in the trenches

I have soft spot for Theon… ik he did a lot of bad stuff but i never hated him, i pitied him instead.

I wanted to draw him for a while now but i felt like i needed to add something important and so i chose Robb, since Theon's whole arc started when he betrayed robb. Anyway i'm satisfied with this. I had a hard time trying to make Theon look both broken and guilty while still keeping some of his youthfulness, ik he’s supposed to look like an old man but i didn’t want to make him look like that fully. But i used grey colors to convey that “old” look.

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐉𝐎𝐘 & 𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊 ➥𝖤𝖵𝖤𝖭 𝖨𝖥 𝖲𝖧𝖤 𝖭𝖤𝖵𝖤𝖱 𝖫𝖮𝖮𝖪𝖲 𝖡𝖠𝖢𝖪 ❛ ━━ ･ ❪ a study in devotional attachment, the torment of longing, and perceived unrequited love ❫ ･ ━━ ❜

- all gifs & image/text/typography edits are made by me - screenplay-style 'poetry' written by me - quote & painting attributions under the cut

And the worst thing is some people in the fandom BUY that shit… going as far as to claiming it’s evident in the books that she will leave her family behind because she “hates being a lady and wants to be free”.

But the thing is, beyond Arya getting back to her family in Winterfell, not much is known. She is like 9-12 years of age in the books, and is dealing with tremendous trauma facing danger in every aspect of her life. What she wants is her family, somewhere to belong and finally to feel safe. And my girl sure as hell as deserves those things. So, the mere thought of her leaving all that she fought for in the end is so dumb.

How some people miss that she is just a little girl who is a tomboy and constantly compared to her sister who is the epitome of what a lady should be in a patriarchal society, reflects how they misunderstand women and refuse to let them be human. Yes she feels out of place with other highborn ladies, and explicitly mentions in the books how she isn’t a lady like her mother and sister. But that rejection doesn’t stem from internal misogyny (like in the show where they in fact rewarded her for that by making her “super cool”) in fact she WANTS to be better, but because she is a little girl she feels like it’s out of her reach. Arya wants to fit in and be like other ladies, she wants to make her mother proud of her, her sister love her and treat her like an equal. And it makes me mad how the show made it seem like she completely hates womanhood and the fandom just having to accept that.

There is some truth to Arya being a free spirit and possessing some of that “wolf blood”, like Lyanna, but that does not mean she would just abandon her family in the end when her whole journey (and the rest of her siblings) is reclaiming her identity and making it back to the people she loves. The only reason she went to Braavos was because she thought everyone was either dead or lost to her, so she might as well go somewhere where she CAN. Her last option to stay alive.

In the books we don’t know what Arya would want for herself in the end outside of the basic necessities. My girl wishes for a lot of things like death and revenge but who wouldn’t in her predicament? Her daily life has abruptly turned into a kill or be killed situation. But the showrunners completely overlooked the nuances and thought this meant she is going to be a killer forever, who hates women too. And sails west and abandons her duty to the North as a member of house Stark (which is insane for her character btw even in the books). Her endgame being based SOLELY on her lowest moments in the books where she had to take a turn for the worst to survive, is damaging to her character who at its core is sweet and caring and willing to take risks to save other people’s lives, even the ones she doesn’t really know. Like her whole existence became her desire for vengeance when in the books that storyline was given to lady stoneheart, and I’m pretty sure it’s set up that that’s smth Arya will later be appalled by. And when book!Arya prayed that someone kills Joffrey (or that she does) when it actually happens she doesn’t even care. Because her brother and mother are dead too and it won’t bring either back. Like how did the showrunners miss that??? It’s like right on the page??

Arya is a stark and like her father she won’t be obsessed with revenge, but Justice instead. So D&D rlly didn’t know what they were doing there.