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=== This is a listing of organizations that appear in the [[Fantasy]] series ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature)|A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Visit [[A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature)/Characters|here]] for the main character index. ===
 
== '''The Kingsguard''' ==
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* [[Honor Before Reason]]
* [[Inadequate Inheritor]]: The current Kingsguard, according to Barristan Selmy. He makes his contempt known when Joffrey dismisses him:
{{quote| '''Barristan:''' Have no fear, sers, your king is safe...no thanks to you. Even now, I could cut through the five of you as easy as a dagger cuts cheese. If you would serve under the Kingslayer, not a one of you is fit to wear the white.}}
** Hell, even the Kingslayer himself acknowledges this as true (and after Selmy is dismissed the appointees only get worse and worse with one exception), telling Loras Tyrell:
{{quote| '''Jaime Lannister''': I served with Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of Morning, who could have slain the six of you with his left hand while taking a piss with his right.}}
* [[Knight in Shining Armor]]: Played with. Many members are deconstructions, but some (Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, Barristan Selmy, and Lord Commander Duncan the Tall) run it straight.
* [[Master Swordsman]]: Has featured several, such as Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, and Jaimie Lannister.
* [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]: The Kingsguard are sworn to live this trope, no matter how terrible their monarch might be. This is seen in full effect under Joffrey, and horror stories of what the Kingsguard either participated in or enabled under Aerys Targaryen have become the stuff of legend. Jaime Lannister, Barristan Selmy, and Sandor Clegane are notable for being the only three members of the order in recent history to say "fuck that noise" to this trope.
** Subverted with [[Nice Guy|Arys Oakheart]], who's commanded by Joffrey to beat Sansa (like the rest of his brothers who do it without question and are pretty terrible about it). He objects to hitting her but gives in... and only hits her as lightly as possible.
* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: Under terrible rulers, the Kingsguard sometimes act like this.
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* [[Praetorian Guard]]
* [[Replacement Mooks]]: Thanks to the War of the Five Kings, the Kingsguard has been bled of its most competent knights. When Jaime finally returns to Kings Landing near the end of ''A Storm of Swords'' to assume his new role as Lord Commander of the order, he's shocked beyond words to discover it's now comprised of second- and third-string knights, Lannister cronies and up-jumped commoners of dubious backgrounds. The only members that Jaime approves of are Loras Tyrell and Balon Swann.
* [[Sibling Yin -Yang]]: With the Brotherhood of the Night's Watch. Members of both forswear lands, titles and family, and consider themselves to be brothers in a family. Their respective sigils are pure white and pure black. One wears white and guards the king; the other wears black and guards the kingdom. ([[Fridge Brilliance|This parallel has not yet been drawn by the text]].)
 
== '''The Night's Watch''' ==
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* [[Army of Thieves and Whores]]: Literally.Several of its members ended up on the Wall because they were thieves, and Satin is a former (male) prostitute
* [[A Storm Is Coming]]: The reason why this group was founded.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Averted with Samwell Tarly, a bookworm and self-professed coward. Played a bit straighter after he becomes the first character in eight thousand years to kill an Other and becomes known as [[The Magnificent|Sam the Slayer]] (See [[The So -Called Coward]] below.)
* [[Badass Creed]]:
{{quote| "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."}}
* [[Chaste Hero]]: Supposedly, although most of them still get around whenever they have the opportunity. This is tolerated by the superiors because trying to enforce the oath of chastity would do more harm than good, (and it has been pointed out that the oath prohibits [[Exact Words|fathering children, not sex per se]]).
** Mole's Town, the nearest settlement, apparently has several brothels that do quite good business with brothers that have snuck away for an evening.
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* [[The Eeyore]]: Dolorous Edd, so very much. [[Played for Laughs]].
* [[Ironic Nickname]]: Many members have these, such as "Small Paul" and "Giant".
* [[Locked Away in Aa Monastery]]: The reason [[Inadequate Inheritor|Sam Tarly]] was sent.
* [[Memetic Badass]]: Qhorin Halfhand -- in-universe!
* [[Mentor Archetype]]: Jeor Mormont, Qhorin Halfhand and Maester Aemon.
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* [[Old Master]]: The senior members often are this. Special mention goes to Maester Aemon and Jeor "Old Bear" Mormont.
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: By the time of ''A Game Of Thrones'', they're composed mostly of criminals, bastards, disgraced nobles, enemies of politically powerful people, and the like. It doesn't stop them from being an effective fighting force.
* [[Reassigned to Antarctica]]: One of the reasons people are sent to the Wall; Janos Slynt, for example, and the Lannisters' [[Spanner in Thethe Works|original]] plan for Eddard Stark.
* [[Sibling Yin -Yang]]: With the Kingsguard. See above.
* [[The So -Called Coward]]: Samwell Tarly is the first member of current Night's Watch to actually kill one of The Others.
* [[The Wall Around the World]]: At the northern end of it, at least.
 
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* [[Dirty Coward]]: per his own words, though he comes across as a [[Lovable Coward]].
* [[Fat Best Friend]]: to Jon Snow.
* [[Father, I Don't Want to Fight]]
* [[Geek Physiques]]: Sam is described as being quite fat and un-athletic.
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]], [[Nerds Are Virgins]]: played straight. (Until later...)
* [[The So -Called Coward]]: arguably a deconstruction.
 
== '''The Brave Companions''' ==
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* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Vargo Hoat, with his slobbery lisping voice and eccentric behavior.
* [[Death Byby Irony]]: Vargo's signature move is cutting off limbs and leaving the victims alive. This eventually happened to Vargo himself, who had his own body parts roasted and ''fed to him'' by Gregor Clegane. Clegane keeps Vargo alive as long as possible, because he found the way Vargo slobbered when talking to be amusing.
** Doubles as a [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch]] due to Hoat being a general [[Complete Monster]].
* [[The Dreaded]]: Vargo is infamous and known as "The Crippler" among the servants, peasants and helpless victims. Those who are actually in a position to fight back know him by the rather less intimidating nickname of [[Fluffy the Terrible|"The Goat"]] (referring to the emblem of Hoat's home city of Qohor, which is a black goat).
* [[Equal Opportunity Evil]]: The Brave Companions are quite diverse. It seems like the only criteria for membership in addition to being a competent fighter is being a completely amoral bastard.
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* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Do not refer to their company as anything but the '''Brave Companions''' or they'll make you suffer.
* [[Laughably Evil]]: Shagwell and Vargo.
* [[Mad Doctor]] / [[For Science!]]: Qyburn, a disgraced maester.
{{quote| '''Qyburn:''' For hundreds of years the men of the Citadel have opened the bodies of the dead, to study the nature of life. I wished to understand the nature of death, so I opened the bodies of the living. }}
* [[Monster Clown]]: Shagwell, the jester. The first thing we learn about him is that he killed a man for not laughing at his jokes.
{{quote| '''Brienne:''' You are no better than the rest of them. You have robbed and raped and murdered.<br />
'''Shagwell:''' Oh, I have, I have, I shan't deny it... but I'm ''amusing'', with all my japes and capers. I make men laugh.<br />
'''Brienne:''' And women weep.<br />
'''Shagwell:''' Is that my fault? [[Dead Baby Comedy|Women have no sense of humor.]] }}
** Their entire nickname references this trope. A "mummer" is a costumed entertainer (particularly a mime). That's why they're the Bloody Mummers: they're a whole brigade of wildly-dressed psychopaths.
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* [[Psycho for Hire]]: Every member of the group.
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: An evil version of this trope.
* [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]]: Happens to every town and village the Brave Companions encounter.
* [[Serial Killer]]: Rorge and Urswyck seem to have been this before they joined the group.
* [[Sociopathic Soldier]]: Again, all of them, though it's a subversion since it's implied they were all sociopaths before they became soldiers.
* [[Stupid Evil]]: This applies once Rorge takes over, since they go around [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|slaughtering indiscriminately]] to no apparent benefit, even as ever more people start hunting them as a result.
** Even before this, {{spoiler|cutting off Jaime's hand and trying to rape Brienne when both of them could be very valuable hostages}} falls into this category. {{spoiler|[[Pragmatic Villainy|Roose Bolton]]}} actually declares himself "displeased" when he finds out, which is the closest he ever gets to showing anger.
* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Say what you will about Qyburn, but he's the one person who hasn't abandoned Cersei, despite having nothing to lose if he does (and, frankly, plenty to lose if he stays).
** Possibly his [[For Science!]] motivation drives him to stay loyal because nobody else would {{spoiler|give him free reign to experiment on prisoners or let him create an indestructible undead warrior.}}
* [[War Is Hell]]: It is in general in these books, but when they're around even moreso.
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Their eventual fate, at Roose Bolton's and Gregor Clegane's hands. Unsurprisingly, [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch|nobody feels particularly sorry for them when this happens.]]
 
== '''The Brotherhood Without Banners''' ==
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* [[Batman Gambit]]: The High Septon plays Cersei like a fiddle until she grants the Faith the right to have an army and to judge people. {{spoiler|She plays right into their hands and ends up arrested for treason and fornication.}}
* [[Church Militant]]: They are actually a positive force in Westeros.
* [[Cold -Blooded Torture]]: The High Septon is fond of using this for "confession".
* [[The Fundamentalist]]
* [[Genre Savvy]]: The latest High Septon appears to be this: when Osney Kettleblack confesses to him {{spoiler|about his supposed affair with Margaery,}} he points out to Cersei that he's never heard a confession from a man so pleased to be guilty. Then he reveals that he took certain steps to make sure that Osney was telling the truth...
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* [[Warrior Monk]]
 
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[[Category:A Song Of Ice And Fire Organizations{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]
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