- Jon, with the weirdness of being discovered as Avatar, laments that it's hard to make an identity for himself outside of that duty.
- Sansa's utter distress when Arya's seeming escape from King's Landing ended in her disappearing, with them worrying that she died on the way back.
- The internal pain Brienne has for herself as she works hard to represent her house, but feels like she'll never be beautiful enough to marry and do her duty.
- For that matter, on first meeting Team Avatar, she assures Jaime that it's better to meet in shadows due to how ugly she is when they get out.
- Jaime's distress hearing that his sword hand might not work again.
- Jaime's soft resignation that despite his growing attraction to Brienne, his new oath means he must be steady and stay courtly but nonromantic, even in the face of her family saying it could be a good match.
- When Jon hears about Eddard being imprisoned, he at first doesn't want to leave for Essos to escape any potential blowback towards them if rumors get out. But Ygritte goes straight for the jugular on the real reason: "You don't WANT to go."
- And when Jon lashes out at her back, she coldly tells him that she was not obliged to follow him despite his assumptions, and she can't follow him now because she doesn't trust his good intentions anymore.
- Ashara Dayne's first chapter is a kind of speed run on her life. And looking over it all, it's a life filled with regret and sadness. As she was on the outskirts of plans and doomed romances, and suffered mightily for her position of confidence but no power.
- She heard from Elia about Lyanna and Rhaegar's plans but couldn't give proper input. And was even sent away for her own safety.
- She got pregnant from Brandon Stark, then lost both the father and the baby.
- Her breaking point was finding out about the secrets of Jon Snow. Overwhelmed with grief and pain and anxiety from the many secrets, she tried to end her own life, and only saved herself because her impulse to live was greater than her pain.
- Ramsay Gore cruelly crushing Rickon's heart with bloodbending.
- Theon breaking down in regret about losing Rickon to Ramsay's cruelty, feeling he failed the starks when they needed him the most.
- Arya carries her own regrets after being rescued from The Faceless Men. That she held onto Jon as the reason for her power, but now regrets not knowing so much of her own past that she gave away for that power.
- Despite their best efforts at a rescue, Jojen Reed dies escaping the White Walkers from Bloodraven's cave.
- For that matter, with Bloodraven being an Adaptational Nice Guy, his Uncertain Doom is also pretty sobering.
- Margaery regretfully thinking about her grandmother poisoning Robert. In truth, she didn't want to think about it despite it making perfect sense.
- While much of the introductions in Astapor are joyous, there is one prickly thorn of pain in the middle of it all: Margaery has to come face to face with Ygritte who killed her grandmother Olenna. While in some ways understanding of the chaos and evil that happened, the pain is too much for Marg to just forgive Ygritte right away. Something Ygritte freely tells Jon could last forever.
- Asha ended up having a very bad day. While sailing past Valyria, a storm pushed them all the the way south to Sotheryos. Where she runs into her Uncle Euron. Who then kills her entire crew and forces her to abandon their bodies to escape him. She ends up waterbending her way across the Summer Sea to escape, and only after securing a ship to Astapor does she allow herself a moment to grieve.
The past Avatars
- Despite coming from a long line of legend, NONE of the Avatar stories given are particularly happy ones.
- Kuruk slowly faded away, as his wounds fighting evil spirits eventually caught up to him.
- Aang lived a life of adventure thanks to being identified at age 6, and he did find True Companions to ease his burdens. But the end of his life was a tragedy, giving it while fighting the Bloodstone Emperor, trying to protect the Amethyst Empress who supported him all his avatarhood. Worse, he failed to protect her, and the Long Night began right afterwards.
- Korra ended up watching the old successes fade away as The Long Night slowly sucked away the old freedoms of the world.
- For that matter, she lived a life under the shadows of Aang dying so young. She made friends with his old companions, and found love with Asami of House Sato. But Asami died as a wight as the white walkers began to grow in power. And according to her, Katara and Sokka were given a Fate Worse than Death: enslavement as an Other.
- Kyoshi helped erect The Wall to protect the realms of man, but died prematurely and was prevented from reincarnating because she got stuck as a wight.
