ASOIAF: Mommy dearest

[misstopia]

Mother's Day was a few days ago and I was hoping to do something ASOIAFish for it, but didn't get to it. But sitting in B&N today (actually yesterday; this took two days to finish writing!), I figured better late than never, and wondered if my f-list was up for a discussion. I'm sure similar things have been done many a Mother's Day before in the fandom, but oh well, eh? As a warning, this gets really long because of the crapload of quotes at the end. Sorry guys! I blather. I was thinking of linking this on 'moot but not sure because of how unwieldy it is. But yes, I really do feel all those quotes are all interesting! Plus the formatting involved in organizing them took a long time, so at least read some of them? (I know, I know, it's really long without the quotes anyway.)

DRAMATICALLY DEAD MOTHERS: Lyanna Stark, Elia Martell
Let's start with the long gone mothers. Lyanna Stark and Elia Martell are respectively the mothers of Jon Snow (putatively) and the late Aegon (and Rhaella) Targaryen. Princess Elia has to suffer watching her infant son Aegon brutally killed before being raped by the murderer and killed herself. Her death is the cause of a long simmering grudge among her family, the Martells. Her brother Oberyn Martell wishes to avenge the horrific deaths of his sister and nephew but dies in the process. Lyanna Stark's presence as a mother is equally as dramatic, in a grandly romantic backstory we learn she is held guarded at the Tower of Joy ostensibly birthing a babe and dying in the process. __insert R+L=J theory here__ The safety of her son is her last living concern, as she wrestles a promise from her brother to ensure that Jon lives in the security of obscurity. Whereas Rhaegar's wife must endure the sight of her son's death and is unable to protect him, Rhaegaer's lover(?)'s death ultimately takes on sacrificial undertones (meaning that Lyanna = Lily Evans and Jon = Harry Potter but I sincerely hope we all knew that already ;p). In both cases the dead mother's brother acts as a conservator of the tragedy. But whereas all Oberyn is left is vengeance, Ned has the task of actually raising and safeguarding Jon and seems absent of vindictive thoughts towards the man apparently widely regarded as his sister's rapist.

PEACEFULLY DEAD MOTHERS: Joanna Lannister, Minisa Whent
Two other mothers long dead, but in a relatively more quiet fashion, are Joanna Lannister and Minisa Whent. The similarities between the two are striking, as are the many parallels between families Lannister and Tully. Both appear dearly beloved of the husbands who survived them, leaving a sort of permanent shadow: Tywin "was not the same man after [Joanna] died", Gerion informs Tyrion, and upon Minisa's death "some of the life had gone out of [Hoster]". Joanna dies giving birth to Tyrion, and Tywin (rather assholeishly) never forgives Tyrion for this. Minisa dies trying to give Hoster another son, but no child survives this attempt. Both are wistfully remembered by my own favorites among their children: Jaime sees her image while keeping vigil over Tywin's body, and similarly Catelyn sees her mother's face while praying and muses "If she had lived, how different our lives might have been." (Interestingly enough, Edmure does not dwell on his mother while Jaime does, though granted Jaime is a POV and Edmure is not. But we do see Edmure taking his father's death incredibly despondently, whereas Jaime's angst seems more ambivalent and perhaps that's why he dwells more on his mother, his relationship with his living father was less fulfilling).

PASSIVE MOTHERS: Alannys Greyjoy, Mellario of Norvos
Not all mothers are dead in the story though, some merely elsewhere or estranged. Sickly Alannys Greyjoy lives at Ten Towers instead of Pyke, and outlives her husband to the surprise of daughter Asha. Asha visits her mother regularly and has an abiding love for the aging and eternally mournful Alannys, who now must hear that Theon joins the ranks of her dead sons lost to the warrior culture of the Ironborn. Though Alannys is among the ladies that fit the series' lonely lady in a tower motif, the fighting Asha says that it was she (too) who taught her to be bold and fondly recollects her strong though unattractive face. Yet given her mother's condition Asha is more concerned for her mother's welfare than vice versa. Mellario of Norvos is not just estranged, but departed from Dorne altogether. Her daughter Arianne thinks of appealing to her for help in her schemes but decides she is too far away and no longer carries enough clout with her father. Mellario left Doran some time after he fostered her son to house Yronwood, as losing her son to the political practices of Westerosi culture was a foreign custom to Mellario. Doran said that he refrained from sending Arianne to Tyrosh to meet her betrothed out of consideration for Mellario's well-being, saying he could not take another child from her. Arianne resembles Mellario physically and doesn't seem to think much else about her (as far as I remember). Both mothers are available at a distance to their daughters, who seem to be primarily parented by their fathers with varying degrees of political enfranchisement.

ACTIVE MOTHERS: Maege Mormont and Olenna Tyrell
In Maege Mormont and Olenna Tyrell we have two mothers, though of two quite different cultures, whose motherhoods are presented chiefly in the frame of arming their daughter( figure)s for survival. Maege Mormont heads her house officially and brings her daughters up to be warrior women such as herself, thinking it better that they should be able to defend themselves than depend on anyone. Olenna Tyrell pretty much heads her house in every way but officially, and takes her granddaughter Margaery under her wing and cultivates her political savvy, so that Margaery can look out for her best interests while maintaining the facade of being the docile perfect medieval maid. The Mormont women's weapons of choice, sword and axe, defend them against the physical hardships of the lean and ascetic far north, while the Tyrell women's weapons of choice, intrigue and machinations, keep them competitive in the political world of the deep southern heart of chivalry. Both plans are custom-tailored to the daughter figures' niche habitats, the world that the mother figures are familiar with and adept in themselves. Like (grand)mother like daughter.

PRIMARY FOCUS MOTHERS: Catelyn Stark, Cersei Lannister

However, the mothers we really see center stage are Catelyn Stark and Cersei Lannister. Catelyn Stark is connected to most every mother in the series. Like Elia, she sees her son killed before her eyes before she is herself killed. Elia's brother Oberyn takes up the cause of her vengeance, but Edmure does not do the same for Catelyn; rather she herself becomes a gruesome revenant after her own death (and if anyone carries an Oberyn-like grudge over her death, it'd likely be her daughter Arya -- unlike Elia whose children really did all die, Catelyn didn't lose all hers as she'd thought). Whereas Lyanna has a fatal first pregnancy Catelyn is able to deliver five with no difficulties we're aware of, but both are failures as mother figures to Jon Snow (for very different reasons), and both spend their last moments of life appealing for the safety of their sons. Like Alannys stuck in Ten Towers waiting for news of her warring son Theon, we see Catelyn stuck in one of Riverrun's towers waiting for news of her warring son Robb. Mellario of Norvos threatens to harm herself if Doran takes yet another one of her children away from her, and Catelyn is disheartened when Ned wants to take three of her children to King's Landing when he goes to take up the theoretically lifelong position of Hand. Catelyn has one daughter, Sansa, who arguably would be well served taking lessons from Olenna Tyrell (oh how I wished she got away with the Tyrells instead of being stuck with pedophilic Petyr!), and another, Arya, who would fit in under Maege Mormont's tutelage. Like them both she wants to prepare her daughters for life as she herself knows it; she urges a prestigious marriage for Sansa (explicitly or implicitly contractual arrangements seem to be her weapon of choice) and efforts to teach Arya how to be a lady. Catelyn's story is filled with the multitude of concerns, sometimes conflicting, that come with the responsibility of raising children in Westeros, whereas other mothers are more narrowly framed.

Cersei Lannister, it's reasonable to assume given the family tree, resembles her mother Joanna at least somewhat, just as Catelyn is said to resemble her mother Minisa. Both of our lead mothers, interestingly, grew up parented primarily by fathers. Moreover, their fathers endeavored to give their daughters only the best matches in marriage, and Catelyn and Cersei have similar considerations for their children (however the women are seen by readers as manipulative and controlling parents in this regard and not so much the men).

Both women are fiercely protective mothers who spend a lot of their storyline as figures behind their eldest sons. Cersei takes more control over Joffrey, who does not seem to regard his mother with any respect and is perhaps more interested in playing at king than learning to be a good one. Catelyn and Robb have more of a back-and-forth relationship, she is concerned for his authority but does not rule out interceding when he missteps. Both however, usually uphold their son's authorities in front of others. Robb and Catelyn's relationship is often strained as their family suffers many setbacks, but a genuine affection persists as Robb is concerned for her grief and will not suffer anyone insulting her to his face. Robb's annoyances at his mother are those of a normal (considering the circumstances) teenage boy with burgeoning independence while Joffrey is more expressedly misogynistic (Robb's old fashioned and chivalric, yes, but not misogynistic). Catelyn is aware of her son's irritations while Cersei seems oblivious that Joffrey would ever call her a weak woman, (which coming from anyone else would enrage her). Both women value strength in their sons, but Catelyn also urges wisdom to her at times too brave son Robb, who fights directly in the war whereas Joffrey does not. Catelyn does not long outlive Robb, but Cersei, who also watches her eldest son die, lives to mourn him, and her mother's fresh grief embarrasses Tywin. Jaime similarly seems to regard her strong maternalism as a root of womanly foolishness in Bran's second AGOT chapter. (The most similar scene Catelyn has is when her release of Jaime is blamed on a mother's weakness. Also, Ned shudders to think what Catelyn would do if someone else's child threatened one of hers, but he does not have Jaime's condescension.) Cersei is then left with Tommen, who is more timid and more kind than Joffrey was. Cersei compares her sons' kingliness directly in her head, a comparison in which Tommen suffers. Though she is not without her point, and she actually does wish she could protect him rather than harden him, her approach seems to frighten Tommen more than encourage him. Catelyn appreciates her second son Bran's gentleness, tries to stop his tree-climbing much to his chagrin, and wards off the assassin sent to kill him, but she is not around to play any sort of role as he gains his abilities as a greenseer. Both have mothers an element of hardness relative to their (elder) daughters.

Favoritism also manifests itself in these two mothers. Joffrey is clearly number one in Cersei's world, he earns a devotion the other two children don't seem to, but she is also vested in their interests, molding Tommen into a king and thinking of Myrcella in Dorne. Bran is arguably Catelyn's favorite child, her "special one", but her grief is uniform when both he and Rickon are thought to be dead. Cersei seems to me to see what she wants to see in Joffrey (considering she never really picks up on the fact that he's a little psychotic) and we only hear her opinions on Tommen in direct comparison to Joffrey. I can't recall if she ever has a specific assessment of Myrcella's personality (help?). Catelyn seems intimately acquainted with each of her children, loving them not just despite their flaws but for them, since they also are flipsides of their strengths: Robb her brave one, Sansa her sensitive one, Arya her willful one, Bran her sweet one, Rickon her fierce one. In contrast to her husband, Catelyn's parenthood seems to prominently feature a custom-tailored approach to each child as an individual. Arya bears an insecurity from this; as she is the most difficult of the children to manage, she ends up feeling singled out and wonders -- quite understandably, if we recall what it's like being nine -- if there wasn't any love left for her when she came along. Interestingly, Arya recalls her mother more overtly emotionally than any of her siblings.

One other aspect I find interesting in these two women is the idea of surrogate motherhood. Cersei has an incestuous relationship with her twin brother Jaime, but a part of Cersei's appeal to Jaime seems to me to tap into a mama's boy aspect in him. Cersei makes Jaime's decisions for him, and we can see why this would be a relief to Jaime. He does not consider himself emasculated, rather he enjoys not have to make any tough decisions. The last time he really did was when he betrayed his orders and slew Aerys, arguably the sane thing to do and yet society reviles him for it. Now, no matter what the consequences of his actions are, he can always say that he was just following Cersei's orders. In AFFC he mistakes the ghost of his mother Joanna for Cersei. Catelyn is also easy to see as a substitute mother to her brother Edmure, she takes it on herself to chastise him and recalls always being too harsh with him. But there's no confabulation of mother/sister/lover, and Catelyn's attitude makes a little more sense since she is considerably older than Edmure, by years and not by mere minutes. While Jaime turns dramatically from being Cersei's lapdog to shunning her influence entirely, Edmure seems to chafe at Catelyn's assertiveness all the while yet doesn't quite shut her out unequivocally. (Another one of those Lannister-Tully parallels; the Tullys are the Lannisters plus a healthy dose of moderation. But we don't exactly love the Lannisters for their moderation.)

ALSO STARRING!: Daenerys Targaryen
The last mother to consider is Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons. Many of the people she encounters along her journey to Westeros regard her as a mother savior figure (in contrast to UnCat a.k.a. Mother Merciless), not really as a warrior/general/etc. Personally Dany suffers a miscarriage where she loses her son Rhaego and is unable to have any more children. The spectre of her assumed barrenness haunts her campaign for the crown, as without an heir her rule seems to promise only more power-grabbing once she dies. If she were to be defined by her womb she would be considered useless, hence her success might go some way in countering that attitude towards women. At the end of Feast we get a whiff of a sort of race to be her husband; one wonders how zealous her potential suitors would be if they knew she was barren. On the one hand it may make her less appealing, since Westerosi men do care about heirs, but on the other hand I can see some particularly enterprising man planning to marry her and then seize power instead of settling for being just a consort, and then put her aside and remarry. Though Dany's presentation as a woman capable of ruling competently regardless of her ability to be a mother is perfectly rational, because of prevailing majority customs her barrenness is still a potential liability. There is probably more to say on Dany, maybe people who remember her POV's more than I do can comment?

MOMS NOT APPEARING IN THIS POST
I did not talk about Lysa Arryn, Gilly, Lady Tarly, Alerie Tyrell, Selyse Baratheon, Taena Merryweather, Sybelle Westerling, Val or Dalla, or (obviously) any other mother, but if there's something interesting there feel free to mention it. They might pop up in some of the quotes I've picked out below as food for thought.

Quotes
ONE LIFE ENDS, ANOTHER BEGINS

1. Her mother had died birthing her, and for that her brother Viserys had never forgiven her. - Dany on Viserys, AGOT
   
2. "You are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister."
   "Am I" the dwarf replied, sardonic. "Do tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure." - Jon and Tyrion, AGOT
   
3. Promise me, Ned, his sister had whispered from her bed of blood. - Ned remembers Lyanna's words, AGOT
   
4. Her mother had died bringing her into the world while the storm screamed outside. - Daenerys, ACOK
   
5. "You ask that? You, who killed your mother to come into the world?" - Tywin to Tyrion, ASOS

DAENERYS, MOTHER OF DRAGONS

1. The heart of a stallion would make her son strong and swift and fearless, or so the Dothraki believed, but only if the mother could eat it all. If she choked on the blood or retched up the flesh, the omens were less favorable; the child might be stillborn, or come forth weak, deformed, or female. - Dany reflects on Dothraki beliefs, AGOT
   
2. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don't you see? Don't you SEE? - Dany, AGOT
   
3. "Would you ask a mother to sell one of her children?"
   "Whyever not? They can always make more. Mothers sell their children every day."
   "Not the Mother of Dragons." - Dany to Xaro, ACOK
   
4. It was a wretched thing she did. The Mother of Dragons has sold her strongest child. Even the thought made her ill.
   
5. "Mhysa! Mhysa!"
   Dany looked at Missandei. "What are they shouting?"
   "It is Ghiscari, the old pure tongue. It means 'Mother.'"
   Dany felt a lightness in her chest. I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again, and others took up the cry.
   "Mhysa!" they called. "Mhysa! MHYSA!" They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. "Maela," some called her while others cried "Aelalla" or "Qathei" or "Tato," but whatever the tongue it all meant the same thing. Mother. They are calling me Mother. - Dany, ASOS
   
6. Some of the freedmen greeted her as "Mother," while others begged for boons or favors. Some prayed for strange gods to bless her, and some asked her to bless them instead. She smiled at them, turning right and left, touching their hands when they raised them, letting those who knelt reach up to touch her stirrup or her leg. - Dany, ASOS

JON SNOW

1. "You know, we have men on the Wall whose mothers were whores."
   Not my mother, Jon thought stubbornly. He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind. - Jon, AGOT
   
2. There was no place for him in Winterfell, no place in King's Landing either. Even his own mother had not had a place for him. The thought of her made him sad. He wondered who she had been, what she had looked like, why his father had left her. Because she was a whore or an adulteress, fool. Something dark and dishonorable, or else why was Lord Eddard too ashamed to speak of her? - Jon muses on his mother, AGOT
   
3. Whoever Jon's mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. - Catelyn muses on Jon's mother and Jon, AGOT
   
4. "Lady Stark is not my mother," Jon reminded him sharply. Tyrion Lannister had been a friend to him. If Lord Eddard was killed, she would be as much to blame as the queen. - Jon to Jeor Mormont, AGOT
   
5. He fathered a bastard, where was the honor in that? And your mother, what of his duty to her, he will not even say her name. - Jon on Ned, AGOT
   
6. Ser Rodrik tugged at his whiskers. "In such cases, her liege lord must find her a suitable match."
   "Why can't you marry her?" Bran asked. "You said she was comely, and Beth would have a mother."
   The old knight put a hand on Bran's arm. "A kindly thought, my prince, but I am only a knight, and besides too old. I might hold her lands for a few years, but as soon as I died Lady Hornwood would find herself back in the same mire, and Beth's prospects might be perilous as well."
   "Then let Lord Hornwood's bastard be the heir," Bran said, thinking of his half brother Jon.
   Ser Rodrik said, "That would please the Glovers, and perhaps Lord Hornwood's shade as well, but I do not think Lady Hornwood would love us. The boy is not of her blood."
   "Still," said Maester Luwin, "it must be considered. Lady Donella is past her fertile years, as she said herself. if not the bastard, who?" - Bran discusses Donella Hornwood with Ser Rodrik and Maester Luwin, ACOK
   
7. "Who was your mother?"
   "Some woman. Most of them are." Someone had said that to him once. He did not remember who.
   She smiled again, a flash of white teeth. "And she never sung you the song o' the winter rose?"
   "I never knew my mother. Or any such song."- Jon answers Ygritte, ACOK
   
8. He had never truly been a Stark, only Lord Eddard's motherless bastard, with no more place at Winterfell than Theon Greyjoy. - Jon feels his homelessness, ASOS

IN HER ABSENCE

1. "Some nights I dream of me mother that I buried nine years past," the man said, "but when I wake, she's not come back to us." - A man Bran encounters, ASOS
   
2. Jaime barely remembered what his mother had looked like. - Jaime on Joanna, ASOS
   
3. "Once he called me by Mother's name."
   "He misses her still," Ser Brynden answered.
   "You have her face. I can see it in your cheekbones, and your jaw ..."
   "You remember more of her than I do." - Catelyn and Brynden, ASOS
   (At this point I'm reminded of Beric not being able to remember Allyria Dayne's face, but thats not a mom quote.)
   
4. Sam could still recall the soft touch of his mother's hand as she washed the tears off his face with a bit of lace, dampened with her spit. "My poor Sam," she murmured. "My poor poor Sam." - Sam remembers, AFFC
   
5. She considered appealing to her own mother, but Lady Mellario was far away in Norvos. Besides. Prince Doran had not listened to his lady wife for many years. - Arianne on Mellario, AFFC
   
6. When she looked up at the Mother again, it was her own mother she saw. Lady Minisa Tully had died in childbed, trying to give Lord Hoster a second son. The baby had perished with her, and afterward some of the life had gone out of Father. She was always so calm, Catelyn thought, remembering her mother's soft hands, her warm smile. If she had lived, how different our lives might have been. - Catelyn in the sept, ACOK
   
7. "I am not your sister. Jaime." She raised a pale soft hand and pushed her hood back. "Have you forgotten me?"
   Can I forget someone I never knew? The words caught in his throat. He did know her, but it had been so long ... - Ghost!Joanna and Jaime, AFFC
   
8. "Are you drinking ale or wine tonight, Theon?" She leaned over close. "Or is it still a taste of my mother's milk you thirst for?" - Asha to Theon, ACOK
   
9. Then her mother had died and her father had told her that she must be the lady of Riverrun now, and she had done that too. - Catelyn, ACOK
   
10. Tyrion had never known his mother. He wanted Shae, but she was not there. - Tyrion surveys the death outside King's Landing, ACOK
    
11. It was her mother she wanted, not her mother's sister. - Arya, ASOS
    
12. "Are you my mother now?"
    "I suppose I am," she said. - Sansa answers Robert Arryn, AFFC

ARYA

1. Her father had hunted boar in the wolfswood with Robb and Jon. Once he even took Bran, but never Arya, even though she was older. Septa Mordane said boar hunting was not for ladies, and Mother only promised that when she was older she might have her own hawk. - Arya on her parents, ACOK
   
2. "My mother's a lady, and my sister, but I never was." - Arya to Gendry, ACOK
   
3. "Well," Arya said, "my hair's messy and my nails are dirty and my feet are all hard." Robb wouldn't care about that, probably, but her mother would. Lady Catelyn always wanted her to be like Sansa, to sing and dance and sew and mind her courtesies. Just thinking of it made Arya try to comb her hair with her fingers, but it was all tangles and mats, and all she did was tear some out. - Arya, ASOS
   
4. I came so far. "We have to go get my mother."
   "Stupid little bitch." Fires glinted off the snout of his helm, and made the steel teeth shine. "You go in there, you won't come out. Maybe Frey will let you kiss your mother's corpse."
   "Maybe we can save her..." - Arya and Sandor outside the Twins, ASOS
   
5. That night she went to sleep thinking of her mother, and wondering if she should kill the Hound in his sleep and rescue Lady Catelyn herself. When she closed her eyes she saw her mother's face against the back of her eyelids. She's so close I could almost smell her ... - Arya's wolf dream begins, ASOS
   
6. The white thing lay facedown in the mud, her dead flesh wrinkled and pale, cold blood trickling from her throat. Rise, she thought. Rise and eat and run with us. - Arya wargs into Nymeria and finds her mother's corpse, ASOS
   
7. They are not my Seven. They were my mother's gods, and they let the Freys murder her at the Twins. - Arya, AFFC
   
8. In that [dream] she was always looking for her mother, stumbling through a wasted land of mud and blood and fire. It was always raining in that dream, and she could hear her mother screaming, but a monster with a dog's head would not let her go save her. In that dream she was always weeping, like a frightened little girl... - Arya, AFFC

TRADING IN THE MAIDEN'S CLOAK

1. "[Joffrey] makes his mother's House equal in honor to the king's."
   "The woman is important too!" Arya protested. - Jon and Arya, AGOT
   
2. "I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think." [...]
   When the girl had gone, Catelyn turned back to her father and smoothed the thin white hair across his brow. "An Eddard and a Brandon," she sighed softly. "And perhaps in time a Hoster. Would you like that?" - Jeyne and Catelyn in ASOS
   
3. If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. - Sansa muses on Willas, ASOS
   (The point with these three being that Jeyne's suggestions are all names from her husband's house, whereas Sansa's are from her father's house. Both happen to be House Stark so the probably Stark-centric reader is happy, but often misses the deeper point highlighted early in the series by Arya's words.)

IF SHE COULD SEE ME NOW

1. And her lady mother, what would she say? Would she still want her back, after all the things she'd done? Arya chewed her lip and wondered. - Arya thinks about her mother, ASOS
   
2. She wondered what Lady Minisa would make of her eldest daughter, kneeling here before her. I have come so many thousands of leagues, and for what? Who have I served? I have lost my daughters, Robb does not want me, and Bran and Rickon must surely think me a cold and unnatural mother. - Catelyn in the sept, ACOK
   
3. That stripling ... wretched boy ... not speak that name to me, your duty ... your mother, she would ... - Hoster suggests Minisa's reaction to Lysa and Littlefinger, ACOK
   
4. "We all dream of things we cannot have. Tywin dreamed that his son would be a great knight, that his daughter would be a queen. He dreamed they would be so strong and brave and beautiful that no one would ever laugh at them."
   "I am a knight," he told her. "and Cersei is a queen."
   A tear rolled down her cheek. The woman raised her hood again and turned her back on him. Jaime called after her, but already she was moving away, her skirt whispering lullabies as it brushed across the floor. Don't leave me, he wanted to call, but of course she'd left them long ago. - Ghost!Joanna and Jaime, AFFC

JOFFREY

1. "He's my mother's dog, in truth. She has set him to guard me, and so he does." - Joffrey enjoys the fruits of his mother's commands, AGOT
   
2. Joffrey made a scared whimpery sound as he looked up at her. "No," he said, "don't hurt me. I'll tell my mother." - Joffrey's self-defense, AGOT
   
3. "My mother bids me let Lord Eddard take the black, and Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father. [...] But they have the soft hearts of women." - Joffrey to the people, AGOT
   
4. "Mother says I'm still to marry you, so you'll stay here, and you'll obey." - Joffrey to Sansa, AGOT
   
5. "My mother tells me that it isn't fitting that a king should strike his wife. Ser Meryn." - Joffrey, ever so vastly more enlightened than Robert, has Sansa beat, AGOT
   
6. Nine cases out of ten seemed to bore him; those he allowed his council to handle, squirming restlessly while Lord Baelish, Grand Maester Pycelle, or Queen Cersei resolved the matter. When he did choose to make a ruling, though, not even his queen mother could sway him. - Sansa muses on Joffrey's kinginess, AGOT
   
7. Your brother defeated my uncle Jaime. My mother says it was treachery and deceit. She wept when she heard. Women are all weak, even her, though she pretends she isn't. She says we need to stay in King's Landing in case my other uncles attack, but I don't care. - Joffrey on Cersei's grief and Cersei's advice, AGOT
   
8. The king frowned. "My lady mother said it was not fitting, since the tourney is in my honor. Otherwise I would have been champion." - Joffrey's excuse for not jousting, ACOK
   
9. "Mother said," mocked the king. "Don't be childish." - Joffrey to Myrcella, ACOK
   
10. "Fear is better than love, Mother says." Joffrey pointed at Sansa. "She fears me." - Joffrey on Cersei, ACOK
    
11. Ser Boros turned a dark shade of red. "The queen will hear of this!"
    "No doubt she will. And why wait? Joffrey, shall we send for your mother?"
    The king flushed. - Joffrey reacts to the idea of calling his mommy in, ACOK
    
12. "Joff's only a boy."
    "A boy who wants to be part of this battle, and for once he's showing some sense. I don't intend to put him in the thick of the fighting, but he needs to be seen. Men fight more fiercely for a king who shares their peril than one who hides behind his mother's skirts." - Tyrion on Joffrey, ACOK
    
13. "I'm king! Kill him! Kill him now! I command it." He chopped down with his hand, a furious, angry gesture ... and screeched in pain when his arm brushed against one of the sharp metal fangs that surrounded him. The bright crimson samite of his sleeve turned a darker shade of red as his blood soaked through it. "Mother!" he wailed. - Joffrey the king, ACOK
    
14. I could never abide the weeping of women, Joff once said, but his mother was the only woman weeping now. - Sansa reflects on Joff's death, ASOS
    
15. His sister sat in a puddle of wine, cradling her son's body. Her gown was torn and stained, her face white as chalk. A thin black dog crept up beside her, sniffing at Joffrey's corpse. "The boy is gone, Cersei," Lord Tywin said. He put his gloved hand on his daughter's shoulder as one of his guardsmen shooed away the dog. "Unhand him now. Let him go." She did not hear. It took two Kingsguard to pry loose her fingers, so the body of King Joffrey Baratheon could slide limp and lifeless to the floor. - Cersei at the purple wedding, ASOS
    
16. "Aye," her uncle said, "and from what I saw of Joffrey, you are as unfit a mother as you are a ruler." - Kevan to Cersei, AFFC
    
17. His widow might be pleased to laugh and drink and dance and put all memory of Joff aside, but his mother would not forget him so easily. - Cersei, AFFC

ROBB

1. "Mother, I need you too. I'm trying but I can't . . . I can't do it all by myself." - Robb to Catelyn, AGOT
   
2. "Are you ... are you sending me back to Winterfell?"
   Catelyn sighed. "I should. You ought never have left. Yet I dare not, not now. You have come too far. Someday these lords will look to you as their liege. If I pack you off now, like a child being sent to bed without his supper, they will remember, and laugh about it in their cups. The day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. Laughter is poison to fear. I will not do that to you, much as I might wish to keep you safe."
   "You have my thanks, Mother," he said, his relief obvious beneath the formality.
   She reached across his table and touched his hair. "You are my firstborn, Robb. I have only to look at you to remember the day you came into the world, red-faced and squalling."
   He rose, clearly uncomfortable with her touch, and walked to the hearth. - Robb and Catelyn, AGOT
   
3. He looked to her, his eyes shining, the proud young lord melted away in an instant, and quick as that he was a child again, a fifteen-year-old boy looking to his mother for answers.
   It would not do.
   "What are you so afraid of, Robb?" she asked gently. - Catelyn to Robb, AGOT
   
4. "And what if I do not choose to pay this toll?"
   "Then you had best retreat back to Moat Cailin, deploy to meet Lord Tywin in battle . . . or grow wings. I see no other choices." Catelyn put her heels to her horse and rode off, leaving her son to ponder her words. It would not do to make him feel as if his mother were usurping his place. Did you teach him wisdom as well as valor, Ned? she wondered. Did you teach him how to kneel? The graveyards of the Seven Kingdoms were full of brave men who had never learned that lesson. - Robb and Catelyn, AGOT
   
5. "My mother is right. We still have Riverrun." - Robb, AGOT
   
6. "I am no longer a boy, Mother. I'm a king, and I can protect myself." - Robb to Catelyn, ASOS
   
7. Lord Karstark looked instead at Catelyn. "Tell your mother to look at them," he said. "She slew them, as much as I."
   "My mother had naught to do with this," Robb said angrily. "This was your work. Your murder. Your treason." - Robb confronts Karstark's murders, ASOS
   
8. "I am sorry, Mother . . . for Lord Hoster and for you. Yet first we must meet." - Robb to Catelyn, AGOT
   
9. "The Lannisters killed my father."
   "Do you think I have forgotten that?"
   "I don't know. Have you?" - Robb and Catelyn, ASOS
   
10. The Blackfish escorted her down from the battlements to where Robb stood among his bannermen, his young queen at his side. When he saw her, her son took her silently in his arms.
    "Lord Hoster looked as noble as a king, my lady," murmured Jeyne. "Would that I had been given the chance to know him."
    "And I to know him better," added Robb.
    "He would have wished that too," said Catelyn. - Catelyn and family at Hoster's funeral, ASOS
    
11. "Will you walk with me?"
    "As you command, Your Grace."
    "That wasn't a command, Mother."
    "It will be my pleasure, then." Her son had treated her kindly enough since returning to Riverrun, yet he seldom sought her out. If he was more comfortable with his young queen, she could scarcely blame him. Jeyne makes him smile, and I have nothing to share with him but grief. - Robb and Catelyn, ASOS
    
12. Wordless with rage, Robb slammed a fist down on the table and turned his face away, so the Freys would not see his tears.
    But his mother saw them. - Catelyn and Robb recieve word of Winterfell burning, ASOS
    
13. "Would you care for a dance, Mother?" - Robb to Catelyn at the Red Wedding, ASOS
    
14. "Keep me for a hostage, Edmure as well if you haven't killed him. But let Robb go."
    "No. " Robb's voice was whisper faint. "Mother, no ..."
    "Yes. Robb, get up. Get up and walk out, please, please. Save yourself ... if not for me, for Jeyne."
    "Jeyne?" Robb grabbed the edge of the table and forced himself to stand. "Mother," he said, "Grey Wind ..."
    "Go to him. Now. Robb, walk out of here." - Catelyn to Robb at the Red Wedding, ASOS
    
15. He is my son. My first son, and my last. - Catelyn to Walder Frey at the Red Wedding, ASOS
    
16. Rickon, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robb ... Robb ... please, Ned, please, make it stop, make
    it stop hurting ... - Catelyn at the Red Wedding, ASOS

CAT AND THE LIONESS

1. She had promised herself she would be a lady, gentle as the queen and as strong as her mother, the Lady Catelyn, but all of a sudden she was scared again. - Sansa's female role models, AGOT
   
2. "The blood is the seal of your womanhood. Lady Catelyn might have prepared you. You've had your first flowering, no more."
   Sansa had never felt less flowery. "My lady mother told me, but I . . . I thought it would be different."
   "Different how?"
   "I don't know. Less . . . less messy, and more magical." - Cersei and Sansa, ACOK
   
3. "You will marry and you will breed. Every child you birth makes Stannis more a liar." Their father's eyes seemed to pin her to her chair. - Tywin to Cersei, ASOS
   
4. "You'll have others ... sweet babes, and trueborn." - Hoster to Memory!Lysa and Real!Catelyn, ASOS
   
5. Rickon was to his right, his mop of shaggy auburn hair grown so long that it brushed his ermine mantle. He had refused to let anyone cut it since their mother had gone. The last girl to try had been bitten for her efforts. - Bran considers his baby brother, ACOK
   
6. The four-year-old was cranky at being woken. "I want Mother," he said. "I want her. And Shaggydog too." - Rickon, ACOK
   
7. He asks about his mother sometimes, and often begins letters to the Princess Myrcella - Ironhand on Tommen, ACOK (emphasis mine)
   
8. Cersei is a mother too. No matter who fathered those children, she felt them kick inside her, brought them forth with her pain and blood, nursed them at her breast. lf they are truly Jaime's ...
   "Does Cersei pray to you too, my lady?" Catelyn asked the Mother. She could see the proud, cold, lovely features of the Lannister queen etched upon the wall. The crack was still there; even Cersei could weep for her children. - Catelyn on Cersei, ACOK
   
9. Catelyn Tully was a mouse, or she would have smothered this Jon Snow in his cradle. Instead, she's left the filthy task to me. - Cersei on Catelyn, AFFC
   
10. "Give me Cersei Lannister, Lord Karstark, and you would see how gentle a woman can be," Catelyn replied. - Catelyn on Cersei, AGOT

GENTLE MOTHER, FONT OF MERCY

(Mothers by definition create life, soldiers by definition destroy life. Opposing forces, yet both fierce. And while the ideologies are opposed, the mother prays for her soldier son's return and the dying soldier calls out for his mother.)

1. The southern rain was soft and warm. Catelyn liked the feel of it on her face, gentle as a mother's kisses. - Catelyn, AGOT
   
2. "My mother always said rain was good for growing crops," Grenn put in hopefully. - Grenn to Jon, ACOK
   
3. Dacey Mormont looked up at the sky. "I would sooner have water raining down on me than arrows." - Dacey to Catelyn, ASOS
   
4. She knelt before the Mother. "My lady, look down on this battle with a mother's eyes. They are all sons, every one. Spare them if you can, and spare my own sons as well. Watch over Robb and Bran and Rickon. Would that I were with them." - Catelyn prays, ACOK
   
5. "Each of the Seven embodies all of the Seven," Septon Osmynd had told her once. There was as much beauty in the Crone as in the Maiden, and the Mother could be fiercer than the Warrior when her children were in danger. Yes . . . - Catelyn reflects universally on mothers, ACOK
   
6. "My son may be a king, but I am no queen ... only a mother who would keep her children safe, however she could."
   "I am not made to be a mother. I need to fight."
   "Then fight ... but for the living, not the dead." - Catelyn and Brienne, ACOK
   
7. "Fighting is better than this waiting," Brienne said. "You don't feel so helpless when you fight. You have a sword and a horse, sometimes an axe. When you're armored it's hard for anyone to hurt you."
   "Knights die in battle," Catelyn reminded her.
   Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. "As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them."
   "Children are a battle of a different sort." Catelyn started across the yard. "A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Carrying a child, bringing it into the world ... your mother will have told you of the pain ..."
   "I never knew my mother," Brienne said. "My father had ladies ... a different lady every year, but ..."
   "Those were no ladies," Catelyn said. "As hard as birth can be, Brienne, what comes after is even harder. At times I feel as though I am being torn apart. Would that there were five of me, one for each child, so I might keep them all safe."
   "And who would keep you safe, my lady?"
   Her smile was wan and tired. "Why, the men of my House. Or so my lady mother taught me." - Brienne and Catelyn, ACOK
   
8. Brienne fell in beside her, silent. It is simpler for her, Catelyn thought with a pang of envy. She was like a man in that. For men the answer was always the same, and never farther away than the nearest sword. For a woman, a mother, the way was stonier and harder to know. - Catelyn, ACOK
   
9. The Mother's altar and the Warrior's swam in light, but Smith and Crone and Maid and Father had their worshipers as well, and there were even a few flames dancing below the Stranger's halfhuman face - Sansa notes which altars are the most attended in the sept on the brink of battle, ACOK
   
10. Gentle Mother, font of mercy, save our sons from war, we pray, stay the swords and stay the arrows, let them know a better day. Gentle Mother, strength of women, help our daughters through this fray, soothe the wrath and tame the fury, teach us all a kinder way. - prayer to the Mother, ACOK
    
11. At first there was no sound in the world, but after a time he began to hear the voices of the dead, soft and terrible. They wept and moaned, they begged for an end to pain, they cried for help and wanted their mothers. - Tyrion surveys the death outside King's Landing, ACOK
    
12. "Mother, have mercy," Davos prayed. "Save me, gentle Mother, save us all. My luck is gone, and my sons." - Davos' prayer, ASOS
    
13. "Mother have mercy," he muttered in a hushed husky voice beneath the frozen mask. "Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy." With each prayer he took another step, dragging his legs through the snow. "Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy." - Sam, ASOS
    
14. His own mother was a thousand leagues south, safe with his sisters and his little brother Dickon in the keep at Horn Hill. She can't hear me, no more than the Mother Above. The Mother was merciful, all the septons agreed, but the Seven had no power beyond the Wall. This was where the old gods ruled, the nameless gods of the trees and the wolves and the snows. - Sam prays to the Mother and faces the limits of Her jurisdiction, ASOS
    
15. "A man can own a woman or a man can own a knife," Ygritte told him, "but no man can own both. Every little girl learns that from her mother." - Ygritte clarifies a dichotomy, ASOS
    
16. My mother taught me long ago that only madmen fight wars they cannot win. - Doran recalls his lessons, AFFC
    
17. "You are King in the North, the choice is yours. I only ask that you think on what I've said. The singers make much of kings who die valiantly in battle, but your life is worth more than a song. To me at least, who gave it to you." - Catelyn to Robb, ASOS

MOOOOOOOOOM!

1. It was worse than Jon had thought. It wasn't Septa Mordane waiting in her room. It was Septa Mordane and her mother. - Arya faces punishment, AGOT
   
2. "Quiet," he yelled. "Sit down. Stay. You're worse than Mother." - Bran to Summer, AGOT
   
3. "Our lady mother would skin me for a pelt if I let you put yourself at risk." Robb to Bran, AGOT
   
4. "But Lord Mallister has kindly offered to keep you safe at Seagard until the war is done. You will be comfortable there, I know."
   Is this my punishment for opposing him about Jon Snow? Or for being a woman, and worse, a mother? - Catelyn reacts to Robb's words, ASOS
   
5. "Pate sometimes thought his mother must have hated him to have named him as she did." - Pate, AFFC

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER

1. "He offers his own son in marriage to our daughter, what else would you call that? Sansa might someday be queen. Her sons could rule from the Wall to the mountains of Dorne. What is so wrong with that?"
   "Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven," Ned said. "And Joffrey ... Joffrey is ..."
   She finished for him. crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. - Catelyn and Ned, AGOT
   
2. Are you that eager to get me out of the city, Cersei? "You are too kind, sister, but it seems to me that a boy's mother is better fitted to arrange his marriage than any uncle. - Tyrion to Cersei, ACOK
   
3. "Mother, are you certain you will not consent to go to the Twins? You would be farther from the fighting, and you could acquaint yourself with Lord Frey's daughters to help me choose my bride when the war is done."
   He wants me gone, Catelyn thought wearily. Kings are not supposed to have mothers, it would seem, and I tell him things he does not want to hear. "You're old enough to decide which of Lord Walder's girls you prefer without your mother's help, Robb." - Robb and Catelyn, ACOK
   
4. "You truly are a stupid girl, aren't you? My mother says so."
   "She does?" After all that had happened, his words should have lost their power to hurt her, yet somehow they had not. The queen had always been so kind to her.
   "Oh, yes. She worries about our children, whether they'll be stupid like you, but I told her not to trouble herself." - Joffrey to Sansa, AGOT
   
5. "Also, if your sister Arya is returned to us safely, it is agreed that she will marry Lord Walder's youngest son, Elmar, when the two of them come of age."
   Robb looked nonplussed. "Arya won't like that one bit."
   "And you are to wed one of his daughters, once the fighting is done," she finished. "His lordship has graciously consented to allow you to choose whichever girl you prefer. He has a number he thinks might be suitable."
   To his credit, Robb did not flinch. "I see."
   "Do you consent?"
   "Can I refuse?"
   "Not if you wish to cross."
   "I consent," Robb said solemnly. He had never seemed more manly to her than he did in that moment. Boys might play with swords, but it took a lord to make a marriage pact, knowing what it meant. - Catelyn and Robb at the Twins, AGOT
   
6. Your lord father promised me worthy marriages for Jeyne and her younger sister. Lords or heirs, he swore to me, not younger sons nor household knights. - Sybelle to Jaime, AFFC

BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN

1. "In the place of the traitor Stannis Baratheon, it is the wish of His Grace that his lady mother, the Queen Regent Cersei Lannister, who has ever been his staunchest support, be seated upon his small council, that she may help him rule wisely and with justice. So the king has decreed. The small council consents." - Pycelle on Cersei, AGOT
   
2. "I call it weak." Lord Randyll Tarly had a short, bristly grey beard and a reputation for blunt speech. "No disrespect to you, Lady Stark, but it would have been more seemly had Lord Robb come to pay homage to the king himself, rather than hiding behind his mother's skirts."
   "King Robb is warring, my lord," Catelyn replied with icy courtesy, "not playing at tourney."
   Renly grinned. "Go softly, Lord Randyll, I fear you're overmatched." - Randyll Tarly interjects in Catelyn and Renly's discussion, ACOK
   
3. "As to your father, would that I'd been born a peasant woman with a big wooden spoon, I might have been able to beat some sense into his fat head." - Olenna Tyrell on her son Mace, ASOS
   
4. "Oh, I loved him well enough, don't mistake me. A kind man, and not unskilled in the bedchamber, but an appalling oaf all the same. He managed to ride off a cliff whilst hawking. They say he was looking up at the sky and paying no mind to where his horse was taking him.
   "And now my oaf son is doing the same, only he's riding a lion instead of a palfrey. It is easy to mount a lion and not so easy to get off, I warned him, but he only chuckles. Should you ever have a son, Sansa, beat him frequently so he learns to mind you. I only had the one boy and I hardly beat him at all, so now he pays more heed to Butterbumps than he does to me. A lion is not a lap cat, I told him, and he gives me a 'tut-tut Mother.' There is entirely too much tut-tutting in this realm, if you ask me. All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers." - Olenna Tyrell's opinion on men in charge, ASOS
   
5. The boy recoiled at the sight, but his mother seized his wrist before he could pull away. "Pray," she whispered, and Tommen tried. But he was only eight and Lord Tywin was a horror. One desperate breath of air, then the king began to sob. "Stop that!" Cersei said. Tommen turned his head and doubled over, retching. His crown fell off and rolled across the marble floor. His mother pulled back in disgust, and all at once the king was running for the doors, as fast as his eight-year-old legs could carry him. - Cersei and Tommen at Tywin's funeral, AFFC
   
6. I know she is a mother, with a young son that she wants to rise high in this world. She will do whatever is required to see that he does. Mothers are all the same. - Cersei on Taena, AFFC
   
7. The mother in her wanted only to protect him: the queen in her knew he must grow harder, or the Iron Throne was certain to devour him. - Cersei on Tommen, AFFC

THE ARSENAL OF MOTHERHOOD

1. "Tears," she said scornfully to Sansa as the woman was led from the hall. "The woman's weapon, my lady mother used to call them. The man's weapon is a sword. And that tells us all you need to know, doesn't it?" - Cersei recalls Joanna's words, ACOK
   
2. "A man will tell you poison is dishonorable, but a woman's honor is different. The Mother shaped us to protect our children, and our only dishonor is in failure. You'll know that, when you have a child." - Lysa to Sansa, ASOS
   
3. Margaery was different, though. Sweet and gentle, yet there was a little of her grandmother in her, too. - Sansa on the Tyrell women, ASOS
   
4. Catelyn smiled despite herself. "You are braver than I am, I fear. Are all your Bear Island women such warriors?"
   "She-bears, aye," said Lady Maege. "We have needed to be. In olden days the ironmen would come raiding in their longboats, or wildlings from the Frozen Shore. The men would be off fishing, like as not. The wives they left behind had to defend themselves and their children, or else be carried off." - Catelyn and Maege, ASOS

A MOTHER'S HEART

1. "Mothers." The man made the word sound like a curse. "I think birthing does something to your minds. You are all mad." He laughed. It was a bitter sound. - Jaime to Cersei, AGOT
   
2. "If you do not, then on the morrow we shall have a hunt, and somewhere in these woods your horse will stumble, and you will be thrown from the saddle to die . . . or so I will tell your mother. She has a woman's heart and finds it in her to cherish even you, and I have no wish to cause her pain. Please do not imagine that it will truly be that easy, should you think to defy me. Nothing would please me more than to hunt you down like the pig you are." - Randyll Tarly to Sam, AGOT
   
3. "Indeed." Varys laid a soft hand on the queen's sleeve. "You have a mother's heart, and I know His Grace loves his little sweetling. Yet kings must learn to put the needs of the realm before their own desires. I say this offer must be made."
   The queen pulled free of the eunuch's touch. "You would not speak so if you were women. Say what you will, my lords, but Joffrey is too proud to settle for Renly's leavings. He will never consent." - Varys and Cersei disagree on a course of action, ACOK
   
4. "The news must have driven you mad," Ser Desmond broke in, "a madness of grief, a mother's madness, men will understand. You did not know ..."
   "I did," Catelyn said firmly. - Catelyn refuses the excuse, ASOS
   
5. "My Torrhen and my Eddard deserved better of you."
   "Leave off, Karstark," rumbled the Greatjon, crossing his huge arms against his chest. "It was a mother's folly. Women are made that way."
   "A mother's folly?" Lord Karstark rounded on Lord Umber. "I name it treason." - Karstark and Umber on Catelyn's deeds, ASOS
   
6. What would you say if you knew my crime, Father? she wondered. Would you have done as I did, if it were Lysa and me in the hands of our enemies? Or would you condemn me too, and call it mother's madness? - Catelyn asks an interesting question, ASOS
   
7. Tommen was fishing for cats when his mother returned to him. [...] He seemed surprised when Cersei gathered him up in her arms and kissed him on his brow. "What's that for, Mother? Why are you crying?"
   Because you're safe, she wanted to tell him. Because no harm will ever come to you. "You are mistaken. A lion never cries." - Tommen and Cersei, AFFC

MOTHER KNOWS BEST

1. "A wife is allowed to yearn for her husband, and if a mother needs her daughters close, who can tell her no?" - Catelyn, AGOT
   
2. "What avails statecraft against the love of a mother for the sweet fruit of her womb? Perhaps, for the glory of her House and the safety of the realm, the queen might be persuaded to send away Tornmen or Myrcella. But both of them? Surely not." - Varys to Tyrion on Cersei, ACOK
   
3. "And you see fit to loose the Kingslayer. You had no right."
   "I had a mother's right." - Edmure and Catelyn argue, ASOS
   
4. Lady Mormont took her hand and said, "My lady, if Cersei Lannister held two of my daughters, I would have done the same." - Maege to Catelyn, ASOS
   
5. Catelyn had grown fond of Lady Maege and her eldest daughter, Dacey; they were more understanding than most in the matter of Jaime Lannister, she had found. - Catelyn on the Mormont women, ASOS
   
6. "I am sure Her Grace knows best." Lady Olenna had said to Lady Alerie. "She is the boy's own mother, after all, of that we are all sure." - Olenna's thorny opinion of Cersei, AFFC
   
7. Archmaester Ebrose claims that mother's milk has many healhful properties. - Coleman on Lysa, AFFC
   
8. "Mother's here, nothing will hurt you." [Lysa] opened her robe and drew out a pale, heavy breast, tipped with red. The boy grabbed for it eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck. [...] For the first time she understood why the king had tried to take the child away from his mother to foster with the Lannisters. - Catelyn observes Lysa, AGOT
   
9. "The boy is utterly without discipline. He will never be strong enough to rule unless he is taken away from his mother for a time." - Catelyn on Robert Arryn, AGOT

FOR MOTHER'S SAKE

1. "If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you." - Ned to Bran, AGOT
   
2. "You know better than that. Only two days ago one of Lord Bolton's men knifed one of Lord Cerwyn's at the Smoking Log. Our lady mother would skin me for a pelt if I let you put yourself at risk." - Robb to Bran, AGOT
   
3. "Nor do I wish to sully Lightbringer with a brother's blood. For the sake of the mother who bore us both, I will give you this night to rethink your folly, Renly." - Stannis' brotherly affections, ACOK
   
4. "Why should I do him a kindness?"
   Jon had no answer for that. "If not for him, for Val. For her sister's sake, the child's mother." - Stannis and Jon, ASOS
   
5. "Think of your poor mother. You are all that Lanny has left to her." - Rodrik Harlaw to Asha, AFFC
   
6. You would have served the Archon as a cupbearer and met with your betrothed in secret, but your mother threatened to harm herself if I stole another of her children, and I ... I could not do that to her. - Doran on Mellario, AFFC
   
7. He pointed to the spear, then to my mother's tears, and I picked up the spear. 'I told you she was mine.' my father said, and took me. My mother drank herself to death within the year. They say that she was weeping as she died. - Obara describes leaving her mother, AFFC
   
8. It is a monstrous cruel thing to lose a child - Catelyn, ASOS
   
9. No mother should outlive her children, and no captain should outlive his ship. - Cersei, AFFC
   
10. Halfway along the route, a wailing woman forced her way between two watchmen and ran out into the street in front of the king and his companions, holding the corpse of her dead baby above her head. It was blue and swollen, grotesque, but the real horror was the mother's eyes. Joffrey looked for a moment as if he meant to ride her down, but Sansa Stark leaned over and said something to him. The king fumbled in his purse, and flung the woman a silver stag. The coin bounced off the child and rolled away, under the legs of the gold cloaks and into the crowd, where a dozen men began to fight for it. The mother never once blinked. Her skinny arms were trembling from the dead weight of her son. - A mourning mother among the smallfolk, ACOK
    
11. In all the stories the little boy died at three of a summer chill, but Old Nan stayed on at Winterfell with her own children. She had lost both her sons tothe war when King Robert won the throne, and her grandson was killed on the walls of Pyke during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion. Her daughters had long ago married and moved away and died. All that was left of her own blood was Hodor, the simpleminded giant who worked in the stables, but Old Nan just lived on and on, doing her needlework and telling her stories. - Nan's life after her children are lost, AGOT

BEST SERVED COLD

1. "You are the gentle sex," said Lord Karstark, with the lines of grief fresh on his face. "A man has a need for vengeance." - Karstark to Catelyn, AGOT
   
2. "I had five children. Now I have three."
   "Aye, my lady." Lord Rickard Karstark pushed past the Greatjon, like some grim specter with his black mail and long ragged grey beard, his narrow face pinched and cold. "And I have one son, who once had three. You have robbed me of my vengeance." - Karstark to Catelyn, ASOS
   
3. "You were their mother, my lady. May I offer you this ... small token of revenge?"
   Part of Catelyn wanted to clutch the grisly trophy to her heart, but she made herself resist. "Put it away. Please."
   "Flaying Theon will not bring my brothers back," Robb said. - Roose Bolton offers Theon's fingers to Catelyn and Robb, ASOS
   
4. Robb had broken his word, but Catelyn kept hers. She tugged hard on Aegon's hair and sawed at his neck until the blade grated on bone. Blood ran hot over her fingers. His little bells were ringing, ringing, ringing, and the drum went boom doom boom. - Catelyn at the Red Wedding, ASOS
   
5. "Elia Martell, Princess of Dome," the Red Viper hissed. "You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children." - Oberyn to Gregor, ASOS
   
6. She kissed Jaime's fingers. "You'll kill him for me, won't you? You'll avenge our son." - Cersei after Joff's death, ASOS

YO MOMMA'S SO UGLY

1. The pink-and-white hero taunted the besiegers for an hour, mocking their manhood, mothers, wives, and gods. - Dany in Meereen, ASOS
   
2. No man calls my lady of Winterfell a traitor in my hearing, Lord Rickard. - Robb on Catelyn, ASOS
   
3. She had promised Harwin that she would not try and run away again, she knew, but that was before they started telling lies about her mother. - Arya, ASOS
   
4. "That's not so. He loved my lady mother."
   "I'm sure he did, my lady, but - "
   "She was the only one he loved." - Arya gets defensive, ASOS
   
5. "Do it, you son of a poxy whore." His voice had grown hoarse from disuse.
   "Is that any way to speak about our lady mother?" - Tyrion and Jaime in the dungeons, ASOS
   (I just find this one funny)

WORDS OF WISDOM

1. No mother loves all her children the same, not even the Mother Above. - Aemon to Sam, AFFC
   
2. It all goes back and back, Tyrion thought, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance on in our steads. - Tyrion's wise words, ASOS

If you made it this far you get a cookie!