Title: A Soldier Adrift: Captain Westeros
Author: @TheWiseTomato
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Status: In-Progress
Length: 203,407 words
Library Category: Crossovers - ASOIAF
Summary: The Infinity Stones are not to be wielded lightly, as Steve Rogers discovers when he washes up on the shores of Westeros. In a world of swords and spears, what difference can one shield make?
Links:
WBA
FFNet
AO3
SB
Fiction.Live
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Aight so full disclosure, this is the story form of a quest. I'm not a fan of quests in general and don't think it's a format which usually lends itself to good storytelling, but the tomato has done a fantastic job here. Although it's driven by reader votes in places, both for protagonist decisions and some important elements of the meta-narrative, this has been deftly guided and used to direct the story, rather than gamify it with dicerolls and stats.

After getting bopped on the head by a falling piece of space debris called Thanos, Steve washes up in Westeros. It's a quick and dirty handwave of a transition into the secondary world, and I couldn't be happier about that. Crossovers often fail with excessive prologues setting up the protagonist's transportation, but that's not what anyone is reading for. This skips straight into the crossover setting, and is all the stronger for it.

At 200k words it feels like things are just beginning to be established. Yes, that's rather a lot, but it's a really solid foundation. Steve has got his bearings and familiarised himself with the world and customs, made some friends and built an entourage, and is beginning to make a name for himself. At the current point in the story it feels like we're on the edge of a precipice where shit's about to go down.

This is usually where good fics are abandoned. but Wise has had a regular and diligent schedule of updates recently, helped by the weekly schedule of going live with the underlying quest (every Thursday?) on fiction.live, so I have a lot of confidence that this will continue onwards. The start was a little shaky as Wise found his feet and Steve did the same in Westeros, hampered by the votes which are left in the body of the text. I admit I found this very jarring at first, but after the first chapter the frequency of these lessened a great deal, and my immersion in the story was sufficient that I skimmed over the bolded votes without thinking about it. Definitely persevere and push through. Once Steve is out in the world doing things, the narrative begins to flow.

I'm very fond of the way that it doesn't feel like Steve is a Mary Sue swooping in to suddenly become the most important person in the world. Yes, he's an incredibly powerful warrior, and yes, his moral sensibilities make him an angel amongst men in the cesspit of Westeros. But that's what we all wanted to see, isn't it? This isn't some lazy OP character; we see the world react to Steve in a way I felt strode the balance between realistic and fun to read. They were impressed by his feats of arms, thought his personal niceties were just kinda weird and would get him in trouble rather than fawning over him for a pat on the head, and although Steve is noticed by important people in high circles, he's not suddenly upheaving the political landscape. The locals are just beginning to take an interest.

This is best-in-fandom for MCU/ASOIAF crossovers, though admittedly that's probably a shallow pool full of radioactive waste. Once the story's done a hard edit to trim the vestiges of the quest (mostly to tighten up the pacing here and there) would definitely bring this up to 5/5 standards. For now I'm more eager to see more content come out, though. I was up until 3am last night playing video games, then I stayed up hours longer reading this until the sun came up. Oops.

4.5/5

 

English isn't the common speech so he has to learn the local language. But then often uses english idioms which others remark on which really annoys me. Also the singing. Overall the biggest issue is pacing and general lack of plot. It's an okay time waster.

 

Ive been following this story avidly for a long time, and I would rank it in my top 5 for asoiaf fanfics. If quests arent your thing, I think its pretty easy to ignore- I dont think i’ve ever been awake for a live lol so I always skim past the choices anyway.

Steve is great in this story. He just exudes a quiet strength that you can see makes everyone better around him. All of the canon characters are fun, and I like Steves interactions with them, but its Tomato’s OCs that really shine.

They feel fully realized. They have secrets, they have their own lives. Some of the most fun I’ve had reading this quest wasn’t Steve interacting with this or that canon character (though thats always great too)- it was trying to figure out what the sellsword knight’s secret was, or to read between the lines and see all the small going ons that Steve is oblivious to but we as readers aren’t.

Naerys in particular might be one of my favorite characters i’ve read in a fanfic. Her realizing that this fucking greek god that washes on her shore is a fundamentally decent person who isn’t just trying to get into her pants and really believes the stuff he says has been awesome. She’s grown as a character because Steve helped empower her, the same way Steve has helped empower so many of the characters in his retinue.


This story has gotten better and better as time goes on, and it really feels like Tomato has taken the jump from being a good writer to being a superb one. I can’t recommend this story enough.

5/5



Also @TheWiseTomato

Spoiler

I’ve been waiting 200k for Naerys to make her move. Really hopeful something happens before we get to 400k, but you seem to be an even bigger tease than Naerys was at the wedding.

 

If you haven’t been keeping up with this, now is a great time to jump in.

At long last we’re at the very beginning of Robert’s Rebellion (or whatever it’ll end up being called in Universe). Steve is right in the thick of it. It’s really starting to heat up.

Can’t recommend it enough. I’d say this is one of the best Asoiaf stories out there, and Tomato updates frequently.

 

This is a fun fic, I normally don't read ASOIAF fics. Steve bein' Steve and being a wandering lord is great fun.

5/5

 

I usually read only HP/ASOIAF crossovers (mostly because I haven't sunk my teeth into the ASOIAF yet), but the way Wise Tomato painted Captain America makes him a great protagonist. There's a sense of being split between "making a life here" vs "really want to go home", that more of other fanfic authors should take note of. No angst about it, but being his best self while keeping his ears and eyes open for a way home, or just finding out wtf happened.

I love this.

Spoiler

For whatever reason, I'm really hoping that if/when the romance comes, it won't be Naerys, but Keladry.

It probably won't though

5/5

Edit: I also like that the FF.net version doesn't have the quest/decision making blocks paragpraphs present, so it's more readable, and wish ao3 version wouldn't either, purely for the "no fuckery needed" epub export.

 

Just picked up the last two chapters.

It isn't from the latest chapter but

Spoiler: I lol'ed.

"Politics," Rickard mused. "Some call it a necessary evil."

"I've seen worse," Steve said, eyes taking on a thousand yard stare as he remembered budgetary meetings and leave rosters.

 

It is a good story and I think largely true to the idea behind the source material, at least on the captain America front, but that sadly is of little help when I don't like Captain America and what he stands for/his views. Like the idealistic view of the US and the naive belief of what it stands for is very much in character but to me they just make it very hard to associate with him or find him all that sympathetic.

And for my tastes his friends/retinue are also a bit too special with a few to many unique skills and hidden pasts for a group of random people he ran into in the wildness.


Also, and I fully admit this is very nitpicky and that tomato often follows the book portrayal and so is not really the cause for the issues, statements like the portrayal of warhammers as those massive two handed weapons wielded only rarely by knights which are both not really the case and of course the general overfocus in fiction on the sword as the (battlefield) weapon of knights when in reality it is one of the worst options against people in plate armour always take me out of the story as I have to force myself to ignore the inconsistencies.

Stuff like fact that the tourney seems to be a very short event with most preparation seemingly done within a few days instead of the weeks if not months of preparation, construction etc. an event of such size would realistically take considering that knights from all over the seven kingdoms attend, the size of the prices and even things like how the horses used for normal everyday riding and trips are the same ones used in battle, joust etc. when in reality you would normally largely avoid riding you destrier outside of those settings or training just tend to bug me everytime they come up even if I know that it does not really matter and most people do not care or would find it strange if it were otherwise.

 

This story continues to be a delight. The first major battle of the Rebellion took place, and Steve was right in the thick of it. If you ever wondered how much damage a supersoldier could do on a medieval battlefield- wonder no longer.

Spoiler

Steve is a killing machine, and probably has a body count in the hundreds from this battle. Do not fuck with the man with the star banner

.

All of the side characters continue to be great, and I love how great Naerys/Steve are together.