Family Traits

[The Bard of Banefort]

Now that we have Fire and Blood, it's becoming more clear that each of the Houses have certain personality traits that are shared throughout the generations (or at least traits that reappear in others' perceptions of them). I'm going to share some of the ones that I've noticed, and I'm interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts as well.

Baratheon: martial, hot-headed, lustful, loud, extroverted, loyal, prideful 

• Stannis seems to be the exception here, as self-discipline and humorlessness is not something we see in the historical Baratheons.

Lannister: cunning, smug, little care for the smallfolk, out for themselves

Hightower: secretive, conniving, devout, ambitious

Tyrell: untrustworthy, indecisive, out for themselves

Stark: cold, humorless, tough, unforgiving, pragmatic

• I think George did a great job of showcasing the inner vs. outer lives of our characters with the Starks. We know that Ned and Jon, for instance, are deeply complex characters, but the Starks are seen as almost universally cold from the perspective of other characters, including the maesters.

Greyjoy: pious, duplicitous, cunning, mysterious

• The historical Greyjoys are a bit hard to get a read on, but most of them seem to be a combination of Euron and Aeron; half-mad pirates who are also fairly devout. Unfortunately, the Greyjoy women don't even get names, even though the Red Kraken's three sisters are mentioned a few times in Fire and Blood. 

Tully: loyal but unremarkable, often at the mercy of someone else

Manderly: intelligent, ponderous, easily offended

Peake: angry, vicious, treacherous

Blackwood: noble, brave, always come out on top

• Blackwood seems to be George's "special House," aside from the Starks and Targaryens

Velaryon: Targaryen-lite, strong, beautiful, noble, daring

Wyl: vicious, cruel

Bracken: perpetual losers, scheming, angry

Martell: cunning, devoted to Dorne

Royce: noble, loyal to both the Arryns and the Crown

Freys: untrustworthy, unimpressive

Butterwell: oft-disrespected background characters

Dayne: mysterious

Arryn: loyal subjects

 

Who am I missing?

[Floki of the Ironborn]

3 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

 

Blackwood: noble, brave, always come out on top

• Blackwood seems to be George's "special House," aside from the Starks and Targaryens

 

Bloodraven was none of those things. He was treacherous, secretive, won by trickery and deception, and in the end, Aegon V called him out for his duplicitous behaviour and sentenced him to death or the Wall. 

3 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Freys: untrustworthy, unimpressive

Sabitha Frey would beg to differ. She certainly impressed me. So did Perwyn and Roslin and Olyvar Frey. They were only forced to go along with the Red Wedding, and two of them were too honourable to be allowed near the Starks during the Red Wedding. 

[The hairy bear]

I think some of the family traits that you describe are not really applicable to house as whole, but only to its members in a particular time. For instance, I don't think the Hightowers can be described as particularly ambitious except for during the Dance of Dragons. We haven't seen them challenging the Tyrells for the prominence of the Reach, nor attempting to secede their huge lands from their control.

Some of the other traits could be explainable for the weather conditions of their lands. Most cultures from harsh cold climates tend to be (or appear to outsiders) humorless, ruthless and pragmatic. And it seems to me that the Baratheon personality trends could be a consequence of the effects of the heavy winds.

[The Bard of Banefort]

6 hours ago, Floki of the Ironborn said:

Bloodraven was none of those things. He was treacherous, secretive, won by trickery and deception, and in the end, Aegon V called him out for his duplicitous behaviour and sentenced him to death or the Wall. 

Sabitha Frey would beg to differ. She certainly impressed me. So did Perwyn and Roslin and Olyvar Frey. They were only forced to go along with the Red Wedding, and two of them were too honourable to be allowed near the Starks during the Red Wedding. 

Like with Stannis, there are obvious exceptions to each of these. Quellon Greyjoy was a progressive, Daella Targaryen was delicate and easily frightened, Tytos Lannister was unambitious and amiable. My point was that George has a tendency to have each of the Houses embody certain traits throughout the histories, in a way that I find really fascinating. 

If Perwyn and Olyvar were honorable, they wouldn't have shown up for the Red Wedding in the first place.

[John Suburbs]

10 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Now that we have Fire and Blood, it's becoming more clear that each of the Houses have certain personality traits that are shared throughout the generations (or at least traits that reappear in others' perceptions of them). I'm going to share some of the ones that I've noticed, and I'm interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts as well.

Baratheon: martial, hot-headed, lustful, loud, extroverted, loyal, prideful 

• Stannis seems to be the exception here, as self-discipline and humorlessness is not something we see in the historical Baratheons.

Lannister: cunning, smug, little care for the smallfolk, out for themselves

Hightower: secretive, conniving, devout, ambitious

Tyrell: untrustworthy, indecisive, out for themselves

Stark: cold, humorless, tough, unforgiving, pragmatic

• I think George did a great job of showcasing the inner vs. outer lives of our characters with the Starks. We know that Ned and Jon, for instance, are deeply complex characters, but the Starks are seen as almost universally cold from the perspective of other characters, including the maesters.

Greyjoy: pious, duplicitous, cunning, mysterious

• The historical Greyjoys are a bit hard to get a read on, but most of them seem to be a combination of Euron and Aeron; half-mad pirates who are also fairly devout. Unfortunately, the Greyjoy women don't even get names, even though the Red Kraken's three sisters are mentioned a few times in Fire and Blood. 

Tully: loyal but unremarkable, often at the mercy of someone else

Manderly: intelligent, ponderous, easily offended

Peake: angry, vicious, treacherous

Blackwood: noble, brave, always come out on top

• Blackwood seems to be George's "special House," aside from the Starks and Targaryens

Velaryon: Targaryen-lite, strong, beautiful, noble, daring

Wyl: vicious, cruel

Bracken: perpetual losers, scheming, angry

Martell: cunning, devoted to Dorne

Royce: noble, loyal to both the Arryns and the Crown

Freys: untrustworthy, unimpressive

Butterwell: oft-disrespected background characters

Dayne: mysterious

Arryn: loyal subjects

 

Who am I missing?

I think you can say this about the current generations, but not that these are family traits throughout the ages. I don't see anything to conclude that Steffon Baratheon was hot-headed, lustful, boastful, etc. And Lord Lyonel used to laugh if an opponent struck him, but I don't know if I would call that boastful.

Tytos was certainly not cunning or smug, and we don't know how he felt about smallfolk.

Until Lord Leyton Hightower locked himself in his tower, I don't see any secretiveness or conniving since Otto Hightower in the Dance of the Dragons.

Tyrells -- untrustworthy, indecisive, out for themselves -- you can pretty much say that about any house.

Brandon Stark was certainly not cold and humorless, and neither, I suspect, was Lyanna. And Stark history has a litany of stories about Starks doing mad, crazy things.

The Greyjoys come from a culture of reaving, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are considered dangerous. Cunning, duplicitous, pious -- again, traits that can be applied to practically any house.

Tullys loyal? I think Dany would disagree with that. The Tullys first supported Maegor against Aegon, then opposed him in favor of Jaehaerys. During the Dance, Lord Grover supported the greens while Kermit and Elmo supported the blacks.

And with all the rest, again I think you are looking at the current generation, not the house as a whole. Even past Freys proved trustworthy once they chose a side: they aided AtC to rid the Riverlands of Harrens; they supported Aegon the Uncrowned against Maegor; they fought and died for the blacks during the Dance.

[Lord Varys]

11 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Now that we have Fire and Blood, it's becoming more clear that each of the Houses have certain personality traits that are shared throughout the generations (or at least traits that reappear in others' perceptions of them). I'm going to share some of the ones that I've noticed, and I'm interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts as well.

I find that tendency the strongest within the Targaryens themselves - there you have set of traits within the inbred bloodline that pops again and again, jumping two or three or even more generations.

They all look alike, with some minor exceptions (Alysanne, Alyssa), but their characters do vary more.

And there we see how some Targaryen further down the line essentially seem to resemble their forebears to the point that they could essentially be reincarnations.

- Aerea and Rhaella come again, more or less, in Baela and Rhaena.

- Archmaester Vaegon seems to be exactly the kind of guy we will hopefully meet in person in one of the future Dunk & Egg stories in King Aerys I; some parts of their personality are also manifested in Aegon III although we here get additional trauma - the autistic nature of Vaegon and Aerys I also seems to come forth in Jaehaera

- Maegor the Cruel and Jaehaerys I look extreme alike.

- the cruel/sadist/psychopathic element of the Targaryens is seen in Maegor the Cruel, Saera, Daemon, Aegon II, Aemond, Aegon IV, Aerion Brightflame, and Aerys II (although here we also have severe mental problems of another sort).

- the soft, amiable, and indecisive nature of King Aenys comes again in Viserys I (in a sense Viserys I and Daemon are an echo of Aenys and Maegor)

- Aegon II's gluttony and sexual appetites come again in Aegon IV and Daeron the Drunk

- smarter, less martial tendencies manifest themselves in Maegelle, Viserys II, Daeron II, and Jaehaerys II

- the powerfully built/noble warrior type is there in Aegon I, Aegon the Uncrowned (and possibly his brother Viserys), Aemon, Baelon, the Dragonknight, Daemon Blackfyre, but also in women like Visenya, Alyssa, Baela, and, one assumes, in Daena

- inhuman beauty comes in Viserra, Rhaenyra, Naerys, and possibly some of the later girls we don't know yet

- severe mental issues we get with Daella, Gael, and Vaella the Simple (in fact, I think I'd like it if Vaella the Simple turned out to be sort of like Rodrik Arryn's Daella)

11 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Baratheon: martial, hot-headed, lustful, loud, extroverted, loyal, prideful 

• Stannis seems to be the exception here, as self-discipline and humorlessness is not something we see in the historical Baratheons.

The Baratheons are all shadows of the brothers we know, Rogar is basically another Robert, with Borys very much resembling Stannis where desire and motivation are concerned. The kind of repressed Baratheon Stannis can be seen in some of Four Storms - Maris is a very poisonous creature, as if Cassandra after she doesn't become queen in the end.

Insofar as the other houses are concerned I think we get more individuals and less house traits - there are different Starks, different Lannisters (a cunning one in Lyman, a drunkard in Tymond, and an unimpressive one in Lord Jason - with Tyland being a very special case, evocative of some of Tyrion's better qualities but motivated more by a sense of duty to his king). The same is true for the Tyrells - there is a foolish drunkard in Bertrand Tyrell, but a smart and dutiful man in Lord Martyn.

3 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

I think some of the family traits that you describe are not really applicable to house as whole, but only to its members in a particular time. For instance, I don't think the Hightowers can be described as particularly ambitious except for during the Dance of Dragons. We haven't seen them challenging the Tyrells for the prominence of the Reach, nor attempting to secede their huge lands from their control.

The Hightowers didn't need to secede from Highgarden or supplant the Tyrells because up until the Dance of the Dragons we can say they were the first house in the Reach, not the Tyrells who were looked down upon by the most powerful bannermen even during the reign of Jaehaerys I (and not just because Lord Bertrand was a foolish drunkard).

The Hightowers tried to marry their daughters into House Targaryen three times - and two of those times they aspired to make said daughters queen. They were not after as minor a price as Highgarden, they wanted to share in/control the power of the Iron Throne and, like the Lannisters, they wanted dragons.

Back while they still were dragons in Westeros the way to real power was to take the Velaryon route and make yourself a cadet branch of House Targaryen so your children and grandchildren could become dragonriders.

[The Bard of Banefort]

In the main series, most of the non-Stark POV characters, aside from maybe Barristan, think Ned is cold and uncharismatic. Alaric and Cregan are both written as extremely intimidating, and most of the historical characters speak of the Starks as if they were talking about White Walkers. 

Rogar and Lyonel are both written as parallels to Robert: loyal friends who turn vindictive the second they're crossed (Rogar tried to crown Aerea; Lyonel seceded from Westeros).

Even if Bloodraven was despised, he still has a certain amount of Blackwood luck: he's the Great Bastard who wins the Rebellion, he was a confidant to both Daeron and Aerys, his mother was Aegon IV's most beloved mistress, he fought with Dark Sister despite being a bastard, etc.

[McGuv19]

4 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

If Perwyn and Olyvar were honorable, they wouldn't have shown up for the Red Wedding in the first place.

They didn’t show up though?

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 hour ago, McGuv19 said:

They didn’t show up though?

I double-checked and you're right, they weren't there. Even still, the Frey's generally get a bad rap through all the supplementary material.

[Floki of the Ironborn]

On 3/9/2020 at 11:07 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Like with Stannis, there are obvious exceptions to each of these. Quellon Greyjoy was a progressive, Daella Targaryen was delicate and easily frightened, Tytos Lannister was unambitious and amiable. My point was that George has a tendency to have each of the Houses embody certain traits throughout the histories, in a way that I find really fascinating. 

If Perwyn and Olyvar were honorable, they wouldn't have shown up for the Red Wedding in the first place.

They didn't go to the Red Wedding. Their absence was a sign to Catelyn that something was wrong.

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

Quote

Family Traits

House Targaryen

Dragon's Blood. The blood of Old Valyria. 

Silver-blonde, purple eyes, athletic.  Usually taller than average.  Physically beautiful. 

Quick of temper, but many in the family are also coldly calculating. 

Intelligent but ruthless. 

Some have a tolerance for heat.  Some have a very high resistance to infectious diseases.  Some may have prophetic dreams. 

Males in the family are alleged to have a higher than average chances of losing their sanity. 

Some are able to bond with dragons.  One very special female fulfilled the Azor Ahai prophecy and hatched dragons from stone. 

House Stark

Wolf's Blood.  The blood of the First Men.

Quick of Temper, Slow of Mind.

Quick to Anger, Slow to Think.

Freakishly long faces among some in the family.  Ex.  Arya Horseface. 

Very emotional.  Family oriented people. 

Touchy nature, quick to take offense.  Very much a trait of Jon.

Poor self-control, prone to violent outbursts.  Ex. Jon attacked Ser Aliser Thorne. 

Proven oathbreakers.  A rebellious family.  Troublemakers in recent history. 

Kin to Craster.  Practiced human sacrifice to the weirwoods. 

Some have the ability to warg.  One special boy has the green sight. 

House Lannister

Gold-blonde hair.  Physically beautiful.  Blood of the Andals.

Deceitful.  Intelligent, but cruel.

Prideful and haughty.  Harsh.

House Baratheon

Dark-haired.  Born of Durandon stock. 

Tall and strongly built.  Stubborn. 

Warriors.  Not particularly intelligent. 

House Frey

Weak of chin.  Most are not physically attractive.

Good business people.  Smart, clever, and wise with money.

Very capable people.  Practical. 

Very family oriented.  The family is large and many of its members have married out into other noble houses outside the riverlands. 

 

[TedBear]

On 3/9/2020 at 2:03 PM, Lord Varys said:

And there we see how some Targaryen further down the line essentially seem to resemble their forebears to the point that they could essentially be reincarnations.

- Aerea and Rhaella come again, more or less, in Baela and Rhaena.

- Archmaester Vaegon seems to be exactly the kind of guy we will hopefully meet in person in one of the future Dunk & Egg stories in King Aerys I; some parts of their personality are also manifested in Aegon III although we here get additional trauma - the autistic nature of Vaegon and Aerys I also seems to come forth in Jaehaera

- Maegor the Cruel and Jaehaerys I look extreme alike.

- the cruel/sadist/psychopathic element of the Targaryens is seen in Maegor the Cruel, Saera, Daemon, Aegon II, Aemond, Aegon IV, Aerion Brightflame, and Aerys II (although here we also have severe mental problems of another sort).

- the soft, amiable, and indecisive nature of King Aenys comes again in Viserys I (in a sense Viserys I and Daemon are an echo of Aenys and Maegor)

- Aegon II's gluttony and sexual appetites come again in Aegon IV and Daeron the Drunk

- smarter, less martial tendencies manifest themselves in Maegelle, Viserys II, Daeron II, and Jaehaerys II

- the powerfully built/noble warrior type is there in Aegon I, Aegon the Uncrowned (and possibly his brother Viserys), Aemon, Baelon, the Dragonknight, Daemon Blackfyre, but also in women like Visenya, Alyssa, Baela, and, one assumes, in Daena

- inhuman beauty comes in Viserra, Rhaenyra, Naerys, and possibly some of the later girls we don't know yet

- severe mental issues we get with Daella, Gael, and Vaella the Simple (in fact, I think I'd like it if Vaella the Simple turned out to be sort of like Rodrik Arryn's Daella)

This was also something that caught my attention, Dany is also described by GRRM looking like Naerys

[Lord Varys]

1 hour ago, TedBear said:

This was also something that caught my attention, Dany is also described by GRRM looking like Naerys

Yeah, George really seemed to take his time there to make sense of the Targaryens as an inbred family with a number of traits that come again and again in the family not just in lines of direct descent. And I think he might expand that to other cadet branches as well with Teora Toland - if they have Targaryen blood either through the Targaryen-Martells or one of the Penrose/Hightower girls.

I expect the first Daenerys to be essentially a mirror image of our Daenerys as well as Naerys (who had the looks of our Dany but not the strength).

The whole inbred angle also plays a role in many of the other houses who also continue to marry within their closer and somewhat more distant cousins. The Lannisters wouldn't still have golden hair if they married many dark-haired people, not to mention that no noble house would be known for their characteristic 'looks' (which we do have for the Lannisters, Starks, Tullys, Arryns, etc.).

On 3/9/2020 at 6:37 PM, The Bard of Banefort said:

In the main series, most of the non-Stark POV characters, aside from maybe Barristan, think Ned is cold and uncharismatic. Alaric and Cregan are both written as extremely intimidating, and most of the historical characters speak of the Starks as if they were talking about White Walkers. 

That is an outside perspective, though. Cregan is a stronger, more ruthless, and more practical man than Ned, but they do share the same approach to justice (avenge the murder of the king they themselves wanted to kill). Alaric seems to be a rather untypical Stark in the sense that he is almost niggardly and unable to really win the love of his people (something the more charismatic Starks like Robb or Brandon Stark definitely could do). He also harbors a resentment over the death of his brother that's also not typical for the family - none of our Starks would blame a king for the death of a brother who essentially got himself killed in a punitive expedition he did not have to lead beyond the Wall.

In that sense I'd say that especially Alaric Stark broadens the spectrum of how Starks can be and is not really representative of a family trait (aside from general 'Starkishness' like 'it's cold up here', 'prepare for winter', etc.

On 3/9/2020 at 6:37 PM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Rogar and Lyonel are both written as parallels to Robert: loyal friends who turn vindictive the second they're crossed (Rogar tried to crown Aerea; Lyonel seceded from Westeros).

I think all the Baratheons in FaB show much more traits than just that. Neither Rogar nor Robert were really 'crossed' by anyone, but when they feel they are treated unjustly or don't get what they want they cannot help themselves. They are a very self-destructive brood. One has that with Rogar and Borys (who, in a sense, resemble Robert and Stannis). Borys Baratheon shows what Stannis may have become if he had not known 'come to believe' Robert's children weren't his - would he have accepted King Joffrey then? We'll never know. With Cassandra and Maris Baratheon, with Borros Baratheon's opportunism, etc. One even has that on a lower level with Orys Baratheon sulking after he lost his hand.

With Lyonel we have to wait for the details - Yandel implies that his daughter really took the breaking of the betrothal very badly (perhaps she killed herself or fell in a depression or run away from home or another ugly thing happened to her), indicating that this was not only about personal honor and pride but also a deeper family issue.

In any case, FaB shows why the Targaryens should have long ago attainted and destroyed the Baratheons because they are, in essence, a house that can only be kept in check with the threat of dragons.

Olenna claims the Baratheons are queer because of their Targaryen blood. It is an interesting question whether that's true or not. But from what we know it seems that the old Durrandons were not as belligerent and self-destructive as the Baratheons, nor as proudly and prickly and great warriors (there were some Durrandon kings who really sucked).

On 3/9/2020 at 10:33 PM, The Bard of Banefort said:

I double-checked and you're right, they weren't there. Even still, the Frey's generally get a bad rap through all the supplementary material.

The Freys in FaB are all noble folk - granted, there are only Forrest Frey (a great and noble warrior) and his wife, Sabitha Vypren, who perhaps introduced the grasping trait into the family. But we also have noble Freys among Walder's brood and even back in TMK there great knights among Walder's uncles and cousins.

It seems that character-wise Walder chose to pursue a, well, not all that manly/honorable a policy, a trait in which he may have followed the example of his dear lord father who didn't exactly cover himself in glory in TMK, either.

The whole weasel stuff around the Freys is something that dehumanizes them (ugly people have to be evil/cowards, etc.), and I really don't like that all that much, to be honest, but one can imagine that the association between looks and character was made only during the long reign of Lord Walder - not to mention that it is not certain that the earlier Freys had the same phyiscal appearance. Could be this was a trait introduced into the family by some woman.

[The Bard of Banefort]

9 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

That is an outside perspective, though.

Of course. That's my point. We're in Ned's head, so we know that he's a much more complex person than most of the other characters give him credit for. Even Cat says at one point that she found him sour before she got a chance to know him better.

9 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

With Lyonel we have to wait for the details - Yandel implies that his daughter really took the breaking of the betrothal very badly (perhaps she killed herself or fell in a depression or run away from home or another ugly thing happened to her), indicating that this was not only about personal honor and pride but also a deeper family issue.

All I remember being said about Cassandra was that she was humiliated about getting blown off by Duncan. What else do we know about her that makes you think this?

[frenin]

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Hightower: secretive, conniving, devout, ambitious

I think that we know very little of them to say all this, but the Hightowers do seem very independent, they did not join the Gardeners endless wars, they were the most important green party during the Dance, they were married into the Targs first etc etc.

 

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Baratheon: martial, hot-headed, lustful, loud, extroverted, loyal, prideful 

• Stannis seems to be the exception here, as self-discipline and humorlessness is not something we see in the historical Baratheons.

Agree here, i think you nailed it.

 

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

 Tyrell: untrustworthy, indecisive, out for themselves

Disagree here, Lyonel Tyrell and Leo Tyrell seem very loyal and trustworthy, Harlan was decided too. I think that only the current generation fit in that bill and only Mace and Olenna, the kids seem pretty alright.

 

 

 

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Stark: cold, humorless, tough, unforgiving, pragmatic

•  I think George did a great job of showcasing the inner vs. outer lives of our characters with the Starks. We know that Ned and Jon, for instance, are deeply complex characters, but the Starks are seen as almost universally cold from the perspective of other characters, including the maesters.

Not humorless. but yes. The Starks are usually wild themselves, that wolf blood.

 

 

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Arryn: loyal subjects

That's pretty much true.

 

On 3/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Lannister: cunning, smug, little care for the smallfolk, out for themselves

I don't really think we know a lot about them to say they don't care about the smallfolk, they seem to care about them as much as the average highborn...

 

 

 

 

 

[Elegant Woes]

@James Fenimore Cooper XXII The Starks aren't family oriented, the Tully's are. It's the Tully family whose motto is Family, Duty, Honor. The only reason why the new generation of the Starks has that mindset is because five of the six children are Tully and raised by Catelyn. Even Jon who isn't one grew up with these values. Despite being Northern coded the words the lone wolf dies but the pack survives are inherent Tully. 

[Skahaz mo Kandaq]

Be careful in labeling an entire clan with specific traits.  That would go against George Martin's message.  People, human beings have more similarities when compared to differences.  Many people, regardless of family, will react the same to a given situation.

What would make members of a given family behave a certain way has more to do with how they were socialized within said family.  Inheriting character plays less of a role.  Joffrey was not born an ass.  Think about this.  The chances of a boy growing up kind while under the care of Cersei, Jaime, and Robert are rather slim.  Tommen and Myrcella are an anomaly.  Daenerys growing up compassionate and strong is unusual when you take into account her childhood.  Bran is unlike Arya and Jon because he's level headed for a Stark.  

[The Bard of Banefort]

5 hours ago, Skahaz mo Kandaq said:

Be careful in labeling an entire clan with specific traits.  That would go against George Martin's message.  People, human beings have more similarities when compared to differences.  Many people, regardless of family, will react the same to a given situation.

What would make members of a given family behave a certain way has more to do with how they were socialized within said family.  Inheriting character plays less of a role.  Joffrey was not born an ass.  Think about this.  The chances of a boy growing up kind while under the care of Cersei, Jaime, and Robert are rather slim.  Tommen and Myrcella are an anomaly.  Daenerys growing up compassionate and strong is unusual when you take into account her childhood.  Bran is unlike Arya and Jon because he's level headed for a Stark.  

I was inspired to make this post because I'm re-reading Fire and Blood, and I noticed that a lot of the families are often characterized in similar ways throughout the generations. Part of that is perception; I mentioned in another post that Ned is thought of as cold by most people, but we the readers don't generally feel that way since we've seen inside his head. Alysanne comes to a similar conclusion about Alaric Stark.

[Darth Sidious]

It's all in good fun.  No harm in a fun exercise to come up with family traits.  It keeps us all entertained as we await for the George to give us another book.  

Dragons live alone.  Wolves live in a pack. Lioness take care of the young.  Male deer are horny creatures.  There are broad traits shared by families.  I know Renly is not a traditional buck but he is horny in his own way.  

[The Bard of Banefort]

21 hours ago, Prince Rhaego's Soul said:

It's all in good fun.  No harm in a fun exercise to come up with family traits.  It keeps us all entertained as we await for the George to give us another book.  

Dragons live alone.  Wolves live in a pack. Lioness take care of the young.  Male deer are horny creatures.  There are broad traits shared by families.  I know Renly is not a traditional buck but he is horny in his own way.  

Thank you. I had fun making this thread, and I was hoping other people would, as well.