Awesome / Fire & Blood

• Jaehaerys's reasoning for his and Rego Draz's taxes on fancy items such as silks and spices. Basically, the lords can either put up or shut up; they can either pay for their fancy status symbols or go without. Plus, all that coin they're spending on their taxes is money they're not spending on their castles, in case anyone feels like starting some new trouble. And this was when Jae was a baby-faced sixteen-year-old who'd just taken the throne.
• Alysanne's Wise Women save her life (in Rosamund Ball's case, at the cost of her own) when she is attacked at Jonquil's Pool. They are naked, unarmed, and with no knowledge of fighting, and yet they immediately stand between the armed attackers and their beloved queen and manage to hold them off until the Kingsguard knights rush inside.
• In a mixture of both this and funny, Jaehaerys's third son, Baelon, visited the Dragonpit for the first time as a child. His reaction to meeting Balerion the Black Dread, the mount of Aegon the Conqueror, the creature that had burned thousands of men alive at Harrenhal, the Field of Fire, and the deserts of Dorne? Bopping the dragon on the nose with a stick! The Kingsguard attending the prince and his siblings laughed and gave him his nickname, "Baelon the Brave."
• The Fourth Dornish War, where Prince Morion Martell tried to secretly assemble an invasion fleet of pirates and mercenaries to attack the Stormlands. Morion thought he had the element of surprise, but unbeknowst to him, King Jaehaerys had known of Morion's plans months in advance. When Morion's fleet set sail, Jaehaerys and his two sons Aemon and Baelon, all three riding their respective dragons descended from the sky and set the fleet ablaze, emerging from the battle without a scratch despite the best efforts of the fleet to shoot them down. It's recorded in Westerosi history as the only battle where one side didn't lose a single man, a feat not even Aegon the Conqueror achieved.
• The Undignified Death of Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of Aegon II's Kingsguard and one of the driving forces behind Aegon seizing the throne. While marching back to King's Landing after learning the city had fallen to Rhaenyra's army, Cole found his path blocked by a numerically superior enemy army. All of Cole's efforts to try and negotiate with the enemy commanders failed, and out of sheer desperation he resorted to challenging them to a three-on-one Trial by Combat. Unsurprisingly, the enemy commanders told Cole where he could shove his proposal, then signaled the archers overlooking their position, who promptly shot Cole full of arrows. The only downside was that Cole was dead before he hit the ground, so he never heard one of his enemies tell him they were deliberately denying him any possible romanticization of his death as punishment for his part in kickstarting the Dance of Dragons... and as a final humiliation, after the battle, Cole's killers hack his head off, stick it on a spear and carry it before their army to the next battle.
  Ser Pate of Longleaf: I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o' thousands dead on your account.
• The fall of King's Landing to the Blacks during the Dance of Dragons. Prince Daemon Targaryen, Queen Rhaenyra's husband, tricked Prince Aemond, acting as regent for his brother King Aegon II, who was convalescent from injuries sustained in battle, into stripping King's Landing of its defenders to march on Harrenhal to confront Daemon. By the time Aemond's army reached Harrenhal, they found the castle abandoned...and discovered too late that Daemon had circled around them and assaulted King's Landing at the same time Rhaenyra's forces at Dragonstone had attacked from the sea. With the city defenseless, the Green members of the Small Council tried to call for aid, but the rank and file of the City Watch, who were still loyal to Daemon, their former commander, rose up in revolt, murdered the politically appointed officers the Greens had put in charge of the gold cloaks, then opened the city gates to Rhaenyra's army. King's Landing fell to the Blacks in a few hours with virtually no bloodshed, leaving the capital city, the Iron Throne, and Aegon II's inner circle (most of whom were executed before the end of the day) in Rhaenyra's hands.
  • The arrival of no less than six dragons - Caraxes, Syrax, Seasmoke, Vermithor, Silverwing, and Sheepstealer - simultaneously descending on the city to take up positions at strategic points, a nuclear checkmate for the Blacks that guarantees the city's surrender. On top of that, it's in all probability the greatest deployment of force made in the world since the Doom of Valyria hundreds of years prior, and ultimately the last such great gathering of dragons the world would witness since.
• When Lord Manfryd Mooton is faced with the agonizing choice of either having to obey Rhaenyra's order to kill Nettles (which would mean not only killing an innocent guest but also enraging Daemon, who'd likely slaughter them all) or refusing (which would mean Rhaenyra labelling them all traitors and punishing them severely) his maester, Norren, comes up with a brilliant solution; by pretending that Mooton never saw Rhaenyra's letter, Norren tips off Daemon and Nettles, meaning she can escape in the morning. Norren's also willing to take the fall for his lord and pretend that he acted alone so that only he'll face Rhaenyra's wrath. Mooton repays his loyalty by refusing to turn him over, and changes his support to the Greens.
• The Battle Above The Gods Eye, the showdown between Daemon and Aemond Targaryen during the Dance of the Dragons. While their dragons are grappling to the death, Daemon ends the fight by leaping through the air at Aemond, burying his sword in his nephew's remaining eye, killing him just before the dragons crash into the lake.
• The last heroic act of Ser Addam Velaryon; after two of his fellow dragonseeds betrayed Rhaenyra, she became convinced Addam might also turn on her and ordered his arrest, but Addam was forewarned and able to escape King's Landing. He could have gone into hiding, but instead, he chose to refute the idea all bastards were born treacherous and travelled the Riverlands, building an army four thousand strong from the noble houses there loyal to Rhaenyra, then led that army in a surprise attack on Aegon II's loyalists from the Reach mobilising at the town of Tumbleton to retake King's Landing. Addam's attack took them completely by surprise and in the ensuing battle, Addam and his dragon Seasmoke attacked the riderless dragons Tessarion and Vermithor, despite knowing he had no chance of victory, to protect his men from the rampaging monsters. Though Addam and Seasmoke were killed in battle, Vermithor died and Tessarion perished soon after from the wounds they inflicted, while the enemy sustained such heavy casualties they were forced to withdraw back to the Reach in disarray; Addam saved King's Landing at the cost of his own life. After the battle, Lord Benjicot Blackwood, one of the Riverland lords who fought with Addam, took Addam's body back to Raventree Hall, letting Addam lie in state in the castle sept; after Addam's bones were returned to his family at the war's end, his brother Alyn had a single word inscribed on Addam's tombstone, LOYAL.
  • During the same battle, Jon Roxton killing the traitorous dragonseed Hugh Hammer; while Roxton was no saint himself, it can't be denied he put an end to the vile Hugh's delusions of seizing the Iron Throne for himself in impressive fashion.
    Jon Roxton: Lord Hammer, my condolences.
    Hugh Hammer: For what?
    Jon Roxton: You died in the battle. (slices Hugh open with his Valyrian steel sword)
• When Aegon II and a handful of supporters staged a coup to seize Dragonstone from Rhaenyra's remaining garrison there, Lady Baela Targaryen managed to evade the soldiers sent to take her captive, run along the rooftops of Dragonstone and get to the stable where her dragon Moondancer was kept. She could have used the confusion to escape, but instead as Aegon II flew in on the back of his own dragon Sunfyre for a triumphant landing in Dragonstone's courtyard, Baela goaded her dragon onto the attack, turning what should have been a great victory for Aegon into a humiliating and desperate fight to the death. Despite being only a thirteen year old girl and a young dragon, Baela and Moondancer gave a good account of themselves in the battle; when the two dragons plunged to earth locked in a death grip, Aegon leapt from Sunfyre's back in a panic when they were still twenty feet from the ground, leaving himself permanently crippled as a result, but Baela rode Moondancer to the ground, surviving with minor burns and still having the strength to crawl to safety from her dying dragon. Sunfyre might have killed Moondancer, but the injuries she inflicted in their battle ended up killing him a few weeks later.
• The Hour of the Wolf, when Cregan Stark shows up to King's Landing just a little late for the actual war and essentially seizes control of the whole place from everyone else by sheer force of personality. And he was only in his early twenties at the time.
  • To expand: With the death of Aegon II the remaining Greens and Blacks decide to just put Aegon III, a mentally scarred child, on the throne and declare that everything is right. Cue Cregan Stark showing up and when informed by the Clubfoot, the Sea Snake, and The Lads that the War is done Cregan states it isn't for him. He then throws the former two in the Black Cells, cows The Lads into obeying him, and declares himself Hand of the King and Ruling Regent. He holds trials for the death of Aegon II even though he didn't support him originally (stating that the king still deserves justice) and makes plans afterwards to take the combined Green and Black Army, led by the Winter Wolves, on a march to the Westerlands to shatter the Lannisters and then to Dorne and destroy them as well just for fun. It is only because his love interest agrees to marry him that Cregan finally stops.
  • The Winter Wolves deserve a mention. The army is made up entirely of men who decided to fight JUST so their families wouldn't need to feed them in Winter. They are more than happy to die and become the most feared army during the Dance as they scream for death and battle to the very last. Cregan and his new wife then set up balls for Southern Widows to meet the Wolves and get married to them, ensuring the North has loyalties in the Riverlands.
• Prince Viserys, at the time just thirteen, standing in front of his brother's treacherous Kingsguard on the moat of Maegor's keep and telling them they weren't getting to his wife while holding an axe.
  • Sandoq completely obliterating said Kingsguard when they try to force an entrance, including splitting Amaury Peake's head open with the aforementioned axe.
  • Following on from that, Aegon III, who'd generally been quiet and reserved with all the crap Unwin Peake had put him through, showing he did have a spine, and refusing to bow to the conspiracy's demands to come out, for thirteen days. When Marston Waters swore that Aegon would have nothing to fear with Waters at his side, Aegon retorted that Waters stood by his side when his mother was devoured by a dragon, and all he did was watch; Aegon was not about to have a repeat performance of that with his brother's wife.
  • Then Viserys gets another one when he wards off his brother's Despair Event Horizon by verbally demonstrating how unreliable Lord Rowan's forced confession is.
    Viserys: And my wife, Lady Larra, was she a part of this plot too, my lord?
    Thaddeus Rowan: She was.
    Viserys: And what of me?
    Thaddeus Rowan: Aye, you as well.
    Viserys: And Gaemon Palehair, 'twas he who put the poison in the tart, I'll venture.
    Thaddeus Rowan: If it please my prince.
    Viserys: [to Aegon] Gaemon was as guilty as the rest of us... of nothing.
    Mushroom: Lord Rowan, was it you who poisoned King Viserys?
    Thaddeus Rowan: It was, my lord. I do confess it.
• What happens when Aegon III finally reaches the age of sixteen, and is finally able to tell his regents, both good and bad, what they can go do with themselves. The morning he turns, Aegon shows up in the throne room with four of his kingsguard and Sandoq. There's a very sudden quiet in the room.
  Aegon III: Lord Manderly, pray tell me how old I am, if you would be so good.
  Torrhen Manderly: You are six-and-ten today, Your Grace. A man grown. It is time for you to take the governance of the seven kingdoms into your own hands.
  Aegon: I shall. You are sitting in my chair.

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