Hey ! I know you've said maaany times that you're sure Theon will survive the series and I used to think so too but... I'm super worried now. Do you still feel confident in his survival after seeing this week's episode ? It seems a lot to me like he's going to die defending Bran... as much as I hate it :///
K everyone I’m using this as the ‘my round up long-ish post about Why I Think Theon Doesn’t Die Especially In Next Episode’ xD
narrative sense part one: or better, you can tell me ‘when has this show ever had narrative sense since s3′ and I could say ‘well you got me’, but let’s assume that this season has to lead to an endgame that can’t be too far from the books. now: theon is hardly the most popular character out there and we can say that most of the audience isn’t in it for him. now, if they wanted to kill him when everyone hated him to have another joffrey then they had S3 to do it, or S4. if they wanted him to die in order to redeem himself for harming the starks well he could have died saving sansa in S5 which would have made audience sense because oh hey we hated that guy until a moment ago now he saved sansa OH FUCK HE DIED JUST WHEN I LIKED HIM!!, snap. instead..... hey, it’s S8 and he’s still around and he’s in the north (where he is in the books in which he’s gonna have sansa’s sl or 80% of what she got in the show I think), doing what he wants, taking his decisions, *defending the starks* and having figured his identity issues out (not as well as I’d have liked but whatever), to the point where they all forgave him and sansa is spending her last possible night on earth having dinner with him. okay, he can die, but.... what’s the point?
narrative sense part two: euron is a goner. yara got saved and good for her, but out of all the ironborns, theon is the only one who’s been around since S1 and yara is off to the iron islands most likely to not be seen again until they need the cavalry or until the ending episode because hey we established the zombies can’t get to the islands. it makes literally zero sense for them to kill of the only main ironborn character that’s been there since 1x01 after getting him to a place where the audience actually likes him or doesn’t hate him that much anymore when euron is def. dying and yara is a tertiary character. the audience isn’t invested in yara greyjoy queen of the iron islands that much, but it can be invested in theon greyjoy reconciling with the starks and doing the good thing. like, he’s the main character in that area, killing him off means that then they have only yara to rely on and she’s off in the islands in that sense, how do they talk to her? who calls her fleet? who contacts her?
next episode: actually theon hasn’t had the chance to show off that he actually can fight and so on since what, s2. now he’s back in the fold, with flame arrows, after 8x01 where he did the badass rescue thing, and I’m supposed to think he dies when he’s finally getting into the last stretch? improbable.
next episode, part two: theon says he’ll protect bran, good. which means that bran is on a wheelchair, in the godswood, at the mercy of whatever zombie shows up. so, counting that whatever red shirt ironborn theon brings with is way most likely to die because they won’t have bran stark, main character and narratively part of the top three Most Important Characters In These Series, saved by the ironborn red shirt, then theon has to actually defend him. if he dies defending him and they’re on the outside, bran is still toast because who defends him from the next zombie showing up? if theon has to actively save bran’s life either he shoots dead the zombies or at some point bodily drags him inside the crypts or the castle or somewhere but like he has to be alive for that. also if he actually delivers on it he gets full-on narrative redemption - he said it, I took your castle let me defend you, so if now he actually saves him he can have the narrative redemption for that and actually enjoy it, so... again, looks improbable.
last point which I wouldn’t have brought up before 8x02 and I’m putting my hands forward saying that it’s not my ship (because of the endless issues I have with S5 and how they handled their interactions in that season and how they chose to work with the repercussions later) and I have zero involvement in the ‘who does sansa stark end up with’ bingo on this show and I like to think I’m talking objectively: out of every single guy who showed up in the first two episodes in sansa’s orbit, and out of the *main characters*, he was the only one she seemed genuinely happy to see, the only one she had emotional scenes with and the one she chose to spend her possible last night with, while her sister was off having the bang of her life (hopefully the first and not the last) with the man she loves/she’s been into for a while, while jon was... well, talking to daenerys who as it is, is the person he’s supposed to be in love with not counting the incest debacle, and everyone else was having pseudo-emotional moments (I mean jb didn’t kiss but they got that close and they’re obv. endgame same as arya/gendry).......... aaaand......... I’m supposed to think there’s nothing underneath? I mean everyone and their walls knows that it’s not my ship when it comes to either of them but obviously show!sandor/sansa is not gonna happen at this point and I made peace with it a while ago and given how it went with her and tyrion at this point theon seems to be a way more likely candidate if she has to end up with someone nevermind that well admittedly if they ended up together they’d close the stark/greyjoy rift........... aaand.... he’s dying?
I mean. he could because who trusts anyone anymore when it comes to d&d and whatever but I still think that if they really wanted him dead for shock value or redemptive value they had S3 and S5 to do it. and they didn’t. and he’s still around even if he’s not a character the audience has this much investment into which means they could have killed him off and spared alfie’s paycheck a long time ago. they still didn’t. so my two cents are that he’s definitely surviving for points 1-4 and if he’s sansa’s endgame then it’s reaaally not gonna happen and I said what I said. if I’m wrong peace I’ll cry and deal with it but I like to think I have my sound reasons to think he’s not a goner. ;)
