"Castles in their Bones
" is a Game of Thrones fanfic where Sansa Stark is sent to negotiate with Daenerys instead of Jon Snow.
Completed.
Tropes appearing in this fanfic:
- Artistic License – Physics: Discussed by the author as to how Arya is able to decapitate the Mountain. The author explains this by suggesting that Arya killed another Kingsguard, took their face, and used the larger body available to her to do it.
- Battle Trophy: The main concession to the Dothraki for not killing unnecessarily in the Battle of the Roseroad is that they get to keep whatever weapons, horses, and armor they take from defeated opponents.
- Composite Character: Podrick accompanies Sansa to Dragonstone instead of Davos.
- Cool Uncle: It's mentioned that Dickon Tarly enjoys the company of his "nephew" Little Sam.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Arya doesn't have much difficulty taking out Cersei. The latter only gets one punch in before Arya floors her with a couple of punches, stabs her, and removes her face. And it's not just her, she takes out the main players in Cersei's court in short order.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Cersei isn't crushed by bricks. Instead she's poisoned, pummeled, and then stabbed by Arya, who removes her face.
- The Mountain is decapitated by Arya instead of being tackled into an inferno.
- For Want Of A Nail: The nail in this case is Sansa going to Dragonstone as Jon's envoy instead of Jon going himself.
- I Have Your Wife: Dickon Tarly is taken as a hostage by Daenerys to ensure Randyll Tarly's neutrality. He seems to be adjusting quite well though.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Littlefinger is tried and executed, except that Jon takes Sansa's role in presiding over it.
- The Iron Throne is melted down, albeit due to conscious choice by Daenerys.
- Kill and Replace: Arya kills Cersei's maid Una, then takes her face. Right before killing Cersei, Arya tells her that she's going to take her face and surrender the Iron Throne to Daenerys while posing as Cersei.
- Killed Offscreen: By the time Sansa returns to Winterfell, Littlefinger has already been executed the same way he was in the show.
- Men Can't Keep House: One of the problems with Sansa going to Dragonstone is that Jon hasn't been trained to run a keep and therefore the provisions for winter aren't quite in place.
- The Nondescript: Cersei's maid Una is described at being non-descript as a child and grew into a similarly non-descript woman.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Sansa responds to Daenerys' speech about trying to move forward despite what was done to her by showing the queen her scars from her torture at Ramsay Bolton's hands.
- Rank Up: Jorah replaces Tyrion as Daenerys' Hand of the Queen.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Randyll Tarly and Dickon Tarly are spared after the Battle of the Roseroad (the one at the end of "The Spoils of War") because Sansa persuades the former to stay out of the rest of the war.
- Because there is no Wight Hunt, Viserion isn't killed by the Night King and resurrected as a Dracolich.
- Since there's no Wight Hunt, the living are given more time because the Night King has to go around the Wall and therefore are much less casualties during the battle at Winterfell (a quarter instead of half), so Jorah and Lyanna Mormont are still alive.
- Because Arya assassinates Cersei, Jaime doesn't try to rescue her and survives.
- Take That!: There's a lot of jabs taken at Tyrion's harebrained ideas in canon, such as the Wight Hunt.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Arya slips a poison into Cersei's glass of water that renders her unable to speak and therefore unable to call for help before Arya kills her.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Alongside Daenerys' lengthy list of titles, Podrick comes up with his own list of titles for Sansa."I present to you, Sansa Stark of House Stark. The Red wolf, the Lady of Winterfell. Sister to Jon Snow, the White Wolf, King in the North."
- Villain with Good Publicity: Cersei, but only because Arya impersonates her and announces as Cersei that she's suffering from a terminal illness and merely asks to retire and die in peace.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Cersei intends to have Euron killed after he helps her take out Daenerys, but Arya kills them both before this can go through.
