Game of Thrones: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

[[File:Game_of_Thrones_Iron_Throne_HBO_promo_01_1452.jpg|frame|"When you play the [[Title Drop|game of thrones]], you win or you die."]]

 

{{quote|''Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men... all will play the 'Game of Thrones'.''}}

 

 

In the land of Westeros, the seasons last for years. The story opens with the threat of a ''long'' winter fast approaching. The Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, has unexpectedly died. King Robert ventures north to Winterfell to name his old friend, Eddard Stark, his new Hand and second in command. Despite the concerns of his wife, Catelyn, Eddard reluctantly accepts his new title out of duty. Whilst there, he uncovers evidence that Jon Arryn was murdered--and that the hand behind Arryn's death may now be poised to strike the king. [[It Gets Worse]] from thereon.

** Magister Illyrio is overweight and has a high rank in Pentos.

** The Spice King is fat and apparently leads {{spoiler|well... led}} the Thirteen of Qarth.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: People from Westeros tend to have European names, some familiar (Robert, Jon) and others more exotic (Eddard, Sandor). People whose families hail from outside Westeros, such as the Dothraki and the Targaryens, have fantastical names (Viserys, Drogo). The last two kings of Westeros were Aerys and Robert, which is quite close to the trope name.

* [[The Alliance]]: Robert's Rebellion, which gathered four of the eight Great Houses against the King.

* [[Alternate Reality Game]]: ''[http://www.themaesterspath.com/ The Maester's Path]''

* [[Badass Family]]: The Lannisters, Starks and Targaryens all aspire to embody this trope, in various flavors and with various levels of success.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Jaime pulls this off with a duster practically whenever he's not wearing his armor.

* [[Balancing Death's Books]]: Arya releases three prisoners in danger of dying in a fire. One of them later invokes the trope and offers to kill any three people that she nominates.

* [[Barbarian Tribe]]: The Dothraki, the Wildlings, and the hill tribes.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: Robb purposely tells the captured Lannister scout his plans and lets him go because {{spoiler|it's a ploy to fool Tywin into responding to a diversionary attack while Robb attacks Jaime's forces}}.

* [[The Beard]]: In Season Two, Margaery is shown to be well aware of her role, much to Renly's surprise. She tries to persuade him that even if he'd rather sleep with her brother, he still needs to father an heir to strengthen his position (and to make her a more convincing Beard).

* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]:

** Sansa learns this lesson when the only people to speak up for her while she's being stripped and beaten on [[The Caligula|Joffrey's]] orders are Sandor (whose face is half burnt) and Tyrion.

* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: In the book, Daenerys' hair is burned off in her [[Out of the Inferno]] moment. In the series, it's as fireproof as the rest of her - and not even a bit sooty.

* [[Berserk Button]]:

* [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]]: In "Blackwater", Ilyn Payne stands guard over the hold-fast where the highborn women and children are holed up. Cersei initially claims he's there as protection, but Sansa comes to realize he's there to kill them rather than let them be taken hostage. Cersei herself has procured a vial of poison.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]:

** The Lannisters take a little too long to learn this lesson about Robb Stark.

* [[Big Bad]]: [[The Patriarch|Lord Tywin Lannister]] or [[The Caligula|King Joffrey Baratheon]] to the Stark family.

* [[Bling of War]]: Jaime's golden armor, in striking contrast to the utilitarian armor worn by the Stark household guard. Lampshaded by Ned:

{{quote|"Very handsome armor. Not a scratch on it."}}

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: The Dothraki.

* [[Bodyguard Betrayal]]

** During the Battle of Blackwater, {{spoiler|Tyrion is attacked by his Kingsguard escort}}.

* [[Bolivian Army Ending]]: {{spoiler|Syrio Forel prepares to duel a member of the Kingsguard, with a broken wooden sword, while Arya makes her escape}}.

* [[Brain Bleach]]: The look on Theon's face when he realizes that the woman he attempted to seduce, and even groped, was his big sister Yara!

* [[Brains and Brawn]]:

** In the Season Two finale, {{spoiler|Pyat Pree, in a literal example after the fact, is [[Man On Fire|killed]] by the infant dragons of Daenerys, his captive. Since he is not aware of any possible ''backfire'' at this early stage of development}} it can also be classified as [[Mugging the Monster]].

* [[The Caligula]]:

** The [[Posthumous Character]] Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King, was a bad enough ruler that his sworn guard Jaime was driven to kill him.

* [[Call Back]]:

** After gleefully telling the injured Tyrion what a mess he's in, Grand Maester Pycelle flicks him a coin, saying, "For your trouble", calling back to when Tyrion arrested him in his bedroom and tipped his prostitute using the same words.

** In the House of the Undying, Daenerys rejects her vision of living with Drogo and their child by repeating the words said to her by Mirri Maz Duur, that she would have a child "when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east" and so forth.

* [[Canon Foreigner]]: A lot, which is expected, given how many characters the show has to condense from the novels. Leads also to many a [[Composite Character]].

* [[Cassandra Truth]]:

* [[Description Cut]]: In Season 2 Episode 2, Cersei justifies not sending more men to the Wall on the basis that she's sure the members of the Night's Watch can ably defend the realm. Cut to Watch member Dolorous Edd amusing the others with fart jokes.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: {{spoiler|''dragon'' ex machina ("Deus Ex Machina Airlines") at the end of S05E09}}.

* [[Did Mom Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?]]: Tyrion returns to his quarters to find [[The Spymaster|Varys]] chatting with his mistress Shae, who is supposed to be there secretly and her presence unknown to anyone else. Varys makes friendly conversation but obliquely references to Tyrion [[Shame If Something Happened|what a shame it would be]] if Tywin learned about her presence.

* [[Dirty Old Man]]:

** At first it seems that Viserys will be the Big Bad, but his plans are constantly ignored and delayed by Khal Drogo, and when Viserys makes his move, {{spoiler|he goes too far and gets himself killed}}.

** {{spoiler|Drogo becomes this as well. Now the runner-ups for [[Big Bad]] are King Joffrey and Lord Tywin}}.

* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Jory!]]"

* [[The Dragon]]:

** The Hound to Joffrey.

** As ruthless and vicious a fighter as the Hound is, he is shown to be a far nicer person in comparison to his brother Gregor and his master Joffrey.

** The city guardsman who brought out Robert's infant bastard from the brothel refused to kill him.

* [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]: When humans are touched by White Walkers, zombification apparently ensues. These zombies are somewhat tougher than the usual breed, however, as they can survive just about anything other than [[Kill It with Fire|fire]]. There is also the implied possibility of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] due to the number of human wildlings living beyond the Wall, who could potentially get touched by the Walkers, as well.

* [[Evolving Credits]]: New map locations are seamlessly added to the opening sequence on occasion.

* [[Exact Words]]:

** The "no bloodshed" rule of Vaes Dothrak, which also forbids the use of swords while there. Do not think this makes you immune from prosecution, as the Dothraki can [[Cruel and Unusual Death|get around this limitation very inventively]] should you annoy them.

** Joffrey states that his mother told him he should never strike his lady. He then orders one of his Kingsguard to strike Sansa instead. With a gauntlet.

* [[Faceless Goons]]: The Lannister Household Guards, a.k.a. the Redcloaks. Also the Gold Cloaks a.k.a. the City Watch.

* [[False Reassurance]]:

** The Lannister's ''un''offical motto, "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts", is pretty much an example of this. At face value, it seems to indicate that Lannisters show gratitude to those who do well by them, and this is true. However, it also indicates the reverse, that they will take revenge on anyone they think has slighted them, and that meaning is seen much more frequently.

* [[Fanservice Extra]]: Littlefinger's whores, the girl on the ship that asks to be Theon's "salt wife", etc.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]:

** Daenerys walks into an extremely hot bath despite the warnings of her handmaiden, and later takes a hot dragon egg out of a lit brazier without burning her hand. {{spoiler|In the finale, she walks into her dead husband's burning funeral pyre and emerges from the ashes unharmed, naked, with three baby dragons}}. Not to mention when {{spoiler|her brother dies from his 'Golden Crown': "He was not The Dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon."}}.

** Tyrion threatens a group of Nightwatchmen-to-be with placing their heads on spikes to decorate the capital.

** In S06E09, "The Battle of The Bastards", Ramsay Bolton tries to intimidate Jon Snow with threats that his dogs will eat him, musing as to which body part they will consume first. {{spoiler|His final scene sees Ramsay end up being his dog's dinner}}.

** In the same episode as above, Tyrion cautions Daenerys about the wisdom of destroying entire cities, reminding her that {{spoiler|that is what her Mad King father had intended by rigging Wildfire under the city of Kingslanding. Cersei detonates the Wildfire underneath the Great Sept, crushing all of her enemies in one fell swoop. This is also an instance of [[Chekhov's Armory]], as the Mad King's Wildfire plot was initially mentioned in season 3.}}

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Conan Stevens, actor portraying Ser Gregor Clegane is this in real life. 7 ft tall wrestler, bodybuilder and stunt actor, he is also scripwriter, computer geek and made his [http://www.conanstevens.com/ own website] all by himself.

* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: The White Walkers' eyes glow a frosty ''blue''.

* [[The Good Chancellor]]: Ned, who tries to get King Robert to do the right thing, and mitigate the damage whenever his advice is ignored.

* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Ned Stark's advice is often dismissed as just being [[Honor Before Reason]], but there are often very good reasons for his choices.

* [[Government in Exile]]: The Targaryens, at least in their opinion.

* [[Grammar Nazi]]: Stannis Baratheon, who corrects Davos Seaworth on the usage of less vs fewer when Davos is answering about his knucklebones, [[Fingore|hacked off by Stannis]].

* [[Grim Up North]]: The North is colder, harsher and less populated than the South. North of the Wall is even worse.

 

== H-M ==

* [[Happily Married]]: Ned and Catelyn Stark seem to be genuinely in love in a world where most marriages (including their own) are arranged for political reasons. Khal Drogo and Daenerys form a surprising bond.

* [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic]]: This trope is probably why no one in the Nights Watch (except for Qorin, which may explain his reputation as most competent Ranger) wears a hat, despite the freezing conditions they live in. More literally, it's noticeable during "Blackwater" that for most of the battle, none of the main characters wear helmets, though Tyrion does don one early on when he leads the flanking force and only removes it when he thinks they've won.

** The production staff have noted that they ''tried'' to shoot some scenes with helmets and hats, but that it made it nearly impossible to tell people apart, effectively turning them into fur-wrapped blobs of various sizes.

** Petyr: his unrequited love for Catelyn caused him to become obsessed with achieving power over his social betters.

** Maester Aemon's lecture to Jon warns him about the dangers of love, as it is the one thing that can cause a man to ignore his duty.

* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: Invoked by Ser Loras in his convincing Renly to make a play for the throne. He argues that Renly's charisma would make him a far better king than those before him because he ''would'' rule through love and respect rather than fear.

* [[Macho Masochism]]: The Greatjon laughing off a direwolf eating two of his fingers. Also, Drogo showed his badassery in a duel by deliberately allowing his opponent to cut him, in order to draw the guy closer. {{spoiler|This came back to bite him, as the wound gets infected and nearly kills him}}.

** According to Jaime, "[[Kill It with Fire|Burn them all...]]" was the Mad King's Madness Mantra.

** And his son Viserys' [[Madness Mantra]] is "You cannot touch me! I am the Dragon! ''I am the Dragon''!"

* [[Male Frontal Nudity]]

* [[Male Gaze]]: Jory at Littlefinger's brothel, Theon with Ros.

** The family names Lannister and Stark are thinly veiled references to the War of the Roses, a civil war in England fought between the houses of Lancaster and York.

** 'Stark' has several meanings, including "rigidly conforming", "desolate", and "strong". All of these meanings can apply to the Stark family or the North.

* [[The Medic]]: Talisa of Volantis, who attends to the wounded after a battle between Robb Stark's army and the Lannisters'.

* [[The Mentor]]: Several, for most of the younger main characters and some of the older ones. Jon Arryn was this to Robert and Ned, Rodrik Cassel to Robb, Jon and Theon, Lord Commander Mormont to Jon, Syrio Forel to Arya, and Septa Mordane to Sansa. In Season 2, Quorin Halfhand takes over for Jon, Dagmer Cleftjaw for Theon, Yoren, {{spoiler|Jaqen H'qar, and Tywin Lannister}} for Arya and in a way, Cersei Lannister for Sansa.

* [[Meta Casting]]: Theon Greyjoy is a wastrel and [[Butt Monkey]] who lives in the shadow of his sister. Alfie Allen is the brother of the singer [[Lily Allen]], and as for the butt monkey and wastrel part, she wrote a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090924085248/http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/lily/lyrics/1580821 not very flattering song] about him.

* [[Meta Twist]]: HBO gleefully marketed the show as if Sean Bean were the main character, and thus the ''one'' star with [[Contractual Immortality]]. {{spoiler|Nothing could be further from the truth, though those who had read the book would know this already - it would be impossible to even remotely follow the book's story with Ned alive}}.

* [[Minor Insult Meltdown]]: Wildlings refer to everyone south of the Wall as "Southerners," which annoys several Northerners.

* [[Mock Millionaire]]: {{spoiler|Xaro Xhoan Daxos, whose conspicuous treasure vault is completely empty}}. He's cunningly leveraged his fictional fortune into genuine comfortable wealth through trade and politics.

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: so many, it's entirely worthy of exploration for a Moral Philosophy module. (see [[/YMMV/]])

* [[Mr. Exposition]]: Jorah Mormont; at least in the first season, he mainly exists to inform Daenerys/us about the customs of the Dothraki and other such things.

** Daenerys, especially in her first appearances.

* [[My Nayme Is]]: Many of the character's names are very similar to modern names, such as Eddard for Edward.

== N-S ==

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, Ser Jaime "The Kingslayer" Lannister, and most infamously Aerys "The Mad King" Targaryen.

* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: The Dothraki Sea is not even remotely a large body of salt water. Rather, it is an area of rolling grassy plains, so named for its immense size and how easy it is to get lost in there.

* [[Non-Specifically Foreign]]: Shae, who playfully refuses to tell Tyrion where she's from. Later, Cersei pegs her as Lorathi, which might be a joking way of connecting Shae (who is played by Turkish-German actress Sibel Kikelli) to Jaqen, who claims to be from Lorath (and is played by fellow German actor Tom Wlaschiha).

* [[Noodle Incident]]: In Tyrion's list of "confessions" in "A Golden Crown", he's cut off before he can describe what he did that involved bringing [[Noodle Implements|a jackass and a honeycomb]] into a brothel.

* [[Nostalgia Filter]]: King Robert likes to muse about the good old days, before he was king. You know, when the entire country was either ruled by an insane dictator or in a state of civil war. His younger brother Renly does not hesitate to call him out on this.

* [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same/Playing With]]: averted and defied with Tyrion Lannister, who is not a 'typical' fantasy dwarf from a race of dwarves: he suffers from the genetic condition of dwarfism, whose mother died giving birth to him, is an alcoholic, whoring intellectual and tactician, and is known to some as a "demon monkey".

** Played for laughs: Dwarf cocks may or may not be magical.

* [[Parental Incest]]: Craster and his harem of daughter-wives.

** {{spoiler|Nephew (Jon Snow) and aunt (Daenerys)}} is a definite [[Played With|play]] on this.

** The Dothraki are seen to be indulging in this, which comes back to bite Khal Drogo later on when he {{spoiler|needs medical help}}. Also offscreen by Ser Gregor Clegane at the behest of Tywin Lannister.

** Gregor Clegane's band is reported to be doing this in the Riverlands. Ned is so appalled that he officially attaints him and sentences him to death, even though it would basically bring him to war with the Lannisters.

* [[Ravens and Crows]]: Not only [[Instant Messenger Pigeon|messengers]], but a common motif, as well.

* [[Reaction Shot]]: When Tyrion's plan to {{spoiler|wipe out Stannis' fleet with wildfire}} goes ahead, the view switches between the carnage itself and the horrified expressions on onlookers' faces. Most notably, [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|Sandor looks genuinely fearful]], Tyrion looks remorseful, Joffrey almost smirks, and {{spoiler|the pyromancer}} is giggling.

* [[Revealing Coverup]]: The attempted assassination of {{spoiler|Bran}} was the only thing that gave Catelyn reason to believe that {{spoiler|he hadn't fallen, but was rather thrown}}, causing her to dig deeper into the affair and discover various clues pointing to the Lannisters.

* [[Right Through His Pants]]: A few examples, unusually for an [[HBO]] series. Both Jaime and Tyrion are conspicuous offenders; Khal Drogo, on the other hand, averts it [[Fan Service|magnificently]], as does Theon later, giving the first example of male frontal nudity in the series. Cersei gives a female example in the pilot as well, probably due (in-universe) to the discretion that tryst requires.

* [[Rousing Speech]]:

** Tyrion gives one to the hill tribes before they go into battle in "Baelor". [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Then he's accidentally knocked out when they rush into battle]].

{{quote|"You hear that? That’s the mating call of the Northmen. They want to fuck us! Well I haven’t had a good fuck in weeks. I’m ready for one! They say every Ironborn man is worth a dozen from the mainland. Do you think they’re right? We die today, brothers. We die bleeding from a hundred wounds, with arrows in our necks and spears in our guts - but our war cries will echo through eternity. They will sing about the Battle of Winterfell until the Iron Islands have slipped beneath the waves. Every man, woman and child will know who we were and how long we stood... Ironborn warriors will cry out our names as they leap onto the shores of Seaguard and Faircastle. Mothers will name their sons for us. Girls will think of us with their lovers inside them. And whoever kills that ''fucking hornblower'' will stand in bronze above the shores of Pyke! WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE! [[Kiai|AHHHHH!!!!]]"}}

* [[Royally Screwed-Up]]: The Targaryens provide the page quote for the trope, arguably due to a long-standing tradition of [[Brother-Sister Incest]]. And King Joffrey seems to combine the worst aspects of each of his already-unpleasant parents (also brother and sister).

* [[Rule of Cool]]: Why would anyone build a clockwork map of the world? Because it looks [[Visual Effects of Awesome|really really cool]], that's why. The little-cogs-in-a-larger-machine effect satisfies the [[Rule of Symbolism]] as well.

* [[Rule of Seven]]: Seven Kingdoms, Seven Gods, Seven Hells...

** Perhaps most blatantly, {{spoiler|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, {{spoiler|Dagmer and the Ironmen.}} "We're going home!"

* [[Seventh-Episode Twist]]: {{spoiler|Eddard is arrested}}.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Jon and Sam, two characters in a fantasy world, telling each other what they wanted to be when they grew up: [[Fantasy Character Classes|a ranger and a wizard,]] respectively.

* [[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 [[Magnificent Bastard]] Petyr Baelish doesn't quite know what he's up to. Oh, and he delivers quite a hardass [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to Ned Stark.

'''Varys''': "Am I? That is good to know. Do you lie awake at night fearing my gash?"}}

* [[Snipe Hunt]]: Robert can't fit in his armor, so he sends Lancel to find the "breastplate stretcher".

* [[Solemn Ending Theme]]

* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]:

* [[Stunned Silence]]: The reaction to {{spoiler|the wildfire}} in "Blackwater".

* [[Succession Crisis]]: One begins at the end of Episode 7, and is the main focus of Season Two.

 

== T-Z ==

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: In-universe, Harren the Black, the builder of the great fortress of Harrenhal. He boasted that a million men could assault the walls and a million men would be repelled, that no army could take the fortress ''by land''. So the Targaryens took the fortress instead with dragons from the sky.

* [[You Are Already Dead]]: Drogo delivers a variant of this to Mago, just before before cutting his throat open [[Hoist by His Own Petard|with his own weapon]], reaching into the wound, and [[No Kill Like Overkill|ripping his tongue out]].

* [[Young Conqueror]]: Robb Stark, the "Young Wolf". Theon Greyjoy wishes he were this.

* [[Younger Than They Look]]: