History Fanfic / GhostsAndDreams

* TooDumbToLive: Elia expresses her opinion that Sansa fits this to a tee and frets at it how it would impact her families.

* WouldntHurtAChild: Aegon is furious when the ghost of Rhaelle Baratheon asks him to spare Shireen Baratheon and Robert's bastards, because the idea of killing them hadn't even occurred to him.

* JerkassRealization: After Ned calls her out on her "bullying" of Arya, and how she and Jon used to be close as little children before she decided they couldn't anymore due to him being a bastard, Sansa is horrified with herself for being such a bad sister. What's interesting is Arya is never called out on ''her'' bullying of Sansa.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Pretty much all Northerners, be they alive or dead, feel this way about Eddard's marriage to Catelyn Tully. Which is sad, considering that in canon, Catelyn was actually well-liked and respected, by not only Ned and Benjen, but all of Winterfell, and the North.

* ObnoxiousInLaws:
** Brandon loves to annoy Rhaegar.
** Aerys actually threatened to kill Elia and was none too fond of Lyanna either. As a ghost, he targeted the infant Aegon and Jaehaerys and had to be stopped by Brandon and the Kingsguard from harming Aegon and by Rickard from harming Jaehaerys and Rhaella.
** Lyarra Stark, and all the Stark ghosts to Catelyn.

* ProperLady: Rhaella and Elia are every inch true royal ladies with perfect poise, grace and wonderful manners. But they also are kind, compassionate and practical. Sansa and Catelyn believe that they are this (and in CANON they are), but their pettiness, lack of poise under stress and inability to accept reality means that they fall quite short this goal. Lyarra is more of an IronLady and Lyanna a TomboyPrincess.

** An incredibly unjustified example in Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered. That is understandable, and they have a right to be wary and reserved. But this invokes double-standards: The reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals -- seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position. As in canon, Catelyn has ''every goddamn right'' to raise them in her religion, and while she was slightly uncomfortable being in the Godswood, she never stopped them from also following the Old Gods or Northern customs. In fact, Ned and Cat raisng their children with both religions is good, since it teaches them to be open-minded and accepting. Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred.

** Sansa is OOC in how she's mean in this story. While she is noted to be the most distant of Jon's siblings in canon, she still taught him how to dance and speak to ladies. Here, she actively avoids him and mocks his birth status. However, [[CharacterDevelopment she starts slowly growing out of this]] after her father explains to her how much [[JerkassRealization her attitude has damaged her relationship with her siblings.]]
** Catelyn. Gods be good, is Catelyn distorted here. The author admits to hating Catelyn, so it's not too surprising. Catelyn may never have loved Jon, but she '''''[[WordofGod canonically]] never abused him, verbally, mentally, emotionally, physically, or in any other way.''''' She literally just avoided him. In addition, what people don't seem to realize is Cat had absolutely no obligation to care for Jon.

WARNING!!!! : This fic contains ridiculous amounts of Catelyn, Sansa, and Faith of The Seven bashing; and hypocrisy and double standards.

* OneHundredPercentAdorationRating: Among the ghosts, Rhaella due to how kind she is despite all she suffered at Aerys' hands.

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Jaehaerys is more confident and self-assured than his canon counterpart and Aegon is much wiser and doesn't feel entitled to the throne. Both of these stem from the fact that they have been speaking to and taking lessons from their parents and ancestors for years, which led to them being more savvy, mature and secure in their identities.

* BerserkButton: ''Prophecies''. Both Jae and Aegon despise prophecies, deeming them to be the doom of their family. The only prophecies they're willing to put any stock in are the ones Jae dreams up.

* ButtMonkey: Catelyn. Her sept is constantly vandalized, leading to rumors that it might be cursed, the servants and ghosts all hate her, Rhaenys had set Balerion on her more than once, and then her husband's new direwolf takes their old bedroom as its den, forcing them to sleep apart for a time. [[spoiler: In the more recent chapters she is slowly losing Ned's respect and maybe even his affection.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Elia frets to Lyanna that Sansa can be easily tricked into harming their families or end up spilling dangerous secrets to wrong parties.

* ObnoxiousInLaws: Brandon loves to annoy Rhaegar.

* SilkHidingSteel: Rhaella endured beatings, rapes from her husband in addition to losing countless children but has not lost her kindness or the sharpness of her mind.

** [[spoiler: Ashara]] had little trouble figuring out that Aegon planned something drastic given his behaviour. Also it takes one comment from him about going to Winterfell for her to figure out that he knows about his brother.

* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: Sansa, much to the exasperation of pretty much every ghost and Jaehaerys. Elia fears that this tendency will cause a disaster in the future if the Starks are to involve themselves in the Game of Thrones.

* TragicKeepsake: Balerion to Jaehaerys. The cat is the only tangible thing left of his sister, which is why Jaehaerys ignores all claims that Balerion is dangerous.

* WellDoneDaughterGal: The reason why Sansa is so obsessed with being the perfect lady is because she wants her father's approval. Unfortunately, she fails to realize that her father is a Northerner, and that if she really wants to him to be proud of her, she needs to embody ''Northern'' values, not Southron. Septa Mordane and Catelyn encouraging her efforts is not helping the issue.

* WouldntHurtAChild: Aegon is furious when the ghost of Rhaelle Baratheon asks him to spare Shireen Baratheon and Robert's bastards, because the idea of killing them hadn’t even occurred to him.

* HateSink: Catelyn, pretty much all the ghosts loathe her. Both for pushing her faith and Andal traditions and for her appalling treatment of Jae. Lyarra in particular wants Ned to exile her to the south. It is hinted that Brandon and Lyarra believe that she gave her maidenhead to Littlefinger. (Which is so incredibly OOC that this is just pathetic.)

** Catelyn. Gods be good, is Catelyn distorted here. Unfortunately, the author admits to being a Catelyn-hating moron, so this shouldn't be all that surprising. Still, it's honestly ridiculous. Catelyn may never have loved Jon, but she '''''[[WordofGod canonically]] never abused him, verbally, mentally, emotionally, physically, or in any other way.''''' She literally just avoided him. In addition, what people don't seem to realize is Cat had absolutely no obligation to care for Jon.

** To a lesser extent Rickard, none of the other Stark ghosts, especially his wife will ever quite forgive him for selling Brandon to a "petty spiteful fish" (very mature, by the way, "Lady" Lyarra Stark!) and Lyanna to a drunken whoremonger.

** An incredibly unjustified example in Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered. That is understandable, and they have a right to be wary and reserved. But this invokes double-standards: The reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals -- seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position. As in canon, Catelyn has ''every goddamn right'' to raise them in her religion, and while she was slightly uncomfortable being in the Godswood, she never stopped them from also following the Old Gods or Northern customs. In fact, Ned and Cat raisng their children with both religions is good, since it teaches them to be open-minded and accepting. Unfortunately, as with many fanfics like this, it's a "ThE NoRtH RULEZ!!! ThE SoUtH SuCkS!!! We'rE SO ~PROGRESSIVE LIKE DORNE~" (even though canonically, no, the North isn't that progressive.) Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred, to the point that the ghosts have no problems attacking her sept whenever they're angry. Which is, again, honestly just immature and hypocritical.

* {{Seers}}: Jae has prophetic dreams like Daenys the Dreamer. While they are never wrong, they tend to be said in riddles, making them a little vague.

** Catelyn. Gods be good, is Catelyn distorted here. Unfortunately, the author admits to being a Catelyn-hating moron, so this shouldn't be all that surprising. Still, it's honestly ridiculous. Catelyn may never have loved Jon, but she '''''[[WordofGod canonically]] never abused him, verbally, mentally, emotionally, physically, or in any other way.'''''' She literally just avoided him. In addition, what people don't seem to realize is Cat had absolutely no obligation to care for Jon.

* JerkassRealization: After Ned calls her out on her "bullying" of Arya, and how she and Jon used to be close as little children before she decided they couldn't anymore due to him being a bastard, Sansa is horrified with herself for being such a bad sister.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Pretty much all Northerners, be they alive or dead, feel this way about Eddard's marriage to Catelyn Tully.

* ProperLady: Rhaella and Elia are every inch true royal ladies with perfect poise, grace and wonderful manners. But they also are kind, compassionate and practical. Sansa and Catelyn believe that they are this, but their pettiness, lack of poise under stress and inability to accept reality means that they fall quite short this goal. Lyarra is more of an IronLady and Lyanna a TomboyPrincess.

** An incredibly unjustified example in Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered.
That is understandable, and they have a right to be wary and reserved. But this invokes double-standards:
The reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals -- seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position.
As in canon, Catelyn has ''every goddamn right'' to raise them in her religion, and while she was slightly uncomfortable being in the Godswood, she never stopped them from also following the Old Gods or Northern customs.
In fact, Ned and Cat raisng their children with both religions is good, since it teaches them to be open-minded and accepting. Unfortunately, as with many fanfics like this, it's a "ThE NoRtH RULEZ!!! ThE SoUtH SuCkS!!! We'rE SO ~PROGRESSIVE LIKE DORNE~" (even though canonically, no, the North isn't that progressive.)
Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred, to the point that the ghosts have no problems attacking her sept whenever they're angry. Which is, again, honestly just immature and hypocritical.

** Catelyn. Gods be good, is Catelyn distorted here. Unfortunately, the author admits to being a Catelyn-hating moron, so this shouldn't be all that surprising. Still, it's honestly ridiculous. Catelyn may never have loved Jon, but she [[WordofGod canonically]] never abused him, verbally, mentally, emotionally, physically, or in any other way. She literally just avoided him. In addition, what people don't seem to realize is Cat had absolutely no obligation to care for Jon.

** To a lesser extent Rickard, none of the other Stark ghosts, especially his wife will ever quite forgive him for selling Brandon to a "petty spiteful fish" (very mature, by the way, Lyarra Stark!) and Lyanna to a drunken whoremonger.

* JerkassRealization: After Ned calls her out on her bullying of Arya, and how she and Jon used to be close as little children before she decided they couldn't anymore due to him being a bastard, Sansa is horrified with herself for being such a bad sister.

** A justified example in Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered. However, the reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals -- seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position. Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred, to the point that the ghosts have no problems attacking her sept whenever they're angry.

** Sansa is significantly meaner in this story. While she is noted to be the most distant of Jon's siblings in canon, she still taught him how to dance and speak to ladies. Here, she actively avoids him and mocks his birth status. However, [[CharacterDevelopment she starts slowly growing out of this]] after her father explains to her how much [[JerkassRealization her attitude has damaged her relationship with her siblings.]]

* ButtMonkey: Catelyn. Her sept is constantly vandalized, leading to rumors that it might be cursed, the servants and ghosts all hate her, Rhaenys had set Balerion on her more than once, and then her husband's new direwolf takes their old bedroom as its den, forcing them to sleep apart for a time. [[spoiler: In the more recent chapters she is slowly losing Ned's respect and maybe even his affection.]] The auhor admits to hating Catelyn, so this shouldn't be all that surprising.
** To a lesser extent Rickard, none of the other Stark ghosts, especially his wife will ever quite forgive him for selling Brandon to a petty spiteful fish and Lyanna to a drunken whoremonger.
** Also, Jon Connington. [[spoiler: Ashara Dayne, Elia's best friend managed to fool him with her Septa Lemore disguise]]. He is devoted to his charge Aegon, who has mixed feelings about Old Griff, due to Connington insulting the Starks, and doing nothing to advance their goals. To add insult to injury, Aegon runs off with [[spoiler: Ashara]], leaving Connington without his reason for living.

* HateSink: Catelyn, pretty much all the ghosts loathe her. Both for pushing her faith and Andal traditions and for her appalling treatment of Jae. Lyarra in particular wants Ned to exile her to the south. It is hinted that Brandon and Lyarra believe that she gave her maidenhead to Littlefinger.

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Jaehaerys is more confident and self assured than than his canon counterpart and Aegon is much wiser and doesn't feel as entitled to the throne. Both of these stem from the fact that they have been speaking to their parents and ancestors for years, which led to them being more savvy, mature and secure in their identities.

** Jae is far more self-assured and confident than his canon counterpart, due to knowing that he isn't actually a bastard, despite what the rest of world believes. He also has never expressed an outward desire to know who his mother is, due to his parents' ghosts haunting him. He's also the only member of the living Starks to know of their precarious position in both the North and in Westeros in general, thanks to the tutelage of both Stark ghosts and Targaryen ghosts.
** Aegon is not entitled as he is in canon, nor does he just eat up everything Connington says. Most of all, he isn't easily manipulable; numerous Targaryens have warned him and Jae constantly of the dangers of King's Landing, enough that it's nearly put him off the idea of ruling at all.

* MySisterIsOffLimits: Ned is horrified and squicked out when Bael the Bard tells him that Lyanna and Rhaegar consummated their marriage in the Island of Faces. While he is intellectually aware that for Jae to be born, his sister would have had to have sex with her husband he does not want it confirmed to his face. Bael barely restrains himself from laughing in Ned's face.

* ProperLady: Rhaella and Elia are every inch true royal ladies with perfect poise, grace and wonderful manners. But they also are kind, compassionate and practical. Sansa and Catelyn believe that they are, but their pettiness, cruelty, lack of poise under stress and inability to accept reality means that they fall quite short this goal. Lyarra is more of an IronLady and Lyanna a TomboyPrincess.
* PuppyDogEyes: Rickon has a devastating pair that he used on Jae with great effect.

** A justified example in Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered. However, the reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals -- seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position. Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred, to the point that the ghosts have no problems attacking the sept whenever they're angry.

** During Lyarra's POV she expresses how much she would have preferred Barbrey Rysell and Ashara Dayne as daughters in law. Barbrey is a true Northern lady and Ashara is a descendant of the Kings of the Torrentine.

* SilkHidingSteel: Rhaella endured beatings, rapes from her husband in addition to loosing countless children but has not lost her kindness or the sharpness of her mind.

** Rhaenys died at four and is NotAllowedToGrowUp and yet she has far more emotional maturity than Sansa, while being the most adorable little princess and the apple of her brothers eyes.

** Sansa is this for the ghosts. The Starks dislike how Southron she is, and they and everyone else are furious at her cruelty to Arya and Jae. Lyarra even wonders how her son could have sired such a girl. They are also worried about her naivete, knowing that in Westeros, that is a potentially fatal trait to have which is Lampshaded by Elia.

** She is Jae's least favorite cousin. He cant help but compare and contrast her behavior to Rhaenys. Rhaenys loves, adores and guards her younger brothers like treasure, while Sansa belittles and torments Arya.

* {{Seer}}: Jae has prophetic dreams like Daenys the Dreamer. While they are never wrong, they tend to be said in riddles, making them a little vague.

* ObviousInHindsight: After Jaehaerys comes clean about the ghosts, Ned starts noticing the little things that should have clued him in. Such as Jae naming his black cat Balerion, like his late sister and him nicknaming Benjen Benny, like Lyanna used too. The biggest clue should have been Jae telling Sansa that love is sweet but it does not change a man's nature.

* MythologyGag: Elia Martell worries that Sansa's naivety will be used against her if she ever goes to [[DeadlyDecadentCourt King's Landing]] making her an UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom for House Stark... which is what happened in the books.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The child that Aegon saves from drowning happens to be the son of the Comander of the Company of the Rose, who are heading for the North since they know that the Others have risen. The Old Gods are likely looking after their Princes of Ice and Fire.

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Jaehaerys is more confident and self assured than than his canon counterpart and Aegon is much wiser and doesn't feel as entitled to the throne. Both of these stem from the fact that they have been speaking to their parents and ancestors for years, which led to them being much more savvy, mature and secure in their identities.
** Sansa is significantly crueler in this story. While she is noted to be the most distant of Jon's siblings in canon, she still taught him how to dance and speak to ladies. Here, she actively avoids him and mocks his birth status. However, [[CharacterDevelopment she starts slowly growing out of this]] after her father explains to her how much [[JerkassRealization her attitude has damaged her relationship with her siblings.]]

* FounderOfTheKingdom: Bran the Builder, Aegon the Conqueror both have appeared as ghosts. Nymeria of Ny Sar has not appeared so far.

** Jae is the most magical member to be born in either of his families for generations. He controls fire, has prophetic dreams, is bonded to a dragon egg (and is starting to form a bond with a direwolf), and, if this aligns with canon, may even be a warg. Many of the ghosts have noticed this, and after doing some speculating and math, believe this to be because he was conceived on the Isle of Faces, during Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding night.

** Jae and Egg, two Targaryen princes, knew more about Northern culture and language than the Starks. This is {{Lampshaded}} by Lyarra, and Ned is actively trying to change it by having his kids learn the Old Tongue.
* IronicEcho: 'Love is sweet, dearest Sansa, but it can not change a man's nature'. Ned promptly chokes on his ale upon hearing Jaehaerys say that.

** Sansa is significantly crueler in this story. While she is noted to be the most distant of Jon's siblings in canon, she still taught him how to dance and speak to ladies. Here, she actively avoids him and mocks his birth status.

* JerkassRealization: After Ned calls her out on her bullying of Arya, and how she and Jon used to be closed as little children before she decided they couldn't anymore due to him being a bastard, Sansa is horrified with herself for being such a bad sister.

* ButtMonkey: Catelyn. Her sept is constantly vandalized, leading to rumors that it might be cursed, the servants and ghosts all hate her, Rhaenys had set Balerion on her more than once, and then her husband's new direwolf takes their old bedroom as its den, forcing them to sleep apart for a time. [[spoiler: In the more recent chapters she is slowly losing Ned's respect and maybe even his affection.]] WordOfGod admits to hating Catelyn, so this shouldn't be all that surprising.

* JerkassGods: The Seven, if they are even real. It speaks volumes that Aegon and Jaehaerys were brought up to worship the Old Gods, The Gods of Valyria and Mother Rhoyne and discouraged from paying heed to the nonsense of the Seven.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Pretty much all Northerns, be they alive or dead feel this way about Eddard's marriage to Catelyn Tully.

* SecretSecretKeeper: It is hinted that Osric Bolton of the Company of the Rose has figured out that Ionos Sonaro is Aegon Targaryen and that his brother in Winterfel can only be a son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. He is keeping mum about this due to owing Aegon a life dept.

* BiTheWay: Elia and Lyanna both love Rhaegar but they also love each other romantically.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The child that Aegon happens to save from drowning happens to be the son of the Comander of the Company of the Rose, who are heading for the North since they know that the Others have risen. The Old Gods are likely looking after their Princes of Ice and Fire.

* NiceGuy: Jae is polite, sweet and very loving to his sibling/cousins. These qualities make many of the servants at Winterfell take his side whenever Catelyn tries to accuse him of vandalizing her sept.

* ObviousInHindsight: After Jaehaerys comes clean about the ghosts, Ned starts noticing the little things that should have clued him in. Such as Jae naming his black cat Balerion, like his late sister. Him nicknaming Benjen Benny, like Lyanna used too. The biggest clue should have been Jae telling Sansa that love is sweet but it does not change a man's nature.

* ProperLady: Rhaella and Elia are every inch true royal ladies with perfect poise, grace and wonderful manners. But they also are kind, compassionate and practical. Sansa and Catelyn believe that they are, but their pettiness, cruelty, lack of poise under stress and inability to accept reality means that they fall quite short this goal. Lyarra is more of an IronLady and Lyanna a TomboyPrincess

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Jaehaerys is much more confident and self assured than than his canon counterpart and Aegon is much wiser and doesn't feel entitled to the throne. Both of these stem from the fact that they have been speaking to their parents and ancestors for years, which led to them being much more savvy, mature and secure in their identities.

** Jae is the most magical member to be born in either of his families for generations. He can't burn, has prophetic dreams, is bonded to a dragon egg (and is starting to form a bond with a direwolf), and, if this aligns with canon, may even be a warg. Many of the ghosts have noticed this, and after doing some speculating and math, believe this to be because he was conceived on the Isle of Faces, during Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding night.

* TheGoodKing: Aegon will be one. Also Aegon the Unlikely, who often instructs his namesake and great grandson in politics. King Jaehaerys the Conciliator as well.

** Jae and Egg, two Targaryen princes, knew more about Northern culture and language than the Starks. This is Lampshaded by Lyarra, and Ned is actively trying to change it by having his kids learn the Old Tongue.

* MundaneUtility: Rhaegar makes use of his world class voice and musical ability to sing lullabies to his stubborn sons whenever they go too long without sleep. This tend to make Jae have a dream meeting with Aegon.

** Also, Jon Connington. [[spoiler: Ashara Dayne, Elia best friend managed to fool him with her Septa Lemore disguise]]. He is devoted to his charge Aegon, who has mixed feelings about Old Gryff, due to Connington insulting the Starks, and doing nothing toward their goals. To add insult to injury, Aegon runs off with [[spoiler: Ashara]], leaving Connington without his reason for living.