What was the most unexpected/shocking moment in the series?

[Erkan12]

Red Wedding and Shadow Assasin.

[Arrowtic]

Ned's death , RW , jon's stabbery , the whole Lysa Arryn thing and Arya turning blind .

[Faydra]

Lysa flying.

[Humbler_than_anyone]

Arya getting kidnapped by the Hound. I somehow didn't see that coming at all. RW in its brutality...surely something wasn't right...but THAT? No. LF and Lysa behind Jon Arryn. Shae in Tywins premises...naked!

[The Monkey]

The reveal of UnCat

[MyThilde]

Almost all ASOS' ending chapters: UnCat, Lysa flying, John becoming LC, Tywin Lannister didn't shit gold and Arya leaving westeros.

I ended the book at 3AM. At 9AM I was buying AFFC.

And Jon's ending chapter in ADWD...

[Northernmonkey]

I was pretty sure that something very bad was going to happen at the wedding (I didn't trust the Frey's and it was obvious Arya wasn't going to be reunited with her family) but I had no idea Jon was going to get stabbed up. That was a massive shock.

[Seneti]

The Red Wedding didn't surprise me at all. As soon as Greywind startet growling at all the Spicers and Freys I knew that this thing was going to go sideways. I think the most shocking moment for me was Ned's death. Everyone agreed to send him to the Wall. I was really looking forward to his conversations with Jon and then - bam! - Joffrey that little gold-haired sh**. :eek:

Other smaller moments that struck me out of the blue:

- Lysa's death, which took my appreciation of Baelish to a whole new level

- Robb coming home with Jeyne; my first thoughts were "Who the f*** is this b****" and "Robb, are you out of your mind?" :bang:

- Shae in Tywin's bed

- the reveal of just how much Wildfire was stuck beneath the streets of King's Landing :eek:

[Gordon Ramsay Snow]

Red Wedding was spoiled for me so when I came to read it, it wasn't that shocking. However the fake Arya death caught me off guard.

The biggest one for me has to be the Epilogue at the end of ASOS. I just remember that one line "She don't speak. You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that, but she remembers,"

Littlefinger being behind the Purple Wedding, and him and Lysa orchestrating Jon Arryn's death. Then the subsequent "Only Cat".

the Queenscrown meeting between Jon and Bran came as a huge surprise as well.

[Pikachu101]

Shocking: RW, Jeyne Poole disguised as Arya, Theon in ADWD

Unexpected: Jon's stabbing, Ned's execution, Young Griff/Aegon

[Consigliere]

Lysa killing Jon Arryn under LF's orders.

[Señor de la Tormenta]

Sam getting laid.

[AMoore4]

Shocking - Jon Caeser moment

Unexpected - Lisa Arryn killinh on Arryn

[theliontamer421]

Shocking: RW hands down Shocked me. I knew Robb marrying Jeyne would be bad, but that was much and more than I had expected

[the Sword of the Prevening]

Ned's death.

The Red Wedding was spoiled for me, so I never got the shock value like I did when Ned lost his head.

Oberyn's death shocked me a lot as well. We were just introduced to him not so long before in ASOS and I didn't think Tyrion would die. Obviously he didn't, and was freed by Varys/Jaime. I also thought Oberyn would live to see his sister avenged. No qualms with how it turned out though, as it set up some big events in the story.

[PureGold]

For Me:

Dontos being in league with LF. And him being behind Dontos's soliciting Sansa's trust in those Godswood meetings. I thought Dontos would be in league with a Northern Lord or someone secretly loyal to House Stark or House Tully.

Joffrey Baratheon's assasination. On hindsight I should have figured but at the time I was stunned to realize how many people conspired to remove him from the Gaming Board. Petyr Baelish, Olenna and Margaery, also likely Loras and Garlan know what happened.

The Murder of Lyssa Arynn and her being behind the death of Jon Arynn and basically causing the War of the 5 Kings. I knew Littlefinger was dangerous but this whole sequence brought it up to a whole different level.

[Colonel Green]

The reveal that Littlefinger and Lysa killed Jon Arryn and set everything in motion. It seemed quite settled that the Lannisters had done it, and nobody was even really thinking about it anymore.

[RoamingRonin]

All of Storm of Swords. The entire book. All of it.

- Dany riding Drogon. Never thought it would happen so "soon".

- Cersei being arrested by the Faith.

- Ser Kevan's death.

- Aegon Targaryen (?) revealed.

[Martell Spy]

Agreed with Ned's death, Jon's stabbing, the Red Viper's death, and Lyssa being behind her husband's death. Same with the murder of Joffrey.

I was only half surprised by the RW. I was surprised how brutal it was, with Tywin's involvement, and how beautiful/horrible it all was. (The perfect music choice, etc.) I was extremely worried for Robb once he found his wife. I just knew Frey wasn't going to take that lying down. And Martin just heightened my fears as the event approached. One of those things were you are yelling at the characters to run away and turn back. I figured it likely Frey would put them in a dungeon or even kill them.

Theon's torture and later Ramsey's wedding night. Jaime losing his hand. Prince Doran Martell locking up Arianne and the Sand Snakes. Tyrion waking up from the Battle of the Blackwater and learning how he's been stripped of power by his relatives. Cersei getting grabbed by the Septas.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

The reveal that Littlefinger and Lysa killed Jon Arryn and set everything in motion. It seemed quite settled that the Lannisters had done it, and nobody was even really thinking about it anymore.

I think that's exactly what made it shocking — we were led to think the Lannisters did it and that wasn't ever challenged. It ended up on the backburner and you almost forgot about it. Then BOOM.

And even it was sort of suggested, but that's mainly the case only in hindsight, so I'm perfectly fine calling it a "twist" or a "shocker," because it genuinely was.