Tropes A | Tropes B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to F | Tropes G to K | Tropes L to O | Tropes P to S | Tropes T to Z
Good
- The dead of House Stark are buried beneath Winterfell in tombs adorned with their likeness. Even though he dislikes the catacombs, King Robert's first request upon arriving is to visit the tomb of his lost Lyanna.
- It is customary for knights to stand vigil over a deceased comrade or loved one. Ser Barristan Selmy is established as a man of dignity and compassion who is not like the average scumbag who serves in the Kingsguard when he — one of the grandest knights in the realm — stands vigil for a whole night for the insignificant Ser Hugh of the Vale because there was no one else.
- Despite sparse resources, Daenerys arranges a massive funeral pyre for Khal Drogo, though she has additional uses for the fire.
- Rakharo, one of Daenerys's Blood Riders, is butchered by enemies and his remains sent back to her on his horse. Irri, his lover, is devastated that his body wasn't burned in Dothraki tradition, fearing that his spirit will not be allowed to enter the Night Lands. Daenerys comforts her by promising to build a pyre for him anyway.
- Tyrion returns the remains of Ned Stark as a humane gesture as well as a political token of goodwill.
- Ser Loras Tyrell stands vigil over King Renly Baratheon's body and remains near his beloved even as Tyrell bannermen are panicking to flee the area before Stannis' fleet arrives. It's revealed in a deleted scene
that Loras also buried Renly on his own, even as everyone around him panics to flee the area, which is a detail taken from the novels. Renly's corpse is dressed in the exact same outfit that he wore when he watched Loras joust, including the green brocade cloak which symbolized his commitment to Loras as his "groom/bride". Loras must have commanded the Silent Sisters to clothe the body in this manner so that he can later lay Renly to rest as his beloved "husband/wife". - House Tully is introduced during the Viking Funeral of their patriarch. King Robb even insists on interrupting his campaign, declaring his grandfather's funeral is more than just "a distraction".
- A fallen brother of the Night's Watch deserves a proper ceremony even knee-deep in hostile territory at the far end of the world. Rites include immolation and the traditional refrain "And now his watch is ended." Justified as bodies need to be burned otherwise they turn into the walking dead.
- Thoros relates how he prayed over Beric's body, even though he'd long since stopped believing, "Because he was my friend, and he was dead, and they were the only words I had."
- Several scenes at the Wall in "The Children" are largely dedicated to toasting and sending off those killed in the previous episode. The Night's Watch have a funeral for their fallen comrades. Later, Jon Snow has his own personal funeral for his wildling girlfriend Ygritte.
- Mance and Jon share toasts in honor of the deaths of Ygritte, and more notably, both Grenn and Mag the Mighty; despite them being on opposite sides of the Battle for Castle Black.
- In "The Sons of the Harpy", Sansa goes down to the crypts of Winterfell to pay respect to her ancestors.
- In "Mother's Mercy", Stannis has Selyse's body taken down from the tree, but it's implied that he doesn't have enough time to give her a proper burial.
- Daenerys has all 163 dead slaves' bodies taken down from the stakes they were crucified on and given a proper burial. She waits to bury them until she has looked at every single one of their faces, and insists that their slave collars be removed before they are buried.
- After she conquers the city of their murderes she has the equal number of slavemasters crucified alive and left to rot in the same fashion, but later relents and allows the bodies to be removed and buried.
- When Jon Snow's body is found, his friends bring his body out of the cold and stand vigil over it.
- In "Battle of the Bastards", Jon orders his little brother Rickon to be buried in the crypts next to his father.
- When Sandor discovers the bodies of a farmer and his daughter who starved to death because he had robbed them in the past, he buries them. Thoros helps.
- After the Battle of the Long Night against the White Walkers, the surviving characters cremate the bodies of those who had fallen during the battle similar to the Night's Watch customs.
Evil
This trope is Serious Business in Westeros, violation of it is a common way for characters to Kick the Dog.- Joffrey likes to gloat over his victims' heads and present them to their loved ones. Even evil queen Cersei and Tywin are appalled by his conduct in this regard.
- Mago challenges and insults Khal Drogo after the latter sides with Daenerys in an argument. Right before killing Mago in a rather one-sided fight, Drogo tells Mago that he's going to let vermin devour Mago's corpse.
- The Hound threatens to desecrate the corpse of anyone who wavers during the Battle of Blackwater.
- The villainy of House Frey hits a new low when they decapitate Robb Stark, swap his head with his direwolf Grey Wind's head impaled on the stump, and parade the body around chanting their victim's battlecry in mockery. Here though we get to see it in all its gory glory as it is tied to a horse and paraded in front of his dead and dying men, while in the books we only heard about it second-hand. Soon after, some mooks who gloat about it get a karmic death at the hands of a vengeful loved one.
- Jaime and Cersei have sex right next to their own son's corpse.
- Tyrion murders his primary nemesis — his own father, who is a stickler for prestige — in the most undignified place possible.
- In "The Red Woman", Ramsay extols his fondness for his lover Myranda in a monologue that's obviously meant to make viewers expect a proper funeral and burial, but he caps it off by having her body fed to the hounds instead.
- The White Walkers arrange the corpses of their victims into grisly "art" in a manner similar to the original ritual the Children of the Forest used to turn a man into the first White Walker before raising them as wights.
