gemfyre | I can't be stuffed turning this into a proper essay AKA Theon is a woobie and Balon is a dick

Re-reading Theon I in ACOK. Various hints make me pretty sure that Balon was planning to attack the mainland anyway, Theon or not. Most likely it was the instability in the realm that moved him to action. He probably called a halt to things when he received the message that Theon was coming back – hey wouldn't hurt to have the pawn on your side and save a bit of a face, even if you don't give a shit about him anymore.

despite being “old fashioned”, Balon is the one that wants to name his daughter heir, when non-patriarchal succession has previously been unheard of in the Iron Isles.

If he HADN'T waited for Theon, what would have happened? It would have made it clear to Theon that his father didn't care for him anymore, or consider him Ironborn.

Imagine if instead of being Greyjoy, Theon had been a Lannister. Tywin would NEVER abandon his son like Balon did, no matter how much he hated him/had lost hope for him being useful to his cause. Because he would not have been able to abide the thought of a Lannister being beheaded by a Stark. Balon on the other hand, doesn't seem to care. It's as if he has erased Theon from his memory and the memory of the Iron Islands.

ASHA remembers though. She gives a shit about Theon, despite the fact that Balon's actions have made her the heir and made her lot as cushy as she wants it to be.

Multiple times Theon notes that his father and uncles are old and that now is HIS time, get ready for a new world order blah blah. On the surface this seems disrespectful and narcissistic, and it is BUT – Theon is also realising that the “Old way” can only bring death and destruction to the Ironborn. Things need to change. They need to make alliances, need to learn to sow a bit to survive. Asha realises the same thing. Unfortunately both are butting heads with a society led by some very strong men (certainly not the doddering old farts that Theon would imply) that believe the old way is the way to go. Balon, Victarion and Aeron are all faithful to it, and not to be messed with. Now Euron is probably also going for a new world order, but he certainly isn't a fan of the peace and conciliation which Asha and Theon feel are necessary.

And now, on to random Kindle notes.

Obedient to his wishes, the Myraham beat her way past the point with her sails snapping and her captain cursing the wind and his crew and the follies of highborn lordlings.
Theon has power on the Myraham and uses it to it's full advantage.

The promise of gold had turned the Oldtowner into a shameless lickspittle. It would have been a much different voyage if a longship from the islands had been waiting at Seagard as he’d hoped. Ironborn captains were proud and willful, and did not go in awe of a man’s blood. The islands were too small for awe, and a longship smaller still.
so Theon plays up his lordship to non-islanders, but is aware of Ironborn attitudes. Despite this he's still surprised by his reception at Pyke.

[after the captain's daughter says she can be his saltwife] Once. When we still kept the Old Way, lived by the axe instead of the pick, taking what we would, be it wealth, women, or glory.
Maybe bringing home a saltwife would have impressed Balon. Has his fathers defeat diminished his faith in the 'Old way' so much?

Aegon the Dragon had destroyed the Old Way when he burned Black Harren,
It had been to bring back the Old Way more than for the empty vanity of a crown
Why Balon rebelled.

must remember this, Theon vowed to himself. I must never go far from the sea again.
and yet he did forget, he decided to attack Winterfell. If he'd just stayed the course and done what he was told, things may have been okay for him, he WOULD have become heir upon Balon's death. He just had to suck it up and do what he was told for a while. Instead he chose a path that he figured would impress his father more (it didn't), and while Robb could probably have understood him siding with his own people once he returned, he may have forgiven him. Attacking Winterfell erased all that though. And of course, trying to hold Winterfell led him to allow Reek 2.0 into his service and it just went downhill from there.

Theon searched for his uncle Euron’s Silence.
of course it is absent. Euron was banished 3years ago. Did he crew it with mutes all along?

Still, Lord Balon was no fool either. He might well have guessed why his son was coming home at long last, and acted accordingly.
likelihood is that he decided to act as soon as Theon was back. But possibly just the instability, Theon's return was just luck.

Old men were cautious by nature. His father was old now, and so too his uncle Victarion, who commanded the Iron Fleet. His uncle Euron was a different song, to be sure, but the Silence did not seem to be in port. It’s all for the good, Theon told himself. This way, I shall be able to strike all the more quickly.
oh god Theon you are such a fool

they’d found no longship at Seagard,
more proof that Balon did not factor Theon into his plans.

[Considering Asha's ship the Black Wind]Odd that she would call it that, when Robb Stark had a wolf named Grey Wind.
hah! I had the same thought

Even the bastard Jon Snow had been accorded more honor than he had.
Unreliable narrator. In Jon's chapters we often see him contemplating how Theon, being highborn, was treated so much better than he was.

The Iron Islands lived in the past; the present was too hard and bitter to be borne. Besides, his father and uncles were old, and the old lords were like that; they took their dusty feuds to the grave, forgetting nothing and forgiving less.
this shows Theon's dismissive attitude but also his progressive thinking like Asha

Would that Patrek were with me now. Mallister or no, he was a more amiable riding companion than this sour old priest that his uncle Aeron had turned into.
No doubt that would leave an awesome impression on Balon

He put his spurs into his horse and trotted on ahead, smiling.
that sort of plastered smile that follows chastisement

And I thought Ned Stark cold.
now you start realising what you lost

A thousand years before, the sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.
oh there's some foreshadowing

He prided himself on keeping his weapons sharp.
you're not the only one

Boys believe nothing can hurt them, his doubt whispered. Grown men know better.
and you will soon know better still

“and the offer he makes is one I suggested to him.”
is he just taking the credit or was it his idea?