Fanfic / A Man of Iron

The image that started it all

Nikolos Fury: Stark is the first. He won't be the last.
Varys: How does that old saying go? The last song is ended and a new one begins?
Nikolos Fury: Yes. A Song of Metal and Marvels.

A Man of Iron (Book 1) is a Fusion Fic crossover between A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and the Marvel Universe, reimagining Tony Stark and other Marvel Comics characters as part of Westeros and Essos. It is written by Mr. Chaos and can be found on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

It is now complete. A Man of Iron is also the first in a series titled A Song of Metal and Marvels.

Antony 'Tony' Stark is the arrogant cousin of Ned Stark whose made his fortune crafting fine weapons for the lords of Westeros. Tony leads a joyful life, doing as he pleases and leaving the politics of the realm to others. But when a violent attack nearly ends his life, Tony decides to take action and creates a hero for the people to rally around... a knight known as Iron Man. But little did anyone know that by doing so, a new age would be ushered in. An age of Metal and Marvels!

Book 2, A Crack of Thunder, can be found here(FF.net) and here(AO3) and it has been completed.

Book 3, A Shield of Man can be found here(FF.net) and here(AO3) and has been completed.

Book 4, A Web of Lies, began on May 24, 2023 and can be found here.

Warning! Beware of unmarked spoilers for Book 1.

General trope examples:

• Composite Character
• Mythology Gag
• Shout Out
• Wham Episode

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A Man Of Iron and its sequels contain examples of:

#-F

• 0% Approval Rating: Joffrey's was bad in canon, but, as Tyrion points out, the fact that he was the public, direct cause of Sansa Stark's death only makes it worse. And that's not even going into the fact that Iron Man, whom the Small Folk love and revere as a hero who is famed for tackling criminals and corrupt lords, intervenes at Ned's attempted execution and openly declares Joffrey unfit to rule before all of King's Landing.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: When the wildfire explosion in the Battle of the Blackwater blows Jane into a tree, something becomes unlocked in her, allowing her to use magic. This is later revealed to be because she is Loki's daughter.
• Accidental Truth: In Chapter 12 of Book 2, Mystique, disguised as Jaime, claims that he had to kill a guard to escape, and says that "he" thinks it was a Karstark. When Ned visited Jaime's cage in Chapter 8, he noted that one of the Karstarks was guarding it. Note that Mystique hasn't been to the Northern camp yet.
• The Ace: If Oberyn Martell's words are right, his daughter Natasha Martell.
• Action Dress Rip: During the Ironborn assault on their wedding tournament, Natasha rips off the bottom of her dress in order to more efficiently fight alongside Jon.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Ned thinks Walder Frey looks like a caretaker who would screech at naughty children wandering after curfew. In the series, the character was played by David Bradley, who previously played Argus Filch.
  • Arya being a mutant, since Maisie Williams was cast as Wolfsbane in The New Mutants.
  • Tyrion tells Bronn to sing "The Rains of Castamere" and even says he has a lovely singing voice, referencing Jerome Flynn's singing career.
  • Tony manages to have a completely silent conversation with Natasha, like in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
  • Magneto claims "I am never late nor am I early. I arrive precisely when I mean to."
  • Adult Rickon, who is noted as looking exactly like Chris Pratt, mentions at one point meeting some sickle-clawed dragons who liked him, especially a blue one.
  • When she meets one of the Sealord's adopted children, Arya is reminded of her sister Sansa. Sophie Turner played both Sansa in Game of Thrones and young Jean Grey in the X-Men Film Series.
• Actually, That's My Assistant: Thor refuses to believe Stannis is King rather than Jane, because she was the only one brave enough to not cower when he fell on Dragonstone.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Twofold example.
  • The Marvel half of the story incorporates elements from Earth-616 and the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the race-lifted depiction of Valkyrie to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the existence of two Nick Furys (one based on the classic version and the other being modeled after Fury's MCU actor Samuel L. Jackson). Additionally, the appearances of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Jefferson Davis and Gwen Stacey take inspiration from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, though Adrian's hatred of the Tyrells is based on his hatred of Iron Man in the MCU.
  • The Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire half is based on the books and the series respectively such as Asha Greyjoy being known by her original name instead of Yara and the presence of Myranda as Ramsay Bolton's lover as well as Gerion Lannister.
• Adapted Out: Due to the extensive use of Marvel characters influencing canon events, many characters presumably still exist but don't play any role in the story:
  • Since Tywin making Tyrion acting Hand was a test with a handsome reward if he did a good job, Tyrion didn't ignore Tywin's warnings about not consorting with prostitutes, and thus he didn't bring Shae to King's Landing with him. Shae's only appearance is a voiceless cameo, where Tyrion orders her to be sent elsewhere.
  • Due to the much more stable situation of the Riverlands, as well as Arya and Gendry's plotline being much different than in the books, the Brotherhood Without Banners never show up.
  • The Faceless Men have been completely replaced in this story by the Brotherhood, which takes their place as the Braavos-based organization operating out of the House of Black and White which Arya joins.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon Aegon married his sister Visenya as was traditional, but married his second sister Rhaenys for love, and she loved him in return. In this version, Rhaenys had always been promised to Aegon and didn't love him back, and when she was shot down over Dorne she instead fell in love with the man history believed was the Vulture King, and joined Dorne in the fight against her siblings.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Brienne's non-Hulk form is a beautiful girl.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Daenerys is a mutant who can manipulate fire.
  • Before the Hulk, Bruce Banner was a scientist of average physical ability who got his powers through exposure to gamma rays. Bruce of Tarth survived a voyage to the ruins of Valyria (a place no one has ever been to and returned alive), discovered the truth of the Doom (a mystery no one solved in 300 years) and discovered ancient magic to get his powers.
  • Peter Baelish took time to learn how to fight after being defeated and nearly killed in his duel with Brandon Stark. It allows him to fight Sandor Clegane and hold him off for some time during his Trial by Combat.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Going against all expectations from when they were introduced, Obadiah Stane is not the one who arranged Tony's kidnapping, and is fully loyal to him, ending up killed by the story's own version of Iron Monger, Gregor Clegane.
  • Theon, upon learning of Renly's alliance with Vanko and Asha, chooses to refuse their efforts to recruit him, declaring his loyalty to Winterfell.
  • All the Gods seem to have gotten nicer in the original versions of their stories, which Thor shares. For example, the story of how the Drowned God was cast into the sea was actually heavily modified version of a story where one of Thor's friends was thrown into a lake for trying to hit on Sif. The name "Drowned God", was a reference to that event.
  • Selyse Baratheon of the show may have changed her mind... a little too late to do anything, but she was still willing to sacrifice Shireen to help Stannis. In this story, she is killed by Amora because she refused to kill her child.
  • Surprisingly, Walder Frey. In both the books and the show, Walder Frey is seen as deserving of all the scorn he gets, and that was before the Red Wedding. Here, he's portrayed as somebody tired of how everybody mocks his house and treat them as glorified toll collectors due to the way they built their wealth, and is genuinely moved when contrary to his expectations, the Starks don't dishonor their promise to marry Robb to one of his daughters, and vows that his house will stand with the Starks until the very end.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Downplayed, but, according to Qyburn, the Dothraki have a knowledge of animal husbandry that was not present in either their book or show counterparts - being aware of both the concept of breeding for favourable traits and the dangers of inbreeding, despite having no knowledge of genetics.
• Adaptational Name Change:
  • Mr. Chaos was quite incensed by the show's revelation that Jon's real name was Aegon, so he changed it to Jaehaerys.
  • As a minor example, there's Daenerys naming her black dragon Drogan instead of Drogon, in order to honor both Drogo and Logan.
  • The War of the Five Kings is instead the War of the Five Crowns, since while Balon Greyjoy hasn't made a move yet, a fifth contender has (albeit inadvertently) come forward in the form of Jane Seaworth, whom Thor declares her the Queen of Westeros.
  • Reed Richards' name is flipped into Rickard Reed, in order to make him a member of House Reed.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Asha Greyjoy, who was a Noble Demon in the books, becomes one of the Big Bads along with her lover, Vanko.
  • Renly Baratheon is revealed to be the one who sent the bandits after Tony. Furthermore he is working with Vanko and the Ironborn to plot directly against the Starks in book 2, as he has been fused with Justin Hammer.
  • Aerys II ordered soldiers to kill Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon out of paranoia that Elia would've declared Rhaenys Queen. His soldiers managed to kill Rhaenys (at which point, the Child of the Forest Mantis came about), but Gregor got to them and the other targets first. Armory Lorch simply took credit for Rhaenys' death later to gain favor with Tywin.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • The Iron Monger armor is just incredibly tough, without any of the character's other powers. The author actually had to put in a note specifying this when readers kept assuming it was the whole thing. As a side note, even though it's just incredibly tough armor, The Mountain is the one wearing it and he is a virtual juggernaut, so it's not as if it's significantly less threatening.
  • Logan, since he hasn't demonstrated any of his powers from the comics, and his claws are simply steel blades attached to metal bars that he uses as a weapon, rather than actually being part of him. Averted as of chapter 32. Not only does he single-handedly capture Jhaqo, but he also walks into Daenerys' bonfire, triggering his mutation (which heals his burned-to-the-bones body) and fusing his steel blades to his bone claws.
  • Bruce of Tarth, the equivalent of Bruce Banner, cured his cousin Brienne's chronic illness by turning her into She-Hulk, but with no mention of him also getting the power.
    • Averted. When Brienne mentions how Bruce healed her, he mentions having gone to Valyria (where he discovered why the Doom happened) and transforms into the Hulk when a Septon tries to stop him from healing her.
• Aerith and Bob: Fully averted, as the author always changes the Marvel characters' names to something more fitting to the Westeros fashion (and curses Martin for not just making complete fantasy names like Tolkien did). Though it's oddly averted with the story's version of Jane Foster, who doesn't have the Westerosi "Jeyne."
  • Happens again with Sam Wilson, whose name is changed to Isamalwi Iso Malsosia in keeping with Summer Islands naming conventions.
• Agent Scully: Jane Seaworth is an enlightened lady and as such perfectly knows that White Walkers were actually a primitive wildling tribe feared for their fierceness. Oh, Jane, you sweet summer child...
  • Downplayed with Tyrion who, at first, refuses to believe Sansa Stark truly resurrected. The lady doesn't look like the poor girl, and people generally stay dead south of the Wall...
  • Also downplayed with Tywin, who initially dismissed the rumors that "a great warrior claiming to be one of the Seven had fallen from the sky and crowned Davos Seaworth's daughter queen", but since they kept surfacing and were consistent, he decided that there may be some truth behind them. Though he thinks the truth is that it's a story spread by Stannis, who's planning on replacing his wife with Jane, and is spreading it to get the smallfolk on his side. To be fair, the Seven usually don't fall from the sky and declare the daughter of a smuggler turned knight to be queen.
  • Robb shrugs off Jojen's claims of being a greenseer, since by the time they meet everyone and their aunt is claiming to have powers of some kind, in hopes of being the next hero like Iron Man.
  • Jaime continues to be very skeptical of all the Marvel characters, having managed to miss all their big moments. Until he meets Mantis and hears Summer speak telepathically.
• The Alcatraz: The dungeons of Winterfell are contained in a tower, with the cells (except for the Gilded Cages meant for highborns, which are in the upper levels) all underground. More to the point, the only way in or out of tower is hidden at the top, and the door is barred and guarded on both sides at all times, the guards only letting people pass if they have the correct passwords (which are known only to them and whoever is serving as the Stark in Winterfell at the time).
  • Also, the dungeons of Casterly Rock. They are deep within the Rock, there are no windows in the corridors, walls are featureless and all the doors look exactly the same, including those leading outside. And the mealtimes and guard shifts are irregular to further confuse prisoners.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Diverging from A Game of Thrones almost immediately, when Tony arrives at Winterfell around the same time as Robert.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Winterfell is invaded by an army of Ironborn leaded by Asha Grejoy, all of them carrying sunstone-enhanced swords that crackle with electricity in a similar way to Vanko's whips. Overwhelmed, the defenders are forced to flee. Fortunately, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive and help turn the tide in the defenders' favor.
• Alliterative Name: As per Marvel tradition, some characters have names that start with the same letter.
  • Sansa Stark
  • Victor Vondam
  • Petyr Parker and Miles Muralus
  • Rickard Reed
• Amazon Chaser: If his initial reaction is any hint, Jon's got it bad for Natasha Martell.
• Ambiguously Human: There are little things hinting at this with the Starks - such as their inability to get drunk or Mystique's interest in Arya.
• An Arm and a Leg: After Joffrey causes Sansa's death, Iron Man attempts to blast him. Cersei's fast acting allows him to get by losing just part of an earlobe and getting his face sandblasted. Cersei, in the meantime, loses her left hand.
• Ancestral Weapon: In addition to the various canon examples such as Ice:
  • Tony has given Jon a Valyrian steel sword he forged, known as Shadowfang, specifically so it could become Iron Pointe's ancestral weapon. To make it even cooler, it has a sunstone built into the hilt.
  • House Bracken has a high-quality steel sword called Hate Eternal, named for when House Bracken swore vengeance on the Blackwoods, where the head of House Bracken at the time lifted the sword and declared "Our Hate shall be Eternal". After Asha kills Lord Bracken, Theon takes up the blade.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Going by Tyrion's nightmares and Bran's visions, the real Sansa is suffering this. According to Old Nan's stories, this is the default fate for anyone possessed by an Other or turned into a wight.
  • In Euron's first appearance, he freezes Asha's crew completely solid, but shows that they're still alive and conscious.
• Animal Eye Spy: The Night's Queen takes Varys' metaphor of calling his spies "little birds" quite literally, killing and reanimating birds so she can keep tabs on everyone.
• Anti-Advice: Used indirectly through Anti-Role Model:
  • If there's one thing Ned learned from Robert is what not to do as a King.
  • Whenever Tywin can't think how to solve a situation, he wonders what his father would have done... in order to do the complete opposite.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The Sunstones that Tony uses to power his Iron Man technology. Later, Ivan Vanko uses them to power his electric whips.
• Appropriated Appellation: How this series version of the Red Skull gets his name. Ygritte refers to the Commander of the Others as such as an insult when he's trying to break Steve by talking. He seems to like the name, noting it with amusement.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Multiple characters express their disbelief of some of the most extraordinary events that have been happening, even as other equally extraordinary events are proved true.
• Arc Words:
  • For A Crack of Thunder, the riddle of the king, the rich man, the priest and the sellsword.^note "A sellsword, a king, a rich man and a priest are sitting in a room. The king, the rich man and the priest each tell the sellsword to kill the other two. Who does the sellsword serve? Does he serve the king out of duty, the rich man out of greed, or the priest out of piousness?" Every character has a different answer to who dies, reflecting their life philosophy. Tony says that they're all just symbols, and those symbols have power. The Night's Queen quips that they all die, because no one thought the disregarded whore in the room with them (a role that does not exist in other versions) was dangerous. Natasha states none of them truly live, because they've allowed themselves to be trapped in the game of thrones. Vanko states that it does not matter which two the sellsword kills, because ultimately they all die. Doom believes that you can only survive if you take on all three roles. Daenerys states that the winner is whichever one convinces the sellsword that they have the power. And Magneto, naturally, says the one who lives is the one who doesn't need sellswords to kill for them... right before he slaughters the Bloody Mummers.
  • The riddle returns in A Shield of Man a couple times, though this time it's Played for Laughs:
    • Jamie Lannister comments that a bandit asked him the riddle once...but he killed the bandit halfway through it, so he's not sure how it goes. Which speaks to his character quite well.
    • Jon, who admits he's bad at riddles due to always focusing on the wrong parts, mentioned that when Maester Luwin asked him such riddle, he simply wondered why a king, a rich man and a priest would be locked inside a room together to begin with.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • From Chapter 7 of A Crack of Thunder:
  Thor: You are a good man, Lord Stannis... a commander of men. You would rather though be with them, to lead them on the field than to sit on the Iron Throne. You would be miserable as king and as such would be a terrible one. So why do you wish to be king when you don't want it in your heart?
  • From Chapter 8 of A Crack of Thunder, after Ned tells Jaime that Cersei has slept with their cousin Lancel and insinuated herself to him:
  Ned Stark: Come now... you've said it yourself that I am too dull to lie. What is more likely? That I finally find the ability to spin tales... or that your sister is the whore she truly is?
  • From Chapter 57 of A Shield of Man, during Baelish's trial, Jon asks a question that completely stops Littlefinger short, and exposes him for the liar that he is:
  Jon: When did you take Catelyn Stark's maidenhead?
• Arranged Marriage:
  • Robb's betrothal to a Frey girl is still on the rails, as Ned decided to honor the agreement. Walder Frey is outright ecstatic about it as he never thought the Starks would keep their word.
  • Oberyn Martell decided to honor a wedding pact between his father and Tony's by introducing his eldest (legitimized) daughter Natasha as a bride for Jon.
• Artifact of Power: Dark Sister doubles as this now. While still a Cool Sword brought north of the wall by Brynden Rivers, The Old Gods blessed it afterwards, making it now the key to creating The Spirit of Vengeance.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The ultimate fate of Stannis Baratheon in A Crack of Thunder, where after falling in battle he's carried to Valhalla by Brunhilde at Thor's request.
• Asshole Victim:
  • A servant lying to get a prince in trouble, knowing the king will brutally beat him? Not cool. Jane Seaworth lying to get Joffrey in trouble for bullying Shireen? Awesome.
  • Ramsay Bolton is tortured to death by Asha Greyjoy and Ivan Vanko in A Crack of Thunder. Pretty gruesome to read, but Gods, does he deserve it.
  • As far as Thor is considered, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen got what he deserved at the Trident—not because he eloped with Lyanna, but because his crazed belief in what turned out to be a false prophecy led him to abandon his wife and two children simply because Elia couldn't give him a third child.
  • Sansa's attempted rapists during the King's Landing riot get it even worse than in canon, with the Night Queen gruesomely ripping them to pieces.
  • While at Harrenhal, Mystique impersonates the Tickler and drunkenly insults Tywin, knowing that he'll be executed for it. Given he's the local Torture Technician, no one's shedding any tears for him.
  • Three men attempt to rape Jane on Amora's orders. Thor finds them - and then executes them. Check the Nightmare Fuel page for more information.
  • Joffery gets this, as he starts thinking of going after the Faith and slaughtering all the North aside from the Boltons, and giving the latter free reign to torture and flay every man, woman and child in the Seven Kingdoms. Then he gets stabbed in the lung and dies slowly and painfully.
• Atrocious Alias: How Adrien feels about his men naming their shockwave gauntlets "the Shockers", on the grounds that they don't actually shock people.
• At Least I Admit It:
  • Gregor does not attempt to sugarcoat the fact that he's a sadistic brute whose sole purpose is to cause death and destruction everywhere he goes. He often gets annoyed when people assume that he enjoys fighting when, in reality, it's killing that brings him to the height of ecstasy.
  • Arya notes that at least the criminals and monsters in the Night's Watch admit to being such, unlike in King's Landing.
  • Euron says that unlike other Thralls of the Others, he's not blind to the fact that if they succeed in wiping out the living he'll no longer be needed.
  • Namor states that unlike everyone else in King's Landing, he doesn't try to hide or deny the actions he's taken that others might find distasteful.
• Author Filibuster: There are quite a few instances of one character breaking into a long lecture on everything another character has and is doing wrong, all while the second character apparently just stands there and takes it (though sometimes they admittedly throw a decidedly feebler return lecture back once the first one has finished). Catelyn is a prime example of this trope, with Jaime and Cersei coming a close second. These read a lot like things the author wanted to yell at those characters at certain parts of the books.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Although it involves no crown, the proclamation of Ned Stark as King In The North is made of pure awesomeness.
• Axe Before Entering: Pepper takes an axe to Tony's workshop's door after he spends more than two weeks pretty much holed inside.
• Back from the Dead:
  • In the final chapter of the first book, Sansa springs up from her tomb as the Night's Queen.
  • In the final chapter of the third book, Qyburn and Cersei's attempts to resurrect Jaime (whom they aren't aware is still alive, North of the Wall) through the Ultron armor instead revives Littlefinger.
• Badass Bystander: During the Ironborn assault on Jon and Natasha's wedding tournament, several of the merchants who flocked to the celebrations join in the defenses.
• Bad Boss:
  • Gregor kills one of his own men because he talked to him in a jovial manner.
  • After learning of the fight between Ned and Jaime, Tywin demands that the Lannister soldier who stabbed Ned have his hands cut off, then his head cut off, and finally his head will be put on his spear and delivered to his heir.
• Badass Creed: The oath of the Knights of the Dawn, which later evolved into the oath of the Night's Watch (itself an example, and doubles as a Title Drop for the third installment in the series):
  "The Night falls... but forever it shall not last. For I shall see the sun rise again. I am the sword against the darkness. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn. I am the shield that guards the realm of men."
• Badass in Distress: In Chapter 40 of Book 3, Robb is defeated in battle by Euron and taken captive.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Thor shows up in Book 2, Chapter 1, the people begin wailing that the Gods are there to punish them, only for Thor to clarify that they are confused. When they take this to mean that he's not a god, he corrects them- he is, but he was specifically referring to their descriptions of his kin.
  • Book 2, Chapter 12 at first seems to show Jaime escaping from the Starks and returning to his father. It plays on Tywin suspicious but convinced when Jaime refuses to leave the Kingsguard. But then we see Jaime's aides are "Petyr" and "Kat" and thus "Jaime" is really Mystique.
  • While bemoaning about the duties of being King in the North, Ned asks Catelyn how Robert could manage it all so easily. When Cat gently reminds him that Robert didn't manage it and was a terrible king, Ned tells her he didn't mean how Robert managed to rule the kingdom, but how he was able to not care about being a good king or the smallfolk that relied on him while he (Ned) can't think about anything else except being a good king.
  • In Book 2, Chapter 25, after a hidden Varys witnessed Not-Sansa/The Night's Queen brutally slaughtering her would be rapists, she said "come out, I know you're there". Varys almost dies of terror fearing he has been caught, before it turns out she was talking to Sandor Clegane.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Meta example. Readers were begging for Sansa to be resurrected as Dark Phoenix. Mr. Chaos responded by resurrecting Sansa in the final chapter... as the Night's Queen! The post-chapter author's note shamelessly lampshades this.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Ned honoring Robb's marriage pact with one of Walder Frey's daughters causes the other man to immediately pledge loyalty, as Ned's the first lord to ever treat the Freys with respect.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • Asgardians have been visiting Westeros and Essos in mortal disguises and influencing events for centuries.
  • Steve Rogers, who becomes active again in the present as of the end of Book 2, was Azor Ahai.
  • Qyburn has had a hand in shaping seemingly all major events, and a lot of minor ones, for centuries as part of his eugenics experiments.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: While discussing religions with Theon, Brienne remembers how her life became even more hellish when a fanatical septon convinced her father she being sickly was the gods' will and as such she was left to suffer. People trying to help her or even alleviate her pain were outright dismissed as a consequence.
• Beneath Suspicion: The Night's Queen relishes in the fact that everyone thinks she's too simple-minded and innocent to be a threat.
  • Ironically, this gets turned around on her. Bronn immediately pegs her as not only extremely dangerous, but most likely not human, while Sam comes to the conclusion that she is either a) a wicked, but human, fake, or b) something evil that has taken over Sansa. The Night's Queen doesn't think either would view her as a threat, assuming she even knows Sam exists. And while Tyrion may not admit that she might be supernatural, he is quite certain she's a threat.
  • While standing guard over Sansa's body Sandor muses how nobles always completely overlook servants, leaving them completely unaware just how much servants see/know about their masters.
  • Davos Seasworth is the simple, humble, honest servant of Stannis. No one remotely suspects that he's actually Loki, heir to the throne of Asgard.
• Berserk Button:
  • Tony's hatred of the word "bastard", as well as the different surnames given to them, leading him to insist on calling his ward Jon Stark. Which is enough to make Catelyn furious to learn from Tyrion that he has been given the Stark name.
  • Don't insult Jane when Thor is around. It won't end well for you.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Logan towards Daenerys, as he's sworn to protect her. She explicitly thinks of him as an older brother telling bawdy jokes and teasing her.
  • Tyrion towards Samwell Tarly. He considers his duty to enlighten the youth about the world, more especially the women.
  • Jane Seaworth is very protective towards Shireen Baratheon. She even lied to get Joffrey in very hot water when he bullied the poor girl, and Tyrion thinks that doing anything to harm Shireen would be a bad idea, as it would result in Jane coming after him with her knives.
  • Pepper towards Jon, whom she considers her little brother.
  • Bruce of Tarth. If traveling the world for seven years, leading him to wind up in Valyria (which became such a wasteland that no one ever returned and lived to tell the tale) only because he sought a way to heal his young cousin Brienne from her chronic sickness isn't a proof of love, then the word has no meaning.
  • All of the older Brotherhood members, even Lady Deathstrike (who doesn't like her) are protective towards Arya when it comes to Gambit's flirting, on the grounds of her still being mentally a child despite having an adult body.
• Big Brother Worship: Arya feels so close with Jon that she was elated when Sansa called her a bastard, considering it as deepening their bond.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Chapter 34 of A Crack of Thunder has Jane kiss the daylights out of Thor.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Pod saves Tyrion from the castle guard wight during the Battle of King's Landing.
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive in time to save Winterfell from Asha's Ironborn.
  • Steve Rogers aka Azor Ahai arrives in the nick of time to save Jeor Mormont, Mance Rayder and Ygritte from the Others.
• Blood Knight: Subverted. Gregor Clegane is often mistaken for this. His POV chapters showcase his disgust at this misconception—it's killing he enjoys, not fighting.
• Blood Magic: In this universe, mutants are made rather than born, via equivalent exchange of a life/lives for their powers. It turns out to be an ancient Targaryen technique that requires Targaryen blood, a fire and a sacrifice; Dany and Logan's mutant powers are unlocked by the sacrifice on Khal Drogo's funeral pyre, Mystique was born with her blue appearance and shape-shifting abilities due to the death and trauma of the Tragedy at Summerhall, Arya and Gendry are transformed when Magneto burns Vargo Hoat and the Bloody Mummers alive, and everyone in King's Landing with the capacity is effected to various degrees after the wildfire explodes, killing many Dragonstone soldiers who have Targaryen blood in their ancestry. This is also why, up until the Battle of the Blackwater, there were lots of mutants in Essos while being almost unheard of in Westeros; Targaryen and Valyrian blood is far more common across the Narrow Sea.
• Bludgeoned to Death: Gendry reduces Janos Slynt's head to goo with a smithy hammer when the knight tries to capture Arya and Mystique.
• Book Ends: In the first chapters of Book 1, Jon Snow is verbally assaulted by Catelyn Stark who's grieving over her son's fate, only for Tony to fiercely defend him. In the second-to-last chapter, Tony (in his Iron Man suit) is verbally assaulted by Catelyn who's reeling from what happened to her daughter, only for Jon to put her back in her place.
• Boring, but Practical: When asked what Jaime Lannister would ask Tony Stark to make him, Jaime just replies that he'd like a sword. Despite nearly everyone objecting that this is a waste of Tony's talents (as the single greatest smith in the world), Jaime just shrugs it off and points out that he is a really good swordsman, so why bother ask for something he doesn't need or know how to use? Even Tony is forced to agree with that logic (even if he does call it "boring").
• Both Sides Have a Point: The conflict between Tony and Jon in A Crack of Thunder over whether or not it's worth it to continue carrying on the mantles of Iron Man and Centurion. Tony is right that as a ruling lord, he can help more people all at once than the individuals that lone heroes have to help one by one. Jon, meanwhile, is also right that their actions help to save those people who are overlooked and ignored by the high lords.
• Bread and Circuses: Littlefinger references this trope as for why the smallfolk being so fascinated by the Iron Man is a good thing.
  Baelish: And it does well to have the people distracted. Do you know what happens when the people don't have something to focus on? They think. Think about what they don't have, what others do have, their station of life and how isn't good enough... and soon those thoughts turn into "What can I do to get more?". Iron Man and others of his ilk keep the smallfolk happily engaged in harmless dreaming while allowing us to continue to rule.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • Tony cracks a joke at Tyrion in this manner, similar to what Tyrion told Bronn in canon:
  "And what would you prefer to talk about? Wine? Women? Gold? Women made of gold and filled with wine?"
  • During his first chapter, Ned complains that being Hand mean doing all of the King's work while Robert drinks, eats, and whores, or drank and ate while whoring "if he felt especially adventurous".
  • When Tyrion comes across Bronn and Clynt drinking with some soldiers before the Battle of the Blackwater, Bronn asks if they can get him a glass of wine, a whore, or "a glass filled with whores".
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Deadpool, as per canon, has total Medium Awareness and keeps referencing the fact that he and the others are characters in a story, and mentions the story's author by name enough that the rest of Dany's group think that "Chaos" is the name of his god. The author's notes for Chapter 38 of Book 3 takes this to the logical extreme by having him hold a conversation with Mr. Chaos about the latter's updating schedule.
• Break the Haughty: Tywin is reduced to depression and drinking after learning how bad the Lannister situation is. Tyrion finds it freaky.
• Brick Joke:
  • In his first chapter, Tony muses he is sure the King would commission him to make a warhammer he would probably call "Thunderstrike". When Tony goes to King's Landing to "prove" he is not Iron Man, he has brought Robert a large black-and-gold warhammer - which Robert calls Thunderstrike.
  • In Chapter 10 of A Man of Iron, Tyrion tries to think up a name for his telling off of Alliser Thorne. In Chapter 10 of A Crack of Thunder, he tells the story to his nephew Tommen, and reveals that he decided to call it "The Flail and the Lion".
  • In Chapter 1 of A Crack of Thunder, Jane thinks that if she ever gets her hands on the merchant responsible for Shireen contracting greyscale, she'll flay him so badly the Boltons will bow down to her as a goddess. In Chapter 10, Tyrion notes that one of the reasons it would be a bad idea to try and make people think Shireen is actually a bastard is because he has no interest in waking up to find Jane "carving him up like a Bolton's wet dream".
  • In Chapter 24 of A Shield of Man, Tony rambles about seeing a man, who he thinks might have been Brandon Stark, having sex with a horse. In Chapter 35, Drax ( who is Brandon merged with a Child of the Forest) offhandedly mentions having sex with a horse.
• Bring It: From Chapter 26 of A Crack of Thunder:
  Brienne of Tarth: If you think you can put me in irons... (Death Glare at Renly) try.
• Broken Pedestal: Brienne finds out Renly, instead of the paragon of kingly values she believed him to be, is nothing more than a dishonorable coward who plots the death of people just because he thinks they do not respect him as much as they ought to.
  • Tony did not take his mother agreeing to make him marry a 3-month old babe well.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Some time ago, a minor lordling was sent to serve Lord Tywin by his father. When Tywin asked why, the boy bluntly explained that his father wanted him to get in Tywin's good graces and then find something to blackmail him with. Tywin responded by having the man killed, then gave his possessions to his son as a reward for the boy's honesty—as well as for proving his loyalty by revealing the truth.
  • Viktor Vondam gives Daenerys a rather blunt speech about her family's failings. Her father was not The Good King who was overthrown by greedy lords, but The Caligula and a domestic abuser; Rhaegar was not a poet who wanted peace but a man who abandoned his entire family to rape a Northern girl; and Viserys was the Beggar King not for a lack of wealth but because he demanded people help him rather than try to earn anything.
• Came Back Wrong: Cersei and Qyburn's attempt to resurrect Jaime (who isn't dead, though they don't know that) into the body of Ultron ends up actually resurrecting Littlefinger.
• The Cameo: With such a big marvel universe, not every character is going to get a spotlight. The introduction of Kraven the Hunter has her fighting one Cursun Connurs, a Maester who tried to use dragon eggs and greyscale to regrow his arm. It worked, but, like in the comics, it turned him into the Lizard.
• Cassandra Truth: Tyrion dismisses Cersei and the Small Council saying "Sansa Stark" came back from the dead because hey, it's more easy to find another redheaded girl and dress her as a trueborn lady than reanimating a corpse whose skull was shattered. Alas for him, it's real, though he is right that she isn't actually Sansa.
  • Tyrion also does not believe Varys when the latter claims Jaime has been taken to Winterfell. In this case, though, it is because "Jaime" (actually Mystique) has made his/her way to Harrenhal.
• Central Theme: The past reckoning with the present. This theme crops up everywhere, from the mundane (atoning for past actions) to the VERY literal (The three Stark martyrs of Lyanna, Brandon and Rickard merging with the Children of the Forest to lead the war against the Ancient Evil that is the Others).
• Clarke's Third Law: Tony's attempt to explain his Iron Man gauntlets:
  Pepper: Seven Hells, get those bewitched gauntlets off now!
  Tony: Listen, I get that I frightened you but they aren't magic. They just use glowing stones and silver to produce a blast of raw energy that allows me to fly - by the way I have some in the boots to fly faster - and fire energy blasts. (blinks) When I word it like that it sounds pretty magical, doesn't it?
  Rhodey: Just a bit.
• The Chains of Commanding: Ned certainly feels the weight of these as King in the North. It's actually discussed by Cat: she believes that it's something of a problem with firstborn heirs of noble houses, that they don't feel this trope, as they are told from birth that the power is theirs by right and as such don't grow up respecting it or knowing the weight of their duty. As a second heir, Ned is much better suited to rule because he does know what it means to have the responsibility of power and has worked his whole life to deserve it.
• Character Shilling: About half of Thor's lines are about how ungodly amazing Jane Seaworth is, and how she's the queen Westeros deserves. Which began the very same moment he met her for the first time.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Tony snubbed Renly Baratheon's asking for some armor and the Lord wasn't happy about it. Also, Arya heard someone complaining about "Phyllup" wasting their gold. Renly actually paid said Phyllup to kidnap and kill "the jackass" - implying he's responsible for Tony's abduction. This is later confirmed.
  • Lampshaded by Tony as a concept existing in plays, called "Chekhov's Crossbow."
  • The Night's Queen is surprised to learn that she apparently ordered that Lady's body be dug up, preserved, and brought to her in King's Landing, without her remembering it. It later turns out that Sansa did this in a brief moment of control, and in Chapter 50 of Book 2 she uses another moment of control to resurrect Lady and warg into her, allowing her to escape the Night's Queen's control.
  • The Night's Queen is mentioned to have talked with an old servant of the Lannisters who was Joanna's personal maid. In Chapter 50 of Book 2, she successfully uses that knowledge to deceive Tywin into believing she's Joanna.
• Chekhov's Skill: After Daenerys gains the ability to control (and inmunity to) fire, she makes a successful test where she eats fire, keeps it stored in her stomach and then blows it through her mouth. When she's chained up in the House of the Undying, with her companions unable to move, she reveals she ate fire so as to have a weapon to use against the Undying - and turns them into ashes before destroying the entire tower in an explosion.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Sandor in his first chapter unleashes a multitude of them when he sees Sansa come back to life.
• Les Collaborateurs: Thralls are those who willingly serve the Others in exchange for power and protection. Euron and Craster are two examples.
• Combat by Champion: How both Yunkai and Mereen face Daenerys, in the hopes of avoiding having to fight her in open warfare. In the former case, Dany uses the fight between Wade and the Yunkish champion as a distraction to sneak her forces into the city and seize it when they try to renege following their champion's loss. In the latter, Dany cuts a deal with the champion (Bruce/the Hulk) to throw the fight for her in exchange for him being pardoned and let back into Westeros.
• Comicbook Movies Dont Use Codenames:
  • Gregor Clegane is only called the Iron Monger in the author's notes.
  • Vanko isn't called Whiplash, despite his favored weapon.
  • Averted with Jojen who uses a number of them when describing his vision in Chapter 30 of A Crack of Thunder.
• Comically Missing the Point: Combined with humorous Dramatic Irony. When Jon travels to King's Landing in book 3, he meets Ser Loras Tyrell at a banquet thrown in his honor. Ser Loras uses a metaphor of training and sparring to make a strong pass at Jon, but the subtext goes right over his head and he thinks Ser Loras is just a bore who likes talking about fighting too much.
• Comically Small Bribe: Yunkai attempts to get Daenerys to leave their city alone with a few chests of gold bars. By this point, Daenerys has all the riches of Astapor in her possession, far overshadowing Yunkai's offer.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: When Jon uses his lighter Centurion armor to stop Vanko from killing Tony, the latter complains because Jon risked exposing their heroic identities (and because the armor isn't one he made).
• Compensating for Something: Non-sexual example: Tywin Lannister thinks that the reason Harren the Black built such a massive castle was to cover his shortcomings as a ruler, mistaking excess with true power.
• Contagious Laughter: King Robert and, of all people NED STARK, have this. When Varys suggests Tony may be Iron Man the two friends look at each other and just begin laughing. Ned finally gets control, only to see Robert is still laughing and Ned cracks up all over again. They mostly do this because they think Tony is an Upper-Class Twit, and thus could never be Iron Man.
• Continuity Cameo: Ajax and Black Tom make appearances in A Shield of Man as mercenary leaders. They show up so that Deadpool can kill them both.
• Contrived Coincidence: In Book 3, numerous viewpoint characters end up in Braavos at the same time. In Chapter 36, they all end up bumping into each other at a party being thrown by the Sealord.
• Cool Sword: In addition to ones from canon, such as Ice, there are a number of others:
  • Shadowfang and Lawkeeper, two Valyrian steel swords Tony forged out of a number of Valyrian steel daggers. Lawkeeper is Rhodey's greatsword, while Shadowfang is a bastard sword that Tony gives to Jon so it can become Iron Pointe's Ancestral Weapon. Later, he reveals that he accidentally made Shadowfang the most powerful sword in the world by adding Sunstones to it, and that it's absolutely indestructible now.
  • It's revealed that Nikolos, aka Gerion, has recovered Brightroar
  • While not Valyrian steel, the Bracken family sword, Hate Eternal, is noted to be of a higher-quality than most swords, able to take a man's hands off in a single stroke, even when wielded by Theon, who's only a teenager.
  • Dark Sister was already this in canon, but this story ramps up its coolness even more: After being empowered by the Old Gods, its chosen wielder becomes the Ghost Rider.
• Cool Uncle: Tony for Arya and Jon. Arya decides he's her new favorite relative when he showcases his humor and how shameless he is, while Jon is grateful for Tony taking him as a ward and later giving him the name Stark.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Syrio - actually Mystique - talks about special people to Arya, and implies she would be welcome in their "brotherhood", and plans to take her to Magneto once things in King's Landing start going to hell.
• Crossover Relatives: The fic provides plenty of examples - partly due to the author's habit of compositing existing ASOIAF characters with Marvel ones. For instance, a lot of powered characters have Stark or Targaryen blood.
  • Tony Stark is Ned Stark's cousin, making him first cousin once removed to the Stark children.
  • Bruce Banner becomes Bruce Tarth, Brienne's cousin.
  • Natasha Romanoff becomes Natasha Martell, Oberyn's oldest and only legitimized daughter.
  • Mystique is the long-lost daughter of Duncan Targaryen, making her Daenerys' first cousin once removed and Jon's first cousin twice removed. Also, Magneto is a Blackfyre, making him a more distant cousin to all three.
  • Margaery and Loras Tyrell are Magneto and Mystique's children, fostered by the Tyrells, and therefore tied into all the connections listed above.
  • Reed Richards (or rather, Rickard Reed) is a member of a cadet branch of House Reed, making him a relative of Howland, Jojen, and Meera.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • Ramsay Bolton is whipped to death by Vanko.
  • Myranda has her eyes sealed shut with wax and her tongue ripped out after she insulted Asha, and then dies from Vanko wrapping his lightning whip around her neck until the burns kill her.
  • Thor brutally slaughters the men who tried to rape Jane on Amora's orders..
  • Melisandre/Amora suffers a brutal fate like her men as she is stabbed, mutilated, branded and having poison poured onto her face by Thor, Shireen and Loki.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • For anyone other than The Mountain, going up against Iron Man is tantamount to suicide.
  • Brienne outright destroys nearly all the Ironborn attacking her and Theon, and Theon does a good job in helping her.
  • Chapter 32 of the sequel has two, one in the backstory and one in the modern day. The first happens to guards who serve the Sept at the hands of Bruce, cousin of Brienne, the other happens to Brienne herself. These scenes, for those who need more information, are a) the scene that confirms very conclusively that Bruce is in fact The Hulk, while b) is the scene where Brienne confirms that she can shift back and forth from She-Hulk mode to regular human at will.
• Dead Man Switch: Osborn's actions in A Web of Lies turn out to be a contingency by Littlefinger that he was hired in advance to carry out in case of the latter's death, to posthumously take revenge on all of Westeros by unleashing chaos upon it. Of course, neither of them anticipated Baelish coming back to life in the Ultron armor to oversee the plan personally.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Not only does the Night's Queen take on Sansa's identity after possessing her body, but she later manages to fool Tywin into believing that she's the spirit of his wife Joanna.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tony of course, but due to hanging around him, Jon has developed his own, which he lets loose when he fights The Mountain.
• Death by Adaptation: Subverted with Sansa Stark. While it appears that she was killed off in A Man of Iron after being used as a human shield by Joffrey, the final chapter reveals that her corpse was possessed by the Night's Queen, thus technically meaning that she is still alive.
• Death Glare: When Tony is really, really pissed off, his gaze becomes "fierce". Jon notes it enhances his resemblance to Lord Stark.
• Death Faked for You: Much like in the movie, Ivan Vanko has his death faked at the behest of Renly, who has become this reality's Justin Hammer.
• A Death in the Limelight: Ramsay Bolton's first and only chapter is about him being brutally killed.
• Decomposite Character:
  • Gregor Clegane becomes Iron Monger rather than the person who arranged Tony's kidnapping, who is not Obadiah Stane.
  • Despite Rhodes existing in the story, it's Jon who becomes its version of War Machine, Centurion. It's later stated that Rhodes has actually refused all of Tony's offers for a suit of his own.
    • As noted in Chapter 19 of A Crack of Thunder, this is actually a double example. In addition to being the equivalent of War Machine, Jon's suit is named for and based on the Silver Centurion suit that Tony wore in Iron Man 3. Further, the book also has Rhodey don a suit of armor that is close in appearance to War Machine Armor.
  • The 616 and Ultimate Nick Furys both exist, the name Nikolos Fury actually being an alias used by two members of the Council, with the former being Gerion Lannister.
  • Ultron was a figure from Valyrian legend, whose name Maegor the Cruel supposedly used for his own flying armor, though it's never been discovered. Until chapter 21 of A Shield of Man.
• Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: The fanfic integrates characters from the mostly PG-13 Marvel Universe into the gritty, adult world of A Song Of Ice And Fire/Game Of Thrones.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Daenerys barely appears in A Man of Iron, getting merely three chapters out of the fic's 33. Justified, since her story was mostly the same as in canon.
  • Bran as well, even worse than Daenerys. He goes almost unmentioned for all of Book 1, and doesn't get a POV chapter until 30 chapters into Book 2. Like Daenerys, the reason is that until that moment, his story was the same as in canon.
  • The entire Night's Watch, since its two most prominent characters, Jon Snow and Sam Tarly, never join, with Jon being adopted by Tony as his heir and Sam becoming Tyrion's squire. Subverted in Book 3, where Jeor Mormont becomes a POV character.
  • Ramsay Snow. A major villain in the books and especially in the TV show, he's brutally killed in his first and only appearance.
• Destination Defenestration: In Chapter 70 of A Shield of Man, Margaery and Loras throw Tywin out of the window of his office.
• Destructo-Nookie: After Ygritte becomes an Other, she and Steve start having sex, which with their enhanced strength tends to break everything around them.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Lord Frey is so used to people looking down on him and his family that he is genuinely shocked when Ned Stark reveals he's keeping the marriage vow made between their families.
  • Renly starts to make his famous "peach speech"... only for Thor to comment he'd like one. Renly is so surprised that he can only sputter and completely loses the rest of the "grand monologue" that he'd planned out.
  • Arya's group had numerous contingency plans in place for how they'd react when Harrenhal ultimately falls, depending on who actually ends up taking it. However, they fail to take Renly into account, figuring he's lost too much of his power base by that point to be a threat. Therefore, they're caught utterly off guard when he successfully bribes Vargo Hoat into betraying the Lannisters.
  • Amora really, really did not see Ser Davos Seaworth as a potential threat... which means she's caught off the horse when he turns out to be Loki Odinson.
    • On a meta level, the reviews of the chapter make it clear just about no reader picked up on the clues to even suspect this turn.
  • Loki has a huge speech on how he spent years building up an intricate web of control among pirates, thieves and lords that would have made him the true power player in the kingdom. What stopped it is the one thing the Trickster could never,ever have predicted: "I fell in love. And from that love came a child."
  • Asha Greyjoy attacking Winterfell with an army outfitted with Sunstone weapons was a surprise, but it's safe to say that no one saw a Big Damn Heroes moment for Robb coming in the form of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which include two green people, a grown-up Rickon, a horseless carriage, a talking raccoon, and an anthropomorphic Heart Tree.
  • Daenerys' plan to conquer Meereen by rigging the Combat by Champion is derailed when the Masters see it coming and bring in the Juggernaut as their true champion to counter the Hulk.
  • Olenna says this about Littlefinger demanding a Trial by Combat, and Tywin putting forward Sandor as the crown's champion.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Tony accuses Jaime of rushing into battle without taking his time to ponder the consequences, and points out that harming Ned Stark can only piss off his wife further, meaning Tyrion would bear the brunt of her unpleasantness cranked to eleven. Tywin shares the sentiment.
  • Iron Man accuses Gregor Clegane of this, saying Tywin Lannister will have his balls at breakfast for assaulting Tywin's bannerman Tony. Gregor actually has considered it, and is well aware he'll need to flee Westeros once this is done. He's just okay with it and plans on causing misery overseas after, seemingly unaware that Tywin could (and probably would) send assassins after him, and without Tywin's protection sooner or later he'd be hunted down and killed.
  • As per canon, Catelyn does not think about the consequences of her decision to kidnap Tyrion.
• Dirty Coward:
  • Lord Oaker, the first who Iron Man visits, presents himself as a great general and warrior but the truth is he sends his own men to fight for him while he watches from afar in safety and even sold his daughter to bandits to keep his lands safe.
  • Jon, in his first outing as Iron Man, calls out The Mountain and accuses him of this, claiming that Gregor only targets those he knows can't fight back against him and would never face someone who can fight back.
  • Joffrey, as usual. He hides behind the Kingsguard when Tony comes to rescue Ned and Sansa, and when they are easily defeated, he tries to use Sansa as a Human Shield, which ends up getting her killed.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: While this is Game of Thrones where Anyone Can Die, some die sooner rather than later. Aside from the examples covered in the character page:
  • Ser Meryn Trant gets killed by Syrio/Mystique instead of Arya Stark.
  • Janos Slynt dies much earlier than in canon, getting his head pulped by Gendry when he tries to capture a disguised Mystique and Arya while trying to flee King's Landing after the Stark Purge.
  • Khal Jhaqo is captured by Logan, who impales him in his metal claws and carries him into Daenerys' bonfire to burn alive.
  • Ramsay Bolton is whipped to death by Ivan Vanko as part of the latter's campaign against the Lords of Westeros as opposed to being torn to shreds by his own dogs in the show. Myranda, Reek, and the Bastard's Boys all die as well.
  • In chapter 26 of Book 2, Jonos Bracken is killed by Asha Greyjoy after discovering Renly's plot to murder Tony and Robb Stark, while Dagmer Cleftjaw dies to Theon in the fight that ensues after Jonos' death.
  • Selyse Baratheon is murdered by Melisandre/Amora the Enchantress shortly before the Battle of the Blackwater, rather than committing suicide by hanging herself on a tree.
  • In Chapter 70 of Book 3, Tywin is killed by Margaery and Loras throwing him out a window, rather than being shot with a crossbow bolt on the privy by Tyrion.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Renly Baratheon asked someone named Phylup from West Water to "kidnap the jackass and slit his throat quick", which implies he's actually the one who commanded Tony's abduction... only because Tony snubbed his demand of armor. This is later confirmed.
• Doorstopper: A Man of Iron and its subsequent followups combined have 159 chapters as of this writing.
• Double Take: It takes Tywin a few seconds after seeing Jaime hugging Kevan to notice that he’s seeing Jaime.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • As Ned figures out how Tony pulled out the move to "prove" he is not Iron Man, the one person he is sure his cousin would not ask to don the armor is Jon. Catelyn later does the same mistake, dismissing Jon as a boy unable to keep his mouth shut and as such ignorant about the armor's creator.
  • When he's imprisoned in the Dark Cells and learns Syrio escaped with Arya in tow, Ned's immediately relieved because Syrio will surely take Arya to Winterfell or bring her to Iron Pointe. If only he knew...
  • Oberyn arranging his daughter's wedding with Jon becomes this when you know the Martells desperately want to see the future Targaryen king wed to one of theirs - in the books, they drew up a betrothal agreement between Arianne Martell and Viserys Targaryen then sent Quentyn to woo Daenerys when the first attempt fell flat. Now Oberyn managed what his brother couldn't, successfully giving a Martell bride to a Targaryen with a claim on the Iron Throne. And he doesn't realize it.
    • And if Pepper is right about Natasha's mother being a Tully, then Jon is marrying someone related to the woman who made his childhood hell.
  • After Asha Greyjoy kills Jonos Bracken, Theon furiously grabs a sword and attacks her, but gets disarmed soon after.
  Asha Greyjoy: You don't know who I am, do you?
  Theon: I don't care who you are. If you were my own flesh and blood I'd still gut you, you cunt!
  • Upon meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy, Robb mentally notes that Jon would never believe it, as he's been living a "boring, normal life" in Iron Pointe.
  • Among the things Tywin resolves to do once he's arrived in King's Landing is figure out what happened to Arya Stark, unaware that, like in canon, she'd been with him in Harrenhal until his departure.
  • Ned is dismissive when he hears about a green giantess (Brienne) running around, questioning if next it'll be blue women (oblivious as he is to Mystique's presence). Later, he sympathizes to Catelyn's shock at hearing about Thor by wondering how he'd react if the Old Gods were to arrive, unaware that the Guardians (most of whom are Children of the Forest in mortal bodies) are currently in Winterfell.
  • Part of why Jon agrees to go to King's Landing is in hopes of freeing Sansa from the Night's Queen, unaware she has already escaped in the body of Lady.
  • Tywin manages to correctly deduce Jon's Targaryen heritage, but is completely wrong about the specifics as he thinks that Jon is Rhaegar and Elia's son Aegon; besides which the readers already know that the real Aegon is long dead.
  • Jaime is forced to join Bran's group in their quest to find the Three-Eyed Raven when Winterfell is attacked by Asha's Ironborn. Meaning that he's now escorting the same kid he once tried to kill in order to hide his relationship with Cersei, with Bran himself being none the wiser.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Cersei completely missed the point of her mother's lesson to be someone that people would look upon and follow, believing that she would just have to act regal to ensure people would do their duty, when what Joanna meant was that she had to show she could lead.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Tywin of all people does this in chapter 30 of Book 1, after a massive string of bad news^note (1) Robb's victories and capture of Jaime, (2) Iron Man rescuing Ned and declaring Joffrey unfit to rule, (3) Ned seeing Joffrey kill Sansa and declaring vengeance upon all Lannisters, (4) finding out that Gregor Clegane is dead and what he did - made worse by Tony politely asking for answers, rather than demanding, since that means he has to actually give Tony an answer to save face, (5) finding out that Arya escaped - meaning they have no prisoners to use against the Starks, and (6) finding out that both Stannis and Renly have declared themselves king, saying (correctly) that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest, with Stannis taking the entire Royal Fleet with him while Renly unites the forces of the Stormlands and the Reach..
• Dumbass Has a Point: Gregor Clegane firmly believes that Tony Stark is the Iron Man. He's right, though Jon's deception helped confuse him for a bit. He even figures out how Iron Man's magic works, but doesn't live long enough to share it. He also reasons Joffrey wouldn't punish his rampage, since the little shit enjoys killing, the messier, the better.
• Ear Ache: After slapping him, Tyrion grabs Joffrey's remaining ear and twists it so hard Joffrey begins to cry from the pain.
• Early-Bird Cameo: It's pretty easy to overlook, but Maester Maxell first appears in Chapter 12 of Book 2 for a brief scene, before being properly introduced in Chapter 33.
• Early Personality Signs: Played half-seriously, but Tyrion Lannister muses to himself that Joffrey showed signs of being a nasty little shit as a baby because he would crap himself so hard the smell would get everywhere. Which pretty much sums up his kingship.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Several ladies stare at Jon when he trains shirtless, and protest when he asks Sam if he should put his shirt back on.
• Elite Mooks: The Wintercloaks are trained to be this for the Northern armies. Technically, they are the North's equivalent of the Goldcloaks, the city guard of King's Landing. However, considering the fact that they are currently lead by Lord Karstark, and the fact that Winterfell doesn't even have a fully inhabited settlement at all times^note They have the wintertown, which is 4/5 unoccupied when it's not winter, they're probably the guards of the entire North. So they're medieval Mounties.
• Enemy Civil War: During the fighting in Braavos in Book 3, Arya tricks some of the Mandarin's cultists into attacking their Sentinel allies. With the Mandarin himself distracted by fighting Magneto and Tony and unable to keep controlling the Sentinels, they lash out at the cultists on instinct, triggering a fight between the two groups.
• Enemy Mine:
  • At the end of Book 2, Lord Commander Mormont and Mance Rayder agree to forge an alliance against the Others, which is formalized in Chapter 28 of Book 3 when they meet with the Free Folk's other leaders to hash out terms.
  • Daenerys' plot in Meereen in Book 3 culminates in her and the Masters having to ally when the Juggernaut shows up and declares himself ruler of the city.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • In Chapter 4 of A Crack of Thunder, Catelyn starts to call Centurion "Jo..." before stopping herself. Ned asks when she figured it out and she says a few days prior and Ned gets her to agree to never discuss their identities, even with each other. What Ned doesn't realize is that Catelyn thinks Iron Man is Benjen Stark and Centurion is Jory, with a detailed thought process that actually makes total sense... if completely wrong.
  • Tyrion is furious when the Small Council refuses to confess who had the "brilliant" idea to take a lowborn girl and dress her as Sansa Stark rather than insisting Sansa miraculously came back from the grave, pointing she's too physically different and people can't walk a shattered skull off. However, at the end of Chapter 10 of A Crack of Thunder, he asks Sam to start looking into the various myths of resurrection... and how to kill whatever came back.
  • Tyrion's opinion on the Iron Man's and the Centurion's identity is that they must be Brynden and Edmure Tully, respectively, with a thought process just as detailed as Catelyn's earlier.
    • Mr. Chaos has said that he loves coming up with various identities for who people might think were Iron Man and Centurion, and logical reasons for why someone would think that.
  • The Night's Queen's answer to the "who does the sellsword kill?" riddle is that all four men are killed, because they fail to realize that the woman in the room is a threat. Bronn, a sellsword, realizes that she is both a threat and not human after meeting her once.
  • Tony had suspected since first meeting the royal children that Cersei was cuckolding Robert, but he didn't suspect Jaime. Instead, he thought that Cersei was sleeping with Littlefinger, due to a combination of him apparently sleeping around a lot and Joffrey having the same smug smirk.
• Epic Fail: Renly tries to intimidate Brienne after she discovers he has allied with the Ironborn and plots to kill Tony and Robb Stark. She all but rolls her eyes at him.
• Establishing Character Moment: When Tony shows himself at Winterfell, he snarks as if there were no tomorrow, calls Jon a Stark and happily tells Arya he wants her to sit besides him when she snarks back at him.
  • Clynt shows he's a very dangerous sellsword and a pleasant companion by making jokes with a captive Tyrion and helping to slaughter the Hill Tribes warriors when the camp is attacked.
  • When Thor lands on Dragonstone, he complains about the Westerosi not getting his people right, mistakes Jane for Loki in female form before praising her bravery and complimenting Shireen for being a young warrior, thinking her greyscale scars were battle marks, before initiating a seven day party. All in all, a genuinely nice - if quite ditzy - guy.
    • He has another one when he sheds the Obfuscating Stupidity for a moment and asks Stannis the Armour-Piercing Question about why he wants to be King, getting Stannis' character down pat despite knowing him for barely a week.
  • Jane Seaworth immediately frames Joffrey up when she happens on him bullying her charge Shireen. Moral of the story: don't mess with the unscrupulous Mama Bear with Guile Hero leanings. On a subtler layer, the scene also shows she takes after her father Loki.
  • Deadpool, of course, brings down the fourth wall by commenting on the author being too lazy to make his name sound exotic, mocks the other mercenary captains and finally goes straight to the point by killing the mercenaries and telling Daenerys he is joining her - and asking if she can go topless.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Tony showing far more cunning and smarts than he had believed him to have convinces Ned that his cousin is Iron Man.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Just like in canon, Sandor Clegane. He is the only member of the Royal Court that actually tries to save Sansa. He fails. Also, he has nothing but utter contempt for Littlefinger.
  • Tywin finds the fact that Ned is executing every Lannister the North captures to be disturbing. Granted, this is more because it's his family and that he didn't think that someone like Ned Stark carrying it out instead of actual standards, since he is responsible for the deaths of all of the Reynes.
  • When Tywin informs Tyrion of Jaime's alleged death, he leaves the room to let him grieve in peace, and can't bring himself to scorn Tyrion for the display of weakness.
  • Cersei is appalled when she hears her son boasting of arranging Bran Stark's murder and that of his father's bastards.
  • Cersei's also disgusted to learn that there are rumors she's planning on taking Joffrey as a lover.
• Even the Guys Want Him:
  • All the Martells were apparently disappointed to see Tony leave Dorne (though as Tony notes, that's partly because they're all convinced he's some long lost brother - and considering his behavior pre-Pepper and the fact that he fits in far better in the South than the North, it's an easy mistake to make), and Loras Tyrell is mentioned flirting with him.
  • Played for Laughs with poor Samwell, since Bronn claims a mob would likely rape him and Tyrion makes an Accidental Innuendo about him.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even for the Dothraki, Logan is considered more as a rabid beast than a man.
    • Logan has his own standards, as shown when he butchered a bunch of slavers because they were offering children as payment to Drogo.
  • When Sam reveals how his father forced him to take the Black, Tyrion thinks his father never threatened to kill him if he didn't renounce his claim on the Lannister name.
  • Lysa Arryn's entire court is disgusted when she forces a second trial by combat on Tyrion while forbidding Bronn to champion the dwarf again.
  • Sansa's death by Joffrey's hands ensures he will be remembered as a slayer of little girls. Tyrion muses it would take a miracle for the High Septon to grant Joffrey the slightest blessing. Also, never mind the stupidity of the action, he clearly finds it morally reprehensible.
    • When he finds out about Sansa's resurrection, thinking that it's just the Small Council deciding it would be a great idea to dress up a woman who barely looks like her and claim she's Sansa, he's surprised the High Septon isn't calling the Gods to smite them all for it.
  • After complaining about his self-imposed chastity being a hassle, Tyrion orders Bronn to bring him Samwell only for the sellsword to refuse in a horrified tone. The dwarf has to explain he doesn't intend to bed the boy for Bronn to follow his command.
  • Tony left his home because his parents intended to have him marry Wynafryd Manderly, who at the time was 3 months old.
  • Oberyn despises the Lannisters with a passion, but is outraged at Ellaria's suggestion that they torture Myrcella as punishment for her family's actions.
  • Magneto is an utter pragmatist who is willing to do just about anything to push his claim for the Iron Throne, but he still believes that there's a line people with powers shouldn't cross. As such, he's horrified when he learns that the Mandarin has been mind controlling Renly since childhood, and has now reduced him to a child's mental state.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Others, as per canon, bring cold with them wherever they go. In A Shield of Man, Varys notes that King's Landing has gotten much colder than the surrounding region, even taking the change of seasons into account, ever since the Night's Queen arrived in the Red Keep.
• Evil Is Hammy: In his final fight with Iron Man and Centurion, Gregor really chews the scenery.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Cersei decides to eliminate Qyburn when she considers him to have become a liability, only for him to easily slaughter her men, making it clear who really holds the power in their dynamic.
• Evil Power Vacuum: One occurs in Qarth between Dany's last two chapters in A Crack of Thunder. With all the Thirteen except Doom killed by the Warlocks, and the Warlocks themselves then wiped out by Dany and her dragons, the Pureborn and the Guild go to war for control of the city. While they decimate each other, Doom absorbs the other Thirteen's armies into his own and uses them to crush both the Pureborn and the Guild, seizing control of the city for himself.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Theon and Lord Bracken reach Renly's room right on time to hear him arguing with Ivan Vanko and Asha Greyjoy about how he expected them to have killed Tony and Robb Stark, and ordering them to do so immediately.
• Eyepatch of Power: Lampshaded by Varys in reference to Gerion!Nikolos Fury, pointing out that the previous Nikolos Fury he met with also had one, and asks if it is a required part of the disguise when someone takes the name. Gerion!Nikolos says that the other one just likes to copy him.
• Failed a Spot Check: Qyburn outright tells Cersei that he engineered Robert's Rebellion and its aftermath, including deaths of several key players. He also hints at Jon's true parentage. Unfortunately, Cersei is so self-absorbed and drunk that she completely missed this information.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: As Tony prepares to rescue Pepper and kill the Mountain he boldly comments "I'm going to get Pepper back and then...I'm going to show the Mountain it isn't just the Lannisters who pay their debts." Jon just blinks at him.
  Tony: Uh...that was my bold proclamation. You know, the one all the heroes make in those stories old nursemaids tell kids right before they go and slay the monster?
  Jon: Oh. Old Nan usually just skipped to the battle.
  • Done again a few seconds later, when Tony realizes he hasn't actually put his armor on yet. He then does so, commenting he should have put the armor on, made the statement, and then flown off as now this is just awkward.
• Faking the Dead: Elia Martell did this during the Sack of King's Landing, and has been living under the assumed name of Kraven ever since.
• False Flag Operation:
  • On the day that the Iron Pointe party arrives at King's Landing, someone sends an order written in Tywin's hand (actually from weeks earlier, but with a forged date change) to have the Gold Cloaks at the city gates replaced with Lannister guards who are bound to be belligerent to the group. Everyone in both the party and the Small Council quickly realizes that someone was trying to sabotage the Iron Throne's alliance with Iron Pointe (and by extension via Natasha, with Dorne), with the method not matching that of any of the obvious suspects.
  • Red Skull has several wights made from Free Folk corpses dressed up as Night's Watch members and has them attack Eastwatch, in order to sabotage the prospective alliance Mance and Jeor are trying to forge by making it look like the Free Folk are treacherous. It almost works, as Cotter Pyke marches on Castle Black to confront the Free Folk that Jeor is hosting, before Jeor and Steve manage to talk him down.
• Family Extermination: Ned Stark vows to kill all the Lannisters to avenge Sansa. He's fulfilling that vow, too: his orders are that every Lannister is to die in the battlefield. Even when they don't.
• Fan Disservice:
  • The one time Tyrion dreams of a naked Not-Sansa, she is throttling him, sporting white horns and painting her naked flesh with blood.
  • Jane is seen naked in the forty-first chapter of A Crack of Thunder. However, it is far from titillating as she is pinned to the ground by three men who intend to rape her at the behest of Melisandre/Amora and the scene becomes very gruesome as Thor arrives just in time to kill them in the most brutal ways imaginable.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Jane cites the "scorpion and the frog" variant (depicted here as a Dornish fable) when describing how everyone in King's Landing thought that they could control Littlefinger through various means, never seeing how he was willing to betray anyone to get what he wanted.
• A Fête Worse than Death: The final night of celebrating for Braavos' Unmasking ceremony is interrupted by the Mandarin launching an attack to seize control of the city and kill anyone who might oppose him.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the last chapter of A Man of Iron Sandor notes that Sansa has vivid blue eyes.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Tyrion's speech to Commander Mormont, where he subtly hints that teaching rapists and thieves that it is okay to attack the weak is a bad idea. Considering that in the original story Mormont dies to thieves and rapists who decide he is too weak and in the way...
  • Tony directly names the trope when Ned mutters about his honor getting him killed, also mentioning Chekhov's Crossbow.
  • Rhodey asking Jon if Ned Stark single-mindedly focused on one thing would really be a good thing. Just read Chapter 29.
  • In Book 2, Chapter 7, Arya watches as Mystique, disguised as a soldier, gets information on how the war is going. Coming up, Mystique says she need info for "the role I'm going to play", adding that Arya is going to hate this idea (which she does). This points to how Mystique is able to fool Tywin into thinking she's Jaime in Chapter 12.
  • At the end of Book 1, Varys and Gerion!Nikolos Fury mention another man working for the Council who uses the same codename, only he's bald, dark skinned, and likes to talk about how he lost his eye due to trusting someone. While he hasn't shown up in person yet, that Nikolos Fury becomes the Master of Whispers for the North in Book 2.
  • In Book 2, chapter 12, Arya and Gendry are given the fake names "Kat" and "Petyr". More than twenty chapters later, the two of them would be revealed to be this fic's version of Kitty Pride (whose full name is Katherine, for which "Kat" is short) and Colossus (whose name in the comics is Piotr, aka a way to say Peter in Russian).
  • In Chapter 30 of Book 1, Melisandre is first mentioned, when Tyrion mentally reviews recent events. While doing so the specific word he uses to refer to what she is rumored to be is an enchantress. Come chapter 37 of Book Two it is finally revealed that Melisandre is really Amora, the Thor villain also known as The Enchantress.
  • As the author points out in chapter 43, the revelation Davos Seaworth is actually Loki had been hinted at before: Davos never chastised Jane for her belief in things like the Tooth Fairy and was more accepting of Thor than most would expect; when Thor first arrives in a dazed state, he thinks Jane is Loki playing a trick; Jane is referred to as the "Stranger's Daughter" (Loki is known as "The Stranger" to Westeros); Jane uses daggers which had been Davos/Loki's favored weapon; when Thor summoned his storm before Stannis and Renly, Davos was the only person besides Brienne able to stand and hold onto his banner during it.
  • Chapter 29 of of book 2 sees "Sansa" talking to an old servant of Joanna Lannister, which like Mystique as Jaime, is revealed to be preperations to trick Tywin into thinking she is Joanna. Furthermore it is revealed "Sansa" had Lady's body restored, and it's hinted the real Sansa is trapped within her body, come chapter 50, and it's confirmed she was, as she escapes in Lady's reanimated body.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. Obadiah is still mourned by the Iron Pointe inhabitants and Lord Oaker's daughter is still present in Tony's dreams.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": While we don't know the details, Tony has apparently left instructions with Jarvis to make his funeral entertaining whenever he eventually dies.

G-L

• Gambit Pileup: Just like in canon, we've got quite a number of different groups and people running around, plotting, superheroing. The players so far are:
  • The Starks, led by King Eddard, are leading the North and the Riverlands in a war of independence.
  • The two remaining Baratheon brothers:
    • Stannis swiped the royal fleet and is trying to take the throne from Joffrey. He also has Melisandre and whatever she's up to in this story, as well as Thor showing up on his front door during an idol burning, establishing the Seven are based on the Asgardians, and he's looking for Loki. Stannis dies during the Battle of the Blackwater, and asks Thor and Loki to crown Shireen as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
    • Renly is also trying to take the throne, has the Reach on his side, and is apparently open to negotiating with the Starks. He later allies with Ivan Vanko and Asha Greyjoy and plots to have them kill Tony and Robb Stark, since he thinks this will convince Eddard to bend the knee, only to be forced on the run when his dealings are discovered.
  • The Lannisters are trying to take them all down and keep Joffrey on the Throne, while minimizing the damage Joffery can do.
  • Tony is doing his best to be a hero and not have to send men to fight the North. Jon is the Centurion, and is also aware that he is Rhaegar's son by Lyanna.
  • Daenerys and her army are still planning to invade with the help of her dragons, her fire powers, and Logan's new powers.
  • Mystique is taking Arya and Gendry to meet Magneto and the Brotherhood, who are plotting to take over the Kingdom. Magneto is a Blackfyre, while Mystique is the daughter of Duncan Targaryen, Aegon V's first son, which gives them both legitimacy.
  • We haven't seen Loki yet, but he's probably up to no good. Thor reveals that Loki didn't return from the last time he was in Westeros, and the reason Thor came is because he's looking for his brother. As it turns out, he has been hiding as someone nearby - Davos Seaworth. And in a case of Adaptational Heroism, he has no evil plots, instead being genuinely loyal to Stannis, and promising him on his deathbed to make Shireen the Queen.
  • The White Walkers, and their leaders the Court of the Others, have awakened, with the Night's Queen having taken over Sansa's corpse and now masquerading as her (Poorly), while the Commander is plotting to convert Daenerys.
  • Varys, 616!Nikolas Fury (aka Gerion Lannister), and at least one other Nikolas Fury are working with a mysterious Council, most likely against the White Walkers as they are aware they're back and know about the Court.
  • Ivan Vanko, an Ironborn who wields a magic-infused whip, is on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against all of Westeros for the collateral damage his home incurred during the defeat of the Greyjoy Rebellion, along with his lover Asha Greyjoy.
    • It turns out that their efforts were bankrolled by Renly Baratheon, though once this is exposed he's forced to flee to Essos, while Vanko and Asha carry on without him until Vanko's death at Iron Pointe and Asha's defeat at Winterfell.
  • With Gregor Clegane already disposed of, Oberyn Martell turns his attention fully upon Tywin as the culmination of his revenge for Elia's death. His first step is to bind his house to the Starks by granting Jon his oldest daughter as a bride: Natasha Martell, the Black Widow of Dorne.
    • Tony's investigation of Natasha's background and training revealed that she has some connection to both the Brotherhood and the Council.
  • Viktor Vondam, Jon Arryn's best friend as a child, who was horrifically maimed in a blacksmithing accident and had to leave Westeros. He is now in Qarth, is one of the Thirteen, and is trying to make a deal with Daenerys.
  • Jeor Mormont and Mance Rayder are trying to form an alliance between the Night's Watch and Free Folk against the Others, aided by Steve Rogers aka Azor Ahai.
  • Ser Adrian of the Tombs has recovered the wing harness of the Vulture King and is planning revenge against the Tyrells, whom he blames for every failure in his life.
  • Qyburn, who had apparently previously engineered Robert's Rebellion and Jon's birth, has sold his services to Cersei allegedly by proxy to Joffrey, and in this capacity is trying to animate Maegor the Cruel's magical armor. Which is called Ultron.
  • Bloodraven lures Bran to him in the Land of Always Winter, supposedly to train him how to fight the Others but clearly with his own agenda.
  • The Old Gods are active and doing their own part to counter the Others, by means of making Jaime their champion, the Ghost Rider.
  • The Tyrells are working to further their own power in Westeros by allying with the Lannisters as per canon. However, this turns out to be a cover for their real plan of allying with Magneto, which they've done by raising his and Mystique's children (Margaery and Loras) in order to grant the Blackfyres increased legitimacy and popular support. Furthermore, it turns out that Mace is The Kingpin, and is running a criminal empire on top of this.
  • The Watcher is breaking his vow to never interfere, by means of taking a mortal form as Hodor in order to manipulate events towards the world surviving the Long Night.
  • Littlefinger, as always, is manipulating events to his own gain. He's killed in a Trial by Combat by the Hound, only to accidentally resurrected by Cersei and Qyburn in the Ultron armor and go rogue.
  • Norman Osborn, a powerful merchant lord in Essos, is gathering together a team of powerful individuals to rampage in Westeros on behalf of his employer Littlefinger/Ultron.
  • Ulysses Klaue is an Essosi blacksmith who's attached himself to the Lannisters to feed his obsession with powerful metals though he later sells his services to Daenerys, believing her fire powers may be the key to re-learning how to make Valyrian steel.
  • Wakanda is an isolated kingdom as per canon, but has started making inroads to the rest of the world, with T'Challa being sent to Braavos and N'Jakada sent to Meereen.
  • Namor is the new head of House Velaryon and commander of the Iron Throne's fleet. For now, he seems content to play his role and stay out of court politics.
  • There has also been mention of Storm, who, according to Logan, is worshiped in the Summer Islands as a living goddess.
• Gilded Cage: In Book 3, Tony falls into the Brotherhood's captivity after the Ten Rings sink his ship on the way to Braavos. He's allowed total freedom around the city, but with a metal band on him that Magneto can use to remove his hand if he tries to leave without their permission. He discusses this trope in response to his situation, noting how odd it is that nobles are expected to be treated this way when held captive, no matter how much the captor hates them, because otherwise it's considered barbaric.
• God in Human Form: The Watcher has been living in Westeros as Hodor, the latter's speech being the result of the Watcher's native language not translating.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: When the Mountain sees that axes aren't working, he grabs his own squire and throws him at Iron Man. He threatens to beat Iron Man to death with Pepper's corpse in their third battle, causing Tony to quip that Gregor must have a thing for throwing people at things.
• Groin Attack: Clynt does this to Boros Blount in Chapter 14 of A Crack of Thunder.
  • During the Battle of King's Landing, Tyrion does this to a Baratheon soldier - who screams in pain. Tyrion acknowledges that he really did the most painful thing he could.
• Happily Married: Tony and Pepper.
• Heel Realization: Ned realizes that both him and Catelyn have done a mess in educating their children, particularly Robb (who knows how to play the lord, and how to fight, but not how to rule as one), Sansa (who believes life is just like in the books and songs) and Arya (who has always struggled with her mother's demands that she become a Southern lady).
  • After being kidnapped and almost killed, Tony realizes he was just as bad as Ned accused him of.
  • Catelyn realizes that the Centurion's words to her were spot on, and that her behavior has screwed things up.
  • Being around Renly makes Theon see himself for the first time as a vain, obnoxious jerk and quickly realizes he needs to turn himself around if he's going to earn people's respect.
• Hero of Another Story: After being Put on a Bus to Essos at the end of Book 2, Tyrion's only appearances in Books 3 and 4 are in Catelyn's dream visions, wherein we learn that he's busy training to be a sorcerer.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • Following Sansa's death, Ned becomes a virtual Knight Templar in regards to taking vengeance on the Lannisters.
  • Jon points out during his fight with Vanko that the latter has become no better than the lords he hates by taking his vengeance out on innocent bystanders. Vanko says that he doesn't care.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Ned never expected his cousin to have enough savviness and cunning to throw everyone off his trail about the Iron Man's identity and to guess Jon Snow's true parentage.
  • Clynt shows himself quite street smart for a sellsword, pointing that the highborns never think about the details.
  • The chapters told from Tywin's point of view reveal a lot about him: he often has to restrain himself from killing his vassals for being ridiculously stupid or unjustifiably arrogant (or both), especially when said flaws lead them to making easily avoidable mistakes that he has to clean up; and he sometimes wishes he was born to a different house so he wouldn't have to put up with such idiocy.
  • Gregor Clegane was able to deduce just what kind of person Joffrey was the moment he laid eyes on him. Doesn't seem that impressive when you think about it, but up until his first moments of jerkassery in canon, Joffrey was able to deliver a somewhat believable facade of royal charm.
  • Bronn is able to tell that the Night Queen is not actually human, saying that "whatever she is", rather than "whoever she is", and confirming that he did mean whatever when Tyrion asks.
    • Sam figures out the basics of what the Night Queen is actually is, saying that if it really is Sansa's body, then something other than Sansa's soul came back with it.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: As Bran learns through one of his Vision Quest lessons from the Three Eyed Raven that Maegor the Cruel wasn't a vicious usurper who hated his brother; he and Aenys were actually in incestuous love and the latter wanted Maegor to be king instead of him, so Maegor was just following his will.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In their conversation, Tony mentions theater tropes (such as Foreshadowing and Chekhov's Crossbow) to him, which leads Ned to consider that what Tony did to disprove being Iron Man is exactly what would happen in a theater play to pull the wool over someone's eyes... which means he is Iron Man. Downplayed in that it's heavily implied that Tony wanted him to know, and immediately counters by saying it would be as ridiculous as Jon not actually being Ned's son.
  • The Great Masters of Meereen's plan to defeat Daenerys backfires when they hire Juggernaut to act as their champion, only for him to declare himself King of Meereen and kill a bunch of the Masters to make a point.
• Home Base: The Spiders use an abandoned manse as their headquarters, which they codename "the Web".
• Hope Spot: Ned "confesses" to being a traitor in order to save Sansa's life. Joffrey orders his death, but Iron Man stops Ilyn Payne. Then, when Sansa tries to escape, Joffrey holds her as a Human Shield... and when she escapes, she loses her balance and dies.
• Honor Before Reason: Ned is in fine form, believing that Iron Man should have spoken with his lord and let them handle the problem instead of flying out and beating up corrupt nobles. He does get better as he realizes how holding onto this set of beliefs is keeping him from doing the right thing.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Cersei is in fine form as one, especially in regards to her son.
• Horrifying the Horror: Littlefinger's resurrection as Ultron is enough to scare Thanos into making a move to seal off the paths between the realms.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Free Folk, according to Steve. Back before the Long Night, they had actual towns and cities North of the Wall, ruled by leaders elected based on the merit of their personal strength. Now, they're reduced to scattered tribes of raiders and scavengers.
• Human Shield: Joffrey attempts to use Sansa Stark as one when Iron Man threatens him. However, she slips while she tries to get away and...
• Humiliation Conga: Let's just say this war does not bode well for the Lannister PR. Having the king be Joffrey isn't helping much either.
• Hypocrite:
  • As Tywin points out in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Cersei, for all that she kept complaining about how Robert kept indulging in his vices, she now indulges in pretty much the same vices.
  • Natasha privately notes that Ellaria is this as for that she disdains highborn women, she's in agreement with many of their opinions.
  • Cersei mocks the idea of a child being a lord, despite her own underage son being king.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • When Pepper learns that Jon has been patrolling the Westerlands and Riverlands in contravention of Tony's orders, she decides not to act, because (a) he's so damn happy about being able to help and (b) she would have broken down laughing if she tried to say that Tony knew best.
  • Cersei internally raves against the Dornish, wondering what good has ever come from them... immediately before deciding to request Dornish red wine as a drink.
  • Arya thinks about how uncomfortable she feels about people leering at her... only to do some Eating the Eye Candy of her own when Gendry shows up.
  • During a Small Council meeting, Pycelle mocks Jon's decision to take notes on the meeting, stating that he is the one that does it and anyway he never forgets what happens. When the meeting actually begins, Tywin asks Pycelle for important matters from the previous meeting - and Pycelle replies he can't remember and that he has his notes in his chambers.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Much like George RR Martin's novels, the titles of each installment of the series all take the form of the article, nouns and preposition.
• I Gave My Word: Or rather, My Wife Gave My Word On My Behalf. When Ned learns about the deal his wife made with the Freys, the only part of the deal he goes back on is Arya's engagement, and that solely because he cannot pledge a betrothal in good faith when he doesn't know if the participant on the Stark side is still alive. He confirms the other half of the betrothal pact, and even requests an immediate meeting between his family and the Frey girls so they can figure out which daughter would be the best match for Robb and schedule the wedding.
• I Have Your Wife: What Tywin plans to do to Ned Stark, the "wife" being Jon Snow currently living in Iron Pointe, which is located in the Westerlands.
  • To have a rematch with the Iron Man, Gregor Clegane abducts Pepper and commands Tony to send the knight fight him at the Southpaw Mine, or Pepper will "enjoy" the Moutain's attentions.
• I Know You Know I Know: Tony indirectly reveals to Ned that he has figured out [that Jon is Lyanna's son to Rhaegar, and Ned realizes that he has done it on purpose - figuring out at the same time that Tony is really Iron Man.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Tywin's reaction to Joffrey's very public Villainous Breakdown that ended with him killing Sansa. He even makes Tyrion pour for him over and over, prompting the dwarf to think his father has never reminded him so much of himself.
  • When Tyrion has to deal with the sheer idiocy of Pycelle claiming there's a rational explanation for Sansa coming back to life only to act senile and "forget" it, the poor dwarf can only grab a bottle of wine and drink straight from it.
  • Stannis' reaction to seeing Thor fly is to drain a tankard of ale with such gusto that it's noted Robert is probably looking down on him from the Seven Heavens with pride.
  • Jon Stark goes for the wine while coming to terms with the fact that he's getting married.
• I Owe You My Life: Technically, Jon feels he owes to Tony his new life as a legitimized bastard, for stripping the name Snow off him and replacing it by Stark. He's even ready to assume the Iron Man's identity for helping his guardian.
• I Shall Taunt You: Tony spends quite a lot of time in his third fight with Gregor taunting the Mountain. It almost gets him killed when the latter simply powers through magic blasts on sheer rage alone.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: One of Yunkai's Wise Masters accuses Daenerys of committing savageries against Astapor. She takes offense for it - what she did to Astapor^note Kill all the city's masters, absorb all the slaves and anyone else that wants to leave into her army, take everything of value that isn't nailed down and leave the remains of the city to anyone that doesn't want to join her. was far more than mere savagery.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: After Jon marries Natasha Martell, Tony deduces that there's more to her than meets the eye, and quietly promises to finish what the Targareyns started if she ever hurts Jon. She acknowledges this, then promises to make him suffer if he ever hurts Jon.
• In a Single Bound: Brienne is able to jump great distances while carrying somebody as if it was nothing. Being a Hulk helps. This becomes Deconstructed later, because, while Brienne may be able to heal from every injury she suffers, Theon cannot - and he nearly loses an eye because of that.
• In-Series Nickname: This being a superhero crossover, many characters gain heroic names, though several characters also get standard nicknames:
  • For the Starks, Tony is known as Iron Man when in his armor, but is also known out of armor as the Iron Wolf, Jon is the White Wolf and Centurion, Ned is the Quiet Wolf, Robb gets his Young Wolf nickname as per canon, Sansa is called Little Bird and declares herself the Night's Queen^SpoilerThough it's later revealed that that isn't a nickname, it's the name of the Other that has taken over her body, Arya is named Kat by Mystique^SpoilerThough that's more of a pseudonym than a nickname and Rickon is Star-Lord. After Roslin Frey marries Robb, she becomes known as the Stone Wolf^note As in, something that appears to just be a pretty decoration, until it leaps at you with its jaw wide
  • Dany goes from Stormborn to Firestar.
  • Tywin is the Old Lion while Ser Gregor is The Mountain that Rides and the Iron Monger (but only in the Author Notes).
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite Theon never betraying the Starks Winterfell is still taken by the Ironborn, albeit briefly.
  • Arya still ends up going to Braavos, except as part of the Brotherhood, instead of joining the Faceless Men.
  • Jon still befriends someone named Sam. It's just the stand-in for Sam Wilson instead of Sam Tarly.
  • Joffrey still dies during his wedding to Margery Tyrell, an innocent man is framed for the crime, said man tries to prove his innocence through Trial by Combat, and the crown's champion is a member of House Clegane that wins the battle because his opponent talked too much and lost focus of the fight.
  • Despite Tyrion not being in the Red Keep this time around Tywin Lannister is still killed towards the end of the third book adaptation.
• In Vino Veritas: During the breakfast before his wedding, Joffrey is so drunk that he reveals that he was the one that arranged both Bran's attempted murder and the actual murder of his father's bastard children - in front of Jon, Natasha, the Small Council and the Tyrells.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue:
  Tony: Besides, I need your help with something more important.
  Jon: And that is?
  Pepper: TONY! YOU FOUGHT THE MOUNTAIN?!
  Tony: ... Helping me calm Lady Stark down.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Tony reveals Jon's ancestry to Natasha and Rhodey while trying to convince Jon to stop being the Centurion. He later also accidentally blurts this out to Arya when in Braavos, along with the Night's Queen possessing Sansa.
  • He later tells Rhodey why he left his home, something not even Pepper knows.
  • During his Trial by Combat, Littlefinger reveals Cersei's proclivities and that Rhaegar and Lyanna got married and had a son.
• Iron Lady: Pepper. She manages to talk GREGOR FUCKING CLEGANE into not harming her! Gregor also expresses great frustration at Pepper's composure, seeing it as her taunting him.
• Irony:
  • One of the driving points for Thor is that he's looking for his brother Loki, who is somewhere in Westeros. As it turns out, he was a lot closer than he had thought - disguised as Davos Seaworth.
  • Steve Rogers reveals that Lann the Clever, the legendary hero who founded House Lannister, was a dwarf. Jeor Mormont and Benjen Stark, who are well aware of the relationship between Tywin and Tyrion Lannister, promptly Spit Take.
  • One of the main plot points in the canon books is that Aegon, Rhaegar and Elia's son, is still alive, while his mother and sister are dead. In this story, Aegon has been dead for more than a decade, while his mother and sister are still alive (the former as Kraven the Hunter, the latter as Mantis).
• It Has Only Just Begun: The talk between Nikolos Fury and Varys indicates that the appearance of Iron Man and Centurion is just the beginning of a new age.
• It's All My Fault: Tony blames himself for Sansa's death and the War of the Five Crowns, thinking that his escalating the issue through the use of Iron Man pushed things beyond any hope. It takes a long effort from his family and friends for him to understand that the situation would have gone bad no matter what he did, and that in fact his actions have helped more than he thinks.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Ned might be angry with his cousin for what he said to Cat about how she treats Jon, but he does realize Tony is right that he should have spoken to Cat about her ill treatment of the boy ages ago.
  • According to Tony, Cat would be completely in the right to blame him for the death of Sansa, since he feels he could have prevented it.
  • The messenger sent to check on Ser Adrian of the Tombs is mostly a pompous ass. However, when Adrian and his party exalt in the true fate of Rhaenys Targaryen, the messenger points out that is completely irrelevant. Only the Maesters would care about something from 300 years ago (and given that the Targaryens aren't ruling Westeros anymore, discrediting them is irrelevant); instead, the only thing that matters right now is the war and the coming winter.
• Jerkass Realization: Theon has one after meeting Renly and realizing he's just as bad as the pompous would-be king. He then decides he wants to be more like his new mentor, Lord Jonos Bracken.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tony revels in his Black Sheep status and loves to troll everyone around him - including his subordinates and relatives - but just try to piss him off by harming what he holds dear and you will live long enough to regret it.
• The Juggernaut: Gregor Clegane, as usual. Exaggerated when he becomes the Iron Monger, as he can easily tank multiple shots from Iron Man and Centurion and still nearly crush Tony to death. To clarify: In this story, the Iron Monger suit isn't actually power armor, it's just really good normal armor. He still manages to take all that damage and keep fighting. Also, because there is a Marvel character of that name, Gregor is not, in fact, the Juggernaut.
  • Then the Juggernaut actually shows up. True to form, even though Wolverine, Deadpool, and the Hulk are up against him, none of them are even able to scratch him.
• Karmic Death: The Tickler is executed by being fed to the same rats he used to torture and kill his victims.
• Kill It with Fire: Daenerys turns the House of the Undying and its inhabitants into ashes thanks to her power.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Sandor Clegane kills Peter Baelish just as he's about to reveal who is Rhaegar and Lyanna's son.
• Knight in Sour Armor: What Tony becomes upon donning the Iron Man armor:
  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.
• Lady and Knight:
  • Logan swears himself to Daenerys as protector.
  • A very dark version when Sandor becomes the Knight to Sansa's Night Queen.
• Laser Blade: By combining the sunstones' ability to generate electricity when touching copper with their swords, the Ironborn are able to create a somewhat cruder version of this trope.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In Chapter 28, Iron Man severely burns the left side of Gregor Clegane's face, then declares the Mountain now more greatly resembles his brother. Gregor is enraged and horrified. Of course, he dies shortly after, so he does not have to suffer those for long.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Inverted: Pepper and Tony don't want kids since they are acutely aware of their flaws and are afraid of screwing the child up, as Westerosi nobility tends to do. They instead take Jon Snow as a ward and later name him the heir to Iron Pointe.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Tyrion arrives in King's Landing in A Crack of Thunder and sees just how screwed up a situation that Cersei and Joffrey have created, with the final straw being "Sansa Stark" running around, he ditches his jovial and deadpan demeanor and makes it clear to his sister and the Small Council that he is running things now, and if they don't like it he'll just take their heads.
• Let's You and Him Fight: A brief fight breaks out between the Brotherhood and the Sealord's students when Arya and Rogue get into an argument over Mystique's role as a Parental Substitute, and Arya headbutts Rogue for hitting her Berserk Button, unknowingly subjecting herself to Rogue's powers. Sabertooth and Gendry react to hearing Arya cry out in pain, and soon both groups are almost fighting until Arya making a dramatic exit breaks the tension.
• Lighter and Softer: While not without its dark moments, this story is noticeably less grim than A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones:
  • There's a much bigger emphasis on magic and fantasy elements, in no small part thanks to the Marvel characters. While A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones were Low Fantasy with some hints of Dark Fantasy, A Man of Iron and its sequels slowly but surely veering into High Fantasy territory.
  • While there are still deaths of major characters, a lot of other characters are Spared by the Adaptation.
  • Many of the darker moments in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, such as Ned Stark's execution, the sacking of Winterfell, Theon's Face–Heel Turn, his torture at Ramsay's hands, and the Red Wedding never happen.
  • Related to the above, since Ned survives, he becomes King in the North instead of Robb. Thanks to Ned's experience and ability to handle the Northern Lords, the Starks' situation at the end of the war is much better than it was in the books.
• Like a Son to Me:
  • As Tyrion will never become a father, Samwell will do as a substitute. Which means teach the youth the ways of the world - especially when it comes to sleeping with women.
  • Pointedly averted by Tony and Pepper with Jon. Tony is more of a Cool Uncle while Pepper considers the boy as a younger brother. Though the way that they treat him does verge more on a parent-child relationship, at times.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Gender Inverted and Played for Drama. As Tywin notes to his dismay in Chapter 50 of A Crack of Thunder, Cersei is nothing at all like her mother, having had her beauty to rely on all her life instead of having to actually work to gain influence on people, unlike Joanna who grew into her looks and in the meantime learned how to subtly influence.
• Look, a Distraction!: Daenerys uses Deadpool's duel with Yunkai's champion as a distraction so that the Unsullied can sneak into the city and take it over.
• Loss of Identity: As in canon, it's mentioned that wargs who spend too long in the bodies of animals risk losing their sense of self and humanity. This becomes a worry of Sansa in Book 3, after her spirit escapes the Night's Queen by transferring into Lady's body.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Gregor, courtesy of an exploding sunstone getting lodged in his chest.
  • A symbiote-possessed Umber soldier explodes at the end of his fight with Euron Greyjoy.

M-R

• Machiavelli Was Wrong: Discussed in Chapter 22 of A Crack of Thunder. Ned is loved, not feared, by the people of the North and the Riverlands, so they will fight harder for him, are willing to supply his army, and show him great loyalty. Meanwhile, Tywin's efforts to make people fear him have backfired: while some in the North and the Riverlands do fear him, Arya tells him that the stories of his wrath simply inspire enemy soldiers to fight harder, because they don't want to be captured and subjected to his wrath, and the contrast between him and Ned means that the people of the Riverlands will resist his army, as they wish to be ruled by the Starks. As well, while the Lords of the North and the Riverlands are quite loyal to the Starks (even the Freys, mainly due to Ned being Ned and honouring the marriage pact Cat made, and the Boltons), Gregor disobeyed Tywin's orders, and Tony has no intention of fighting his relatives, and has married Jon, his heir, to a Martell, the family that despises Tywin and is plotting to kill him.
  • This trope gets an even earlier mention during Tyrion's last chapter in A Man of Iron. Tywin himself admits that neither he nor anybody for that matter can rule through fear alone - because those who do tend to end up killed by their disgruntled vassals, - and rewarding loyal and competent subordinates is just as important as punishing treacherous ones.
  Tywin: Your brother and sister think of the Reynes and believe that is all that is needed. They fail to see that a good lord weighs a steel spine with a giving hand. Demand the best... and know when to reward for such things. Cersei and Jaime forget that repaying of debts can be good thing for those we deal with.
• Magitek: Any technology that uses sunstones, such as the Iron Man armor or Vanko's whips. While Tony insists that sunstones aren't magical, he's pretty much the only one who thinks that way.
  • When the Guardians of the Galaxy show up, what technology they do use is pretty evidently magitek instead of purely technology, as is the character's norm.
• The Man Behind the Man: Renly was the one who paid the bandits that nearly killed Tony, and is behind Vanko and Asha Greyjoy's attacks.
  • Another layer is added when it's revealed Renly has been mind controled by the Mandarin since childhood, though how much of Renly's actions were himself and how much were the Mandarin is unknown.
• Manipulative Bastard: This being A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, there's many characters skilled in manipulation.
  • Tony truly shines as this in Ned's third chapter, as he gives his cousin an excuse to visit the blacksmith, threatens him with his knowledge of Jon Snow's true parentage and buys Gendry's apprenticeship under cover to encourage his future.
  • Tywin Lannister himself, of course. He chose to give Iron Pointe to Antony Stark because (a) he gains a fruitful business partnership, (b) he has control over one Stark, who could gain a boost in status if the current Stark family in Winterfell happened to have a mishap, and (c) It allows Iron Pointe to be manned again, guarding Lannisport against invasion from the sea.
  • Lord Commander Jeor Mormont proves Tyrion he's not a dull man by giving him Samwell Tarly as a squire: it puts the youth out of resentful black brothers' reach, and Lord Tarly can't very well complain about his son serving the king's brother-in-law.
  • In a subversion, Loki/Davos Seaworth claimed that the past life he's lived has been so nice because he wasn't this, and that not being a manipulative bastard has been wonderful. That said, he also claims that this is how he's always been acting up until that point whenever he comes to Westeros, inciting multiple wars and chaotic events.
• Make Way for the New Villains:
  • Ramsay Snow was a major villain in canon (more so in the TV series than in the books), while in his first and only appearance he's brutally killed by Ivan Vanko and Asha Greyjoy.
  • Ironically, Asha herself would fall victim to this: she's a major villain in Book 2, but in her first appearance in Book 3, she's overpowered and taken prisoner by Euron.
• Manly Tears: While not seen because of his mask, the narration makes it obvious Tony is crying after Sansa dies.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: This turns out to be the reason why Steve declines Ygritte's offers of sex. Once the problem is eliminated by Ygritte being turned into an Other, they go at it like rabbits.
• Master Actor:
  • Mystique is able to fool the entire Red Keep while she poses as Syrio. When she escapes with Arya, she flawlessly impersonates a common woman and gives Arya tips about how play a character.
  • In Chapter 12 of Book 2, she manages to trick Tywin into thinking she's Jaime, especially impressive since Tywin actually does suspect an impostor^note especially since he has been told about the "impostor" Sansa, and only believed her when she said that she needed to go back to the Kingsguard to show it still had honor, as Tywin thinks that an impostor would jump on the chance to inherit Casterly Rock, but only his blood would do something so stupid.
  • Gendry has some shades of this, when he brazenly pretends everything's okay after killing Janos Slynt and helps Mystique and Arya to leave King's Landing.
  • Varys, of course. And he's proud of it.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: During the Battle of the Blackwater, the explosion of wildfire unleashes a wave of magic that spreads over King's Landing and Blackwater Bay, awakening the latent powers of many people in the area.
• Meaningful Background Event: Count how many times in A Crack of Thunder that there is a small, blue-eyed bird somewhere in the background...
• Mentor Archetype: When Samwell Tarly becomes his squire, Tyrion happily decides to corrupt - teach him everything there is to know about the world and its pleasures. Oddly enough, given what he intends to do, he performs the role of mentor very well, even at one point considering Samwell to be like a son he can never have.
  • When Theon is tasked to follow Jonos Bracken in his embassy mission, the riverlord takes this role.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Jonos Bracken is killed by Asha Greyjoy. Mr. Chaos admitted that this was the plan since the start of A Crack of Thunder, to give Theon the final push needed to fully turn his back on the Ironborn.
• Money Is Not Power: Tony gets kidnapped by bandits. When he tries to negotiate with them, they mock him and say his money and titles are meaningless to them, as they want to torture and kill him for fun. They were hired to take him out, but they say they enjoy hurting people so much they would have done it for free. It takes a Big Damn Heroes from Jon, Rhodey, and the others to save him.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: This world of Westeros mixed with Marvel produces a wide range of beings, ranging from straight heroic to straight sadistic, to everything in between. The uncertain political landscape also makes things complicated.
• Moving the Goalposts: After Bronn defeats Ser Vardis to win Tyrion's Trial by Combat, Lysa suddenly declares Tyrion must immediately endure a second trial by combat and Bronn cannot champion him anymore. Clynt takes up the challenge and simply shoots Lysa's second champion with an arrow, finally winning Tyrion's freedom.
• Morton's Fork: Tony finds himself in a very bad one in Chapter 26 following Robert's death and Ned's imprisonment: either march south and join Tywin's army, or go to King's Landing and swear loyalty to Joffrey, or side with Winterfell against the Lannisters. The Mountain/Iron Monger's arrival forces his hand.
• Mugging the Monster: Just as in canon, several men try to rape Sansa during the riot in King's Landing. This time she's the Night Queen, and rips them all to pieces with her bare hands.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Tony breaks down crying when he finally realizes how much he messed up when trying to convince Jon to stop being Centurion.
  • In an Even Evil Has Standards case, this is Cersei's reaction when she and Qyburn accidentally resurrect Littlefinger in the Ultron armor.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Ned and Robert burst out laughing for several minutes after the first suggestion that Tony might be Iron Man, but when Varys tells Ned in private about Tony possibly being targeted by hired bandits (not certain whether or not he actually was attacked by them), he reconsiders that it may make sense.
• Mythology Gag: So many we gave it its own page.
• Naked People Are Funny: When Arya first experiments with her phasing ability, she accidentally leaves her clothes behind, to her and Gendry's embarrassment and Mystique and Magneto's amusement.
• Never Be a Hero: Ned Stark disapproves of Iron Man's vigilante actions. Not only is it illegal, but he's worried that people, especially untrained peasants, will be inspired to imitate him, which will lead them getting killed. Ned says the proper procedure to dealing with crimes is to report them to the king or lord so that they and their knights can deal with it. Not only that, he is deeply disturbed that Iron Man has so many targets worthy of his wrath, as it implies that Westeros' corruption has reached critical levels and the continent is on the brink of war. And any fan of the setting knows just how right he is. His attitude changes after Sansa's death, as Ned realizes that the smallfolk that struggle to live amidst the lords' fighting need a champion.
• Never Gets Drunk: A trait possessed by all Starks. Tony is apparently able to drink barrels of alcohol and barely feel a thing, Ned is said to be as able as Tony in the drinking department, Theon mentions he has never been able to keep up with Robb when drinking and Arya once drank several cups of wine and found that they had almost no effect on her. It’s revealed that this was because Thor gave Brandon the Builder an Asgardian's constitution - just for the sake of a prank, after Brandon helped build Storm's End.
  • The Seaworths also have the same trait, which makes Jane think they may have Stark ancestors. The actual reason is that Davos Seaworth is Loki.
• Never My Fault: As per canon, Joffrey's attitude. Most present when his attempt to use Sansa as a Human Shield against Iron Man while she is trying to escape leads to her slipping and breaking her skull against the Great Sept's steps... and Joffrey immediately blames Iron Man for forcing him to do what he did.
  • Catelyn Stark shows shades of this, since the first thing she does when learning Sansa died is to blame anyone in her sight. When Centurion (Jon) refuses to take the heat for Sansa's death, she goes on the defensive as she thinks he's trying to blame her, but Centurion points out Joffrey is the one responsible for the mess, although he considers Catelyn's reaction as very telling. Fortunately, Catelyn begins to grow out of it and accepts her share of blame for certain events.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Subverted. Jon sparing the Mountain's life has some serious consequences, such as Tony being forced to make a suit of armor for Gregor to cover his tracks, followed swiftly by Gregor abducting Pepper to lure out the Iron Man, but as Tony points out, killing Gregor would have prompted Tywin to give Iron Pointe the Castamere treatment.
  • Ned makes his canon offer to Cersei, and he gets imprisoned and sentenced to death for his troubles. Tony saves him, but Sansa is killed.
  • Sansa's death grants the Night's Queen a very strong foothold in the heart of Westeros.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Gregor's assault on Iron Pointe and abduction of Pepper has, in Tony's mind, given him an excuse to kill the bastard, since, as far as anyone else is concerned, Gregor attacked a fellow Westerland lord (and one of Tywin's more valuable vassals) without provocation.
  • Sansa's death, caused by Joffrey, gives the North a great boost, since (a) it leaves the Lannisters with no Stark hostages to barter with, (b) it makes Joffrey's popularity plummet and (c) rallies the North around the Starks and the martyr created by Joffrey.
  • Chapter 30 reveals that Tony took further advantage of how few people know what really happened to lie like a rug and say that Clegane claimed to be the acting Warden of the West and then blew himself up, while Tony himself acts like a good vassal and politely asks Tywin for an explanation, which means he cannot ignore the question without risking an insurrection, so he sends Tony's men back to Iron Pointe - which means they are spared having to fight the North - and names him acting Warden of the West, which gives him a lot of power, even if it is temporary.
  • The Night's Queen gets hit with this. By possessing Sansa's body and trapping her soul, Sansa is able to remain alive, briefly tap into the Night's Queen's powers to revive Lady, and escape by way of warging into the newly-revived direwolf's body.
• The Nicknamer: Meta example. The author states he LOVES the nicknames the characters got in canon. Even with this being a superhero fanfic Mr. Chaos still gives characters nicknames that aren't related to any heroic or villainous identity.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Joffrey stares at a severed head with a little too much fascination. Tyrion is worried by it and muses he should ask his father how the Mad King looked at dead things.
• Noodle Incident:
  • There are many rumors surrounding Tony, but the one with the pig and the dress is totally wrong: it was actually a cow.
  • Tyrion swears that the story about him in a dress is a filthy lie.
  • Oberyn Martell may or may not have an incriminating painting about Tony's gender preferences.
    • Also, Tony is fairly certain Oberyn once tried to sell him as a sex slave.
  • After Tony rescues Ned from his execution, Jon is waiting with a cart and horses, "the obtaining of both would have made for a great story if he'd been in the mood to tell it."
  • Tony never told Pepper how Tyrion and him ended up naked in a sept with a basket full of strawberry cakes.
  • In his first appearance, Oberyn starts to tell a story about how he taught a goat to milk itself, which we sadly don't get to hear.
  • A man tried to force himself on Jane Seaworth, and the aftermath prompted Tyrion to nickname her the "Stranger's Daughter". Since the Stranger is the local death god and Jane apparently quite handy with a knife, the would-be rapist was probably very sorry.
  • Natasha notes that Cliff has been partially deaf in one ear since the "Yi Ti Incident".
  • Tony was once commissioned by Randyll Tarly to make a shield for his son Dickon, which ended with Randyll chasing Tony off his land. It's implied to have somehow involved making a joke based on Dickon's Unfortunate Name.
  • Tony is apparently responsible for Lord Manderly's daughter dying her hair.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Cersei informs Tyrion that "fake" Sansa wasn't her idea. He believes her, claiming that such a thing isn't her style.
  • While Cersei and Joffrey are the immediate suspects in arranging the Lannister guards attacking the Iron Pointe/Dorne party in King's Landing, everyone eventually realizes that the method by which this was carried out doesn't match either of their habits.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Arya mocks Sansa's flowery praise of "The Iron Man" and how "He flies around, righting wrongs," believing her to be projecting her fantasies onto him... only to immediately start confidently predicting that the Iron Man is actually a woman who was avenging her lost friend, showing that flights of fancy are not limited to just one of the Stark daughters.
  • On a darker note, Pepper fears having children of her own as she doesn't want to become Catelyn Stark Mk 2.
  • Theon realizes that he's a lot like Renly, being petty and self-centered and wanting everyone to praise him constantly. This feeds his Jerkass Realization.
  • Mance says this about the Night's Watch and the Free Folk, pointing out that for all they claim that the wildlings are savage murderers and rapists, many Black Brothers are only in the Watch to begin with because of those exact same crimes.
• Not His Sled:
  • Obadiah Stane is not the one who sold Tony out, and Gregor becomes Iron Monger. Also, Ned doesn't die in King's Landing, but Sansa does.
  • Rhodey doesn't become War Machine, Jon does. Also, War Machine is called Centurion instead, and wears a suit based off of the Silver Centurion suit from Iron Man 3. Though Tony is trying to get Rhodey to join in, offering to build him a suit that would resemble the normal War Machine suit (same colours, shoulder cannon, etc.).
    • Subverted in chapter 31 of book 2 Rhodey dons a suit to break up the fight between Jon and Tony, suggesting that he will become War Machine, he just hasn't yet. Also Word of God stated that Jon is not War Machine.
  • Quite a few fans suspected that Arya would become Wolfsbane due to Maisie Williams playing the character in The New Mutants. Instead, she becomes the equivalent of Kitty Pryde while Sansa is Wolfsbane.
  • While so far Martin's left it ambiguous as to whether 'Young Griff' is truly Rhaegar and Elia's son Aegon (there's compelling evidence both for and against his legitimacy) Mr. Chaos flat out states that this version of Aegon died when he was still an infant, Jon Connington went mad with grief and grabbed an orphan with Targaryen looks, convinced he was the son of his dead Prince.
• No-Sell: During the incursion into the House of the Undying, the warlocks show Doom's deepest fear (the forge where he suffered the accident that disfigured him) and desire (to heal from his injuries). He contemptuously tells the warlocks off for thinking he would be shaken by either.
• Not So Similar: While Jon and Natasha are both bastards raised by their noble father's, and were both eventually legitimized, Natasha was treated by her father as well as a non-bastard, with a lot of resources spent on her education and training, while Catelyn always made sure Jon felt like an outsider even among his family, and Ned admits he wasn't a very good father to him. Natasha views her legitimization as a restriction, forcing her to have to live up to her family name, whereas before she could do anything she wanted with her life and no one would care. Jon, on the other hand, views his legitimization as something that prevents anyone from trying to make him an outsider or take away his family, while as a bastard he thought he only had one choice with what he could do with his life (Join the Night's Watch). Natasha was also legitimized at the request of her father, while Jon was legitimized at Tony's request.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • The Night's Queen takes advantage of Sansa's previous reputation while manipulating Joffrey and as many as she can. She drops her façade only when she knows she is in front of someone that will not be telling anyone.
  • Tywin notes that Mace Tyrell does this, pretending to be the buffoon everyone sees him as, while secretly Playing Both Sides of any conflict so he always comes out on top. Natasha later comes to the same conclusion, and thinks that Olenna constantly berating him for his stupidity is just part of the act.
  • In a Just Between You and Me moment in A Web of Lies, Mace confirms to Cersei that all of House Tyrell does this. He reminisces on how he criticized his son Willas for gaining a reputation for being known for his smarts and his charm. Which is why he was so proud of Willas for smashing his own leg with a hammer after his accident so he'd be known as the guy who couldn't walk anymore instead.
• Occult Blue Eyes: After she Came Back Wrong, Sansa gets them because the Night's Queen is possessing her. She then uses her magic to turn people into still-living wights, all of whom have the same eyes.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Tyrion, while at the Wall, apparently verbally decimated Thorne.
  • Bruce of Tarth managed to enter Valyria and find out why the Doom happened.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Gregor Clegane when he realizes the combination of silver and sunstone is what creates the blasts Iron Man uses... while he’s in a pit full of both things.
  • Ramsey Bolton when he discovers the girl he'd been abusing for the last few months and just tried to hunt is Asha Greyjoy. And that's before he discovers she's the lover of the brutal Vanko.
  • Theon has this when he sees Thor carrying Mjolnir, recognizing it and realizing that Thor is the Storm God, the enemy of the Ironborns' Drowned God, the one who cast him down from the sky. Turns out that the Drowned God is actually Ægir, a friend of Thor's, and the nickname of "the Drowned God" was given to him by Sif after she dropped him in pond for trying to bed her.
  • Varys almost craps himself when he sees the Night Queen brutally killing four men that had threatened to rape her, and even more when she calls out to someone who is hiding - much to his luck, though, it's not about him.
  • Thor is clearly unnerved to learn that Amora has either reassembled or recreated the long-lost Destroyer armor. Then he and Jane are horrified to realize that she intends to make Stannis sacrifice Shireen so that he can use it.
  • Amora becomes terrified when she finds out that Davos Seaworth, the unassuming lowborn smuggler who serves Stannis, is actually Loki Odinson.
  • During the Battle of King's Landing, a castle guard kills Jeor Stacy. Tyrion craps himself when he sees the guard has Occult Blue Eyes.
  • Asha can only give out a series of "fucks" when she realizes that she's just run into Euron.
  • Jon and Natasha internally freak out when Littlefinger reveals he found that Rhaegar and Lyanna not only got married, but had a son.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Varys belongs to "the Council", which gives the "Nikolos Fury" persona at some of its agents and is apparently preparing for some conflict with a mysterious "Court" (later revealed to be the Court of the Others, the leaders of the White Walkers).
• On Second Thought: When Magneto tells the Brotherhood to have fun at the Feast of the Uncloaking, Arya points out that they all have different ideas of what "fun" is. Magneto amends it to "have fun that won't make me regret bringing you".
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. In addition to the various examples from canon^note Jon Arryn and Jon Snow/Stark, Robert Baratheon and Robb Stark, both Brandon Starks (Ned's brother, and his son Bran's full name), there's also Ser Jaime Lannister and Ser Jaime Rhodes, though the latter is usually called Rhodey by his friends.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • Sandor states his disappointment that Iron Man killed Gregor before he could.
  • Kraven is also pissed about Iron Man killing the Mountain, as she wanted revenge on him for killing her children.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Seeing the mighty Tywin Lannister diving for the wine outright freaks Tyrion. It freaks him out more when Tywin starts saying that he's sorry for wasting Tyrion's talents and that he's currently one of his best children.
  • When Davos Seaworth notes the magic Amora is throwing around without a hint of surprise, Jane is shocked. That's when Davos reveals he is actually Loki.
• Open Secret: Most of Iron Pointe has (correctly for once) deduced who Iron Man and Centurion are, but keep quiet about it out of respect for their lord.
• The Order: The Knights of the Dawn, the ancient brotherhood led by Steve Rogers who fought against the Others during the Long Night. Afterwards, they evolved into the Night's Watch.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Iron Man; in a low-magic, low-tech society like the Game of Thrones universe, a flying knight that can shoot magic from his hands and is impervious to almost all weaponry is a total game-changer.
  • Thor is shaping to be one of these since he's an outright god from Asgard.
  • Ned is arguably one for the war over the Iron Throne. Where the other factions are all battling to put their leader on the Iron Throne (or keep him there), with the end goal of taking the opposing kingdoms out of action and taking King's Landing due to it being the capital, Ned and his supporters simply want an independent kingdom made up of the North and the Riverlands, Ned's only interested in King's Landing because it contains several people he wants dead, and has no interest in taking over or even invading the other kingdoms. This makes him extremely difficult to fight, as he doesn't need to go on the offensive, and is able to simply wait, rebuild, and fortify the Riverlands. He is also nearly impossible to lure into a trap, since he has no reason to leave his lands.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Tony decides to become this for Jon, as someone has to and he judges Ned for refusing to do enough. When Catelyn Stark makes a hurtful remark towards the teen, Tony immediately jumps to defend him and spectacularly tears into her.
  • Ned Stark is this. Seeing his eldest daughter die in front of him punches this button hard.
  • Davos Seaworth. When Amora nearly kills Jane and almost gets his sons killed as well, he sheds his mortal identity and returns to being Loki Odinson in order to blast the daylights out of the Enchantress.
• Parental Sexuality Squick:
  • Mace Tyrell gets very flustered when his mother makes sex jokes. Jon figures it's less to do with the jokes and more to do with the idea of her having sex at all.
  • When Yondu unashamedly talks about his prior sex life with his wife when he was human, it completely grosses out Gamora, Drax, and Rickon (his kids and grandson, respectfully).
• Parental Substitute: Tony becomes one to Jon Snow when he takes the boy as his ward. More subtly, Pepper has shades of a mother figure for Jon. Though Pepper herself views him more like a younger brother.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage:
  • Ned and Catelyn Stark realistically fight sometimes, but are otherwise quite happy with each other.
  • Ned also wants his son Robb to be Happily Married, so he asks for his wife to screen Walder Frey's daughters and granddaughters to find the most suitable fit for Robb. It seems to have worked, as Robb and Roslin are shown to get on fantastically.
  • When Oberyn Martell introduces his eldest daughter Natasha to Jon, the boy suddenly loses his reluctance about the Martell-Stark wedding contract.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Tywin is not above this. When his new squire confessed his father sent him to find dirty laundry on Tywin, the Old Lion promptly executed the father and made the boy lord of the family castle to reward his honesty and loyalty.
  • Tywin also admits he may have been wrong in dismissing Tyrion's worth and potential and decides to name him Acting Hand as a chance to prove himself and his abilities.
• Playing Both Sides: Downplayed. By the time of Book 2, the Council has agents acting as the Masters of Whispers for both Ned and Joffrey.
• Please Select New City Name: Doom reveals to Daenerys that Qarth used to be known by another name before the Pureborn took over. After taking control of the city, Doom restores the original name — Latveria.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up:
  • After reviving as the Night's Queen, Sansa's body changes to a full grown adult.
  • When Magneto magically activates Arya and Gendry's mutant powers, they both age into their late teens as a side effect.
  • Rickon returns to Westeros aged into a full-grown man and leading the Guardians of the Galaxy, when he was only gone for a short time back in Westeros.
  • Due to time working differently in Asgard, Shireen returns to Westeros as a full adult only a few weeks after leaving.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Because Tony takes Jon back to Iron Pointe with him, he isn't there to befriend Samwell at the Wall. As a result, Sam is rescued by Tyrion before he takes his vows and taken on as a squire.
  • The far more serious situation with the Lannisters leads Tyrion to decide not taking Shae to King's Landing.
  • Ned as King in the North changes some key aspects of the Stark war plan — Robb's marriage to a Frey daughter is carried out soon (thus securing Walder's loyalty), with plans to send them both to safety in Winterfell for the duration of the war, along with the captive Jaime Lannister (who is not traded for "Sansa"). Also, Ned sends Theon to aid in negotiating with Renly and prove himself, rather than try and recruit Balon's help. And he tasks Lord Karstark with forming the Wintercloaks, which redirects his focus from his grief and anger over his sons' deaths.
  • The North's better situation leads to Roose taking Gretin Frey as a wife instead of Walda, because he's looking for a strong partner who can give him a better heir, rather than just someone with a big dowry. Also, he and Walder are staying loyal to the Starks, strongly enough that Tywin's not even bothering trying to win either of them over.
  • As a result of the Freys remaining loyal to the Starks, the Red Wedding never happens and House Bolton is unable to take over the North. Furthermore, Ramsay is killed by Vanko and Asha, before he could make any major moves in the War of the Five Crowns.
  • Thor's presence, and a show of force, causes all the Storm Lords who declared for Renly to turn cloak to Stannis. In turn, this better war footing means Stannis refuses to compromise his ideals by having Melisandre assassinate the other contenders, spurning her offer as dishonorable.
  • Since Jon is taken in by Tony, Grenn is the one who becomes Lord Commander Mormont's steward.
  • As Asha and Vanko's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is done entirely without Balon's blessing, he's forced to abandon his own plans and conquest and withdraw all Ironborn to Pyke just so he can reaffirm his control of his own people.
  • Mystique impersonating Jaime and the Starks having no reason to try and trade him away means he stays locked up in Winterfell until the Ironborn attack, at which point Bran, Meera and Jojen recruit him to aid them in fleeing and making their way North of the Wall.
  • Due to needing to take a late night piss, Jeor overhears the Black Brothers preparing to mutiny against him at Craster's keep. As a result, he manages to flee and survive, shortly after being captured by Mance, which allows him to start forging an alliance against the Others.
  • Thanks to a more cautious approach to repaying the crown's debts, Jon doesn't permit the reformation of The Faith Militant, but rather decides to sell Targaryen treasures to help cover the costs.
• Politically Correct History: Tony Stark has the outlook of a modern libertarian, same as in his home continuity, even though in this continuity he's Ned Stark's cousin and has lived all his life surrounded by the Deliberate Values Dissonance of Westeros. The implication seems to be that modern attitudes are just intuitively obvious to someone who's as smart as Tony is.
• Pokémon Speak: Groot. "I am Groot," indeed.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Tywin could write the book on the subject. His philosophy boils down to "demand the best and accordingly reward the results". When his subordinate fails, he dishes out the Castamere treatment. When his subordinate succeeds, he grants honors and riches to ensure the subordinate will strive to succeed again.
  • Adrian takes strides to be a Benevolent Boss to his minions, on the grounds that he knows from his personal experience with the Tyrells that undermining his underlings will make them resent and turn against him.
• Properly Paranoid: When Jaime appears, having escaped the Starks, Tywin is suspicious this could be an impostor as some sort of trick. Jaime himself even notes his reaction and is able to convince Tywin by refusing to leave the Kingsguard. But the presence of Petyr and Kat^note Gendry and Arya indicates Tywin was right in the first place as "Jaime" is really Mystique.
• Pulling the Thread: How Jon tricks Littlefinger into admitting he killed Joffrey: by doing this to his claim that he took Lysa and Catelyn's maidenheads.
• Puppet King:
  • Tywin idly entertains the notion of a Warden of the North being loyal to the Lannisters. Of course, Antony is far down the succession line, but misfortune is so unpredictable...
  • With the eventuality of a war looming in the horizon, he outright considers to wipe Ned Stark's entire family then introducing the legitimized bastard Jon as the new Lord of Winterfell, which would appease the Northern lords and give Tywin a steadfast ally - as he thinks Jon would be grateful for the opportunity to supplant Lady Stark's children.
  • While it's not stated as such, early chapters heavily imply that Robert was heavily in Tywin's pocket. In fact, Tywin actively does not pursue the Iron Throne directly because he's worried that the Lannisters already have too much power, and that acquiring more could make them a target. This is before Joffrey took the throne, of course.
• The Purge: After Melisandre is revealed as Amora and her plans are exposed, Thor has Cressen arrest all of her followers on Dragonstone.
• Rage Breaking Point: When Tony makes the mistake of trying to use Jon's Targaryen legacy against him, Jon decides to start fighting him.
• A Rare Sentence: The fight in the Blue Oyster in A Shield of Man has the following exchange after Jon throws a cherub statue at someone.
  Natasha: Did you just try and kill a man with a horny winged child?
  Jon: It worked?
  Clynt: It's a good day when someone can say something like that in Westeros and it makes sense!
• Real Dreams are Weirder:
  • Pepper mentions a nightmare she has, brought about by stress over being a Secret-Keeper (and some Essossi peppers that Tony likes), where she's in the Red Keep and blurts out Iron Man's secret identity in front of Tywin and Joffrey, and then Jon (who's dressed like a Kingsguard and speaking with Tyrion's voice) points out that she's naked and that she'd better be prepared for a test her septa is giving her later.
  • During an argument with Jojen over the latter's dream visions, Jaime mentions once having a dream about his father wearing dresses and singing to badgers.
• Refuge in Audacity: During a fight with the Red Skull, Jeor distracts him at a key moment by asking if his cock is as red as his head, leaving the Other staring at him in disbelief long enough for Ygritte to attack him.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Ned and Tony Stark are cousins.
  • Mystique is a Targaryen (being Aegon V's granddaughter by Prince Duncan), while Magneto is a Blackfyre, making them distant cousins to each other, Jon, and Daenerys.
  • Black Widow is Oberyn Martell's oldest daughter.
  • As revealed in chapter 43 of Book 2, Loki is Jane's father.
  • Rickon Stark, the series' version of Star-Lord, is a relative of Tony and Ned. Likewise, Drax and Gamora are Brandon and Lyanna Stark respectively.
  • Pycelle turns out to be Tywin's bastard uncle.
  • Steve Rogers/Azor Ahai is the son of Lann the Clever, making him an ancestor of the Lannisters.
  • It's implied in her first appearance, and confirmed by Word of God, that Maria Hill is Tyrion's daughter by Tysha.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: It turns out that Asha and Vanko's Roaring Rampage of Revenge was not authorized by Balon, and he's pissed about it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Exchanged between Tony and Ned after their departure from Winterfell:
  Ned: You question things you don't understand and involve yourself with issues that are none of your concern. You have no right to come into my home and talk as you do.
  Tony: Someone heard about my little chat with Catelyn.
  Ned: Aye. She informed me. It is only because you are family and the King was there that you aren't in a cell right now. What gives you the right to talk to her like that?
  Tony: Nothing. I had no right to speak to her that way. I should never have said those words. You should have said them. You... you think you are so noble, taking him in and caring for him, but you're not. You made a mistake and let your lust get the best of you and took responsibility for that and I get it... I get it! That's all well and good! But, and this is the key here, it is not noble in the slightest to stand back and let others like your wife blame that boy for your sins. And just to be clear, they are your sins. Not Jon's. He didn't choose to be born. He didn't choose to come to Winterfell. He didn't choose your brother's almost-wife made be made yours, leaving you trapped with a woman you hardly knew before riding off the face the greatest dynasty the Seven Kingdoms ever knew. He didn't choose to be a reminder to Cat of you breaking your vows. You chose all that and you chose to wipe your hands of him while that woman went on her petty campaign to make him miserable to the point that he thought the only way he could find peace was to become a celibate solider freezing his balls off on an ice wall keeping watch for non-existent boogeymen! So don't stand there and act like you are better than me, cousin.
  Ned: I.. have made mistakes. I have not been able to give all that Jon deserved. I did the best that I could though and it was better than most. That is not an excuse though. To do some but not all does not absolve me of my failings. I understand that, better than you can imagine. But you of all people can't act self-righteous. You are an arrogant, petty, narcissistic man that cares nothing for honor or valor. You are a merchant of death who makes his coin on the suffering of others. How many lives were ended by your swords? How many innocents were killed by your arrows? You hide in your castle and build gaudy swords and look down upon the rest of us for believing in something while ignoring your own faults and using jests to hide your blood-soaked hands. You hold nothing sacred and believe in nothing greater than yourself. Well, I'd rather believe in something than be you.
  • Tyrion gives one to Lord Commander Mormont at the Wall after he verbally castigates Thorne's "training methods."
  Tyrion: Then enlighten me, Commander, please. You know Tarly never wanted this. He joined because his vile father threatened to murder him in the woods if he did not go north. My father is a harsh man, Commander, and none would say he has parental pride in me, but even he did not demand that I take the black or die. Your Master of Arms decided that, rather than attempt to actually train the boy or, the Seven forbid, find him some other task than fighting Wildlings, it would be more enjoyable to beat young Tarly. That's what he told me, by the way: that he did because it made him smile. No... wait... I have that wrong. Sorry, Commander, forgive me, I made a mistake. It was not Ser Alliser that beat Tarly; he had your recruits do it. So, not only do you have rapists and thieves, but you are now training them to beat the weak for the amusement of others. Oh, the vaulted friendship and brotherhood of the Night's Watch. I think I'll have a song about your black brothers and how they nobly beat blubbering fat boys while their commanders egg them on. You're not going to deny it, are you? You realize that it is wrong, just as I did... the only difference is that I was willing to stand up to Ser Alliser and call him out for his barbarism while you prefer to turn a blind eye to him... all in the name of "training." And you wonder why we plump southerners look at all of you with disgust?
  • Iron Man verbally blasts Joffrey when he tries to have Ned killed. Then after Sansa dies, literally blasts him.
  • Stannis gives one to Renly during their parley in A Crack of Thunder, calling him out on being a cheap pretender who has no right to call himself a king.
  Stannis: What have you done in your life that did not come easy? You did not fight in the Rebellion. I did. I sheltered you and fed you even when my men suggested letting you starve. Where were you when Robert broke the gates of Pyke and I crushed the Greyjoy fleet? Oh, yes... you stayed at Storm's End, for Robert feared for your safety. What have you done during your "reign"? Held tournaments and designed gaudy armor. How did you claim your army? Not through valor or battle but through a marriage and empty promises to boys who have yet to feel blood on their hands. Your claim, much as everything else in your life, has been built on the backs of greater men. Soon enough the men of the Stormlands will come to realize that. True warriors will tire of the games of children and Summer Knights and flock to the King who knows war. Me."
  • Tyrion calls Joffrey out for sending the Goldcloaks to kill the people just because someone threw a cowpie at him, telling him that he would have him beheaded and send the head to the Starks if he thought it could put an end to the war.
  • Thor gives a short one to Selyse when she loudly protests his teaching Shireen how to fight.
  Thor: Jane is her mother. Not you. You have proven as much, woman. You may have birthed her but you have done nothing but mourn the sons that never were instead of loving the child that is real. Not that it matters... you don't deserve Shireen.
  • Tywin to Cersei as he points out what a failure of a queen she's been, crowned by the following:
  Tywin: You have disappointed me. You have proven true every vicious word that was ever spoken of you by those that came to me with warnings of your failures. And worst of all your lack of vision had ruined already Joffrey.
• The Reveal:
  • Thor tells Stannis and his council that Lyanna went with Rhaegar willingly, and the only reason everyone thought it was an abduction rather than an elopement was because her brother Brandon destroyed the letter explaining her side of the story in the belief that it was a forgery. That said, he also admits that even if the incident that set off the rebellion turned out to be a misunderstanding, Aerys was a terrible king, Rhaegar wouldn't have been much better, and the Seven Kingdoms were better off with them gone.
  • Melisandre is ultimately revealed to actually be Amora the Enchantress.
  • Not only is Natasha an agent of the Council, but so was Gerold Hightower, who recruited Lyanna to their cause; they planned to fake her death after Jon was born and smuggle the two to Essos to prepare for a Targaryen restoration, but Ned arrived at the Tower of Joy too soon and derailed everything. Also, they successfully swapped out and spirited away baby Aegon before the Sacking of King's Landing as part of the plan, but he died later while still an infant.
  • When Amora starts threatening Jane directly, Davos removes the disguise magic around himself to show his true identity as Loki, Prince of Asgard.
  • Chapter 63 of Book 3 reveals that Littlefinger was the one to convince Brandon that Rhaegar abducted Lyanna.
  • Chapter 71 of Book 3: Hodor is actually The Watcher in human form.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Cersei suggested to remove the few Baratheon men still loyal to the crown and being replaced by Lannister men, Joffrey refused. This was the right thing to do, since such move would have given Ned and Stannis more credibility about their claims of Joffrey not being a Baratheon. Plus there's the fact that with the current situation, they need every possible man at their side. Of course, Joffrey wasn't aware of any of this, and this was the reason behind denying his mother's suggestion:
  Joffrey: They're my men! I won't give them up because they're mine!
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Jojen Reed and Rickon Stark can tell something has changed from the main timeline. While Jojen is perfectly okay with these changes, Rickon lacks the wisdom to understand his new abilities, so he sees the changes as a bad thing.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • The North is turning the war against the Lannisters into one after news of Sansa's death reaches Robb, and it is heavily implied things will only get worse when Ned makes it to the Northern army camp.
  • Vanko is on one against the Starks, Boltons, Lannisters, and anyone else involved in his family members being killed as part of the collateral damage of Balon's failed rebellion.
• Rocky Roll Call: At the end of Chapter 36 of A Shield of Man, when Arya, Theon, Brienne, Tony, Toad, Blob, Tyrion and T'Challa all run into each other at the Sealord's party.
• Running Both Sides: Downplayed. Both the Master of Whispers for the Lannisters and the Master of Whispers for the North, Varys and MCU!Nikolos Fury, are actually agents for the Council. Which explains how Fury is able to "buy or persuade" Varys' agents to work for him.
• Running Gag:
  • When Tyrion arrives in King's Landing and sees the state of the city and what Joffrey and Cersei are up to, he steadily increase the amount of messages he'll need to send to his father.
  "Five ravens. Possibly a messenger too."
  • Early in A Crack of Thunder, Tony adopts a sheep. It shows up repeatedly in scenes set at Iron Pointe.
  • Deadpool's antics, such as Breaking the Fourth Wall, asking to see Daenerys topless, or acting as though Grey Worm has a huge dick.
  • The one thing everyone agrees on, from the Seven Kingdoms to North of the Wall to across the Narrow Sea, is that you never insult Doreen, Queen of Squirrels.
  • Drax/Brandon repeatedly asking about Catelyn's ass, and if she and Ned engage in anal sex. Also people commenting on him being willing to bed anyone or anything.

S-Z

• Samus Is a Girl:
  • A few people (Arya included) believe the Iron Man is actually a woman in disguise.
  • Syrio is actually Mystique.
  • Before Brienne takes off her helmet to reveal that she's this universe's She-Hulk, everyone assumes that she is a man.
  • The first chapter of A Shield of Man reveals that the very first Vulture King was none other than Rhaenys Targaryen, the sister-wife of Aegon the Conqueror.
  • Kraven the Hunter is a woman in this universe. Specifically a still-alive Elia Martell operating under an alias.
• Sarcastic Confession: After the King (or, more likely, Ned) calls Tony to King's Landing in regards to Iron Man, Pepper fears he might be sent to the Black Cells. In response, Tony calls Jarvis, Happy and Obadiah and tells them outright that he is Iron Man. None of them believe it.
• Say My Name: Gregor roars "STARK!" right before his death.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jon and Natasha decide they have to run away from King's Landing after Littlefinger reveals Rhaegar and Lyanna had a son, prompting Tywin to start looking for the son's identity to have them executed. Unfortunately, Tommen naming Jon as regent and Hand of the King after Tywin's death prevents this.
• Secret Identity: Unlike the source material (or rather, the MCU version of the source material, since this Tony is based on the MCU's iteration), this version of Tony actually needs to keep the fact that he is the Iron Man under wraps since such a revelation would land him in hot water with Tywin (not to mention Robert and his allies, at least at first). His Sarcastic Confession (see above) and having Jon fly around posing as the Iron Man are meant to cover his tracks, but some people figure it out anyway, such as Ned and Varys. Tony is also pretty sure that Tywin has figured it out and is just biding his time until he can find an excuse to give Iron Pointe the Castamere treatment.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: As it turns out, the people of Iron Pointe have known that Tony is Iron Man and Jon is Centurion all along, but kept quiet about it out of loyalty.
• Seen It All: When Benjen's group arrives in Braavos, none of the locals are surprised by the presence of two Others among their number. When Benign comments on this to a barmaid, she simply responds "This is Braavos", indicating that everyone's seen weirder.
• Self-Serving Memory: By Book 4, Catelyn is forced to face how much she's idealized her memories of her youth at Riverrun, ignoring all of the many dysfunctional issues her family faced.
• Shame If Something Happened: After Ned Stark manages to figure out that Tony is Iron Man and confronts him about it, Tony responds to his accusations by (not-so) subtly implying to Ned that he knows of Jon Snow's true parentage, with the message that entails being very clear: if Ned reveals Tony's secret, then Tony reveals Ned's secret.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When Sansa becomes an adult, she has to discard her shoes because they are too small now and her dress now barely covers her.
• She Is All Grown Up: Tywin's late wife Joanna Lannister was by his admission not an attractive girl in her youth. It was only when she grew into a woman that she became beautiful. He would actually have preferred it if Cersei had been the same way rather than beautiful her entire life, because not being a pretty girl Joanna had to find other ways to get people to like her and develop a personality and interests outside looking good. While Cersei had been praised for being born her whole life and never needed to do anything but exist to get her way.
• Shipper on Deck: Shireen is one for Jane and Thor, leaving them alone on their own and beaming after witnessing The Big Damn Kiss.
• Ship Tease: Arya and Gendry show clear signs of attraction to each other after being aged to adulthood.
• Shooting Superman: An Ironborn bandit goes through an especially ridiculous Overly Long Gag of it, ending up wailing on Iron Man with his bare hands while Tony just stares in bemusement.
• Shoot the Messenger: The Starks seem to be hoping for this when they send Cleos Frey with their peace demands, which include a public denouncement of Joffrey as a bastard born of incest. Joffrey flies into a rage, but Tyrion puts Cleos under his protection and talks Joffrey down, pointing out that the Starks are probably hoping that they'll kill Cleos, thus breaking another law and further lowering their public standing.
• Shrouded in Myth: The Iron Man's true identity and activities is a matter of speculation in the Seven Kingdoms.
• Skeptic No Longer:
  • Sansa doesn't believe the stories about Iron Man at first (rightfully so, considering the absence of magic in the source material), but turns right around and becomes a major Iron Man Fangirl once Ned tells her and Arya the full story.
  • Roslin. She even says that if the Night Watch has reported fighting wights even a year ago, she wouldn't have believed them.
  • After Jojen proves his greenseer abilities by showing his knowledge on the truth behind Jaime's killing of Aerys, the Kingslayer is more willing to go along with the world's newfound weirdness.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When Iron Man makes his first appearance by crashing through the roof of Lord Oaker's castle and bringing his crimes to light, the first reaction of Tywin (who was attending a feast there) is an annoyance at Iron Man using his house's colors without permission.
  • The first thing Tony says after Jon saves him from Vanko is to point out that the armor Jon's wearing isn't one that Tony made. His next appearance has him admonish Jon for risking getting identified as the Centurion.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Roslin Frey acts meek all the time, but has a strong and forceful nature when needed. It's noted that this was necessary to survive the rat's nest that was her family.
• Sincerity Mode:
  • For all his sarcasm and wit, when Tony tells Ned that he knows how important Jon Arryn was for him and that he cares for him and Benjen, Ned can tell he is completely serious.
  • Jaime Lannister genuinely empathizes with Ned when he learns of Sansa's death at Joffrey's hands.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: With the strength of the Marvels moving the needle, this fic is already several notches up on the idealism scale. Fewer people overall have died, new characters are now part of the Game of Thrones world to act nobly in the face of misanthropy and cynicism, and some who die differently die in a more positive fashion. However, that darkness won't be too easily overcome, so there are still issues that are being worked out in the process.
• Smug Snake: Cersei of course, believing herself the smartest in the room. Perhaps the only thing Tywin agrees with Tyrion on is that she's an arrogant fool.
• Something Only They Would Say: How Mystique is able to convince Tywin she's really Jaime. She refuses to leave the Kingsguard and Tywin notes only his real son would be "so stupid as to choose a pathetic life with meaningless honor over wealth and power."
• Sore Loser: Gregor Clegane is not taking graciously his two defeats by Iron Man's hands. Tywin Lannister is savvy enough to recognize it will grow into an obsession to crush his enemy. It ends up leading to Gregor's death.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Thanks to Gregor leading a raid on Iron Pointe, not only does he ruin Tywin's plans to use the southern Starks against the North, but hearing Gregor's assessment of Joffery's character allows Tony just enough time to save Ned's life.
  • By sneaking onto Renly's ship, Theon, Lord Bracken and Brienne inadvertently find out that he's actually allied with Vanko and Asha, was the one who arranged for Tony to be murdered, and is in the middle of ordering the Ironborn to kill Tony and Robb Stark in order to make Ned bend the knee to him, before disposing of him as well. Even though Bracken's killed when the trio are discovered by Asha, Theon and Brienne manage to escape back to land, turn the Tyrells against Renly via a little economy with the truth, and then race back to Riverrun to let the Starks know what's happened.
  • The Traitor is this to the Court of Others, not only saving Jeor Mormont, Mance Rayder and Ygritte from some Others, but also planning to restore the Night's Watch to its former strength.
  • Ned Stark was this to the Council's plans for Jon: they had intended to ship him and Lyanna to Essos, so he would be raised along with his half-brother Aegon (who was succesfully smuggled out of King's Landing) and eventually become The Lancer when Aegon returned to take the Iron Throne back. Ned Stark arriving at the Tower of Joy just as Lyanna was giving birth and then taking Jon with him caused those plans to crash and burn; besides which, Aegon died when he was still an infant.
  • Tommen ends up completely ruining Cersei's plans at the end of Book 3 by actually showing firm leadership after Tywin's death instead of letting her make him a Puppet King, most specifically making Jon his Hand and regent. This also derails Jon and Natasha's plans too, as they'd planned to leave King's Landing for their own safety. But now with one of them as the Number Two of the Five Kingdoms, they don't have a good excuse to leave now, essentially trapping them in the city through duty and suspicion.
  • The Mandarin's attack on Braavos temporarily derails Magneto's plans, as he has to delay things in order to help repair the city so that he doesn't appear weak.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Aside from the examples covered in the character pages we have:
  • Thanks to Tony's presence at Ned and Jaime's fight, Jory Cassel is spared his early death and is then able to escape the Stark purge after Robert's death.
  • Mandon Moore never has a chance to attempt to kill Tyrion during the Battle of the Blackwater, so doesn't get killed by Podrick in defense of him and is still alive post-battle.
  • Maester Luwin and Rodrik Cassel survive their canon deaths due the events that led to them never happening.
  • Yoren isn't killed by the Lannisters, presumably because Gendry wasn't traveling with the Night's Watch recruitment column and therefore giving them no reason to come after him.
  • Being a god in truth, Davos takes the time to save his sons at the Battle of the Blackwater before confronting Amora.
• Spiteful Spit: Sandor Clegane spat on Varys' face when he tried to sweet-talk him into becoming a spy.
• Spotting the Thread: Clynt points that Tyrion never had the opportunity to send a message to an assassin for Bran's murder. When Tyrion beats himself for not thinking about this, the sellsword assures a highborn as the dwarf and Catelyn Stark never think about the details.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • When Robert, Ned, and the Small Council are discussing how to stop Iron Man, Varys says if Iron Man's armor cannot be pierced, then they should find out where he lives and attack him before he can put his armor on. While the Small Council quickly concede that's a good idea, they also point that only works if they know who Iron Man is.
  • When Tywin's maester says that Tony's idea of using sunstones to replace candles and lamps would be impractical since the difficulty in cutting them would mean each would need a unique setting, Tywin responds by simply dropping a handful of uncut sunstones into an empty wine glass, turning the cup into a crude lamp.
• Stepford Smiler: Tony seems unaffected by his kidnapping and torture, but Jon see right through his false cheer. It takes one to know one, after all.
  • Bran has shades of this when he pretends not to be depressed after his fall.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • Tony inherited the Stark looks, if not the behaviour. However, his likeness to his cousin Ned is truly apparent when he's angry enough to give you a Death Glare. He also seems to be a dead ringer for Bran the Builder, as both Steve Rogers and Thor mistake them for each other on first glance.
  • Jon is apparently the spitting image of Rhaegar Targaryen, save for his hair and eye colour. Tywin is the only one to spot it, although he does have the advantage that he knew Rhaegar far better and longer than most of the other adult members of the cast, who would only ever have met Rhaegar once or twice.
• Stunned Silence: Jaime after Ned's Armor-Piercing Question.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Lampshaded with Lord Bracken, with Theon noting how, unlike in the songs, people usually don't get to deliver a Final Speech, and that often times good men died suddenly, their final thoughts known only to them. He isn't happy about this.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Tywin is really not happy with his kids' reaction to Tyrion's kidnapping by Catelyn. He's even more infuriated by the fact that Tyrion was the one to react properly.
  • His own bannermen can be just as bad, often kissing up to him under the belief that Appeal to Flattery will get them somewhere, or displaying reckless stupidity in any kind of situation. Tywin has to restrain himself from killing them for this.
  • Tyrion believes this when the Small Council insist that "fake" Sansa is the genuine article, either that or they're crazy. Unfortunately for him, she is the real Sansa—to a point.
    • Though he still has a point: Fake or not, they really should have been more suspicious about how exactly "Sansa" came back to life and instantly grew to adulthood, hence why she's only the real Sansa to a point.
  • In Book 2, when Tywin receives Tyrion's messages about how much Cersei and Joffrey have screwed up, he has to send his war council out of the room so he can wail on a training dummy until he can think without screaming.
• Take That!:
  • Ramsay Bolton only shows up in one chapter and is brutally killed at the end of it, sobbing and begging for mercy.
  • When Margaery Tyrell shows up, Theon is weirded out by her "duckface", a notorious quirk of Natalie Dormer's that the author can't stand.
  • When Doom is listing the convoluted rituals needed to speak to the Pureborn of Qarth, Dany notes that it sounds like a demented writer trying to pad out a story. This reflects the general opinion of her relatively pointless storyline in A Clash of Kings.
  • Tywin hates the excuse "It's magic, I don't have to explain it", Joe Quesada's notorious statement on the various logic and plot holes of One More Day.
    • Jane also dislikes the same excuse when she's being taught about magic in Asgard, insisting on knowing how it works.
  • When talking about the importance of symbols to Rhodey, Tony mentions that if he changed the color pattern of his armor to all gold with red highlights, or if his Chest Insignia was a triangle instead of a circle, the image of the Iron Man would lose impact. These are clear digs at the Mk 42 and Mk 6 armors. Rhodey even says that the former armor would look "ugly as hell".
  • Nikolos Fury flat out states that 'Young Griff' is not Rhaegar Targaryen's son Aegon, who died before his second nameday, but is instead just an orphan whom Jon Connington seized upon in his madness and grief. In the author's notes Mr. Chaos admits to having 'nipped the Young Griff thing right in the damn bud' and adds that he isn't even a Blackfyre but a mixed race stray, with just enough Valyrian blood to feasibly pass as a Targaryen.
• The Talk: Mystique bemoans the idea of having to give this to Arya.
• The Theme Park Version: When Benjen's group arrives in Braavos, their first stop is a tavern that models itself on Winterfell, but with everything taken to extremes, almost to the point of parody.
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Syrio tells Arya there are three kinds of people.
  • The first are those that cannot accept the world doesn't work the way they think it does and treat anything that proves otherwise with hostility (Ned).
  • Second are those that believe in such things and treat them as wonders, but only because they're either too boring or stupid to see them for what they really are (Sansa).
  • The third are those that have gifts that make them superior to others (implied with Arya).
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Lady Vyrgina Stark firmly and kindly asks to be called Pepper by her new ward Jon Snow: he's family, after all.
  • Rhodey asks Jon to dispense with etiquette after the youth helped him to rescue Tony, believing all differences fade when men are coated by the blood of the same foe.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: When Logan and Hulk manage to pull off the Juggernaut's helmet, Daenerys notes that he looks plain, the type of person she wouldn't have thought of again if they had crossed paths on the street.
• The Three Faces of Adam: The main Asgardian royal males each fit one part of the triad.
  • Odin is the Prophet, as he's the oldest and encourages wisdom as seen when he praises Thor for understanding he didn't have the character to be a good ruler, or when he forbids to use the Destroyer Armor for its corrupting influence no matter its power.
  • Thor is the Hunter who rejected responsibility, enjoys life to the fullest and is currently undergoing a quest as he's looking for his younger brother, which doesn't prevent him from finding entertainment.
  • Loki is the Lord, the future King of Asgard and current advisor to King claimant Stannis, both positions of great power. He's also a respected patriarch in his "Davos Seaworth" persona.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Time works very differently in Asgard than Westeros, moving either faster or slower depending on the desires of the individual. Shireen, having spent years there in a matter of weeks, admits that it's all very confusing.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Joffrey and the Night Queen. Tyrion thinks that their very noticeable size difference makes Joffrey look even more child-like and ridiculous than usual.
• Title Drop: Done by Nikolos Fury/Gerion Lannister, who replies to Varys mentioning an old saying, "The last song has ended and now the next begins", with "Yes... A Song of Metal and Marvels."
• Too Good to Be True: This is why Jon doesn't trust House Tyrell. As he explains to Jiffsun and Adrian, he's seen that all people have their flaws including good people. But the Tyrells appear flawless...which means that either Jon's entire worldview is wrong or the Tyrells have some dark secret(s) they hide with their acts of charity. Jon's right, since the Tyrells are actually part of the Blackfyre conspiracy and the heads of Westeros' organized crime.
• Tranquil Fury: Tony's joking demeanor drops completely when he tries to blow Joffrey's head off for killing Sansa.
• Trial by Combat: Littlefinger has one in Chapter 63 of A Shield of Man after being accused of killing Joffrey, with Sandor as his opponent. He does pretty well for himself, but is ultimately cut nearly in half and decapitated by the Hound.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Logan towards Daenerys. He even follows her into the bonfire when she burns her husband's body.
  • Sandor Clegane to Sansa after she heals his face.
  • The people of Iron Pointe to Tony. They actually know that he's Iron Man and are keeping quiet about it.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Despite Ned labeling Stannis as the rightful heir to the throne and informing him of the true parentage of the royal children, Stannis made no attempts to save him from the Lannisters. It's why Ned argues the North shouldn't support Stannis after he makes it back to his people with Iron Man's help.
  • During his "Reason You Suck" Speech, Stannis points out that Renly is this towards him. Even though he was too young to fight during the Siege of Storm's End, Stannis protected Renly and made sure he was fed, despite their dwindling food supplies and his men suggesting that they let Renly starve. But as soon as Robert died and Joffrey was revealed as a bastard, Renly declared himself king, even though Stannis, the man who saved his life, is the true heir.
  • Joffrey is completely uncaring about the very valuable gifts he's being given by the Small Council, either dismissing them as useless or throwing a tantrum because it's not what he wants (such as rejecting a sword made of the very rare and expensive Carbonadium because it isn't made of Valyrian Steel).
• Uniqueness Decay: Defied with Hate Eternal, House Bracken's Ancestral Weapon. The author decided against making the sword of Valyrian Steel to avoid this trope among other reasons, especially since he had already introduced two Valyrian Steel weapons (Rhodey's sword Lawkeeper, and Jon's sword Shadowfang)
• Unobtainium: Various special metals exist in this setting. Essosi blacksmith Ulysses Klaue has a particular fascination with them:
  • Valyrian Steel is as rare as ever.
  • The special colored iron that Tony Stark uses to craft his works. Klaue wants to study it . He points out that metal normally doesn't exist in a natural colored state meaning said iron is something special.
  • Vibranium exists in this setting as well, and Ulysses Klaue dreams of obtaining it for his own use.
  • There's a way to make Valyrian Steel even stronger making it something called "Blood Valyrian" aka adamantium.
  • Carbonadium is very rare metal with properties that make any weapons forged with it Poisoned Weapons.^note In the original Marvel setting carbonadium is radioactive, though whether this applies in this story as well remains to be seen It is nonetheless derided as "Poor Man's Valyrian Steel". It's still very expensive, but since more of it can still be found (unlike Valyrian Steel which remains Lost Technology), Valyrian Steel is still rarer. It's also much easier to forge it, so much so that Ulysses Klaue took no pleasure in forging the carbonadium sword gifted to Joffrey at his wedding, seeing it as beneath his talents.
  • Klaue briefly mentions uru^note Which in Marvel comics is the metal the Asgardians use to make weapons as well, though even he doubts he'll see it in his lifetime.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Tywin's reaction to Iron Man crashing through Lord Oaker's ceiling is annoyance, as Iron Man is wearing the Lannister colors without permission. Again, this is just after Iron Man has smashed through a stone ceiling, sending chandeliers and wreckage flying through the building, and people are running for their lives. Oh, and that a man who survived said flying through the building and stone was able to stand up again with no issues whatsoever.
• Valkyrie:
  • Obviously, Valkyrie. She is tasked with bringing the souls of fallen warriors to Valhalla.
  • Shireen becomes the Queen of the Valkyries as an adult.
• Villain Ball:
  • Gregor himself after becoming the Iron Monger. Instead of attacking the Riverlands like Tywin ordered him to, he assaults Iron Pointe, kills Obediah and kidnaps Pepper in order to lure Iron Man in for a rematch. This rash act of vengeance gives Tony an excuse to kill him without consequence (and the fact that the rematch takes place in an isolated mine, with no one around allows Tony to make up a story about what really happened, forging an even better cover for his Secret Identity).
    • Even Gregor's contingency plan for evading reprisal for this act would likely have failed, as depriving himself of Tywin's protection paints a huge target on his back. Sure, sending an assassin would be foolhardy, given his status as The Juggernaut (though since there's so many Marvel characters running around, no, not that one), but his more influential foes (which would now include Tywin) have access to many powerful poisons, and it wouldn't be hard to arrange for one to be slipped into his food.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Tywin takes a serious interest in both Jon and Petyr Parker. Petyr for his natural intelligence and understanding of the need to act on knowledge. Jon because Tywin thinks he's Aegon, son of Ellia and Raegar.
• Villain Team-Up:
  • Asha and Vanko are eventually revealed to be working with Renly, him providing them resources for the sake of their rampage, which undermines his enemies.
  • In his first appearance, Euron is revealed to have pledged himself to the Others.
  • Adrian eventually pledges himself to Tywin in order to further his ambitions, who accepts his service out of usefulness of the man's talents.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tony and Tyrion, each being one of the few able to match the other's snark.
• Warts and All:
  • As much as he loved him and honors his memory, Ned does agree with Cat that his elder brother Brandon would have been a poor lord of the North, Being too much like Robert.
  • Apparently, Roslin doesn't believe in sugarcoating when telling stories. Not that Bran is complaining.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Sandor Clegane is actually proud that he never raped any woman. Though unlike most examples of this trope, this is a commentary not so much on his character but on Westeros' incredibly low moral standards.
  Tony: Did you realize just how many rapists are between here and the Trident? I mean, just... I knew there were rapists in the Seven Kingdoms, but it was like I couldn't fly for 3 minutes without having to save some milk maid.
• We Are Everywhere: The Council has moles in key locations across Westeros and Essos, to help them keep an eye on everything important. Fury later clarifies that they have agents in every castle, city, town, and village, each of whom is encouraged to develop their own networks of informants, all of which is ensures that they know everything there is to know.
• Wham Line:
  • Syrio namedrops his master/teacher to Arya at the end of Chapter 21: Magneto.
  • There's also Tony's answer when Ned bluntly asks if his cousin is the Iron Man:
    Tony: Of course not! That is almost as insane as you lying about being Jon's father!
  • The final line of Book 1
    Sansa: And I... shall be the Night's Queen.
  • Chapter 7 of Book 2
    Thor: I believe Melisandre... is an Asgardian. And if that is true you all may be in grave danger.
  • Chapter 8 of Book 2 has Daenerys' new ally introduce himself.
    Viktor: In Westeros, I was known as Viktor Vondam. But in Qarth...I am Doom.
  • Chapter 12 of Book 2 has Jaime return to the Lannister camp, claiming to have escaped the North, and his behaviour convinces Tywin that he's not an imposter, and he introduces the two squires, a Baratheon bastard and a Northern girl, that helped him escape. Then they tell Tywin what their names are...
    The Boy: Petyr^note Gendry's covername
    The Girl: (with a large smile) And Kat^note Arya's covername
    Mystique has now infiltrated the Lannister camp disguised as Jaime...
  • In Chapter 22 of Book 2, Mystique reveals that her mother died birthing her after a fire that destroyed her whole family. When Arya asks where this was, she replies Summerhall. This means that her mother Jenny was Jenny of Oldstones, and that Mystique is therefore a granddaughter of Aegon V.
  • Chapter 43 of Book 2, as Thor sees Davos Seaworth suddenly transform into a much younger man and identifies him. "Loki?"
  • The mysterious Other that has just saved Jeor Mormont, Mance Rayder and Ygritte presents himself.
    Jeor Mormont: Who are you?
    Friendly Other: That... is hard to answer. It depends on who you speak with. To the Free Folk I am known as Azor Ahai. To the men of the North I am the Nomad. To the Knights of the Dawn I am... was... their Lord Captain. To the Court of the Others I am The Traitor. But back home, in the Westerlands? I am the second son of Lann Rogers of Casterly Rock. You can call me Steve.
  • In Chapter 18 of A Shield of Men, we find out the name of Sam's student, uniting the two King's Landing storylines: Petyr Parker.
  • Chapter 30 of Book 3 ends with the revelation of the name of the new Lord of House Velaryon: Namor.
  • Chapter 37 of Book 3: During a party, Tony is pulled aside by Maria Hill, who justifies her distrust of House Lannister with the following: "My mother is a crofter's daughter".
  • In a boomerang kind of way, Adrian reveals that Mace was colluding with the Blackfyres in Chapter 68 of Book 3. While this could be dismissed as more of his paranoid rambling, just to make sure, Natasha asks the name of the Blackfyre he's negotiating with. The name given proves that there might be merit behind this information: Magneto!
  • At the end of Chapter 71 of Book 3, The Watcher is revealed to be living in Westeros in human form, the identity of which is revealed when he says one thing while trying to communicate with his traveling companions: "Hodor".
  • The last line in Chapter 72 of Book 3 has Tommen completely upend Cersei's plans of using him as a Puppet King, and crashes Jon's plans to leave King's Landing in the process:
  ”Jon Stark… I name you Hand of the King and my regent.”
  • Chapter 24 of A Web of Lies starts taking a dark turn as Mace Tyrell recites an anecdote about his mother calling him a fool from the moment of his birth, only to follow it up with this:
  "An amusing tale... I enjoyed crafting it."
• What Could Have Been: In-Universe:
  • In Chapter 12, Tywin considers what it would have been like if Eddard Stark had claimed the throne instead of Robert. He would have a lot less power in such a world, but unlike Robert, Ned would take his duty as king seriously, making life far easier for Tywin - not only would he not have had to bail the kingdom out of debt, but the realm would be far less chaotic. Furthermore, Tywin is convinced Ned would have been a good husband to Cersei, and his children with her would certainly not be spoiled brats like Joffrey.
    • Tywin is proven right in A Crack of Thunder, where Ned is shown to have trouble understanding how Robert was able to care so little about being a good king when Ned can't think of anything other than trying to be a good king.
  • Tyrion does this when he reflects on how different Joffrey could have been if he had been fostered in Winterfell as Robert desired, with Bran being fostered in King's Landing in turn, or Casterly Rock as Tywin preferred.
  • When Oberyn reveals the existence of the Martell-Stark marital pact, he ruefully mentions Tony would have been expected to wed him if he had been born female. Since he was male instead, their families briefly thought about giving him Elia for his bride, only for the Princess of Dorne to decline because she wanted her daughter to marry closer to Dorne and marry higher than a second son's offspring. Pepper, Tony and Oberyn sadly reflects Elia would be alive if the agreement had been honored in their generation.
  • Otto Octavius, who has studied history at Oldtown, comments on how history seems to follow cycles of upheaval, prosperity, and stagnation - but Robert's reign completely skipped the prosperity phase. As Otto points out, if Robert had continued his reign with the same energy with which he conducted the Rebellion, they could have seen feats such as the discovery of lands at the other side of the Sunset Sea or the uplifting of the smallfolk.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Tony calling Catelyn out on her treatment of Jon.
  Tony: What happened to your son is a tragedy. But you do him no respect by wishing his fate upon those he loves. If you truly care for him you would understand that he loves his brother and would not want to see him hurt. But don't listen to me. Wallow in your hatred. Let it warm you at night. Tell yourself you are the victim and wrap yourself in that indignation like a shroud. But don't make Jon your target ever again. Don't blame him for something that is not his fault. He will be my ward the next time you lay eyes on him and I do not take kindly to people insulting those I have pledged to protect. Speak that way to him again...
  Catelyn: You have no right to speak to me like this. You enter my home-
  Tony: Which is only your home because you were willing to trade a dead Stark brother for a living one.
  Catelyn: I am the Lady of Winterfell and my son... my precious son... is lying there and you DARE question how I treat that bastard? My son... my Bran-
  Tony: Loves his brother. And he would be ashamed to see you like this. Of course, what he considers love and what you consider it might be two different things.
  • Tyrion calls out Jeor Mormont for letting Ser Alliser Thorne get away with tormenting new recruits (Sam in particular) under the excuse of training them. He makes it a point to subtly warn the Lord Commander that a lot of them don't want to be at the Wall in the first place and the treatment Thorne is giving them might very well cause them to lash out violently.
  • Ned rips his wife a verbal new one after making it back from King's Landing with Tony's help for (a) trusting Littlefinger and (b) imprisoning Tyrion.
  • Tyrion is livid when he sees the "fake" Sansa Stark and tears into his sister and the Small Council for letting the farce proceed unimpeded.
  • Jon calls Tony out over his stopping to use the Iron Man armor to help save the people and trying to force him to do the same - particularly when Jon proves Tony's claims that he had never planned anything wrong by showing him he knows about all the other armors he has built.
  • While she hasn't had a chance to express this to his face yet, Gamora (who was originally Lyanna) is pissed to find out that Ned not only kept Jon's identity a total secret from everyone, but let him be raised as a bastard, with all the stigma that came with it.
  • Tyrion calls out Cersei and the Small Council for dressing some redhead girl as Sansa Stark, pointing out even if Ned Stark had not witnessed his daughter's death, no one would believe she "miraculously" healed a shattered skull.
    • He also makes a good point when he said he would have locked "Sansa" up if she came to him pretending to have resurrected; the Night's Queen has many of Sansa's Tully features (most notably the Most Common Super Power), but she's also clearly five years older. She should have been extensively questioned at least, because people just can't spring back from the grave because they felt like it, and they certainly don't age five years when doing so. Occam's Razor says that this is not Sansa, but some person who is either being paid by the council, or is lying through her teeth- and lying badly, at that, given what she looks like.
  • On the flipside, Fury calls Jon out for being so upset about Ned keeping his heritage from him, as Ned did so to save his life, as well as not recognizing how lucky he is that, despite how Catelyn treated him, he was still raised with nothing but love and affection by Ned and his siblings and given the same education and living conditions as Ned's actual children, which is far, far better than the vast majority of people in Westeros, bastard or not.
  • There's plenty of back and forth when Ned reunites with his resurrected family members. Yondu/Rickard is disappointed that Ned did so little to make the North his own as Warden, while Ned is angry over how his father's Southern politicking undermined their House's clout in the North.
• Who's on First?: In chapter 52 of A Crack of Thunder, Fury tries to explain to Tony's group how the Others work, but when he states that they're spirits which possess the spirits of others, they mistakenly believe he's saying they possess each other. It takes a few minutes before he's able to explain that they possess dead human bodies.
  Tony: I heard a jest once that starts like this about a man named Hoo.
• Wholesome Crossdresser:
  • Played for Laughs. Tyrion swears up and down he never wore a dress, and anyone saying otherwise is a filthy liar.
  • Thor confesses Loki dresses in skirts when he gets pissed drunk.
• The Worf Effect: When Doctor Octopus first appears in Book 4, he casually wipes the floor with the Spiders.
• A World Half Full: As Tony said in his suit up montage, Westeros has become a terrible hell hole with the lords apathy and the supernatural evils growing in the world. But into this world, another force is rising. A world of heroes. Those who care about the smallfolk, the realm, honor and making the best of their lots in life. So yes, it might be hard to save Westeros and Essos, but at the very least, they will all avenge the victims.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Tony may be a Stark and an unrepentant joker, Tywin holds him as good businessman and a loyal bannerman.
  • When fighting the Kingsguard, Tony refuses to use his full power against Ser Barristan, knowing the old knight only follows the king's command.
  • The Night's Queen considers Tyrion the greatest threat to her plans.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • After Joffrey kills Sansa, Tony attempts to blast him, an attempt that leaves his face scarred and blows off Cersei's hand.
  • Ned gives this as the reason for never telling Jon he is the legitimate child of Lyanna and Rhaegar. The new king smiled at seeing the bodies of the children the prince had with Elia Martell. If Robert had found out about Jon's parentage, proof that the woman he loved had never loved him back, Jon would have been killed on the spot.
  • Joffrey, while drunk out of his gourd, states he arranged Bran's murder since he couldn't do it himself, claims he would have gone out to murder his father's bastards himself if he had had the Valyrian Steel dagger he gave to Bran's would-be killer - and even implies he asked the Goldcloaks to bring a baby back so he could kill them himself.
• Xenafication: By the end of Book 2, Daenerys has started taking a more combat active role in things. By the time Book 3 starts, she's even abandoned dresses in favor of Khal-like clothing to further emphasize that she is fully willing and able to fight on her own.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jojen tells Bran that being paralyzed doesn't make him useless and that he will have an important role to play in the war against the Others.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Kevan weakly asks if his brother is jesting when Tywin claims to be cursed - as, the magic kind of curse. It turns that Tywin is so frustrated by his children's stupidity that he considers a curse as the only possible reason for his misfortune.
  • This is the general reaction people have to learning about Jon becoming Tommen's Hand.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After using Craster to lure Steve and his group into a trap, the Red Skull leaves him die in the resulting wight attack. And after he survives this, the Red Skull later uses him as a Human Sacrifice to try and make Ygritte into a vessel for his lover's spirit.
• You Need to Get Laid: Tony states as much about Jon, after seeing him take his frustrations out on a straw dummy. Later, Tyrion tells Sam that he can't have a squire who doesn't know his way around women, and that he intends to rectify that.

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