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

** 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.

* [[Smug Snake]]:

* [[Stuffed in The Fridge]]: Subverted with Lyanna Stark. Supposedly died a gruesome death-by-rape at the hands of Rhaegar, which incited her fiance Robert to start a war, wreck his later marriage, and generally spend a lifetime pining for his [[The Lost Lenore|Lost Lenore]], who wouldn't have called him fat and would definitely have let him stay up past his bedtime. None of this story rings true once we get a good sense of each of these characters' natures.

* [[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.

* [[Survival Mantra]]: A running theme for Arya. She frequently remembers the sayings of her old fencing instructor in times of crisis, and makes a habit of listing the people she wants dead before going to sleep each night.

* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: When the musicians at {{spoiler|Edmure Tully's wedding}} strike up ''[["The Villain Sucks" Song|The Rains of Castamere]]''. Justified in that this was preselected as a signal for its appropriateness.

** Samwell Tarly after joining the Night's Watch, culminating in him {{spoiler|killing an Other with an obsidian blade, then killing a wight by shoving a hot coal in its mouth}}.

** {{spoiler|Daenerys Targaryen}} by the end of the first book. And again {{spoiler|by the end of the third}}.

* [[Torture Always Works]]: Averted. Sometimes, torture does work, but just as often it's used to extract false confessions. Sometimes, torture is even performed to purposefully get a false confession, as when the Blue Bard is tortured into "admitting" he {{spoiler|had an extramarital affair with Margaery}}. Hizdahr zo Loraq points out that torturing him for a confession is pointless, since he'd obviously confess to whatever the torturer asks, no matter how untrue.

* [[Torture Technician]]: Several throughout the series, including:

** 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.

* [[Yubitsume]]: When the smuggler Davos breaks the siege of Storm's End he gets a knighthood, but has the fingertips of one hand cut off. Stannis believes that good deeds don't make up for bad; if you do him a favour he'll reward your for it ''and'' punish you for your previous sins.

** 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.