This. I'm pretty sure they've all escaped to Lannisport.

 

Stannis is aware that there's a game, if he wasn't he would have just stayed in King's Landing and told Robert instead of leaving. By the time we see him there's little reason for him to be anything but obstinate because his cause is hopeless but during the events of the fic I can see him acting smarter.

 

This fic, most of the characters were ooc in it. It was very irritating at start, especially with Arya. But as it moved forward, I somehow stopped caring about this fact. It didn't matter to me, and for that reason some of the scenes later on felt very powerful to me. For instance, Stannis interacting with his wife later on. Of course it maybe not look possible from book's perspective but if you actually consider the characters, as given in the fic, it was good to me. The relation shown between Stannis and Robert was also done very good, imo. Especially, that back story of throne room.

There were faults in the fic. Character being ooc was obviously the first. But also, the fic felt too centered around Stannis-Ned-Robert. I mean yes, it was given from Stannis' pov, but it could have worked more with something extra.

All in all, I think this is one of the best ASOIAF fics I have read till now. A solid, 4/5 from me.

 

Shit. Whoops, got it confused with another fic I read around the same time. It had them all flee King's Landing and wind up dead pretty much immediately. So nevermind on that point.

 

I was pretty sure that In Good Company featured the deaths of the kids. They were killed by Tywin's own men accidentally on their way to Lannisport. >_>

 

Nope, I went back and checked. That was from this fic.

EDIT: Changed it to the correct link.

 

er..wut? :facepalm

It was this, iirc : https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?p=613629#post613629

 

http://archiveofourown.org/works/570829/chapters/1062813

Love and Honor

I'm pretty sure it was recommended somewhere recently, but I can't find it at the moment. This fic is an AU where Ned and Catelyn live. What makes it unique is that both Catelyn and Ned are removed from "the game" until the beginning of the fourth book, meaning that everything is pretty much canon until the fourth book.

Which means... The Stark family is almost completely destroyed and Ned and Catelyn are left to deal with the consequences. I forgot how much I love Ned and bad-ass Catelyn.

4/5 for now, but less then halfway through.

 

Dafuq? I copied the damn link address, how the hell did it redirect to that? Anyway, yeah, that was the one I was trying to link. Thanks.

 

I was convinced you were trolling.

 

I posted it in the "Other Fandoms: Almost recommendable" thread. It's a good read if you can stand a lot of angst.

 

I hesitate to ask, as I don't particularly feel like being vilified, but has anyone else felt that Ned Stark Lives Part 2 seems rushed, or off? It just doesn't seem up to the same standard as the first.

I haven't read any of the first one since it was finished, but the first two chapters of Part 2 just seem different from what I recall...

 

I'll comment on that here instead of Other Fandoms Recommendable.

It was a pretty enjoyable read (enough to keep me up until 4am and have me only have 3.5 hours sleep). Lots of angst all over the place which got a bit old. And I have zero interest in reading about all the Catelyn/Ned romance (and once they unite, there's a lot).

It's just interesting to see how Ned learns of and deals with events that occur after he dies in the book.

Spoiler

And it's pretty full on at the start on Catelyn's side. Gang raped by Freys - the fic doesn't really pull any punches. In scenes like that, you always expect something to happen before it gets to that point - or for it to be implied but not explicitly written.

Dunno why you'd be worried about being vilified. There's a reason why Ned Stark Lives isn't in the library, and just in Almost Recommendable.

I also got the same feeling though. Dunno whether it's just the scenes we're being presented with, or whether its actually worse than the first one, but quality isn't quite feeling there at the moment.

Still interesting as a guilty pleasure, but I'm still very annoyed that Ned is basically stealing all of Jon's thunder.

Spoiler

He's even going to be the one to cut a deal with Mance, instead of Jon!

 

I agree with this, though Jon just hands over command to Stynt like it's no biggie and finds himself in an ice cell. But yeah, I can see the conversation now.

"I've heard you're an honorable man, Lord Stark."

"Aye, that he is."

"Aye, that's Ned for ya."

"Aye."

"...Aye."

 

To be the devil's advocate, Jon wasn't really doing anything different from canon until Ned showed up; he was right on schedule to exit ice cell and enter suicidal reunion with Mance Rayder before Eddard stopped it, and as much as it was basically Jon's coolest moment I can't really blame Ned for preventing his nephew being marched off to apparent death.

Also, we're not quite sure what the hell would've even happened to Jon in this timeline had he ended up going out to parley. Sure, things looked to be going surprisingly ok before Stannis charged in at the end of Book 3, but Stannis is most definitely not going to show up at the wall now. Probably Jon holds the thing together and pulls it out, maybe he doesn't, but it isn't the gimee slam dunk we all have hazy memories of.

Personally, I'd have rather Ned been delayed longer and Jon left to broker a truce with Mance sans-Stannis, but Ned Stark Lives Part 1 was high enough in quality that I'll trust the author is eventually going to put things right and give Jon a chance to be cool.

Also, seriously, fuck Alliser Thorne. All is forgiven if Jon Snow gets to deal with that shitbag.

 

I like how you threw the 'nephew' in there. I haven't read part 1 in a while so I don't exactly remember if Jon's lineage was actually touched upon in there.

 

Speaking of Jon's lineage, I've become attached to a twist on the R + L = J theory, where while Jon is their child, he was born of rape and Rhaegar really did kidnap her and do all sorts of horrible things to her. Because that's the kind of messed up reveal I'd imagine Martin doing to fans of the theory in the end.

"You wanted Jon Targareyen? Here you go!"

 

It's up in the air for me. Everyone in the canon story is all, "Rhaegar was so honorable, so handsome, so noble, so zomg!" but then I think to myself, "Why would an honorable man have a child with another woman?"

I do believe they're Jon's parents and I don't think he was a rapist or a terrible person and I dearly hope Martin doesn't pull a love-at-first-sight and call it a day, cause that just isn't his style. That said, I really can't see how he's going to finally piece them together. Maybe he'll just confirm his parentage and leave it at that, leaving the rest up for us to figure out from the shitload of different POV character opinions out there.

Or maybe Lyanna was actually an evil wood nymph fairy thing that ensnared both Robert and Rhaegar!

 

I've been thinking of the whole theory and Aegon has the Targaryen looks despite his mother being Dornish while Jon looks nothing like a Targaryen.

After all the emphasis Martin put on "The seed being strong" you'd think he'd make it consistent.

 

Well Starks are obviously more badass than those incestuous Targaryens so Lyanna's kid would look like a Stark. And I also think it has something to do with like Elia being sickly too, wasn't she? That could be like a hidden clue, like the only reason the kids looked Targaryen was because she was frail and stuff.