Theon DIDN’T redeem himself? He was literally willing to get tortured again if it meant Sansa got a chance to escape. He saved his sister, protected and gave his life for Bran. Both his families forgave him. Why can’t you?
theon murdered two innocent boys. he murdered rodrik cassel. he paved the way for the boltons to take over winterfell, and his actions significantly weakened robb’s armies. he did horrible, unforgivable things.
yes, he saved sansa. he saved his sister, he died for bran and for all of the living. he did a lot of great things. he was forgiven by his families. i don’t think that means he was automatically redeemed. i also happen to view forgiveness/redemption as two different things. i forgive theon, but i don’t think he received redemption. redemption is the removal of the crimes/consequences. redemption has a lot of religious undertones, but it’s a term that’s tossed around as a synonym for forgiveness, and personally, i don’t think it is.
i adore theon. i think he is one of the greatest characters, and had an amazing redemption arc. but i also don’t think he was fully redeemed. again, he murdered innocents. saving sansa and bran, no matter how noble those acts are, do not absolve him of the crimes he committed. it will not bring the people he murdered back. it will not undo the actions that lead to the bolton’s ease in capturing winterfell.
loving theon doesn’t mean i need to think he’s right all the time. i’m not a theon stan. i only stan one character. for comparison: i think jon was a fucking asshole to sansa for season 8 and part of season 7 as well, and going off of canon, was complicit in the murder of half a million people. i think theon was a fucking asshole for betraying his family and murdering innocent lives. theon’s goodness (for i TRULY believe he was a good man) does NOT negate the horrible things in his life. circumstantial forgiveness is not universal absolution. do you think the families of those he murdered forgave him? even if they learned what he had done for the starks? should they be expected to?
a crucial part of both forgiveness AND redemption is believing yourself deserving of it. i honestly don’t believe theon felt that. i think sansa letting him fight, and bran telling him he was a good man was crucial, but bran told him those words literally moments before he died. theon spent literal years being tortured by ramsay, conditioned to believe himself reek. i don’t think for a single second, that theon truly accepted bran’s words and considered himself forgiven. i think he was still doing penance as much as he was fighting for life when he willingly charged the night king, knowing he was probably going to die.
look, i’m genuinely not trying to go off here, but i’m really frustrated with the way this ask was worded. i understand loving and defending theon, i really get that. but you essentially wrote “other people forgave him, why can’t you?” and that infuriates me. why should i HAVE to forgive him? why should i be expected to forgive a character for MURDERING INNOCENTS? i fully acknowledge the good he has done and the growth in his character since that point. it doesn’t erase what he has done in the past, and he is not entitled to my (or anyone else’s) forgiveness.
i love theon. i adore theon. i will defend theon until the end of my days. i also do not owe him my forgiveness.
and frankly, i think theon would say the same.
