Title: To Go Forward
Author: togo
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Peggy Sue
Status: In-Progress
Fandom: AOIAF/Game of Thrones
Pairings: Probably Jon/Daenerys
Summary:
Jon Snow wakes up in Winterfell, two years in the past. He struggles with his knowledge of the upcoming wars, the mystery of his mother's forgotten letters, and the prophecy of the Prince That Was Promised. How much time does he have until the Others invade Westeros?

Link (ao3): https://archiveofourown.org/works/4424084

Was recommended to post this here by two people. This is a Peggy Sue Jon Snow fic, most likely the best in that category imo. It opens with Jon's death at the end of ADWD and he is reborn during the first few chapters of GoT.

The Jon here is sort of a mix of show and cannon. Such that, he has a lot of his book characteristics (more analytical, leading, outgoing?) but is sort of a little like his show character as he's a little emo and lost. But for once I think this is fair, the author gives a fairly good detail of his PTSD and sense of betrayal post his death. Most Peggy Sue fics have him wake up and war against half the world or get right into action. No, here he's very much vulnerable in the first few chapters and has very realistic reactions to his situation. So the characterization I would say is spot on, the author develops a style of POV for Jon very early on and sticks to it well throughout. The Jon here is more desperate, but he is a somewhat fully realized character so he channels this desperation well into the right avenues.

In terms of prose, it's pretty good and satisfactory, it isn't where the fic shines but the prose is extremely immersive and well written. The entire fic is written through Jon's POV, and like mentioned before the author's style for this is very good and quite immersive and addictive.

The fic really shines in terms of originality, creativity and story building. Right from the first arc the author takes some common ideas (Jon going to KL) and has a lot of original and innovative takes on it. The story, despite continuing this trend of following common what if's

Spoiler

such as Jon visiting Daenerys in Essos

consistently outdoes other fics despite the similar setting. Jon isn't going around these places speaking to every possible character and going on every possible adventure, as is similar with some such fics. No, he remains in character but still meets some very interesting people despite that.

Another thing I really like about this fic is the ripple effects from his time travel. I hate time travel fics where Jon wakes up in Winterfell and then proceeds to dethrone Robert kill Joffrey and marry Sansa all in a week. Without going into spoilers, here, his changes make SO much sense, are extremely logical and have extremely logical ripple effects. Essentially, you don't have to resort to butterfly effect theories to justify scenarios.

Few miscellaneous points - pretty much every single character is extremely true to their cannon (book) persona and isn't OOC at all. The fic has some very nice buildup and suspense in certain places, despite us possibly knowing the outcome sometimes (R+L = J and such). The descriptions of places and events are again really great and immersive.

The characterization and plotting is really what makes this fic so great. If I had to think of something negative, the prose is uninspired, but only at very few short points and in mostly unimportant but necessary settings.

I'm very excited to see where this fic goes. 4.5/5 as it stands, but could easily see it become a 5/5 once complete.

 

Being one of the two who recommended the review, I thought I should chime in.

OP makes a lot of good points about the story.

In particular, the story is not groundbreaking in any way.
What it is is consistently written with good character interactions and tweaks to the story so it never gets boring. It's not a fix-it fic.
I especially enjoy the interaction between Jon and his companions as well as his relationship with

Spoiler

Daenerys

.

Cathelyn Stark is done a bit dirty imo, but it's been a while since I read the books for comparison. It didn't take too much away from my enjoyment.

The update rate is very slow, unfortunately. Given that it's 145k words however, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

4.5/5

 

I was enjoying this, though the action is only 'fine' and the canon is somewhat rehashed. It got a bit boring once things stopped really diverging.

Spoiler

Jon shows up and becomes a close advisor to Dany who eventually legitimizes him, but then still goes missing when Drogon returns, leaving Jon and advisors to rule in her stead. Jon saves Ned stark (because he gets Arya/Sansa to safety after Ned is attacked by Jaime, leaving him more free to save himself), but then after some time away somehow canon has proceeded to revert to normal despite Ned being alive. Arya is missing and on the way to Bravos, and Sansa is missing under Littlefinger's thumb to be married to Robin. Rob is missing, winterfell is sacked by the Boltons, Frey has turned coat again, etc.

Nothing really new or interesting here, but definitely readable.

 

Yeah I agree that the things that are not in focus of the story, but should have diverged (like the examples you gave) have not and that's questionable. It's like the divergences are only happening within Jon's immediate sphere of influence and once he moves on, that place reverts back to canon somehow.

Spoiler

one thing that I definitely agree that it's highly debatable whether the Bolton's would have turned cloak if Ned was still alive. The Frey's are more believable, but I don't see them turning cloak if they didn't have Northern support. The author is vague about what exactly happened, but writes that Robb took a majority of their troops marching north. The only reason this could happen is if the Greyjoy's took the North and this would certainly never happen as Ned would NEVER allow Theon Greyjoy out of his site, still retaining that hostage role. Remember Balon doesn't yet know that Theon is a beta male, so he's still a valuable hostage. Also, Ned would not be as much an aggressor in this canon, considering that unlike canon the Lannister's have no leverage on the Starks. Beyond securing the Riverland's and maybe one or two fights with the Lannister's, I don't see him seeking out Tywin so much. He would probably fortify at Riverrun and that's it, and would have left some troops in Winterfell no matter what, having had first hand experience of Balon's ambitions

This is sort of lazy by the author. Hopefully this changes very soon, if you read the recent chapters looks like things are going to moving fast and changing a lot here on out.

 

So I blitzed this over a my last two days off last week and it was a tolerable read with an interesting direction, but

Spoiler

retreading certain canon points in later chapters just felt like lazy writing. Instead of continuing along their unique diverge directions introduced by Ned, Robb, and other surviving instead the North is much the same as in canon circa Dance. Certain characters should have acted differently under this setting or at least offered some small changes, but no. Arya and Sansa getting lost again, Winterfell falling to the Boltons, Dany swept away upon Drogon probably being the least frustrating. But the latter at least allowed for Jon to ride a dragon of his own at last, I suppose.

In all I feel like this one had potential that was spent early and fell short by the current chapters. I found myself skimming a lot of the last six or so chapters just to get forward with the driving point. The dialogue or Jon's thoughts just slowed it down.

Started off around a 4 and to where it is now I'm knocking it down to a flat 3.

 

The author clearly lost interest in this story after getting Jon to meet Daenerys.

Tbh it would have been better for the story if Jon had been executed by Barristan. Instead we get Jon doing nothing for months followed by canon rehash.

It feels like he's just trying to wrap up all the loose ends and finish the story in as few chapters as possible.

I'd give a 2/5 or lower; it's just not Game of Thrones after a point.

 

I think that's a bit harsh. While I have noted that the Essos plot was lacklustre and that some settings are lazy, the Daenyrys Tyrion and Join scenes were great. Lot of character development for Daenyrys. Also the recent chapters since her kidnapping have been great and very promising. The third act has just begun and there's quite a ways to go, the author isn't trying to just finish the story off as soon as possible.