Game Of Thrones / Tropes T to Z

Game of Thrones
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Tropes with their own subpages:

• Wham Episode

T

• Tactful Translation: Missandei tactfully translates her boorish master's speech until Dany reveals that she already understood everything. Once in Dany's service, Missandei translates honestly, though she does express embarrassment for the insults she sometimes has to relay.
• Take a Third Option: In addition to being totally impervious to conventional weapons, the Wall contains magic to prevent the undead / white walkers from ever crossing south of it. So in the very last scene of Season 7, the Night King uses his shiny new Dracolich and its magic fire breath to melt the Wall behind Eastwatch-by-the-sea.
• Take Care of the Kids:
  • Robert asks Ned to be Joffrey's regent and guide until he comes of age.
  • Ned was also begged by his dying sister Lyanna to take care of her son (fathered by Rhaegar Targaryen) and hide him from Robert Baratheon. The kid was Jon Snow.
• Take Over the World:
  • The Dothraki have a prophecy of the Khal of Khals, the "stallion who mounts the world". Daenerys believes this to be her unborn son by her husband Khal Drogo, Rhaego, but her son is sacrificed by a witch to save Drogo's life, only to trap him in a state between life and death, forcing Daenerys to Mercy Kill him.
  • In the final season, Daenerys has her army wipe out the Lannister regime and burns down King's Landing, effectively accomplishing her dream to take over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. In her victory speech, she declares that she's going to turn her attention east and unite the known world under her banner.
• Taken During the Ending: In Season 5 "High Sparrow", Tyrion and Varys hang out at a brothel which coincidentally Jorah is staying at. While Tyrion goes off on his own to relieve himself, Jorah follows him to get a good look at his face, and once he recognizes he's Tyrion Lannister, he kidnaps him to take him to Daenerys.
• Taking You with Me: During the Battle of Blackwater, Cersei eventually reveals to Sansa that Ilyn Payne isn't just there to protect them, but also because Cersei does not intend to let Sansa live if Stannis wins.
• Talking to the Dead: Ramsay to Myranda's corpse.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: All (true) Baratheon males share this trait. Jon Snow also qualifies.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Oberyn Martell.
• Tamer and Chaster: The first three seasons weren't averse to erotic scenes at all. Season 4 onwards contain much less of them.
• Tangled Family Tree: When Loras Tyrell is to wed Cersei Lannister and her (inbred) son Joffrey is to marry Loras's sister Margaery, the family tree gets hilariously complicated all of a sudden. Lady Olenna tries to wrap her head around their familial relations. Specifically:
  • Loras will be Joffrey's stepfather and brother-in-law.
  • Cersei will be Joffrey's mother (as well as aunt) and sister-in-law. ^note Depending on the definition. A lot of people nowadays don't count the spouses of your siblings-in-law as additional siblings-in-law, but in this society they seemingly do.
  • Margery's and Joffrey's son will be Loras's nephew and step-grandson.
  • Loras will be Margaery's brother and father-in-law.
• Tap on the Head:
  • Theon receives one at the end of a Rousing Speech. He goes right out.
  • An unlucky hog farmer gets two in "The Rains of Castamere", courtesy of the Hound and Arya respectively. This foreshadows Sandor knocking Arya out when she tries to intervene in the battle at the Twins.
• A Taste of Defeat:
  • Following his defeat on the Blackwater, Stannis Baratheon sinks into a depression and becomes even more dependent on the red priestess Melisandre.
  • After losing his sword hand, Jaime Lannister realizes that he must now rely on tactics other than direct force to get what he wants.
• Teaser-Only Character: Night's Watch rangers Will, Gared, and Waymar Royce in the very first episode.
• Technically-Living Zombie: Stone men are people in the advanced stages of greyscale. They turn violent and bestial, attacking the people around them and spreading their disease. This is the reason that greyscale sufferers are driven away from communities or killed before their condition deteriorates too far.
• Teens Are Monsters: Joffrey Baratheon is certainly among the most depraved and vicious characters in the series.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Jon Snow's unpopular plan of teaming the Night's Watch up with their enemies, the wildlings, against their common foe. No one is particularly happy about it.
  • Loboda, the Thenn who had just spurned Jon's offer of safe passage through the Wall, volunteers to accompany Jon to rescue the dragonglass and even has a Last Stand against a White Walker to buy Jon time.
• Ten Little Murder Victims: Jaqen H'ghar provokes this among the Lannisters at Harrenhal, and Tywin Lannister responds by torturing his own men in search of answers.
• Tempting Fate: Benjen, Ned, and Robert all say something akin to "We'll talk when I get back". They thought they would, huh? Well, Benjen did.
  • Before the Red Wedding, Talisa asks Robb if their baby is a son, they can name him Eddard Stark, in memory of Robb's father. Of course you can, if a certain crazed old man didn't lure you all into a devious trap to kill you all. Sure enough, neither the father, mother or the baby lived.
  • Tywin Lannister decides to test the patience of his very angry, crossbow-toting son by calling Shae a "whore" after he had been warned not to do it again. Cue Undignified Death.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Sansa is good at embroidery while Arya prefers archery and swordplay.
• Thanatos Gambit: By allowing Oberyn to champion him, Tyrion ensures that if he loses (and is therefore condemned) it will ruin Lord Tywin's alliance with House Martell.
• That Old-Time Prescription: Milk of the poppy (that is, opium) is regularly prescribed for painful injuries.
• That Wasn't a Request: Invoked in Season 6 when the Faith Militant come to bring Cersei (at the time confined to the Red Keep pending trial) to the Sept.
• Then Let Me Be Evil:
  • Jaime's Jerkass personality partially grew out of this.
  • Tyrion at his trial in Season 4.
    Tyrion: I wish I was the monster you think I am. I wish I had enough poison for the whole pack of you. I would gladly give my life to watch you swallow it.
• There Is No Cure: Averted. This trope is basically every Maester's usual opinion about the In-Universe equivalent of leprosy: Grayscale. The skin of the infected develops an infected tissue which hardens when exposed to the air and turns grey (hence the name of the disease). In the late stages of the disease, the inner organs are infected as well, driving the infected mad to the point of erasing any trace of intellect. Eventually, death occurs following shock and organ failure. To add insult to injury, the disease is also extremely contagious and for this reasons the infected are shunned by society and left to die in far-away regions of the world. So far only two persons have survived the disease to tell the tale. The first is Shireen Baratheon, Stannis' daughter, who is also our first introduction to the disease after having gotten infected and cured in the past (she got lucky for being still a child and receiving immediate treatment from several Maesters which altogether managed to cure her). The second is Jorah Mormont (who had the whole infected tissue removed by Samwell Tarly in Season 7).
• They Called Me Mad!: Although he says it in a more rational way than usual, Qyburn describes his relationship with the Archmaesters of Oldtown in this way.
• Thicker Than Water:
  • The Tyrells mostly stick together despite their ambition. Olenna does deride Mace regularly and is dismissive of Loras' intelligence ("[Knocking men off horses with a stick] does not make him wise"), but she and Margaery are also among the most accepting of Loras' sexuality.
  • Lord Rickard Karstark uses his final words to invoke an ancient taboo against kin-slaying, but it doesn't deter his executioner.
  • Cersei spoiled her first son Joffrey from day one, but was horrified when he became increasingly psychopathic and insane, starting to indulge in regular cruelties and atrocities. She later acknowledges to Margaery that even at his most evil she still loves Joffrey out of some sense of maternal care and she loses it completely when he dies in her arms.
  • As the man himself says, literally the only reason that Tywin Lannister hasn't killed his son Tyrion at birth is because "I cannot prove that you are not mine." This is a very twisted example because while Tyrion's whoremongering and drinking might reflect badly on their reputation, Tywin also blames Tyrion for things he can't possibly be held responsible for (such as causing his wife's Death by Childbirth and being born a dwarf) and blatantly favors his brother Jaime.
• A Thicket of Spears:
  • The Unsullied, Slave Mooks who fight in phalanx, appear beginning in "And Now His Watch Is Ended". They get very little opportunity to properly strut their stuff in the series: many are killed in guerrilla ambushes by the Sons of the Harpy, a style of warfare they're really not suited to.
  • In "Battle of the Bastards", the Bolton army uses tower shields and pikes to hem in and slowly kill the disorganized and worse-equipped army of Jon Snow. However, they're taken by surprise when Sansa Stark returns leading heavy cavalry from the Vale and are flattened before they can reposition.
• Third Line, Some Waiting: Until Season 6, Daenerys is on a separate continent from the rest of the story, with only Barristan Selmy, and later on Tyrion Lannister, directly involved in both arcs.
• Third-Person Person:
  • Syrio Forel speaks like this.
  • Jaqen H'ghar refers to everyone in indefinite third-person, calling himself "a man" and Arya "a girl".
  • Slaves from Slaver's Bay, including the Unsullied, are required to refer to themselves as "this one" to help destroy their sense of identity.
• 13 Is Unlucky: Qarth is controlled by the trade guild known as The Thirteen, who prove less than helpful to Daenerys.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Just when Tyrion thinks the Battle of the Blackwater is won, someone points out Stannis's reinforcements, lots of them, charging up the beach. Tyrion sees them and mumbles, "Oh, fuck me!"
  • Jaime and the Lannister forces when they see the Dothraki horde charging at them. Jaime is confident they can hold them off, then they hear Drogon roar. . .
• This Is Not My Life to Take: In "Battle of the Bastards", Jon comes close to beating Ramsay to death, but he stops when he realizes that Sansa, who has suffered far more at Ramsay's hands, is watching. Jon lets Sansa execute Ramsay instead.
  • Invoked by Jaqen H'ghar when he rebukes Arya for neglecting her assignment to kill Meryn Trant instead
• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • Theon's killing of Ser Rodrick is seen as this.
  • Violating guest right is also seen as this, so that when the Freys and Boltons commit the Red Wedding, the Freys become openly despised by many of the other houses, even by their own Lannister allies.
  • Jaime sees Cersei's decision to not help Daenerys and Jon in their battle against the army of the dead in order to remain queen of Westeros as this, since it leads to him deserting her.
• Throne Room Throwdown: The final episode has Jon fatally stab Daenerys in front of the Iron Throne after she confirmed that she intended to conquer the rest of the world in the name of freeing it. Then Drogon appears and melts the throne before flying off with Daenerys in his claws.
• Thwarted Coup de Grâce Many in the later seasons:
  • Oberyn's apparent victory over Gregor Clegane.
  • Ramsay's apparent victory over Jon
  • The joint Lannister-Tyrrell expedition to free Margaery from the Faith Militant.
• Title Card: It's housed in the floating astrolabe that functions as the sun for the giant Clock Punk map of Westeros and Essos in the opening credits. It's revealed to the audience at the end of the credits when it eclipses the sun plate at the centre of the sphere, however, if you're paying attention you can briefly see it at the start of the credits as the camera zooms past the sphere and down to King's Landing.
• Title Drop: Most episodes are named after a significant line from them. However, the one that tops them all is a series title drop and episode title drop in one sentence:
  Cersei Lannister: When you play the game of thrones, you win... or you die. There is no middle ground.
• Those Two Guys: Pyp and Grenn. Dolorous Edd is added to the mix in Season 2.
• Thousand-Year Reign: The Lannisters have this goal in mind. In Season 1, Lord Tywin explains to Jaime that the coming months will either cement a Lannister/Baratheon dynasty on the Iron Throne that could last a thousand years, or they could collapse into nothing like the Targaryens (who made it to 300 years themselves).
• Toilet Humour: In the Season 6 episode ''The Battle of the Bastards" Tormund Giantsbane and Ser Davos Seamount, two veteran warriors from different cultures forced into an unlikely alliance, discuss what they do on the night before a battle. Tormund says he drinks himself to sleep, and offers some sour goats' milk to Davos, saying it is superior to the wine preferred by Davos's people. Davos declines and explains that, the night before a battle, he is usually unable to sleep, so

  I walk and think, and then I walk and think some more, and then I walk some more until I am far enough away that no one can see me shitting my guts out.

• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Everyone confronting Brienne or The Hound on their respective road adventures. Even if you don't know who they are, these are big armed people wearing custom-fit full plate. The armor not only means that most attacks on them are harmless, it means that killing is their business because that stuff isn't made on a lark.
  • Ned while no doubt is trying to do the right thing by being honorably, he really shouldn't have told Cersei he was on to her. He also really should have listened to Renly's suggestion about raiding the castle and taking Joffrey hostage after Robert dies in order to stop the Lannisters. Ned was foolish to think he could trust Littlefinger who was particularly throwing it in Ned's face he could not be trusted even before he doubled crossed him.
  • Robb Stark really dropped the ball between breaking his promise to Walder Frey, beheading Rickard Karstark and losing the Karstark family support as a result and then not at all being suspicious of Walder Frey when taking the truce, it's no wonder he got killed.
  • Viserys made a pretty bad choice to try and confront Khal Drogo and threaten him which in turn got Viserys violently killed.
  • Roose Bolton knows full well his illegimate son Ramsay is a sadistic sociopath, and we see him rebuke Ramsay repeatedly over some of his more Stupid Evil actions, such as torturing and mutilating Theon Greyjoy (whose father could have been a much-needed ally) or beating and raping Sansa Stark (who they needed to legitimize their claim on the North). He also decides it's a great idea to make Ramsay his heir, then repeatedly taunt him with how easily this inheritance could be taken away, and how his wife is pregnant and they think it's a boy. As soon as the baby is born and confirmed male, Ramsay stabs his father to death and feeds his step-mother and baby brother to his dogs.
  • In "Battle of the Bastards", Rickon is sent running to Jon as Ramsey shoots arrows at him. And even when they start coming down, he continues running in a dead straight line, rather than the zigzag motion every fox and deer knows. Naturally, he doesn't make it.
• Too Happy to Live: The Starks. At the beginning, they’re pretty much the only great house of Westeros who aren’t screwed up (or screwing each other for that matter), have lots of healthy, well-adjusted kids, Mr and Mrs Stark are Happily Married and their people adore them. From Season One onwards, it’s all downhill for them and at this point, there are only a handful of them left alive. Robb and Talisa get hit with this especially hard. They’re in love, Happily Married, seemingly manage to smooth over the botched alliance with the Freys and have just found out they’re having a baby. Then they attend a certain wedding…
• Too Important to Walk:
  • High-ranking members of the Royal Court who go on official tours of King's Landing are usually carried around in a palanquin. This is partially because many of the streets are too narrow for a horse and carriage, partially because of safety concerns; the one time the highly unpopular King Joffrey goes out on foot he is attacked by a mob of starving peasants.
  • While meeting with his grandfather Tywin, Joffrey starts to whine that he doesn't want to climb any stairs to attend the Small Council meetings in the Tower of the Hand. Tywin shuts him down (while towering over him) by pointing out that they could simply arrange for the King to be carried.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Daenerys Targaryen progresses from a timid maid being prostituted for an army to an emancipating conqueror, and eventually into a city-burning tyrant just like her father.
  • Arya is a spirited young girl, but gains fighting knowledge from Syrio Forel and training from the Faceless Men in assassination. By the seventh season, she's able to fight Brienne toe-to-toe.
  • Robb Stark manages to raise and lead an army despite being less than half the age of most of his lords.
  • Samwell Tarly progresses from cowering in the training yard to taking a meaningful part in the defense of Castle Black and encouraging those who are frozen by fear.
  • Sansa goes from the show's resident Butt-Monkey to a major player in the 'great game', including feeding Ramsay to his own hounds and outwitting Littlefinger with her siblings' help.
• Torn Apart by the Mob: During the Riot of King's Landing, the first High Septon is torn to pieces by starving smallfolk. One even holds up his arm in triumph.
• Torture Cellar: Theon Greyjoy is confined to one in Season 3.
• Torture Technician:
  • Gregor employs one nicknamed the Tickler at Harrenhal in an attempt to root out the Brotherhood Without Banners.
  • Ramsay Snow is a master of the Bolton tradition of flaying.
  • Polliver alludes to being one in "Two Swords".
• The Tourney: The most notable one was the Tourney of the Hand in Season 1, but we also see tourneys hosted by King Joffrey and King Renly in Season 2.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sansa really likes lemon cakes.
  • To a lesser extent, the Hound apparently has a thing for chicken.
• Tragic Hero: Several interacting at the same time.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • During their stay at King's Landing, Ned gives a doll to Sansa. At first, she views this gift with disdain, claiming that she hadn't played with dolls since she was eight. After her father dies, it's revealed in a short scene during the second season that she kept the doll.
  • Renly's armour fits this trope for Loras. This heartbreaking deleted scene from Season 2 makes it more obvious. It's the only physical object that Loras has kept as a reminder of his lover after he buries Renly's body.
• Tragic Mistake: Several characters' downfalls can be traced to a single action caused by a character flaw.
• Tragic Villain: Theon Greyjoy's path to villainy in Season 2 is precipitated by his father's poor treatment of him.
• Trail of Blood: Twice in "No One": Arya uses the blood from her reopened wounds to lure the Waif into her cell so, and after their apparent fight in the darkness we see a trail of blood going into the House of Black and White, to create suspense as to which of them survived.
• Training from Hell: For the Unsullied, castration is just the beginning. Relentless physical training and infanticide follow.
• Training Montage:
  • A minor one for Arya in her first "dancing" lesson with Syrio Forel.
  • Arya gets one again in Braavos, training to become a Faceless Man.
• Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: Jon Snow in Seasons 2 and 3.
• Transparent Closet: Everyone seems to know about Renly and Loras.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • When Daenerys discovers that the masters of Meereen are taunting her by crucifying a slave child on every milepost to the city, she remains perfectly calm. Her voice and face, however, make it perfectly clear that the responsible ones are going to suffer for this.
  Barristan: I'll tell our men to ride ahead and bury them. You don't need to see this.
  Daenerys: You will do no such thing. I will see each and every one of their faces.
  • Dany dips into this well again when she banishes Jorah Mormont, her most trusted adviser up until that point, for betrayal without ever raising her voice.
  • When Tyrion confronts Tywin after escaping his cell and discovering that Shae was sleeping with Tywin, he barely raises his voice above a whisper as he threatens his father with the business end of a crossbow. When Tywin calls Shae a whore, he looses two bolts into his chest, still stone-faced and quiet.
  • A downplayed example; during the entirety of Davos' conversation with Melisandre after she sacrificed Shireen, Davos looks like he's trying not to kill her where she's standing and is barely holding back tears and rage.
• Transhuman Abomination: The Night King's White Walker lieutenants apparently originate from human babies who are turned into the same kind of Humanoid Abomination as the Night King by his touch. "The Door" reveals that the Night King himself was originally a First Man who was transformed into the undead humanoid ice demon he now is by the Children of the Forest in a ritual many thousands of years ago.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • In "Fire and Blood", Joffrey shows Sansa the castle wall adorned with the heads of her family's household, most importantly her septa and her father, and he forces her to look.
  • Everything that happens to Theon Greyjoy in Season 3.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Hardly the first show or even the Trope Codifier here but with Westeros allegedly being the size of South America the sheer degree has to be considered a landmark.
  • Littlefinger shows up for meetings all over Westeros in Season 2. He does it again in Seasons 5 and 6.
  • Mace Tyrell and Meryn Trant travel to Braavos. It takes them half of Season 5 to get there and arrive just as Arya Stark is on her way to make her first kill.
  • Varys shows up in Dorne in the final episode of Season 6 but is back in Meereen to join Daenerys's fleet by the end of the same episode.
  • Euron Greyjoy, who in Season 7 is somehow able to intercept Yara Greyjoy's fleet, return to King's Landing to parade his prisoners to the Red Keep and then sail to Casterly Rock in about the same time it took the Unsullied to get there from Dragonstone. What makes this even more jarring is that Yara Greyjoy also sailed from Dragonstone and left around the same time as the Unsullied. The fact that Euron's arrival in King's Landing and his fleet arriving at Casterly Rock happens in the same episode only adds to this.
    • From the same episode, Cersei tells the emissary from the Iron Bank of Braavos to stick around for a fortnight, promising to pay a large portion of the crown's debts by then. She's talking about their plan to sack Highgarden and use the Tyrells' stash of gold to pay the debt. However, Highgarden is 760 miles from King's landing, and Jaime (head of the Lannister army) was just in bed with Cersei minutes before this meeting. It should take months to get from King's Landing to Highgarden and back, but apparently, Cersei is confident that they can do it in under 2 weeks.
  • The sixth episode of Season 7 features Jon Snow and his companions traveling north of the wall to capture a wight. They do so and become stranded in the middle of a lake that is freezing over, surrounded by an army of undead who are waiting until the ice can support their weight. However Gendry managed to escape and makes it back to the Wall where a message is sent by raven to Dragonstone so Daenerys can fly her dragons over to rescue Jon Snow and his party just as they are swarmed by the wights.^note The distance between the frozen lake and Dragonstone is well over 1,000 miles, and possibly over 2,000. The director of the episode admitted the timeline’s “getting a little hazy.”
  • In the final season, Arya and the Hound depart from Winterfell together (on horses) toward King's Landing, with the armies of Daenaerys' and Jon's alliance leaving after them toward the same destination (most of them on foot), along the same road. The two of them end up arriving at the capital to find it already besieged by the army which marched out behind them, meaning a thousands-strong force overtook and passed them with enough time to set up a siege (and for Dany and her court to travel to Dragonstone and back twice on boats). Neither group ran into any complications or delays shown on screen along the way. Further complicating the situation is that Jaime, who left Winterfell a significant amount of time after Dany and Jon's armies, ends up arriving and being captured after the siege is set up but before Arya and the Hound show up.
• Treacherous Advisor:
  • Many of Roose Bolton's moves become this in hindsight, such as sending the 500 men to Winterfell to supposedly take it back. They burn Winterfell in order to cover Roose's bases.
  • Grand Maester Pycelle will work for the strongest side, who are House Lannister. Jaime, who used to be a bodyguard of the previous regime, recalls that prior to the Sack of Kings Landing by the Lannister armies, Pycelle advised King Aerys to open the gates to ensure them a victory, whereas Varys advised against it. He tries to do the same sort of scheming when Tyrion is acting as Hand of the King by going to Cersei behind his back. Since Tyrion is much smarter, he devises his own plot to uncover any disloyal advisors in the Small Council and subsequently strips Pycelle of all power and has him thrown in a cell.
• Trial by Combat: Bronn championing Tyrion against Ser Vardis. Later, Oberyn Martell stands for him against Ser Gregor Clegane. This one doesn't end well for him.
• Tricked into Escaping: Ramsay Snow engineers a fake escape for Theon Greyjoy, partly to play good cop and get information, partly for shits and giggles. He leads Theon back into his cell after he learns what he wants.
• The Trickster: Littlefinger actively destabilizes Westeros to provide himself opportunities to manipulate people and increase his own power.
• Triumphant Reprise:
  • The main theme gets this treatment on a couple of occasions, the first being when Robb rides back from battle safe and sound, with Jaime Lannister as his prisoner, and the second over the final scene and closing credits of the season. The latter is so effective it's difficult not to leap from your couch, fist pumping and cheering when it cuts to black. Dragons have that effect.
  • As noted above, while the "The Throne Is Mine" during Joffrey's purge of Robert's bastards is the Dark Reprise of the Baratheon theme, it segues into a triumphant rendition of "Black of Hair" when Gendry escapes to safety.
  • Robert Baratheon's theme also gets a triumphant reprise when Gendry learns his true parentage in The Bear and the Maiden Fair.
  • "The King In The North" is reprised, not for Robb who died in the previous episode, but for Bran as he goes to the Wall in Mhysa.
• Truce Zone: Within the Dothraki city of Vaes Dothrak it is forbidden to shed blood, but Exact Words allow for Loophole Abuse.
• True Beauty Is on the Inside:
  • King Renly and Lady Catelyn are among the very few individuals in this Crapsack World who can look past Brienne's unappealing physique and see her inner beauty.
  • Sam Tarly is definitely more overweight than the rest of the main cast, and yet he is one of the nicest, most loyal, and trusted people in the series.
  • Tyrion is a good example - nowhere near as attractive as his siblings, nor anywhere near as morally declined.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card:
  • The official title of the King on the Iron Throne is "X of House Y, Number of his name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm". It's easy to understand why fans will usually call the position "King of Westeros"^note and, apparently, why upon becoming the Queen Cersei had the last two parts forged into one, "Protector of the Seven Kingdoms".
  • Dany's evergrowing magnificence tangles it some more, since she lays claim to the above title and adds "...of the Blood of Old Valyria; Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea; the Unburnt; Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons". You can see why most people just call her Khaleesi.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Season 6 reveals that the white walkers were created by the children of the forest during their war with the First Men. The children eventually made peace with humans, but the white walkers continue to kill both human and child alike.
  • And by reanimating those who die fighting them as wights, which then form their army for further attacks on the humans, the White Walkers repay this trope.
  • In the penultimate episode Gregor Clegane, upon being challenged to a duel by Sandor, kills Qyburn and leaves Cersei to her fate
• 24-Hour Armor: King Renly doesn't seem to have any formal clothing other than his armour in Season 2.
• Twins Are Special: For much of the series, the relationship between Jaime and Cersei is characterized by both as being particularly deep and this trope is implied to be part of the reason behind their Twincest. Several times they've both argued that non-outsiders who try to judge them simply are not able to understand the depth of the bond between them. This comes to a head in Season 8 when Jaime, who recently turned his back on Cersei to fight the White Walkers with his brother and Brienne, decides to return to Cersei at the last minute and dies by her side.
• The Twink: Ser Loras Tyrell and Olyvar.
• Twincest: Jaime and Cersei Lannister have had a long-term relationship.
• Tyke-Bomb: The Unsullied are eunuch slaves trained from childhood to be soulless weapons.
• Tyrannicide:
  • Deconstructed. Euron openly admits to kinslaying his own brother, Balon, and justifies himself on the grounds that Balon's rule brought nothing but grief to the Ironborn. While that may be true, it doesn't change the fact that Euron is all kinds of worse than Balon could ever be, with one tyrant replaced with a more malicious one. The best you can say about Euron is that he understands the importance of powerful allies and that the Ironborn are too few in number to take on all of Westeros.
  • Played straight in the series finale where Jon's conflicted assassination of his Love Interest Daenerys is portrayed as the only option left because Daenerys cannot be dissuaded from her path of destruction in her intent to conquer the world.

U

• Ultimate Job Security:
  • Varys, Pycelle and Barristan are all survivors from the Targaryen regime. Each of them is too good at what they do to have been removed from their posts. Defied with Ser Barristan, who expects to serve for life but is dismissed in the transition from Robert to Joffrey after Robert dies under his watch.
  • Littlefinger tries to bump it up to Vetinari Job Security, right to Cersei's face, but she reveals that she's impulsive and capricious enough to just up and kill him, no matter the consequences.
• Uncertain Doom: Syrio Forel. The last we see of him is when he is about to fight Ser Meryn Trant with a broken practice sword. We hear his battle cry and the sounds of a fight before the scene cuts away. Trant appears later, unscathed, but Syrio's fate is never addressed.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: In Season 5, Jon is visibly uneasy on his way to the top of the Wall with Melisandre. After he breaks the ice, she gives him a hint about her powers and asks him if he's a virgin. After a long pause, Jon replies no, to which she creepily adds a simple "good". Bonus point for being probably the only elevator that exists in the entire setting.
• Uncommon Time: At certain points during the Battle Of Castle Black, the soundtrack goes from the regular 4/4 to a descending 5/4. And it is Awesome.
• Undead Child: The White Walkers transform all of their victims into wights, no matter the age. There are several notable scenes including undead children, which never fail to horrify the adults who witness them.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Littlefinger believed this as a child, but a duel with Brandon Stark taught him different.
• Underling with an F in PR: Roose Bolton's hopes of uniting the North by marrying his son Ramsay to Sansa Stark fall apart because Ramsay rapes and abuses Sansa, which only makes the rest of the North, which is intensely loyal to the Stark family, hate the Boltons even more. When he tries to curb his son's behavior, Ramsay murders him and kills off his wife and child.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Although his House joined the Lannisters to gain more power, Loras Tyrell only really wanted to avenge his murdered lover. Commanding a cavalry charge while wearing Renly's armour is a way of honouring his vow from Season 1.
  • Brienne remains dedicated to King Renly, even after his death, becoming furious and forceful when Jaime insults him one time too many.
  • Even though Daenerys has already purchased the unquestioning obedience of the Unsullied, when she frees them she earns their loyalty even beyond their Unsullied conditioning.
  • The job description of a Dothraki bloodrider; if their khal dies, they are to avenge his death, escort his khaleesi to Vaes Dothrak, and then join their khal in death.
• The Unfavorite: Tyrion Lannister, Theon Greyjoy, and Samwell Tarly.
• The Unfettered: Nothing, not even morality, prevents Tywin Lannister from pursuing his goals for his House.
• The Unhug: Cersei and Tyrion have one in Season 2, but they don't even get as far as hugging. After almost two seasons of loathing each other, Cersei finally breaks down in front of Tyrion. Tyrion realizes that you're supposed to do something to comfort your sobbing sister, but he's so out of practice that he just sort of awkwardly pats her hand, which only makes them both even more uncomfortable.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: During his duel with Gregor, Oberyn is constantly rolling, somersaulting and spinning his weapon to annoy Gregor and play to the crowd. His goal is to humiliate Tywin, so it's all part of the show.
• Unobtanium: Valyrian steel. The Valyrian Freehold was able to forge a steel that was lighter but far stronger than ordinary steel. Absolutely nothing cuts like Valyrian steel; it would go through a knight in full armor like a hot knife through frozen butter. The secret of forging Valyrian steel was lost in the Doom, but a handful of smiths are able to rework it. Needless to say, the handful of Valyrian steel swords and daggers are thus prized heirlooms for the houses of Westeros.
• Unreliable Narrator: The Blu-ray extras of the history of Westeros are narrated by various characters, each with a biased view of the events they describe. For example: Tywin Lannister views his Sack of King's Landing as a just action to end the war and restore order, while Robert Baratheon sees it as Necessarily Evil, Ned Stark views it as a terrible crime, and Viserys Targaryen calls it an unjust betrayal. All of them have a point.
• The Unreveal: Shae is vague and mysterious about her past. When Cersei corners her and demands details about her life, Shae starts, "When I was thirteen..." but gets cut off.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The best schemes are kept obscure even from the audience until they come to fruition in a Wham Episode.
  • The only hint of Tyrion's plan to use wildfire at the Battle of Blackwater is a vague Call-Back to his meeting with Pyromancer Hallyne.
  • Dany's advisors are appalled by her trading a dragon for an army. Neither they nor the viewers are aware that she plans to turn her dragon against the buyer and use the army to conquer Astapor.
• Unusual Euphemism: Although most curses are in modern English, from time to time characters will reference the Fantasy Pantheon with curses like "Seven Hells!"
• Unwanted Assistance: Jaime loves fighting and wants to test himself against his Worthy Opponent Ned Stark, so he doesn't appreciate it when a guardsman steps in behind Ned and hobbles him, ending the fight before it could be resolved. Jaime reacts by punching the guard in the face.
• Uriah Gambit:
  • Tyrion thinks this is why his father has put him in the vanguard at the Battle of the Green Fork.
  • Cersei takes Ros hostage to ensure Tyrion doesn't intend to do this to Joffrey at the Battle of Blackwater.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: During his ambush raid on Yara Greyjoy's fleet, Euron Greyjoy kills two of the Sand Snakes with their own weapons: He breaks Obara's spear and uses the pieces to impale her, and then strangles Nymeria with her own whip.
• The Usurper: Robert Baratheon is a much more sympathetic example than most, given the behaviour of his predecessor.

V

• Vagina Dentata: Referenced when Ygritte is trying to seduce Jon. "It doesn't have teeth..."
• Varying Competency Alibi: One of the arguments tried by Tyrion after he's accused of the assassination of King Joffrey is that if he had done it, he would have had a fall guy prepared and he certainly wouldn't have gotten caught with the murder weapon. He only argues this in private to a man who already believes his innocence. The actual trial is too much of a Kangaroo Court for him to even bother.
• Vengeance Feels Empty:
  • Even though Robert Baratheon killed the man who captured his beloved in single combat, he seems to be unable to be satisfied with it. He mentions in his dreams that "he kills him every night" which betrays the emptiness he feels even with having revenge.
  • In the penultimate episode, Sandor warns Arya that living your whole life seeking revenge on those who wronged you isn't worth it, and tells her not to throw away her life as he knowingly walks to his death to fight his brother Gregor amidst the collapsing Red Keep.
• Verbal Tic Name: Hodor!
• Vibration Manipulation: In "The Door", the Night King checks the presence of a protective spell at the entrance of the Three Eyed Raven's cave by triggering a small earthquake with nothing but the palm of his hand. As soon as he realizes the vibrations slightly damage the walls of the cavern, he immediately starts his Zerg Rush with the rest of his White Walkers generals and the Army of the Dead.
• Viking Funeral: Catelyn's father Hoster Tully receives one in "Walk of Punishment."
• Villain Episode: Well, "villain" may be a heavy term, but the Season 4 episode "The Laws of Gods and Men" is the closest to that. This is the only episode in the series that does not have the appearance of a single Stark, and all the groups of characters that appear are enemies of the Starks, in practice or in theory, at this very moment in the plot: Stannis, the Boltons, Daenerys and the Lannisters.
• Villainous Breakdown: Viserys begins showing greater and greater signs of this as he spends more time among the Dothraki. His breakdown reaches its climax when Khal Drogo presents him his "golden crown."
• Villainous Face Hold: Cersei kills Tyene Sand by giving her a poisoned kiss. To mock her mother, who is chained to the opposite wall, Cersei holds Tyene's jaw whilst commenting on her "Dornish beauty".
• Villainous Incest:
  • Cersei Lannister with her twin Jaime, although "villainous" is not so straightforward in this series.
  • Viserys Targaryen is established as villainous when he undresses and fondles his sister, but the Targaryen dynasty has produced everything from The Good King to The Caligula regardless of marrying their siblings.
  • Craster, who practices forced Parental Incest.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • Tywin has a sort of Big Damn Heroes moment in "Garden of Bones", wherein he stops Gendry's torture (and by the extension the continued torture of other captives) on the grounds that it is a waste of good workers.
  • Littlefinger arrives with Arryn forces at the Battle for Winterfell while Jon and the Stark army fight the Bolton forces for Winterfell. Littlefinger comes at the plea of Sansa.
• Villainous Valour: Because it's both a World of Badass and a Black-and-Gray Morality setting.
  • The sadistic monster Ramsay Bolton personally leads his soldiers while shirtless when his kennels are invaded by ironmen raiders. His forces (along with his hounds) manage to push back the assault, and he doesn't take a single wound.
  • "Spoils of War" has a Lannister army led by Jaime against a Dothraki horde led by Daenerys riding Drogon. It's a Hopeless Boss Fight for the Lannisters because hardly anything they can initially do against Drogon is effective, but Jaime's Hypercompetent Sidekick Ser Bronn wounding Drogon with a purpose-built dragon-killing ballista and very nearly single-handedly winning the war for the Lannisters by killing Dany then and there, plus Jaime charging a grounded but still very dangerous Drogon on horseback to seal the deal means the villains get to save face.
• Villain Over for Dinner: Tyrion returns to his quarters to find Varys chatting with his mistress Shae, whose presence is supposed to be a complete secret. Varys makes friendly conversation but obliquely references to Tyrion what a shame it would be if Tywin learned about her presence.
• Villains Never Lie: The Lannisters lie all the time, but they do take their unofficial motto ("A Lannister always pays his debts") very seriously. If they outright promise you something (whether it's gold or revenge), you can count on getting it.
• Villain Song: "The Rains of Castamere," also known as the Lannister song, chronicles Tywin's annihilation of House Reyne of Castamere, a rebellious vassal. Famous in-story, it's effectively used as Badass Boast, Implied Death Threat, and leitmotif.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Joffrey becomes this posthumously, judging from the stageplays in Braavos.
  • Daenerys in the final season. Many see her as a liberator, an image she constantly builds on with her speeches about "Breaking the wheel". However, personal ambition remains one of her major motivations and she proofs quite willing to slaughter any number of innocents to achieve her goals.
• Virgin-Shaming: During their drinking game at Winterfell, Tyrion correctly guesses that Brienne is a virgin. While he wasn't trying to embarrass her, she takes it this way and quickly leaves.
• Virile Stallion: The Dothraki are associated with horses. The animals are an integral part of their culture. Khals are also known as horselords, they are renowned for their skill at mounted combat, they worship a deity known as the Great Stallion and there is a prophecy of a great "khal of khals" known as the 'Stallion who Mounts the World', who will unite all the people into one khalasar.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Cleaving to virtues like love, honor, and justice comes at a very high price for several characters, but others use it to inspire Undying Loyalty from those around them.
• The Virus: People killed or touched by the White Walkers or their wights become wights in turn.
• Visionary Villain:
  • Tywin's speech to Jaime and his discussions with his cupbearer Arya reveals that he aspires to the legacy of Aegon the Conqueror and wants to create with gold and sheer will what Aegon had done with three dragons: a dynasty of Lannister hegemony that would rival and even surpass the Targaryens.
  • Euron Greyjoy seeks to raise the largest fleet in the world and align with Daenerys Targaryen to rule the Seven Kingdoms. When this fails decisively, he changes queens for Cersei.
  • By the final episode, Daenerys performs a Face–Heel Turn and has leveled King's Landing out of spite for being rejected by the commonfolk. However, she's not content with merely ruling the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, as she boasts that she will Take Over the World for the Targaryan dynasty.
• Visual Innuendo: After Ramsay gelds a captive, he makes a grand show of eating a large sausage in front of him.
• Visual Pun: Jon Snow, the Bastard of Winterfell wields a bastard sword.
• Voluntary Vassal: Jon Snow is crowned King in the North at the end of season 6, but in season 7 he relinquishes his crown so he can become Warden of the North to Queen Daenerys Targaryen (whose dynasty claims kingship over all of Westeros), since there are far bigger problems they have to face than dynastic squabbles.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Faceless Men like Jaqen H'ghar can change their faces at will.
• Vorpal Pillow: Daenerys's method of euthanizing a catatonic Drogo.
• Vow of Celibacy: As in the books, vows of celibacy are required by several religious and military orders, including the Night's Watch, the Kingsguard, the septons/septas of the Faith of the Seven, and the maesters of the Citadel. The Exact Words of the Night's Watch oath are examined closely by Samwell Tarly: the brothers vow to "take no wife" and "father no children," but sex itself is not specifically forbidden. Note that this setting includes a well-known and apparently-safe birth control herb, and also that characters seem to believe that the pull-out method is far more effective than modern science has shown it to be in our own world.

W

• Waif-Fu: By Season 7, Arya is a Fragile Speedster who is adept at Waif-Fu to the point that she can spar with Brienne to an impasse.
• The Wall Around the World: Characters refer to the Wall as "the edge of the world." The Wall itself has startling parallels with Hadrian's Wall, a huge, 80-mile long barrier stretching across the top of England which was began in AD 122 and built to protect Roman Britain from Scottish invasion. Unsurprisingly, George R.R. Martin has stated that a visit to Hadrian's Wall was his inspiration.
• Wandering Minstrel: Marillion, who accompanies Catelyn and Tyrion to the Vale and has his tongue removed by Ser Ilyn Payne.
• War Is Hell: While the war scenes are spectacular, they are also extremely gruesome and brutal. Soldiers getting dismembered and the more heroic characters killing already downed foes are commonplace. This is probably most pronounced in "Battle of the Bastards", which shows just how brutal it is to fight an army that vastly outnumbers you.
• Warrior Monk: Thoros of Myr is a red priest of R'hllor, but he is far more renowned for being the first man through the breach at the Siege of Pyke.
• Warrior Prince: Stannis Baratheon and Robb Stark. Daenerys' long-dead brother Rhaegar Targaryen was also one.
• The War Room: High lords typically have a war room in their castles or in the field where they plan their next move around an elaborate Big Board.
• Was Once a Man: The Night King, an ordinary human until the Children of the Forest stabbed him in the chest with a dragonglass dagger.
• Wasteful Wishing: Lampshaded when Gendry asks why Arya didn't tell Jaqen H'ghar to kill King Joffrey or Lord Tywin.
• The Watson: Ros's function, particularly during the first season (besides being Ms. Fanservice), is to receive exposition. She was apparently created for the show to avoid "As You Know..." conversations.
• We All Die Someday:
  • Played with here:
    Syrio Forel: What do we say to the God of Death?
    Arya Stark: Not today.
  • Referenced in-universe: Valar morghulis.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Quite common in Westeros given the number of factions and shifting alliances.
  • One of the main factors in the War of the Five Kings is that Renly and Stannis fight each other rather than present a united front against Joffrey.
  • The constant in-fighting among the wildlings prevented them from being a serious threat to the Seven Kingdoms until Mance Rayder united them.
• Weapon Across the Shoulder: Hobb, the Castle Black cook, slings his enormous cleaver over his shoulder while strolling through his kitchen and killing wildlings.
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Swords Are Heroic for characters like Ned, Jon, Arya, Robb, Stannis, Jaime, and Brienne, but other characters also wield them. Joffrey owns ornate swords such as Hearteater and Widow's Wail as propaganda, but prefers to kill helpless victims with a crossbow that takes much less skill and training.
  • Tyrion tends to wield axes, which suit his short stature.
  • Yara and the other Ironborn also use axes, alluding to their Viking-esque culture.
  • Ygritte uses a bow even in the midst of a melee.
  • Boisterous Bruiser Robert Baratheon favoured a warhammer.
  • The mutineer Karl Tanner is a knife-wielder.
  • Like many Dornishmen, Oberyn Martell favours a spear during a duel.
• Weapon Twirling:
  • Played straight for the usual badass versions, but Sandor Clegane scoffs at Arya Stark's twirl-heavy waterdancing technique, saying that it's a recipe for getting herself killed. He then proceeds to demonstrate how.
  • Oberyn Martell puts on a show at Tyrion's trial by combat with a series of flashy spear twirls, even getting some healthy applause from the watching audience.
  • Ser Arthur Dayne, one of the leading members of the former Targaryen Kingsguard, was such a proficient Master Swordsman that he dual wielded two swords that he often twirled in his hands to scare off opponents.
• Weather of War:
  • When Joffrey argues that they should subjugate the North in Season 1, Cersei points out that not even the gods will save their army from winter.
  • Stannis faces a hard choice of either pulling his army back to wait out the winter and potentially lose his hold on his men, or attacking before he's ready.
• Wedding Episode:
  • Played for Drama in "The Rains of Castamere", in which Edmure Tully gets married to one of the Frey daughters, and then Robb, Talisa, Catelyn, and everybody else in the Stark party is murdered.
  • "The Lion and the Rose" chronicles the royal wedding. Not unlike the previous one, it's a roaring success for the enemies of the groom, as Joffrey is killed during the celebration.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • Theon's quest for his father Balon's respect drives him to extremes in Season 2 that completely alienate him from the Starks, only for him to realize too late that the man he should have been trying to emulate was Ned Stark.
  • Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion Lannister all seek validation from their father, which Lord Tywin always fails to provide.
  • The psychopathic Ramsay Snow looks like a kid at Christmas when his father Roose Bolton legitimizes him as Ramsay Bolton.
• Wham Episode: Has its own page.
• Wham Line: Quite a few of them.
  The Wolf and the Lion: "I call upon you to seize him, and help me return him to Winterfell to await the king's justice."
  The Pointy End: "They want me to go to King's Landing, I'll go to King's Landing. But not alone; call the banners."
  Baelor: "Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!''"
  The Prince of Winterfell: "I have your little whore."^note Later subverted, however, as it turns out that Cersei got the wrong one.
  Valar Morghulis: "Dracarys." Also, the third blast.
  Kissed By Fire: "Tyrion will do as he is bid. As will you [...] You will marry Ser Loras."
  The Rose and the Lion: "He poisoned my son. Take him. Take him!"
  Mockingbird: "I will be your champion," and "Your sister."
  The Rains of Castamere: "The Lannisters send their regards."
  Mother's Mercy: Traitor.
  The Door "Hold the Door!"
  Spoils of War: "Chaos is a ladder."
  The Dragon and the Wolf: "How do you answer these charges… Lord Baelish?"
• Wham Shot: Many.
  • "Winter Is Coming": Jaime pushes Bran out of the window.
  • "The Kingsroad": Bran opens his eyes.
  • "A Golden Crown": The Dothraki seize Viserys and break his arm.
  • "You Win or You Die": The goldcloaks turn on Ned's men.
  • "Fire and Blood": The first dragon comes into view.
  • "Blackwater": Ser Mandon Moore slashes Tyrion's face.
  • "Walk of Punishment": Locke chops, and Jaime screams.
  • "The Rains of Castamere": The doors are shut and "The Rains of Castamere" starts playing. And again when Black Walder appears to finish the job.
  • "Oathkeeper": The White Walker leader transforms Craster's baby son into one of them.
  • "The Laws of Gods and Men": Shae's arrival at the trial.
  • "The Mountain and the Viper": Ser Gregor trips Oberyn.
  • "Watchers on the Wall": Ygritte gets shot.
  • "The Children": Tyrion finds Shae in Tywin's bed.
  • "Mother's Mercy": "TRAITOR". Also, For the Watch
  • "The Winds of Winter":
    • Three separate ones for the Green Trial. First, Lancel discovers the barrels of wildfire. Then, the camera reveals the nearly burnt-down candle acting as a timed fuse. Then, when Margaery tries to leave the Sept with Loras, the Sparrows stop them, sealing their fate with the rest.
    • The camera focus on Lyanna Stark's newborn son and immediately switches to adult Jon Snow in Winterfell, to reveal they're one and the same.
  • "Beyond the Wall": Viserion opens his now-blue eye, after being turned by the Night King.
  • "The Dragon and the Wolf": The Night King destroys the Wall with Viserion and the dead cross into the North.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Minor characters appear and disappear for long periods of time.
  • In Season 8, a lot of screentime and significance was dedicated to Arya finding a white horse in the burned-out ruins of King's Landing. However, in the next episode, the horse is nowhere to be seen.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: In "Dragonstone," Arya stumbles across a group of Lannister soldiers. Although initially suspicious and guarded, she comes to realize that they're all just ordinary smallfolk who would rather be with their families than soldiering in someone else's war.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Mirri Maz Duur calls out Daenerys for seeing herself as a hero for "saving" Mirri after she had already been raped and forced to watch everything and everyone she valued destroyed by Daenerys' husband.
  • Arya calls out the Brotherhood Without Banners for callously selling out Gendry for gold, despite their claims of being a Band of Brothers and fighting for the people.
  • Sandor Clegane also calls out the Brotherhood for accusing him of crimes he had nothing to do with to justify their plan to rob and execute him.
  • Robb and Catelyn are both called out (by each other and Robb's bannermen) over some of their more questionable choices
  • Half of Stannis' army calls him out for sacrificing Shireen by deserting his army.
• Where Is Your X Now?: After losing the battle of Blackwater, a pissed off Stannis chokes Melisandre, who promised his victory through the God of Light. "Where's your god now?" he says. She responds, "Inside you," and he releases her.
• While You Were in Diapers:
  • In "The Ghost of Harrenhal", one of Theon's crewmen, less than impressed by Captain Theon, goes even further back, saying that "I have been reaving and raping since before you left Balon's balls."
  • Janos Slynt tries this with Lord Commander Jon Snow at the Night's Watch. It ends badly for him.
• White Stallion: Used on several occasions to make people look more awesome, presumably in a deliberate evocation of this trope. As part of his regal image, King Renly Baratheon rides one in "Garden of Bones". His lover Ser Loras Tyrell will later charge into battle in "Blackwater" on Renly's white horse to better enhance the illusion that he is King Renly's ghost. Other characters such as Lord Tywin and Yara Greyjoy ride white horses when making a Big Entrance. Likewise Daenerys Targaryen, after losing the white horse she was given as a wedding gift while crossing the Red Waste, acquires another after sacking her first city, marking her new role as The Conqueror.
• Whodunnit: The first season is largely driven by Ned and Catelyn Stark's investigation of the death of Jon Arryn and the attempted murder of their son Bran until war breaks out. It is eventually revealed several seasons later that Lord Baelish is responsible for both, who deliberately set it up to look like the Lanisters in order to foment conflict..
• Who Murdered the Asshole: Following the episode when Joffrey is poisoned at his own wedding, who has motive to kill him? How long have you got? We've got Tyrion, Sansa, Margaery along with her brother and aunt, Varys, the Dornish, Ser Dontos, the Stannis' camp... most of whom have been humiliated if not outright abused on multiple occasions by the deceased.
• Who Needs Enemies?: It's not a surprise that Jaime's distaste for the Freys is considerable. He feels that the Lannisters have to constantly bail them out. It gets more than he can bear when Walder Frey toasts his men for the victory of re-taking Riverrun... which the Freys totally botched until Jaime personally took back the castle (in spite of these clowns). He tells Frey point blank that his house is a joke without the Lannisters backing him.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?:
  • Sam Tarly was forced to join the Night's Watch because his father thought this of him.
  • Tyrion Lannister gets told this time and again because his dwarfism and whore-mongering wound his father's pride and prestige.
  • Deconstructed by Balon and Yara Greyjoy. After losing all his sons to death or captivity, Balon raises his daughter like a son, which Yara completely embraces.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sandor Clegane has an intense phobia of fire after being horribly burned by his brother as a child. He's frequently forced to face fire through the course of the show. In "Blackwater", he deserts the defense of King's Landing when the battlefield gets covered in fire. In "Kissed By Fire", he's forced to fight a duel with an opponent wielding a flaming sword. In Season 4, he refuses to cauterize a wound that is going septic. In season 7, he freezes when attacked by an undead bear that is on fire.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist:
  • Sansa — and she pays for it heavily.
  • Eddard Stark is wise in war and justice, but is totally surprised by the amount of intrigue and corruption infecting capital politics.
  • As a child, Littlefinger was one of these. After all, the small and lowborn yet intelligent hero always gets the girl, right?
• Wife Husbandry:
  • Given the Targaryen tradition for sibling marriage, Viserys likely had this in mind for Daenerys, whom he helped raise in exile.
  • Craster breeds his own harem, marrying his daughters and exposing his sons.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing:
  • Balon Greyjoy is technically the winner of the War of the Five Kings, in that he spends the entire war sitting on his throne and watching as the other four kings butcher each other. This eventually bites him in the ass as it makes him so unpopular among the Greyjoys (a pack of Proud Warrior Race Guys who see such inaction as cowardly) that his brother Euron can throw him to his death and then openly confess his fratricide in the court and win support for it.
  • Echoing this, Cersei Lannister manages to become the Final Boss of the series by sitting out the war against the Night King. Again, she just ends up the winner's dessert when the Stark/Targaryen alliances drives back the undead and then marches south with vengeance in their hearts.
  • In the show's finale, Bran, or should we say King Bran the Broken becomes the ultimate winner of the Game of Thrones when his sole contribution to the defeat of the Night King and the salvation of Westeros was revealing some important information at the right moments and then acting as bait during the battle. All without even leaving his chair... Oh, sorry.
• With My Hands Tied: Jaime thought he could do this to Brienne, but she proves far more skilled than he thought and armoured as well, while he is unarmoured, bound, and weak from imprisonment. Brienne simply remains on the defensive and uses body-blows until Jaime becomes clumsy with exhaustion.
• The Women Are Safe with Us: Deconstructed with Daenerys. She tries to save the women of a defeated tribe from rape. Later one of those women gives Daenerys a What the Hell, Hero? speech for seeing herself as a hero for "saving" her when she had already lost everything and everyone she cared about at the hands of Daenerys's husband.
• Women Are Wiser: Dan Weiss describes the Tyrells in this featurette as: "...basically a secret matriarchy [...] where the men tend to be handsome dopes and the women are really the brains behind the operation."
• Woman Scorned: After being rejected by Tyrion (for her own safety), Shae shows back up in King's Landing for his trial to provide false testimony against him out of revenge.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: A running theme for the show is that being able to conquer doesn't mean you can rule. Almost every character that gains power finds actually running a kingdom turns out to be harder than fighting for it was.
  • Robert Baratheon crushes the Targaryen dynasty during the rebellion and becomes king. However, he is such an irresponsible ruler that his government is in massive debt and only a few steps away from civil war
  • Daenerys conquers the cities of Slaver's Bay and ends slavery there. Within a few months, there are uprisings against her rule and the former slavers are working to regain control. Violence gets so bad that some people are asking to be made slaves again so they can at least be safe.
  • The overall arc of the War of the Five Kings demonstrates this. The first three seasons ended with some of the most unpopular Houses - the Lannisters, Freys, and Boltons - coming out on top thanks to their ruthless and underhand tactics. (Winning the throne, the Riverlands and the North respectively). However the following three seasons show that their backstabbing and brutality is less helpful when actually trying to rule, but don't trust their allies and are loathed by their subjects.
  • House Lannister after winning the war and the throne, find the kingdom is a mess, and they are in huge debt. Rather than deal with these problems, they spend most of the post-war period fighting among themselves. When the dust settles, their patriarch is dead and the realm is now in the hands of the very unpopular Cersei.
  • Similarly, House Frey became the Lords of the Riverlands thanks to massacring the Stark and Tully forces at the Red Wedding. However, the next time we see them, they're hugely unpopular, multiple houses have risen up against them, Blackfish (the last remnant of House Tully) has enough power to retake Riverrun and the Brotherhood Without Banners are leading a smallfolk resistance against them.
  • The Boltons in Season 5 have a lot of trouble getting the Northern houses to bend the knee to them, so marry Sansa to Ramsay to try and consolidate their power. In Season 6, Roose Bolton's treacherous instincts come back to bite him when Ramsay murders him, his wife and newborn son to become Lord of Winterfell.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sandor Clegane.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Jaime Lannister is one of the best swordsmen in the realm, but when he's pitted against Brienne, she beats him fairly easily. However, he had spent almost a year in chains, and had no armour and his hands tied at the time.
  • Sandor Clegane is also one of the strongest and most fearsome fighters in the realm, able to hold his own against his brother Gregor and to defeat Beric Dondarrion. However, when he faces off against Brienne, he is suffering from an infected neck wound.
• World of Badass: Pretty much every character is capable of either out-fighting, out-thinking, out-plotting, or out-lying every other character, often only failing due to Tragic Flaws that are usually a deficiency in one of those aforementioned areas.
• A World Half Full: By the end of the series. The White Walkers and the Army of the Dead have been destroyed, Westeros is no longer subject to the whims of tyrants, and the North regains independence. Furthermore, Bran Stark and his royal court actually go about making the world a better place instead of continuously plotting for power. This is not without great cost to everyone involved, since it also meant that most of the populations in the North, beyond the Wall, and in King's Landing all had to die in the process.
• World of Ham: The examples under Large Ham above are really just the most prominent and consistent examples; almost everyone gets their moment to snack on masonite.
• World of Snark: The Lannisters are the biggest providers, but most characters get a chance.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Littlefinger and Varys seem to enjoy verbally sparring with each other and clearly see each other as the only other person on their mental level.
  • Jaime sees Eddard as one in regards to swordfighting. He admits that he's heard of Eddard's reputation and wants to test his mettle. When he finally gets the chance to square off with Eddard, a guard screws it up by interfering.
  • Lord Tywin considers Lady Olenna to be his intellectual equal and recognizes that she's the true head of House Tyrell, as he deals with her directly when arranging a marriage between their two families, and not with her son Mace, who is technically the Lord of Highgarden. Olenna then praises Tywin for living up to his reputation.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • Bronn admits that the first person he killed was a woman who attacked him with a weapon. Shae still doesn't approve.
  • In "Blackwater", Sandor Clegane notes that he has put several women in the ground, and that Bronn has too.
  • In "Stormborn": Euron Greyjoy defeats his niece Yara in a one-on-one fight. At least Euron takes her alive, unlike Obara (who he impales with her own spear) and Nymeria (who he strangles with her own whip).
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: After killing a handful of Mole's Town men and women without hesitation, Ygritte declines to harm Gilly and her child.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In "No One", Arya pretends to be considerably more severely wounded than she actually is to catch her opponent off guard.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Cersei and Jaime's age is inconsistent. Tywin Lannister was Hand to King Aerys II for 20 years before Robert's Rebellion, but Cersei, who became queen at 17 following the rebellion, remembers when he was appointed. In Season 4, Cersei says she has been queen for 19 years, which added to 17 would make her 36, but her twin Jaime was said to be 40 in the season premiere.
  • Also crosses with Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale, but the size of the Iron Fleet and how much of it joins Yara and Theon to support Daenerys rather than Euron. While the Iron Fleet is said to be the strongest navel force in Westeros (and quite possibly the rest of the world), when the Greyjoy siblings flee to join Daenerys, they bring 100 ships "and enough crew to man them". However, this would even if miraculously each ship only needed one person to man it (which is physically impossible given the size of the ships), they would need at least 100 men on Yara's side, though more realistically at least 4-500, unless they tethered the boats together somehow, which is much larger than the party seen fleeing with her or who appear to be with them when they stop in Volantis. This is made even worse when its then reminded that this isn't even the entire fleet, and as Euron's fleet is assumed to be bigger, that means his army must be more than that. This somewhat makes things a little ridiculous when you remember that, unlike their real life counterparts the Vikings, they don't descend from another sizeable country, but several tiny little islands, which are shown to be largely barren. The books referenced the Iron Fleet being made up on 10,000 men and 500 ships in total, but how the tiny islands feed and sustain a population big enough for this is difficult to imagine, when its said each of the islands can be walked across in a day and most of them are completely inhospitable and lifeless.
    • Not only are these islands too small to sustain the population, they lack the trees that are necessary to produce the wood to build all these ships.
  • This gets even worse in the last season, where the size of Daenerys' army changes between episodes. The battle of Winterfell seemingly wipes out her entire Dothraki horde and most of her Unsullied, not to mention much of the Northmen who follow her thanks to Jon; the army of the dead had completely swarmed Winterfell and it appeared only a handful of characters survived. This weakened state is demonstrated when they're shown easily ambushed by Euron's fleet, claiming even more of them and it being clear that the ones left couldn't stand up against Euron's forces in their state. However, when it comes time to invade King's Landing, her forces are suddenly back to full numbers, and they're able to effortlessly crush the Golden Company, Kingsguard, and the Lannister army, crushing them so badly she doesn't even need to unleash Drogon (ostensibly, so that when she does, it can be treated as a sign of her going Ax-Crazy). Where these extra Dothraki and Unsullied came from is never addressed; while its possible she had them stationed elsewhere to use after the War of the Dead was dealt with, this seems highly unlikely given how it was stressed to be extremely damning that the Lannister forces didn't help, and they were very cautious of how outnumbered they were, and surely someone would have called her out if she had revealed at any point she was reserving a large force.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Littlefinger challenged Brandon Stark to a duel because he thought he was the plucky hero of the songs and poems he'd heard growing up. Brandon, being a much better fighter, promptly kicked his ass. He learned quickly, however, and decided to get what he wanted in his own way.
  • Sansa Stark begins the series believing the world is like the songs and stories, but she gets more savvy and cynical as her experiences show her the error of her ways.
  • Melisandre believes the world is black and white in a series full of Gray-and-Grey Morality.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne:
  • Renly invokes this trope when trying to convince Ned Stark to support his coup for the throne, pointing out that while Stannis has the legitimate claim, he's the most qualified heir for the job.
  • In the backstory, Aerys Targaryen was unquestionably the rightful king, and Viserys his heir. Robert Baratheon was a traitor and a usurper. That being said, Aerys had a nasty habit of burning people alive to amuse himself, and Viserys wasn't much better, so most people were quite happy to accept Robert as king.
  • This trope is the entire motivation for Ned's actions regarding an attempted coup, as shortly prior to King Robert's arranged death, he discovers the king's three children were born of the queen's brother, and slightly modified Robert's last will and testament from "to my son Joffrey" to "the legitimate heir". Being that King Robert had no legitimate children at the time of his death, in Ned's eyes, the throne should pass to Robert's younger brother Stannis instead.

X-Z

• Xanatos Speed Chess: Part of Littlefinger's strategy appears to be fomenting chaos and reacting to opportunities as they present themselves.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • In "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", Theon is teased with the offer of a threesome with two prostitutes, only for his tormentor to cut off the most prized part of his body. Indeed, this is one of Ramsay's favorite torture techniques and he proves it an excellent form of Mind Rape.
  • "The Rains of Castamere", for Arya.
  • Brienne fails to trade Jaime for Sansa. And when she finds Arya, Arya leaves her for Braavos.
• You Already Changed the Past: Lampshaded when the Three-Eyed Raven tells Bran that "the ink is dry" on the past, before it's demonstrated for him when he learns how Hodor got his name... As Hodor dies.
• You Are Already Dead: Drogo delivers a variant of this to Mago, just before cutting his throat open with his own weapon, reaching into the wound, and ripping his tongue out.
• You Are in Command Now: Jon Snow takes command of the defense of Castle Black when everyone else is incapacitated or cowering.
  • Daenerys leaves Daario Naharis and the Second Sons in command of the newly renamed Bay of Dragons (formerly Slaver's Bay) to oversee Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor's transition into democratic city states.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • Many who have left Winterfell have never returned home to it — primarily thanks to Everybody's Dead, Dave. In Seasons 6 and 7, only Sansa, Jon, Arya, and Bran manage to return home after a Trauma Conga Line of experiences while the other half of their family is murdered after going south.
  • Jorah and Dany are also struggling with this trope, though if Dany has anything to say about it, it will die screaming.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Littlefinger kills Dontos Hollard for this and He Knows Too Much.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That: When Jaime paints his kingslaying as "justice" for Ned's murdered father, Ned sarcastically has this response.
• You Monster!:
  • Jon Snow calls Craster a monster to Commander Mormont, for marrying his daughters/granddaughters, and because he sacrifices all his baby sons to the White Walkers. Mormont agrees with him, but states that they have other fights to worry about.
  • Cersei opens a conversation with Tyrion with "You monster!" because he is sending her daughter Myrcella away to Dorne.
  • Joffrey is casually called a monster by Loras in Season 1. In Season 3, Sansa admits that Joffrey is a monster to Olenna and Margaery Tyrell after significant prodding.
  • Joffrey (rather hypocritically) refers to Tyrion as "You little monster" during one of his rants. Tyrion snarks back nonchalantly.
• Young Conqueror:
  • Robb Stark, the "Young Wolf". Varys notes to Eddard that boys like him have become conquerors before.
  • Theon Greyjoy wishes he were this, but he falls flat.
  • Daenerys intends to conquer Westeros, which she regards as her birthright. She has her start by conquering Slavers Bay.
• Younger Than They Look: Tyrion, who is supposedly young enough that he was a baby while Jaime, Cersei and Oberyn Martell were at least in their mid-childhood. Tyrion looks somewhere in his mid-forties, while Jaime and Cersei are described in the 4th season as being 40, and Oberyn looks younger still. And yes, Peter Dinklage is the oldest actor out of the four.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • Syrio Forel holds up four Lannister soldiers and a member of the Kingsguard while Arya escapes. He does this armed only with a wooden sword.
  • And later Yoren tries to do the same for Arya and Gendry. It doesn't work.
  • Jorah Mormont does it twice, first against Viserys when he tries to steal dragon eggs and later against a battle-hardened Dothraki fighter. Fittingly, his family motto is "Here We Stand."
  • Grenn and his chosen five men have an Offscreen Moment of Awesome defending the tunnel from a giant after one last recitation of the Night's Watch oath. They all die, but the brothers succeed in their job.
  • The crowner goes to Beric Dondarrion, who literally holds back a horde of wights with his body to protect Arya and Sandor. Several times.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: Invoked through inversion when Ramsay tells Theon "You really didn't think I would let them go, did you?" after flaying all the Ironborn to whom he had had Theon convey that promise in order to take Winterfell.
• You Talk Too Much!: In "Second Sons", Queen Daenerys meets with the three sellsword captains opposing her, in an attempt to talk them into changing sides. Later, back at their camp:
  Prendahl: That dragon bitch, she talks too much.
  Daario: You talk too much.
  Mero: She won't talk so much when she's choking on my cock.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Due to the recent re-emergence of the White Walkers, vast swaths of land beyond the Wall has been overrun by "wights", undead corpses resurrected by the Walkers to act as footsoldiers for their march south. This is why so many wildlings (such as Osha and her original group) are fleeing south, and why many of the wildling factions are banding together to fight their way into the south. The Season 2 finale has an entire army of wights going to attack the Night's Watch, led by the White Walkers.
  • As of Season 6, that number has increased to thousands, if not tens of thousands, as the White Walkers assimilate all the remaining Wildlings north of The Wall. Especially after the massacre at Hardhome.
  • In the Season Finale of Season 7, the Night King destroys a whole chunk of the Wall using a now-wight Viserion. The White Walkers and the hundreds of thousands of wights they command are now free to invade the Seven Kingdoms.

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