Rather Fight Brother

Hound vs Mountain, Stannis vs. Renly, Tyrion vs. Cersei, Asha vs Theon...

Opening in A Game of Thrones as Becoming Brothers, the theme of Rather Fight Brother reminds readers that those assumed to be in league may in fact be rivals and that old feuds, especially childish ones, can involve clearer action than to countenance real threats.

17 AGOT Eddard III & 45 AGOT Sansa III: Sansa vs Arya. Unable to conceive of a world where a queen would wear the pelt of a young girl's wolf to triumph over her family, Sansa prefers to blame Arya for Lady's death.

81 ACOK 8 Catelyn I: Catelyn vs Edmure. "And whose doing is that?" Catelyn snapped at her brother. He'd insisted Robb give the riverlords leave to depart to defend their lands against Tywin's raiding parties. While Catelyn always knows her mind and can be sharp spoken, she has less respect than usual for Edmure in large part because he's so much younger yet born to rule over her.

89 ACOK 16 Tyrion III: Stannis vs. Renly & Tyrion vs. Cersei. Tyrion realizes Stannis's letter self-crowns, meaning he's at odds with Renly, very good news. But when he discovers his chain will need metal Cersei has already allocated to weapons and armor, he does not even inform her he has redirected it, though he promised to be her Hand.

98 ACOK 25 Theon II: Asha vs Theon. Asha, concerned about who Theon may have become in his time away, tests him and, when he fails, humiliates him to teach who is defacto Prince of the Iron Islands (the shipwright.) However, since Asha is also motivatd to remain Balon's heir, she places herself more at odds with Theon than she consciously means to. He did not even comprehend her point about the shipwright. While Theon earned Victorion's bum oarsman instead of the good sailors Asha might have directed to him, she will later regret having treated him as a rival instead of as her little brother and her mother's solace.

99 ACOK 26 Tyrion VI: Tyrion's ironic toast to brotherly love. Tyrion poisons Cersei to sit the throne so he can have her guard sent away on the pretext of escorting Cleos.

105 ACOK 32 Catelyn III: Stannis could join Renly, but has really come to take his brother's army. Each brother knows the other won't accept offerable terms. They meet only to be good to each other, but then bicker.

115 ACOK 42 Tyrion IX & 118 ACOK 45 Tyrion X: Tyrion delights at having bought Cersei's Kettleblacks out from under her and schemes to take Tommen.

127 ACOK 54 Jon VII: Qhorin reveals he was close with Mance when they were black brothers. He understands the way Mance thinks and why he deserted, yet Qhorin expects a slow painful death in Mance's camp, were he to be taken alive.

130 ACOK 57 Theon V: When Asha brings rescue instead of aid, Theon feels dejected and accues her of being jealous of his castle. Asha will later feel guilt at not having made sure Theon came with her, since she abandoned him and he was then destroyed.

132 ACOK 59 Davos III: It occurs to Davos that their flagship still bears Robert's banner.

144 ASOS 1 Prologue: A major reason the Night's Watch has forgotten the Others is their now longstanding hostility with the wildlings, a population they'd have been wise to befriend.

145 ASOS 2 Jaime I: Jaime intends to provoke Brienne but winds up adopting the style he once used against Cersei. It leads him to misunderstand Brienne as wishing she were male, when that's Cersei.

146 ASOS 3 Catelyn I: Though Jaime was sent as an escorted prisoner to King's Landing, Edmure describes him as escaped, partly to totally deny Catelyn the authority she'd presumed. This despite it's unneccessary dangers.

153 ASOS 10 Bran I: Bran warging Summer vs a pack of wolves. Jojen reminds Bran to master Summer while warging. Bran promises to, thinking "But I'll eat my deer first and fight with those little wolves some more." 127