Spoilers Off applies to all "Moments" pages, so all spoilers are unmarked.
- Eddard Stark gets several.
- His father Rickard is set up to be Spared by the Adaptation only to be captured and executed anyway. What's more up until being informed by the Targaryean delegation Ned was holding onto a hope for saving him.
- Lyanna still dies. And this time Ned can't even be with Lyanna in her final moments ITTL, or bring her remains home to be laid to rest.
- Brandon lives! But even without becoming a jerkass like in Summer Crowns, Ned still has to effectively go into exile to avoid a crisis in the House. The fact the brothers still love each other only makes them parting ways forever like this more heartbreaking.
- We later learn some of the sex slaves Robert freed ended up committing suicide anyway.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones, and that is a major motive for the slaver soldiers we see the POV of. They want to protect their family's lives and prosperity from the carnage the Sunset Company brings. Much as you may hate their cause, the realization these men died for nothing and their nightmares likely came true in the Sack can hit you in the feels.
- The fate of the women captured and dragged to the Palace of Order by Ironborn to be enjoyed by the victorious men of the Company. Can also be one if you were rooting for the SC only to realize the depths they will sink to as well.
- Things actually go worse for the Martells than canon.
- Balon's stubborn efforts to assert his authority over Victarion seems to have driven a wedge between the brothers as opposed to their relation in canon. As Balon was ordering him to leave his post as Master of Ships and his hard earned power and popularity in Myr, many consider it a moment of Awesome with Victarion breaking from his canon path as Balon's flunky.
- A village of poor fisherfolk, who quite literally have little knowledge and less to do with the struggles of cities, kings and nations. End up being the first slaughtered in the First Slave War, with only three people surviving.
- The Pentos Conference makes it pretty clear that the relationship between Robert and Jon Arryn will never be as close as it once was.
- The Myrish Remnant pretty much runs on these, in addition to This Is Unforgivable!
- When the Dothraki come calling for their tribute on Pentos the Braavosi authorities despite their hate for the slavers pay them tribute to protect their new subjects. The Khal offended by their refusal to give him slaves, takes their gifts; and ravages Pentoshi villages anyway. People freed by the Braavosi and Sunset Company ended up either killed or returned to slavery.
- Ned takes it on himself to avenge them.
- Ned's Heroic BSoD after the battle.
- It also hammers home that this Ned will never likely be the same man we knew in canon.
- The military graveyard outside of Myr. While it can be Heartwarming how it tries to honor the various creeds of its soldiers; it reminds you that for all its victories many never lived to celebrate the Kingdom of Myr's success.
- The Battle of Tyrosh. While it can certainly be seen as awesome, the Braavosi fleet is still wiped out.
- Also its implied that Stannis retreating leaving the Braavosi to die will end the budding friendship between the Titan and Iron Throne. And Stannis really did not want to betray his allies, he was just convinced that the situation was hopeless and he had to save what he could.
- Jonothor's personal struggle regarding creating a schism with the Faith leadership. On the one had the need to seek justice and truth against the corrupt establishment and doctrines he can not in good conscience continue to follow. And the other the knowledge that such a schism will most likely see many innocent people, on both sides of the divide, die.
- The massacres carried out by the Tyroshi against their slaves. Dialed up to eleven with the Night of Flames.
- Seeing the Abolitionist Alliance embrace Pay Evil unto Evil by adopting a policy of killing any Tyroshi man or woman over the age of fourteen they can get their hands on. A reminder that no ones hands are even close to clean in these wars.
- The Tyroshi suicide pacts. Especially as the story shows by the end of the battle that the Alliance really was going to spare many of the children killed in the pacts.
- The Battle of Piper's Creek. The first defeat of the Kingdom of Myr's land forces sees half their cavalry force at the battle destroyed, and we are treated to a POV of the Legion troops being destroyed by attrition. In-Universe the outcome sends Ser Brus Buckler, the Myrish commander into tears of regret and shame over his failure.
- The Fall of Campora:
- The sack of the town represents a major failure of the Kingdom of Myr, with its people being slaughtered or enslaved despite their brave efforts to defend the city.
- Brus Buckler never comes out of his Heroic BSoD, and while even captured he remains Defiant to the End, his death is a melancholy scene.
- In-universe, Ser Brynden's journal describes the army's reaction to the destroyed town as this with many Manly Tears shed.
- The Battle of Novadomo is a clear victory for the Kingdom of Myr, but it becomes clear that the thousands of subjects that have been Made a Slave, cannot be saved.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs for the Commune of Braavos, with their slaveholding trading partners having lost all patience and expelling them from their enclaves. many lives are lost and more will be ruined as the Braavosi economy takes the biggest hit it has seen in centuries.
- Jaime refusing to abandon his commitment to the Kingdom of Myr even after his official exile ends leads to a falling out with Tywin wherein the two disown each other. Afterwards, it's noted that Tywin cries for the first time since his wife died.
- Even worse, this breaks the betrothal between Jaime and Lysa Tully. She's heartbroken when she hears of this, and then outright pushed past the Despair Event Horizon when she realizes that Tywin and her father will force her to marry Tyrion instead to try and preserve the alliance. She ultimately chooses to leap out a window rather than go through with that.
- Jaime receives a "Reason You Suck" Speech from Robert, Serina, and Gerion on his return to Myr. It rattles Jaime enough that he can't even fully protest when Serina asks for him to return the medal she had given him.
- It's mentioned that if not for Gerion and his wound the Blackfish may have challenged Jaime to a duel. Considering how much Jaime looked up to Brynden and had finally earned the man's respect, this had to hit hard.
- While Victarion's victory in the wrestling duel can be seen as awesome, one should remember that he and Dagmer had been comrades in arms as well as mentor student for years. Even a macho Ironborn likely had regrets on this falling out.
- Despite all their crimes as culture, it's hard not to feel a little bad for the Ironborn after Balon's rebellion goes pear-shaped. Not only do most of the royalist lords have no problem utterly devastating them, but afterwards Stannis takes great efforts to crush out worship of the Drowned God by instituting laws that repress any Ironborn that doesn't convert to either the Seven or the Old Gods. It gets to the point that a great many abandon the islands to head for Essos.
- Robert lamenting the fact that, due to not wanting to muddle the issue of succession, he can't get too close to his bastards.
- A POV scene from Barristan shows that he's disturbed by how the Targaryen exile court has started defending slavery, seeing it as a betrayal of his vow to protect the innocent. However, he can't bring himself to do anything about because of his other vow to obey his king without question.
- Jaime drowning his sorrows after he becomes a pariah on the Summer Islands once the locals learn of his prior actions and how they led to Lysa's suicide.
- Barristan's grief from his Conflicting Loyalties — he's bound to serve Viserys, whom he believes in as his rightful king, but in that capacity is forced to fight for slavery and turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed by their Dothraki allies, all of which spits in the face of his oath to protect the innocent.
- This all ultimately leads to him killing himself, when he can no longer reconcile his duty with Viserys' plans to unleash the Dothraki on first the Abolitionists and then Westeros.
- The wrath and grief of the Myrish leadership when Gerion is unexpectedly killed.
- Stannis' death from plague. Pycelle is driven to tears as he concludes his king won't pull through, while Renly (who has a much better relationship with his brother than in canon) is consumed by grief afterwards.
- Lyn Corbary's death at Claymoor Water. Love him or hate him, he was a major character practically since the beginning of the story, and his departure is a major loss.
- Brienne's Heroic BSoD after failing to save Joanna from an angry mob, blaming herself for the young princess' death.
- The deaths of Ned and the Blackfish during the Fourth Slave War, especially for Robert's reaction to them.
