Podrick Payne, at the end of the chapter when he meets Brienne. "I was his squire...".

Jaime's (implied true) dream of his mother , where she asks him if he will forget his father as he has forgotten her. Then she tells him that Tywin hated to be laughed at, wished for his son to be "a great knight", his daughter to be a queen, and for them to be "so strong and brave and beautiful that no one would ever laugh at them." Jaime responds: ''"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.

The Elder Brother's description of Sandor Clegane. He was Prince Joffrey's sworn shield for many a year, and even here [on the Quiet Isle] we would hear tell of his deeds, both good and ill. If even half of what we heard was true, this was a bitter, tormented soul, a sinner who mocked both gods and men. He served, but found no pride in service. He fought, but took no joy in victory. He drank, to drown his pain in a sea of wine. He did not love, nor was he loved himself. It was hate that drove him. Though he committed many sins, he never sought forgiveness. Where other men dream of love, or wealth or glory, this man Sandor Clegane dreamed of slaying his own brother, a sin so terrible it makes me shudder just to speak of it. Yet it was the bread that nourished him, the fuel that kept his fires burning. Ignoble as it was, the hope of seeing his brother's blood upon his blade was all this sad and angry creature lived for, and even that was taken from him, when Prince Oberyn of Dorne stabbed Ser Gregor with a poisoned spear.

Cersei's POV chapters don't do much to show her in a sympathetic light, with one exception: during Tommen's wedding to Margaery. When Tommen drinks his wine too quickly and starts choking on it, Cersei — who's already had one son choke to death on his wedding day right in front of her — becomes so overwhelmed with terror and panic that she ends up knocking a server down in her haste to reach him. Of course, it's a false alarm, but even so, she can't keep herself from bursting into tears and has to rush out of the room to prevent people from seeing her like this. It really hammers home the fact that, bitch though she may be, Cersei's still a mother who's already lost one child, and now lives in constant fear (not entirely without reason) that the other two may be next. In that one moment, it's pretty hard not to feel sorry for her. YMMV but something that Cersei thinks as she leaves the room, that a woman may weep but not a Queen, can cause a few tears when you remember that her Aunt Genna told her that she shouldn't weep after being told she wasn't going to be wed to Rhaegar, that lions didn't weep. Considering the sort of parent Tywin was, you have to wonder if Cersei was ever able to truly cry.

Doran's realization of Oberyn's death. "I was the oldest," the Prince said, "and yet I am the last. After Mors and Olyvar died in their cradles, I gave up hope of brothers. I was nine when Elia came, a squire in service at Salt Shore. When the raven arrived with word that my mother had been brought to bed a month too soon, I was old enough to understand that meant the child would not live. Even when Lord Gargalen told me that I had a sister, I assured him that she must shortly die. Yet she lived, by the Mothers mercy. And a year later Oberyn arrived, squalling and kicking. I was a man grown when they were playing in these pools. Yet here I sit, and they are gone."

Myrcella's face getting maimed by the Darkstar . Her Martell betrothed cannot help but cry at the sight of her. Arianne's horrible guilt about her role in it. Despite being a scheming seductress, she's also a decent person who didn't want any innocent people get hurt. Now, because of her recklessness, Arys, a man so in love that he broke his vows for her, lost his head and Myrcella, a child under her protection, was slashed in the face and disfigured . And she's gonna have to live with that for the rest of her life.

Brienne's response to the Elder Brother's "I am sure he'd rather have a living daughter than a shattered shield" comment: "A daughter." Brienne's eyes filled with tears. "He deserves that. A daughter who could sing to him and grace his hall and bear him grandsons. He deserves a son too, a strong and gallant son to bring honor to his name. Galladon drowned when I was four and he was eight, though, and Alysanne and Arianne died still in the cradle. I am the only child the gods let him keep. The freakish one, not fit to be son or daughter."

More quiet than other cases, but Septon Meribald's description of 'broken men' and all the horrors of warfare for the common folk — even those serving in the armies — hits hard, reminding the reader yet again that this is now the reality for so many peasants in Westeros because of the arrogance, pride and ruthlessness of the Five Kings and the lords they commanded. And what makes it worse is that Meribald is still affected by his own experiences and loss of friends and kin, after nearly forty years. The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally [Brienne] said, "How old were you when they marched you off to war?"

"Why, no older than your boy," Meribald replied. "Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a pot boy armed with a kitchen knife he'd stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape."

"The War of the Ninepenny Kings?" asked Hyle Hunt.

"So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was."

Tywin's sister telling Jaime about their relationship. It's sad, and it's twisted, and we see a human side to Tywin that's almost always buried.

After the two of them make love on the Cinnamon Wind, Sam having to tell Gilly that they can't be together even though he loves her because of the vow he swore to the Night's Watch : Sam : What we did... if I could take a wife, I would sooner have you than any princess or highborn maiden... but I can't. I am still a crow. I said the words, Gilly. The reveal that Gilly was depressed because Jon forced her to leave her baby behind and take Mance's son with her instead as part of Jon's plan to save a kid from being sacrificed for his king's blood and to help give both babies the chance to live (revealed in A Dance With Dragons). In Dance, before she leaves, Jon promises Gilly that her son will be safe because he has no king's blood as Stannis would not burn an innocent without cause, and that her son will be provided for, educated, and raised under (Jon's) protection. Gilly holds Jon to his promise that he'll ensure her son will grow up strong and makes him vow that he won't name her child until he reaches two years for the sake of her child's well-being. note Because of the harsh environment beyond the Wall, infant mortality for wildling babies is higher. Because of this, the free folk believe it is bad luck to name a child before they reach two years old and give the child a milk name in the interim. As Gilly tells Jon before she departs, "Dont you name him. Dont you do that, till he's past two years. It's ill luck to name them when theyre still on the breast. You crows may not know that, but it's true." Though Gilly loves Mance's son as her own, she naturally can't help being absolutely miserable over the separation from her own son.

The story of Oberyn taking Obara Sand away from her birth mother, especially when we found out that her heartbroken mother drank herself to death a year later.

Asha describing her mother Alannys' depression after losing all three of her sons. She would wander Pyke in the middle of the night looking for them, even though the two eldest were dead and the youngest, Theon, was away at Winterfell.

Jaime's guilt over not protecting Queen Rhaella from her abusive husband. For him, hearing her scream as King Aerys brutally raped her was worse than the screams of men the king had burned alive. The fact that the Kingsguard did nothing for this poor woman is also one of the reasons Jaime ended up so cynical and disillusioned. Making it worse is the fact that Jaime did try to speak up in her defense, only to basically be shushed by Jonothor Darry — yet he's probably still remembered in Westeros as a heroic knight of the Kingsguard while Jaime is scorned as The Kingslayer: Jaime: We are sworn to protect her as well.

Jonothor: We are, We are, but not from him.

And it's possible Daenerys was conceived during one of these rapes.

Loras being horribly injured during his attack on Dragonstone, to such an extent that the maesters are certain he's going to die. Well, probably. We get to see his sister's reaction: Margaery: Dying is not dead!

Arya begins her training-slash-apprenticeship in the House of Black and White, where she is told that she has to give up her identity. This means throwing away any keepsakes and trinkets she has, which, though she is mildly disappointed, she does. She dumps it all in the river, until she gets to Needle. Arya decides that she just can't do it. She can give up being Arya Stark, but she can't get rid of the memories that come with her. And one of the things that Needle reminds her is her family, especially Jon Snow. [Arya] stood on the end of the dock, pale and goosefleshed and shivering in the fog. In her hand, Needle seemed to whisper to her. Stick them with the pointy end, it said, and, don't tell Sansa! Mikken's mark was on the blade. It's just a sword. If she needed a sword, there were a hundred under the temple. Needle was too small to be a proper sword, it was hardly more than a toy. She'd been a stupid little girl when Jon had it made for her. It's just a sword, she said, aloud this time...

...but it wasn't.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.