Almost all characters( heroes, villains, and in-between) in asoiaf motivations boiled down to wanting love and acceptance. But isnāt that shallow, these people just want the bare minimum in life, shouldnāt they strive for more, want more than just sex/love and home, greed with their lives? Arenāt these conflict the character have almost too personal and petty compared to the world around them? Is there absence of the intrinsically interesting behavior and deeply motivated cast?
I don't think I could disagree more strongly with the idea that wanting love and acceptance is the 'bare minimum'. The bare minimum is stuff like food, water, shelter, heating, etc (homeostasis). Maslow's hierarchy. Next up is security, then relationships, then esteem, then self-actualisation.
The characters of ASoIaF are mostly nobles, almost always deeply connected to the nobility. They're past those basic needs, they mostly have security, and so the drama comes from their search for those higher-Maslow-tier items.
Love and acceptance? Peace in yourself? Can't buy that. You can't take it from others at the point of a sword either, or demand it in a treaty, or receive it as tribute from your subjects.
In terms of storytelling, there's also a greater variety between people in what the search for meaningful relationships, respect, and self-actualisation look like compared to the search for enough food to eat. A series where everyone is facing Arya's ACoK and ASoS struggles is probably not half as compelling to us.
Of course, everyone's going to be looking at the lower tiers of Maslow's hierarchy as winter rolls in. Security from zombies is kind of an overarching plot thread, and homeostasis is far from guaranteed.
But as for why the characters all, at root, want love? It's because their society tops them out at having security and maybe community. GRRM's showing the limits of feudal monarchy and a bigoted society: characters can have as much material wealth, power, and security as a human being can have, and it doesn't add up to happiness. They cannot get to those higher tiers of Maslow's pyramid, not the ways they've used to climb up past the need to focus on food and security. The means to get that security, in fact, result in misery. Not just for the people upon whose backs the system is built, but for the material beneficiaries as well.
So I don't think the characters are after the bare minimum, or anything petty. I think they're after some of the most profound things a human being can desire - and, variously, not recognising their true needs, not able to pursue their true needs for what they are, not using helpful methods, looking in the wrong place entirely, ignoring the cost to others, struggling with the cost to others, or just flat out thwarted in their desires and need to start again.
