History Fanfic / TheKingNobodyWanted

* HiddenDisdainReveal: Garth Tyrell spends some time acting distantly cordial and respectful toward Oswell Whent, albeit disappointed in his lack of political smarts. In chapter 87, as Oswell prepares to leave on a campaign, Garth reveals that he ''despises'' Oswell and gives him a very bitter, accurate, and drawn-out TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about his many failures as a Kingsguard. Among other things, he hates how Oswell helped Rhaegar start the war by helping him get Lyanna Stark to marry him under questionable circumstances, for failing to rein in Aerys, and then for leaving the confused, teenaged Jaime Lannister to be the only Kingsguard present at the Mad King's side for ''months'' (Garth calls Jaime the best of them for finally snapping and killing Aerys). Oswell is troubled to realize how much of the disdain is warranted and how little his efforts to atone have accomplished so far.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: In the days of Old Valyria, the Saan family was among the ruling houses of the Freehold, with the right to open and close all meetings of the Assembly, and in its time was the greatest of the forty families. They barely survived the Doom, losing all of their dragons and all of their land save for a single hold, and are now reduced to a line of pirates and sellsails who have long been eclypsed by the Targaryens, a minor family that was once so lowly that the Saans saw them as too far beneath notice to even consider them rivals.

* WhamLine: Chataya's encounter with Vargo Hoat's hulking second-in-command leaves her frightened from the moment the man enters her brothel, but the true reason behind her anxiety (being in the presence of a notorious mass murderer who she knows by sight) isn't revealed until several paragraphs later, with the line "Ser Gregor Clegane grinned at that."

* CreepyGood: The Qohorik organization the Brave Companions of the Vow seem to be decent people from those we've met, but they are unabashedly worshippers of a god that accepts blood sacrifices and are prone to exceedingly cryptic and unsettling remarks.

* ExtremeOmnisexual: Garth Tyrell openly states his attraction to both Ellaria Sand and Oberyn Martell, mentions affairs with the Ibbenese, a people noted primarily for their short, stout and very hairy frames, is noted by Varys to have had a relationship with a eunuch acquaintance of his, and sums things up declaring he's enjoyed "the goose and the gander, the cow and the bull, the hen and the rooster, and yes, even the capon, as they chanced to be served to me." Varys later describes him as having "sampled liberally from every platter".

** The unnamed mistress Aerys executed as a scapegoat for the death of his infant son Jaehaerys is given the name Lady Emalyn.

* HufflepuffHouse: The Iron Islands is probably the least represented of the Seven Kingdoms, as of Chapter 102. While three Greyjoys are prominent characters and their father, stepmother, surviving siblings, and niece appear and/or are frequently mentioned, the rest of the Iron Islanders remain an interchangeable horde of reavers who have only appeared onscreen in one chapter. Only a small handful of contemporary Ironborn outside of the family, like Harren Botley (who summons Aeron and Urrigon to a meeting) or Dagmer Cleftjaw, have even been mentioned by name.

* HauntedCastle: Castle Spyne, the ancestral castle of House Gaunt, with impossibly extensive and insanity-inducing lower levels, "strange things [that] come up from below", and "rooms with enigmatic bloody handprints." The Gaunts, sensibly, haven't actually lived there for centuries.

** Zor Alexi of Sarnor (who is seeking aide in defending his city against Dothraki hordes) refuses to mislead even casual strangers about how much his TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard list of titles (Lord of the Silver Hall, Master of the Two Hundred Gates, Chanter of the Names of the Thirtyfold Thirty Gods, the Pearl Beyond Price, the Thread Which Does Not Diminish, Friend to the Supplicant, Staff to the Needy, He Who Is, First Lord of Saath, and High Prince of the Sarnor) means, as shown in a bitter and [[BrutalHonesty stunningly frank]] speech to Lyanna after a friend gives him a flowery introduction.

** The Lazhareen prophet who is uniting his people against the weakened Dothrake is referred to exclusively as the Golden Ram.

** In the books, the members of the Band of Nine are for the most part a historical footnote -- Maelys is the only one to be given a specific history and motivation, and even there he's mainly intended to close off the Blackfyre line; Alequo Adarys is also given a cursory history, and the others are mostly just a list of names. The story significantly expands on all of them; Maelys is given a more complex backstory, and had a historic alliance with Myr and the Rhoynar remnants in Essos; Liomond Lashare was killed by Tytos Clegane; Xhobar Qhoqua and Derrick Fossoway were killed by Walter Whent; the Old Mother [[LifeWillKillYou died of old age]]; Nine-Eyes was given a cask of poisoned wine by Garth Tyrell; Samarro Saan sailed into Old Valyria seven years prior to the Rebellion [[UncertainDoom and hasn't been seen since]] but left behind a widow and two daughters, with his wife, the Widow-All-In-White, being a feared and successful pirate lord in her own right.

** Timett son of Timett is Jon Arryn's great-nephew.