top 5 themes in asoiaf
oooh
1. sibling relationships. the starklings, the lannisters, dany and viserys and dany and rhaegar, stannis and renly, ned and lyanna and brandon, there are so many examples. I’m a sucker for sibling relationships in any media but asoiaf specifically does it so well. none of them are alike, they are all so deep and complex and strong. this theme is genuinely one of the biggest highlights of the series.
2. the will to live and striving to survive, no matter what. tyrion’s line about life being full of promise and sweeter than death in response to bran being crippled just about sums it up. but it’s something so recurrent throughout. brienne telling jaime that he has to live, theon resolving to try and live in the face of what he thinks is certain doom. asoiaf is such a brutal story sometimes and the pov characters go through such shitty situations, but when it comes down to it, they choose life all the time.
3. love and duty. I’ve yapped about this a lot before lol but I just really like how it’s presented as a dichotomy but it isn’t really. love and duty overlap all the time, and neither one is the ‘right’ choice. it’s such a central theme of the series and it’s resulted in some of the most interesting relationships. ned and lyanna, rhaegar and lyanna, jon and ygritte, robb and jeyne, dany and daario, etc.
4. identity. @ghostinwinterfell has a brilliant post about this, you know the one that goes ‘jon and lord snow, dany and daenerys, sansa and alayne, arya and no one, etc etc.’
5. honour, chivalry and glory. especially the way these all interact with masculinity, and even gender in general. jaime’s arc with the kingsguard and jon’s arc with the NW are the primary examples. questions about what true honour is, and what is acceptable for the sake of glory, and even who is entitled to glory. jaime and brienne’s storylines have this explored by exploring the concept of knighthood. jon’s storyline does a similar thing but with leadership.
