"A Forging of Alliances
" is a Game of Thrones fanfic that is a Fix Fic for the last two seasons of the show.
Followed by a sequel, "The Hour of the Wolf".
Tropes that appear in this work:
- 0% Approval Rating: Cersei is hated by the smallfolk for destroying the Great Sept.
- Adaptational Badass: Bran's telepathic abilities are expanded, as he is able to communicate with Archmaester Marwyn in Oldtown.
- Ascended Extra:
- Ryman Frey is mainly a supporting character amongst the Freys in the books, but here he is the first POV.
- Eddison Tollet is mainly a Satellite Character to Jon and Sam in the books and show, but he also takes a POV.
- Sandor Clegane is a prominent character, but not one that we're really inside the head of during the books. He gets his own set of POV chapters here.
- Dickon Tarly is the main POV in King's Landing after Jaime Lannister leaves northward.
- Bad Boss: Euron sacrifices one of his men as a demonstration of what the dragonbinder horn can do; the man blows the horn and is burned to death by whatever magic is in the horn.
- The Bait: Olenna has set up Highgarden as bait. With only a token force defending it, Highgarden's resources have been split between three castles, forcing the Lannisters to spread their forces thin and leave King's Landing open.
- Bizarre Seasons: Much like in canon, this trope is part of the Myth Arc. Notably though, winter arrives earlier and it has been snowing in King's Landing for days by the time of Jaime's first chapter. It's even snowing as far south as Dorne, as some of the civilians have found out the hard way.
- The Bus Came Back: Harrenhal makes its first appearance in Chapter 16 after being absent from every season after Season 3.
- Camping a Crapper: One of Jaime's men is torn apart by a wolf while going off to take a dump.
- Cassandra Truth: Melisandre and the Brotherhood without Banners meet Daenerys and her forces to warn them of the White Walkers, but it falls on deaf ears since Daenerys is unwilling to wait any longer to take the Iron Throne.
- Catapult Nightmare: Chapter 2 opens with Dolorous Edd waking up from a nightmare of being killed by wights, in the exact same way as in the show.
- Child Soldier: Kedge Whiteeye became a member of the Night's Watch as a ten-year-old boy.
- Covered with Scars: Sansa's wounds from her Domestic Abuse at Ramsay's hands are described in more detail. She has a series of shallow knife wounds all over her body, wax burns on her abdomen, burns from a hot poker applied to her thighs, lacerations from a potato peeler, and Ramsay cut off one of her nipples.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Blowing the Horn of Winter will cause the blower to spew Blood from Every Orifice and burn from the inside-out.
- Death by Childbirth: Ryman Frey's wife died giving birth to Petyr.
- Decoy Protagonist:
- Ryman Frey is the viewpoint protagonist for the story's prologue, but is offed at its end (as usual with prologue viewpoints).
- Bennis, a farmer near the God's Eye, is the viewpoint character for the sequel's prologue. He and his wife Dalla are murdered by Euron and his men.
- Didn't See That Coming: Nobody in Dorne expected winter, as Tyrion observes several hastily-built sets of shutters and numerous candles.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Ryman Frey is poisoned instead of being hanged.
- Instead of being burned alive by Drogon, Randyll Tarly is stabbed by Euron Greyjoy.
- The Dragon: Euron Greyjoy to the Night King; he's acting on the Night King's behest to disrupt any activities that would stop the Long Night.
- Dream Weaver: Archmaester Marwyn is apparently one of these since he's been planting visions in Jaime Lannister's dreams to get him to go to Moat Cailin and seek out Jon Snow.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sandor uses most of the time he's at Moat Cailin to train up the soldiers there the best he can, similar to what Jon had to do back in the first book.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ryman Frey drinks due to the death of his wife in childbirth.
- Endless Corridor: Bran's organization of human memory revolves around this trope, as a hallway with many doors leading off it to various moments in time.
- Eye Scream:
- Kedge Whiteye is blind in his left eye.
- Ser Ilyn Payne is seen executing a man who stabbed a Gold Cloak in the eye.
- Euron Greyjoy has one of his men cut out one of his eyes.
- Face Death with Dignity: After getting stabbed, Randyll Tarly grimly admits that he's done for, forgives Sam for taking Heartsbane for a good cause, and tells Dickon to take care of his remaining family.
- Green Around the Gills: Tyrion spends most of the voyage back to Westeros suffering from seasickness. Varys said he'd be better if he didn't drink, but Tyrion refuses to stop drinking, putting the two of them back at square one.
- In Spite of a Nail: Sam cures Jorah's greyscale by flaying him.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Dickon threatens one of Euron's men by telling Bronn to cut off one of his thumbs before he talks.
- Moral Myopia: Reviewers have noted that while Arwood demands Arya's head for the deaths of seven innocent Freys, he doesn't seem willing to acknowledge the murders committed at the Red Wedding as wrong.
- Mythology Gag: Cersei makes a reference to Catelyn Stark rising from her watery grave. This indeed happened in the books with Catelyn being resurrected by Beric Dondarrion and becoming Lady Stoneheart.
- Number Two: Igon Vyrwel has command of the Tyrell forces and was once Captain of the Guard at Highgarden.
- Off with His Head!: Littlefinger is decapitated by Jon.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Tanton Fossoway's eye wound that he got during the siege of Highgarden gets infected and he dies three days later.
- The Peeping Tom: Euron uses his greenseer powers to spy on two couples (Bran and Meera and Jon and Sansa).
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- Cersei agrees to send an army to the Riverlands to hunt for Arya so she can say she held up her end of the deal with the Freys.
- Cersei attempts to hire several assassins to kill Sansa, but they all refuse because they don't want to go where it's cold.
- Revenge: Tyrion intends to have Littlefinger slowly tortured to death for selling Sansa to the Boltons. It doesn't wind up coming to that because Jon executes Littlefinger first.
- Shout-Out: The author based Bran's system of organizing the memories he accesses off of the door system from Monsters, Inc. and The Matrix.
- Slashed Throat: The fate of Bennis and Dalla, the couple who sheltered Euron.
- Snow Means Death: The Tyrell forces clash with the Tarly forces on a snowy day.
- Spotting the Thread:
- One of the Frey soldiers is able to figure out who Arya is by seeing Needle.
- Dickon is able to spot that the Highgarden force is merely a token force because there are too few soldiers at the front lines.
- The Starscream: Randyll Tarly eventually turns on Cersei and has her imprisoned, declaring Jaime king.
- Switching P.O.V.: Like the books, the fic uses a system of each chapter being told from the perspective of a different character.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Someone has been trying to poison Sam at the Citadel.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It doesn't take long for Tyrion and Ellaria Sand to start snarling death threats at each other because Ellaria blames Tyrion for Oberyn's death.
- Thicker Than Water: Despite not agreeing with the Red Wedding, Arwood Frey pressures the Starks to punish Arya for the deaths of seven of his kinsmen who did not participate in the Red Wedding.
- Throne Made of X: A throne made of weirwood roots lies beneath Winterfell. Bran uses it a sort of magical battery, allowing him greater focus for his powers.
- You Are in Command Now: Ryman Frey opens the story having just taken command of the Freys. When he is poisoned, Arwood Frey leads the efforts to find and kill Arya.
