#theonweek

theon week day 4: prisoner

Theon Week day 1: Theon Eras

thinking abt theon greyjoy as one of grrm’s most devastating studies in identity like he’s not just a “turncloak” he’s a man in an identity freefall theon’s whole existence is built on contradiction he’s both hostage and ward, both stark and greyjoy, both prince and prisoner and when the world collapses, so does the scaffolding of who he thought he was.

the “turncloak” moment isn’t betrayal as much as it is a reaction, a desperate, feral attempt to pick a self to belong somewhere but the tragedy is he betrays the starks to prove he’s greyjoy, and the greyjoys reject him anyway identity as a loop with no exit

then “reek” god reek the reek persona isn’t just imposed by ramsay it’s theon’s final surrender the man who once tried to perform belonging now performs survival “reek, it rhymes with weak” the inverse of theon’s old arrogance he was never weak until he had to be omg

and yet, there’s this hope, this slow, painful reclamation when he starts calling himself “theon” again it’s not the return of the old self, it’s the birth of a new one not stark or greyjoy, but something in-between a fractured, liminal identity that finally belongs to himself

'He could taste the ocean on his lips. "Let Theon your servant be born again from the sea, as you were,"'