Awesome / A Man of Iron

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A Man of Iron

• Tony's What the Hell, Hero? speech to Catelyn, since arriving in Winterfell he's been joking and snarking about, but when he hears Catelyn claiming to Jon that he should've fallen instead of Bran, that's when you realize that Tony is also a Stark and has the blood of The Wolf in him.
• Tony donning The Armor and his speech as he does becoming Iron Man.
  Tony: Westeros is a horrid hell but I was willing to turn a blind eye to it as long as I got some coin and wine. I was just as guilty as all the other lords... Okay, maybe not as much since I didn't do half the things they did but I allowed it. But now they've come to my door and hurt me... and next time it might not be me. It might be the people at Iron Pointe or you guys or... So... so I have to decide if I am going to just pretend like nothing happened while waiting for my doom to come... or if I am going to stand up right here and say, "No, this is the line". I'm not going to save Westeros... just like I can't save that poor girl. (puts on the helmet) But I'll sure as hell avenge her. (flies off)
• Tony's first visit shows how to outmatch Westeros is when Magitek goes against the technology of an Epic Fantasy. He wipes the floor with the knights, forces a confession, then gives a stern warning that if this happens again, he'll be coming for them too.
  Bannerman: Who are you ser knight?
  Tony: I'm no knight. I'm Iron Man!
• Tony and Jon get a combined one.
  • First Tony: he arrives at King's Landing after it's believed that he is Iron Man, due to the armor matching his sigil and banner, and admits he did create a suit of armor, but proves to Robert and the Small Council that he's not Iron Man by showing that the armor he's made does not fit him, and that the one he has, while good, is impractical and wouldn't be of much use. While Ned is still somewhat suspicious, he's proven to everyone else that he couldn't be Iron Man.
  • Then the next chapter, in order to fully prove that Tony isn't Iron Man, Jon dons the armor for the first time and fights in it and encounters Gregor Clegane and his men who are razing a village in the Riverlands. Gregor claims that he's unbeatable and that The Mountain kneels to no one. Jon fights them, defeats many of The Mountain's men and then takes on Gregor himself. Thanks to a few well timed blasts, guess what happens?
    Jon: If a Mountain doesn't kneel... then what are you doing now?
  • While Tony basically lucked his way into beating the Mountain (which was more of a retreat with a few blows thrown in), Jon does get the best of the Mountain and his men by tricking them into thinking they shot him and he's fallen into a burning sept. He waits until they are close and then bursts out, killing almost all of the Mountain's men.
• Syrio does a grand speech to Arya on how a change is coming and that those long ignored are gathering under a new master, whose name is his title.
  Arya: What is this title? Lord? Maester?
  Syrio: Magneto.
• When Ned understands his cousin is actually the Iron Man in spite of the misdirection, Tony answers him being the Iron Man would be as insane as Ned lying about being Jon's father. Tony manages to guess one of the most well-kept secrets of Westeros and uses it to blackmail his cousin into silence, and it's magnificent to watch.
  • Ned also gets one for putting the pieces together. People that know Tony don't think he's Iron Man, most of the Small Council, save perhaps Varys, fall for Tony's trick... but Ned Stark, who everyone sees as dull and dim, puts it all together and realizes Tony is Iron Man. For a man that many seeing as an idiot it's impressive that he figured out Tony's secret while so many, including Tywin Lannister, remain clueless.
• Syrio reveals himself to be Mystique and effortlessly curbstomps Meryn Trant and the guards sent to capture Arya.
  • Mystique is able to kill all the armored soldiers by herself, unarmed. Most of them die from her bare feet!
• Tony's first alibi about being Iron Man: he accepts dozens of commissions, enough to keep him busy for a year. Then he does all of them in two weeks, leaving him free to be Iron Man while nobles across Westeros are willing to testify that he can't possibly be the vigilante because he was busy doing a commission for him at the time.
• After Bronn kills his target at Tyrion's "trial", Tyrion is ready to leave. However, Lysa now insists he stand trial for killing her husband and Bronn can't do the fighting this time. Clynt volunteers, facing an even more hulking and skilled knight... and takes him down with a single arrow. He then asks who wants lunch.
  • After Lysa's yelling of sellswords having no honor and Bronn saying the dead knights did, Clynt has an added rejoinder.
    Clynt: Only a part right... We have honor... small as it might be... But it's more than you have.
• Pepper talks down Gregor Clegane from killing her, Tony and Jon immediately, pointing he needs someone to relay his desire of a rematch with Iron Man to the knight and dead hostages won't help him.
• Tony reveals to Jon at the end of Chapter 27 a second suit of armor he's made for Jon to don and wear. Unlike the Red and Gold of Iron Man which reflects The Lannister's colors, this one has Silver in place of Gold, purposely done so to look like the colors of House Reyne. He gives Jon the armor and when Jon asks what he should call himself.
  Tony: In Braavos, they have a word for a man who takes it upon himself, with no hope of gaining coin or fame or power, to protect the innocent. They are the most selfless of Heroes. It is a name that I think would suit you well. Centurion.
• In chapter 28, Gregor Clegane makes the mistake of having his 'meeting' with Iron Man in Tywin's sunstone mine, planning to steal the silver sent as the miner's payroll to go out and live his own life. After getting pummeled by both Tony and Jon (but getting close to killing both of them) Tony manages to punch him into a pit full of sunstones crates he opens while Jon drops silver on them - making all the sunstones start to shoot random blasts until he falls on top of one that just digs through him, killing him.
• Ned is about to get his head lobbed off like in canon...and then Iron Man arrives right on time, fending off the Kingsguard, and calling out Joffery for his foolish cruelty. As Ned reflected, it was just like a fairy tale where a righteous man is saved by a magical being at the last minute, only this time, Tony Stark made it real. And he was this close to getting Sansa out of the way as well... until Joffrey did what he does best and indirectly killed her.
  • Sansa gets a small one when she realizes what a monster Joffrey is and defies him by bluntly saying that she will never be his and comes so close to being free of him. Too bad it doesn't last.
• The proclamation of Ned Stark as the King In The North by Greatjon. Even though he is grimy and wearing ill-fitting clothes, Tony notes that Ned looks like a lost figure from a forgotten age.
• The birth of Dany's dragons gets the addition of Logan throwing on another sacrifice and then climbing up with her, unlocking both their mutant powers. Now Dany can control fire herself.
  • The aforementioned sacrifice is Jhaqo, one of the men that took over part of Khal Drogo's khalasar. Logan single-handedly killed Jhaqo's warband, captured the man alive, impaled him on his claws and brought him back to Daenerys' camp.
• The fact that Gerion survived and found Brightroar.
• For the sheer Oh, Crap! value, Sansa manages to come back to life... as the Night's Queen. And she takes Sandor for Knight, with the intent to help the Others gain a foothold in Westeros from the inside.
• While Sandor is standing guard over Sansa, it's revealed that Joffrey refused to let him do it. Without saying a word, the Hound marches up the Throne the little maggot is seated on and glowers over him until Joffrey wordlessly agrees to let him go. Sandor's also pretty sure he pissed himself in the process.

A Crack of Thunder

• Jane Seaworth came upon Joffrey disfiguring Shireen's doll, and screamed for the guards and told them he was threatening Shireen herself. Joffrey got some good whacks from Robert's belt over it before Cersei stopped him.
• Tyrion arrives in King's Landing and makes it clear to Cersei and the Small Council that he is in charge now, and they have no choice in the matter.
• Simply by being himself and choosing to honor Robb's marriage pact to one of Walder Frey's daughters despite the changed circumstances, Ned manages to earn House Frey's loyalty, as thanks for being the first lord to show them any respect.
• Asha Greyjoy willingly undergoes two weeks of being horribly treated by Ramsay Bolton just to lead him and his men into a trap - that ends up getting them all killed.
• Oberyn Martell comes to see Tony and offers a "peace offering" in the form of marrying Jon off to his daughter: Natasha Martell aka the Black Widow of Dorne.
• Thor tells Stannis he believes the man would be a bad king as he doesn't really want it and taking the throne this way would be a disaster. To prove it, Thor reveals he has given up claim on the throne of Asgard, knowing he'd be too brash to be a good king and Stannis realizes if a god can give up a throne, so can he.
• Ned manages to hurt Jaime's confidence by revealing Cersei isn't faithful to him, since she made advances to the Lord Stark and insinuated she slept with Jon Arryn.
• After Dany worked up the guts to test and confirm that even her internal organs are fireproof, she learns to store fire in her stomach to shoot out her mouth.
• Daenerys is introduced to a new potential ally: A masked figure who was once Viktor Vondam but is now known as...Doom.
• Everyone is flabbergasted when the mystery knight from Renly's tournament reveals her true identity, since Lord Tarth's only daughter was so ill, she was expected to die quickly. Not only Brienne managed to live, her cousin Bruce gave her a cure who made her strong enough to kick ass as nobody's business, transforming her into She-Hulk.
• Bronn is not the only one who has pegged Sansa as a something, rather than someone: Sam Tarly, upon observing her for a couple of hours, draws the observation that she may actually be Sansa's body under a Demonic Possession.
• Mystique flawlessly imitates Jaime Lannister, doing it so well that not even Tywin Lannister (who was also expecting the possibility of a fake) can tell the difference.
• This story's version of the War of the Five Kings is instead known as the War of the Five Crowns, thanks to one of the contenders being Queen Jane Seaworth. There's some nice building on her father's efforts to raise the family's station.
• Roslin Frey, far from the minor Shrinking Violet from the books, quickly earns a reputation as the "Stone Wolf" upon marrying Robb, being fully capable of showing her own strength when the time is right and also having a keen insight into the psychological issues he's going through.
• Tyrion walks in on Joffrey in the middle of torturing "Sansa" in a fit of rage over the Starks' continued successes and puts him in his place. First by calling him out on the stupidity of doing so when he already has a 0% Approval Rating, reminding him how things like that turned out for the Mad King, and then humiliating him by having Cersei and Pycelle send him to bed. And on a closing note, he preemptively shuts down any clever remarks from Littlefinger or Varys.
  • Just prior to this, Clynt takes Boros Blount out of the picture by punching him in the balls, and then shoving an arrow into his open mouth, threatening to fire it if he tries to resist.
  • Reflecting on this, the Night's Queen declares Tyrion the greatest threat to her plans in Westeros. Stop and think about that for a moment.
• Sansa/The Night's Queen's answer to the "Who does the sellsword kill?" riddle. They all die, including the sellsword, because none of them considered that the woman who was also in the room might be the real threat.
  • Somewhat negated when you remember that one of the first people to realize that she was dangerous was Bronn, a sellsword, who came to this conclusion immediately after meeting her. Arguably makes Bronn immediately pegging her as dangerous and as a "what" and not a "who" even more awesome, as he basically proved the Night's Queen's answer to be wrong by noting that the woman in the room may be the real threat.
• Thor bluntly states he would rather acknowledge Shireen than Renly as Stannis' heir, since the eight-years-old girl does know how hard you must fight to live sometimes and win. That's right, he accuses Renly to be less of a warrior than his pre-teen niece.
• Stannis' "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Renly, pointing out that he's done nothing to deserve being king.
  • To elaborate, Stannis points out that Renly has had everything handed to him, with either Stannis himself or Robert protecting him and now his claim is only backed up by "Summer Knights" from the Reach. Meanwhile, Stannis fought in the Rebellion, managed Storm's End during the siege, helped destroyed the Iron Born fleet, and has shown time and again that he is a capable warrior. It goes well to destroy the illusion of Renly being better than Stannis.
• Thor utterly ruining Renly's "Peach Speech" and making him look like a fool and then taking his metaphor and turning it to support Stannis.
• When Renly insults Jane, calling her a whore, Thor shows his displeasure at this in epic fashion: he conjures a massive storm and calls down lightning to burn the words "I AM THOR, GOD OF THUNDER" in the ground, followed by making it clear that if Renly does that again, he won't be as restrained. Within a few hours, nearly all of Renly's Storm Lord supporters turn cloak to Stannis.
  • Only two standard-bearers manage to hold on to their charge during this. Brienne isn't very surprising, given that she's the She-Hulk. The other one is Davos^*though that's not as surprising either once it's revealed that he was Loki all along.
• Tyrion pretty much tells Joffrey that he's got him by the balls, and has Bronn sing "The Rains of Castamere" to remind the little idiot that, if he tries to touch any of Tyrion's hairs, Tywin will come and crush him like a ripe peach.
  • He also blows his top at the whole Council, including the Night's Queen, over the stupidity of sending terms to the Starks without talking to him first, especially trying to trade Not-Sansa for Jaime.
• Tony and Natasha, in a nod to Robert Downey Jr.'s role in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, are both skilled enough at the Sherlock Scan that they can have an entire conversation just through facial expressions and gestures, including Tony telling her "You hurt him and your father won't save you. I'll do what the dragons couldn't. I'll burn Dorne to the fucking ground."
• Jon quickly deducing the people attacking the wedding are Ironborn, then dueling a raider. Natasha then steps in and fights him as well, breaking his jaw before Jon beheads him.
• Jon and Pepper managed to make a lighter version of the Centurion armor without Tony noticing.
• Jon, in lighter Centurion armor armed with a retractable blade in one arm and collapsible shield on the other, vs Vanko. To the latter's credit, the only reason he loses is because Oberyn intervenes with a spear to his shoulder, weakening and distracting him enough to give Jon the upper hand.
  Oberyn: Hey bastard! Love from Dorne!
• Doom reveals exactly what he wants of Daenerys, to bring chaos to Qarth and shake the city out of its useless traditions for their own sake, all while also giving her plenty more Brutal Honesty about herself and her family, plus the quite unexpected reveal that Illyrio is the story's version of Franklin Storm, and the Fantastic Four already exist in some form.
• A meeting of the Lannister generals reveals that Ned has been wiping the floor with them since taking over from Robb, simply by being his good, decent self and staying to help the villages he retakes get back on their feet rather than rushing ahead after the Lannister armies, thus getting a whole new support center each time. Ultimately, it's revealed by Arya that it's actually Ned Stark who is the story's version of the Punisher.
• Tyrion still gets to slap and chew out Joffrey during the riot in King's Landing. Here, however, the chewing out goes on for some time, with Tyrion making it clear that Joffrey would be lucky if Tywin let him keep his throne after all this, and that Tyrion himself would happily send Joffrey's head to the Starks if he thought that would end the war.
  • Varys gets a subtle one when he notices Littlefinger panicking while hiding from the riot, dryly noting to himself that Baelish doesn't seem to be enjoying his chaotic ladder when he's not the one profiting from the chaos.
  • A group of men try to rape Not-Sansa. She responds by tearing them apart with her bare hands, with very little effort on her part. She's also revealed to be a Composite Character with Hela.
• Renly is revealed as the one behind all the new plots against the North, leading to Brienne finally getting to cut loose and show what the Hulk can do, effortlessly crushing one Ironborn raider after another.
  • In the same battle, Theon is driven to declare himself for the North, after cutting off Dagmer Cleftjaw's hands (and unknowingly getting revenge for what Cleftjaw did to him in canon). And then he's able to just slightly fib about the situation to get the Tyrells to join them in turning on Renly.
  • Brienne goes from Renly's ship to the middle of the Tyrell's camp In a Single Bound - and then proceeds to carry Theon back to Riverrun the same way, fast enough that she breaks the sound barrier!
• Jojen comes to accept that his visions of how things played out in the original canon are not going to come to pass, and eagerly takes to his new role by finding a secret tunnel into Winterfell which his new visions have warned they'll need in a coming battle, and declaring that the era of knights and swords has been replaced by the age of Avengers.
• In chapter 29 there are strong hints that Sansa is fighting the Night's Queen from the inside.
• Both Varys and Littlefinger are revealed to have tried convincing Sandor to be their spy, who made it very clear he wasn't interested — the former got spat on, while the latter found the dismembered corpse of his messenger in his bed.
• Combined with a funny moment, there's Daenerys getting back at the Pureborn for the ridiculous rituals they expect her to go through just to speak with them by coming up with her own rituals for their messengers to go through before speaking to her (including buying booze for Logan and wearing a ridiculous hat).
  • Moreover, her lessons with Doom are already paying off as she both refuses to favor any particular group in Qarth and is much more aware of all political implications of her actions.
  • Followed by this gem:
  Daenerys: Then I suppose I will have to add the warlocks to the list of those I must watch out for [...] starting with Viktor and the Thirteen.
  • The fact that Daenerys is cunning enough to use the fact that she and the rest of her group all know Dothraki to be able to hold conversations right in front of the people of Qarth and leave them unable to understand what she is plotting.
• Roslin firmly and politely reminding Luwin that she is Lady of Winterfell until Catelyn returns, so can he just read the message already?
• Bruce of Tarth went to Valyria and found out why the Doom happened. Repeat: Bruce of Tarth went to VALYRIA and FOUND OUT WHY THE DOOM HAPPENED. And he did it because he wanted to heal his cousin Brienne.
  • Earlier, it had been implied that Bruce had cured Brienne by turning her into She-Hulk, but that he himself wasn't living up to his comics counterpart. Chapter 32 confirms that little assumption false when he says eleven simple words: "You're making me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." And then proceeds to do what Hulks do best.
  • Before that, he delivers an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Septon (confirmed by Word of God to be the future High Sparrow) who had been allowing Brienne to grow sick and had been bullying her weak willed father into following his order as though he were the lord of the land.
• Brienne's first Hulking Out takes a bunch of bandits by surprise, with her killing them all without having any trouble.
• Arya not only knows well how to deal with Tywin and how to read his moods, but is capable of making suggestions that even Tywin agrees could work.
• At some point offscreen, Mystique impersonated the Tickler and drunkenly insulted Tywin, resulting in the Tickler being fed to a pit of rats.
• Selyse is no longer an issue to Jane and Shireen, thanks to Thor telling her point blank she’s never given the girl any love and doesn’t deserve anything from her now.
• The Bloody Mummers against Magneto, who can turn their weapons and armor against them. Curb-Stomp Battle doesn't even start to describe it.
  • While doing this he pitches his own answer to the Sellsword Riddle: "The one who doesn't need the sellsword to kill for them."
  • And the Master of Magnetism uses the survivors as the Human Sacrifice to awaken Gendry and Arya as Colossus and Shadowcat, before inducting them into the Brotherhood of Blackfyre.
• In a case of villains showing off just how dangerous they are, Asha's Ironborn reveal that they've learned how to combine sunstones with their swords to make Laser Blades, which enable them to easily conquer Winterfell.
• Daenerys, Doom, Jorah and Logan go into the House of the Undying to rescue Daenerys' dragons. During their incursion, they face their fears and desires, with Doom waving both off and Daenerys being resolute to follow her own destiny rather than being defined by who she is related to.
  • Their vision of the future shows that in the next book they'll apparently be hanging out with Deadpool and Domino, and Jorah has become the fic's version of Cable. And if another vision comes true, X-23 is on her way too.
    • Then there's Dany's vision: She's at the mercy of Thanos, but then a cry comes up from near her: ASSEMBLE!
  • Then, when they are all chained, Pyat Pree tells Daenerys she will stay in the House of the Undying forever. That's when Daenerys reveals that her newest name is Firestar for a very good reason, and she breathes fire on Pyat Pree, single-handedly kills the Undying, frees her companions and ends up destroying the entire tower with a fiery chimera hot enough to melt stone.
    "The House of the Undying. It had failed her test."
• Facing being raped, Jane remains utterly defiant, never stopping her struggles and promising to kill all the rapists personally.
  • While it's also utterly horrifying (see the Nightmare Fuel page for details), Thor showing up to save Jane and utterly devastating the rapists is still an awe-inspiring moment.
• Finding out Vanko is about to attack completely snaps Tony out of his Heroic BSoD, and he quickly lays out a complex defense plan while giving out upgraded armor, not even blinking at how this involves spilling his identity as Iron Man to several more people.
• Thor and an empowered Stannis fight off - and this becomes Thor's first serious fight, showing a part of the power the Destroyer armor could really have if fully awakened.
• Jane, a normal human, finally manages to show off the knife skills that have been hinted at for the whole book and hits Amora in the shoulder - and then drives her to distraction, allowing Thor to deal with Stannis. And everything as she pulls off Solid Snake levels of stealth while moving to save Shireen.
  • The wildfire explosion seems to unlock something in her: when Amora binds Thor with her magic, Jane accidentally infuses a knife with magic and throws it between her shoulder blades - and then makes it explode, sending Amora arse over teakettle.
• Amora has grabbed Jane by the throat and is trying to throttle her. Shireen grabs a burning brand and drives it into her face, melting Amora's left eye.
• THE most stunning twist of the saga: Jane's father, Davos Seaworth, is actually LOKI.
  • Davos/Loki proceeds to go to town against Amora, easily destroying her in a magical fight while pointing out that the reason she's losing is because she's so lazy she couldn't even bother to do anything minimally challenging. And, after cutting off her hand with her own spell, proceeds to completely ignore her and speaks with his brother, his daughter and Shireen while nonchalantly parrying anything else Amora can throw at him. And, after finishing his story of Davos Seaworth, he destroys her face with venom and brutally executes her.
  • Loki confesses his wife Marya actually was the reason why he couldn't bear the idea to leave Westeros and return to Asgard. A humble, human woman made the Trickster God himself go against his very nature and briefly renounce his divinity to be a husband and father. Do not underestimate The Power of Love.
• Tyrion taking full advantage of his short stature during the Battle of the Blackwater, counting on enemy soldiers overlooking him until he attacks.
  • Podrick coming to Tyrion's defense when a wight tries to kill him, dismembering it completely. And then standing up to Tywin when the latter arrives and starts dismissing Tyrion's decision to fight on the front-line. A few chapters later, it turns out this actually earned Tywin’s respect and got him knighted.
• Robb rescued from death by a now grown Rickon who has become Star-Lord and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who proceed to wipe the floor with the Ironborn.
• Jon and the people of Iron Pointe fighting together against Vanko's raiders.
  • Tony and Rhodey tearing through Vanko's fleet.
  • Tony's Final Battle with Vanko is a showcase in how brains can beat brawn. While outclassed in sheer strength, Tony is able to deduce the weaknesses in Vanko's armor and disable him, leaving him tied up and unable to keep fighting. Then for bonus points, he gives Vanko a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for how he's wasted his knowledge of the sunstones on petty revenge against people who had little to nothing to do with his family's deaths, instead of doing good with it.
  • Pepper saving Tony from drowning after Vanko's last attempt to kill him - by donning the Rescue armor!
• Doom seizing control of Qarth — while the Pureborn and Guild are fighting for control following the deaths of the Warlocks and most of the Thirteen, Doom absorbs the private armies of his deceased colleagues into his own and proceeds to crush the other factions. He then gives the captive Pureborn a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how much they wasted the city's potential as rulers, and how he'll do much more.
  • Dany shows how much she's learned from Doom by negotiating a deal with him. He'll provide the ships needed to transport her people to Slaver's Bay, and the gold needed to buy Unsullied, and she'll pay him back with the Wise Masters' money after she uses the Unsullied to overthrow them. Doom is actually impressed with her building a plan based on something he completely overlooked (how vulnerable the Masters are to being attacked after selling the Unsullied).
• Sam figured out how to train a raven to carry messages back and forth directly between Tyrion and Tywin, allowing them to communicate without worry of Pycelle intercepting the letters. Tywin reveals this to Pycelle when making it clear that he'll no longer tolerate Pycelle's self-serving nature and split loyalties.
  • He also makes it clear that he's aware that one of Varys' "little birds" is spying on him from a secret alcove at that exact moment, and mentally notes that he has a guard on standby to grab the kid when they try to escape, and send a part of their mutilated body to Varys as a warning.
  • Tywin gives Cersei a long overdue "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how she's fucked up as a Queen and a mother.
• For a purely villainous example, there's the Night's Queen managing to manipulate Tywin, deceiving him into believing that she's the spirit of his dead wife.
• Sansa's spirit managing to retake control of her body just long enough to use the Night's Queen's magic to resurrect Lady, and then warg into her body, which she uses to flee King's Landing.
  • She also finally sheds the desires to be a Southern lady and embraces that she is of The North.
    "I am the Red Wolf. I am Sansa Stark. And I am going home."
• Ned cutting his way through a group of Lannister soldiers, taking them all out by himself.
• Unaware that Sansa has already escaped her captivity, Tony swears to Fury that he'll find a way to save her, regardless of the Council's research saying it's impossible.
  • Natasha standing up to Fury and making it clear her loyalty is to the Starks now, not him.
  • Fury in turn finally gives his big speech about his idea to unite a group of superheroes, and is quite taken when Tony mentions the word Avengers.
• Jeor Mormont, Mance Rayder and Ygritte are attacked by a group of Others, and the only weapon that can damage them is Jeor's Longclaw. But then the Others are attacked by another Other, wielding a shield, and accompanied by Benjen Stark. The friendly Other's identity? Steve Rogers, Azor Ahai, Lord Captain of the Knights of the Dawn and the Traitor of the Court of the Others.
  • Steve's fight proving he is possibly the best fighter on the side of humanity: he easily defeats TWO Others in hand to hand combat without getting a scratch, tearing them into pieces.

A Shield of Man

• Ser Adrian of the Tombs uncovers the lost flying harness of the first Vulture King and, tired of the Tyrells sabotaging his attempts of moving up in society, decides to take it for himself. To cement this, he tosses the pompous messenger sent by Tywin into a crevasse, after realizing the man is planning to kill him in his sleep and take credit for the discovery.
  • A lovely bit of revision to Westeros history — Rhaenys Targaryen survived being shot down by the Dornish and became the Vulture King, forging the flying harness out of Meraxes' bones and engraving them with Valyrian runes she studied when everyone else wrote them off as useless.
  • You have to stand a bit in awe of how the author was able to create an elaborate and highly engaging backstory for his version of Adrian Toomes simply by connecting a homonym of his last name with the presence of a "Vulture King" in the canon Westeros mythology. You'd swear both were actually designed for precisely this purpose.
• Daenerys' liberation of Astapor is even more epic than in canon, as she puts her fire powers to good use, creating constructs that incinerate the slavers and their soldiers.
  • Also worth noting is our introduction to Domino. First off, she takes advantage of Kraznys' inability to understand the common tongue to openly insult him and support Daenerys' plans to dispose of him and the other Good Masters. And when the fighting starts, she grabs a sword and helps kill soldiers, putting her assassin training and pure luck to good work.
• Steve reveals the true story of his father Lann the Clever, who was a dwarf who took it upon himself to rid the Westerlands of their evil rulers the Casterlys the only way he could: using his size to sneak around the whole castle and enacting a massive Paranoia Gambit to turn them all against each other, and finally try to go against a pair of visiting kings which got them kicked out. And Lann was as surprised as anyone when he was named the new Lord of the Westerlands, not having expected anything for it.
• A minor example, but Tony notes that Wyman Manderly is so skilled at finances that with him as the Northern Master of Coin there's no way that the Iron Bank will trick Ned into paying off part of the Iron Throne's debt.
• Tywin once again calling out Cersei on how much she's screwed up as a mother and a ruler. One specific moment is pointing out how she's succumbed to the same vices she once belittled Robert for.
• The new leader of the Gold Cloaks is a Summer Islander named Jiffson Davus. This promises quite interesting things for the fic's take on Spider-Man.
• Euron Greyjoy, who is also Ronan the Accuser, takes the time to chew out Asha for how stupid her plan to take Winterfell (and Vanko's wider Roaring Rampage of Revenge) actually was.
  • No putting the Power Stone on a hammer for Euron; he's somehow able to survive putting it right in his empty eye socket.
• When the Lannister guards at the Lion Gate initially refuse to let the Iron Pointe group enter King's Landing, Clynt shows up and puts them at knifepoint to coerce them.
• The fight at the Blue Oyster: first Oberyn, Jon, Natasha, Happy and a couple of Iron Pointe soldiers easily get rid of a number of Lannister guards that double them in numbers and then, when a bunch of corrupt city guards attempt to kill them, they repeat the feat. But the big moment is when a city guard attempts to knife Jon - only to get stuck to the wall when someone fires a ball of sticky gray-white material at the guard.
• Word comes to Riverrun of Asha's attack on Winterfell, which naturally means a lot of Ned's allies are now looking to him to fulfill the purpose of taking in Theon. He has no intention of doing it, but before finding that out, Theon freely agrees to give his life to solve the problem, showing more than ever just how loyal he is to his adopted house.
• Edmure Tully, the guy who was introduced in the show making a complete hash of his father's Viking Funeral, is here such a tremendously skilled archer that Brienne says Hawkeye is the only one she's ever seen equal his skill.
• Daenerys' approach to what to do with the people of Yunkai shows that she has learned well from Viktor and knows better how to play the long game. Whereas in the books and TV series, Daenerys left Yunkai vulnerable to recapture and allowed her enemies to retake control of it and Astapor, here, she has opted to ensure that the slaves' freedom is secure by intending to absorb them into her army while also crippling Yunkai's slave trade, strip of it of its valuables, eliminating anyone, particularly the Wise Masters, who can be a threat to her power and leaving Yunkai a husk of its former self by only leaving behind people who cannot be a threat to her.
• Deadpool's entire sales pitch to Dany on why he should be inducted into her service: After first behaving like a whimsical and slightly insane fool, he easily slaughters the other sellsword leaders (one of them being Francis/Ajax) and immediately obtains control of both mercenary companies, pledging them to Dany in exchange for a spot on her Small Council. She immediately agrees to the proposal (but not before having Logan nonfatally stab him for a rather lewd comment).
  • Dany clearly has grown in her time in Essos and has the true makings of a wise queen by following some of Tywin's and Viktor's advice: a wise ruler knows what they do or not do know and will listen to their counselors' advice long after coming of age.
  • Dany completely undercutting the Yunkai representative by not only refuting his attempted bribe (pointing out that the wealth she seized from Astapor far outstrips it), but by having her followers discreetly convince the man's slave to defect when he's not looking.
• Tywin, Kevan, and Jiffsun Davus quickly working together to get Jon and Oberyn's group out of any trouble from the Blue Oyster fight by keeping Joffrey and Cersei out of the loop and resolving the matter before they can screw it up any further.
• Tywin undoes all the sacrifices Ned took by proclaiming Jon to be his bastard son by immediately deducing his heritage with a single glimpse (though he mistakes Jon as Aegon, rather than his brother).
• Jeor's and Steve's group reaches Craster's Keep with the intention of putting down the Night's Watch mutineers, only to find them already wiped out by Craster's master — the Commander of the Others, aka the Red Skull. He proceeds to summon wights to ambush the group, who make quick work of them.
  • Steve giving a brief "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Craster, making it clear that the Others are only using him. Then he uses the fact that strictly speaking he's a member of the Court to mystically freeze Craster in place and compel him to answer his questions.
    • Steve's power is so great that he begins to make Jeor, Mance, and Ygritte answer his question ('Who do you serve').
• Jon quickly takes the lead in the court hearing on the Blue Oyster fight, cutting off Oberyn's repeated insults towards Tywin and calmly explaining things in a way that only enforces the group's claims of loyalty to the Iron Throne. And later, he and Oberyn help defuse Joffrey's angry posturing by masterfully playing to his ego.
• When Joffrey crashes the trial and seems about to spoil Tywin's letting the whole group off, within seconds Natasha has put together a battle plan to kill everyone in the room before declaring Jon the new king. If Jon and Tywin hadn't defused things on their own, the story might have ended right there.
• Adrian's debut to the Tyrell soldiers as the Vulture King. He swoops in killing six men on his first pass alone, before proclaiming his title, scaring them into submission, right before they charge at him as he butchers them with his wings. And when they fire arrows at him? He shields himself with his dragon bone wings while his men proceed to ambush and slaughter the remaining Tyrell soldiers and sellswords.
  • One also has to give credit to Adrian's underling Phineas, who like Tony and Vanko before him learned how to weaponize the sunstones by mixing them with different metals, creating the Shocker gauntlets. Oh, and on a more mundane level, created the medieval version of flares.
• Some of Adrian's men try to rob King's Landing's biggest jewelry shop while wearing masks to look like Targaryen kings. They get interrupted by a short guy dressed in red and blue who can shoot spider webs. They begin to fight, and they get interrupted by a girl dressed in white and black who can also shoot spider webs... and later on another boy in black and red that can also shoot spider webs. That's right, we get Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales teaming up to save King's Landing!
• Sansa, in Lady's body, saving a girl from a bear by attacking and killing it in a savage fight.
  Sansa: I was a guest of the Night's Queen, you bastard. You are NOTHING!
  • Given the Marvel character she now represents, this may well be Foreshadowing for the Demon Bear.
• When Joffrey tries to humiliate Jon by serving him a roasted wolf at his and the Martells' welcome feast (in order to "honor" his Northern heritage), Jon counters by making up a Dornish custom that must be followed to honor the Martells, stating that the host and his family get the first servings of an offered meal. Thus, the Lannisters are forced to eat the wolf, which runs out before Jon and everyone else have to eat any.
  • Even better, Jon is actually lying his ass off, but knows full well that not one single person in King's Landing knows enough about Dorne to call him on it, and they'll believe anything sufficiently "exotic" about the place. And Oberyn, the one person who does know better, just finds it hilarious.
• After Brice responds to his berating by threatening to leave the gang, Adrian goads the others into seizing him before he can leave, killing him to hide everything he knows.
• Jon and Sam's training duel, which appears to end in a draw.
• Yondu, who used to be Rickard Stark, shows up in Winterfell and by sheer force of will and his birthright takes immediate control of the place.
  • In turn, Robb refuses to be intimidated by him and calls out how he's just pointing out the mistakes his descendants have made without any better ideas of his own. The narration calls this the moment he learned what kind of leader he was.
• Once Gambit starts putting the moves on her, Arya eventually recalls Gambit's descent in the Neck, meaning that his family answers to House Reed, who are vassals of her family. Arya then proceeds to remind him that her father is King in the North, and that he should watch his tongue. Gambit cannot help but bow and respect her for her sharp wit, as she casually spins 180 degrees from him and walks away.
  Lady Deathstrike: There might be hope for you yet.
• Shireen has grown up and become Queen of the Valkyries.
• Deadpool's duel with Yunkai's champion, which he easily dominates through skill more than his Healing Factor, eventually hacking the guy apart for Daenerys. And when the Yunkish retaliate with a hail of arrows, only one manages to hit him; once he recovers, he cuts down all the rest that get anywhere near him.
  • Meanwhile, it turns out Dany knew that the Yunkish wouldn't voluntarily surrender the city if they lost the duel, so she used it to distract them while the Unsullied snuck into the city and quickly took it over.
• Petyr comes up with a mechanism to automate a wooden horse and straw soldier in order to help practice fighting cavalry. Tywin is genuinely impressed by the idea.
• When Varamyr Sixskins is angrily confronting Mance over bringing Steve, Jeor, and Benjen to the Free Folk's encampment, Rahne Wolfsbane (who is Tormund's sister here) shows up in her giant wolf form and scares him off.
• Steve and the others successfully convincing the Free Folk to agree to an alliance against the forces of the Court.
• Jon and Oberyn undermining Pycelle and Baelish during a Small Council meeting, by deflecting any comments sent their way and making the two men seem incompetent at their own jobs.
  • When Cersei tries to mock Jon (and the Starks as a whole) by bringing up the attacks on Winterfell and Iron Pointe while citing Casterly Rock's history of impregnability, Oberyn cuts in with a quick jab about Lann the Clever, instantly shutting Cersei down as she's reminded that her own House was founded by someone taking the Rock.
• The Centurion and the Vulture King go to battle for the first time. It's way closer than you might expect, and it isn't helped that Shocker joins the fray too.
  • Of course, then there's a Big Damn Heroes as the Spiders all swoop in to rescue Jon.
• Maester Aemon manages to calm down the meeting hall, scolding the Watch for their immaturity in being unable to be civil with others.
• Steve reveals himself to the Watch. And like that, a living legend creates the proof to begin proper negotiations.
• As the Umbers are leading a full-blown assault against Knowhere, Roslin reveals herself to be a Master Actor as she improvises a tragic background in which she was kidnapped by wildlings and the others in her party rescued her, persuading Smalljon Umber to spare them.
• One for Magneto when he sends Mystique with Tony to negotiate payments to the Iron Bank, as the massive debt accumulated by the Iron Throne is going to be his if his plan to put the Blackfyre name as the new royal family is successful. Winning battles isn't enough, you have to win the peace if you want to be a king — so many pretenders forgot this, but he didn't.
• When a party attendant tries to molest (and possibly rape) Arya, Theon and Brienne arrive, with the latter ripping him away from Arya and literally throwing the guy so high into the air that his screams can barely be heard before catching him again.
• After being mentioned by Brienne last book, and a hinted at through background gossip a few times since, Hulk finally enters the story, bursting onto the scene as Meereen's champion.
• Natasha quickly earning Olenna's respect with her quick wit.
• Robb and the Guardians fighting Euron's wight horde. In particular, Robb goes up against Euron himself, and does well enough to earn the mad thrall's respect.
• Steve demonstrating his power to the skeptical Night's Watch members led by Cotter Pyke by freezing them all in place.
• T'challa listening a panicking Arya babbling that her cousin's best friend had been captured by the Red Priests and will be burned alive as a sacrifice, and quelling her doubts about going to save Rhodey with an Armor-Piercing Question: does he deserve such a death? Oh, and he also agrees to a team-up with her and her friends in the Brotherhood.
• Barrstan and Bruce offer their services to Daenerys, concocting a plan for the Hulk to throw the Combat by Champion so that she can take Meereen. She agrees, but leaves them with a firm warning, delivered while conjuring flames onto her in the form of wings and a crown:
  "But betray me and I will be the Conqueror, Ser Barristan. I will bring my wrath with fire and blood. And I will see if the Hulk is truly as unkillable as you claim."
• Pepper being a Defiant Captive the entire time she's held prisoner by the Mandarin and Renly.
• Tony and Rhodey (actually a disguised Mystique), with nothing other than a sword, an ax, and a makeshift Iron Man gauntlet, sneak into the Mandarin's mansion, grab Pepper and Renly, and then flee, fighting off the Ten Rings as they do so.
• Without even being present, Thor screws over Joffrey's wedding when his dwarf play mockery of the war starts insulting Jane. A storm bursts into life with such intensity that the rain actually bruises the people it pelts, sending everyone fleeing from the party, which angers Joffrey so much that it triggers a Villainous Breakdown wherein he strikes Margaery when she tries to calm him down and rants about the Faith needing to be punished for (in his delusions) siding with the Starks and causing this to happen, all of which thoroughly ruins what little remains of Joffrey's reputation at this point. Then he gets stabbed in the lung, and finally dies.
• Arya sneaking into the Temple of R'hllor and rescuing Rhodey.
• Tywin doesn't let common decency stop him from listing all of the recent deceased Joffrey's faults to Tommen, in front of Joffrey's body and the grieving Cersei.
  • He also gives Cersei a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for her terrible parenting skills. When she moves to slap him with her golden prosthetic, he calmly states that if she does, he'll have her shipped off to the Silent Sisters... after having her tongue cut out to make sure she stays quiet.
• Jaime making a deal with the Old Gods to become Ghost Rider.
  The Old Gods: As Thanos makes mockery of the living with his wights... we make mockery of the dead with you. You are our champion. Our warrior. Our Spirit... of Vengeance.
• The Juggernaut arrives on the scene and immediately proves himself even stronger than the Hulk.
• Props to Littlefinger, up until Jon started riling him up he was keeping his cool and nearly derailed his trial.
• Jon tricks Littlefinger into admitting he killed Joffrey by choosing just the right button to push, his (false) claim that he took the Tully girls' maidenheads.
• When the Juggernaut tosses her out of the Great Pyramid to fall to her death, Daenerys fully taps into her powers, her entire body being engulfed in flames and granting her flight just in time to avoid hitting the ground. She then joins Logan and Hulk in the fight, actually managing to hurt the Juggernaut a bit. And then her dragons swoop in to join her, and the four of them shoot so much fire at him that all the air around him is sucked up until he passes out.
• While it's also Nightmare Fuel, we finally get something teased all book — Bucky, transformed into the Winter Soldier as the Red Skull's secret weapon.
• Just when Euron is about to overwhelm the Guardians and the allies they've brought with them, Robb emerges from the symbiote pool and transforms, before immobilizing Euron and pronouncing himself as Venom. He then proceeds to curbstomp Euron's forces with minimal effort, with only Euron himself putting up a decent fight in response.
• The Red Skull tries to turn Ygritte into the host of his lover. Unfortunately for him, the Red Shirts dying trying to rescue her count as sacrifices in her favor, just like Erskine for Steve, turning Ygritte into this fic's version of Agent 13.
• Shireen conjuring the shade of her father to aid in fighting Euron.
• Even after getting thoroughly trounced by Robb and the Guardians, Euron is still alive... and proceeds to fuse with a Symbiote. Let there be Carnage.
• Littlefinger does surprisingly well during his Trial by Combat, holding his own against Sandor and reminding people that he's descended from warriors. And while he's ultimately killed, it's not before he exposes the fact that Lyanna and Rhaegar had a child, throwing a wrench into everyone's plans.
• The Mandarin bringing the Titan of Braavos to life in order to fight Tony and Magneto.
• The Vulture manages to track the Crown's next payment to the Iron Bank as it's pulled out of King's Landing in a clear attempt to evade him... only to end up crashing against Jon's Kansas City Shuffle, as he had known the Vulture would be on the prowl, and the Vulture is suddenly faced with the Centurion, the Spiders and the Black Widow.
• As the Ten Rings overwhelm the Brotherhood and the Sealord's students, Arya tricks one of the cultists into attacking a Sentinel, which lashes out in return. This triggers an Enemy Civil War, as the cultists and Sentinels all turn into each other due to the Mandarin himself being too distracted to coordinate things.
• Natasha once managed to kill three men during the same sex act.
• When the Shocker grabs ahold of Miles as he swings though the air, Natasha jumps onto the former, breaking his hold and sending him crashing to the ground, killing him. She then claims his gauntlets and uses them for her own.
• The Spiders creating a giant web to entrap Adrian, capturing him.
• Tony uses his belief in the rationale of all the world (even with magic) to recognize that the animated Titan of Braavos is actually an ILLUSION.
  • Then when the Mandarin tries to envelop him in darkness, he trusts in his instincts to unibeam him back.
  • And when the Mandarin tries to crush him with gravity, Magneto suddenly stabs him from behind.
  • The Mandarin mocking Magneto, saying he'll never get the throne, as a "A blind man chasing after grievances made by long dead men." Then he reveals himself to be another illusion and escapes.
• When Sansa and Nymeria return to Winterfell, they don't just come back leading a pack of wolves. They come back leading an ARMY of Wolves, with Nymeria like the wolf queen of them all at the center.
• Margaery and Loras are revealed to be Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and are actually Magneto and Mystique's children, raised by the Tyrells as part of a long-term plan to enable Magneto's conquest and secure his hold on the Iron Throne. They were the ones who killed Joffrey and framed Littlefinger, and after gloating about all of this to Tywin, they take things a step further by killing him too.
  • Word of God is that this is also a Spanner in the Works for the Night's Queen, as she's now lost Tywin's protection.
• Hodor is actually The Watcher in human form.
• The time with Sam and Jon has been good for Tommen - who proves himself up to the task of getting out of his mother's shadow by quickly taking control of the situation and naming Jon his Hand and regent.
• When Cersei snaps angrily about Tommen daring to show some authority by summoning the Small Council, Ser Balon Swann partially draws his sword on her to shut her up. And when she gets angry at him for this, he reminds her that he's a King's Guard, not a Queen's Guard.
• Ned is able to actually beat Drax in a spar.
• Turns out Roslin also merged with a symbiote, turning her into this story's version of She-Venom.

A Web of Lies

• Adrian happily reflects on how his agreeing to join the Night's Watch on the Council's behalf has allowed him to spite the Tyrells in a perfectly legal way — Mace can't make him renounce his decision, and trying to force the issue would cause the Reach problems with both the Night's Watch and everyone who supports them as an alternative to mass incarcerations or executions.
• When Tony accidentally slips and tells Mystique that they are planning to send Arya back to Westeros, Pepper successfully terrifies Mystique into not interfering - and then convincing her to pretty much ignore Magneto's instructions so Arya can finally return home.
• Jaime has settled in his role as the Spirit of Vengeance, and demonstrates it by using his Penance Stare on a wildling that was trying to rape a six-year-old girl.
• Jaime proves he's smarter than his fame says when he easily recognizes how the Bloodraven is manipulating Bran, warning Jojen to stop blindly trusting the ancient spymaster by pointing out how much Bran's health has decayed.
• The Old Gods quest Jaime to find certain artifacts that will be needed to fight Thanos, and to do so grant him a mount: Hellfire, a black sabercat the size of a horse that leaves a trail of fire when she runs.
• The confirmation Tyrion is going to be this reality's Dr. Strange and tells Cat her destiny is...to be the Phoenix.
• As Deadpool is all about screwing around with "expectations", he's the one who brings up needing to train the dragons to eat when asked rather than at their desires. Thus hopefully heading off conflict in Mereen regarding their appetites, and avoiding political necessity to chain them up.
• Doctor Octopus makes his first full appearance and wipes the floor with the Spiders, remaining totally casual throughout it.
• Qyburn proves he's not just brains, as he singlehandedly slaughters the group of men Cersei tasked with escorting him out of King's Landing and kill him.
• Roose Bolton not only immediately identifies Mystique as a fake and Arya as the real deal, he's also correctly (although he doesn't know that) guessed that Antony and Jon are the Iron Man and the Centurion.
• When Catelyn's maid gets mad Jane didn't address Cat as "your grace" Jane decides to lay out ALL her titles, including the fact that she is the heir of the next King of Asgard and is married to the current king's son. And that Asgard isn't a single country but an entire universe, filled with the gods that Catelyn worships. The maid promptly shuts the hell up.
• Maester Aemon may be hitting a century of age, but when Bowen Marsh attempts to claim the message claiming Tywin Lannister is dead must be a forgery and that Tywin Lannister was a good man, he becomes so incensed that Jeor feels like Aemon's about to rip his skin off and become an actual dragon.
• May not-so-subtly threatening to kill Varys if he keeps spying on her.
• Cersei being utterly and beautifully outplayed by Mace, who reveals his Obfuscating Stupidity and when Cersei tries to attack, Margarey uses her powers to restrain her. Mace gets the wicked shot that, like him, people dismiss Cersei as a fool with the difference being that with her, "it's not an act." The two openly brag on their plans with Margarey ensuring Cersei is helpless to tell anyone the truth about what's happening.