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.
