This IS a Song of Ice and Fire fanfic, and while the story may be upbeat for the setting (i.e., the betterment of conditions for the lower classes, the Starks survive and are thriving), it wouldn't be Westeros without tragedy.
- Theon's reaction when he learns Bran's injury is to blame himself because he wanted to use his telescope and thought the Broken Tower would give the best viewpoint, so Bran did go and explore to be sure of it.
- Balon's death
He was a horrible man, but Theon still considered him his father, and now he has lost both his fathers: the man he was born to and the man who took him in as another son.- In the same register, Tywin's murder. Even if it is a great boon for the North, just looking at his family's reaction, more particularly Kevan who's stuck in a Northern camp happily celebrating the deed...
- Kevan has it really rough over this war. Seeing his older brother crossing the Moral Event Horizon by selling prisoners to buy slaves as cannon fodder, one of his sons dying in the Steel Wedding and his eldest Lancel forced to serve a crazy ruler. Things are looking up for him when the war ends but he was still put through an emotional blender.
- In the same register, Tywin's murder. Even if it is a great boon for the North, just looking at his family's reaction, more particularly Kevan who's stuck in a Northern camp happily celebrating the deed...
- The destruction of several villages caused by Joffrey and the knights in his army in his mad rush away from King's Landing, with nearly all of their population brutally assassinated, several of them personally killed by Joffrey execution-style with Blizzard, Ned Stark's revolver. All of them, people whose only crime was being in the way.
- When Robb forces Theon to reveal the source of his knowledge, Theon confesses he was scared that the Starks would think him insane and lock him away if he had told the truth.
