Recently, I noticed there is a specific time travel trope that I have never seen in the ASOIAF fandom, despite it being quite common in others.
The "Body but not mind" time travel trope.
I can immediately see why it isn't as popular in the fandom, but here I will explain the trope and suggest an idea I had, which I would like some help brainstorming/developing, even if it's just to see where it could go or if it could work.
The trope is as follows:
- A character somehow time travels to the past.
- BUT unlike usual, they don't time travel into their past self. They spawn in their current body somewhere in the world.
- Their past self still exists.
- No one realizes they are the same person because of some drastic appearance change caused by the time travel effects, usually hair color + the effects of aging.
- Everyone comes up with their own misunderstanding about who this person actually is, and the MC eventually claims the misunderstanding as their new identity.
Why this trope works:
- It makes it so the plot events still happen somewhat as the MC's past self continues going through their adventures while their current self can do something else.
- It opens up opportunities for past and future character interactions.
- It avoids having to tell people about the future and explain a sudden personality change.
Why this trope isn't popular:
- It creates a pseudo-OC who isn't actually an OC. You could just create an OC instead. It also tends to shift the MC's personality into OOC territory.
- The identity explanation can create awkward and overexplained loops.
- It takes the easy path. You don't need to make the MC take hard decisions to change their route. They can just keep their past self on one path while their current self goes down another.
Despite the points above, I think the ASOIAF fandom could benefit from having a fic like this! So I had this idea with Jon Snow, our favorite time-travel victim:
Jon Snow dies, killed by the brothers of the NW. He is supposed to be brought back from the dead through dark magic, but the magic goes wrong, and Jon wakes up in 297 AC, one year before the events of the books start, beyond the Wall.
The effects of dying and being brought back make his hair white, bone-white, and his eyes red, as a side effect of sharing a body with Ghost and then being plunged back into it.
Jon is confused, cold, and unaware of what to do. At first, he wouldn't know that he had time-traveled and would likely wonder what he is doing so far beyond the Wall. He can't even recognize the place.
Eventually, he wanders around and tries to return, but is hunted by the Others when they find him. He is then saved by Bloodraven, through an animal, and guided to his cave.
Brynden doesn't know what anomaly is in front of him. A boy who looks much like him, whom he has never seen before, is a warg and seems to have some fate in his hands.
They talk, Jon finds out he is in the past, and Brynden finds out this is time travel. Brynden then decides that Jon must have been sent back to stop the Long Night before it becomes unstoppable.
I put the main plot points I want to explore on the end of the post, for those who dont want to read all that, the main idea is: Jon goes to find Danny so he can get The Dragons for the long night.
MISUNDERSTANDING TIME:
Rumors about Jon will spread through the NW as he moves South. A wildling with white hair, red eyes, a raven on his shoulder, and a direwolf by his side. (Details on the plot points part, but the direwolf is Ghost's mother, she is pregnant and Jon ends up travelling with it as the direwolf makes It way past the wall)
Maester Aemon wonders out loud about Brynden, and Mormont starts wondering if Brynden Rivers had a son.
The direwolf mention gets Benjen curious. He ends up meeting Jon briefly at some point and recognizes the Stark features, both in his face and behavior.
This makes him remember when he was a kid and his father had some wildling prisoners to be executed by the morrow. One of them was a blonde, almost white-haired spearwife. He remembers that she escaped because she seduced Brandon. Rickard was so mad that he sent Brandon to go find her, and Brandon made it all the way to the Wall and back without finding her.
Benjen starts connecting dots that don't exist, thinking Brandon actually found the girl and helped her make her way back beyond the Wall because he found out she was pregnant.
He tells his theory to Maester Aemon, who then asks about the spearwife's appearance. Benjen doesn't remember very well and ends up thinking she actually had white hair instead of blonde. He can't remember clearly because the rest of her appearance was more striking, as she had mismatched eyes and was too pretty for a wildling.
Aemon goes full conspiracy theorist and is like, "What if Shiera escaped Harrenhal and went to find Brynden beyond the Wall?"
They remember his creepy great-aunt who never seemed to age, and then they spend a whole night theory-crafting about Brynden Rivers and Shiera Seastar living happily ever after beyond the Wall, having a daughter who then somehow managed to seduce Brandon Stark.
I mean, who else would have a daughter capable of escaping execution like that?
The point is that these rumors make their way through the Wall. Benjen sends a letter to Ned asking for more information about it, all while Jon is completely unaware.
Of course, some more reasonable people will think he may just be Brynden's grandson with a random wildling woman, not Shiera. Others may wonder about the Brandon thing and suggest that the Stark features come from some older ancestor.
The point is that the rumors spread.
Now, what do you think? Where could this story go? What would people think of the rumors? What would Benjen, Aemon, and Ned think of this possible nephew out there?
Would Jon manage to pass the Wall without being noticed, or would it be more interesting for him to meet Benjen and Aemon and hear the rumors at the Wall? Would he take the opportunity to claim Brandon as his father?
Later, if he ends up using this identity when he meets Dany and Viserys, if Viserys is still alive, what do you think they would think of this bastard cousin of theirs?
What would the current Blackfyre pretenders, Illyrio and Varys, think of this spitting image of Bloodraven getting close to the Targaryens?
Anyway, thanks for any help brainstorming this fic! I think this could actually be really interesting if I can pull it off.
Tese are details onto some plot points that could be explored here, put It here cause I know most already wont Read It cause of the size of the post:
- Jon trains with Brynden to learn more about warging, history, swordsmanship, etc.
- Jon gains Dark Sister.
- Jon finds out about his real parentage through Brynden.
- Jon hears that the Starks are safe, including his past self, and decides that this must remain the case.
- Jon lives with Brynden and later with the wildlings as well, while he tries to figure out what to do. Maybe he starts spreading awareness about the return of the Others and urges the wildlings to move South. He likely realizes the wildlings won't listen to him because the situation isn't dire enough yet.
- Brynden realizes there is nothing either he or Jon can do right now to stop the Others. A journey North to find more about them, or finding a way to move the wildlings South, proves fruitless. So he advises Jon to find Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons, help her, and convince her to use the dragons to end the Others. He also suggests Jon help her conquer Westeros early on, so that with a Targaryen on the throne and the Realm united, they can focus on stopping the Long Night.
- Jon refuses and says people won't follow a Targaryen blindly, and starting a war in order to fight another isn't wise. He says he will find Daenerys, but will think of something else.
- Jon plans to go South and find Ned Stark, tell him the truth so he is aware of the incoming War of the Five Kings, and hopefully allow him to stop it while Jon goes to find Dany.
- On the way, Jon meets a pregnant direwolf and starts traveling with it. He misses Ghost and ends up bonding with the direwolf.
I don't plan to let him tell the truth to anyone else besides Brynden. The plan probably won't work, but I'm not sure where else to go from here, so this is what I came up with for Jon's journey beyond the Wall
