That is one of the best AU rebellion fics I have ever read. Hell, one of the best ASOIAF fanfics. Love the twist with Brandon's and Ned's marriages, love how he named his daughter Lemore, and absolutely love the friendship between Brandon and Stannis. I wish there were more fics of this quality. Fantastic, all in all.

Kings, at the end of the day, are just men, like any other. Put a sword through him and he dies. Why obey a king when he's obviously mad as a hatter, when he might suddenly start thinking you and your family might do well as kindling?

 

Then what? Flee the country and spend the rest of your life dodging assassins? Your plan to disobey or kill the king only works if everyone or at least the majority agrees with it. Otherwise you end up getting burned to death as well. The people of the court and Kingsguard probably recognize that and I don't consider cowardice or self preservation crimes that should be punished with death.

 

Black Storms...that was beautiful. The ultimate bromance story.

 

Black Storms was awesome and very much deserving of being in the library.

 

http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-dragon-of-the-north-archive.3519/

The archive thread for my RPG. Updated up to 110+ posts, with certain canon characters gone the way of the dodo by now.

 

Let's not forget the whole honour thing. Even Ned views Jaime negatively for betraying his oaths, even if it meant the man who committed those atrocities against his father and brother died. In comparison, Selmy is lauded for serving his King until the end.

I don't think it's self preservation that drives the kingsguard to follow orders, but a misplaced sense of honour. This is a world where oaths and fealty trump general morality.

 

Well that and their main order is to serve the king. Plus the one's who were there (Hightower and co) were the ones who were big o the serving and no judging.

 

A Lion's Duty updated. The author is planning on ending it within a chapter or two, though s/he does plan on a rewrite.

 

I feel so trolled, I opened up A Lion's Duty to find it in chapter 26 and was thoroughly spoiled.

 

A Lion's Duty is a fairly decent fix so far (I'm only at chapter 12 at the moment), but

Spoiler

the pure idiocy of Rhaenys and Jamie's kids and just their attitudes in general at the tourney really irked me.

Other than that the is a good way to pass the time, certainly not library worthy though. Some of the characterizations are a bit off at times and I have mostly been skimming, so I can't say much for the spelling and grammar other than that I have not noticed many glaring issues.

Oh yeah, and if anybody wants a link to the first chapter to avoid any possible spoilers here it is.

Edit to avoid a double post: His Mother's Son by MsLane19, a fairly good AU in which Jon is raised at Starfall as Ashara's bastard, is being taken down in a week. The last time I read it was a couple of years ago so I'm not sure how well it will hold up nowadays, but I seem to recall it being halfway decent despite being pretty fluffy and worth a read.

 

Got up to date in Ties of Blood and Fire. Absolutely loved it.

It's the first ASOIAF fic I've read set after the "story" finishes. The personalities, the relationships and the history of what went on in the conclusion to the war is really interesting, and different to where most finished fics end up at. I find myself intrigued every time someone mentions a detail about the war and about the role each character ended up playing.

Really like Sansa's POV too. She's written as someone capable, cynical and yet, maintains enough of herself that she doesn't become the ruthless, scheming Cersei many people write her as becoming.

Looking forward to Jon's POV. The real conflict has just started, so we'll see how it goes from here. He's certainly viewed with awe by everyone - let's see just how badass he's become.

So far it has avoided any hard to read grittiness that you see in most decent ASOIAF fics - but then, it is also set during a time of peace, so doesn't feel out of place.

It's a fresh change from the typical ASOIAF fanfics I've read, which are either overly cheesy, or very dark and gritty; usually being an AU that covers similar events with some changes having been made.

 

A Better Fate updated, as did The Open Way.

The former is getting... well, it's not tedious to read, more like it's become slow paced, and it doesn't help that updates seem to come once a month or so.

 

Yeah, A Better Fate's author seems to have lost steam on the story.

 

Yeah, I just wish something interesting would happen in A Better Fate some time soon. A battle, a reunion, whatever, at this point I'll take it. It started off really well only to stall out.

 

It feels like Jon gets snubbed everytime he opens his mouth in A Better Fate.

Spoiler

I mean, jesus: the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch is ahead of him in the line of succession. Sansa still seems to have that holier-than-thou air towards Jon. He has a fucking dragon at his beck and call, and looks exactly like Ned Stark; but no, the northmen would of course still follow the man that betrayed their king.

 

My thoughts EXACTLY.

 

I told exactly this to the author for the last three updates in my reviews... That Jon can't be treated as some bastard with passable sword skills but as a man who commands a freaking dragon, a great force multiplier. The replies I got were noncommittal, polite, of course, but ultimately I got the feeling he's aiming for some friction between Jon and the others, or least I hope so because if Jon gets relegated to some secondary role...

It started great and then slowed down, a lot.

 

Those of you who like the history, as I obviously do, and who have read The Rogue Prince and The Princess and the Queen (and tbh what the hell are you doing reading fanfic if you haven't read everything canon), Sera dy Relandrant has a series of oneshots related to that time period.

 

Reading Joffrey's chapter in A Lion's Duty has me wanting to read a story where he isn't a shithead (or Tommen is the heir). I really wanna see how either deal with the opposition aiming for the crown due to the incest, but being unable to back down due to (mainly) Lannister influence. Anyone stumble upon some?

 

Hash, I've gotten up-to-date on A Dragon of the North, and I loved it. But I have to ask: are the people in the thread always like that?

Spoiler

How is it that they're fine and dandy with Jon's two master-at-arms being murderers/kidnappers/rapists/aided rapists, but act as if they're the height of moral integrity when it comes to Yohn?