Title: Scream Against the Storm
Author: Perfidious_Albion
Length: 92,406 words, 21/? chapters
Status: WiP
Updated: 12/05/19
Linker: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18771316
Summary:
"When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly. When I awoke, I couldn't... or so the maester said. But what if he lied?"
-- Euron Greyjoy, A Feast for Crows

A three-eyed crow appears in your dreams. It tells you wild tales of a great icy threat from the far north, and promises you some strange power--to be a 'greenseer'--to thwart them. You must. "Fly or die". Because winter is coming.

In our world, that crow flew to Bran Stark and, perhaps, to Euron Greyjoy. What if it flew to someone else?

"Sacrifice... is never easy. Or it is no true sacrifice."

The story of Stannis Crow's Eye begins.

---​

@Halt suggested I read this a while back, and I'm very glad I took him up on the suggestion. This is the best depiction of magic in ASOIAF, hands down. It goes full blood-maegi Stannis. Influenced by the Three Eyed Raven, he learns how to see through the eyes of beasts and conjure wilder magic still. But this isn't Harry Potter. Magic is a sword without a hilt, and that axiom follows through in a beautiful way.

Stannis makes hard, pragmatic, choices. There are sacrifices in this fic, and they have weight behind them. It's something I've never seen handled so deftly in ASOIAF fanfiction where so many authors stint on the magic because they can't handle writing it properly.

It's a little different from the character-driven politics of most fics in this fandom, so don't go in expecting schemes and intrigues. This is a bit different, but worth a look.

I was especially impressed by the mistakes that Stannis makes. Although he's perhaps the most magically powerful man in the setting, he still fucks up. Hard. I won't go into too much detail for the sake of spoilers, but he manages to screw himself in the most delightful way, thinking all the time that he's setting himself up for success.

4.5/5, rounded up.

 

I enjoyed the hell out of it. There are parts which drag but for the most part it's very much worth a read

4.5/5

 

I really wanted to like this story, because the author wrote a wonderful ASOIAF fic, and it's a fun premise.

But...while I expected Stannis to a formidable protagonist, he comes close to being unstoppable.


I don't want to spoil stuff, but I'll just say that I was very disappointed with how the author handled the Faceless Men arc.

Stopped reading around then.

3/5 because the writing is excellent but the plot is tiresome to me-- Stannis stomping, some obstacle occurs, more of Stannis winning.

 

100% right. Best magic portrayal and great writing and plot. New chapter just came out and stuff is getting really exciting.

Best Euron I've come across too. And trust me, just because the faceless men were not difficult to defeat doesn't mean Stannis is the top dog.
5/5 for me

 

An excellent story about Stannis who diverges from his OTL path in away that I hadn't seen before in ASOIAF fanfics.

I especially like how the author does not go out of his way to pretend that Stannis is in any way a good character, instead preferring to show us why he made those choices, it is also clearly shown that those choices have consequences.

Stannis does feel a bit overpowered at times but throughout the story it is shown that a tactical win is not the same as a strategic win. He manages to win quite a few times yet it was always at a cost.

I did have some problems with the start of the story because the choices Stannis made did not feel like him to me but I suppose that comes with it being one of the POD's which gets the story going.

5/5

 

It’s definitely technically well-written. The writer had a great idea and took it to places most writers would be too uncreative or lazy to even think about. While Stannis is overpowered, using more types of magic with greater results than pretty much everything in ASOIAF, his mistakes are clear and well-founded. He’s written well.

I don’t like this story.

Stannis being an asshole and evil isn’t a problem, but this story paints him as an idiot. Magic has made him so arrogant and self-righteous, he has little self-awareness or intelligence. I think he’s supposed to be written as smart in this story, but I never got that from him. Without his magic, he’d be nowhere and would go the way of Viserys in canon. He feels vaguely like canon Stannis, but I feel like this story does him a bit of a disserve. Magic is cool, yes, but Stannis has no goals of his own other than short-term rage-induced attacks on whoever or whatever insulted his sensibilities. He’s boring.

Also, the first chapter with Ned was dumb. I know this writer has a habit of adapting canon chapters than changing things, but the new content was so out of character for Ned. I don’t really consider it a spoiler, but I’ll tag it anyways.

Spoiler

Ned would never support this Stannis.

a) Stannis is not Robert’s true heir. Stannis was banished, he lost right to everything. It’s like Jorah. While Jorah escaped his death sentence, he’s in the same position as Stannis: he’s not heir to anything and if he comes back that will be his head.

b) Stannis murdered a child. Exhibit A: Ned’s huge child murder trigger. That is the one thing Ned hates the most. Ned and Robert are friends. Calling Stannis’s murder just ‘rumors’ has no basis in reality and is an insult to Robert. Sure, maybe the magic thing makes Ned doubt, but Robert also has Stannis’s old maester to back him up. The very fact that Stannis could have killed a child should make Ned very wary about Stannis.

Also, Ned’s reaction to the Targaryen dynasty seemed so weird. He sounded so bitter, resentful, and hateful. While his father and brother died, Ned isn’t a hateful character. He never showed hatred to Rheagar in his thoughts, and since Viserys died so early in this canon’s timeline, the only Targaryen left is Dany, who’s a child and a girl. Also, there’s Jon.

Sidenote while I’m in the spoiler tag, I admire how the writer casually backhanded Davos out of the story. Very smooth, 8/10.

This story sets out what it wants to do, and it’s disappointing to me that I’m not interested in the way it has played out.

3.5/5.

 

I actually really liked this about the story. It felt as if this was how his character might have turned out if it was warped by the easy access (and corresponding amoral cost) of using magic as a solution - especially given how it altered the siege of Storm's End, which is one of the most pivotal moments of his character growth in canon and this story alike.

Your point is a reasonable view of what's happened, but I felt like that was just one step in his journey, and we're beginning to reach a turning point at which this attitude will shift more towards his canon self as he grows out of the bad habits magic has ingrained in him.

That's just optimistic speculation from me, though, I must admit.

 

This has updated, tons of Volantis wank but I liked it so eh. I really wish that the story would’ve been all the misadventures of Stannis and crew we keep hearing about in the past tense. It just seems odd that we went from the forming of the company to like 8 years later in the span of some interludes. Still enjoy this story more than any other asoiaf fic rn but that’s probably my love of the edge of the map coming out here. Solid 4/5 from me