Tear Jerker / The North Remembers

Much like its source material, this fic will render readers into sobbing wrecks.

Back to The North Remembers.

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• In-universe; one of Dany's memories of her brother—when they were living in the streets, and it was raining and wet and they were hungry, he'd pick her up and let her sleep on his lap, because "a princess shouldn't sleep in the mud"—becomes this to her in hindsight of what he became.
• Sandor Clegane reminiscing on his truly horrific childhood. Like most children his age, he had dreamed of becoming a knight, but his brother had put an end to that by burning half of his face off. He was five years old at the time. Also, his sister Alienor who, despite trying everything to help him keep a good life and hold his innocence together, is savagely raped and murdered at the age of thirteen.
  Sandor: "Alie, it's a lie. It's just a stupid song. I don't want to any more."
  Alienor: "But you're going to be a knight one day." She sounded sad. "Then – "
  Sandor: "I don't want to be a knight."
  Alienor: "You love knights."
  Sandor: "Gregor's going to be a knight. Everyone says so."
  Alienor: "No." Alienor tried to sound reassuring. "He won't be. When it comes time, you and me, we'll tell the king or Prince Rhaegar or any of them that he's horrible. Then they won't do it. He's not a true knight, he's a monster. You and me. Sleep now, Sandor. Sleep."
• The death of Alysane Mormont, as she protects Jeyne Poole and Val from the Others, her dying words the words of her ancestral house.
  "Here we stand."
• The deaths of Devan and Shireen following the collapse of the Wall, the latter occurs as she thanks Jon for the kindness he showed her while in his company.
• Jaime desperately trying to stop the Westerlings and Roslin from being executed. His efforts to bring peace to the south, as he had thought he had done, had all been for naught the moment word broke out that the young queen that he had seen at Riverrun was a fraud. But the biggest tragedies in all of this were the deaths of Rollam and Elenya Westerling. Gawen knew nothing of the marriage, Sybell more or less deserved what happened to her, and Roslin would have died sooner or later, but these two were forced to go along with their mother's plans of getting their older sister to safety. All Jaime could think about by the time he's prisoner are the hysterical screams of Elenya as she's put to death.
• Chapter 24. Jojen dies after giving his life energy to Bran in order to become the next three-eyed raven. When Meera finds out, she falls into the Despair Event Horizon.
• Chapter 50. Meera dies in order to make an Heroic Sacrifice for Bran by giving him her life energy, just like Jojen did. Complete with Bran giving her an Anguished Declaration of Love. Also, in her final moments she kisses Bran so he wouldn't see her die.
  "Meera...I love you"
• Chapter 67 "I am the Stark in Winterfell" No matter what anyone did or said or thought, he was. It was him here at the end of all things.
• Chapter 77. Bran becomes the new three-eyed crow and even gets to walk again, but realizes too late that it came at the cost of his friends' lives so that it would happen. Also, he takes Meera's death pretty badly, blaming himself for her death.
  "He'd fled from that, terrified. And then, out of nowhere, he'd seen his sister Sansa, far away under another hollow hill, among the roots of another weirwood, with a hooded corpse-woman and a band of ragged outlaws and a big man with a burned face. Meera was dead. He thought he had seen his brother Rickon, but couldn't be sure. Meera was dead. His sister Arya was too far away to even catch an echo. Meera was dead. Even his own wolf, Summer, appeared and disappeared, a separation he found horribly unfamiliar and shocking, after how long he had lived in Summer's soul. But Summer was the warg of Bran Stark. To the three-eyed crow, he was only one skin among many."
  • His only consolation is that he has a vision in which Little Robb will eventually replace him as the three-eyed crow, freeing him from the burden. Which as shown in the epilogue, eventually happens.
• Chapter 81. Jorah, mortally wounded by Daario Naharis, in his final moments recites the Night's Watch oath with Tyrion before blowing the Valyrian horn for Daenerys to regain control of her dragons.
  Her bear knight smiled at her, a smile of utter love and faith and death, and blew the horn.
• Brienne's miscarriage. She spends time wondering if it would have been ugly like her or beautiful and golden like Jaime.
  Would the child have had Jaime's eyes and lazy smile, the famed tumble of Lannister-gold locks? Gods save it if it had been a girl, poor thing, and looked like her.
• Chapter 86 Arya's regret over all of her killings.
  Is there anyone I haven't killed? Including herself. All dead. All rotten. She hadn't been able to fight her way away from her demons, from the half-shaped, shattered memories that hunted her in the night. She hadn't been able to murder her way to peace, or bleed her way to vengeance. She hadn't been able to destroy herself to sanity. I gave and gave, and they've taken everything. Quite suddenly, she wanted to weep. She wanted to crawl somewhere comfortable and dark in the bowels of the ship, and wait for Braavos to stop burning, and for them to go home and for her to find a place somewhere, just a little place, warm and safe. She didn't want to keep killing, not really, not anymore.
• Chapter 94 Wylis Manderly's final words to Jeyne as he lies dying during the Others' attack on White Harbor
  "Leave it, child. It is over. My lord father...if Ser Edmure should find him, tell him that I did not fail him. Whether Rickon or Sansa or any of them...let there be a Stark in the North again—Do not weep, my lady. All nights, even the longest ones, must end. Be brave but a while longer."
• Chapter 97 Jon Connington reuniting with Rhaegar in the afterlife.
• Chapter 98: Sansa bids her mother farewell before departing for King's Landing, knowing it will be the last time they ever see each other.
• Chapter 99: The Reveal of Ser Robert Strong's true identity: Robb Stark. Or at least, his head sewn onto Gregor's body.
• Chapter 101: Cersei was beyond redemption at this point, but the anguish felt by Jaime as he is forced to kill her to prevent King's Landing's destruction is heartrending.
  He had never envisioned a moment of his life without her. As we entered the world together, so we were supposed to leave it. He had done it, finally. As she had completed the long slow slide to madness, so he had completed it to becoming a monster. He had done this. His work. Killed her. Killed them all. Kingslayer. Queenslayer. Slayer. Slayer. Slayer.
• Chapter 103: Sansa coming face-to-face with Ser Robert Strong, which is Robb's head stitched onto Gregor's body, and seeing him burned to death.. Don't forget she also encountered Lady Stoneheart, meaning now two of her beloved family members had been resurrected as grotesque monsters and she lost them again.
  I love you. I love you both. Go with the gods.
  • Randyll Tarly stating that his men found Tommen dead in the sewers. Jaime had spent the majority of the book trying to save at least some of his family from the madness brought upon by Tywin and Cersei's ambition. And he still failed.
• Chapter 106 Jaime finally succumbs to his wounds during the Others' assault on King's Landing while in Tyrion and Brienne's presence, but not before finally making peace with Tyrion, and Brienne's assurances that he will be remembered as a hero in the annals of the White Book.
• Chapter 108 Stannis requests that Davos take up the Baratheon cause of find whatever of Robert's blood is left to succeed him as heir before blowing the Horn of Dawn, giving up his life to give Jon a chance at ending the Others' invasion.
  " I will die. Lord Snow will return to Castle Black, and do what he must. If we are strong enough, if we face it and do not fail, the Long Night will be over. So we must pray, at least. And so, you are released. Your charge to me is ended. My Hand and heir, Lord Davos, may choose to take up my claim to the throne, and in such case, I expect you to fight as long and loyally for him as you ever did for me. But if not...Serve no usurpers or madmen. Do justice and live rightly. Burn a nightfire for me. And remember. Remember always."
• Chapter 110: Tyrion and Brienne attending Jaime's funeral.
• In Chapter 111, Lady Stoneheart executes Littlefinger. His pleading for mercy is pretty pitiful, but the real tragedy is that Catelyn has to kill her childhood friend because he completely and utterly destroyed her life. Then, with her vengeance carried out, she walks out of the Moon Door.
  Oh Ned...
• Chapter 112: With nowhere else for him to go, despite Asha pleading with him to accompany her back to the Iron Islands, Theon bids his sister farewell before leaving White Harbor to die alone, finally at peace with himself
  It seemed no more impossible than anything else. Theon took a step, and then another. It grew easier and easier; he no longer felt his broken feet, his missing fingers, his missing self, or anything at all. Sounds fell away, and even the trees, and all time, and everything that was or had been. And then at last, greater than the sun of the new-broken morning, greater than the night's ending, greater than life itself, Theon Greyjoy saw the light.
• The Epilogue:
  • With the war over, the Starks rebuild Winterfell, with Sansa acting as regent for Rickon. However, Rickon continues to become more wild and uncontrollable until it becomes clear he cannot rule in his own right. Finally, Sansa allows him and Shaggydog to abdicate and roam free in the wild.
  • The day Daenerys and Tyrion's son Rhaegar was born, Dany's dragons Drogon and Viserion perished.
  • Jon heads to the far north to watch incase the Others ever return. Val goes with him and they marry, but the fact that he's immortal means eventually he'll find himself alone.