Fanfic / A Game of Vengeance and Justice

"This game of thrones is a mummer's farce. It is a justification for others to attempt to control the Throne or take it for themselves. If you get the chance Jasper, end this cursed game once and for all."

— Stannis Baratheon to his nephew, Jasper Baratheon

A Game of Vengeance and Justice is an A Song of Ice and Fire AU story by Psykic Ninja. It chronicles the life of Original Character Jasper Baratheon, the only true-born son of King Robert I Baratheon and Cersei Lannister, and the ordeals he and those around him go through over the course of the purported seven novels.

As of 17 April 2016, it is completed, at a total of 187 chapters and two Author's Notes (one of them being a Q&A section). A sequel, After Vengeance and Justice, was started on 11 May 2016, and completed on April 30 of the following year, at a total of 31 chapters.

Now has a character page in desperate need of some Wiki Love.

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This fanfic has examples of:

A Game of Vengeance and Justice

• 0% Approval Rating: Daenerys has no local support in Westeros, her army consisting of her dragons (well, one of them), Unsullied, mercenaries, and Red Priests. She keeps expecting people to be jubilant upon her return to Westeros, but since she hasn't done anything heroic—unlike her nephew Aegon, who helped fight off the White Walkers—and has a rather savage and destructive army following her, they give her the proverbial finger.
• Action Girl: Arya. She's forced to avert this trope at the end, though she and Jasper still train and spar in private.
• Achilles' Heel: As formidable as Daenerys's dragons are, they are still young, and their wings are a HUGE weak spot, something Jasper takes advantage of to kill two of them in just one battle.
• Adapted Out: Ramsay Snow. Word of God confirms his existence, but since Roose sired another true-born son between AGOVAG and AVAG, he felt no need to contact Ramsay. He also took necessary steps to ensure his heir and his bastard son never met.
• Adaptational Heroism: Very, very heavily downplayed and indirect example, but this applies to Theon. While he still betrays Robb, the scale of his betrayal is not as severe as it was in A Clash of Kings. Instead of invading the North, taking Winterfell and allegedly kill Bran and Rickon, Theon instead leads his Ironmen to the Twins where he sacks the castle, slaughters most of the extended Frey family including Lord Walder himself and carrying away much of House Frey's wealth. At the time he heard the news, Robb was fuming at Theon's betrayal but this time around his betrayal was useful for Robb in the long run. While the loss of the Twins complicated Robb's strategic situation, the North and Winterfell are now safe and what's left of House Frey is now fully committed to Robb instead of plotting to betray him now that Lord Walder and most of his family are now dead.
• Amazon Chaser: Jasper marries Arya. This quote sums it up.
  Jasper: "Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, but I have no need for a Rhaenys, only a Visenya. Become my Visenya, Arya."
• Anti-Hero: Jasper. He can be brutal and unforgiving at his absolute worst, as The Ironborn and the followers of the Red Faith find out, but he has just enough Pet the Dog scenes and moments of inner turmoil to keep from sliding fully into Villain Protagonist territory.
• Arranged Marriage: A few examples. Some work out, others don't.
  • Cersei, Tywin and Mace Tyrell tried to arrange Jasper's marriage to Margaery Tyrell, but this plan crashed and burned when Jasper went and married Arya with only a few witnesses. And, as Jasper later indicated, neither Cersei nor Tywin could negotiate his betrothal, as he is head of House Baratheon.
  • Robb Stark and Wynafryd Manderly.
  • Aegon Targaryen and Arianne Martell.
  • Stannis and Margaery Tyrell.
• Badass Army: Jasper's knights are some of the toughest in Westeros.
• Badass Crew: The Stormguard. They eventually become the Kingsguard.
  • Special mention goes to their leader, Beric Storm, who defeats Obara Sand and Barristan Selmy in combat, and even slays one of Daenerys's dragons.
• Berserk Button: Jasper does not like it when people compare war to a game.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jasper towards Myrcella and Tommen, even after learning the truth about their parentage.
  • When he learns that the Red Priests killed Edric Storm, Jasper orders a Witch Hunt that ultimately destroys the Red Faith.
• Big Damn Heroes: Jasper and his knights come to the rescue when Renly's forces lay siege to King's Landing.
  • They do so again at the story's climax, this time against Aegon's forces.
• Bittersweet Ending: The White Walkers have been vanquished, Baratheon supremacy is secured, and peace has been brought. However, MANY named and unnamed characters are dead, several noble families have been wiped out, and the king has been reduced to a shadow of his former self, though he has a loving wife and loyal comrades to support him.
  • Arya suffers a miscarriage at one point, loses her beloved direwolf, and by the end, has to give up her dreams of being a warrior queen (at least in public), but she has a faithful and loving husband whom she can train and spar with in private, and her family is more than happy to support her emotionally.
  • Daenerys's anti-slavery campaign ultimately fails, but the Pointy-Haired Boss and Bullying a Dragon tendencies of the slave-masters makes it clear that "their" armies are starting to get tired of them.
• Break the Cutie: Jasper goes through a lot, and his Stark-like idealism takes a few serious blows as a result.
  • Sansa is tormented by Joffrey, like in canon. Thankfully, Jasper sends her home after he becomes king.
• Broken Ace: By the end of the story, Jasper has gone from The Ace to this.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Jaime and Cersei, natch. Jasper has them killed when he finds out, along with Tyrion for hiding it.
  • Subverted and Played for Laughs when Jasper, prior to his marriage to Arya, tries to seduce Mia Stone. After she departs for the horse stables, one of his knights reveals their relations, much to Jasper's embarrassment.
• Bullying a Dragon: Joffrey takes great delight in trying Jasper's patience, completely unfazed by the fact that he desperately needs Jasper's help to stay alive. At one point, he receives a message from Tywin that explicitly urges him not to provoke his brother, as the Old Lion cannot hold against the royal family's enemies without Jasper's support, and he STILL does it anyway! The only reason Jasper doesn't throw him to the dogs is because, while he hates Joffrey, he deeply cares for Myrcella and Tommen, and Joffrey losing the war would put them in mortal danger, too.
• Cain and Abel: Joffrey and Jasper, respectively.
• Character Death: TONS.
  • Ned, Littlefinger, Walder Frey, Tyrion, Jaime, Cersei, the Sand Snakes, Margaery, Daenerys, Jorah Mormont, Jon Snow, Genna Frey, Barristan Selmy, Edric Storm, Nymeria, Varys, Pycelle, Theon, Euron, Balon, the dragons, Gregor Clegane, Renly, Loras, Willas, Garlan, Melisandre...
• The Chessmaster: In the final "book", Jasper successfully pits Aegon and Daenerys against each other while he marshals his own forces to annihilate them both while they are at their weakest.
• Demoted to Extra: Roose Bolton.
• Disney Death: Jasper disappears after one battle, making everyone think he has died. He reappears in a Big Damn Heroes event to save King's Landing.
• Disney Villain Death: How Tyene Sand meets her end, courtesy of Myrcella.
• Dual Wielding: Arya wields two swords.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In contrast to Aegon, Daenerys is treated like a disease that needs to be removed by the people of Westeros, much to her consternation.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Jasper has to fight several wars and wipe out many families over the course of his life, but he defeats all of his enemies and maintains his family's rule.
  • Sandor Clegane gets to enact sweet revenge on the brother he so despises, is willfully dismissed from a job he detests, and inherits his family's estate.
• End of an Era: After becoming king, Jasper goes out of his way to erase all Targaryen relics and influence in Westeros, up to and including having the Iron Throne melted down and replaced with a more grandiose and comfortable throne.
• Enemy Mine: Aegon and Jasper join forces to fight the White Walkers.
• Eye Scream: The night before Cersei's beheading, Jasper has her eyes pulled out.
• The Final Solution: The Ironborn and the followers of R'hllor get this treatment.
• The Fundamentalist: At the start of Book 7, Jasper becomes a religious zealot determined to destroy the Red Faith after they used Edric Storm as a sacrifice to revive him. The Old Gods are exempt, however.
  • The followers of R'hllor are so fanatically devoted to their religion that some of them seem to think that offering conversation to said faith can be used as a form of payment.
• Generation Xerox: Jasper may try to emulate Stannis to a degree, but as time goes on, he begins to show a darker side that reminds the readers that he is Tywin's grandson.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The War of the Dragon and the Stag in a nutshell. Neither Jasper nor Aegon are wholly good, nor are they wholly evil.
• Happily Married: Jasper and Arya.
• Hypocrite: Daenerys claims that she is the rightful ruler of Westeros, despite the fact that Aegon is technically ahead of her in the succession.
• I Gave My Word: In Chapter 151 ("The Winds of Winter", ARYA VI), Beric Storm swears that he will kill Daenerys. Fast-forward to Chapter 178 ("A Dream of Spring", DAENERYS IV), he does.
• I Have No Son!: Tywin disowns all three of his children after he realizes there is no way he can save them from execution in light of Cersei and Jaime's relationship—and Tyrion lying about it—being exposed.
• Irony: Early on, Jasper tries to convince his father not to have Daenerys assassinated. Near the end, he arranges her murder himself. This isn't lost on him.
• Karma Houdini: Tywin Lannister essentially gets everything he wants by the end of the story. First off, he survives. Second, while he's forced to disown his children and leave them to their fate, he recovers quickly and gains a new heir that, by the time of the sequel, has been groomed into a worthy successor. Sure, he has to resign from his position as Hand of the King so that he can train his heir, but by then, he's already gotten to do quite a few notable things that'll make that particular tenure a notable one, such as overseeing the destruction of the Iron Throne itself and Visenya's Hill—two tasks he clearly enjoyed and that he'll be remembered for. Even the fact that he couldn't turn Jasper into a Puppet King doesn't bother him that much, since Jasper, despite taking more from Stannis, clearly wears his grandfather's influence on his sleeves if the Ruination of the Hellholt is anything to go by. He ultimately dies peacefully of old age in the sequel, his fearsome reputation unshaken and his hand-picked heir succeeding him without a problem.
• Kick the Dog: Cersei tries to have Jasper's bastard children killed.
  • Tyene murdering Arthur Flowers right in front of his aunt, Myrcella.
  • The Ruination of the Hellholt. It's not shown, but the sequel describes it in gruesome detail.
• Kissing Cousins: Aegon marries Arianne, his maternal uncle's daughter.
• Kneel Before Zod: After besting Aegon, Jasper summons the Dornish lords and forces them to kneel before him, forever shattering Dorne's independent mindset.
• Literal-Minded: Jasper invokes this as part of his punishment for his mother. Cersei had wanted all of her children to have her hair and eyes (blond and green). Jasper has her hair shaved and her eyes pulled out of their sockets.
• May–December Romance: Myrcella and Beric Storm.
• Opening Scroll: The first chapter of each "book" begins with something similar to one.
• Put on a Bus: Following the execution of his children, Tywin resigns from his position as Hand and departs for Casterly Rock, taking the newly legitimized (as a Lannister) Tommen with him. He makes a brief appearance during the sixth "book", but that's about it.
• Pet the Dog: Despite his hatred for Joffrey, Jasper tries to save him at the Purple Wedding.
  • Varys helped Jasper track down Gendry, and even pitched in to help the boy get a job as a blacksmith's apprentice.
• Puppet King: Averted. Joffrey is too spoiled and impulsive to be controlled.
  • Averted again with Jasper. While he will listen to sound advice, it's quite clear from the start that he is no one's puppet.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Jasper begins employing this tactic late in the story. He's not overly proud of it, nor does he explicitly order his men to commit rape, but he'll look the other way.
  • The Ironborn do this a lot. Jasper pays them back—with interest!
• Rasputinian Death: Daenerys is stabbed, shot with arrows and crossbow bolts, and finally stabbed through the heart by Beric Storm.
• Really Gets Around: Like his father, Jasper is rather libidinous. He stops after he marries Arya, though.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though capable of great cruelty when it suits him, such as executing his mother and maternal uncles and committing genocide, Jasper is also capable of generosity and mercy.
  • The High Sparrow. He oversees a massive Witch Hunt, but the trials are conducted with surprising levels of honesty and fairness.
• Retcon: Chapter 72 underwent one after Jasper did something so horrible and out of character several readers asked the writer to change it. Given that Cersei having her hair shaved and her eyes pulled out of their sockets was considered a better alternative, you can imagine how bad it was (see the Nightmare Fuel sub-page).
• Rightful King Returns: Daenerys and Aegon invoke this trope for themselves. Unfortunately for them, neither gets as much support as they had hoped (though the latter gets a lot while the former gets none), and Jasper ultimately defeats them both.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Witch Hunt is a huge version of this.
• Sacred Hospitality: Averted. Daenerys refuses the protection of guest right out of arrogance. It gets her killed.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Red Priests try this twice once they've overstayed their welcome in Westeros. Averted, however, as Jasper won't let them leave alive.
• Self-Made Orphan: Jasper has Cersei killed when he learns about the twincest.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Daenerys's character arc. Her anti-slavery campaign ultimately fails due to losing two of her dragons to Euron, and they are both killed without ever seeing her again. Later, she manages to invade Westeros, only to receive no support from any of its lords and be repeatedly outmaneuvered by the other two factions until it becomes painfully obvious that, even with her one remaining dragon, she stands no chance of claiming the throne for herself. It finally wraps up with her and her entourage (including Drogon) getting butchered Red Wedding-style, and her corpse tossed into a nearby river.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Myrcella. She uses this trope to kill Tyene Sand.
• Smug Snake: The Dornish seem to think that they are indispensable to Aegon's cause, in addition to being rather independent-minded already, so it's quite a shock to them when he is perfectly willing to show them who's boss.
  • Joffrey, as usual. He barks a big fight, but without Jasper's help, he's powerless.
  • Daenerys thinks that simply having dragons makes her invincible. While they are powerful, they are still young and vulnerable, as shown when two of them are quickly slain in a single battle when Jasper's archers hit their wings. Even after said loss, she still thinks she can win. She loses. Badly.
• Spared By Adaptation: Tywin and Stannis among the major characters, and several minor ones.
• Take That!: Psykic Ninja is not a fan of the R+L=J hypothesis, even dedicating an entire Eddard point-of-view chapter to verbally shitting on it.
• Taking You with Me: Right before he is overtaken by the Goldcloaks, Ned manages to kill Littlefinger.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The followers of R'hllor who ask for asylum in King's Landing. Despite unintentionally giving Jasper several reasons to not let them in—such as being former supporters of Daenerys and offering something that is utterly worthless to him ("the light of the true god")—he decides to give them a chance, but warns them not to cause trouble. How do they respond? By defacing septs, violently attacking septas and septons in the streets, and basically acting like crazy anarchists. Needless to say, Jasper quickly tires of their shenanigans and gives them the boot.
  • How Jasper views Tyrion after learning about the twincest. After the Purple Wedding, Jasper went out of his way to make sure Tyrion got a fair trial, then arranged for Sandor Clegane - the one man pretty much everyone knew could best Gregor Clegane in a fight - to be his uncle's champion in a trial by combat. Tyrion repays him by repeatedly lying about the his siblings' actions to protect Jaime, thereby making him, in Jasper's eyes, partially responsible for the War of the Four Kings by holding his tongue.
• Unstoppable Rage: Jasper is a simmering volcano of rage and bloodlust just waiting to go off, and only a lifetime of self-discipline keeps him from living up to his family's proverb, "Ours Is the Fury". And when he does go off, the results are borderline cataclysmic.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Subverted with Beric Storm. When he was younger, he wanted to impress his father, but by the time he's actually gained the man's approval, he's long stopped caring.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After killing his brother and being dismissed from the Kingsguard, Sandor Clegane just leaves and is never seen again. Word of God confirms that he inherited his family's estate and killed his brother's men.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tyene Sand kills Arthur Flowers.
• Worthy Opponent: Aegon to Jasper. On the latter's instructions, Arya rubs this in Daenerys's face in the hopes of convincing the so-called "Mother of Dragons" to focus on fighting her nephew rather than Jasper's forces. It works.
  • Subverted with Daenerys. While regarded as a serious threat by her enemies, at the end of the day, they regard her with contempt rather than grudging respect.

After Vengeance and Justice

• Antagonistic Offspring/Archnemesis Dad: Durran's rebellion.
• Battle in the Rain: The battle of Meadow Fields. The heavy rainfall actually gives Jasper an advantage: Durran's elite cavalrymen are forced to dismount because the ground is too muddy for their horses to walk on.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Durran's rebellion in a nutshell. Durran is a Wide-Eyed Idealist, but the other rebel commanders are a bunch of spoiled, self-centered jerks who simply hate the fact that Jasper's rule keeps them in line rather than kowtowing to them like they would have expected. Jasper's rule is hardly ideal, but it keeps the game of thrones from being played and rewards people based on merit rather than social status.
• Blood from the Mouth: At the end of Chapter 27, Jasper starts coughing up blood.
• Character Death: Tywin and Stannis eventually die of old age. Beric Storm dies in battle, and by the end, most of Jasper's old Kingsguard have died, with Balon being the only one left. Oberyn Martell is executed for plotting to abduct Durran and Laena.
  • Jasper dies at the end of Chapter 30.
• Dare to Be Badass: Arya gives this to Arlan:
  "There are moments in a lifetime that can define a man. Marriage, the birth of a son, the death of a loved one. Choosing whether or not to fight, that is a choice. Not just about what you will do, but a choice of who you are. This is where you decide. Are you a Warrior Prince, a knight who will serve and protect his father and lord, who will lead his armies and fight his enemies? Or are you still but a child, who will do only what he is told?"
• Doting Parent: Jasper to his daughters, especially Cat.
• The Dutiful Son: Arlan. His devotion to his father is unquestioned, and he plays a decisive role at the battle of Meadow Fields.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Beric Storm dies during the final battle against the Dothreaki, slaying the khal before eventually succumbing to Death of a Thousand Cuts.
• Entitled Bastard: The motive behind Durran's rebellion. While its leader is a Wide-Eyed Idealist, his supporters are nothing more than a bunch of petty, self-entitled aristocrats who hate the fact that Jasper's ironclad, autocratic rule prevents them from, in a way, playing the game of thrones. They also hate the fact that he keeps empowering Justiciars to overrule them and assume the duties they would usually have, despite the fact that most of them were too lazy to do said duties in the first place.
• Expy: Durran's rebellion is similar to the First Barons' War, though in this case, the king—Jasper—defeats the rebellious lords and successfully repudiates the Magna Carta knock-off. The defeated lords then have no choice but to wait until he dies before they can try anything, and even then, Durran cannot implement it fully since the Justiciars are too integral to Westeros society by that point, and none of them like him.
• For Want Of A Nail: Durran's brilliant plan to defeat Jasper at Meadow Fields would have worked flawlessly had it not been for the simple fact that it was raining that day.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Averted. While the closing paragraph of Chapter 31 acknowledges the impact that Jasper made on Westeros, it also strongly emphasizes that he was not a paragon of virtue, that the atrocities he committed were absolutely appalling, and that white-washing them would be a "disservice to humanity and to our own national soul."
• I Can Rule Alone: Jasper rules as an absolute monarch, choosing his ministers based on loyalty and competence rather than wealth or prestige and preventing them from any attempts at social-climbing (without consulting him first) or political scheming. It's one of the reasons why the nobles hate him.
  • Later down the line, King Boremund II took this to extremes, completely centralizing his government to the point of having everything revolve around him.
• La Résistance: Durran leads a huge rebellion against Jasper. It fails.
• Mighty Glacier: One of Jasper's key advantages during his son's rebellion is that he has littered the Crownlands with strongly-built fortresses that the rebels will have to besiege, forcing them to waste their time and resources while his rangers harass their supply lines.
• Mook Chivalry: Averted. As the battle of Meadow Fields winds down, Durran manages to get the better of his father and brother, but before he can land a finishing strike, Jasper's men—having defeated Durran's army—dogpile him and knock him out.
• Parental Favoritism: On his deathbed, Jasper confesses to Arya that Arlan was his favorite child.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Durran Baratheon and Laena Targaryen.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: It's noted that women don't often get to be healers, but Myrcella got the job because no one wants to seriously piss off her brother.
• The Spymaster: Cassana.
• Weather of War: Heavy rainfall is one of the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the battle of Meadow Fields.
• You Will Be Spared: Jasper spares the rebellious nobles as per his agreement with Durran. Except Dickon Tarly, who's executed for killing one of Jasper's justiciars.