Nightmare Fuel / My Father's Son

• Despite being The Good Prince at first, once Rhaegar starts facing his self loathing, you see that he is still Aerys's son, with bouts of great anger that almost have him violate his principles.
• Aerys II is a nightmare to be around. Over the course of the story, you can see his madness growing. Going from mere paranoia to aggression, to hatred, to a fascination with live burnings, to causing war because he thinks there's evil magics trying to undermine house Targaryen.
• The burning of Brandon and Rickard Stark is legendary in the world of Ice and Fire. But here, we get to read it happen, and it's not fun to hear about their flesh roasting.
• Tywin gets a vision from Melisandre about bad futures the Lannisters might face. Jaime burned. Cersei grieving over her dead child. Tyrion hanged. And as for himself? The famed shot from canon of him dying on the privy. Only this time, he can't recognize the voice of the person shooting him.
  • This could either mean that Tyrion will change so much that Tywin will no longer recognize his voice, or despite everything Tywin is doomed to die a humiliating death for others' schemes.
• The Reveal that Rhaegar, Lyanna and Elia aren't just fighting the forces of men. No, an honest-to-goodness Death God is going after their family, trying to push them to mistrust and evil.
• They may be gods, but you get a real sense of danger when Balerion starts strangling Tessarion. That as he said, "I can't kill you, but I can hurt you."
• Euron enacts concerns at its worst for the dragons: attacking the Red Keep for the express purpose of kidnapping the royal children.
• After having his reputation mocked due to Rhaenys stabbing his eye out, Euron proceeds to beat his second-in-command to death with his bare hands.
• Rhaegar's fury at Balon Greyjoy. Still clinging to his pride, Rhaegar proceeds to beat him with Blackfyre, and almost has Aegarax burn him alive. A reminder that despite being of sounder mind, watch out for his Berserk Button.
• The final scene of this story: Balerion, Valeryian god of Death decides to grant patronage to the last of House Blackfyre. But in doing so, he changed everything. Because through his power, he gave that house rival Dragons! Now the Targs will have true rivals to worry about in the future.