bus: While a large cast such as this one often leaves characters missing for several episodes, Bran and his supporting cast do not appear anywhere in the fifth season. Word of God explains that this is not only because it's a natural pause for that arc, but also because they've run out of book material for him.
  • The Bus Came Back in Season 6.
  • Somewhat lampshaded with Davos putting Gendry in a boat he can't row in Season 2 in order to save him from Joffrey's bastard purges. He'll be away for another five seasons.
  • Sort of inverted at the end of Season 6 when Danaerys tells Daario he'll be staying behind to keep order in Heereen and the other cities under her rule, in that instead of the character leaving the action, the action moves somewhere else while the character stays put.
  • Melisandre does this to herself midway through Season 7, since Davos can't forgive her for Shireen's death and Jon has said in no uncertain terms that he will have her executed if she ever sets foot in the North again.
  • Also in Season 7, after the only other survivor of Bran's northern quest, Meera, gets him back to Winterfell, she goes back to her own family.
  • Happens to Ghost in Season 8, when Jon decides he'll live a happier life on the north side of the Wall. The Bus Came Back in the series finale, however.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: The actress who plays Ellaria Sand has confirmed that even though her character is technically alive at the end of Season 7, she won't be returning to the series so it's safe to presume Ellaria will die exactly as Cersei intended her to... slowly watching Tyrene's corpse rot.
• Pyromaniac:
  • This appears to be a genetic trait among the Targaryens, many of whom have an obsession with heat or fire and (sometimes correctly) believe themselves immune to it.
  • During the wildfire explosion in "Blackwater", everyone looks horrified except Pyromancer Hallyne, who's giggling
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • Robert's Rebellion in the backstory, especially for Robert whose main motivation was to rescue his beloved Lyanna Stark from Rhaegar Targaryen. When Lyanna died at the end of the war, Robert was left with the throne instead of the woman he loved.
  • By Season 4, House Lannister holds the Iron Throne with their enemies all either broken or retreating. However, their manpower is badly depleted from hard fighting, the Crown is deep in debt to the Iron Bank, and their gold mines have dried up.
  • Daenerys overthrows the regimes in Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen and frees the slaves, but as soon as she is gone the Wise Masters of Yunkai return to slaving and her regime in Astapor is overthrown by a freeman butcher named Cleon.
  • The Night's Watch holds off Mance Rayder and his wildling army at the Wall in Season 4, but at the cost of 50 lives, meaning the garrison at Castle Black cannot fight any more battles like that for a while.^note which is probably one reason why Jon goes across the Wall to talk at least a cease-fire with Mance.

Q-R

• The Queen's Latin: Typical for a medieval fantasy show, the majority of Westerosi characters have British accents. Some attempt is made to line up specific British accents with regions of Westeros, such as Northerners often having Northern England accents and wildlings having Scottish accents. Actors who aren't British affect a British accent to play most Westerosi characters. Only Dorne differs with their generally Latin accents, as a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Spain. Characters from lands outside of Westoros have a variety of accents, though some also have a British accent, apparently because they speak the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms without a foreign accent.
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • The Season 1 episode, "The Wolf and the Lion", doesn't give you much information about Ser Loras Tyrell and Renly Baratheon as a couple at first unless one rewatches the tourney scene where Loras offers a rose to Sansa but he looks at Renly who is sitting at the back. After a few more scenes, you get both Loras and Renly shirtless because the former is shaving the latter's chest hair while talking about the succession on the Iron Throne. Loras convinces Renly that he should be king and then he gives him oral sex.
  • The Season 4 premiere episode, "Two Swords", establishes both Prince Oberyn Martell and his paramour Ellaria Sand as bisexual where they are checking out some prostitutes in Littlefinger's brothel. Ellaria rejects one prostitute that Oberyn is interested in because she's timid. But she prefers the next one who Ellaria describes as mischievous, and then Oberyn orders Olyvar, who is in charge of the brothel, to stay and take off his clothes before he gropes him.
  • In Season 6, Yara Greyjoy is shown enjoying the female prostitutes in Volantis.
• The Quest:
  • Arya's attempts to reunite with her family.
  • Bran's journey to the Three-Eyed Raven.
  • Brienne's search for the Stark girls.
• Race Lift:
  • Pirate Salladhor Saan and merchant prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos have been cast with actors of African descent, and Xaro has specifically been changed to an emigrant from the Summer Isles.
  • Doran Martell's Norvosi bodyguard Areo Hotah is white in the books and black in the show. The only other character to wield a long axe in the show, the gladiator in Meereen, is also black, so presumably all Norvosi are black in the show.
• Racial Remnant: The Targaryens are remnants of the Valyrian Empire marked by their distinctive white-blonde hair.
• Rags to Riches:
  • Davos grew up in Flea Bottom, worked his way up to smuggler captain, became a knight for smuggling Stannis food, and is now King Stannis' Consigliere.
  • Littlefinger worked his way up from the very lowest of the nobility to Lord of Harrenhal and consort to the Lady of the Vale through his skill at moneymaking and Xanatos Speed Chess.
  • Xaro Xhoan Daxos rose from a penniless immigrant to one of the foremost men in Qarth.
  • Bronn begins the series as a grubby sellsword in the Riverlands, and successively becomes Lord Commander of the City Watch, a knight, and finally is set to marry into a lesser noble house. The marriage deal is reneged upon by Cersei, although Jaime promises Bronn a better marriage when they return from Dorne. In the end, he ends up very rich indeed as the Lord Paramount of Highgarden and sits on the King's Small Council.
  • Janos Slynt, a butcher's son, rose to Lord Commander of the City Watch and then Lord of Harrenhal until Tyrion banished him to the Wall.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Night's Watch and the Brotherhood Without Banners.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: There are many examples of men in power due to their birth who are (or were) still fearsome fighters.
  • Tyrion even justifies this by noting that the social elite get much better equipment and lifelong training.
  • Ned chooses to be modest about it, but he can match the prodigious Jaime Lannister and even Living Legend Barristan Selmy speaks highly of him.
  • Jon discovers that as the son of a lord, he can easily outmatch his lowborn fellow recruits because they barely know which end of a sword to hold, whereas Jon has been receiving training from a knight alongside his brother Robb since they were old enough to hold a sword.
  • Stannis personally leads his army's assault in "Blackwater" and fights like a One-Man Army.
  • Greatjon Umber initially doubts Robb has this trait, but becomes one of his staunchest supports and the first to acclaim him king after he proves his mettle.
• Rape and Revenge: Oberyn Martell is out for vengeance against all those who had a hand in his sister Elia's rape and murder, starting with the perpetrator.
• Rape by Proxy:
  • Tyrion once married a prostitute named Tysha, but the marriage ended when his father Tywin found out and punished them both by making Tyrion watch as Tysha was raped by a group of guardsmen.
  • Cersei Lannister unleashing a giant undead abomination on the tied down Septa Unella, all the while chanting "Shame. Shame. Shame."
• Rape Discretion Shot: Near the end of "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", Ramsay spends his first wedding night with his newly wedded wife, Sansa, by asking Theon to stand and watch while he forces his way into her. First, Ramsay tears the back of Sansa's dress and forces her to bend on the bed. Then, the scene cuts to Theon, who started to cry as he watches and listens to her cries while she's being raped by Ramsay.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: There are a few examples;
  • The Mountain, the most feared man in all of Westeros, is known for killing Elia Martell's children, raping her with their blood still on his hands, and then smashing her head in. He also rapes and pillages his way around the countryside while in a bad mood over losing a joust, causing Ned Stark to call for his arrest.
  • Ramsey Bolton was always a cold blooded torturer, but he didn't truly earn the fan base's hatred until he raped Sansa Stark on their wedding night (while forcing Theon to watch).
  • Craster is one of the most vile characters in Game of Thrones (against stiff competition). He abandoned the Night's Watch only to sire countless children at his isolated keep, over several generations. Females are raised up to be more wives for him (yes, that entails exactly what you think it does). Male children are abandoned in the freezing cold, sacrifices for the White Walkers as part of Craster's protection deal. And did we mention the whole "rapes his own daughters" thing?
  • The mutineers from the Night's Watch don't prove any better when it comes to Craster's daughters; raping them and drinking is basically all they do once they take over the Keep. Karl Tanner even keeps up the tradition of sending newborn males to the White Walkers.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn:
  • The Dothraki indulge in this, which comes back to bite Khal Drogo when he needs medical help.
  • Ser Gregor Clegane is Lord Tywin's go-to guy for this. Ned is so appalled that he attaints him and sentences him to death. After the attempt to stop him fails, Gregor continues this throughout the war.
  • Tyrion successfully plays on the fear of this trope to motivate the wavering defenders of King's Landing during the Battle of Blackwater, telling them to fight not for gold, glory, or honor, but to stop Stannis' army from sacking their city and raping their women.
  • The wildlings climb the Wall and ravage any settlement they can find.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The end of the War of the Five Kings in Season 3. The war concludes with the brutal murder of Robb, Catelyn and their allies, which crushes the North's fight for independence, seemingly destroys the honourable House Stark and leaves the Lannisters in control of the seven kingdoms. However — against all odds and unknown to almost anyone — the rest of the Stark children are still out there, are still fighting to get back to each other, becoming increasingly badass and most of all are freaking pissed at the Lannisters. Meanwhile across the sea Daenerys — one of the only other benevolent leaders —is gaining power, liberated thousands of slaves and is on her way to Westeros. A miserable ending but not the end of the game.
• Red Baron: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, Ser Jaime "The Kingslayer" Lannister^note played with, as in-universe this is a mark of shame, Aerys "The Mad King" Targaryen, Daenerys "Mother of Dragons" Targaryen, Robb "The Young Wolf" Stark, Tyrion "The Imp" Lannister, Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, Qhorin "Halfhand", Oberyn "The Red Viper" Martell.
• Reaction Shot:
  • During the wildfire explosion in "Blackwater," the view switches between the carnage itself and the expressions of the onlookers: Sandor looks genuinely fearful, Tyrion looks remorseful, Joffrey almost smirks, and Pyromancer Hallyne is giggling.
  • Played for Laughs during Tyrion's Overly Long Gag dragging his chair around the table to face off with his father. The other councillors range from amused, bemused, outraged, or worried about Tywin's reaction, while Tywin himself just glares.
  • During a mocking version of the "War of the Five Kings" with dwarfs, the view switches between the action and a polarized party. Joffrey, Tywin, Cersei, Tommen, Pycelle and the smallfolk find it amusing, while Tyrion, Sansa, Oberyn, Varys and the Tyrells are quietly disgusted or appalled by it. Loras dispenses with the pretension and leaves early on.
  • When Joffrey starts abusing Tyrion during his wedding reception, the mood of the entire audience turns stiff and awkward, even including those who were amused by Joffrey's earlier cruel jokes. Tywin in particular is visibly enraged.
  • During the Trial by Combat in the "The Mountain and the Viper" reaction shots are shown of Tyrion, Tywin, Cersei, Jaime, and Ellaria, all of whom have crucial stakes in the outcome.
  • During Edmure's wedding, the Starks and Tullys are visibly surprised by how attractive Roslin Frey is.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The relative absence of Jon's direwolf Ghost in later seasons is due to a combination of budgetary issues and the legal difficulty of having an endangered Canadian wolf travel abroad.
• Real Men Love Jesus:
  • Ned is a devout follower of the Gods of the First Men and Children of the Forest, though he is religiously tolerant, a tough swordsman and initially a powerful lord. His wife Catelyn is a devotee of the Faith of the Seven, and their children were raised in both faiths, with their son Robb marrying Talisa before a Septon despite being King in the North, and Sansa being initially strong in the Faith of the Seven.
  • R'hllor has many badass worshippers, including Thoros of Myr (who's also his priest), the Brotherhood Without Banners (they're all hardened, skilled fighters) and Stannis Baratheon, a powerful lord who's among the main claimants to the Iron Throne during the War of the Five Kings.
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • Loras' ornate armour, clothing, and accessories always have a floral pattern. Justified, since his House sigil is a rose, but he's still seen as being over-the-top about it, and is known as "the Knight of Flowers".
  • Costume designer Michele Clapton described Oberyn's style as feminine worn in a really masculine way. Examples include his floral pendant◊ and noticibly brighter and more colourful clothing than typical Westerosi males.
• Realpolitik: The game of thrones is all about this. Scrupulous players who disdain this fact tend to enjoy shorter lives.
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: In the novels, Arya doesn't hate feminine things so much as wish they weren't forced on her, but the show gives her this exchange:
  Tywin: Aren't most girls more interested in the pretty maidens from the songs? Jonquil, with flowers in her hair?
  Arya: Most girls are idiots.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Ned Stark does his best to keep this ideal, though the effectiveness of his rule is debatable.
  • For all his faults, Lord Tywin was this as Hand to the Mad King, whose reign only fell off the rails after Tywin resigned. He is also instrumental in stabilizing Joffrey's reign after the Battle of Blackwater.
  • Daenerys likes to see herself as this and decides to stay in Slaver's Bay to practice it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Renly Baratheon tells Robert exactly what he thinks of his "glory days."
    Renly: Which days, exactly? The ones when half of Westeros fought the other half and millions died? Or before that, when the Mad King slaughtered women and babies because the voices in his head told him they deserved it? Or way before that, when dragons burnt whole cities to the ground? [...] I suppose it was all rather heroic, if you were drunk enough and had some poor Riverlands whore to shove your prick inside and "make the eight"!
  • Tywin Lannister is a grand master of this. He always has one on hand for Stupid Evil henchmen and gives at least one to each of his children—telling Jaime his personal glory is ultimately worthless, Cersei that she is not as clever as she thinks, and Tyrion that his birth circumstances and lecherous behaviour mean he'll never become heir.
    Tywin: You are an ill-made, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning. Men's laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors, since I cannot prove that you are not mine. And to teach me humility, the gods have condemned me to watch you waddle about, wearing that proud lion that was my father's sigil, and his father's before him. But neither gods nor men will ever compel me to turn Casterly Rock into your whorehouse.
  • Lord Karstark points out that Robb pardoned his mother for releasing an enemy, but wants to execute him for killing members of the same enemy family. He fails to mention that the enemies he killed were defenseless children
  • Jon Snow's compassionate critique of the wildlings:
    Jon: I know your people are brave; no one denies that. Six times in the last thousand years, a King-beyond-the-Wall has attacked the kingdoms; six times they failed. You don't have the discipline. You don't have the training. Your army is no army. You don't know how to fight together.
  • During his second trial, Tyrion calls out his father and all of the nobles of King's Landing for never seeing past his deformity and giving him the respect he deserves for saving their lives.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Being sent to the Wall is seen as this, so it is largely staffed by reprieved criminals, disgraced members of old regimes, and Black Sheep members of noble houses. Crosses over with Trading Bars for Stripes since rangers are intended for combat.
  • Cersei plans to do this to Ned Stark in "Baelor". Joffrey, however, has other plans.
  • Tyrion banishes Janos Slynt to the Wall in "The Night Lands" because he doesn't like him, cannot trust him, and wants to replace him with Bronn.
  • Lord Tywin offers this to Tyrion in exchange for a confession in "The Laws of Gods and Men".
• Reckless Gun Usage: In "Beyond the Wall", Arya recalls to Sansa how one day, years earlier, she had found where Bran had left his bow, and a single arrow, out on the ground in the Winterfell courtyard, and started practicing herself, shooting the arrow at the target over and over until she could regularly hit the bullseye. It's lampshaded by her offhand comment that Ser Rodrik would have "cuffed" Bran for leaving the bow where he did, and then in turn subverted when she heard Ser Rodrik clapping behind her after she'd finished.
• Recruited from the Gutter: Former smuggler Davos Seaworth remains loyal to Stannis Baratheon because Stannis knighted him for smuggling lifesaving rations when he was Reduced To Rat Burgers during The Siege of Storm's End. He even respects Stannis' decision to shorten four fingers as punishment for his past smuggling.
• Recurring Extra: In the second half of the show, there's one recurring soldier with a massive and notable beard. According to his appearances, he marched with Stannis to Winterfell before allying himself with Jon Snow and fighting for the Starks in the Battle of the Bastards, the Battle of Winterfell, and the Battle of King's Landing.
• Redheads Are Ravishing:
  • Ned Stark is happily married to auburn-haired Catelyn Tully and their daughter Sansa (who takes after her mother) is regarded as very attractive.
  • Jon Snow falls in love with red-haired Ygritte, who is seen as ravishing by other Free Folks.
  • Among the Free Folk, redheads are called "kissed by fire" are considered lucky. Tormund openly states that "kissed by fire" people like him are beautiful to a grumpy Sandor Clegane.
• Red Herring: In "The Dance of Dragons," Hizdahr arrives late to the great games with a weak excuse and avoids Daenerys' suspicious gaze. Later, when the Sons of the Harpy attack, he is killed by the rebels rather than be revealed as their leader, as the earlier scene suggested. This is doubly sneaky for book readers, because Hizdahr's involvement in the rebellion was an ongoing mystery in the books at the time the episode aired.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Being based on a series called A Song of Ice and Fire, this happens in spades:
  • The deathly cold White Walkers and the fire-breathing dragons and fire-themed Lord of Light.
  • The honorable Starks and the pragmatic Lannisters.
  • The stoic Ned Stark and the boisterous Robert Baratheon.
  • The Tomboy and Girly Girl sisters Arya and Sansa Stark.
  • Chaotic Littlefinger and lawful Varys get a widescreen Mirrored Confrontation Shot in "Fire and Blood" to illustrate their Order Versus Chaos rivalry.
• Red Right Hand:
  • Shade of the Evening stains the Warlocks' lips and mouths blue, making them easy to spot... when they aren't hiding it with magic.
  • Sandor Clegane's burns and Tyrion's dwarfism lead many to assume they are monsters even though they subvert the trope.
• Red Shirt: When Jon and company go on a sortie beyond the Wall, his party is filled with established characters and a few random wildlings. The wildlings serve as fodder for various action scenes until none remain.
• Red Shirt Army:
  • The Night's Watch is composed mostly of thieves and murderers who join to avoid their punishments. The rest of the kingdom forgets about them as they freeze and fight.
  • Robb's diversionary army is seen as completely expendable in-universe.
  • As of Season 5 the Unsullied are turning into this, seemingly having forgotten their basic training of forming up shoulder to shoulder into a shield wall and seeming to be no more skilled man-to-man than a group of rebel Meereenese.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Although far from totally reformed, Jaime knows nothing he can do will ever make some characters remember him as anything but The Oathbreaker.
• Refusal of the Call: Renly initially rejects Loras' suggestion that he should be king in "The Wolf and the Lion", but the idea gradually becomes more appealing after he argues with Robert, and he finally embraces it in "You Win or You Die". By "Fire and Blood" he has already crowned himself king with the help of the Tyrells.
• Regent for Life: Several characters make a go at this, all of whom are probably an improvement over Joffrey ruling in his own right. Tywin Lannister is perhaps the most successful.
• Rejected Marriage Proposal: In Season 8 Gendry proposes to Arya after he's legitimized by Daenerys, as they're now of the same social standing. However, although Arya has feelings for Gendry, she refuses to marry him because she doesn't want to be a lord's wife and she's ill-suited to the lifestyle. Gendry is understandably upset, but doesn't hold it against her, and Arya gets to live her life the way she wants.
• Related in the Adaptation: In the books, Tyene is the daughter of a septa. In the series, she is Ellaria's daughter. Nym, originally the daughter of a Volantene noblewoman, might be as well. This is partly because Ellaria's four daughters by Oberyn have been Adapted Out.
• Relationship Reveal:
  • Bran discovering Cersei and Jaime.
  • Loras shaving Renly's chest.
  • Tyrion discovering Shae in Tywin's bed.
• Religion is Magic: Magic is left vague and mysterious, but a good portion of it is rooted in a religion.
  • Followers of the Lord of Light can live many times longer than a normal person, cloak themselves in a Glamour to maintain beauty, cast curses, birth Living Shadows, change the weather, and even resurrect the dead. Some of the more impressive ones require blood sacrifices, but they're nevertheless quite real.
  • The weirwoods of the old gods are tied to warging and prophecy.
• Religion of Evil: The faith of the Lord of Light presents itself as good and loving and a necessary bulwark against the god of darkness who aims to wipe out humanity. However, their sinister priests are shown practicing human sacrifice and necromancy.
• Remember the New Guy?: Dolorous Edd is suddenly part of Lord Commander Mormont's group, although the scene from the book where he meets up with them is cut.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
  Lord Tywin: I see that the rumors of your demise were unfounded.
• Request for Privacy:
  • King Robert trusts Ned Stark to the point that he gives his most important commands when nobody is looking around, presumably because he takes for granted that his subjects won't question his decision even without witnesses. He names Ned his Hand in the Crypts of Winterfell halfway through the pilot and, a few episodes and a Hunting "Accident" later in "You Win or You Die", he asks him to write down his will before kicking the bucket. This proves to be the downfall of both characters: Robert's wife exploits the lack of witnesses to tear "Ned's shield" in pieces and arrest Ned before he would have told the truth about her children's real heritage.
  • In the episode "Baelor", Catelyn Stark meets with Lord Walder Frey to discuss an alliance with her son Robb's army. Initially, the discussion is held in front of the incredibly large Frey family, with several of his descendants attempting to butt in. Catelyn requests to talk to Lord Frey only, and he orders the rest of his family to leave, who immediately hurry out of the room.
• Rescue The Princess: A major motivation for Robert's Rebellion was to recover Lyanna Stark from Rhaegar Targaryen.
• Restricted Rescue Operation: In "Hardhome", the White Walkers attack just as the evacuation is getting started. It becomes necessary to close the gate the Free Folk are fleeing through, as they are getting killed and turned into wights.
• Resurrected for a Job: Melisandre believes that Jon is "the prince who was promised" to protect humanity from the White Walkers, so she brings him back to life after his assassination.
• Revealing Cover-Up: The attempted assassination of Bran was the only thing that gave Catelyn reason to believe he was thrown, leading her to discover clues pointing to the Lannisters.
• Revealing Hug:
  • In a Deleted Scene, Margaery stares thoughtfully at Renly's armour while comforting her brother Loras after Renly's assassination. Loras is mourning the death of a lover; the more pragmatic Margaery (who served as The Beard to her husband) is contemplating what their next step to the Iron Throne might be after this setback.
  • Littlefinger gives a very telling look of disgust after Lysa embraces and kisses him.
  • After she gives false testimony at the Eyrie, Sansa tearfully embraces Lady Waynwood, then opens her eyes to give a perfectly sober and meaningful look at Petyr.
• Revenge:
  • Robert Baratheon dreams of killing Rhaegar Targaryen every night because Vengeance Feels Empty.
  • Robb swears vengeance in "Fire and Blood".
  • Loras and Brienne swear vengeance against Stannis after Renly is murdered.
  • Oberyn Martell comes to King's Landing seeking revenge for his sister's rape and murder.
  • Littlefinger conspires with Olenna Tyrell to murder Joffrey as revenge for the Lannisters' role in the death of his beloved Catelyn Stark. Ironically Littlefinger engineered the war and (it's implied) the execution of Ned Stark, in revenge for being rejected as a suitor for Catelyn's hand.
  • Arya's list of all the people involved in the deaths of her family or friends.^note She's able to cross some of them off it personally
  • Cersei has Septa Unella subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture at the hands of The Mountain in revenge for her imprisonment and humiliation by [[the High Sparrow]]. The victim was so sadistic and unpleasant when Cersei was in their power that it's hard to feel any sympathy.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • In "The Ghost of Harrenhal", Loras intends to storm out and put a sword through Stannis' righteous face until Margaery and Littlefinger convince him he would be killed before he ever got close.
  • In "The Mountain and the Viper", Oberyn Martell suffers a fatal Thwarted Coup de Grâce because he wanted a confession of guilt first.
• Revenge Is a Dish Best Served: Arya serves a meat pie made from Walder Frey's sons to the man himself.
• Reverse Arm-Fold: Loras adopts this pose in Season 3 whenever he wishes to appear relaxed; examples include his greeting of Cersei and Joffrey in "Valar Dohaeris", while he walks away from Sansa in "Dark Wings, Dark Words", and Tyrion and Sansa's wedding ceremony.
• Rich Bitch: The Lannisters. Also the Tyrells to a lesser extent.
• Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: Margery Tyrell's second Establishing Character Moment is when, while traveling through a bad part of King's Landing in the royal party, she hops out of her litter to go into an orphanage to spend time with the children. The Lannisters complain, but she points out the Enlightened Self-Interest aspects of it: if the commoners like you, they're easier to govern (a sharp departure from the more dismissive or paranoid attitudes of previous southern nobles we've met, especially the Lannisters themselves, who are downright cruel).
• Rightful King Returns: Heavily Deconstructed by the Succession Crisis that results from too many characters seeing themselves as this and by the frequent disparity between rulers' claims, capabilities, and reputations.
  • As the last scions of the exiled Targaryen dynasty, Daenerys and Viserys see themselves as this and believe the people eagerly await their return to inevitably unite the realm and restore peace. After the Spice King disabuses her of this, Daenerys decides she must prove herself to be The High Queen before returning. Ser Jorah also notes that Dany's ancestor Aegon the Conqueror didn't establish the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros in the first place because he had any right, he did it because he could. As of Season 7, Daenerys is at her most powerful, ready to conquer the Iron Throne with the largest alliance yet seen in the show.
  • As the true heir to the Baratheon dynasty (which overthrew the Targaryens), notorious Determinator Stannis Baratheon resorts to dark magic and fratricide in his quest for the Iron Throne. Unfortunately for him, many see him as King Joffrey's Evil Uncle and dismiss his true accusations of adulterous twincest as a self-serving lie.
  • The charismatic Renly Baratheon is the younger brother to Stannis, but sees himself as the rightful king because he believes that he would be a better ruler, arguing that nobody made a fuss about the line of succession when they rebelled against the Targaryens not two decades before. Westerosi society sees more value in blood than talent however, and he is seen by many as just another pretender.
  • Robb Stark and Balon Greyjoy are both regarded as this by their followers but are called rebels by other factions for reasserting their regions' former independence.
  • In a successful instance, after 4 and a half seasons of Winterfell being under the Greyjoys' and later the Bolton's control, House Stark rules Winterfell once again.
  • In Season 7, Daenerys goes to Dragonstone and sits on the throne there. The castle was built by her ancestors.
• Right Through His Pants:
  • Jaime and Cersei are seen having sex while wearing most of their clothing. Lampshaded by Benioff and Weiss in the commentary for the episode, where they joke that Jaime is not only a master swordsman, but also a master of having sex without taking off any clothes.
  • Tyrion is also rarely seen naked during his sex scenes, as opposed to his partners.
  • Completely clothed Stannis Baratheon has sex with a completely naked Melisandre.
• Right Through the Wall: Sansa is grossed out by her aunt Lysa's loud screaming during her sex with Petyr.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Season 5's Faith Militant is a radical form of an existing major religion, and consists mostly of young black-clothed men who didn't find meaning in their previous lives. Together they enforce their militant notions of the religion wherever they go. Well... (in fairness, they did exist in the books before the depiction here, although a lot of the portrayal is updated to fit with Islamic militants).
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue:
  • Robert Baratheon's entire rebellion was fueled by his desire to rescue Lyanna Stark.
  • Robb Stark's war starts out this way.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: This is basically Arya's storyline from Season 2 onwards as she actively works towards crossing off every name she puts on her personal hit list.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Played for Laughs when Tyrion gives one to the hill tribes before battle in "Baelor", only get an accidental Tap on the Head when they rush into battle.
  • Daenerys gives one to her khalasar.
  • Tyrion gives an even better one at the Battle of Blackwater to inspire the wavering defenders.
    "Don't fight for your king, and don't fight for his kingdoms! Don't fight for honor, don't fight for glory, don't fight for riches because you won't get any! This is your city Stannis means to sack. That's your gate he's ramming. If he gets in it will be your houses he burns, your gold he steals, your women he will rape. Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!"
  • Double Subverted by Stannis, who barks out a single, straighforward sentence to rally his men after a devastating setback, but it still works.
    "Come with me and take this city!"
  • Normally unsympathetic Ser Alliser Thorne gives one at the Battle of Castle Black.
  • Theon Greyjoy, of all people, gives a good one in "Valar Morghulis" to convince his men to make a Last Stand. It is immediately subverted when his men give him a Tap on the Head and flee. Dagmer does concede that it was a good speech though.
• Royal Blood:
  • The Targaryens and the Baratheons (who are almost a cadet branch). Additionally, all the great houses except the Tullys and Tyrells can claim direct descent from the kings who ruled before the Seven Kingdoms were united.
  • Melisandre believes royal blood is more powerful for Blood Magic.
• Royal Brat:
  • Joffrey Baratheon is the young, blond-haired heir to his kingdom who becomes king at the end of season 1. Joffrey is spoiled, vindictive, cruel and cowardly. He once took his sword to the face of a commoner (Mycah the Butcher's son), cutting him on the cheek for no reason. He also had the tongue of a minstrel cut out for writing a popular song about the death of his father. His Uncle Tyrion calls him a vicious idiot to his face and slaps him, insulting his nephew further when they are having Sansa Stark beaten for her brother's revolt. His mother Queen Cercei is the only person who loves him, and even she admits he is a monster. Provides the image on the trope's page for Jack Gleeson's facial expressions were always spot on.
  • Viserys Targaryen is a brat from an ancient royal family and he has serious problems dealing with his Impoverished Patrician status. He had to flee as a child when his father's insanity became too violent for the nobles to tolerate — and naturally, given this trope, he thinks that the problem was those rebellious nobles, and not the fact that his father wanted to burn down an entire city out of spite. Viserys is spoiled, entitled, vindictive, cruel, cowardly, and without any redeeming qualities (save for the fact that he managed to keep him and his younger sister alive). It's strongly implied he is sexually attracted to his sister, he is abusive to her both emotionally and physically, and he whores her out to the local warrior king in the belief that it will help him get his crown and kingdom back.
• Royal Inbreeding: The Targaryens usually wed their siblings.
• Royally Screwed Up:
  • The Targaryens provide the page quote for the trope, arguably due to a long-standing tradition of Brother–Sister Incest.
  • Joffrey seems to combine the worst aspects of each of his already-unpleasant parents (also brother and sister).
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Most characters in the series, with Adipose Rex Robert Baratheon as a notable exception by late in his reign.
• Royalty Superpower:
  • The Targaryens familial affinity for dragons allowed them to become kings.
  • Melisandre claims royal blood has power for blood sacrifice.
  • The Stark's affinity for their direwolves takes on shades of this when one remembers they were once Kings in the North.
• R-Rated Opening: The first episode shows a White Walker attack in full detail, cluing in even the most inattentive viewer that if they are looking for maybe a live action adaptation of a religious cartoon they've come to the wrong place.
• Rule of Cool: Why would anyone build a clockwork map of the world? Because it's impressively difficult, that's why. The little-cogs-in-a-larger-machine effect satisfies the Rule of Symbolism as well.
• Rule of Three:
  • Daenerys is one of three children, hatches three dragons, and conquers three cities, settling in the third.
    • Even the House Targaryen theme is in 3/4!
  • Ramsay casually shoots two arrows at Rickon, missing both times. Then he draws a third arrow and takes careful, deadly aim. It misses as well, subverting the trope. A fourth arrow that we didn't see him draw hits and kills Rickon.
• Rule of Seven: Seven Kingdoms, Seven Gods, Seven Hells, seven Kingsguard, etc.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Each season ends with a scene relating to a symbol of fire or ice, alternating between the two each season. They also seems to have a bi-seasonal switch between a Supernatural ending and a Mundane ending.
    • Season 1: Daenerys' dragons hatch (fire), (supernatural).
    • Season 2: The White Walkers attack the Fist of the First Men (ice), (supernatural).
    • Season 3: Daenerys Targaryen (of a family strongly associated with fire) frees the slaves of Yunkai, a city that is located in a desert (fire), (mundane).
    • Season 4: Arya Stark (of a family strongly associated with ice) sails (on water, aka ice) away from Westeros. (ice), (mundane).
  • In "Winter Is Coming", the Starks find a stag and a direwolf Mutual Kill. This is seen as a disturbing omen in-universe. The direwolf also has six pups which map directly onto the Stark children (including Heroic Bastard Jon Snow, who gets an albino that was separated). Theon is also quick to accept the idea of killing the pups, which foreshadows his future.
  • Tywin Lannister is introduced in "You Win Or You Die" butchering a stag (the sigil of House Baratheon) while his army assembles for what will become the War of the Five Kings. A Deleted Scene from Season 3 also shows Tywin catching fish (the sigil of House Tully).
  • In the midst of a melee, it is Non-Action Guy Littlefinger who holds a knife to Ned's throat to underscore his backstabbing.
  • During their dinner in "Valar Dohaeris", the Tyrell siblings sit side by side while Cersei and Joffrey sit at opposite ends. Guess which relationship is harmonious and which is dysfunctional.
  • Joffrey dislikes wearing floral patterns because he considers them effeminate, yet his wedding crown◊ features several entwined rose buds, illustrating Margaery's growing influence on him.
  • Sandor "The Hound" Clegane wears a snarling dog helmet and is Joffrey's human Right-Hand Attack Dog until he gets tired of being kicked and bites back. He also develops a Morality Pet relationship with both Stark girls that culminates in him being severely wounded protecting Arya from a perceived threat.
• Ruling Couple: Renly, Margaery, and Loras are presented as a threesome version, which actress Natalie Dormer describes as a trinity. The alliance is rooted in Renly's romantic relationship with Loras and his marriage to Margaery is its official face. Although Margaery is only a consort, Renly treats the Tyrells as his equals since they provide at least half his support, seating Margaery in a throne on par with his own, Talking in Bed with Loras about matters of state, and even incorporating the Tyrell colours into his sigil.
• Running Gag:
  • During the first two seasons, Cersei tears up any paper she doesn't like. Tyrion lampshades it by asking if she has perfected the art.
  • Tyrion slaps Joffrey and gets away with it many times in the first two seasons.
  • Theon being trolled by the blowing of a horn. A very effective use of Mood Whiplash.
  • WHAT did Podrick do to those whores!?
  • Shireen hugging Stannis and the poor awkward man having no idea what to do.
  • Cersei is the curtsy police. When Shae sketches an awkward curtsy, Cersei calls her on it and instructs her how to do it properly. When Brienne bows rather than curtsies to Joffrey, Cersei interrupts to scoff at her.
  • Wildings referring to Jon Snow as pretty.
  • Lord Tyrell is apparently a character so incredibly pathetic that he gets interrupted at least once in every single conversation he attempts to hold with anyone.
  • Tyrion will never tell us what happened when he brought that jackass and honeycomb into a brothel. This running gag is, in fact, the very last line spoken in the series. Truly a Riddle for the Ages.

S

• Sacred Hospitality:
  • Taken very seriously in Westeros, even by wildlings beyond the Wall. Once you've eaten bread and salt under someone's roof, you're their guest and are officially under their protection. As illustrated by Bran's story of the Rat Cook, violating it is a crime even the gods cannot forgive.
  • The law is flagrantly broken by Walder Frey at the Red Wedding, as well as the Mutiny at Craster's Keep and when Sandor Clegane robs a Riverlands family.
  • Lady Olenna also breaks this law by poisoning King Joffrey while a guest at his wedding.
  • When Jon Snow plans to murder Mance Rayder to disperse the wildlings, Mance is cunning enough to offer him food and drink, which makes the decision much harder for Jon.
    "Are you capable of that, Jon Snow? Killing a man in his own tent when he's just offered you peace? Is that what the Night's Watch is now? Is that what you are?"
• Sacrificial Lamb: The three members of the Night's Watch (Will, Gared, and Ser Waymar Royce) who appear in the pilot. And Lady. And Jory, squeaking in just under the 5-episode limit.
• Sacrificial Lion: Robert and Eddard in Season 1; Renly in Season 2, Robb, Catelyn in Season 3, Oberyn and Tywin in season 4, Barristan, Stannis and Jon Snow (he got better) in Season 5, Roose, Blackfish and Margaery in Season 6.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • You're free to leave your cell in the Eyrie at any time; the cells only have three walls. Of course, the missing fourth wall is also the one that would keep you from falling to your death. Lysa Arryn also implies that the cells have sloped floors to pull prisoners toward the edge, as Tyrion discovers when he nearly rolls out in his sleep.
  • Joffrey makes a minstrel who offends him choose between losing his fingers or his tongue.
  • Stannis has one of these forced upon him in Season 5. After Ramsay Bolton leads a raid on Stannis' camp that results in the destruction of his food stores and siege weapons, Stannis is faced with the likely possibly of his entire army starving and freezing to death in the Northern wilderness. The only apparent chance for victory lies in Melisandre's magic, but using that option comes at a terrible price: Stannis must give his only daughter up as a blood sacrifice. It's a brutal lose/lose situation.
  • In Season 8, Jon is confronted with a heartwrenching one: either watch Daenerys conquer the world with Fire and Blood, or put a knife in her heart, betraying his Queen and the woman he loves. He chooses the knife.
• Samus Is a Girl: Brienne of Tarth defeats reknowned knight Loras Tyrell to win a tournament before removing her helmet to reveal she is a woman.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Joffrey does this after hearing a song mocking his family. His courtiers aren't sure whether they should be joining him or not.
• Sarcastic Confession:
  • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish tells Ned Stark that he shouldn't trust him, after Catelyn has already convinced Ned to confide in her childhood friend. Of course, he betrays Ned when he stands to gain from it. Baelish knew full well that an honorable man like Eddard would just dismiss his comment as banter between supposed allies; if Eddard was a more suspicious man and a better judge of character, Baelish would undoubtedly have been far more careful with his language.
  • In season seven, Arya informs the Lannister soldiers she's sharing a fire with that she's going to King's Landing to kill Cersei. After a moment's pause, they all burst out laughing.
• Saying Too Much: Loras does this in "Kissed by Fire" when he reveals his secret betrothal to Olyvar.
• Scars Are Forever: All over the place, from facial wounds to severed limbs.
  • Sandor Clegane has serious burn scars on his face cause by his brother Gregor.
  • Littlefinger recounts that he still bears a token of Brandon Stark's "esteem" from navel to collarbone.
  • Tyrion bears a prominent scar from his wounding in the Battle of Blackwater.
  • In addition to his missing hand, Jaime Lannister has several facial scars from his ordeal in the Riverlands.
  • Jon Snow has a few scars from Orell's eagle attack. After being resurrected by Melisandre's magic Jon's torso is covered with the stab wounds he received by his traitorous Night's Watch brothers when they killed him.
  • Theon's torso is mottled with scars from his Cold-Blooded Torture and he is missing a few pieces besides.
• Scenery Porn: The series really loves to show beautiful establishing shots of its locations, both real and computer-enhanced.
• Schiff One-Liner: Three of the first eight episodes end in a darkly humorous One-Liner.
• Scream Discretion Shot: The sacrifice of Shireen; her burning and death aren't shown on camera. It doesn't do much to alleviate the viewer of discomfort, though, as the poor girl's screams and cries for her parents go on for what feels like forever and get heart-wrenching when she apparently catches on fire. The Gory Discretion Shot includes the reactions of her parents (an increasingly disturbed Selyse and a resolute Stannis) and Stannis's men, who are visibly disturbed and upset). And then the screams cut off...
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!:
  • Olenna Tyrell. And how.
  • Walder Frey is also like this in "Baelor".
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: In a rare villainous example, Locke chooses to torture some of his noble captives rather than ransom them because he resents that they can buy their way out of trouble. He'll ransom them if the reward is high enough, but seeing them suffer is its own reward.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In "Mhysa", Davos goes against Stannis' wishes by freeing Gendry before Melisandre can sacrifice him.
• Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!:
  • Ned Stark attempts to use King Robert Baratheon's last will and testament to take regency of Westeros so that he can prevent Prince Joffrey from being coronated, having realized that he and his siblings were conceived by Brother–Sister Incest. To Ned's shock, Queen Cersei Lannister simply rips the will up right in front of him. Ned probably should have realized that the fact Cersei didn't care overmuch that she'd been caught when he confronted her about the incest earlier (before Robert was reported wounded) meant that she had no intention of playing by the usual rules of the Westerosi aristocracy.
  • Catelyn Stark strongly insists that Robb specifically ask Walder Frey for bread and salt, to invoke the Westerosi tradition of guest-right against Frey's known grudge over Robb having broken his engagement to one of his daughters. Walder, however, has conspired with Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister to kill Robb and decapitate the Northern rebellion, and simply ignores guest-right and attacks anyway.
    • The Freys may actually serve as a deconstruction of this attitude. Sure, the rebellion crumbles, but the Freys’ blatant and appalling violation of sacred hospitality makes them reviled across Westeros. Across the North, it becomes open season for members of the Frey family, and not even their own allies like or trust them enough to care.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After Robert's death, Renly and Loras flee King's Landing with their retainers when Ned refuses to join them in taking decisive action against Cersei and Joffrey.
  • Loras and Margaery leave the Stormlands after Renly is assassinated.
  • Ser Barristan, when Joffrey and Cersei try to force retirement on him.
  • Perhaps most blatantly, Sandor Clegane deserts during the Battle of Blackwater with the epic line "Fuck the Kingsguard. Fuck the city. Fuck the king." Delivered to said king's face no less!
  • In the Season 2 finale, Dagmer and the Ironmen. "We're going home!"
  • In Season 5 finale, more than half of Stannis's army and Melisandre ditch him, when he has Shireen burned at the stake, preferring not to work with a person who burns his daughter and heir alive.
  • Yara and Theon Greyjoy very prudently (and very quickly) flee Pyke once their uncle Euron was crowned King of The Iron Islands. They knew their uncle had plans for them. Immediate plans.
  • After The Battle of Wintefell, Tormund decides to take the Wildlings back to the north side of the Wall rather than march on King's Landing with Daenerys' army and the Northmen, preferring not to get tangled in southern politics.
• Second Love:
  • Tyrion feels this way about Shae until she testifies against him.
  • Jon and Daenerys become this for each other after the death of their First Loves earlier on in the series.
• Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Dany seals up Xaro Xhoan Daxos (with Doreah) in his own vault as revenge for betraying her.
• Secret Relationship:
  • Renly and Loras attempt to be discreet about their romance due to the homophobia of Westerosi society.
  • Tyrion and Shae conceal their romance after Tywin commands Tyrion not to take her to court and vows to hang the next whore he finds in Tyrion's bed.
  • Jaime and Cersei, since Twincestuous adultery with the queen is frowned upon.
  • Robert Baratheon insists that his betrothed Lady Lyanna Stark was kidnapped and raped repeatedly by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen while other characters suspect their relationship might have been consensual. It turns out that they really were a couple in love and even got married in a secret ceremony, but almost nobody knew about the wedding of a high born lady and a crown prince.
• Secret Stab Wound: In the season 5 episode "Kill the Boy," Jorah reveals that he's been infected with greyscale.
• Self-Duplication: Pyat Pree has the ability to make copies of himself.
• Self-Made Man:
  • Varys began as a slave and prisoner, but worked his way up in the world by being incredibly shrewd and utilizing information he got from people.
  • Daario was a slave fighter in the pits of Mareen, where he performed so well that his master freed him upon dying. He then went on to join the Second Sons, which he moved up the ranks of, eventually taking over.
  • Xaro Xoan Daxos was a poor immigrant from the Summer Isles when he arrived in Qarth, but became a member of the ruling Thirteen.
  • While Petyr Baelish was technically born a noble, his holdings are barely worth mentioning and he's seen as the son of an upjumped merchant by the ruling class. Nevertheless, his guile and skill with money have given him considerable power.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Renly is sensitive and thoughtful, in contrast to his whoring, war-hero, drunkard of a brother, Robert.
• Separated by a Common Language: People in all of Westeros speak the Common Tongue — the same language is used in the Seven Kingdoms and by Wildlings (aka free folk) who live in tribes beyond the Wall in the North. In season 7, there is one minor confusion between Sandor Clegane and a Wilding leader Tormund. Apparently, the word "dick" for penis is not known beyond the Wall.
  Tormund: I don't think you're truly mean. You have sad eyes.
  The Hound: You want to suck my dick, is that it?
  Tormund: Dick?
  The Hound: Cock.
  Tormund: Ah, dick! I like it.
  The Hound: Bet you do.
• Serendipitous Survival: Blackfish was one of the few survivors of the Red Wedding by virtue of the fact that he went to use a privy right before the slaughter and escaped at some point during or afterward.
  • Sandor decides to postpone his dinner until he's chopped enough firewood for the cold night coming. That decision makes him the only survivor of Brother Ray's group.
• Sex Equals Love: Daenerys and Drogo form a romantic bond once Dany gets tutored on how to take control of her sex life.
• Sexless Marriage: Cersei reveals to Sansa that she and Robert never had any sexual intercourse since their first son had died. He mostly spent his nights with prostitutes while she preferred the company of her own brother. In the extremely rare instance that he would drunkenly burst into her bedchamber demanding sex, she used other means to get him off, and he'd wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened. This is why he never realized his three children with Cersei weren't biologically his (their first was, among all of them, the only one fathered by Robert).
• Sex Magic: Melisandre can create shadow assassins by having sex with someone, seducing Stannis so she can birth a demon shadow to go after his brother Renly. He suggests the same thing in the next season, but she explains that she can't drain any more of his Life Energy without killing him in the process.
• Sexposition: The series is credited with popularizing this trope and naming it.
  • So many of the show's exposition scenes take place during sex or in brothels that Ros was made into a recurring character to receive all the sexposition.
  • Littlefinger uses his background as an illustration on how Ros and another prostitute should go down on each other. In doing so, he reveals a lot about his history and future plans.
  • Viserys opens up about his background to Doreah while screwing her in a bathtub.
  • Theon reveals his misguided expectations about his homecoming during a romp with a captain's daughter.
• Sexual Euphemism:
  • In "What Is Dead May Never Die," Renly tells Brienne that he will "pray alone" in his tent. In his next scene, Renly is making out with Loras, his "object of worship," so to speak.
  • In "Kissed by Fire," Olyvar tells Loras, "I should like to see you spar with a proper partner, ser." They end up "sparring" in Loras' bed shortly afterwards.
• Sexual Karma: Good or sympathetic characters tend to have tender or cheerful sex, grey characters have more straightforward or lustful sex, and bad characters have really painful or depraved sex.
• Shady Lady of the Night: Littlefinger runs a brothel whose prostitutes often spy and collect information on their wealthy clients. Ros, for example was actually a spy of Varys, which made Littlefinger dismiss her (horribly) and replace her with Olyvar, who went on to spy on Loras Tyrell.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: A lot of the subplots and arcs turn out to be this:
  • Arya's quest since the end of Season 1 to return to her family features a lot of Wacky Wayside Tribe and danger but ultimate ends in a Hope Spot at the Red Wedding and another at the Bloody Gate which ultimately convinces her to give up and leave Westeros.
  • After a whole season of building his own power and defending King's Landing, Tyrion faces a Bodyguard Betrayal. By the time he recovers, all his accomplishments and alliances have been lost or claimed by others, leaving him back where he started.
  • Tyrion tells one while awaiting his trial by combat. He describes in great detail his fascination with his simple-minded cousin crushing beetles, but the story peters out without any resolution. The implied meaning is that suffering happens for no greater reason than a simpleton smashing bugs.
  • In season six, Brienne and Podrick are sent to Riverrun in order to recruit the Blackfish's newly reformed Tully Army to aid Sansa and Jon's war against the Boltons. He refuses the call, Brienne and Podrick leave in failure, and the Blackfish is killed when the Freys and Lannisters retake Riverrun.
• Shameful Strip:
  • Joffrey orders Sansa stripped and beaten in public in petty revenge for Robb winning a battle, but Tyrion intervenes.
  • Then there's Cersei's naked walk through King's Landing, ordered by the High Sparrow as penance for her sins.
• A Shared Suffering: The relationship between Cersei and Tyrion Lannister begins to resemble a brotherly one after Tywin reminds them both of the joy of living under his domineering thumb.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Whether he's at court, on a hunting trip, or commanding an army of about a hundred thousand men, Renly is always handsomely dressed for the occasion.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran:
  • Ned Stark, in "stark" contrast to Robert, who misses war and his glory days. Best shown in Lord Snow, where Ned watches Arya practicing fencing with Syrio Forel with a wooden sword, only to have his amused expression slowly turns grim as he's gradually reminded of the hell of war, apparently hearing the distant sound of swords clashing and men dying instead of the wooden sounds of his daughter's fencing.
  • Even Robert seems to have more than a few lingering traumas from the war; hearing him talk to Barristan Selmy about the first man he's ever killed, it's obvious he's more remorseful than anything else.
  • It's clear Jon Snow is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after being murdered and brought back to life in "Oathbreaker."
  • It's clear the loss of life during the war and the Red Wedding left Robett Glover broken.
  • Even if he wasn't this before, the Battle of the Blackwater (specifically the Blackwater being on fire) really screwed the Hound up, because the Wildfire explosion triggered existing trauma of his face being burned as a child.
• Sheltered Aristocrat:
  • Sansa grew up thinking life was a fairytale and is enchanted by the luxury of the royal court, leaving her totally unprepared for its deadly side.
  • Brienne accuses Jaime of being this to snap him out of his depression after losing his sword hand.
  • Tommen is extremely naive and has obviously spent his life obeying protective authority figures.
• Sherlock Scan: Tywin Lannister immediately recognizes that the disguised Arya is actually a girl, as does Jaqen H'ghar. Tywin also quickly works out that Arya is a highborn posing as a commoner.
  Tywin: Lowborn girls say "m'lord", not "my lord". If you're going to pose as a commoner, you should do it properly.
• Shield Bash:
  • Tyrion kills his first man by this method.
  • Brienne hits Loras' helm-covered head with her shield in the melee, but he recovers from the blow.
• Shields Are Useless:
  • Bronn refuses a shield for his duel with Vardis Egan. Combined with his lighter armor, he's able to use his increased mobility to defeat the Mighty Glacier by wearing him down.
  • Averted when Jon uses a shield to block Ramsay's arrows, right before he pounds him into the ground like a tent peg.
• Shipper on Deck: Bronn for Jaime and Brienne, at least in one conversation with Pod.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jaime/Brienne.
  • Arya/Gendry.
  • Tormund/Brienne
  • Bran/Meera as of Season 6.
  • Jon/Daenerys
• Shirtless Scene:
  • Jon Snow, Robb Stark, and Theon Greyjoy share one as they wait for a shave in "Winter is Coming."
  • Renly and Loras' have one together in "The Wolf and the Lion," during which Loras urges Renly to make a claim for the throne, and another in "What is Dead May Never Die," where they argue about Brienne of Tarth. Loras has a third one in "Kissed By Fire" when he beds Olyvar.
  • Gendry does the Hot Men at Work version while forging a sword in "The Ghost of Harrenhal."
  • Joffrey goes shirtless between trying on outfits in "Dark Wings, Dark Words."
  • Ramsay fights off Yara's rescue attempt of Theon while shirtless.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
  • Ros' arc. A Canon Foreigner introduced mostly for Sexposition, she goes through Break the Cutie in Season 2 and becomes a spy in Season 3 only to be killed in a brutal and sexualized manner to illustrate the cruelty of two men who have already had multiple scenes dedicated to just that.
  • The entire Northern Rebellion straddles the line between this and The Hero Dies after the Red Wedding. The initial quest of getting justice for Ned Stark and reclaiming Arya and Sansa fails horribly, and Robb, Catelyn, and Talisa are murdered, making the Starks and Tullys political non-entities in Westeros.
  • Jaime Lannister's quest to retrieve his niece/daughter from Dorne; In the finale of Season 5, they're sailing home, only for Myrcella to succumb to poisoning. This makes the whole story arc both tragic and pointless.
  • Stannis' quest to gain the Iron Throne went very badly when he burned his only child alive at Melisandre's suggestion. Then, his wife committed suicide, half of his army deserted him, Melisandre abandoned him and his best friend, Davos, is at Castle Black miles away from him. In the end, Stannis's army is decimated by the Boltons and Brienne kills him for murdering his brother, Renly.
  • Oberyn's mission to avenge his dead sister, niece and nephew ended tragically when he got brutally killed by Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane. His lover, Ellaria Sand, vows to avenge him except she targets the wrong people by killing the innocent Myrcella and Oberyn's brother and nephew who refused to support her plan. Despite joining Daenerys Targaryen, she and her daughter end up captured while her two step-daughters are killed by Euron Greyjoy. Cersei locks them up in chains, poisons Tyene with the same poison that killed Myrcella and forces Ellaria to watch her die and rot for the rest of her life. In the end, Ellaria's plan for revenge ended badly for her and her family.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Show, Don't Tell: Although the show is chock full of exposition, of necessity, the shows producers struggle to get every scene to provide as much steel as possible. For example, in the first episode when they devote screen time to showing Bran's love of climbing and movement in order to make his fall all the more tragic.
• Show Within a Show: The Bloody Hand, a play satirizing the events of Seasons 1–4 that Arya sees in Braavos. Justified given the series' setting. A Type 4, but also Type 3 since Arya is supposed to kill one of the actors.
• Shrouded in Myth:
  • Facts from the distant past are prone to be embellished into legends. For instance, Aegon the Conqueror forged the Iron Throne from less than two hundred swords rather than the reputed thousand.^note George R.R. Martin's original vision of the Iron Throne is much more monstrous than the show version, with the thousand swords apparently meant literally
  • After curb-stomping his enemies twice, Robb quickly becomes an in-universe Memetic Badass accused of Lycanthropy because his pet direwolf fought beside him.
  • Because this trope is acknowledged in-universe, some characters are suspicious of magical things that actually exist, such as dragons and White Walkers. For the first few seasons, Daenerys' dragons are commonly dismissed as just a story by people who have not seen them.
• Silent Scapegoat: Ned lets Catelyn believe he was unfaithful to her in order to conceal Jon's true parentage. He doesn't live long enough to tell her the truth.
• Silk Hiding Steel:
  • This is the Tyrell's family philosophy, though they would doubtless prefer the rose-and-thorn analogy. Their women appear as Proper Ladies and Grand Dames and their men as Knights In Shining Armour or jolly fat men, but they might be just as ruthless as other houses.
  • Sansa begins as a pure Ingenue but hones this trait to survive her Break the Cutie arc in King's Landing.
  • Despite her earlier rebelliousness, Arya immediately puts on a sweet-and-innocent facade when it suits her, such as while serving as Tywin's cupbearer or setting up to kill a Frey soldier in "Mhysa"
• Sibling Yin-Yang:
  • Joffrey with both of his siblings; he's a sadistic psychopath, while Myrcella and Tommen are kind and gentle to a fault.
  • Jaime and Cersei. As Jaime undergoes Character Development and becomes a much nicer and more honorable and pleasant human being, Cersei becomes colder, harder, and bitchier.

• The Siege:
  • Robb's first goal in the War of Five Kings is to break Jaime Lannister's siege of Riverrun.
  • Stannis Baratheon besieges King's Landing in "Blackwater", the climax of Season 2.
  • During Robert's Rebellion, Stannis was Reduced To Rat Burgers inside Storm's End by Mace Tyrell.
  • The wildlings under Mance Rayder attack Castle Black from both sides of the Wall in "Watchers on the Wall".
• Sigil Spam: Many of the Great Houses have their emblem on everything.
  • Sandor Clegane has a helmet in the shape of a dog.
  • Robert, Joffrey, and Renly all wear crowns with antler designs and Baratheon guardsmen have horned helms.
  • Lannisters love buttons, clasps, brooches, etc. in the shape of lion's heads.
  • Oberyn Martell's robe is ornamented with tiny golden suns.
  • The Tullys carve fish into pretty much every column they possess and wear armour that resembles scales.
  • The Tyrells don't have a single article of clothing without a floral pattern, as Lady Oleanna points out to one of her relatives:
  "Another golden rose. How original. I eat from plates stamped with roses. I sleep in sheets embroidered with roses. I have a golden rose painted on my chamber pot, as if that makes it smell any better. Roses are boring, dear."
• Silent Credits: Used in "The Rains of Castamere" to allow the audience to absorb the shock of the brutal deaths of Talisa, Robb, and Catelyn.
• Single Line of Descent: Played straight, averted, and justified.
  • Played straight by many houses whose patriarchs seem to lack siblings. The Stark children have no cousins except for Robin Arryn, since Catelyn's brother Edmure hasn't married yet and Ned's siblings all died or took the black before having children, though they are very distantly related to the Karstarks.
  • Averted by the Lannisters in earlier seasons; Lord Tywin is assisted by his brother Kevan and Kevan's son Lancel is squire to King Robert.
  • Justified with the Targaryens whose tradition of incest limited the branching of the family tree, leaving them very vulnerable to a Succession Crisis.
• Sissy Villain: The eunuch Lord Varys subverts this trope brilliantly. Raised by actors, he knows how to play the role properly to keep the Queen and her council guessing. Even Petyr Baelish doesn't quite know what he's up to. It's mostly an act-when he gets truly angry or serious he drops his usual polite, facetious tone and his voice becomes considerably lower, first seen when he delivers quite a hardass What the Hell, Hero? to Ned Stark.
• Situational Sexuality:
  • Joked about by Ygritte when she's a captive of Jon Snow and starts sexually teasing him. When Jon replies that the men of the Night's Watch have vowed to take no woman, she replies "Oh, so you lads just do it with each other, then?"
  • During an expedition beyond the Wall, Gendry asks Tormund how he keeps warm in the frozen wasteland. Tormund remarks the secret is to keep moving ("walking's good, fighting is better, fucking is best"). Jon Snow notes that there's not a woman anywhere in sight, so Tormund just replies they'll have to "make do" while giving Gendry a leery look.
• Skip the Anesthetic: In "Kissed by Fire", Jaime doesn't trust the physician working on him, so demands to remain undrugged and alert.
• Slashed Throat: A very common way to go:
  • At the Red Wedding, Catelyn Stark dies this way.
  • Arya Stark kills Ser Meryn Trant and Lord Walder Frey this way.
  • Not exactly slashed, but Ramsay kills Osha by stabbing her in the throat.
  • Since Aerys Targaryen believed he would turn into a dragon upon death, Jaime did this just to make sure it wouldn't happen.
  • White Rat has his throat slashed by one of the Sons of the Harpy.
  • Arya executes Littlefinger this way.
• Slave Liberation: Daenerys overthrows the slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen. However, she finds that overthrowing a few cities is easier than overthrowing a whole social system.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil:
  • Daenerys definitely believes this and has dedicated herself to wiping out the slave trade in Slaver's Bay. She believes it so fervently that her Pay Evil unto Evil can stray toward She Who Fights Monsters.
  • Selling slaves earned Jorah Mormont an instant death sentence in Westeros, and he brings this up to convince Daenerys not to massacre the Wise Masters of Yunkai in "Mockingbird".
• Sliding Scale of Continuity: Level 5 (Full Lockout). Jump into a random episode after season 1 and you're likely to be confused more than anything. What do you expect from an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire?
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The series is noted for its cynical take on High Fantasy tropes like The Good King and Knight in Shining Armor, and characters with overly idealistic worldviews do tend to fare poorly, but characters who are too cynical (especially to the point of Stupid Evil) have their share of hardship as well.
• Slouch of Villainy: Joffrey does this nearly every time he sits the Iron Throne.
• Smoldering Shoes: What seems to be left of Randyll and Rickon Tarly after they refuse to bend the knee to Danaerys.
• Smug Smiler:
  • This seems to be Littlefinger's default setting.
  • Daario Naharis generally wears a mischievous grin, especially when eyeing up Daenerys.
  • Theon tends to smirk when he feels cocky, and pretty much everyone enjoys wiping it off his face.
• Smug Snake:
  • Cersei is one of these most days. Her father dresses her down for it.
  Tywin : I don't distrust you because you are a woman, I distrust you because you're not as smart as you think you are.
  • Viserys' snide and superior attitude is totally at odds with his bratty, bullying behaviour. When Daenerys finally stands up to him, he has a Villainous Breakdown.
  • Theon is accused of this by so many people (Tyrion, Ros, Osha, Maester Luwin, Balon, Yara) because of his hostage status that his Inferiority Superiority Complex and his desire to prove himself lead him to terrible decisions, thereby proving them right.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Bronn accuses Pyromancer Hallyne of being one of these, even going so far as to suggest that the wildfire he's making is actually pigshit, much to the man's affront. Averted during the Battle of the Blackwater when his wildfire turns out to be the real deal.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat:
  • Varys and Littlefinger engage in it quite a few times.
  Baelish: "When they castrated you, did they take the pillar with the stones? I've always wondered."
  Varys: "Have you? Do you spend a lot of time wondering what's between my legs?"
  Baelish: "I picture a gash. Like a woman's. Is that about right?"
  Varys: "I am flattered, of course, to be pictured at all."
  Baelish: "Must be strange for you, even after all these years. A man from another land, despised by most, feared by all—"
  Varys: "Am I? That is good to know. Do you lie awake at night fearing my gash?"
  • Tyrion is a master of this.
  • A lot of barbs are exchanged between Renly and Littlefinger since neither man possesses any talent for fighting.
• Snipe Hunt: Robert can't fit in his armor, so he sends Lancel to find the "breastplate stretcher". Even stoic Ned Stark finds it amusing.
• Snow Means Death: The White Walkers seem to bring the cold with them.
• The So-Called Coward: After describing himself as a coward, Samwell Tarly grows increasingly brave, first by killing a White Walker and then providing a capable defense of Castle Black. Pyp even marvels at how brave he is.
• The Sociopath: In a show full of bad people doing bad things, Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Snow stand out.

• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Roose Bolton is calm, courteous, and as cold-blooded a lord as Westeros can offer. His family uses a flayed man as their sigil and has a legendary reputation for torture.
• Solitary Sorceress: Flashback-only character Maggy the Frog is a forest witch that practices Blood Magic and lives alone in a small cabin in the woods. Her book counterpart, on the other hand, is an urban fortune-teller.
• Somber Backstory Revelation: Tyrion, Bronn, and Shae are playing a drinking game. It comes up to Shae and Bronn's surprise that he used to be married. Tyrion ends up sharing his sad tale: at sixteen, he encountered a girl named Tysha who had escaped her rapists. After spending the night together, Tyrion bribes a septon to marry them. They were happy together until his father learned about it and forced Jaime to tell the truth: Tywin Lannister hired Tysha because he thought it was time for Tyrion to have a woman. Then he gave her to his guards and forced Tyrion to watch as they had their way with her.
• Something about a Rose:
  • The rose Loras carries in "The Wolf and the Lion" hints at his Agent Peacock status―beautiful, but dangerous. Considering that the Mountain killed his previous opponent, viewers might assume the delicate-looking Knight of Flowers will suffer the same fate, but with a little Combat Pragmatism Loras takes down the brute on the first tilt.
  • Michele Clapton designed Margaery's wedding gown to reflect the character's personality: pretty and traditional, but with visible thorns to add an element of danger.
• Something Else Also Rises: Renly jokes about Robert being aroused at the thought of assassinating Daenerys in "The Wolf and the Lion".
  Renly: Robert is rather tasteless about it. Every time he talks about killing her I swear the table rises six inches.
• Sore Loser:
  • Ser Gregor kills his own horse and attempts to murder an unarmed Ser Loras (who only carried a shield at the time) after the latter defeats him in the joust.
  • Although Loras doesn't do or say anything negative to Brienne after she wins their melee competition, he's shown to be bitter about his defeat when he speaks to Renly in private.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Joffrey becomes one when he orders Ned Stark beheaded despite Cersei's plan to use him to defuse the war with House Stark before it really begins.
  • The survival of Bran and Rickon means House Stark isn't quite as dead as many characters believe. Likewise Arya was written off as dead in Season 1, but has actually been present at crucial events all over Westeros without anyone realizing. Including watching Ned's execution, serving Tywin at Harrenhal, travelling with the Brotherhood without Banners and the Hound, meeting Melisandre and witnessing the Red Wedding.
  • Tommen's decision to unite the Faith and the crown tanks the Lannister-Tyrell plan to use military force to break Margaery out of the Sparrows' custody.
• Spare a Messenger:
  • At the start of the series (and at the beginning of Season Three) the White Walkers allow a member of the Night Watch to escape a massacre unharmed for as yet unknown purposes.
  • Robb Stark spares a Lannister scout he's captured, just so he can pass on a Badass Boast that 20,000 Northerners are coming for Lord Tywin Lannister to see if he really shits gold. Actually it's a Batman Gambit - only 2000 men will be attacking Tywin's forces, with the rest hitting elsewhere.
  • Thenns attack south of the wall and eradicate a village. One of them slaughters a peasant couple, then tells their child to run to Castle Black and tell the Night's Watch.
  • Arya leaves one of Frey's bastard daughters alive, after having watched all her brothers and half-brothers die of poisoning, to carry the message that "The North remembers!"
• The Spartan Way: The Unsullied undergo hellish training that makes them immune to pain and robotically loyal.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Cersei and Joffrey have no qualms about posthumously calling Renly a "degenerate" in "Dark Wings, Dark Words".
• Spectacular Spinning: The spinning rings of the astrolabe sun in the Title Sequence show the backstory through sigil metaphors, culminating in the Title Card.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Greatjon.
• Spikes of Villainy:
  • Being made entirely of swords, the Iron Throne reeks of this trope. However, by all accounts, Aegon the Conqueror was a surprisingly good monarch who fashioned it not just to symbolize his power but also as a reminder that a king should never sit easy. His successors, ranging from the The Good King to The Caligula, all sat the same throne.
  • Joffrey plays it straight, however, adding spikey braziers to the pillars of the throne room.
  • Although not literal spikes, Sansa's Evil Costume Switch has this appearance thanks to the feathers on her shoulders.
• Spirit Advisor: Jojen Reed appears in Bran's dreams about the three-eyed crow, advising him on how to follow it.
• Spiritual Successor: To Rome, HBO's first foray into the lavish, politically-driven sword and sandal genre. Several veteran actors from Rome re-enlisted to GoT and [1] some others declare half-jokingly that the show stole Rome's thunder and won't join Game of Thrones, citing It's Been Done.
• Spiteful Spit:
  • Greatjon Umber uses one to make his thoughts on the Succession Crisis clear:
    "My lords! Here's what I say to these two kings!" *spits* "Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither!"
  • Rodrik Cassel spits in Theon's face for his betrayal, forcing Theon to behead him to maintain his men's respect.^note Not that it really works; despite being justified, it makes Theon look paranoid and weak.
  • Ralf Kenning, the ironborn commander at Moat Cailin, spits some of his Blood from the Mouth in Theon's face to show his contempt for surrender.
  • Karl Tanner spits in Jon Snow's face to throw him off during their duel. Learning from this, Jon spits blood in the face of Styr of the Thenns to gain enough time to grab an Improvised Weapon.
• Spoiled Brat:
  • In "The Wolf and the Lion", Renly says his brothers consider him a spoiled brat. Loras' expression and silence indicate he agrees, but Renly retorts that Loras is even richer and more pampered than him.
    Renly: And how much did your father pay for that armour of yours?
  • Bronn accuses Tyrion of being spoiled, and from the perspective of an amoral sellsword raised in the gutter it's certainly true. You're part of the richest, most powerful family in the Seven Kingdoms, married to a beautiful Princess Classic and due to inherit half of Westeros (albeit the colder half) — who cares if you're the No-Respect Guy, your sister hates you and your father's always been a cunt?
• Spoiler Opening:
  • Starting in Season 2, only actors who appear in the episode are credited during the opening, indicating which characters will be not be featured. This has also on occasion spoiled the return of unexpected characters, such as the first two episodes of Series 6 crediting Kit Harrington.
  • The opening credits evolving map features key locations in the episode and the series overall, so a new location telegraphs a new location in the upcoming episode.
• The Squire:
  • Lancel Lannister squires to King Robert in Season 1. He becomes a knight by Season 2.
  • Podrick Payne becomes Tyrion's squire in Season 2 and later squires for Brienne in Season 4.
  • Although not mentioned on-screen, the HBO Viewer's Guide states that Loras squired for Renly, which is faithful to the novels.
  • Ser Alton Lannister once served as Jaime's squire during a tourney.
  • Jaime recalls fighting the Kingswood Brotherhood beside Ser Barristan Selmy as a squire.
  • Robb agrees to take Olyvar Frey as his squire as part of his deal with Walder Frey in "Baelor", though the character is never seen.
• Standard Royal Court:
  • King's Landing has the most fully-fledged court, complete with kings, Hands, regents, spymasters, treasurers, lawmakers, military commanders, mistresses, royal consorts, royal bodyguards, Grand Maesters, High Septons, household servants, and a crowd of courtiers.
  • Since he is on a military campaign, Robb assembles his nobles to discuss what course to take in "Baelor," but otherwise seems to rely on advice from his generals or inner circle.
  • Stannis' court is simplified to a contest (complete with Good Angel, Bad Angel shot) between Davos The Consigliere and Melisandre the Court Mage.
  • Daenerys regularly gathers her advisors to discuss matters of state and holds court to deal with supplicants.
• Star-Crossed Lovers:
  • Robb falls in love with an independent woman from Volantis, but he's bound by a political marriage pact to a Frey daughter he's never even met.
  • Renly and Loras' illicit romance comes to a tragic end in "The Ghost of Harrenhal" when Renly is assassinated.
  • Tyrion has twice fallen in love with a prostitute, a scandal for a member of the nobility. After he married the first one, Tyrion's enraged father Tywin had the poor girl gang raped by his soldiers and forced Tyrion to watch. The second time, Tyrion tries to send the whore in question (Shae) away for her own safety, but she betrays him after his rejection and jumps into Tywin's bed instead. Tyrion ends up killing her in fit of rage.
  • Sam is in love with Gilly, even though he has sworn to take no wife and she is "wed" to her father. Subverted when he flees with her after the mutiny at Craster's Keep and takes her back to Castle Black with him. They eventually consummate their unofficial relationship and head off for Oldtown.
  • Oberyn and Ellaria genuinely love each other, but they cannot marry due to the latter's social status as a bastard; as such, the best they can go for is concubinage. And Oberyn's death at the hands of the Mountain has left Ellaria devastated.
  • Jon with Ygritte. Jon is a man of the Night's Watch and Ygritte a wildling, meaning that they can't be together no matter how much they love one another.
  • Myrcella with Trystane. He's a Martell, she's a Lannister (even if she does have a Baratheon name). Those two families tend to be at each other's throats; their entire arranged marriage was an attempt to heal the rivalry between the two houses, but that was before Oberyn died at the hands of the Mountain.
  • The most tragic couple of the series is Jon and Daenerys. After falling in love over the course of Season 7 and finally getting together in the season finale, Season 8 sees what seems to be everything in the world working against them. Not only does Jon's family hate Daenerys, but it turns out they're aunt and nephew. Jon, having been raised with the North's taboo against incest, becomes estranged from her as a result, and while he still loves her, the intimacy of their relationship is no longer there. On top of this, Jon's superior claim to the Iron Throne causes numerous people, most notably Varys, to start scheming against her with the aim of him supplanting her. Combined with the deaths of her 'child' Rhaegal and her two closest friends, Jorah Mormont and Missandei, in quick succession, Daenerys completely snaps in the penultimate episode, going mad like her father and burning down King's Landing with Drogon while her army sacks the city. Afterwards, she starts planning to Take Over the World. Jon, seeing how Drunk with Power she's becoming, begs her to stop, but when she gives him a We Can Rule Together offer instead, he realizes she can't be reasoned with. In the end, his duty to the people wins out, and he assassinates her after one Last Kiss, crying as she dies in his arms.
• The Starscream: Many of the Great Houses have a lesser House hoping to undermine them.
  • The Freys and Boltons betray their overlords the Starks and Tullys in "The Rains of Castamere".
  • House Reyne was this to the Lannisters until Tywin wiped them out.
  • After "Blackwater", characters like Cersei consider the Tyrells to be this to the royal family.
• Stay in the Kitchen: True to its medievalesque setting this is a general belief in Westeros, though not north of the Wall. As such, women with traditionally masculine aspirations like Brienne are looked down on and ambitious women like Margaery generally achieve power by controlling the men in their lives.
• Stealth Insult:
  • Sansa appears to have mastered this. One example is this:
    Sansa: I'm sorry, Your Grace. You're right, I'm stupid. Of course you'll be in the vanguard. They say my brother Robb always goes where the fighting is thickest. And he is only a pretender.
  • Arya:
    Arya: [...] they say he can't be killed.
    Tywin: And do you believe that?
    Arya: (directly holding Tywin's gaze) No, my lord. Anyone can be killed.
  • In "Garden of Bones", Renly knows very well the kind of self-serving person Littlefinger is, and is disgusted by it.
    Renly: You can trust Brienne. Her loyalty comes without charge.
  • Margaery subtly criticizes Cersei's fashion sense in "Valar Dohaeris".
    Margaery: Loras, isn't the Queen's gown magnificent? The fabric, the embroidery, the metalwork. I've never seen anything like it!
  • Margaery practically bombards Cersei with these when she comes to meet her new daughter-in-law. Smiling sweetly, Margaery calls her a drunk, an old bat and useless figurehead. None of them slip past Cersei's radar, of course.
  • Loras politely suggests his very poor opinion of her neglect/mistreatment of the smallfolk.
    Loras: (smiling directly at Cersei) Margaery does a great deal of work with the poor back in Highgarden.
  • In "The Lion and the Rose", Loras proves that he can fight with words just as well as he fights with swords after Jaime threatens him.
    Jaime: Luckily for you, none of this will happen, because you will never marry her [Cersei].
    Loras: (smiles smugly) And neither will you. (pats Jaime on the arm)
  • When Hizdahr waxes philosophical about traditions that will go on long after they are all gone, Tyrion declares, "My father would have liked you."
• Stealth Pun:
  • Heroic Bastard Jon Snow wields a bastard sword.
  • Stannis' sigil is a Baratheon stag within a fiery heart, but it could just as easily be a fiery "hart", another word for "stag".
  • The Freys guard their bridge with twin fortress and are known as Lords of the Crossing, suggesting that they might be "double crossing".
  • A possible one, mixed with Mythology Gag, for Euron Greyjoy. In the books, he's nicknamed "Crow's Eye". In the show he is shown standing on a lowering boarding bridge while attacking Asha's ships. In real life, that type of boarding device is known as a Corvus, which is Latin for "crow", as the spike on the bottom (or spikes, in this case) resembled a bird's beak. The Crow's Eye is above the crow's beak.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Sansa and Gilly both use it as a survival technique.
  • Loras usually puts on a charming disposition, but this mask slips near the end of the dinner scene in "Valar Dohaeris" and again at the wedding in "Second Sons". He also tells Sansa privately in "The Climb" that King's Landing is "the most terrible place there is," indicating that he is suffering in silence.
• Stepford Snarker: Sansa becomes a pretty brazen one in the second season.
• Stock Scream: A faint Wilhelm can be heard as the Lannisters are finishing off downed enemies after the Battle of the Green Fork in "Baelor".
• Stopped Dead in Their Tracks: In "What Is Dead May Never Die" Theon calls his father out for handing him over to the Starks as a child, and accusing him of becoming weak due to his "time with the wolves" upon Theon's return.
  Theon: You act as if I volunteered to go. You gave me away, if you remember, the day you bent the knee to Robert Baratheon after he crushed you! Did you take what was yours then?!
  (Balon backhands Theon and starts to walk away, scowling.)
  Theon: You gave me away! Your boy! Your last boy! (Balon halts) You gave me away like I was some dog you didn't want anymore, and now you curse me because I've come home!

Balon looks a little guilty, as if he thinks his son has something of a point...just not enough to change his mind, and walks off.

• The Stormbringer: This is the reason why the land beyond the Wall is perpetually covered in snow. The very existence of the Night King keeps the land frozen and devoid of life (except for the living dead). In the episode "The Long Night", the Night King uses this ability to disorient the forces of the living and freeze the trench which was supposed to keep the undead at bay. Three seasons earlier, in the episode "Hardhome", he starts a surprise attack on the Wildling settlement by enveloping the outer territory with a thick fog to cover the arrival of his forces. Upon his death, it is heavily implied his influence starts fading away for good.
  Jon Snow: The war is not over. And I promise you, friend, the true enemy won't wait out the storm. He brings the storm.
• A Storm Is Coming:
  • "Winter is Coming" are the official words of House Stark.
  • King Robert foreshadows the War of Five Kings in the second episode of the series:
    Robert: There's a war coming, Ned. I don't know when, I don't know who we'll be fighting, but it's coming.
• Straight Edge Evil:
  • Tywin Lannister is a proud, dignified, and humorless man characterized by his aura of perfection and ruthlessness in pursuit of his House's well-being.
  • Jaime Lannister discusses the trope in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", commenting to the teetotaler Roose Bolton, "You know how suspicious that seems to most people, don't you?" Bolton's not drinking is brought up again in "The Rains of Castamere", when his villainy is finally revealed.
• Straight for the Commander:
  • The assassinations of Renly Baratheon and Robb Stark prove this tactic need not be limited to the battlefield.
  • Later this actually is used on the battlefield. In "The Spoils of War" Dany and her dragon have wrecked most of the Lannister force but the dragon has taken an arrow in the shoulder. The dragon lands and Dany is trying to yank the big-ass arrow out when Jaime sees her and gallops toward her with spear in hand. Dany looks up, eyes wide with fright—and unfortunately for Jaime the dragon looks up a second later.
• Straight Gay: Renly Baratheon has a more masculine appearance and demeanor than his lover.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land:
  • Theon's fellow ironborn reject him for living on the mainland for ten years. He goes to great lengths to prove himself to them, but it only eats away at his sanity and ruins his life.
  • Sansa is like this when Littlefinger returns her to Winterfell in Season 5, now that Winterfell is under Bolton rule.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Jaqen H'ghar refers to everyone―first, second, or third person―by indefinite phrases such as "a man" or "a girl," although sometimes he suffers from Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping such as when he says "And you pour water for one of them now. Why is this right for you and wrong for me?"
• Strawman Religious: The Faith Militant BIG TIME, who are heavily changed from how they are in the books. Heck, any character following the Faith of the Seven when they're not killed off or retconned into being non-religious.
• Street Urchin: This is how Arya lives in King's Landing following her escape from the Red Keep.
• Stunned Silence:
  • The reaction to the wildfire in "Blackwater".
  • Catelyn's reaction to Robb's death. The silence continues with a total lack of music or sound during the entire credits sequence.
  • The reaction to a drunken Tyrion slamming a dagger into the table and threatening to castrate King Joffrey.
• Stupid Evil:
  • Joffrey and Ramsay stand out as being incapable of restraining their sadism at great cost to their cause.
  • Lord Tywin reproaches the Mountain for wasting able-bodied prisoners by torturing them to death.
• Subordinate Excuse:
  • Despite presumably having other duties as heir to Highgarden, Loras devotes his life to being Lord Commander of Renly's Kingsguard as a convenient way to spend a lot of time with his lover and explain away the frequent private visits.
  • Almost the same can be said of Brienne, who pledges her life to protect Renly in order to just be near him, despite being heiress to Tarth and, as a woman, not even expected to physically fight for him.
• Subverted Punchline: In one episode, the Affably Evil Roose Bolton is talking to Jaime Lannister, who just had his hand chopped off by some of Roose's men. When Jaime starts insinuating threats, Roose comments, "I would have thought you'd learnt not to overplay your... position."
• Succession Crisis: One begins at the end of "You Win Or You Die", and is the main focus of later seasons.
• Sudden Principled Stand: Tyrion puts up with a great deal on Joffrey's wedding day. The groom seems even more obnoxious than usual and going to great lengths to humiliate his uncle for no reason other than it amuses him. Tyrion puts up with it until Joffrey orders him to kneel before him. At that point, his face says it all: no chance. Margaery diffuses this brinkmanship by calling attention to the pie.
• Suddenly Significant Rule: Yara is surprised when she is informed that she will not automatically inherit the Salt Throne upon her father's death as she seems to have thought; instead a "kingsmoot" must be held to choose the next ruler.^note The result of an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, as in the books the first kingsmoot in centuries is held in an attempt to prevent Euron from taking the throne, not put him on it.
• Suppressed Rage:
  • Loras' body language cannot disguise the utter disgust and frustration that he feels at having to bend the knee to Joffrey in "Valar Morghulis".
  • The abrupt and rude manner in which Loras storms away from the wedding feast in "Second Sons" is merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the true depths of his anger over his current situation (i.e. his forced betrothal to Cersei, his inability to mourn for Renly in public, etc.).
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Happens when Margaery explains to Sansa that a woman might not know what she wants sexually until she's tried it.
  Sansa: Did your mother teach you?
  (Beat)
  Margaery: (smiles) Yes, sweet girl, my mother taught me.
• Surprise Incest: Theon hits on a woman that met him at the docks, only to find out that she's his sister.
  • Jon and Daenerys fall in love and become intimate before learning that they are nephew and aunt.
• Surrender Backfire: The Ironborns try to surrender to the Boltons in exchange so they could leave the area unharmed, but the Boltons end up killing or flaying them alive regardless.
• Sword Pointing: In "The Ghost of Harrenhal", Loras points his sword right in Littlefinger's face and accuses the older man of wanting to sell him and his sister to Stannis as hostages. To Littlefinger's credit, he doesn't even flinch.
• Sympathetic Slave Owner:
  • Mereen is a city run by "the Masters" that Daenerys conquers and frees the slaves. As penance for the Masters crucifying over 162 children, she has an equal number of slavers crucified. Later episodes, however, show that some of the Masters were kind and spoke out against the acts, and some slaves found Happiness in Slavery because they were essentially members of a family.
  • There's a bit of a subversion early in the series. Daenerys marries Khal Drogo, and part of the deal for him to get her, would be that he would lead an invasion of Westeros. In preparation for this, Drogo leads numerous raid, which in Dothrakki fashion leaves to multiple women begin enslaved. Daenerys, appalled by the slavery, tries to play into this trope, preventing some women from being raped by claiming them as her slaves. This later bites her in the ass when she comes to trust one of the slaves to heal Khal Drogo, and the woman instead renders him catatonic. Daenerys expected the woman to be a loyal, helpful slave, grateful for being saved by her and well treated by her owner, when she failed to account for the fact that the entire reason the woman was enslaved to begin with is because of Daenerys' claim on Westeros.
• Sympathy for the Hero:
  • Jaime expresses a moment of this when he sees Ned Stark setting himself up for a fall.
    Jaime: Poor Ned Stark. Brave man, terrible judgement.
  • Varys is supportive of Tyrion in the gloomy aftermath of "Blackwater".
    Varys: There are many who know that without you this city faced certain defeat. The king won't give you any honors, the histories won't mention you, but we will not forget.
• Sympathetic Murderer:
  • Jaime Lannister killed King Aerys, thereby damning him as dishonorable scum in the eyes of the whole kingdom, in order to save the whole of King's Landing and his father from a wildfire trap that the Mad King had laid beneath the city.
  • Lady Olenna Tyrell poisons King Joffrey so her granddaughter won't be married to a monster. He really is that, so the murder isn't hard to sympathize with.
  • Tyrion snaps and kills his former lover Shay after finding she'd betrayed him with his father. She seems to be the only woman he ever loved, and almost got him executed for a murder he didn't commit. Then he kills his father, who had showered his life with emotional and verbal abusive, blaming Tyrion for killing his own mother while being born. That, plus being a dwarf, which he considers a divine punishment.
  • Arya's list of people she wants to kill all have very good reasons for being there. When she does kill, it's almost always much worse people who did terrible things to inspire this.

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