YMMV / A Game of Thrones

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Even if you don't like Sansa, you're bound to feel sorry for her in the end when her father is executed despite her attempts to have him spared, realizes what a monster Joffrey is and is now stuck as a hostage to be abused by the Kingsguard under Joffrey's command.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Viserys seems to be set up as a major villain, but he dies halfway through the first book, before he or any of his supporters set foot in Westeros.
  • Khal Drogo is set up as a major threat to all of Westeros but is reduced to a catatonic state after a festering wound is 'treated' by the blood magic of a maegi who had reason to despise him. He never even crosses the narrow sea to begin the invasion of Westeros.
• Common Knowledge: Ned Stark was defeated and ultimately killed because he was just too honorable to be in charge, right? Well, although he is known to be an honorable man, the point of honor comes up in only two places: 1. The discussion about whether to assassinate Daenerys, and 2. Tyrion in the second book thinks that Ned Stark must have been outsmarted because he was too honorable. In regards to the first point, Ser Barristan sides with Ned and it turns out that the assassination attempt was a bad idea. As far as the second point, Tyrion has no special knowledge of what went down in King's Landing and is only making assumptions, and is also seen throughout the course of the second book to having too high of an opinion of his own abilities. Ned Stark's weakness that led to his defeat (beyond bad luck) was explicitly mercy and his refusal to treat Cersei as a legitimate threat. In fact, had he been more honorable, he would have informed his liege immediately instead of giving Cersei time to escape with her children (something that Robert might have viewed as treason had he known) and/or he would have refused to confess to falsely conspiring against the rightful king Joffrey, and either or both of these steps would likely have saved his life.
• Genius Bonus:
  • At one point Ned Stark observes that Tywin Lannister is "as much fox as lion". Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli famously wrote in his classic work on politics, The Prince, that "The prince needs to be both a fox to avoid the snares and a lion to scare away the wolves".
  • At the beginning of Tyrion's second chapter, he makes reference to Alfred Korzybski's famous postmodern axiom, "The map is not the territory." In a nutshell, it warns people against confusing their idealistic idea of how reality works—for instance, believing that acting honorably will always get you rewarded—with the nihilistic moral void of real life.
• He's Just Hiding: Benjen Stark and Syrio Forel are never actually shown dying and are popular targets of speculation as a result. The TV adaptation ended up using a common fan theory that Coldhands is Benjen as a wight.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At one point, Robert laments that "the way Cersei guards her Country Matters you'd think she had all the gold of Casterly Rock between her legs." Of course, readers know that this is only applicable when it comes to Robert. Otherwise...
  • When things go sour and the Starks and Baratheons all declare war on the Lannisters, Tyrion's sarcastic remark to Tywin, “Take heart, father. At least Rhaegar Targaryen is still dead,” is all too ironic since at the end of A Dance with Dragons, even without counting the threat of Daenerys (and any secret child of Rhaegar and Lyanna) at least one self-declared son of Rhaegar Targaryen is alive and kicking and coming for revenge.
  • Having the insane, bitchy, unstable partner of a man named a variation of Jon being called Lysa (with a close friend named Petyr) may remind some of The Room, especially since the third book reveals that Lysa had most likely been having an affair with Jon's trusted friend.
  • The metalwork of Pycelle's maester's chain is adorned with garnets, amethysts, and pearls.
  • When Jon gifts Arya with Needle, they say in unison, "Don't - tell - Sansa!" In the last season of Game of Thrones, Jon tells the secret of his true parentage to both Arya and Sansa, and the latter almost immediately reneges on her promise to keep it a secret.
• It Was His Sled: Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon both die. Dragons are hatched for the first time in centuries. Jaime is Cersei's lover.
• Moral Event Horizon: Joffrey infamously crosses this by having Eddard Stark (who would have been his father-in-law) beheaded, thus ensuring that Robb Stark would despise House Lannister and declare war.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Ser Waymar Royce. Dead by the end of the prologue like almost everyone else met during it (the Sole Survivor dying in the first chapter proper), but he got one hell of a memorable Dying Moment of Awesome and a decent amount of personality (even if it was a deplorable personality), considering his limited pagetime.
  • Old Nan and her story of the Last Hero is one of the most memorable parts of the books.
• The Scrappy: Sansa didn't endear a lot of readers with her annoying dreaminess and admiration of Cersei and Joffrey. Not siding with her sister during the Trident incident and telling Cersei of her father's plans to leave also turned many people off from her. Certainly not helping is the contrast between her and her sister, a rebellious, tomboyish underdog. Even many of her fans will admit to disliking her at first because of this book, even if it was intentional on the writer's part that Sansa be unlikable before receiving Character Development.
• Squick: The fermented mare's milk that the Dothraki drink is described as sour-smelling and clotted.
• Too Cool to Live: Syrio Forel, so much—which combined with his off-screen death has predictably led some fans to speculate that He's Just Hiding.

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