Ashara Dayne had dark hair.

 

Yeah, her nephew was blonde, Gerold Dayne had silver hair, and we don't know anyone else for sure. I said occasionally, because it happened on at least one occasion.

 

So I've been kinda binging GoT fan fiction lately, anyone have any Jon/Ygritte fics they'd recommend? She's my favorite female character. I've been trying to find anything decent but the vast majority of what I've stumbled across are either :shudder: "Modern AUs" or "Soulmates" and I gag a little just reading the descriptions.

 

Honestly, nothing that I would dare to link here. I pretty much check on everything that doesn't get filtered by default on scryer (SI, OC, weird shipping SanSan/SanJon etc.) and it doesn't look good for AsoIaF & GoT in general.

What Ygritte fics I read were either painful to read on the characters or deal really badly with how to get Jon out of killing her / the nightswatch / move the plot south.

 

I know , it's one of the many things that drives me crazy. One shots are honestly nice and all but I want to read a decently written fic where Jon brings Ygritte south of the wall safely and roll from there. Ygritte, Arya given the newest seasons and one of my all time favorites, Lady Brienne are just my all time favorites.

 

Jon did bring Ygritte south of the wall safely. The problem with what you're asking for is that it requires one of them to do something they wouldn't. Either Ygritte has to abandon her people, or Jon has to.

 

I remember a story like that. It was to make fun of Ned trying to claim Jon as a bastard, even though the baby had the valyrian looks. To add insult, it was the spitting image of Rhaegar by the time of Robert's visit. The only one who believed the bullshit was Robert, thinking Eddard isn't capable of lying on his face.

 

I've been reading "A Song of Dragons" and it's not bad. I don't know if it's been mentioned here yet or not, but it probably has since it's over 200k words long.

It's actually surprising how readable it is. A large amount of GoT stories aren't, for whatever reason. It's hard enough to find stories that don't have an Arya/Gendry Arya/Jaqen, or Arya/Anyone, really, or Sansa/Sandor, Sansa/Tyrion, Sansa/Brother, and then also have the story be interesting.

This story is interesting. Truthfully, I'm not far enough into it to rate it or anything, so far all I know it takes a turn for the worse, but so far, it's pretty good. The only thing that annoys me are the POV changes. Of course, that's a signature of GRRM, but that doesn't mean you have to do it. Like, in this story the author is switching between characters who are all in the same sphere of influence, and it's just not really necessary.

The only other thing is the changing of ages for some characters. That in of itself isn't strange. It's pretty common actually, otherwise you're reading (or writing) about 13 year old Daenerys getting pregnant like in canon. So changing of ages like in the show is a given, but sometimes it messes up other things. As far as I can tell so far, everyone in the story has a +5 year bump, or something along those lines, so while some things would be weird to read about (like Daenerys getting pregnant at 13), now the pendulum swung too far, where you have a 20 year old Robb Stark, heir of Winterfell, who doesn't have any marriage proposals yet.

 

Pretty sure this was discussed here already and didn't get away very well. Myself I can't really get past the first chapter, why doesn't the author even try to put some effort into how Jon comes into Illyrio's/Targaryen service?

edit: https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?p=974389&highlight=9430127#post974389 Previous discussion.

 

It's funny how that fic seemed like such an exercise in shipping and now the TV show went the same way, but somehow managed to put even less effort into making it believable.

 

Having a specific ship you like really feels like walking through a minefield just to get something that's passable. Like, I don't have a favorite ship, but I have a whole bunch I hate. Sometimes it seems like I'm honestly asking too much when I'm trying to avoid Arya/Anyone or Sansa/Sandor or Dany/Jorah. It's a lot harder to dodge that something like Hermione/Snape because there are so many areas in GoT and so many pieces of the puzzle.

 

I mean, do post anything good you've found, even one-shots. I'm not brave enough to wade through the shit myself, but I'll take even short stories of this nature that are readable.

 

Here is an interesting story that is a bit of a change of pace for the fandom

The Black Princess: An SI Story by Barnes is pretty much what it says in the title.

It's a lot closer in spirit to SI stories like Deja Vu and Dreams Series by Electrasev5n and Of the River and the Sea by Aleycat4eva in that the main character is larger than life, somewhat anachronistic and not absolutely grounded in reality while also never becoming too absurd to not take her seriously at all. That said, the story is still very early in, so who knows, if the story can manage that balance all throughout

Premise is that the SI is the eldest (and actual) daughter of Robert and Cersei and what kind of impact she has on that family and the story. Her relationship with Joeffrey is interesting as she actually grew to care for the bugger and is trying to influence him for the better, although we'll see how that'll work out at the end.

What may disturb some people is that the SI is doing things she is learning how to use a hammer in combat and is getting training and showing considerable skill but honestly, I enjoyed it. The excuse that she is Robert's favorite child and quite close with him and that that makes him give her special treatment and no one quite daring to go against the king on that matter is sufficient to me, and I guess it sets things up for the inevitable conflict that will arise when Robert dies and with him the person who is granting her those special privileges that I doubt many others will be willing to still extend to her.

So yeah, first time in a while that I saw something like this in the ASOIAF fandom that is honestly just pure fun and character driven and without any stupid inventing steam engines or some absolutely shit take on politics and ruling where the SI wakes up as Robert or Aerys and is immediately awesome at ruling and can do whatever without consequences. So far the story focused more on the dynamics between the SI and various members of her family and entourage, all of which promise to be interesting and fun to explore.

Only 26k words so far but I really hope the author stick with it. Give it a try.

 

But why would she do that to begin with?

 

Black princess is fun. The Myrcella chapters were interesting perspective, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

She grew up with him, as his older sister. Bound to develop feelings in that span of time.

I vastly prefer the reincarnated into the setting SI as opposed to dumped into the body of an existing character kind for that reason. Explains how they get used to the setting and builds relationships with various characters and thus motivations.

 

This is Joffrey we're talking about. Even putting aside what a cunt he is in general, he's an abomination of incest.

The SI not planning the deaths of Cersei, Jaime, Myrcella, Tommen and Joffrey makes me wonder why she even bothers.

 

Nah, doesn't fit the personality of the character this story is about and further shit like that is one of the reason most SI storys fail. I guess you haven't read the story? Because this OC/SI killing any of her closest family makes zero sense.

So far this is the first SI story I find tolerable, it's a very light read, definitely in the realm of guilty pleasure.

 

Trying to prevent future tragedy and horrors is a reason why SI stories fail?

I have read the story. Given what the SI knows, I have no idea why she ever bothered getting close to any one of them. Cersei is not a good woman. She has had bastard children by Robert killed before, and it's heavily implied she sold their mothers into slavery (at least the ones from Lannisport). Also, there's that thing where she killed her childhood friend and how she's actively committing adultery and treason on the king, along with her brother.

This reminds me of that pointless SI story from SB, where some girl was putting herself in Cersei's shoes and doing absolutely nothing. This one is very much like it. Why even bother writing if you're not actively trying to change things? The only thing different about this story is that Robert has a trueborn daughter and they're close and that's about it. Everything else seems to be heading along the canon path.

I've no interest in reading rehashed stories from a different perspective.

 

Because most people aren't pyschopaths, and typically if you're raised with someone you're going to see the best in them.

Joffrey was a little shit, but he was also once a young boy desperately trying to seek his father's approval. Cersei was cruel and vicious, but she was also a very caring mother that loved her children. I don't think any of them were pure, unrepentant evil; they were all the product of their upbringings.

If you're family, you want to look for the best, even despite the flaws.

For a SI, the best option may well be to try and befriend Joffrey early, and hope that her influence might make Joffrey a better person. After all, how many friends did Joffrey have in canon? A big sister to call Joffrey out on his shitiness could have done wonders for his psyche. That's the best option to improve things by far.
Likewise, with one trueborn child, the evidence of Cersei's incest between then becomes harder to see. Maybe with a child between them, Cersei doesn't need to act the cruel woman she becomes.

Don't get me wrong, I think the story has its flaws. Still, criticising it because the SI doesn't plot to kill her immediate family is fairly unfair.