I admit, my biggest piece of criticism is that the ending should have been fleshed out way more, or at all, really. as I said with an arc or two in between them. The ending is not an unrealistic one for the set-up, however, since we never got to see how they achieved it and smoothed the problems over, it does diminish the credibility there. Especially since they themselves addressed the very problem at some point.

Thinking about it, probably should drop the rating for that a bit more, 3.5 is more accurate. That said, disagree with the rest of what you said.

You are a fast reader.


Another story I liked is this

Title: The Victors
Author: Ramzes
Rating: K+
Genre: Drama
Status: WIP/Abandoned
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
Summary: Rhaegar came back victorious from the Trident and mounted the Iron Throne with Lyanna Stark at his side. But things turn out quite differently than what he envisioned when he sang her sweet songs of love, promise, and prophecies. My first attempt at AU in ASOIAF fandom. Rhaegar and Lyanna fans, beware!
Words: 32,811
Link: fanfiction.net

Basically, the rebellion ended six years ago, Robert died, Robb is a ward and hostage of Rhaegar, Aerys is dead, Rhaegar is ruling with Lyanna as queen since Elia and her children died at the same time as Aerys and the situation in King's Landing isn't particularly calm. Jon is the heir but not really an entity since he is six or so.

Everyone is resenting Rhaegar, from his mother to his new wife to most factions. There is even strain with his kingsguard as Arthur Dayne is struggling more and more with his divided loyalties between his king and his family and countrymen.

People resent both Lyanna and Rhaegar, the Dornish are unhappy and willing to show their dissatisfaction and are clashing with both the Crown and the Reach. The Greyjoys are rebelling and the North and the Riverlands are not particularly motivated to do much about it, as both still deeply resent the current situation.

The summary, especially the last sentence, makes the story appear more juvenile than it is, as the reason as to why most characters in the story are unsatisfied with Lyanna and Rhaegar are reasonable and well fleshed out. The story follows various members at court in King's Landing and they lives dealing with this situation. Rhaegar, Lyanna, Rhaella, Jon Arryn and various Dornish characters get POVs to show the various factions who are scheming and struggling with their own plans, desires and grievances.

There are a few OCs for the Dornish faction, but they all feel fitting and I quite enjoy the exploration of Dornish culture and their mindset. Really, Arthur's story is quite interesting and made him likeable to me for the first time in a long while.

The writing is solid and the atmosphere is excellent. The whole situation is fiercely interesting. One big downside is that the story is relatively short and seemingly abandoned since there hasn't been an update for years and it ends at quite a vexing cliffhanger. A quick glance on the author's page shows that they are still active though, and even are still writing in the ASOIAF fandom, so heres to hoping they'll update this at some point.

 

Right, putting aside the drivel you recommended from the last page, where's Ned in this whole mess?

 

I misread this and got a whole different picture of how Rhaegar claimed the Iron Throne.

 

Well, it's Rhaegar. He would violate a spiky, inanimate object if a prophecy told him to.

 

Presumably beaten down in the North seething.

Ramzes is a good writer technically, but I hate the whole Dornish deification thing they do.

 

More like every POV is Dornish. It also makes things easier to write like-able characters as narrators. The scheming and planning is also not shown in the chapters so that also gives a shine to the characters.
The plot of every fic shows little progress.It is mostly about the thoughts and every little interaction between characters so it gets tedious after a few chapters.

 

I misread it and thought we were all reading a (subjectively) terrible erotica.

 

Does anyone remember the fic about Jaime killing Aerys just in time to save Rhaenys Targaryen, but Elia still died along with Aegon?

I remember Jaime was her sworn sword, and that Stannis was in the middle of investigating the Wildfire that was surrounding King's Landing, because Jaime didn't explain how the Pyromancers were killed.

All I remember after that is Oberyn commenting on how Rhaenys looks like Rhaegar when she frowns, and Cat looks at Jon frowning and looks like Rhaenys, and figures out that Jon is Rhaegar's son by Eddard confirming it to her on accident.

Anyone know the name of the fic?

 

I imagine Catholics would have a lot to frown at in Westeros.

 

....Shut up.

>.>

 

Pretty sure that's Disengagement.

 

Last chapter of Dragonstone is up.

 

With Trump doing so well in the news my "Death to tyrants!" sense is flaring up. And what better setting for that then Westeros, where even the "good" guys are in a need of a guillotine.

So are there any halfway decent fic's that center around smallfolk? Preferably with a focus on killing some lords.

Or even a self insert where someone is trying to bring in some form of democracy. Something along the lines of "The Difference One Man Can", but with less Harry Potter and licking of the Stark/Dornish collective arseholes.

 

KGB

On its face, feudalism looks like a bad system of government. Most people will be peasants or serfs or small farmers. Right? Right. And most of them won't be formally trained in arms to a decent enough level to resist their lord's depredations if he so chooses to be a cunt. That's a bad lord. Plundering his own people, raping their women, burning their villages. A definitely bad dude.

If you go deeper, however.... The world, from say, 476 AD to oh, let's call it 1700 wasn't a very nice place. (It wasn't after 1700, either.) The people the next village over might not be the same kind of Angevin or Poitevin or Orleanais as you. They might be filthy Cornish and good Sussex men don't trust the Cornish with anything, let alone Northumbrians. They're barely Englishmen at all, by God.

So you had a lot regional dislikes. And sometimes, there would be war. Back then, the way to conduct war was sieges. You take a dude's castle, you take his hold over the area. He can't collect his incomes, sally forth and fuck with your supply lines, have a secure base with which to protect his people from, any of the things associated with feudal tenure or vassalage. There weren't a whole lot of pitched battles out in a field. They ring down through history to us precisely because of how odd they were, for the time. Crecy. Poiters. Agincourt.

So how does this translate to A Song of Ice and Fire? A lord's number one job is to do his best to keep his people from being killed or having their livelihoods stolen from them by another lord's raiders. That means fortifying strategic points like the Neck and Moat Cailin, places that HAVE to be taken before you can march into a softer area. Or, like the Ironborn, just sail the fuck around. Lords got where they were by being quick with their wits and quicker with a sword, because at the end of the day feudalism (in a Song of Ice and Fire) is about military obligations from king to vassal.

The Starks, from an objective standpoint, are good lords. They dispense justice, they do it fairly evenhandedly, and their strategy for the past couple of wars have been "Better there than here." The Starks ruled so well and inspired such loyalty that even when their House is in ruins, Winterfell captured and a smoldering wreck, when Bolton domination seems supreme, we're given this nugget by a Mountain clansman.

"Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned's little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue."

What inspires that other than decent rule over generations?

Tywin is a good lord, as well. He did his best to keep the wars out of his Westerlands, and he did his best to end them as fast as possible. He ended the Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion brutally, but he ended it swiftly, with a message to all his bannermen: "I am the lord. I dispense justice. I dispense it harshly but fairly. Obey my commands."

Sorry this turned so long, hahaha, but when you're discussing such things as feudalism, even the simplified bastard version of it George RR Martin uses, you can't just look at military actions from a modern standpoint and go, "well, that's bad, he needs a guillotine." That's doing the story, history, and yourself a disservice.

 

Truthfully I don't care. I don't really want to debate the pros and cons of landed nobility, or how the ideas of a continent spanning empires and feudal society are mutually exclusive.

It just goes to ruin the story.

What I want is a story where and angry mob of peasants manage to overun the palace guard and hang every Frey or Lannister, or Bartharion, Stark, or [insert a westerosi noble house here] from the palisades. There needs not be more though behind it as "Look at how those fatcats eat/live while we wallow in poverty", because that is all that would be needed.

 

So in other words, you want a shitty fic, fully of equally shitty wish fulfillment, that is in no way good, thoughtful, meaningful, or of any real worthwhile quality whatsoever?

 

Every idea can be turned into something worthwhile. But if you mean in the grand scheme of ASOIAF dragon, ice demon and prophecy mythology than perhaps not. I'll take the wish fulfillment, but through asking here I hope to get one that is at least grammatically sound and has some thought put into it.

 

On a related note, are there any stories where Joffrey is killed by the mob during the riot in King's Landing before the battle with Stannis?

 

Yeah, this one: Wolf Pact. Haven't read it, but I've seen it a few times while browsing, so can't tell you if it's good.

 

Speaking of canon divergences, are there any fics out there where Jon stayed with Ygrite and followed Mance Rayder? I just finished rewatching seasons 1-3 and was reminded about just how much I loved those two.