Jaime Lannister recounts the time the Kingsguard (royal bodyguards) were sent to the Kingswood (a large forest located near King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms) to defeat the Kingswood Brotherhood, a group of outlaws that operated out of the Kingswood. They were led by Simon Toyne of House Toyne, an extinct family from the Stormlands.

The Kingswood Brotherhood were a nuisance to King Aerys II aka The Mad King, so he sent his best men to put an end to the outlaws once and for all. Jaime was a squire but he tagged along and even killed one of the Brotherhood members. Jaime was more impressed by Barristan Selmy’s (a member of the Kingsguard who fought against the outlaws) kill than his own.

He even remembered that Barristan specifically used a counter riposte, a fencing move.

King Robert Baratheon hates the Lannisters and it shows when he makes a reference to Jaime killing the former king, Aerys II (“Who was your first kill, not counting old men?”). Jaime returns the slight with a bit of sarcasm when he notes that decapitated men don’t have last words.

The reason why Jon Snow is such a skilled fighter is because he was trained by Ser Rodrik Cassel, the Master-At-Arms at Winterfell (ancestral seat of House Stark). As Master-At-Arms, Cassel was tasked with providing weapons training to all of the trueborn Stark children as well as Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy (a ward of the Starks).

Tyrion Lannister tells Jon that the other young members of the Night’s Watch grew up poor and had no sword training. Despite being a bastard, Jon was raised in a noble family. Therefore, Jon has tons of sword fighting experience and can easily defeat his less experienced peers.

Tyrion also informs Jon that his younger brother, Bran Stark, has finally woken up from his coma.

Jaime Lannister is known throughout the realm as the Kingslayer. That’s because he killed King Aerys II aka The Mad King. As a member of the Kingsguard, Jaime’s job was to protect the King, not kill him. Unfortunately for Jaime, the part that often gets left out of the Kingslayer story is that because of Jaime, millions of people in King’s Landing (the capital of the realm, where the royal family preside) were spared a fiery death. Aerys' plan was to burn down King’s Landing using wildfire rather than allow Robert and the rest of the rebels the opportunity to sack the city. As Aerys famously said:

Let [Robert] be king over charred bones and cooked meat. Let him be king of ashes

Like many Targaryens before him, Aerys believed that the wildfire wouldn’t harm him and that he would emerge from the flames as a powerful dragon. Jaime knew better than that and chose to bear the burden of being a Kingslayer as long as King’s Landing wasn’t burned to the ground. Jaime killed the pyromancers and Aerys before they could release the wildfire upon the city.

Petyr Baelish aka Littlefinger is the Master of Coin (treasurer) of King Robert’s Small Council. Before that, when he was much younger, he was a ward of Hoster Tully, Catelyn Stark’s father. He grew up with Catelyn and fell in love with her despite the fact that she only loved him like a brother.

Rickard Stark (father of Ned, Brandon, Lyanna and Benjen) wanted his eldest son, Brandon, to marry Catelyn so he negotiated a betrothal between the two with Catelyn’s father, Hoster. This didn’t sit well with Littlefinger who loved Catelyn. Despite the fact that Brandon was older, stronger and a better fighter, Littlefinger still decided to challenge him for Catelyn’s hand in marriage. Brandon easily beat him and nearly killed him by cutting him open from his chest to his stomach. Catelyn felt bad for Littlefinger and intervened on his behalf so Brandon spared his life.

Brandon and Rickard Stark were eventually killed by King Aerys II aka The Mad King, thus starting Robert’s Rebellion. The Starks and Tullies still wanted to maintain the alliance so Ned, the second oldest son, married Catelyn. Despite all of this, it’s pretty obvious in this conversation between Ned and Littlefinger, that Littlefinger still loves Catelyn.

Ilyn Payne is the King’s Justice aka the Royal Executioner. Whenever the King wants somebody executed or just maimed, he’ll call upon Payne.

Payne has been serving kings for decades. He serves King Robert and has served “The Mad King” aka King Aerys II. Back then, Tywin Lannister was the Hand of the King for King Aerys and Payne was loyal to the Lannisters. Aerys overheard Payne say that Tywin was the true ruler of the realm. As punishment, Aerys had Payne’s tongue removed hence why he doesn’t speak.

In Westeros, land inheritance is based on a hierarchy. The eldest son stands to inherit his family’s land and his eldest son becomes his heir. Unless something were to happen to the eldest son, such as death or joining the Night’s Watch like Aemon Targayren:

or Kingsguard like Jaime Lannister:

In that case, the 2nd oldest son inherits the land and so forth and so on. Unfortunately for Jon Snow, bastards are not considered part of the family, therefore they have no inheritance. It doesn’t matter if the bastard child is the eldest or 2nd eldest, the younger, legitimate sons have better claims to the inheritance than the bastard son.

Of course, if the bastard child is legitimized, he can become an heir to the family’s lands. Jon Stark, anyone?

The women of House Frey aren’t exactly known for being attractive. It was part of the reason why Robb Stark wasn’t enthusiastic about marrying one of them as a condition of having House Frey’s military support.

The Blackfish is also a notorious bachelor. No one knows if he’s gay, asexual or just prefers to live the single life. But his decision to remain single was one of the reasons why he and his brother, Hoster Tully (Catelyn and Edmure’s father), were at odds. For a guy who enjoys his freedom, it’s hard to entice him with hideous looking women.

“Guest Right” is a sacred law of hospitality in Westeros. It’s thousands of years old. It basically states that if a person is a guest in someone’s home and they eat and drink in that person’s home, the host cannot harm them and vice versa. Traditionally, bread and salt is used to invoke “Guest Right”. Those who break “Guest Right” are cursed. Both the Old Gods and the Faith of the Seven believe in honoring “Guest Right”. Considering the shaky relationship between the Starks and the Freys, after Robb broke his vow to marry a Frey woman, Robb and company make sure that “Guest Right” is observed immediately when they enter The Twins.