If you stopped at the start of Book 2, then you\'re missing some pretty important character development. Seriously. I don\'t know about you, but to me, Tony is not and not meant to meant to be the finished article by the end of the first book, any more than he is by the end of the first movie. And as you read, whatever else you can say about the story, there is definitely a careful plan at work there, with a lot of stuff being set up far in advance.
I do not know about careful, though I do not doubt there is a plan now, or at least an outline of sorts. You do not write 2 more \"books\" worth of plan solely by Writing by the Seat of Your Pants after all. However, and that was my original point, I very much doubt they started with an actual plan instead of loosely adapting the plot of Iron Man 1 in Westeros (which I guess is a \"plan\" in a way) with some Marvel cameos. And that\'s not because I solely interpret it that way, it\'s because the author himself said it.
From the very first chapter:
And Chapter 8 of Book 1, which introduces Logan:
None of these set up or foreshadow the full fusion that would occur later. The story would have been written far more differently if from the start it had been Marvel/ASOIAF, as the elements would have been set up from the first chapter. And, well, the first book would have been properly tagged.
As it is, reading it felt to me like the plot did an abrupt turn and decided to be about something else entirely than what it started as, and not in an organic natural progression either. And it is where my impression that it felt like the author got bored of Tony and the Iron Man plot comes from, because the story shifts so suddenly from what is supposed to be his growing into becoming a hero to being about turning Westeros into Marvel and tease readers with cameos and references and Rule of Cool. I\'m not opposed to the latter as an idea, but I would have liked to not have been sold something completely different when I started reading.
Maybe he got more focus later and the author rectifies his \"no other growth\" stance, but when I read 33 chapters of a fanfic and came away from it disappointed, \"it gets better later!\" is not exactly enticing me to keep going through more. I was also told the Catelyn bashing is way toned down, but that\'s still too little too late.
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Wasted potential derailing into directionless plot
I read this fanfic back when it was just "Book 1", finishing reading it by the time the second installment A Crack of Thunder was announced. I dropped it by then because I came away from it disappointed, and ever since, the more I learn about elements from Books 2 and 3, the more justified I feel.
I think the fundamental problem, the same I realized back when I first read and which I suspect still drives most of the fic's decisions, I firmly believe the author just didn't have an actual plot/plan in mind. They saw the "Tony Stark in House Stark" memes, decided to turn it into a Ascended Meme and didn't think any further into how to make it work. Hence why the story started as a crossover with MCU: Tony Stark, but soon devolved into crossing over the larger Marvel Universe.
This might sound harsh, but compare the Superhero Origin of canon Iron Man with this fic's Iron Man:
The second scenario and motivation could work for many other superheroes, but for Iron Man, it comes across as incredibly weak, a Compressed Adaptation of his Superhero Origin that removes most of the personal responsibility he felt for a pithy realization making the world to be the one most at fault. No wonder the first book has the author remarking "Tony is an arrogant person who doesn't care about the wider world. He is then hurt and decides to change. And… that's it! There is no other growth. Oh, we see him develop, we see him learn… but there are no more lessons in the movie for him. We just see the aftermath. And that isn't a bad thing! Its refreshing that this is about the journey to and what happens right after he decides to be Iron man."
Either you don't care about the character and got bored, or you have a very bizarre view to conclude Tony was a fully realized character by the end of the first movie. The former would explain the shift to Loads and Loads of Characters from Marvel, the latter would explain how the fic has shallow understanding of ASOIAF characters as well (Catelyn, Tywin, Melisandre, Arianne, etc.)
Even if one just wants to see Marvel characters in Westeros, I'm not even sure I would recommend it when so many crossed over elements poorly translated or are badly integrated into ASOIAF as a setting.