YMMV / Game of Thrones: Ascent

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Jorgen Chernoff: a manipulative Social Climber, utilizing his charms as a professional Gold Digger? Or just Evalyn's own Jon who simply took his mother's side in the rivalry, a victim of manipulation himself? Note that he willingly travels to his likely death rather than even consider defying his mother as an option. Did he, like his mother, get so obsessed with your rivalry it got the better of his self-preservation, or was he just that desperate for his mother's approval?
  • Does some mental illness or untreated trauma turn Jayne self-destructive under stress, even if she is not unintelligent otherwise? After all, she was touched deeper by her parent's death than the others were. Is Rona more worried about her with Littlefinger than she is about Ella in the middle of a religious war because she knows about this on some level? Has she Irrational Hatred for you for outliving the parent she was closer to?
    • Did she imprison and try to exile you out of revenge, or was she looking for an excuse to get rid of you and take over the house?
    • Was she aware of Moxhala's morally questionable dealings all along but unwilling to agree with you to your face? Or did she need another enemy to take her frustration out on after you broke free?
  • Did Eutimio help Jon grow a spine, or did your acceptance make him feel more secure, proving to him you'd never think Why Couldn't You Be Different??
  • You when gaining nobility: did your ambition flourish unbidden by your Morality Chain spouse? Did you throw yourself into wars to cope with your grief?
    • You as a noble: responsible Big Good or unscrupulous Social Climber?
  • Your family: naturally open-minded and adventurous? Born in the Wrong Century, an island of modernity in the Middle Ages? Or Royally Screwed Up? Is Jon weaker-willed than the rest of you or actually the Only Sane Man? Bipolar Disorder is genetic and more inclined toward women (see your daughters); triggered by the loss of a mother figure in childhood (see your spouse); gets worse with age if untreated, more severe manic episodes cause hallucinations (your visions), grandiose delusions (you were convinced in your early memories you will be a noble one day)and persecutory delusions (what if all your neighbors being out to get you is a case of Unreliable Narrator?). Stress, drugs (especially hallucinogenic ones like Shade of the Evening), negative life events (the household was especially concerned for you after Odette's death), stressing the metabolism (caused by your comas) trigger relapse. (Not to mention Jayne running off to get injured after your spouse died or Ella running off into Tarryl's religious war after Jorgen took advantage of her.) It causes recklessness and conflicts with one's family. Your daughters either worship or hate you to an unhealthy extent even in their adulthood (not to mention have occasional Mood-Swinger tendencies), only Jon is trying to learn from and live up to you while also keeping his spine and thinking for himself, unafraid to disagree with you. You yourself are implied to have Daddy Issues, and Odette, an Abusive Parent.
    • It can even explain why the visions persist even after the drug should have worn off. It worsened your brain's chemistry to make you hallucinate in manic episodes!
  • Gammer Wilde: Widow Witch gifted with greensight or Fair Folk in disguise? Ham dreams of her with green eyes and pointed ears and she does perform suspiciously supernatural feats.
    • Or Widow Witch with greensight possessed by Fair Folk?
    • Actually mad, or just The Trickster Obfuscating Insanity to get away with more?
• Anvilicious: Your visions as analogies to the rightfulness of Nyall's claims.
• Audience Awareness Advantage: Played for Drama. The player knows everything through the well-positioned agents, but news travel significantly slower to, and from, your holding. That means your character takes a while to know that Jon is framed for murder in Braavos; that Terrei died; both your character and Evalyn Chernoff fight in court not knowing Jorgen is alive; Jon has plenty of time to worry whether Eutimio is alive if not to think him dead; and good luck warning Eutimio to turn back south because the Wall crumbled...
  • Jayne seems to plan against you in the belief that she is still your heir, long after you have officially chosen someone else in her absence.
• Badass Decay: Odette turns from a Master Swordswoman into Damsel in Distress, as she lampshades repeatedly.
• Bizarro Episode: Maybe the hidden Volume You storylines qualify, which are told to take place shortly before your pursuit of the Silent Lady, and mostly contain petty quarreling with the neighbors and acquaintances and hassles over taking and tilling new pieces of land.
• Designated Evil:
  • Your self-defense against the Three, attacking you for no good reason. Your advisors try to railroad you into celebrating to have ruined your former friends.
  • Quite a few enemies of yours attack you repeatedly out of greed, Misplaced Retribution or simple idiocy, but you are the bloodthirsty monster for daring to defend yourself and win.
  • Carellen vilifying you for Bess' death, since the alternative would be letting many of your enslaved smallfolk get killed instead, a mother of ten among them, whose eldest son actually volunteered and risked his life to help you catch the Silent Lady while Carellen or Bess weren't doing anything helpful onscreen, Bess arguably even bringing it on herself by willingly staying in harm's way.
• Fridge Brilliance: White Walkers and wights recoil from the Greenseer's Glass because it's a Magic Mirror showing them their lost human lives. You, as a human, only see your reflection in it. Gammer is scared of it before it gives back her consciousness.
• Ho Yay:
  • Maester Lucas remarkably hovering over your character's bedside in Breaking Ties.
  • Rona had some kind of relationship with Yara Greyjoy.
• Informed Wrongness:
  • Munda thinks punishing her husband for desertion (what he has committed) is injustice, because he was such a good husband and father. Gammer Wilde never said her husband's execution was unjust even if that left her completely alone, nor did Ser Davos Seaworth think the king was unjust when cutting his fingers off for saving him from starvation.
  • You shouldn't hesitate to support the Interclass Romance of Gulian and Alyse, but what if she is just a whim to him as Lady Belmore even mentioned, or he is just a Meal Ticket to her what even Rona encouraged?
  • However accepting you are, it's understandable to worry about your family name living on, which can be only by pushing your son into an Arranged Marriage.
  • Considering punishing/disowning Jayne for the "treason" she was forced into by death threats. Even Gammer's greensight warning about treason from within the family is timed there, instead of Enduring Legacy where she became the real Antagonistic Offspring.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • After the murder of Councillor Lorenzo.
    When Jon looks up, he sees a man sitting calmly across the room. As Jon watches, his face melts away like wax. "Valar Morghulis, Jon [Your Surname]."
  • The Shiver, which sounds like The Black Death, rabies and ebola combined, and possibly spread by wights and what even one of your men gets infected with. After arriving home.
  • Littlefinger showing his true colors by getting openly menacing to Jayne.
  • You see the Wall crumble. Eutimio is on his way there. And don't forget the Shade of the Evening-induced vision in ''Breaking Ties'', about your spouse and Jayne returning as wights... And you close volume 7 by wondering where Jayne might be... though it turns out that she is already on the Summer Isles, betrothed to prince Moxhala.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Groat is shifting from a cynic into a snarky but cool Only Sane Man in Forging Bonds.
  • Septa Eleanor shows surprising political correctness during the inquest in Volume 5.
  • Jorgen is redeemed after he falls in love with Liadain and his mother disowns him.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Nearly everyone calls Jayne out on the stupidity of trusting Littlefinger.
  • If you choose her to be your heir, Jon seems disbelieving and points out she isn't even there.
  • When she has you imprisoned:
  you: I look at you, and I no longer see my daughter. Just another pathetic adversary.
  Explain how Moxhala deceived you by saying he'd end his alliance with slavers.
  "So you turned a blind eye to Moxhala's cruelty, and you are only forsaking him now because you liked being in control," Lyria says, sizing Jayne up.
  Defiantly tell Lyria that she knows nothing about you, or your character.
  "Many women come to this island, blinded by ambition and a desire to belong," Lyria says. "All without wisdom have been turned away, as you are now."
• Tear Jerker: The home page of the wiki of this game it's written a somewhat farewell to those who contributed to it. To drive the point home, it was closed in January of 2019 so before the conclusion of the show. The last sentence is written "And now their watch has ended.."
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Terrei Oridane, a complex, intelligent character and good potential Love Interest for your character, is killed off in Essos rescuing her son.
  • Silvercheek, who takes care of his family and goes on adventures in your name, is quickly put away when not needed. Hopefully he will get a chance when he joins the Brotherhood.
  • Derryk, after the king, you and your neighbors made a fuss about finding and protecting him, joins the Night's Watch to be promptly killed by a White Walker.
  • Jakeb, after harassing your family in your liege lord's name, is neither revealed to be a swindler nor brings your liege lord's wrath on you, only used as a Diabolus ex Nihilo to introduce Odette.
  • Ham, the little peasant boy with greensight, is called into your castle and educated by Gammer -and dreams about every Animal Motifs including dragons while Gammer only manages wolves-, only to be cast out into the wilderness and never heard of again.
  • Even Lady Chernoff's unseen lowborn husband could have been rescued by your character and won as an ally.
  • Odette's death. Killing her off just when she found the loving family she was craving and your entire holding became attached to her as well is one thing since Anyone Can Die. But by dumbing her down so she would be curbstomped by a henchman who should be no match for her?
  • Liadain is hinted to have grown up in Westeros, but none of you tries to find her family to see whether she is from nobility, or for a simple happy reunion's sake. She is moved into your forests and all but forgotten about.
• Wangst: Rona's defense for Jayne, who has inherited but abandoned Hawkhaven because her father-in-law betrayed her and Devan was killed, still doesn't make her a dependable Feudal Overlord, considering that several people betrayed you, attempted to murder and rob you on your own holdings, but that never made you throw a tantrum and run away from the responsibility. Not like she has no right to be upset, but dealing with similar issues regularly is part of the job, if your career is anything to go by. Though, to be fair, she never shows interest in being your heir so much as Rona is trying to push you to consider her for it.
• The Woobie:
  • Tyana, imprisoned.
  • Ser Hugo, whose wife was killed by the slavers and whose mentor betrays him.
  • Gammer Wilde, whose husband and sons were killed, and has only the trees for company ever since.
  • Rona, the only survivor of her family.
  • Kyra, the murdered prostitute in your holdings.
  • Alvyn, losing his son.
  • Groat, when you learn Kyra was his loving mistress and he willingly vouched for covering the crime so your kingdom will prosper. Despite his cunning and scheming nature, he's not a heartless man. At least you can give him the chance for subtle revenge if you cover Lord Cley's murder. It even ends more fairly than if you choose the Truthful path...
  • Carellen if she loses Bess. You have saved plenty of enslaved smallfolk, a mother of ten among them, and she still makes you feel like a monster.
  • Farmer Lewyn.
  • Jon when he feels like The Unfavorite.
  • Jorgen when he comes back begging after his mother disowned him. May he be just a "Well Done, Son" Guy, only scheming against you because his mother was pulling his strings, rather than your genuine enemy?
    Jorgen lowers his head. "I worked against you at my mother's command. She used me, then threw me away when I could no longer serve her." *Sniff*.
  • Odette so Desperately Craves Affection that she obsessed over and latches onto her Glorified Sperm Donor, falling over herself so that you find her good enough. Especially considering that all she has probably heard about you was that you were a loser who abandoned her and her mother and you wouldn't want anything to do with her. Or, alternatively, she is your Child by Rape.