More Greyjoy and co. babble
Jul. 24th, 2013 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreAs you may or may not know, I am currently re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm about 1/3 through Clash of Kings right now. The more I read and the more time I spend in the fandom, my favourite thread of the whole thing becomes more and more solidified.
That thread is the one involving Robb Stark - Theon Greyjoy - Asha Greyjoy - Ramsay Bolton - Jeyne Poole.
I remember on my first read when Jeyne was first taken away to be "taken care of" by Petyr Baelish and I just KNEW that horrible things were going to happen to her. But her fate wasn't a loose end that I was waiting for closure on later. She was gotten rid of to one of Littlefinger's brothels, and that was the end of it. Unlike a bunch of other threads that I'm still hanging on to find out what happens. Then I got to A Dance With Dragons and there she is again, in a horrible, horrible place. I'll have to re-read the next books carefully to see if I can figure out who's idea it was to send her north as fake Arya.
I also remember not being spoiled, and when it was revealed after those first few pages of Reek's first chapter exactly who this was it was a surprise. At the time I wasn't the utter Theon defender that I am these days, but reading about his time as Ramsay's captive started to change that.
I keep wanting to know more - the details of Theon's childhood. How he felt when his two bullying older brothers died, leaving him as a sudden, unprepared heir and hostage (not to mention the fact, the hostage situation relies on the fact that the fathers give a shit about the sons, which Balon clearly does not). His relationship with Asha. What Asha's thoughts on the matter were. Sure, she wasn't going to say no to being groomed as the heir, but I'm pretty sure she didn't want her little brother beheaded either.
I think we see enough of Robb and Theon together to make it pretty clear that despite the odd "I'm a Stark Lord and you're just a Greyjoy hostage" posturing, they loved each other dearly and greatly admired one another.
What happened to Jeyne after she was taken away from Sansa. How did whoever it was come to the conclusion that she would be a suitable fake Arya to marry off to Roose Bolton's newly legitimised bastard? Obviously, being a Winterfell native was the cincher, her "training" would have just been a nice perk to the deal. But interestingly, despite this "training" she remained Jeyne, she never forgot herself like Theon did. She never seemed to develop that protective exterior, she was still scared and sad and desperate as ever.
Bleh, when I start these I intend them to be coherent essays, but they always just descend into babble.
I need more QuellonSon Greyjoy history. What the fuck is Euron's deal? I'm in a Bran chapter now when he's talking about the Three-Eyed Raven insisting he fly or die and I'm sure it's of definite consequence that Euron also discusses his potential ability to fly and takes the freakin' name "Crow's Eye". So badly need more Euron details.
And I want to know about Vic's poor wife, and Aeron and Urri's childhood. And I want to know more about Joanna Lannister and who the hell was this woman that she was able to challenge Tywin Lannister enough that he fell in love with her, but I was talking about Greyjoy's here.
Ugh, these goddamn books.
ETA:
Imagine if Theon HADN’T been taken after the First Greyjoy Rebellion. I wonder how things would have differed. There would never have been any doubt that he would be the heir and he would have been trained up for the role, but I’d like to think that Asha would be a confidant, especially with Rodrick and Maron out of the picture. Euron would have still slept with Vic’s wife and been sent into exile (and there’s another branch to the tree - one wonders if Euron would be quite so creepy-powerful without the stuff he’d learned and discovered on his travels during his exile - Balon should have kept his friends close and his enemies closer).
When Robb marched, he wouldn’t have had the option to send Theon to try and gain the Greyjoy fleet to take Lannisport. What would he have done? Tried to gather a small fleet at Seagard? He wouldn’t have had the time to send a raven to White Harbour and then wait for them to mass a fleet then sail it around friggin’ DORNE to get to Lannisport. What would have happened then?
And if the Second Greyjoy Rebellion had still have taken place, Theon would have been a true Greyjoy and never even dreamed of taking Winterfell, even if he DID have the intel on the place that he did in the original story. Heh, maybe Ramsay would have just rotted away in a cell at Winterfell, pretending to be Reek - that’s another line of speculation.
That thread is the one involving Robb Stark - Theon Greyjoy - Asha Greyjoy - Ramsay Bolton - Jeyne Poole.
I remember on my first read when Jeyne was first taken away to be "taken care of" by Petyr Baelish and I just KNEW that horrible things were going to happen to her. But her fate wasn't a loose end that I was waiting for closure on later. She was gotten rid of to one of Littlefinger's brothels, and that was the end of it. Unlike a bunch of other threads that I'm still hanging on to find out what happens. Then I got to A Dance With Dragons and there she is again, in a horrible, horrible place. I'll have to re-read the next books carefully to see if I can figure out who's idea it was to send her north as fake Arya.
I also remember not being spoiled, and when it was revealed after those first few pages of Reek's first chapter exactly who this was it was a surprise. At the time I wasn't the utter Theon defender that I am these days, but reading about his time as Ramsay's captive started to change that.
I keep wanting to know more - the details of Theon's childhood. How he felt when his two bullying older brothers died, leaving him as a sudden, unprepared heir and hostage (not to mention the fact, the hostage situation relies on the fact that the fathers give a shit about the sons, which Balon clearly does not). His relationship with Asha. What Asha's thoughts on the matter were. Sure, she wasn't going to say no to being groomed as the heir, but I'm pretty sure she didn't want her little brother beheaded either.
I think we see enough of Robb and Theon together to make it pretty clear that despite the odd "I'm a Stark Lord and you're just a Greyjoy hostage" posturing, they loved each other dearly and greatly admired one another.
What happened to Jeyne after she was taken away from Sansa. How did whoever it was come to the conclusion that she would be a suitable fake Arya to marry off to Roose Bolton's newly legitimised bastard? Obviously, being a Winterfell native was the cincher, her "training" would have just been a nice perk to the deal. But interestingly, despite this "training" she remained Jeyne, she never forgot herself like Theon did. She never seemed to develop that protective exterior, she was still scared and sad and desperate as ever.
Bleh, when I start these I intend them to be coherent essays, but they always just descend into babble.
I need more QuellonSon Greyjoy history. What the fuck is Euron's deal? I'm in a Bran chapter now when he's talking about the Three-Eyed Raven insisting he fly or die and I'm sure it's of definite consequence that Euron also discusses his potential ability to fly and takes the freakin' name "Crow's Eye". So badly need more Euron details.
And I want to know about Vic's poor wife, and Aeron and Urri's childhood. And I want to know more about Joanna Lannister and who the hell was this woman that she was able to challenge Tywin Lannister enough that he fell in love with her, but I was talking about Greyjoy's here.
Ugh, these goddamn books.
ETA:
Imagine if Theon HADN’T been taken after the First Greyjoy Rebellion. I wonder how things would have differed. There would never have been any doubt that he would be the heir and he would have been trained up for the role, but I’d like to think that Asha would be a confidant, especially with Rodrick and Maron out of the picture. Euron would have still slept with Vic’s wife and been sent into exile (and there’s another branch to the tree - one wonders if Euron would be quite so creepy-powerful without the stuff he’d learned and discovered on his travels during his exile - Balon should have kept his friends close and his enemies closer).
When Robb marched, he wouldn’t have had the option to send Theon to try and gain the Greyjoy fleet to take Lannisport. What would he have done? Tried to gather a small fleet at Seagard? He wouldn’t have had the time to send a raven to White Harbour and then wait for them to mass a fleet then sail it around friggin’ DORNE to get to Lannisport. What would have happened then?
And if the Second Greyjoy Rebellion had still have taken place, Theon would have been a true Greyjoy and never even dreamed of taking Winterfell, even if he DID have the intel on the place that he did in the original story. Heh, maybe Ramsay would have just rotted away in a cell at Winterfell, pretending to be Reek - that’s another line of speculation.
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Date: 2013-07-27 05:56 pm (UTC)Regarding Euron being exiled, I think that was only partly intended as a punishment for Euron. I got the impression (I don't remember if this was explicitly stated in the books) that Balon knew if he didn't send Euron away, Vic would kill him and become a kinslayer.
Euron's comments to Vic about his childhood dreams of flying make me wonder whether he, like Bran, was contacted by the Three-Eyed Crow. Maybe he's been able to awaken warging powers on his own by drinking shade-of-the-evening?