Her Life and Her Death
is an A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic written by magicmoon111.
Swayed by the powerful words of a dying queen, Stannis Baratheon takes in baby Daenerys Targaryen as his ward. In the North, Eddard Stark is ordered to raise Jon Snow to wed and dishonor the Targaryen princess, by bringing bastard blood into her line, and ending the Dragons forever. Across the continent, and across the Narrow Sea, the wheel continues to turn, and the Great Game commences.
This fic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: On their way to the Wall, Jon Snow and Oberyn Martell meet the siblings Torwynd and Munda, the children of Tormund, raiding south of the Wall. After besting them in combat, Jon sends them back beyond the Wall.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Ashara Dayne was a lesbian and Elia was either a lesbian too or asexual.
- Affectionate Nickname: Oberyn calls Jon "Broody Boy".
- Arranged Marriage: Between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. This is set up by the new king, Robert Baratheon, in an attempt to shame Daenerys by having her marry a bastard.
- Canon Foreigner: Myra Velaryon, the wife of Stannis Baratheon.
- Cool Sword: Due to his betrothal to Daenerys, maester Aemon gifts Jon Snow the Targaryen ancestral sword, Dark Sister.
- Commander Contrarian: Catelyn muses Northerners are contrarians just for the sake of being contrarians. This is taken advantage by Roose Bolton and Wyman Manderly to make the Northern lords reject a trade alliance with Stannis for their houses' benefit.
- Deconstruction Fic: The fic deconstructes certain tropes common in the Game of Thrones fandom.
- The King Jon trope is dismantled. Even if Jon was not a Child by Rape, the wedding of Rhaegar and Lyanna would not be considered lawful outside the North due to lack of legitimate witness and a Maester not declaring the marriage consumated. This means Jon is still a Heroic Bastard and, due to the Targaryens being deposed, has no claim to the Iron Throne.
- Dorne is also deconstructed to a lesser extent. While as a Planet of Hats makes it more egalitarian than the rest of the kingdoms, the Dornish scorn weaknesses and cowardice with suicide being seen as the most cowardly thing one can do. House Dayne falls from grace due to Ashara committing suicide, becoming pariahs.
- Deliberate Under-Performance: Jon Snow deliberately acts less skilled then his half-brother, Robb Stark, so he doesn't earn the ire of Robb's mother, Catelyn Stark.
- Driven to Suicide: Ashara Dayne. After the horrific rape and murder of Elia Martell, the woman she loved, Ashara throws herself from the top of the Palestone Sword, one of the towers at Starfall, into the sea. Due to this House Dayne has been ostracized by the rest of the Dornish nobles, who see suicide as an act of cowardice.
- Enemy Mine: Roose Bolton is working with the Martells.
- Good Old Ways: Deconstructed with the North. Their rejection of anything "southerner" and opposition to change has made the North backwards and stagnant, and their rejection of trade and resource extraction has left the North's population small and its western shore severely depopulated.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cersei's jealousy and obsession with Maggy's prophecy brings about her own downfall.
- Implied Death Threat: Oberyn receives a letter from Highgarden which congratulates him for winning a joust in Cider Hall and that the knights of Highgarden are eager to meet him, amongst other implied threats.
- Master Swordsman: Despite his youth, Jon Snow has been noted as a talented swordsman by many different people, and he is only going to get better with age. His skills at combat is what led Oberyn Martell to believe Jon's mother was of House Dayne, a noble house famous for their warriors.
- Pretty Boy: Jon Snow gets called this by most people he meets, much to his annoyance.
- Secret Identity:
- Jon Snow, the bastard son of Eddard Stark and an unknown woman, is actually the bastard son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.
- Allyria Dayne, the daughter of Anaris Dayne and her husband, is actually the bastard daughter of Ashara Dayne and Brandon Stark.
- Tyene, Daenerys' maid, is Tyene Sand, the bastard daughter of Oberyn Martell.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Domeric Bolton. After meeting them at the Inn at the Crossroads, Domeric becomes Oberyn Martell's squire alongside Jon Snow, and heads south, instead of returning north and meeting his end at the hands of his bastard brother, Ramsay Snow.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Despite his Stark colouring: brown hair and grey eyes, Jon Snow has the looks of a Targaryen. Olenna Tyrell was able to figure out that Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark just based on how much he looks like her original betrothed, Prince Daeron Targaryen.
- Story-Breaker Power: Stannis finds aluminum ore in Dragonstone and with Tobho Mott's help manages to smith it into aluminum. As aluminum is as strong as iron but also lighter, it makes it a good replacement for steel. Myra even says that discovering it "changes the game". In reality, this wouldn't be the game changer the story presents it as. Aluminum is extremely difficult to extract without modern methods involving electrolysis which is why it used to be more expensive than gold. Even if a master smith could extract relatively large quantities of aluminum, iron would likely still be much cheaper and aluminum would probably be even more expensive than steel due to the rarity and increased labor necessary.
- The Exile: Catelyn Stark. After Eddard finds out about her horrible treatment of his bastard son, Jon Snow, he sends her back to Riverrun. It didn't last.
- The Squire: Both Jon Snow and Domeric Bolton become this for Oberyn Martell.
- Would Hurt a Child: Cersei has 9 year old Daenerys stripped naked and paraded publicly through the Red Keep in front of hundreds of people. She was getting dragged by her hair, with cuts all over her body from where Cersei had viciously ripped her dress off.
