The Marquis de Leech

One thing that raised a smile: Olenna commenting on the dullness of the Tyrell words and image, in comparison with the Stark's and Greyjoy's. Sounds a lot like many discussions on this forum.

Eh? It's Sam. Cowardice is his self-identified defining trait (through, frankly, anyone in his situation would be shitting themselves). On the Other seemingly spotting Sam and letting him be: they let what's-his-name in the prologue escape. Perhaps the Others want to let some live to spread the word or just enjoy messing with people's minds like a cat playing with a mouse.

[Channeling Stannis] Fewer characters. [/Channeling Stannis]

Dance-is-with-wolves?

Clearly, LF is the Doctor, and the brothel is the TARDIS.

That was actually the first thing that jumped out at me on reading about the execution scene. Too long a rope and the head flies off (too short a rope and the victim strangles to death). Personally, I'd prefer the hanging scene over the proposed beheading scene, as long as the rope is a bit shorter.

Replace "Tigana" with "The Fionavar Tapestry" and you get my feelings exactly.

I think the passage describing how Tywin ruled the realm, but Joanna ruled Tywin owes something to I, Claudius by Robert Graves: "Augustus ruled the world, but Livia [Augustus' wife] ruled Augustus." (Claudius himself seems to be a big influence in terms of the creation of Tyrion).

An important figure in Stephen Donaldson's well-known fantasy series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is named Kevin Landwaster. The name of Kevan Lannister could be a reference. I can't find the appropriate page number at the moment, but I think there is a House Rogers of Amberly, described as having a banner with nine unicorns on it. This is probably a reference to Roger Zelazny's Amber books, where the royal family has nine princes and uses the unicorn as its symbol. Similarly, I can't find the reference at the moment, but I'm pretty sure there is a Titus Peake, whose banner features three towers. This is a reference to the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, the main character of which is named Titus, and which takes place within a massive crumbling castle.