hello, hello.
I accidentally took a really long nap in the middle of the afternoon, and now I can't sleep UGH.
I've got about seven tabs open at the You Win or You Die Kink Meme. Specifically, I've been eyeballing this fantastic Jon/Robb/Jeyne prompt. I haven't started on it yet, mainly because in my head it's the kind of shameless filth that could strip the paint off the walls, and I just can't write that kind of stuff when everyone else in this house is awake. My mother (in particular) seems to know somehow, and will choose that moment to stand in my doorway and talk about the laundry for twenty minutes.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, I haven't seen the new episode yet. I talked to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
themostepotente on the phone right after she watched it, and she told me it was short on a lot of the things I'm particularly keen on -- no Robb, no Catelyn, very little Jon and Sam. I spent some of today reading other people's write ups about it, and I've gathered two things; Gwendoline Christie is an utterly flawless Brienne, and the Theon bits will probably hurt large portions of my soul.
(My thoughts on Theon Greyjoy; let me show you them)
I spent a lot of the time between Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows stanning for Regulus Black in discussions. I have no regrets there: a lot of people insisted he couldn't be RAB simply because he'd been a Death Eater, and that was totally a hill I was willing to die on. My main point back then -- and it still stands, really -- was that yes, Regulus made some poor decisions at various points, but I also think that certain things in his life were more or less inevitable -- because he was a Black, because he was Sirius' brother, because he was Walburga's son, because he was (for all intents and purposes) the last of a pureblood family line.
Back to Theon: I think certain things in his life were also inevitable -- because he was Balon's son, because the Greyjoy Rebellion failed, because his brothers died in that rebellion, because he was taken hostage as a child, because he was held hostage by Ned Stark.
The last one is the big one, really. I was telling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
juno_chan in comments the other day that, as much as I love Jon Snow, he always made me want to pull my hair out whenever he went into one of his sulks about being a bastard in the first two books, because his life was not that hard compared to a lot of the other bastards we met in Westeros. Yes, Catelyn was cold to him, and that probably hurt him, particularly when he was younger, and I'm sure the general stigma surrounding bastardy in Westeros was not easy to live on a day to day basis, but Ned obviously loved him and spent time with him, and Ned did right by him, completely in the face of customs and traditions -- he brought Jon to Winterfell, and raised Jon with his trueborn children, and he had Jon trained at arms, and he didn't discourage Jon's friendship with Robb.
I think a lot of this also applies to Theon. He mentions in his first POV chapter that being a hostage rankled him -- the very idea that everyone at Winterfell knew he was a hostage, and also, quite possibly idea that his life was forfeit to his father's good behavior -- but he also mentions that he wasn't receptive when Ned tried to be fatherly, which brings me to my point: Ned tried. Which, yeah. Of course he tried, because he was Ned fucking Stark. Being a hostage probably sucked for Theon on numerous emotional levels I won't even try to examine here, but on the whole, things could've been a whole lot worse for him, had he been 'fostered' by the Freys, or the Lannisters, or the Tarlys, or the Tyrells, or even Stannis, who is exceeding fair but not necessarily kind.
Sure, Theon would've been trained at arms, and he would've been fed and housed clothed and tutored in accordance with his station, but I don't think anyone would've gone out of their way to spend time with him, and friendships between other children in the household probably would've been discouraged.
What I'm trying to get at is, as far as certain things in Theon's life being inevitable -- toward the end of AGoT, I really, really started to worry about Theon. The longer he fought at Robb's side and generally ran around acting like Robb's bestest friend and boon companion, the more I realized that GRRM was slowly working up to a point where Theon would be forced to choose between Robb and his family. And I was nervous about it, because I was absolutely convinced Theon would make the wrong decision.
Only, it wasn't that simple.
Nevermind the sack of Winterfell -- that was a brilliant piece of sheer stupidity I'll get to in a minute -- I'm talking about that exact moment when Balon Greyjoy threw Robb's letter into the fire, because Theon really only had two options at that point, and neither were particularly awesome.
If he sided with his father, Robb and the northern lords were going to hate him.
If he sided with Robb, his father was going to hate him. The other problem here is, if he had left Pyke and returned to Riverrun, I don't think he would've been able to just slot himself back into Robb's army that easily. Robb would've been glad to have him back, whatever the circumstances, but other northern lords probably would've distrusted Theon on some level moving forward, because abandoning his family would still make him a turncloak, even if he hadn't turned his cloak against them.
(As a tentative third option... yeah, I suppose he could've washed his hands of the whole sorry affair and gone to the Wall. Just, that would've been extremely out of character for him at that point. He was only willing to consider it after he'd dug himself a grave so deep he couldn't see out of it. Of course, then Ramsay Bolton showed up and managed to make things even worse, but before that disastrous turn of events, Theon was far too caught up in what he hoped to gain from his schemes.)
It actually follows that he sided with his father in the end. All bullshit aside, Theon had wanted to go home since he was nine years old. Yeah, he wanted to claim his place as his father's heir and rule the Iron Islands after him, but I think just the idea of returning to Pyke outweighed everything else, including common sense and his 'brotherly affection' for Robb.
Back to the sack of Winterfell -- that nonsense wasn't inevitable, but it was fairly predictable, up to and including the 'deaths' of Bran and Rickon. Toward the middle of ACoK, Theon started making me really, really nervous again, because it was obvious he was ramping up to do something stupidly outlandish in his father's general direction -- something that would prove he was faster/better/stronger than Asha. Balon had made it very clear that he didn't trust Theon, and that he more or less considered Theon a Stark. Winterfell as a target made a lot of sense from that standpoint: it was the paramount seat of the north, which would've made a big impression on Balon, provided Theon could hold it, but I also think it was emotional in a lot of ways. His friendship with Robb was already a lost cause at that point, and Winterfell represented the ten years he lost -- the ten years he spent forgetting how to be a Greyjoy, and also not quite learning how to be a Stark.
Only, Theon didn't realize it wouldn't matter how many grand gestures he made. Theon's life was forfeit on his father's good behavior, and his father had been planning for war. Balon had given Theon up for dead at least by the time Robb marched south, if not long before.
I told you long opinions are long. WTF, BRAIN.
--
In other news, I finally finished my Remix. Just under the wire, and I managed to crank out something I'm actually happy with. I'm pretty sure that obvious anonymous fic will be obvious, but my general state of anonfail at fic exchanges is a chronic condition.
If you missed Remix signups and would still like to participate, check out the opt-in post for Remix Madness.
Also, if you've friended me on Pottermore, drop me a comment and let me know who you are, so I can get nicknames sorted.
I've got about seven tabs open at the You Win or You Die Kink Meme. Specifically, I've been eyeballing this fantastic Jon/Robb/Jeyne prompt. I haven't started on it yet, mainly because in my head it's the kind of shameless filth that could strip the paint off the walls, and I just can't write that kind of stuff when everyone else in this house is awake. My mother (in particular) seems to know somehow, and will choose that moment to stand in my doorway and talk about the laundry for twenty minutes.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, I haven't seen the new episode yet. I talked to
themostepotente on the phone right after she watched it, and she told me it was short on a lot of the things I'm particularly keen on -- no Robb, no Catelyn, very little Jon and Sam. I spent some of today reading other people's write ups about it, and I've gathered two things; Gwendoline Christie is an utterly flawless Brienne, and the Theon bits will probably hurt large portions of my soul.(My thoughts on Theon Greyjoy; let me show you them)
I spent a lot of the time between Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows stanning for Regulus Black in discussions. I have no regrets there: a lot of people insisted he couldn't be RAB simply because he'd been a Death Eater, and that was totally a hill I was willing to die on. My main point back then -- and it still stands, really -- was that yes, Regulus made some poor decisions at various points, but I also think that certain things in his life were more or less inevitable -- because he was a Black, because he was Sirius' brother, because he was Walburga's son, because he was (for all intents and purposes) the last of a pureblood family line.
Back to Theon: I think certain things in his life were also inevitable -- because he was Balon's son, because the Greyjoy Rebellion failed, because his brothers died in that rebellion, because he was taken hostage as a child, because he was held hostage by Ned Stark.
The last one is the big one, really. I was telling
juno_chan in comments the other day that, as much as I love Jon Snow, he always made me want to pull my hair out whenever he went into one of his sulks about being a bastard in the first two books, because his life was not that hard compared to a lot of the other bastards we met in Westeros. Yes, Catelyn was cold to him, and that probably hurt him, particularly when he was younger, and I'm sure the general stigma surrounding bastardy in Westeros was not easy to live on a day to day basis, but Ned obviously loved him and spent time with him, and Ned did right by him, completely in the face of customs and traditions -- he brought Jon to Winterfell, and raised Jon with his trueborn children, and he had Jon trained at arms, and he didn't discourage Jon's friendship with Robb. I think a lot of this also applies to Theon. He mentions in his first POV chapter that being a hostage rankled him -- the very idea that everyone at Winterfell knew he was a hostage, and also, quite possibly idea that his life was forfeit to his father's good behavior -- but he also mentions that he wasn't receptive when Ned tried to be fatherly, which brings me to my point: Ned tried. Which, yeah. Of course he tried, because he was Ned fucking Stark. Being a hostage probably sucked for Theon on numerous emotional levels I won't even try to examine here, but on the whole, things could've been a whole lot worse for him, had he been 'fostered' by the Freys, or the Lannisters, or the Tarlys, or the Tyrells, or even Stannis, who is exceeding fair but not necessarily kind.
Sure, Theon would've been trained at arms, and he would've been fed and housed clothed and tutored in accordance with his station, but I don't think anyone would've gone out of their way to spend time with him, and friendships between other children in the household probably would've been discouraged.
What I'm trying to get at is, as far as certain things in Theon's life being inevitable -- toward the end of AGoT, I really, really started to worry about Theon. The longer he fought at Robb's side and generally ran around acting like Robb's bestest friend and boon companion, the more I realized that GRRM was slowly working up to a point where Theon would be forced to choose between Robb and his family. And I was nervous about it, because I was absolutely convinced Theon would make the wrong decision.
Only, it wasn't that simple.
Nevermind the sack of Winterfell -- that was a brilliant piece of sheer stupidity I'll get to in a minute -- I'm talking about that exact moment when Balon Greyjoy threw Robb's letter into the fire, because Theon really only had two options at that point, and neither were particularly awesome.
If he sided with his father, Robb and the northern lords were going to hate him.
If he sided with Robb, his father was going to hate him. The other problem here is, if he had left Pyke and returned to Riverrun, I don't think he would've been able to just slot himself back into Robb's army that easily. Robb would've been glad to have him back, whatever the circumstances, but other northern lords probably would've distrusted Theon on some level moving forward, because abandoning his family would still make him a turncloak, even if he hadn't turned his cloak against them.
(As a tentative third option... yeah, I suppose he could've washed his hands of the whole sorry affair and gone to the Wall. Just, that would've been extremely out of character for him at that point. He was only willing to consider it after he'd dug himself a grave so deep he couldn't see out of it. Of course, then Ramsay Bolton showed up and managed to make things even worse, but before that disastrous turn of events, Theon was far too caught up in what he hoped to gain from his schemes.)
It actually follows that he sided with his father in the end. All bullshit aside, Theon had wanted to go home since he was nine years old. Yeah, he wanted to claim his place as his father's heir and rule the Iron Islands after him, but I think just the idea of returning to Pyke outweighed everything else, including common sense and his 'brotherly affection' for Robb.
Back to the sack of Winterfell -- that nonsense wasn't inevitable, but it was fairly predictable, up to and including the 'deaths' of Bran and Rickon. Toward the middle of ACoK, Theon started making me really, really nervous again, because it was obvious he was ramping up to do something stupidly outlandish in his father's general direction -- something that would prove he was faster/better/stronger than Asha. Balon had made it very clear that he didn't trust Theon, and that he more or less considered Theon a Stark. Winterfell as a target made a lot of sense from that standpoint: it was the paramount seat of the north, which would've made a big impression on Balon, provided Theon could hold it, but I also think it was emotional in a lot of ways. His friendship with Robb was already a lost cause at that point, and Winterfell represented the ten years he lost -- the ten years he spent forgetting how to be a Greyjoy, and also not quite learning how to be a Stark.
Only, Theon didn't realize it wouldn't matter how many grand gestures he made. Theon's life was forfeit on his father's good behavior, and his father had been planning for war. Balon had given Theon up for dead at least by the time Robb marched south, if not long before.
I told you long opinions are long. WTF, BRAIN.
--
In other news, I finally finished my Remix. Just under the wire, and I managed to crank out something I'm actually happy with. I'm pretty sure that obvious anonymous fic will be obvious, but my general state of anonfail at fic exchanges is a chronic condition.
If you missed Remix signups and would still like to participate, check out the opt-in post for Remix Madness.
Also, if you've friended me on Pottermore, drop me a comment and let me know who you are, so I can get nicknames sorted.