The people called him the Pious Prince. His friends claimed he was a Baratheon, and his enemies called him a Lannister. They were all wrong for before any of those things, he was Arthas Menethil, the Damned Prince of Lordaeron, the Betrayer, kinslayer and kingslayer. His sins were legion. Mother have mercy on his soul.
The King is Dead - Arthas Menethil (Warcraft) in ASOIAF written by HaltWrite
who's also the author of Zero Requiem is a World of Warcraft/A Song of Ice and Fire crossover that has Arthas Menethil, the former Prince of Lordaeron and The Lich King reborn as the younger twin to Joffrey Baratheon.
It can be read on Fanfiction.net here and Spacebattles here.
This fanfiction contains examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Arthas' description of the Holy Hundred, "Knights in untarnished silver armor with maces, mauls and murderous skill".
- Altar Diplomacy: A common practice in Westeros, especially among the nobility. Renly secures his alliance to the Tyrell by marrying Margaery, for example. This is also how the Tyrells save their skins after Arthas' coalition defeated Renly and marched to King's Landing. This time by marrying Margaery to Joffrey, ironically enough.
- An Arm and a Leg: Robb loses his sword hand during the battle of Green Fork.
- The Atoner: Arthas definitely has some misgivings about his past deeds that he intends to atone.
- Battle in the Rain: The battle of the Green Fork happens during a heavy storm.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Few believes Arthas' words regarding Wights and White Walkers when he revealed it. Surprisingly, Joffrey actually believes him.
- Stannis' claim of Arthas and his siblings being spawns of incest is also this. Whereas in the canon books it was considered an open secret, here it's considered to be a crackpot theory at best. This is mostly thanks to Arthas' perceived similarities with Robert, something that none of the canon children possess.
- Cincinnatus: As Renly puts it, hand Arthas a crown and he'd chop his arm off before putting the crown atop his head. While Arthas did try his best to stay away from power, in the end he became the King anyway because there are no better alternatives.
- Civil War: Just like in canon, though it went slightly differently here. The main factions were Renly's coalition of Stormlanders and Reachmen against Arthas group of Westerlanders, Riverlanders, Northmen and Valemen. There are also Stannis' royal fleet plus Narrow Sea Houses, and Balon's Iron Islands.
- Death by Adaptation: Lancel Lannister dies beyond the wall. There are also Sandor Clegane who's killed during Renly's coup and Brienne who's killed while protecting Renly.
- Defeat Means Friendship:
- Robb warms up to Arthas after he was defeated by the latter in a spar.
- The Stormlanders as well, who take it even further and proclaim Arthas as their king after he defeated them in a battle. The oddity is Lampshaded by Tywin.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Robert's death. He managed to slay a White Walker with Longclaw while giving a Badass Boast without missing a beat for one. When they found out that they had been surrounded shortly thereafter he calmly asked Ser Mandon to bring Arthas to safety while he and the rest of his men fought to the end. This is definitely the kind of death canon Robert wished for, and certainly a more fitting one for a warrior king.
- Fish out of Water: Arthas wasn't quite used to Westeros' concept of warfare at the start, even though he learned as quickly as he can.
- Food Porn: Just like in the source material.
- Gilded Cage: The Tyrell made sure to treat the Royal family softly while they're under imprisonment with Jaime outright calling it as this trope.
- Good Is Not Soft: Arthas refused to even judge anyone, dislike killing and would rather the realm united against The Others rather than tearing each other apart but when push comes to shove he has no problem punishing the guilty or even killing them.
- Harmful to Minors: Averting this is the reason why Arthas decides to free Jaime rather than Tommen since Tommen was seven and Arthas doesn't want to expose him to war yet.
- Hated by All: When Arthas decided to blame Balon for his poisoning and Joffrey's murder everyone believe him even without any shred of proof, mostly out of their collective longstanding grudge toward Ironborns in general.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: All the people who were killed by bandits in the Kingswood? Turns out there were no bandits. Joffrey and Ramsay hunted them for sports.
- History Repeats: A tragic example. Arthas ended up killing a kin and king of his again, even saying the same exact words. Unlike in his previous life though, Arthas has a much better reason to kill Joffrey.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Joffrey thought that Ramsay is a good friend and advisor for a king, keep the dubious Varys as his master of whisperers and believed Arthas would enjoy senseless killing of peasants. The last one would prove fatal for Joffrey.
- I Have Your Wife:
- Renly hold the entire royal family except Arthas hostage, partly because Renly wants to project an image of a magnanimous king, and partly because killing Joffrey will accomplish nothing except bolstering Arthas' own claim and legitimacy.
- A rare good guy variant. Arthas captured Loras to force Renly into the negotiation table and later secured a prisoner exchange and a temporary truce.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite all the differences with the canon story including the Starks and Tullys being allies of the Lannisters or how the incest accusation being considered nonsense some things such as Margaery marrying Renly before marrying Joffrey after the former's death remain the same.
- Oberyn still fights Gregor in a Trial by Combat, though for a different cause and with a more fortunate result.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Joffrey's reason to believe Arthas that the dead is rising. He is right in that Arthas doesn't have any reason to make such an outrageous lie, and it's also unlikely that a group of under-equipped wildlings are capable of defeating Robert and his party of several dozen knights. May also double as Dumbass Has a Point.
- Cersei counts too. She's correct when she asserts that Varys is conspiring against the crown and that Littlefinger is a Fair-Weather Friend who suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
- Kick the Dog: Joffrey sure enjoys doing this to his cousin, his siblings, or anyone really. Exaggerated once he becomes a king and befriends Ramsay as Joffrey picked up his hobby of hunting people too.
- Locked into Strangeness: When Arthas wakes up from his coma, he's sporting blue eyes. This indicates a connection to his past as the Lich King, though others take it to mean that the incest accusations are really bunk.
- Loved by All: The smallfolk and the clergy love Arthas for his years of charity and piety, while his fellow lords and knights respect him for his prowess in battle. Even Joffrey of all people likes him.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Arthas didn't seem to mind all the wounds that he received during the battle of the Green Fork while everyone else was astonished that he had survived at all.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Joffrey ends up falling in love with Margaery whose family had kept him and his family captive for several months.
- Might Makes Right: Renly's entire argument for kingship summed up.
- Never Found the Body: Robert's body and those of his men were never found. Considering their enemy has the ability to raise the dead though...
- Obnoxious In-Laws: The relationships between Cersei and Margaery, since Cersei never bothers hiding her feelings about the marriage. One-sided on Cersei's part, as Margaery at least tries to be cordial with her goodmother for all the good it does.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: If the rumor has any shred of truth, Jon apparently manages to kick some serious Ironborn's ass in the North while Arthas is busy fighting Renly.
- One-Man Army: Arthas is a less outrageous example, but he still defeated half a dozen knights at around twelve or thirteen years old. Most people chalked this to him being Robert's son, also another one man army.
- Parental Neglect: Just like in canon, Robert definitely didn't spend much time with "his" children, although he tried to fix this afterward, at least with Arthas.
- Precocious Crush: Princess Myrcella seems to have this with Robb Stark.
- Put on a Bus: Tyrion leaves Arthas' army to seek out answers from Tywin regarding his plan in between Arthas' parley with Renly and the prisoner exchange. He's not mentioned afterward for several chapters, even when Tywin's army rendezvous with Arthas'. However Tyrion is mentioned to be one of the people who visits Arthas during the latter coma so he's at least already in the capital at the time.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Most people think Arthas is this, a prodigious knight who is also famously devout. Since they follow the Seven though it might be better to call it Real Men Love the Seven. Arthas himself thinks that Real Men Love the Light.
- Refuge in Audacity: Oberyn's main shtick. He defeated Gregor Clegane in a trial by combat with a poisoned weapon despite said trial being held to determine Oberyn's innocence on Arthas' attempted murder by poison. Afterward he debated about the truth behind Stannis' claim of the royal children's parentage with Pycelle, in the presence of said children.
- Retcon: A minor one, the author decided to age up the younger characters such as Arthas, Joffrey, Sansa etc by 3 years since chapter 17.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Ser Mandon defects to Renly's side for better prospects, only to be killed by his former charge in the very next battle he's in.
- Sanity Slippage: Being held prisoner really didn't help Cersei's mental health any. She went from a stern and haughty but mostly reasonable woman into a rambling paranoid alarmingly quick.
- The Scapegoat: The Ironborns make for an excellent scapegoat for everyone. The Tyrells used them as the common enemy to rally Westeros against, conveniently distracting everyone from their own failed powerplay while later Arthas decided to pin the blame of his assassination attempt on Balon after months of investigation resulted in nothing.
- Shout-Out: In chapter 10 Arthas refers to his injuries as "a flesh wound".
- The Unfavorite: Robert makes it clear to Ned and Arthas that he doesn't really like Joffrey. More than once he talks about disinheriting Joffrey and putting Arthas as his successor.
- The Usurper: Renly tries to be this, though it doesn't quite work as he imagines.
- Token Evil Teammate: Ramsay fills this position among Arthas' battleguard. While the other members are fairly honorable at least, Ramsay is unashamedly petty, cruel and brutal. He still fills his role even after he serves Joffrey as his main duty is seemingly doing any terrible thing that Joffrey wishes him to, including things that more honorable and pragmatic men can't do openly since Ramsay does not care about honor or tarnishing his name much.
- War Is Hell: Especially when you don't have nifty healing spells.
- Wartime Wedding: Apparently Renly had married Margaery not long before his coup in order to secure the Tyrell's support.
- Weapon Specialization: Similar to Robert, Arthas' weapon is a warhammer. Though he's also decent with swords.
- Wedding Episode: Chapter 11 and 12 focus on this.
- What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: The reason why the civil war is so frustrating to Arthas is because the living are too busy killing each other rather than preparing themselves against the army of the dead.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Eddard gives a subtle one of this to Arthas by showing him the casualties of the battle of the green fork. It serves as a stark reminder to Arthas of the horrible reality of Westerosi warfare and the cost of his recklessness.
