A Song of Ice and Fire/YMMV

"Pod: I told you I could fight!"
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Due to the complexity of the series' characters, many fall victim to this.
 * Angst Aversion: Many are hesitant to read the novels for the first time, because of the sheer hell the author puts the protagonist Stark children through.
 * Anticlimax Boss:
 * Anvilicious: The notion that the Middle Ages were a romantic time of heroism and chivalry is complete BS. War is always hell, even (and especially) when it's waged by knights in shining armor. And when noble lords wage power struggles, the common people get shafted in the end no matter who wins. As cool as dragons and wizards may be, everyday life in a Tolkien-esque fantasy world would be hell for most people. This trope applies, however, because sometimes Martin goes overboard- for instance, in Real Life if the nobility of the Middle Ages tried to treat their peasantry half as bad as some of the Houses of Westeros did, the economy would have collapsed and the Houses would have been very poor- and very dead- very quickly. Also, most Middle Age battles were not actually as brutal (or as epic) as they are portrayed- most of them were skirmishes and ended before they had a chance to get that far, because commanders and soldiers at the time were too Genre Savvy to let them get that far and achieve nothing but scores of dead soldiers. Only a handful ever really reached that level of violence and scale.
 * Broken Base: The fanbase was actually a pretty contented one up until the publication of A Feast For Crows. With A Dance With Dragons finally out, the new broken base seems to divide between fans who love it and consider it a return to form, and those who hate it and consider it AFFC 2.0. And then there are those who loved AFFC and don't consider the idea of AFFC 2.0 to be a bad thing. The split in the fanbase seems to be a result of the increased focus on world building in AFFC and ADWD. Westeros and Essos are presented in more detail than ever before, but parts of the fanbase consider this to have occurred at the expense of plot.
 * Complete Monster: Has its own page
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Has its own page.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Again, has its own page, although it needs more love.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Perhaps surprisingly for a series this cynical, there are several.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Littlefinger is wildly popular, despite being one of the most scheming and villainous characters in the series, and in many ways the Big Bad of the story (or one of, anyway). It helps that he's quite witty as well as described as handsome and stylish. More than one fan has even expressed a wish to see Littlefinger come out on top in the game of thrones. Sandor Clegane is also extremely popular despite his violent and morally gray behavior. He, on the other hand, is repeatedly described as hideously deformed.
 * Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: For some readers. While at the beginning it was a harsh and brutal (if equally unrealistic) representation of the Medieval Fantasy setting, with each book the brutality, sadism and plain revolting grimness of the world of Westeros can cause this feeling. While the first instance of "Villain wins, innocents are raped/mutilated/devoured" is shocking and horrific, the five hundred million-and-first scene no longer has the impact it wishes to have. Killing off audience-favourite heroes with little warning or fanfare is a particular trigger, although that doesn't happen as often as you might be led to believe.
 * Possibly even crueler in that we DO get the occasional cathartic moment of pure awesome (Jaime  springs to mind) - just enough that we can't be *sure* that the worst thing *will* definitely happen, and keep getting our hopes up, only to have them (mostly) crushed.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Sandor Clegane and Bronn, though not necessarily more popular than the main characters, are indeed unexpectedly popular.
 * Prince Oberyn Martell also manages this,
 * Asha Greyjoy, partially due to her Action Girl appeal.
 * Syrio Forel and Jaqen H'ghar to the point that.
 * Dolorous Edd, a tertiary character who counts with a facebook fan page
 * Wyman Manderly earned this status in grand style in A Dance with Dragons.
 * Hodor Hodor Hodor.
 * Hot Pie receives a lot of fan love due to his ridiculous (nick)name and lovable cowardice, and for providing a view of how the War of the Five Kings affects the peasantry.
 * Podrick Payne gets a lot for his Undying Loyalty to Tyrion Lannister and his Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass moments:
 * Hot Pie receives a lot of fan love due to his ridiculous (nick)name and lovable cowardice, and for providing a view of how the War of the Five Kings affects the peasantry.
 * Podrick Payne gets a lot for his Undying Loyalty to Tyrion Lannister and his Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass moments:

"Tyrion: That was a stiff one.
 * Garlan Tyrell, simply because he's a badass knight and a decent person. He's nice to Tyrion and does a minor case of calling Joffrey out on his behavior.
 * Edmure Tully, for being a generally nice chap. Yes, he screwed up, but he wasn't told that the Northern plans depended on him not stopping the Lannisters. His commanders' contempt for him cost them a great victory. Laser-Guided Karma much?
 * Epileptic Trees: The various mysteries surrounding Robert's Rebellion, the Tower of Joy, Jon Snow's parentage, and Prince Rhaegar. The Others are one big Epileptic Tree.
 * Evil Is Cool: A good deal of fans love Littlefinger, despite his role in making things worse.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Many characters will do anything to get into Cersei's bed, including abandoning any sense of morality they might have to earn her physical favor. Even as she becomes less and less likable throughout the series, she is still one of its primary sources of erotic Fan Service.
 * Fan Nickname: . The "Tower of Joy" is generally treated like a proper name to a tower and an incident there, though the phrase comes from an offhand description.
 * Genius Bonus: At one point in A Dance With Dragons, Stannis's army is marching to rescue . One of the knights asks if all of the trouble is worth it for a woman; this is a reference to The Iliad. In and of itself, this would be a stretch--except that GRRM specifically mentions that the knight who responds to this comment is nicknamed "Middle Liddle." As any classicist could tell you, "Middle Liddell" is the name of one of the most commonly-used Greek lexicons.
 * He's Just Hiding:
 * Possibly . Although as a minor character, he's unlikely to reappear as there is no single hint of his survival in the next three books.
 * A Dance with Dragons spoiler:
 * Jaqen H'ghar seems to be disguised as an alchemist visiting Oldtown.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: A little meta, but the November 15th, 2009 Podcast of Ice and Fire contains an off-the-cuff joke about Duke Nukem Forever coming out before A Dance with Dragons would, at a time when DNF was officially cancelled. Sure enough, Duke Nukem Forever came out exactly 4 weeks before Dance.
 * Ho Yay:
 * Renly and Loras, as confirmed by Word of God. Interestingly, according to Martin, Renly's Rainbow Guard was not supposed to reference the popular symbol for homosexuality. It was simply a product of Renly's fondness for bright colors and fashion--though that is still a stereotypical gay trait.
 * Cersei and Taena Merryweather have rolled in the hay a few times, though Cersei isn't really that into it.
 * Ready your Brain Bleach, comrades - Tyrion/Mord
 * Ready your Brain Bleach, comrades - Tyrion/Mord
 * Ready your Brain Bleach, comrades - Tyrion/Mord

Tyrion: I could use a big man like you."


 * Jon and Satin. Jon's nice to Satin where the other Watchmen are rude, he remarks on his good looks frequently in his P.O.V. chapters, and, not to mention that Satin was a prostitute (implied to have worked mostly for men) before he came to the Wall.
 * Stannis and Davos are another pair that give off this vibe -- Stannis is cold to nearly everyone, including his wife, but freely admits to missing Davos, laughs and smiles in his presence though the maester who raised him says Stannis "never learned how to laugh", and honours Davos constantly despite the latter's common birth and the complaints of his other lords bannermen; Davos is completely devoted to Stannis to the point where he won't even criticise him for cutting his fingertips off, does Stannis' bidding even when he disagrees, and has called Stannis his god.
 * Idiot Ball:
 * Catelyn Stark accusing Tyrion of trying to Grief-stricken or not, would
 * She then started balancing the idiot ball on her nose:
 * It Was His Sled: The deaths of.
 * Iron Woobie: Arya and Brienne.
 * Jerkass Woobie:
 * Arya. She's mentally unstable but due to all that's happened, can you really blame her?
 * As of A Dance with Dragons, is now officially the biggest Jerkass Woobie in the history of Jerkass Woobies. Although.
 * Les Yay: Cersei with Taena Merryweather.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Although the books have a reputation for Anyone Can Die, Few fans really bought that Brienne had been hanged. Many fans also doubt that has been Killed Off for Real.
 * Conversely, GRRM seems to take demonic pleasure in averting these wherever he can. For crying out loud, he has  where
 * Magnificent Bastard:
 * Tyrion Lannister, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, Varys, Tywin Lannister, and Roose Bolton all qualify.
 * Olenna Tyrell, she helped assassinate Joffrey and absolutely no one has any idea she was involved. She's also the brains behind House Tyrell.
 * Margaery seems to have started taking notes from Granny Dearest, and even working for her as her Bastard Understudy since she was old enough to write... Undermining Cersei handily on her own, plus other acts, strongly suggest that not everything she does is entirely Gran's idea, even if it has her style all over it. She may fully graduate in time. If she's given the chance to.
 * Doran Martell comes out of nowhere as one in books four and five.
 * As of book five, Wyman Manderly almost certainly qualifies.
 * Bastard Understudy: Sansa Stark, who could shape up into the above trope if Littlefinger has taught her right.
 * Memetic Badass:
 * Randyll Tarly became the fandom's answer to the Chuck Norris Facts fad. Tarly is a fairly tough customer in the series, but nothing close to the level that fans playfully describe him.
 * Jaime Lannister is known within the world as one of, if not the best, swordsmen around. The 2010 suvudu.com "cage matches" between fictional characters drew a large contingent of supporters for Jaime, who bested Hermione Granger and Cthulhu, among others, before facing off against The Wheel of Time's Crystal Dragon Jesus, Rand al'Thor. Martin wrote short descriptions of how he thought Jaime would win, which usually relied on Tyrion providing him a gameplan.
 * Wyman Manderly has attained this status (with praises that sound almost Chuck Norris-esque, e.g.
 * Memetic Mutation: "Oh sweet child of summer". Typically used by those who have read all the books to tease newcomers about how much worse things get.
 * Memetic Sex God: Oberyn. Also, apparently, Tormund Giantsbane, as evidenced by this forum thread encouraging fans to replace important quotations with "Tormund's member".
 * Moral Event Horizon: A number of characters have crossed the boundary from grey to black morality:
 * When King Joffrey orders the, who was meant to be spared.
 * Tywin Lannister crossed this line before the beginning of the series: When his son Tyrion fell in love with a thirteen-year old orphan, he lied to Tyrion that the girl was a paid whore. Tywin then had his entire garrison of soldiers brutally gang-rape the poor girl, forcing Tyrion to watch it all and then participate. Nothing Tywin ever does afterwards can redeem him from Complete Monster status because of this (though not even making an effort to, and screwing Tyrions' actual whore after hypocritically berating Tyrion for his whoring all through his life, and having the gall to have zero remorse for his actions and even to try and justify them on the grounds of I Have No Son, doesn't exactly push him towards redemption anyway).
 * Theon Greyjoy has perhaps the most notable one. Starting as something of a Jerkass with a downtrodden history that made him sympathetic, Theon crosses the line in a shocking way when he And then A Dance with Dragons, using some of the best writing in the series,.
 * The Red Wedding caused two characters to cross the line, namely.
 * What Gregor did to Princess Elia and her baby. Even worse is that he laughs about it and was only 17 at the time. Also, he held his little brother's face in a fire because Sandor played with his toys, and (probably) killed their little sister as well.
 * Subtle one: Theon notices whip marks on Jeyne(who's 12/13) who also claimed to be trained to please a man. and once you reealise what Littlefinger meant with "I'll take care of her"
 * An in-universe example: several characters consider Jaime Lannister's killing of Aerys Targaryen to be this. Since Jaime himself thinks it's his Crowning Moment of Awesome, this causes friction.
 * Never Live It Down
 * In-Universe example: Jaime Lannister is forever known as the Kingslayer for murdering the man he was supposed to protect. To be fair, while the King in question was popularly recognized as The Caligula, the fact that most people don't know just how off his rocker Aerys was (planning to burn the Capital to the ground out of spite), and the misperception that Jaime killed him to further the ambiton of House Lannister (Ned, in fact, believes that he killed Aerys because he wanted the throne for himself and was just playing a long game), is what really circles this trope off.
 * Fandom Example: Catelyn Stark, despite being a kind and caring mother and a woman with a strong sense of honor and duty. She is widely disliked because her first actions in the series are against the extremely popular Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. Against Jon, she is openly disdainful generally, and in a moment of mad grief over her comatose seven year old son Bran, she tells him "it should have been you" before breaking down in tears. Soon after, upon meeting Tyrion Lannister at an inn, she mistakenly arrests him for the attacks on Bran. This arrest serves as the trigger that sets the long simmering tensions in Westeros aflame, erupting into the War of the Five Kings.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Many, many instances; has its own page.
 * No Yay:
 * Ramsay Bolton's very...fond of his Reek. This only makes being Reek even more terrifying, if that's even possible.
 * Also, in early books, Littlefinger's stroking Sansa's face, commenting on her attractiveness, saying he understands Joffrey wanting the "sweet prize" of her body, squicked out many fans.
 * Opening a Can of Clones: The Faceless Men; just look at the WMG page. This despite the fact that the only use of Actually a Doombot the series has so far pulled off was actually Melisandre's doing. This also seems to be based on an earlier understanding of Faceless Man powers that was jossed in A Dance With Dragons.
 * Puppy Love: Arya/Gendry, Bran/Meera, and Bran/Daenerys (who, it should be noted, have never met each other).
 * Real Women Never Wear Dresses: A good part of the Sansa hate comes more from her girliness than anything else. Fans have warmed up to her somewhat as she acquires Jade-Colored Glasses.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap:
 * As Sansa begins to accept that the world isn't a fairytale, she starts to get more respect from the fandom.
 * As of A Dance with Dragons, Theon Greyjoy.
 * Replacement Scrappy: Darkstar was a self-confessed attempt to replace  with a Badass mercenary. Unfortunately, his first appearance involves him  . The nastiness of it (especially when compared with the character he replaced, who had no Kick the Dog moments) coupled with its failure, firmly established Darkstar as an ineffectual Scrappy.
 * The Scrappy: A few examples, with a cast so large. Some are due to characters having intentional flaws, while others are simply disliked as characters.
 * Darkstar, introduced in A Feast for Crows. Martin admitted that he wanted to recapture some of the aspects that fans liked about Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne, but some fans rejected this minor character's overt attempts at Evil Is Cool.
 * Due to her initial characterization, there are readers with very little sympathy for poor Sansa. Her flaws, however, are very intentional. These readers still hold out hope that she'll be rescued as she spends more time with Littlefinger.
 * People are deeply divided on the subject of Catelyn, but she's one of the most disliked of the main characters among the fandom due to her poor treatment of Jon and her rash behavior.
 * Arianne's chapters are disliked by some segments of the fandom mainly because  However these chapters actually   So your mileage really may vary on this one.
 * Dany's Meereenese supporting cast in A Dance With Dragons is very unpopular for a variety of reasons - difficult names, perceived blandness and the idea that the conflict in Meereen is ultimately irrelevant. Daario Naharis draws particular ire for his negative effect on Dany's character.
 * Squick: The series is known for its grittiness, gore, and creepy sex scenes. Often the squick is played for black humour.
 * Some people really react poorly to the sex scenes involving Tyrion. Other than him being an ugly dwarf, however, they're pretty normal.
 * Hell, most of them are sweet. While it's pretty sad that the Seven Kingdoms are the kind of place where you have to stop and say, "actually, believe it or not, I don't believe in raping people," the fact that he *does* say it is a credit to him (I guess?).
 * Another disgusting but completely hilarious scene is when the siblings Jaime and Cersei Lannister
 * Tywin Lannister in the end of book three is.
 * Littlefinger and his creepy obsession with Sansa Stark, which is wrong on so many levels.
 * Seasonal Rot: A Feast for Crows features only half the usual characters and places a lot of emphasis on new characters, giving the reader more of a commoner's perspective of Westeros than before. Many readers rejected the shift in emphasis, preferring the focus stay on the main plotlines and characters.
 * Shipping: Many examples, such as Sansa/The Hound, Lyanna/Rhaegar (they've both been dead fifteen years, but nothing will stop the ship), Jon/Dany, Tyrion/Sansa, Tyrion/Penny and even  despite
 * Tear Jerker: Many, many examples. Has its own page.
 * Too Cool to Live:, so much. too.
 * Too Dumb to Live:
 * , for putting honor before reason and trusting an admitted backstabber.
 * for trusting and even loving the same admitted backstabber.
 * for spazzing out all the damn time, especially when he shouldn't.
 * , who was completely blind to the impending backlash of his marriage.
 * for trying to give a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in the middle of combat.
 * Sansa Stark to a lesser degree, if only because she manages to stay alive, but her naivety costs the life of several people,
 * , for beggaring the realm and driving away any possible allies that might be able to help.
 * and poor, stupid
 * especially, for selling the entirety of what was by far their main military strength to . Inside their city walls. Even if they didn't realise she didn't like , you'd expect anyone in this world to realise that giving someone this perfect opportunity to completely screw you over really easily, would probably cause them to completely screw you over really easily.
 * , falls for the old rope-a-dope when championing his lady against
 * Values Dissonance: Since the life (and culture) of Westeros is beyond brutal and sadistic, it tend to confuse and/or scare modern readers. Especially those who are deemed "grey protagonists".
 * Victarion murdered his wife with his bare hands, causing some readers to see it as a Moral Event Horizon. The culture of the ironborn is Rated "M" for Manly; Asskicking Equals Authority all the way. Victarion considers his actions perfectly moral, and places the blame totally on Euron for defiling his wife.
 * Jaime Lannister also falls under this when it comes to his nickname; the 'Kingslayer'. The readers, after learning what a complete maniac Aerys the Mad was, can at least justify Jaime killing the man he swore an oath to, but in Westeros where honour and liegedom is everything, Jaime's actions are irredeemable.
 * Many people can't get over the huge age differences between the girls and the men who are interested in them. However, being set in this time period, it is realistic that girls that are only teenagers would be considered grown enough to marry. Especially noteworthy is Dany, who married her first husband at the age 13 (her husband was around 30). After her husband is out of the way, Ser Jorah puts the moves on her and wants to marry her. Ser Jorah is 40-something, and Dany is still a young tween at this point. Sansa has numerous suitors that are much older than her as well - starting the series at 11-12 years old, Littlefinger (who starts the series at 29) already looked at her as though she were naked, and The Hound (20-something) demonstrates attraction to her. Dontos, who is middle age, also repeatedly tried to kiss her. By the time she is 13, Littlefinger has gone into the realm of molesting her and forcing her to kiss him.
 * Villain Decay: Cersei seems like a frighteningly competent Chessmaster early on. It's later revealed that she's anything but.
 * Wangst:
 * Theon is the master of it. Jon has some Wangsty moments as well early on in the series, but becomes more mature as his career in the Night's Watch progresses.
 * Possible Fridge Brilliance when you realize that Theon's Wangst is probably deliberate in A Clash of Kings in order to make the readers dislike him and see him for the arrogant, entitled prick that he is. After his, his Wangst evolves into seriously chilling territory.
 * The Woobie:
 * Sansa. Will this poor, mistreated young Distressed Damsel ever find her Knight in Shining Armor?
 * Jon Snow
 * Tyrion is the biggest one in the series, and that's saying a lot.
 * Tommen and Myrcella Baratheon, especially after
 * Hodor
 * Jeyne Poole manages to claim this title in ADWD despite being a very minor character..
 * Theon Greyjoy,
 * Penny: The sweetness of Sansa and the stature of Tyrion.
 * Podrick Payne.
 * Sandor Clegane needs more hugs.
 * The smallfolk in general - the arrogance and pride of the five kings has doomed them to years of war and privation.
 * Cat. That poor, poor woman.
 * A kind of weird inversion occurs with Robin Arryn in the first book - the reader wishes that someone would just take him away from his overprotective mother and force him to man up. You know your mother is bad when the readers wish that you had been sent to be fostered by Tywin Lannister.
 * Even his father noticed it and wanted to send him to Stannis Baratheon.
 * Jaime, since A Storm of Swords.