YMMV / The Lion of the North

• Ships That Pass in the Night: Jaime Lannister/Maege Mormont and Benjen Stark/Obara (Sand) Martell.
• The Woobie: Several of the characters.
  • Jaime Lannister is disowned for refusing to see the murder of infants as necessary. He later finds out that his beloved sister is married to the King. Things get better for him, but boy does it start rough.
  • Benjen Stark feels directly responsible for the deaths of his brother, sister and father, but can't atone in the Night's Watch as Ned needs another Stark in Winterfell in case something happens to him. He finds some happiness with Obara Sand, only for them to lose their son due to Robert's growing paranoia about a rebellion from the North. After finally seeing his son after several years, he ends up being framed and arrested for the murder of Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn.
  • Ned Stark consistently tries to do the right thing only for his personal relationships to suffer for them. He can no longer be friends with Robert after he implicitly allows the murder of children, his closeness with his brother is damaged due to having to have Lyan ward at King's Landing to spare the North a war, and Catelyn gives him shit as he refuses to reveal Jon Snow's true origins out of fear of Jon's safety.
  • Jon Arryn ends up in a political marriage that rapidly becomes unhappy, has to watch his former wards who are practically his sons at each others throats with him in the middle, and can do nothing as Robert ends up degenerating into being something akin to the King they worked hard to overthrow, all while unsuccessfully trying to contain the viper's nest of intrigue in King's Landing. He ends up being assassinated by the end of Book 2, with Robert dead, and the brother of his other ward left to take the fall.