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[silliestcolressfan]

i LOVE it when a nuwho doctor meets the brig again and theyre in a setting that requires fighting and obviously the doctor has experience from the time war, and the brig notices it but he just doesnt Get why

like

he can tell something happened but he doesnt know what it is ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh i hateeeeeeee them ugh (no i dont i love the brig)

[merelyafan]

There's a great little moment In the Big Finish audio story with Nine & the Brig reuniting where the latter notices the former's hair & jokingly says how they'll make soldier out him yet. Nine's immediate (almost hostile) response of "Don't." is one Ecclestone really puts his heart into.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

With every rewatch it strikes me even more strongly just how horrific the things the Master puts Nyssa through are:

- Turns her stepmother Kassia (who as far as we are aware was on really good terms with Nyssa originally) against her, before killing Kassia

- Throws the once peaceful world of Traken into chaos

- Murders her father Tremas and takes over his body

- Uses Tremas's appearance to manipulate Nyssa enough to get a control bracelet on her and force her to attack her friends

- In his efforts to take over the universe, he destroys multiple planets, including Nyssa's entire home planet of Traken

- And again, Nyssa has to face him multiple times while he's wearing her father's face

Just... Full respect to Nyssa for facing such tragedies and not losing her kindness, empathy, and calm levelheadedness 🥺❤️

[merelyafan]

It's a lot about Nyssa's luck that she goes through all that and yet later (in the Big Finish audios) still manages to encounter an even worse version of the Master.

[angelwingtrap]

"You... you told me you were Esgred, but that was a lie. Your name is Asha."

"It is, his sister had said, so softly that he was afraid that she might cry. Theon hated that.”

-Theon I, TWOW.

Okay okay I love these lines and have a lot of thoughts about them that may be reading too far in but what else is tumblr for??

Asha's Esgred stunt and her continued mockery and humiliation of Theon did irreparable damage. She had the opportunity to make him feel loved and welcomed. She had the opportunity to council him and didn't even try. Had no sympathy for his complicated situation. She had the opportunity to save him from Winterfell and didn't. Didn't even try. Yes she came to Winterfell, but she provoked him and mocked him. She left him to die, and she told herself he was dead so she could be absolved of guilt over leaving him to his fate with Ramsay. "You lied" are the only words in the entire series that break Asha's composure. I interpreted the lines as an accusation and confession.

She can take accountability for the crimes of the Ironborn, surrender all her strength and power to righting her wrongs, but that's nothing compared to facing her role in the cycle of abuse. As punishment she has to see the horrifying results of Theon's torture, and she has to watch Theon die, something she'd turned away from. Worst of all, she knows it will kill her own mother who is the most important person to her. She lost everything when she lost Theon…even if for the selfish purpose of using him for the Kingsmoot. Both Asha and Theon have achieved complete and total failure in every aspect and NOW they are reunited and will only climb out of this hole together. I think. Perhaps.

Very Asha critical I knoww. Love to see themes of sin and repentance. So delicious. Love her for being messed up in her own unexpected ways. The family can’t all be the same flavor of fucked.

[merelyafan]

"Hurt people" hurt people sums up a lot of the sibling drama. Asha is many ways just as insecure and defensive about her status as Theon is and much of the series is a very long illustration on how the shared Greyjoy bravado ends up destroying their plans by bringing them to the point of ruin. Her finally getting real empathy like Theon did for Jeyne would be the culmination of finally getting past the mask of faux Iron Born strength she's put up ever since Balon's failed rebellion.

[birdofdawning]

I admit that when the Master turns up in a Who story my heart sinks a little. Since Delgado, actors either seem to play the character as a faux-Elizabethian stage villain or the Joker (and only Gomez really walks that latter line well).

So hearing Derek Jacobi's Master in his prime in Day of the Master was a delight. He's not mad, he's not chewing the scenery; he’s urbane and curious and coolly cruel, like the Master ought to be but so rarely is. And intelligent! His actions are deliberate and make sense, and aren't just chaos for the sake of chaos. His weapon of choice isn't a tissue compression eliminator or a 'laser screwdriver' — it's a heavy Webley revolver, and when he casually shoots someone with it, he seems as straightforward and consequential as the weapon itself.

I think the best Masters come across as the ruthless mastermind the character is and ought to be. You should believe that, away from the Doctor, their schemes are both audacious and inevitably successful. Jacobi's Master is exactly this.

[merelyafan]

Something I've really grown to appreciate with Jacobi's incarnation is that while there are certain aspects of the Master's personality that are specifically emphasized, other parts of the character are there in more muted form. In Big Finish, the War Master is undoubtedly the most planing/manipulating focused variation of the character. Always with a scheme, and always focused on the end goal in his primary makeup.

The MacQueen and Beevers versions had their plots of course, but the former seems more defined by his sadistic black humor and affable sensibilities towards the Doctor with the latter as the Master's unadulterated id; what with the clear lust for power and antipathy towards basically everyone around him. The interesting thing is that the War Master has those elements to him, its just that they're far more tucked away within the colder celestial architect that this regeneration is.

He's quite capable of killing for amusement, and vast power is a constant want, but even those facets feel folded into his calculations and gambits in some fashion. I think one reason among many why he comes across as so dangerous because the same petty cruelties and vanities that have foiled him before are not nearly as much of a weak spot with this Master.

[killjoygem]

Finally listened to the lumiat audio in full today and ugghh it was so good. I love the Lumiat, I do think if she had gotten more time to just exist she would've settled into being more like missy/the master but not so evil

Personality wise she is very much the same person, she is just slightly too good, but i think after some time that would have gotten better. I get the impression that the lumiat hadn't been around for very long, she has the sort of hyperness that reminds me of the doctor immediately post regeneration, and she seemed very set on imitating the doctor, i think if she had more time she would've became more herself

[merelyafan]

What works about the Lumiat is that she’s clearly someone that wants to do good, but she has a lack of deeper understanding of what that entails that she essentially does an imitation of it. She’s entirely genuine while still subtly sounding like she’s hoping for affirmation from the Doctor and/or the universe that she’s doing the right thing. Its a quiet distinction that still differentiates her from simply being exactly like the Doctor.

[sacha-da-1]

He may have been short lived, but I think I gotta rank Jacobi!Master as the scariest Master for me.

“At least now I can say…. I was provoked.”

That’s stuck with me for years.

[merelyafan]

The audio work he’s gone for the Big Finish War Master series managed to make him even more chilling: “Genocide is easy. That’s the push of a button, the blink of an eye, the flick of a switch, and – poof! – everybody’s gone. But keeping one alive - the last of their kind - making sure they must live out the last of their days clinging onto existence with a view that never lets them forget. That takes planning… patience… power… and I have that power. This war won’t take that away from me. I won’t let it.”

[alleyskywalker]

Two Rejections And A Betrayal (But Not The One You’re Thinking)

Several months ago I had posted about wanting to do a meta regarding two Theon & Robb scenes on the show: the first, the scene where they argue about calling the banners in the woods – the scene that gave us the (in)famous “not your duty, not your house” line – and the second, their last scene together, in which Theon presents the Pyke plan (and Robb in the end agrees). This got long and maybe more complicated than I had initially thought/intended, but here we are. .

Keep reading

[merelyafan]

Within the context of the show, it points to the fundamental tragedy of Theon’s place; his status as Robb’s brother and seeming member of the Starks is something only really asserted by the Ironborn out of disdain for him or by the North after his betrayal. There’s something bitterly ironic in the fact that the timeline where Theon stayed loyal is probably one where Sansa never says Rickon and Bran are his brothers nor Jon Snow admitting that Ned was his father. Only when he’s apparently a kinslayer does Theon have kin.

[selkiewife]

When Your Home Means Death

Show Theon Week || Prompt: Home

Home is such a loaded word for Theon, being a hostage of House Stark. Theon’s craving for home and belonging is an incredibly important aspect of his character. In Season 8 however, the narrative seems to equate his home with death. 

When Bran tells Theon he is “home,” it is before he gives his life to protect that home. When Sansa places the Stark pin on his destroyed Greyjoy armor, it is only after he has died. It is almost like he cannot truly be part of the family unless he is dead. He cannot be home unless he dies for it. 

(This gets personal under the cut. There is still meta but it’s mostly a personal post.) 

Keep reading

[merelyafan]

While its part of a broader issue of various character arcs/plot lines being collapsed into others, the specific issue is that it makes Theon’s story ultimately revolve around the Starks when it shouldn’t. As problematic as his story could get in seasons 6 & 7, it was at its heart largely about his recovery and small steps towards reclaiming who he was in various ways. To those that only view/care about Theon in regards to how he betrayed his “family”, was punished, and tries to make up for it, his fate works because its the conclusion to what they view as a redemption arc. Tragic perhaps because he died, but not bleak because they see his story as a fundamentally done once he’s made penance to Bran and company. Its just that to those that followed Theon’s because he’s so engaging as a character, his fate ultimately feels like a waste. Not just because there’s so much interesting ground that could be covered by him surviving, but because we see him as having fundamental value outside the relationship with the Starks. His demons, insecurities, triumphs, struggles; they resonate far beyond his history with Robb, Sansa, or Bran, and deserved to be explored and concluded on their own terms. In essence he’s a character whose thematic worth is much more than just being a Greyjoy and a Stark. Its just a pity the show didn’t seem to realize that in the end.

[nichnenebo]

Theon’s dream become Stark is so sad(for me). I think that he just wanted have family. He was so far from his real family.Yes, Rodrik and Maron bulled Theon and Balon was bad father.(I think this is one of reason why Robb and Eddard were something like brother and father for Theon) But he also have mother(who stillwait for him and love him), Asha and Dagmer(who as unkle for Theon). For me Theon always is Harlaw and Greyjoy.

[merelyafan]

This is why I like the idea of Theon having an unconventional group that he eventually settles with; Jeyne, Asha, Dagmer, maybe even Tristifer too. Not quite Greyjoys, not really Starks, but in its own way... a family. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

also,

Theon was bent over a wooden bowl finishing the last of his own portion of pease porridge when a light touch on his shoulder made him drop his spoon. “Never touch me,” he said, twisting down to snatch the fallen utensil off the floor before one of Ramsay’s girls could get hold of it. “Never touch me.”

vs

The girls were glad to see him. They knew him by his smell. Red Jeyne loped over to lick at his hand, and Helicent slipped under the table and curled up by his feet, gnawing at a bone. They were good dogs. It was easy to forget that every one was named for a girl that Ramsay had hunted and killed.

the way human touch is NO but the dogs are good dogs and he welcomes their touch

the way how making theon into reek, a being lower than a dog, by having him sleep with the dogs by having him fed with the dogs, all of which is meant to dehumanise and isolate him, inadvertently created this one animal bond, this once source of comfort that flies under everyone’s radar. the pack of dogs running to greet reek whom they are fond of and know by smell, joyfully knocking him to the ground. everybody staring at ramsay’s dogs, the man-hunting monsters, during the feast, but reek staring at ramsay, the actual danger. fantasies of being returned to the kennels with ramsay’s girls for company as sole comforting thought in a world without hope or comfort. fantasies of being eaten by the dogs if the gods are good being preferable to anything else. the dogs named for the murdered girls ramsay hunted, reek named for reek the sacrificed servant, the universally despised turncloak, being friends in plain sight, no one paying attention to the non-human monsters bonding enough to forbid it, which they would have, had they noticed. 😭

[merelyafan]

And it adds to the warped irony of Theon’s existence at this point. He has been too much of a Kraken among the Wolves and too much of a Wolf among the Krakens. It is only when he has seemingly had his identity flayed out of him, his very mind almost entirely reshaped that he has found the pack that is accepting unconditionally. The family that called him a ward didn’t trust him, and the family that he was born from didn’t respect him, but those believed to be monstrous but actually fundamentally decent that have embraced him because on some level they ultimately see him as one of them.   Something strangely fitting about that. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

this is also such a cliche and i think people maybe got tired of it a bit and therefore revert to theon being unpleasant and snarky and not entirely unlike he once was post-ramsay but i also 100000% like that trope where someone who knew and was upset about theon meets theon again and theon is so…. gutted and silent and weird and not biting back at all or only in the most cryptic and barely intelligible ways and any attempt to engage him like ‘before’ (trading insults, trading laughter, etc) fall flat and it seems impossible to discuss real grievances of the past with this theon and it’s so weird and uncomfortable so so so uncomfortable and upsetting and uncomfortable and what will you do with this nasty ball of feelings now, faced with this? love it !!!!!

[merelyafan]

There’s a lot of post Ramsay fics with a Theon/Arya reunion that are inherently fascinating when they go this route. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

what really gets me about the theon story is that everybody knows and sees what was done to him. lots of it was done publicly. there’s talk. it’s physically obvious. this is not a situation where the perpetrators don’t want to get caught or be found out and hide away their captive. no, what was made of theon is a very public display of power. theon is a walking horror and what ramsay is is common knowledge, but nobody cares, because he deserves this, and they hate him. the great hall full with northeners who get to WATCH theon/reek’s ongoing torment and will still spit turncloak at him, that’s. really something. a social horror. 

this, at least as much as the theon-reek-ramsay story itself, is what hooked me emotionally to theon. it’s even more pronounced in the books, i noticed, now that i read the theon chapters, but it’s there in the show, also, in tyrion, for instance, among other things, or in the general non-response to his torture. it’s a two-step process : 1 he gets tortured & traumatically bound to ramsay in exceedingly brutal and soul-wrenching ways 2 nobody cares, and step 2 is very relevant to and maybe even a necessary ingredient for my theon emotions.

[merelyafan]

And there’s an additional disturbing element in that in essence this is the second time a variation of this has happened to him. No the Starks didn’t torture or punish him, but his status as “ward” was very public knowledge as a hostage to a powerful family. His existence was in essence a demonstration of very specific regional values; see the Ironborn boy whom is treated kindly and decently by the Warden of the North but will be executed if honor demands it.  It explains his actions when he returned to the Iron Islands even more as an attempt to be the prominent figure by his own volition and acclaim rather than the tamed boy in the Stark’s cage like he was to so many at Winterfell. It makes his forced transformation into a beaten dog by another Northern lord all the more tragic. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

[got too long to talk it out in the notes lol]

“identity” is not what interests me most about theon; though i suppose it depends on the definition of it. agency & identity are linked, of course (though so is redemption).

i’m uninterested in the stark vs. greyjoy struggle, mostly. maybe it’s growing up with the “so do you feel more like an [x] or an [y]” question (& the “if you had the choice would you rather go back to [x] or stay in [y]” question) and thinking it MAXIMALLY BORING – and maximally futile – at like, age 12, but it’s not the conflict for me & anyhow, the answer is not this or that or both. it’s “i am what i am”.

the “i didn’t know what kind of man to be” conversation with jon, it didn’t interest me. it felt weird, too, post-ramsay, post-reek, that we were supposed to believe that were theon’s identity problems, now. i’d like to think his problems are on another level, now. (closer to: am i a dog or a man? than: am i a stark or a greyjoy)

i AM interested in the stark vs. greyjoy struggle in as much as it’s traumatic bonding, the layering of it, how politically in-universe it’s a thing that is Done to take a child hostage like that, there’s no evil to it, the part where your actual family abused you but your captors don’t but would still murder you if it was politically necessary and they’re wonderful but you can never be one of them. that part, i’m interested in. also; the way reek looks at ramsay vs. the way theon looked at eddard stark in the very first episode of season one - I TOOK NOTE of that.

i DON’T think that theon was made into reek because he “already had identity issues”, i think theon was made into reek because he was systematically tortured into it; which would have worked on anyone (that’s the nature of this horror), and i mean anyone (khal drogo, olenna tyrell, tywin lannister, anyone people like to consider beyond this) - but of course there’s something about how it all folds together into one.

most of everything, i’m interested in the reek/theon human/non-human worm/prince??/dog/man ability to act dissociative identity quest, of course. but that’s the part i consider an agency quest, more than everything. though maybe that’s semantics. 🤷

[merelyafan]

Part of the issue is that in the last three seasons the series can’t seemingly decide what Theon’s biggest internal struggle actually is. The recovery from Ramsay and regaining of agency is seemingly the focus at first, but the show then veers into the Greyjoy vs. Stark question near the end and it does have a sense feeling a bit small in comparison to the more intense mental journey he’s been going on.  It feels like a consequence of the show not really giving Theon that much screen time in the final seasons which is a blessing and a curse. On one hand Alfie Allen could do so much with so little and given the quality of the writing elsewhere one can’t help but think his story benefited a bit from not being ruined from the kind of dubious directions that happened with other characters. On the other hand there was so much more that could have done that it still feels like a missed opportunity. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

[back to theon greyjoy]

the way i see it, theon greyjoy would’ve gone on a ‘redemption quest’ (would have fought for the starks and defended winterfell, would’ve tried to make amends, would’ve chosen to behave heroically instead of villainously) motivated by his mistakes and failures and the guilt he felt at what he’s done alone. we could see it coming. he was a villain haunted and horrified by his own self, trapped in the hole he dug for himself. he’d have turned, one way or another.

ramsay’s torture was entirely unnecessary for this. on the opposite: under ramsay, theon’s story grinds to a halt. anything he might have done, any new path he might have taken gets annihilated. ramsay takes away his ability to act, he obliterates his ability to choose. the tragedy and horror of it is how unnecessary it is. it’s captivity and torture and it’s brutal and horrible and it’s a loss, nothing else.

after ramsay did his work on him, theon(reek)’s story is as much about regaining agency, any agency at all, as it is about stark/greyjoy/identity/redemption whatever, that’s the way i see it, at least. that’s part of why i cared about theon in the first place, in a way i wouldn’t have for this character otherwise. i care about agency recovery quests much more than about redemption quests. so it is meaningful, story-wise and for the character, what happened w/ ramsay. but i wished it didn’t get all so mixed up with the subject of his redemption.

[merelyafan]

While I’ve seen the sentiment by other fans or fics of “Theon paid for his crimes”, to me his development in season 5 and after is the realization that what Ramsay did to him was not justice and that it really is just the acts of an evil man. I think that understanding (that such suffering is not his righteous place by fate) is what gets that aforementioned quest really going. And the events in the last three seasons are much more interesting with that continued goal in mind. Its easy to look at all of it as just restitution for what he’s done, but a lot of is Theon willfully going into volatile situations not because he seeks pain or is suicidal but because he’s gradually giving himself control again. There’s a risk of harm, however its one that he has chosen to take rather than being forced do via a captor. Its the critical step away from mental condition of belonging to only Ramsay to gradually becoming his own person again despite the internal and external difficulties.  Even if one is more drawn in by the redemption story, I’d still say that him eventually regaining his agency simply makes that narrative all the more powerful. Him continually doing what he can for others (Yara, Sansa, Bran) because he’s deciding to do so himself for his reasons, not simply due to what he owes, has much more emotional resonance. For all the talk of him as a Greyjoy/Stark/Prisoner/Turncloak etc his ultimate triumph is truly being Theon and making his own destiny. That’s what gives the eventual selfless courage true meaning, because in the end, it was his. 

[nosafeanchorage-deactivated2023]

[a game of thrones post]

I’m really into the whole Yara & Theon dynamic post-Ramsay & here’s 1 thing about it

So let’s take that scene where Yara is basically working her way through a ‘Things Never to Say to a Trauma Survivor’ checklist 🤣 🥰 -dismissal, check; minimising, check; insult, check; trying to control him, check (& her worst blunder is probably the “I don’t care what you want!” line), etc. Now some were appalled and maybe it is appalling, HOWEVER (& here I won’t be talking of how Yara got her own damage and couldn’t do better, though that’s true also, but about what I find genuinely charming about it):

We all know that dismissal as response to harm/injustice is hurtful. I think this is a nearly universal hurt, in that, we’ve all experienced it to various degrees. What not all know, because not all have experienced it fully, I believe, is that being seen as object of horror/pity is very awful, also. Now I’ve spoken to enough people in life who’ve been hurt to know that many people fantasise about this response. It’s what the hurt/comfort fic trope is made of, I believe, the fantasy that someone notices and someone is horrified on your behalf. I am familiar with the fantasy & have no judgements. Undeniably, too, though, being looked at with fear, horror, pity, disgust, at the state of your body, at the state of your psyche, ‘scaring’ people with your ‘symptoms’, with a damage dealt, is in real a very wretched experience. It’s alienating, it’s crushing, it reinforces this sense of being an entity apart from humanity. It’s bad and I rather cherish memories of inappropriate little jokes, instead. Theon, of course, became a walking horror. What was DONE to you???? What have you become????  Who (what) are you??? Creepy, chilling, disgusting, nonhuman.

In light of that, a breathy little dismissal nearly feels like a breath of fresh air. She’s unfazed. It’s not “My brother is dead” any more, it’s “Pfff, you’ve had some bad years, haven’t we all, that’s all that is”, which, while inappropriate of course, still reinstates him as a) brother (kin) b) fellow human being with just universally human problems that can be understood and overcome. And for all its roughness I actually, in a really weird way, KIND OF like that.

[merelyafan]

The interesting thing with Yara is that while the insensitivity towards his trauma is unfortunate, her real mistake with him is in that doesn’t realize how much her brother isn’t just Theon anymore. In a lot of ways she views what he’d become under Ramsay as a challenge for him to overcome and disassociate himself from. It is helping him from her perspective and within the culture of the Ironborn. The thing is her imploring him to be the real Theon again in a lot of contexts would be admirable, but it doesn’t recognize that for a variety of reasons he can’t be just that person again. She sees him as a real man which is supportive... without fully understanding the full picture of who he is. While this may be an unpopular opinion, Theon’s breakdown in the battle against Euron ultimately shows the failure of her approach. In that most critical moment he can’t wholly separate himself from either his trauma nor the instinct of Reek to save Theon from harm. While him jumping from the ship was the smartest thing he could have done, it underscores the limitations of the healing he’s gotten by her side.  In that sense I don’t think its a coincidence that his breakthroughs after ultimately come from accepting in some small way, all the parts of his identity within him. His conversation with Jon about being a Greyjoy and Stark in many ways better applies to reconciling the shared nature of both Theon and Reek, and his victory over the Ironborn on the beach amounts to taking a deformity largely associated with the latter and using it as a strength.  Yara was a critical part of Theon reclaiming himself and her viewing him as a true man and brother did invaluable help to getting him past the sense of self loathing and despair he had. But just as importantly it was him seeing the lowly creature she was disgusted by and ultimately concluding that that fragment of him was not something to reject and bury. And how fitting that its that dual person who ultimately does save Yara when it counts. 

[starryeyedastronaut]

I can't stop thinking about the connection between Theon's character arc and the words of the Drowned God.

What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.

Theon's journey and the constant evolution of his identity works as reflection of that saying.

When he becomes Ramsay's prisoner his name, identity and personhood are stripped from him, Theon Greyjoy died in the Dreadfort and so Reek could be born. But what is dead may never die were words the Son of Pyke grew up with and just like those words Theon was never truly gone, his existence lingered ever so unconsciously in the back of his mind.

Theon and Reek are intertwined, more than just being an identity that supplanted the other. And I believe Ramsay underestimated that.

Theon lingers and when the reminder of his personhood comes in the form of a hurt Sansa Stark, Theon slowly breaks any possible barrier that divides him and Reek as two different beings. And Theon rises again, in a act of strength and selflessness that gains him his freedom.

What is dead may never die, and that rings true to Reek as well. Reek becomes the shadow of Theon's trauma and a shadow can't be outrun, you can see Reek in the way Theon's body flinches and how sometimes he can't look people directly in the eyes.

Reek may rise when Theon finds himself in a difficult situation that reminds him of the torture at Ramsay's hands, Reek may rise only so to protect Theon from the pain.

And in his new freedom Theon has to do emands with the fact that Reek is always going to be there. Reek is a part of him Theon has to understand and accept.

His past, the endurance of the horrors he had to go through and the acceptance of his mistakes become foundations for the identity Theon is trying to build for himself, someone who hurt and was hurt and in his pain understood that kindness and vulnerability isn't weakness but virtues that fire up strength.

Theon becomes the person he always wanted to be by reaching that understanding.

Theon rises again, harder and stronger.

[merelyafan]

I don’t think Ramsay every really understood the psychological makeup of how the being he made actually served to shield Theon from harm and that the bastard didn’t really destroy Greyjoy as much as he forced him to hide so deeply behind Reek that Bolton could not find him again.  Its why Sansa could eventually be saved because while Reek may not have have the will to outright defy his master he had enough to let Theon re-emerge, and do what was necessary. It was a personal triumph for both, with personal and moral courage coming forth when it was most needed. In that sense it helps explain how Greyjoy could emerge into becoming a selfless and more courageous man after his time in capture because there is a Reek who’s primary purpose is to lessen Theon’s pain by whatever means he has. Which is understandable because that’s he’s always done.  Theon rises and its Reek who catches him if he ever comes back down. 

[hard-as-iron]

People always talk about the Reek—>Theon glow up but no one ever talks about the Theon—>Theon glow up ✨✨

[merelyafan]

Alfie Allen’s a decent looking guy so I have to assume there was a deliberate attempt to make Theon look rough in the first two season because I can’t look at him without thinking of a Simpsons scene: Ned: *sees Cat* Oh Catelyn, my loyal wife. *sees Sansa* And Sansa, my little princess. *sees Theon* And who can forget dear Rat Boy. Theon: Rat boy?! I resent that. *bites wall* Maester Luwin: For the last time Lord Greyjoy, stop gnawing on the castle.