A Song of Ice and Fire/Tropes S to Z: Difference between revisions

 

== S-V ==

* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Thus far {{spoiler|the POV character in the prologue or epilogue}} will, without exception, die. {{spoiler|Though Varamyr's spirit lives on in his wolf One-Eye.}}

* [[Sadistic Choice]]: King Joffrey Baratheon is very fond of these. When he punished a minstrel for mocking his parents, he gave him the choice of keeping his fingers or tongue. Randyll Tarly also uses these when he judges the people of Maidenpool. One victim was a guy who did nothing worse than cheat at dice; Randyll sentenced him to having one hand broken and the other pierced by a nail. He let the guy choose which hand.

* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: Brienne of Tarth wins a tournament before it's revealed that she's a woman (though an interesting case because everyone present ''other'' than Catelyn knows who she is and most disapprove of her winning because she's a woman). Also {{spoiler|[[The Archer]] Alleras is generally assumed to be Sarella Sand, one of Oberyn Martell's bastard daughters.}} Many fans also suspect that {{spoiler|Lyanna Stark was the mystery knight at the Harrenhal tournament.}}

* [[Science Destroys Magic]]: Possibly the goal of some of the Maesters at the Citadel.

* [[Screw Politeness I Am a Senior]]: Walder Frey, to the extreme. Olenna Tyrell has the nickname "The Queen of Thorns" for this very reason as well.

** Alleras, who is most likely Sarella Sand in disguise.

** In ''A Dance With Dragons'', {{spoiler|Mance Rayder}} goes undercover as "Abel", alluding to a famous undercover wilding named Bael.

* [[Second Love]]: {{spoiler|Brienne and Jaime}}, coming on the heels of {{spoiler|Renly}}'s death and {{spoiler|Cersei}}'s philandering, respectively. Tyrion starts to feel this way about Shae, {{spoiler|until she falsely testifies against him for plotting to murder Joffrey, and then when he finds her in his father's bed, he kills her}}. Mostly, though, [[The Mourning After|nobody ever moves on]].

* [[The Secret of Long Pork Pies]]: {{spoiler|Wyman Manderly}} ''loves'' a nice hot {{spoiler|Frey Pie}}.

** {{spoiler|Jaime and Cersei, since incestuous adultery doesn't go over well.}} Tyrion knows from the beginning, the reader finds it out from Bran's POV, and a lot of the book is about Ned [[Dramatic Irony|gradually uncovering the secret]].

** There's another between {{spoiler|Renly and Loras}} - aside from a few pointed comments by other characters (e.g., Jaime Lannister threatening to stick Loras' sword "somewhere even Renly couldn't find"), the only confirmation has been from [[Word of God]].

* [[Secretly Dying]]: {{spoiler|Jon Connington, of greyscale.}}

* [[Self-Proclaimed Knight]]: Jaime accuses Ser Osmund Kettleblack of being one after examining the White Book, the registry of Kingsguard knights. He claims to have been knighted by one "Ser Robert Stone" (deceased), but Jaime remarks how conveniently untraceable such a person would be.

* [[Show, Don't Tell]]: One reason the books tend towards being [[Doorstopper|Doorstoppers]]. Martin could just tell us that the Drowned Men live (almost) exclusively off stuff from the sea, for example. Instead, he endlessly shows them running around in sealskins and cooking seafood over driftwood fires.

* [[Shrug of God]]: All the damn time.

** Cersei and Tyrion

** Stannis and Renly - [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]].

* [[Silent Snarker]]: Sir Ilyn Payne comes across this way to Jaime (and once openly laughs at him). This makes sense since the reason Ilyn got his tongue cut-off was for snarking about King Aerys. Also displayed by Theon's squire Wex, a mute who frequently smirks at Theon's misfortunes.

* [[Sink or Swim Mentor]]: Before he actively threatened to kill Sam, Randyll Tarly had this attitude when trying to get Sam to "man up". This extended to a literal case of sink or swim, as Sam almost drowned to death during a disastrous attempt at teaching him to swim, and Randyll has a grudge against Hyle Hunt for saving Sam's life.

** Rorge, whose bite is just about as bad as his bark.

* [[Six-Student Clique]]: A clique of this type is introduced in the prologue of ''A Feast for Crows''.

* [[Smart People Play Chess]] : No world so overflowing with [[The Chessmaster|Chessmasters]] would be complete without its own [[Variant Chess]], after all. In this case it's Cyvasse, a kind of [[wikipedia:Tafl games|Tafl game]], with opponents setting up their pieces in a custom starting arrangement out of sight of each other. Tyrion is particularly good at it, and is shown mentoring Young Griff. Martin himself played in and directed chess tournaments when he was younger, and while he hasn't played competitively since the 80s, he does have a solid USCF rating of 1905, just short of Expert.

** Cersei Lannister is constantly gloating to herself about what a good job she's doing as ruler. Her success does not match her smugness.

** Theon Greyjoy is a cocky young man whose smugness alienates him from the Stark family beyond simply his status as a ward. Things change for him considerably down the road.

* [[Speech Impediment]]: Vargo Hoat's slobbery lisp. This is the main reason why he is [[Laughably Evil]].

* [[Spy School]]: The temple of the Many-Faced God.

* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: According to various fan theories, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and Eddard Stark and Ashara Dayne.

* [[The Starscream]]: Every Great House in Westeros has a house sworn to them that tries to undermine them:

** House Florent is this to the Tyrells. The Tyrells, in a way, were this to their previous overlords, the Gardeners.

** House Yronwood was this in the past to the Martells, but Doran Martell was able to resolve the feud between the two houses by fostering Quentyn at their castle. Now the Yronwoods are among Doran's most trusted servants, as evidenced by the fact that {{spoiler|two Yronwoods were sent to protect Quentyn on his secret mission to marry Dany, including the Yronwood heir, who was Quentyn's best friend.}}

** House Stark has engaged in a thousand-year struggle with House Bolton over control of the North. At the beginning of the series, Bolton is sworn to Stark, but they clearly don't want to stay that way. Ultimately {{spoiler|the Freys and Boltons betray their sworn overlords in a single gambit.}}

* [[Stay in the Kitchen]]: The general opinion of people in Westeros outside of Dorne. Most people mock or criticize Brienne for her knightly aspirations. Cersei has a great deal of problems trying to throw her weight around like a male lord. The Night's Watch forbids women from joining, and {{spoiler|after a truce was established with the wildlings, the spearwives encountered so many problems that they were all given control of their own castle}}.

* [[Stealth Pun]]:

** One may be suggested with the Freys. Their famous two towers and identification as Lords of the Crossing suggests an unstated (and accurate) pun that they are "double crossing".

** Stannis {{spoiler|using the Fiery Heart as his sigil}}, considering a Hart is another word for Stag...

* [[Stockholm Syndrome]]: {{spoiler|Ramsay Bolton}} has perfected the art of instilling this in his captives. {{spoiler|Theon and Jeyne Poole both have classic cases of it coming into his clutches.}}

* [[Storming the Castle]]

** "Winter is coming" are the Stark house words.

* [[Straight Edge Evil]]

** Tywin Lannister is a proud, dignified, and humorless man who is characterized by his aura of cold perfection and total ruthlessness in pursuit of his family's well-being. The in-universe meme that he shits gold relates both to his wealth, as well as the fact that he comes across as too perfect to be capable of normal excretion.

* [[Street Urchin]]: Arya in both King's Landing and Braavos.

* [[Stupid Evil]]: Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton stand out as being incapable of restraining their sadistic impulses no matter how much it hurts their cause. Roose Bolton calls out his son on this.

* [[Succession Crisis]]: Starts the War of the Five Kings. Joffrey isn't really King Robert's son, Stannis considers himself the rightful heir, Daenerys wants the throne Robert stole when he killed her brother, Robb wants revenge for his father's death and independence for the North, Renly just wants power and glory and thinks he'd make a better ruler than Stannis, and Balon decides this is the perfect time to attempt another rebellion.

* [[Surprise Incest]]: Played with in-universe by Asha Greyjoy when she comes on to Theon, who doesn't recognize her after [[She's All Grown Up|having not seen her since she was a little girl]].

* [[Switching POV]]: A textbook example of the advantages of this viewpoint. The first seven or eight chapters of ''A Game of Thrones'' are particularly instructive, as each chapter frequently introduces one character, only to have the next be narrated from that character's [[Point of View]], thus highlighting the [[Gray and Grey Morality]] of the series. There have been 31 narrators so far: Will, Bran, Catelyn, Daenerys, Eddard, Jon, Arya, Tyrion, Sansa, Maester Cressen, Davos Seaworth, Theon Greyjoy, Chett, Samwell Tarly, Jaime, Merrett Frey, Pate, Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy, Areo Hotah, Cersei, Brienne, Asha, Ser Arys Oakheart, Victarion, Arianne Martell, Varamyr Sixskins, Quentyn Martell, "Griff," Melisandre, Ser Barristan Selmy, Kevan Lannister. [[Word of God]] is that no more POV characters will be added in the last two books, not counting [[A Death in the Limelight|prologues and epilogues]].

* [[Sword Fight]]: Since this is fantasy after all, it happens in every book.

** Jaime Lannister becomes a lot more sympathetic after he becomes a POV character. Reactions are mixed whether Cersei receives the same benefit-- you certainly understand her better, even if you don't like her any more. This can also happen in reverse-- such as Jon, who is easy to like in his own chapters, but when we get an outside perspective on him we realize he's seen as cold and guarded.

** The sympathy one feels for Tyrion during his own chapters is such that we see the people of King's Landing as a bunch of prejudiced, short-sighted ingrates, and it is very easy to forget that he unleashed a load of thieving, raping barbarians and mercenaries loose on the various civilians of the city while securing his position.

* [[Tangled Family Tree]]: The medievalesque setting means that people often start having children very young and continue to have children very old; add in all the [[Arranged Marriage|Arranged Marriages]] between vastly age-differenced people and the general theme of incest and keeping track of relationships becomes... interesting. There are also the Freys, who manage to be this trope all on their own.

* [[Tasty Gold]]: Comes up regularly, including one instance in which {{spoiler|Arya murders a man by poisoning a gold coin}}. It's also [[Lampshaded]] in ''A Feast for Crows'' by someone who doesn't actually know how to tell whether the gold coin he's handed is real or fake, but bites it anyway so he doesn't seem naive.

* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: Tyrion, although subverted {{spoiler|since he doesn't actually die. Tywin arranged for House Tyrell and House Martell to be his chief allies despite the fact that they'd been at war for centuries. The way Tyrion arranged it, Tyrell and Martell would be at war again regardless, and either Tyrion would live (and piss off House Tyrell) or he would die (and piss off House Martell). Either way, he shoots a hole through Tywin's alliance.}}

* [[That Man Is Dead]]: [[Invoked Trope]] by Aemon (in backstory) towards his younger brother who became the [[Unexpected Successor]]; he tells him he must "kill the boy and become the man", and thus stop going by his cutesy childhood nickname "Egg" and become "Aegon".

* [[They Called Me Mad]]: Although he says it in a more rational-sounding way than usual, Qyburn has a comment like this on the (as he sees it) close-minded Maesters of Oldtown, who didn't appreciate him vivisecting live people and {{spoiler|teaching himself necromancy}}.

* [[Third Line, Some Waiting]]: Daenerys's chapters take place on another continent in the east. Not until the fifth book does she start getting a steady flow of visitors from Westeros.

* [[Third Person Person]]: Strong Belwas and Syrio Forel speak like this. Slaves in Astapor speak in the third person; Unsullied use their names, at least after they're free, while other slaves call themselves "this one." Jaqen, {{spoiler|at least as ''Jaqen'',}} refers to ''everyone'' [[Strange Syntax Speaker|not only in the third person, but with indefinite articles]] -- he is always "a man," Arya "a girl," et cetera.

* [[Thunderbolt Iron]]: Dawn, the ancestral sword of House Dayne, is made from meteoric iron.

* [[Thwarted Coup De Grace]]: Oberyn's {{spoiler|apparent victory over Gregor Clegane}}, and Biter's attack on Brienne.

** Daenerys has a dream in which she sees her brother Rhaegar say of his son, "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." The phrase "ice and fire" is also used in the Reeds' loyalty oath to Bran.

** The expression "game of thrones" is first dropped by Jorah in ''A Game of Thrones'': "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are." Cersei also says it later when she warns Eddard Stark from going against her. It's mentioned several times throughout the other books.

** The title of ''A Dance with Dragons'' is dropped in by Barristan Selmy {{spoiler|when referring to Quentyn's failed attempt to capture a dragon, which ended in his excruciating death}}.

{{quote|'''Barristan Selmy''': Not all men are meant to dance with dragons.}}

** Rhaegar did this according to legend. An artist and scholar as a youth, he one day realized that he had to become a warrior, so he went on to became one of the strongest knights in Westeros.

** Arya is slowly leveling up throughout the series. She is currently {{spoiler|in training to became a magical assassin, and is beginning to realize her skinchanging abilities}}.

* [[Tragic Dream]]: Eddard's dreams about his sister Lyanna's death. Much later, Jaime's dreams about his hand could be this. Or, they could be [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone|something else entirely...]]

* [[Tragic Hero]]: {{spoiler|Eddard Stark, Robb Stark, Rhaegar Targaryen and many more}}.

* [[Trilogy Creep]]: Originally envisioned as three books, then six, now up to seven, [[Arc Number|which is somewhat appropriate]].

** Littlefinger is a classic [[Trickster Archetype]] - he seems to be actively working to destabilise Westeros simply in order to make it easier for him to manipulate people and facilitate his own [[Rags to Riches]] progression.

** Tyrion and Varys are both prime candidates as well, using tricks, manipulation and ambiguous loyalty to, respectively, keep the Lannisters on top and {{spoiler|keep the Houses at each others' throats until the Targaryens return}}.

* [[Twincest]]: For a long time in the series, they're the ''only'' couple who are honestly in love with each other with no tragic end in sight.

* [[Twin Desynch]]: As long as Jaime and Cersei are together, they seem to form an utterly unflappable scheming machine to rival their father. However they really start to change once they're separated for a considerable time -- both of them suffer horrible traumas to which they respond in entirely different ways, and they each start to loathe the person they see their twin becoming.

* [[Tyke Bomb]]: The Unsullied are eunuch slaves trained from birth to be perfect warriors. Their horrific training is meant to strip them of all self-worth and individuality, turning them into soulless weapons. It doesn't quite work.

* [[Ugly Cute]]: An in-universe example, Brienne elicits sympathy from Catelyn (and from many readers) for the combination of her impossibly brutish looks and resolutely romantic outlook.

* [[Underdogs Never Lose]]: Of the viewpoint characters who've survived the first four books in spite of constantly being placed in dangerous and potentially fatal situations, one is a bastard, one is a fat black sheep of the family, one is a child cripple, one is the [[Last of His Kind|hunted last heir of a toppled dynasty]]. Tyrion the dwarf, however, never seems to get any credit for his successes, and is constantly pushed back down. Also, a large part of the remainder of this series is spent averting this trope in some of the most horrific ways imaginable.

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: {{spoiler|Several members of The Brotherhood Without Banners.}}

** George R.R. Martin ''had'' to have been giggling when he named a (very) minor character ''Dickon Manwoody''.

** There are also ''two'' instances of "Ser Aenys." Say it out loud...

** The Braavosi tend to include odd adjectives for their swearwords, possibly to add to their foreign flavor. "Camel's cunt" is the first that springs to mind, and is even funnier because ten-year old Arya says it.

** Swearing occurs not only in dialogue, but in the narrative as well. This leads to some [[Sophisticated As Hell|strange dissonance]] if you're used to typical fantasy, on at least one occasion--one moment a character "screamed and soiled himself", and the next someone "wiped the piss off his boot". Many modern swear words, such as piss and shit, were once the proper names for such things.

* [[Used to Be a Sweet Kid]]: Catelyn has a number of flashbacks/reminiscences which suggest Littlefinger was this, although he was always pretty mischievous. Dany also recalls Viserys being a decent brother when she was very young, before he went insane from the pressure of his birth.

* [[Variant Chess]]: Cyvasse is a chess-variant with pieces like dragon, elephant, crossbow, trebuchet and mountain. The players align their pieces in a custom starting alignment before the beginning of the game, with a Battleships-style screen dividing the board so their opponent doesn't know their deployment until the game begins.

* [[Vestigial Empire]]: The Ghiscari Empire, most of which was destroyed by Valyria 5000 years ago. New Ghis and the city-states of Slaver's Bay consider themselves descended from the old empire.

* [[Viking Funeral]]: A tradition of the Tullys. {{spoiler|Also performed by Victarion to sacrifice some captured slaves.}}

** {{spoiler|Tywin Lannister}}. His death was akin to someone walking towards a banana peel, then thinking "other people might slip on it and fall, but never me!". And the he steps on the banana peel. And he falls and breaks his neck.

** Also, {{spoiler|Janos Slynt}}. He really shouldn't have outright refused an order by his commander, in front of the entire Night's Watch.

* [[Villainous Incest]]

* [[Villains Never Lie]]: The Lannisters... well they ''lie'' all the time, but they take their motto seriously, and if they outright promise you something (whether it's gold or [[Disproportionate Retribution|revenge]]) you can count on getting it.

* [[Warrior Monk]]: Thoros of Myr.

* [[Warrior Poet]]: Denzo D’han, Rhaegar Targaryen, Mance Rayder.

* [[Wasteful Wishing]]: Arya wastes the chance to kill ''anyone'' on petty tormentors instead of enemy commanders. Interestingly, she ''does'' consider killing Lannister commanders at first, but decides against it when she remembers her father telling Robb and Jon than a man should kill his true enemies [[Honor Before Reason|face to face, without using deception or intermediaries.]]

* [[We Have Reserves]]: During the {{spoiler|Siege of Riverrun}} in ''A Feast for Crows'' {{spoiler|Jaime}} boasts that his army has no lack of Freys.

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Several minor characters seem to appear and disappear for long periods of time, even for entire books. {{spoiler|Including Jeyne Poole, who is impersonating the Arya Stark that is to wed Ramsay Bolton.}}

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Jon keeps a couple of wights chained up in the ice cells to be studied, as he suspects there might be more to them than shambling corpses. He notes that the one who tried to kill Mormont had obviously retained memories and some level of intention.

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]] and [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]: Targaryens tend to have platinum blonde hair and beautiful features. Daenerys attracts a legion of suitors, who say she is the most beautiful woman in the world to win her favor. Her brother Rhaegar is described as incredibly beautiful by Cersei.

* [[Whip It Good]]: Jhogo, one of Daenerys' bloodriders, wields a whip as his signature weapon.

* [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]: Randyll Tarly to his son, Sam. And Tywin to Tyrion.

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Sandor Clegane and fire.

** Sansa. Boy, does she pay the price...

** Eddard Stark is wise to the ways of war, but is totally surprised by the amount of intrigue and corruption infecting capital politics.

** Quentyn Martell, who belives himself the handsome prince on a quest. He knows people die on quests, but never the hero, right?

** As a child, Littlefinger was one of these. After all, the small and lowborn yet exceptionally intelligent hero always gets the girl, right?

** Littlefinger seems to be taking this approach to Sansa, who is now a 13-year-old girl. With nowhere else to go and no one else to depend on, Sansa is "adopted" by him and is forced to endure Littlefinger grabbing her into his lap and being trained on how he likes his "fatherly" kisses - long and passionate. It's also worth noting that when she was even younger, he was already creeping Sansa out by looking at her as though she were naked. In ''A Dance With Dragons'', Cersei recalls Littlefinger asking to marry Sansa (who at the time was 11-12 years old), although Cersei determined it impossible, since Littlefinger was of too low a status.

* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Jojen Reed, the "little grandfather".

* [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask]]: Daenerys after some development. She is also quite aware of the fact, referring to the necessity of her queenly vestments by tsaying that "The Queen of Rabbits cannot be seen without her floppy ears".

* [[The Women Are Safe with Us]]: Averted by nearly every army, where even the "good" generals grudgingly accept that after a battle their men will want to [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]]. However;

** Heavily deconstructed with Daenerys. First, she tries to stop the Dothraki raping the women of defeated tribes. Since they view those women as spoils of war, she's seen as simply being ''greedy'' by claiming them for herself, so she only succeeds in protecting a handful. Later, one of those women complains that Dany sees herself as a hero for "saving" her, when she'd already seen her temple burned, her friends murdered, and indeed been raped several times already. For her next attempt at fulfilling the trope, she acquires an elite group of eunuch soldiers.

* [[Word of Gay]]: Loras and Renly. Later, {{spoiler|Jon Connington}}.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: This being a quasi-realistic medievalish world, we get this and more.

** Sansa, who is very naive about people. She does get smarter, though.

{{quote|'''Littlefinger:''' "Life is not a song, sweetling. You'll learn that someday, to your cost."}}

** Melisandre. She considers R'hllor the one true god and the one benevolent supernatural force when it's indicated the Red God is not really any better than the other gods and demons we've seen so far, and other gods have been demonstrating real power recently. She believes the world works by [[Black and White Morality]] in a series ''full'' of [[Gray and Grey Morality]]. She believes Stannis is the [[Chosen One]] to lead the fight against the Other, {{spoiler|but everything indicates she's misinterpreting her visions, and Dany and possibly Jon Snow are better candidates}}.

* [[The X of Y]]: The series title and the titles of each book follow the basic format, with minor variations.

** Ramsay Bolton managed to {{spoiler|go from fleeing for his life disguised in his servant's filthy clothes to capturing and sacking Winterfell}} through what amounted to a series of clever improvisations.

* [[Yandere]]: Lysa Arryn for Littlefinger who is yandere for Catelyn. Heck, Littlefinger just takes Yandere to a [[Up to Eleven|whole new]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|level]] of crazy.

** {{spoiler|Eddard Stark's execution}}.

** {{spoiler|Drogo's death}}.

** {{spoiler|Jon Snow's assassination}}.

** {{spoiler|Daenerys' first victory in Astapor is undone the second she leaves.}}

* [[You Are in Command Now]]: {{spoiler|Jon, when everyone of rank on the Wall is either dead, absent or incapacitated.}}

* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: Cersei's prophecy, from the looks of things.

** Jon Snow, specifically, and then all of the Starks. Samwell Tarly and the rest of the Night's Watch count too. Averted brutally by Euron Greyjoy.

** Theon Greyjoy isn't sure where his home ''is'', but he's not accepted at his birthplace, nor the place he lived more than half his life.

** {{spoiler|Tywin}} doesn't seem particularly worried that {{spoiler|Tyrion}} has him at crossbow-point, and flat-out tells him he doesn't have the courage to do it. He's pretty surprised when he's proved wrong.

** In ''A Dance With Dragons'', {{spoiler|Theon}} gets the successful variant. A spearwife becomes angry with him and threatens his life. For the first time in about a year, he outright grins and tells her that she needs him to get past the guards. She disgustedly lets him go.

** House Frey is utterly despised by other noble houses for not only {{spoiler|backstabbing the Starks and Tullys}}, but also violating the cardinal rule of hospitality in Westerosi culture. The only crime higher than kingslaying, the septons say, is kinslaying, but guest right seems to be held by many to be above even that.

** When Cersei and Joffrey take the Iron Throne, both of them become extremely unpopular. Joffrey is hated due to his petty cruelty and lack of concern for his subjects, and Cersei quickly alienates herself due to her inability to consolidate her power. Nevertheless, Joffrey gets a little sympathy and people believe he has ''evil counselors'': the eunuch Varys and the ''evil monkey demon'' Tyrion.

 

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