Request: Limiting the number of blatant Game of Thrones references in future?

[Niwashi]

And the odd 'little birds' wouldn't bother me in the slightest; I like the phrase on its own, and it doesn't stick out when it's just once or twice in the whole game (however, I counted three instances of the line in one day of questing recently, which does rather stand out when there are other references to the series everywhere else yet seldom is there a single bird, actual or metaphorical, in sight).

What's being said about a "little bird"? Is it just the "a little bird told me" expression? That's not from GoT. Nor does it have anything to do with actual birds. It's just a commonplace English expression for indicating you know something but are unable or unwilling to identify how you know it. And it's been a common expression since before A Song of Ice and Fire was written.

A book or TV series using a commonplace term or phrase does not make other uses of that phrase a reference to it.

[Serilda]

A book or TV series using a commonplace term or phrase does not make other uses of that phrase a reference to it.

No; it's not the general English phrase "a little bird told me", it's numerous references (by different characters in FFXIV) to "my little birds", in this case specifically referring to a spymaster's hidden network of trusted informants. Obviously the root is identical, but in the context of all of the other references it's difficult for me to read it and not imagine the characters who say it in the series. I mean, few of the words in ASoIaF are completely made-up. It's the popularisation of certain obscure lines and references which are being relentlessly plumbed by the writers here, and I personally think it would be nice if things were dialled back just a little.

As I said in my first post, if they varied the references more (i.e. using a broader mixture of fantasy series as inspiration) it wouldn't be so jarring.

[Daralii]

No; it's not the general English phrase "a little bird told me", it's numerous references (by different characters in FFXIV) to "my little birds", in this case specifically referring to a spymaster's hidden network of trusted informants. Obviously the root is identical, but in the context of all of the other references it's difficult for me to read it and not imagine the characters who say it in the series. I mean, few of the words in ASoIaF are completely made-up. It's the popularisation of certain obscure lines and references which are being relentlessly plumbed by the writers here, and I personally think it would be nice if things were dialled back just a little.

As I said in my first post, if they varied the references more (i.e. using a broader mixture of fantasy series as inspiration) it wouldn't be so jarring.

How does a spy having a network of carrier birds have to be a SoIF reference in regions based on Edo-era Japan and Turkey?