Le Edit: nvm, works.

 

I feel that a lot of the stories suggested here are kind of cringeworthy, with the authors more interested in writing an emotionally (and masturbatory) self-satisfying self-insert.

There's nothing wrong with letting your characters do awesome things you would yourself like to do - just as there's nothing wrong with a story about romance - just as there's nothing wrong with letting good things happen to the characters.

What I think is anathema and antithetical to good writing, however, is the inability of many authors to emotionally detach themselves from their characters. A sign of this is may be good things and only good things happening to your characters; or no one genuinely likeable opposing them; or for the main character to be utterly self-absorbed and yet portrayed as altruistic and mature.

In short, the story is a self-insert, the character is a mary-sue, and the author is unable to write a good story because a good story requires objectivity when dealing with characterization, realism when deciding on plot direction, and maturity when dealing with themes like love and human relationships.

A lot of ASOIAF fiction make me feel uncomfortable - they read less like genuine stories and more like emotional porn.

 

I think ASOIAF fanfiction is very much where Harry Potter fanfiction was about 10 years ago. It is a fairly new realm due to its new popularity because of the show. The writing is just unpolished, talented writers haven't yet had time to grow or compose stuff in the fandom. Going back and looking at some of the best HP stuff in 03/04/05 was real cringeworthy stuff too.

I think ASOIAF will benefit from more being written in the coming years with TWOW and the show continuing. Least I hope that is the case.

 

A Sick Twist of Fate by MostTulip

MostTulip usually writes some good stories so I'm happy to see a fic that attempts to make Jon king of the North. The story is following some theories like The Great Northern Conspiracy and others about Jeyne Westerling.

My only complaint is that the fic is following the TV show instead of the books, and I wasn't a big fan of Talisa.

Also, just for fun, the author posted this link in the latest chapter that blew my mind. Another GoT conspiracy video

BTW, anyone else noticing an influx of Jon/Sansa fics?

 

Honeypot theory is utter nonsense. People reading more into into it that was there, but that's ASOIAF fandom for you.

 

The fic is rather unremarkable. It's just very plain and so far we had four chapters of travel and some curious geography fuck-ups. The wedding was at the Twins and yet Talisa and Brynden ended at the Inn at the Crossings IIRC - which I thought was more to the south. And now they are some ten miles away from the Bloody Gate. This whole trip is going ass backwards. But then without this 'interesting' detour they wouldn't have met le'gasp! Hound and Arya and at the end of chapter 5 Pod and Brienne.

Between Talisa's ruminations about Jon Stark and Jon Stark and more Jon Stark and her pregnancy, and her dead husband and Jon Stark who was once Jon Snow but is now Jon Stark... and the tedious travel and the Umber man-at-arms accompanying her and Brynden there isn't much fun reading this fic.

As they are going right now they will probably pick up Sansa somewhere on the way and they will be one big, happy pack of wolves and soon-to-be pup with a side-dish of black trout.

I'd have liked it a lot more if we could condense this whole travel into one or two chaptrs but no, the author has to micromanage it...

I'm going to keep an eye on this one because it isn't terrible and maybe just maybe it could become quite good in the future.

 

Actually the thing that bothers me the most is that they say Jon is king, but only until Robb's kid is born, like it's something they can swap around. Still they haven't been called a pack yet and presumably Jon/Sansa won't be happening so i'm following it for now.

 

Yeah, if Jon is ruling only until Robb's kid is old enough to replace him, doesn't that just make him regent, not King? I suppose if Robb's kid is a daughter, he just becomes King full stop right?

Also, - slight spoilers, if you actually care - in one of the latest chapters Talisa mentions she is supposed to marry Jon, which I thought was pretty wtf. Why does she need to marry him? He can be a father to Robb's kid without literally being his stepfather, and I don't see any
succession/will/inheritance reasons why they'd need to get married at all. The whole situation is all a bit confused, really.

I haven't read that much ASoIaF fanfiction, but in a lot of the fics I have read (especially any of the Jon/Sansa) Jon is often a bit of a pussy laying down and taking it from half the nobility of Westeros. I'd like to see a fic where he embraces his (supposed) Targaryen lineage and maybe conquers some shit. I get that isn't exactly in line with canon, but this is fanfic after all.

 

I assume it's supposed to mirror the Brandon/Cat Ned thing, but the situation is vastly different here. Historically the usual practice was to wait until the child was born to make the decision about the succession happened in France I think once or twice. But there was a Persian Shah who was crowned in the womb so it differs depending on the situation I suppose.

But yeah I expected that Jon would be Regent for any child of Robb's seeing as woman can inherit if there are no male issue. Jon and Talisa marrying seems like it would just muddy the issue and be a waste of a marriage. I would have thought Jon would be marrying a Manderly or someone to try and shore up the Stark's position but whatever.

 

If Jon is only ruling until the brat comes of age then he's regent. Lazy writing is lazy writing.

He's no king and marrying Talisa is an asspull to keep her relevant to the story. He could become king without Talisa there to muddy waters. So far it looks like Jon will inherit Robb's stuff and wife and kid which is really ugh.

 

Not the first fic with Jon getting Robb's seconds. But meh. Is there any reason to use Talisa instead of Jeyne? Aside form the whole actually pregnant thing, but that hasn't stopped people before.

Edit: also does anyone know of any stories that have Harry the heir or some other highborn noble son as the main character? Going to tourneys and squiring ect ect. I'd be keen to read something that just covers the average life of a noble rather than the Starks or someone more central to the plot.

 

That "A Sick Twist of Fate" fic is rather... dull.

And the reason for Jon being bound to the fate of marrying Talisa is, presumably, because none of the other Northeners would give a shit about some woman from Volantis trying to be regent of the North by herself. Who's to say that the child in her womb is Robb's? I mean, we obviously would, but the Northeners... also, as someone pointed out, it could be a girl, and thus ultimately irrelevant.

Jon's there to be exploited by his dead brother who gave little to no fucks, long-term, about his half-brother being sent to the Wall to freeze his balls off. Because he didn't want no trouble with the Trout herself.

 

Is there any good fics where Jon gets paired up and don't get Robbs sloppy seconds?
I have already read most of the popular ASOIAF Stories.

 

Related: any decent stories where Ygritte survives?

 

I would like to see a story where Jon actually stays with the Wildlings due to Ygritte. For such a hard choice to make I'm surprised I haven't seen a fic of it going the other way.

 

I prefer Talisa over Jeyne simply because I enjoyed the actress's performance, but yeah, the Westerling angle made so much more sense than the TV version.

 

So, I gotta thank you for reccing this, it's not the best "Jon goes to not the wall story" but it is very enjoyable, at leas to me.

I personally enjoyed the reveal with Brynden being in love with Barristan back in his youth, but giving that up because of family.

 

Yeah, I feel like A Knight's Watch has gotten a fair bit better as things have progressed. Plus it updates pretty rapidly with long updates, which is a huge positive.

The beginning might be a bit weak, with Jon effectively being sidelined so that a lot of the canon plot could progress, but now that he and Sansa are changing things it's becoming a lot more interesting.

 

You mind giving a cliff notes version of the later chapters so I can see if it's worth picking up again?

New Open Way chapter as well, makes me curious about what Theon will be like here, without the hostage situation from canon. Anyway the story's jumped seven years foward so I guess we'll start seeing more of the younger characters and not just the inner musings of Whent.

 

My favorite chapters for Open Way are probably Oswell's, and there hasn't been any in quite a while.