YMMV / A Storm of Swords

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Roose Bolton became one of most highly debated characters in the series thanks to betrayal in this book. Was he Evil All Along and was already undermining Robb from the start and waiting for the perfect opportunity to make a power grab for the North? Or did Robb make one tactical mistake too many and Bolton saw where the wind was blowing and simply switched to the winning side?
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Balon Greyjoy declares himself King of the Iron Islands and has set up a major campaign to raid the North, but it's his brothers and his children who carry out his plan while he hangs around Pyke doing nothing... and then he dies suddenly, off-screen.
  • After being the two main antagonists of the first three books, Joffrey Baratheon and Tywin Lannister end up not being killed in an epic or triumphant manner by the Starks. Instead, Joffrey is poisoned by his own allies, while Tywin dies sitting on the privy with an arrow through his chest inflicted by Tyrion as revenge for years of abuse.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Most readers wanted Joffrey dead since the first book. They get their wish here, even if things don't necessarily improve as a result of his death.
  • Yes, Lady Stoneheart is frightening and has jumped over the Moral Event Horizon by killing Frey children along with the adults. She also is avenging her family and her first kills are the Asshole Victim descendants of dear Walder, forcing the others to go on the defense. Merrett Frey's Oh, Crap! and realizing he is going to die is quite satisfying after he weakly tried to say he only drank during the Red Wedding.
• Common Knowledge: Many readers seem to think the jousting dwarves performing at Joffrey's wedding feast were both riding pigs. Actually, one was riding a pig, the other a dog.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Oberyn Martell to the max for many readers of this book and the primary example over all in this book. His bout with Gregor is often herald the best duel in the series thus far and Oberyn himself is seen as a Lovable Sex Maniac whom despite being a bit of a Jerkass initially opts to act as champion for Tyrion to fight his (Oberyn's) sister's killer. The fact he's so popular even after he dies not long after being introduced speaks volumes of his character, which even carries to the TV show.
  • For readers, it was clear that archetypal Villain Ball holder Jaime Lannister had more to his story than had yet to be told; and, when he is the Character Narrator for the first chapter of the book, it becomes reasonable to believe that his story will be told. What readers were not necessarily expecting was the sheer depth of his Character Development—so extensive that, not only had he accomplished an impressive Heel–Face Turn by the end of the novel, he had gained a spot in many readers' top 5 favorite character lists.
  • Beric Dondarrion's fight with Sandor was yet another highlight from the book and as such he's got a respectable fanbase himself despite the fact like Oberyn, he too dies in this book... after six times before.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Cotter Pyke dismisses the choice of Ser Denys Mallister as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch because, among other reasons, he's so old they'd have to hold another election not long afterwards. The actor who was cast to play Mallister in the TV show died right after his first few days of filming.
• He's Just Hiding: The Hound's death is unconfirmed and the body not recovered, so some fans hold out hope he survived.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Pyp nominates Dolorous Edd to succeed Jeor Mormont as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch as a joke. Edd is not pleased. In the TV show Dolorous Edd becomes Lord Commander after Jon Snow.
  • In the epilogue, the Brotherhood argue among themselves about whose turn it is to pretend to be Lord Beric, and Tom of Sevenstreams jokingly asks if he has to be Thoros. In the TV show, Tom was Adapted Out and his traits of singing and being amiable were given to Thoros.
• It Was His Sled: We learn that Jaime killed The Mad King to save the realm. There's also the Red and Purple Weddings, and Catelyn comes back as the vengeful, zombified Lady Stoneheart.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Merrett Frey, the narrator of the final chapter. While he's not really a nice guy, being a useless alcoholic, a Frey, and a participant in the Red Wedding, albeit not a particularly vicious one, his life is worthy of pity. His dreams of becoming a knight were crushed in his squirehood by a head injury, which would give him constant headaches forever after that only drink could soothe. Right after he married his wife, her family fell out of favor because they had supported King Aerys II Targaryen right after he lost the war. He has no land or keep of his own, isn't good at anything except drinking, and he's the ninthborn son of Walder, which means he has about zero chance of inheriting anything. And he dies an Undignified Death when he's hung by the Brotherhood Without Banners.
  • Robert Arryn is a Spoiled Brat and a Creepy Child in serious need of some discipline; but that's more his mother's fault than his, and his convulsions and other health issues make you want to give the poor kid a hug.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Walder Frey, Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister crossed this with the Red Wedding. Walder crosses it for having Robb and his bannermen murdered for the petty excuse of Robb breaking a marriage vow and for laughing as the entire thing unfolded, Roose Bolton for personally killing Robb himself, and Tywin Lannister for secretly planning it all. In-universe, Walder Frey is also considered to have crossed this for the Red Wedding, but less so for the wholesale murder (which is excusable) but more for having broken the rules of hospitality.
  • In a great example of Pay Evil unto Evil, Lady Stoneheart when she's resurrected crosses it by killing Petyr Frey, who is just a boy, while he's being held for ransom. She pragmatically asked for a ransom so the Brotherhood without Banners have funds for their campaigns. It's what the Freys deserve for wiping out her family and betraying her, but it's still gruesome.
• Narm:
  • Stannis and Melisandre talk about "waking the great stone dragons" on Dragonstone... just like the Ancestors wanted Mushu to do in Mulan.
  • Upon being told how Lord Commander Mormont died, Jon responds "Bro...our own men?". It's probably intended to be Jon starting to say "brothers?" and pausing in shock, but on first reading, it might come off like Jon using a very modern casual expression.
• Nausea Fuel: The dishes at the Red Wedding are either bland (onion broth) or just revolting (jellied calf's brains?!). This is an early clue that the Freys don't care to put on a real feast and are adding extra spite before the massacre.
• One-Scene Wonder: Oberyn Martell doesn't appear past this book and still doesn't feature in that many chapters before his death by the hands of Gregor Clegane. Doesn't stop him from being just that memorable.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jaime's development in this book drastically increased his popularity among readers.
• Shocking Moments: The highest in the series, with Sam killing an Other, the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, Ygritte's death, the battle for the Wall, the Red Viper vs. the Mountain, Tyrion's murder of Tywin and Shae, Stannis arriving at the Wall, Littlefinger revealed as being the main responsible for the War of the Five Kings, and Lady Stoneheart.
• Squick:
  • Jaime and Cersei Lannister have rough sex next to their son Joffrey's tomb. While Cersei bleeds from her period.
  • At the end of the book, Tywin Lannister is shot in the gut with a crossbow while sitting naked on the privy, and takes a postmortem dump. The killer later suggests that shit was dripping from the wound.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Jeyne Westerling. She's a girl from enemy territory who treats Robb after he was injured in a siege when he heard of Winterfell's sacking and tended to him. Being honorable to a fault, Robb breaks his engagement to a Frey girl to marry Jeyne and preserve her honor. Despite the marriage being borderline shotgun, Robb seems fond of her. We don't get much insight into her character, details about her relationship with the King in the North beyond sleeping with him, or much interaction with mother-in-law Catelyn ^note They only share one scene together in Lord Hoster Tully's room, with Jeyne asking Catelyn for tips on aspects of her relationship with Robb, but it is from Cat's perspective, and she is kind of sort of more focused on the fact that her dad is going to die soon, so we still don't get much info. Even when Cat sees her brother's fiancé who might have wed Robb if he hadn't broken his vows with the Freys, Catelyn's main comparison between Roslin and Jeyne is that Jeyne has better hips for child-bearing.
    • She does at least get one minor scene in a Jaime POV chapter in the next book, showing she has stayed true to Robb and his cause despite her parents' scheming and lying to her, and her genuine grief over Robb and defiance of her parents who helped arrange the betrayal earns her Jaime's respect. She is also slated to appear in the prologue for The Winds of Winter.^note Normally that'd be a bad omen for Jeyne as prologue characters have a tendency to be killed off, but GRRM has stated she won't necessarily die as she won't be the POV character for the prologue. Though that's also no guarantee, as non-POV characters can also die in the prologues and so far poor Jeyne's luck has proved about as good as Robb's.
    • The second season of TV show tries to avert this to its credit, granted with a monkey's paw of completely replacing Jeyne herself with a Canon Foreigner called Talisa Maegyr, who has an entirely different backstory and personality from Jeyne. Talisa gets a good amount of screentime and she and Robb have a storyline of falling in love before they marry, though Talisa and the reworking of why Robb broke his marriage pact were very unpopular with fans, as detailed here.
• Tough Act to Follow: While still well-reviewed, neither of the books that followed are regarded nearly as highly as this one. So many game-changing events and deaths occurred in A Storm of Swords that the next two essentially had to take up the role of going over the aftermath.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jeor Mormont is portrayed as a tragic character and his end should draw sympathy from readers. However, his collaborating with Craster, a rapist paedophile and enabling the rape of numerous women for decades is portrayed more as a minor moral failing rather than irredeemably evil.
• Villain Has a Point: Craster is one of the most vile, disturbing characters in a series full of awful people, but when it comes to housing the Watch and sharing his food, he's technically correct that he has a large family to feed and that poor as the servings may be they're better than no food at all. Ironically, it's this, and not the rape or child sacrifice, that they eventually kill him over.
• The Woobie: Aegon "Jinglebell" Frey, a lackwit grandson of Walder. He's never given any respect, and is killed by Caitlyn despite being innocent of any wrongdoing.

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