Some thoughts on ACoK Theon
Jun. 11th, 2012 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
corrielleA lot of fannish meta has been written about Theon Greyjoy. And why not? He's the boy torn between the Starks and the Greyjoys, the boy who doesn't belong, who makes terrible choices and brings his own destruction down on himself. Love him (like I do) or not, he's a fascinating character.
My observations here break roughly into two categories…
Theon, the Starks, and the Concept of Loyalty
Much of the abuse that gets heaped on Theon, both in canon and by fandom, is tied to his betrayal of the Starks. "He's been disloyal," his detractors say, and "he's a turncloak." And that's true. He did betray Robb and the Starks the second he started taking orders from his father, and made the betrayal even worse when he took Winterfell.
However, I think that there are some competing definitions of loyalty here, and a fundamental lack of understanding on Theon's part as to what the Starks mean when they talk about loyalty and honor. Let's look at the two major influences on him as he tries to come to an understanding of what these words mean.
The Greyjoys have ideas about loyalty too, of course, but they are different than the ones the Starks have. For the Greyjoys, loyalty goes to the strong, to the ones who have proved themselves in battle, to those who lead with a fist. Now, I'm not saying that the Starks don't value warlike qualities, but I think it's safe to say that the emphasis House Greyjoy places on skill in battle is much higher than the value the Starks assign to it when it comes to the question of whether or not a person deserves loyalty. Also, it seems that the Iron Islands have come to expect a little off-handed cruelty from their leaders. A man (or a woman, sorry, Asha…) who is hard and a little cruel is a strong man, a man who inspires other men to follow him, a man who will lead them to take what is theirs by right of superior physical force. (Even the Greyjoy motto has an inherently "dishonorable" meaning from the Stark's point of view… "We do not sow" because they can take what they need from others.)
The Starks think about loyalty very differently. For them, martial strength is certainly important, but there's also a sense of responsibility and the importance of every individual life constantly operating in the background. We see this in Ned's lesson to Bran about why he must be the one to swing the sword. Because that life he is taking matters, and the execution is a responsibility, not on a whim. (Though it certainly has the same motive as the Greyjoy's more rough-and-tumble justice—keeping the populace in line.)
Also, when Ned Stark talks about honor and loyalty, his world view has at its core the goal of protecting something that goes beyond strength or reputation for reputation's sake. (I don't think Ned would argue with the idea that reputation is an important part of keeping his family and his people safe, though.) From this point of view, honor and loyalty protect Ned's family, and they protect the people who look to him for guidance and protection. He believes he can expect loyalty from his people because he has acted with honor, and his people know it. Or at least that's how the system supposed to work. "Might for right" as opposed to "might is right." I know this breaks down all over the place as the novels progress, but I think that these are still the ideas about honor that Ned and many of the Starks are operating under and grappling with. Also, I don't think that Ned ever explained the most important parts of the loyalty/honor issue to Theon. I don't even think he even explained them to his own children, either, because they are so obvious and self-evident to him that he doesn’t even put them into words. And his children absorb them because those ideas are a part of being a Stark.
For any of these ideas about the reciprocal relationship between lord and commoner or the importance of loyalty and honor to work, the person who is being asked to act honorably and to remain loyal, has to have a stake in the system. And Theon doesn't. Yes, he was well-treated at Winterfell. Yes, he and Robb were friends. But in the grand scheme of things, he had no place in the North. In fact, he's been told all his life that he's not a Stark, that he's out of place, doesn't belong. But at the same time, he's being told that he needs to act honorably, be loyal. I think that Theon picked up on the fact that honor and loyalty go hand in hand with belonging, and so while he learned the surface meanings of the words, he never really internalized them the way the Starks did. This is why Ned's attempt to "gentle" Theon that Maester Luwin refers to was so unsuccessful. Theon stands on the outside looking in on a world where honor and loyalty are rewarded with belonging, instinctively knowing that no matter how hard he tries, he will never quite be part of it.
Theon's Failed Attempt to Walk the Line Between Stark Honor and Greyjoy Ruthlessness
Things would have gone much easier for Theon (but would have made for a much less interesting narrative) if he had simply been able to make a clear-cut choice between the incomplete ideas about honor he learned from the Starks and the incomplete ideas about leading by force and strength that he learned from the Greyjoys. (And as I write this, I'm realizing that his understanding of the way the Greyjoys conceptualize loyalty is just as flawed. He gets the surface ideas but not the human relationships that undergird them.)
But because he's Theon "Fuck up ALL THE THINGS" Greyjoy, he tries to do both, and it makes for some really interesting contradictions. He knows he needs to be strong enough to keep control of his Ironborn. Unfortunately, there's a part of him that did absorb some of what Ned tried to teach him that won't let him completely buy into the Greyjoy way of doing things.
Theon's not-so-successful balancing act starts from the first page of the first chapter we see him in after he leaves Pyke. He wants to question his prisoner, a young man he knows and has spent time with, (and this makes him uncomfortable… Theon hadn't expected it to be him) and his uncle Aeron wants to kill him as a sacrifice to the Drowned God. Incidentally, Aeron's "When he spits on you, he spits on all of us" line is so telling. For the Ironborn, their strength comes in part from their leader's strength, and so Theon looking weak really does weaken all of them. He tries to find a middle ground here in letting Aeron execute Tallheart without actually doing it himself, and he convinces himself that it's a kindness because he knows it wouldn't be a clean execution. (Please allow the author a brief interruption for show-related sobbing over Rodrik.)
This first scene after they land also begins the trend of uncomfortable memories of his time with the Starks filtering through his thoughts while he's trying to be tough. And not all of those memories are unpleasant, but according to his father they should be. The Starks were his captors. His father is furious at him calling Robb something like a brother. He should have hated every moment of his time there. And he didn't. Theon tries to downplay this as much as possible, with varying degrees of success. When I first read this book, I was struck by the disconnect between Theon's mental assertion that he had only had a "certain affection" for Robb and all of the graphics I was seeing that included later quotes from Theon that seemed to indicate he had cared for Robb quite a bit more than that. And then… I made an unsettling realization. Theon is an unreliable narrator of his own experiences and emotions. (In fact, all of the characters are.) He doesn't want to think about the fact that he cares for his captor's son when he's about to see his father again, so he downplays his relationship in his own mind. Great. Now, not only can I not trust anything anyone says that doesn't happen directly "on screen," I can't trust what characters think about their own emotions either. These books tie my brain in knots, and I love them for it.
Anyway, as much Theon's not a Stark, he did absorb some of their version of morality. He angrily tries to tell himself that he doesn't care what Ned Stark would have thought about his first raid, but he still doesn’t seek out any of the men he's killed to take the things he's paid the Iron Price for. He doesn't even want to.
Also, there's the bit where he tries to shoot the drinking horn out of the hand of one of his men because they're fighting over it, and ends up killing him instead. None of the Ironborn blink twice at Theon's "decision" to kill him, but Theon wasn't trying to. He was trying to keep order (and show off how good of a shot he is, too…) without a.) depleting his fighting force and b.) killing someone unnecessarily. Asha or Balon would have meant to kill the man, and wouldn't have given it a second thought. Theon, though… Theon is having all kinds of second thoughts. After the description of the attack (which was successful) and the prisoners being taken, Theon thinks to himself, "He did not like the taste of this, but what choice did he have?" And there is the contradiction that is Theon in a nutshell. He doesn't like what he has to do, what his father has ordered him to do, but he sees it as the only course left open to him, so he tries to do what he can to ease his not-fully-developed conscience and to make himself feel like his victories are worthy ones from both points of view. (Which is, of course, impossible, but he can't see that.)
At Winterfell, too, Theon tries to play two roles—that of conqueror, and that of rightful lord who protects his people. The contradictions here get more and more pronounced as things get more desperate for him. For example, he's willing to have two of his own men flogged for trying to rape a kitchen girl because the part of him that's Stark tells him she's under his protection, but he's willing to give that same girl to Ramsay!Reek because the Greyjoy part of him says that a woman is a perfectly acceptable prize for a man who has done such a service for him as Ramsay promises to. And I don't even think he recognizes that contradiction.
Or maybe he does, he just won't let himself dwell on it. He knows that he's had little tastes of friendship and honor and belonging, and they keep coming back to him as he gets further and further into the mess he makes for himself. One of the events he keeps thinking back on again and again is the battle in the Whispering Wood when Robb defeated Jaime. Theon thinks on it fondly, as being surrounded by friends, as a sweet victory. He's proud to have been there. Even as he sits in Robb's home that he's taken over, the tone of his chapter here is proud, nostalgic. Same thing for the memory of saving Bran's life. I think that the bit where he goes and shoots at the archery targets until his fingers are bloody is one of the most heart-wrenching things in the whole book. He's proud of himself, he knows he did a good thing in saving Bran, but at the same time, he's just killed a completely innocent boy and put him on the gates in Bran's place. Because he thinks he has to. Because he thinks there's not another choice. (Theon's reasoning behind his most idiotic decisions.) And… I think that's part of what makes me so sympathetic to Theon. I know that the things he does are inexcusable. I'm not condoning them. But as a reader, I'm allowed into his head every step of the way, and it's so obvious that going down this path is breaking him internally. And even though I want him to stop, I want him to see that he does have choices, it is completely understandable that he doesn't see any other options other than the ones he's already chosen.
Finally, there's one question that has always nagged at me when I think about Theon and his arc in this book. Why does Theon insist on staying in Winterfell? Stubbornness has something to do with it. Pride, refusal to admit he's made a mistake. But also, Theon has made his something that he was always told he wasn't a part of. And I think that on some level, he wanted to be a part of it. Wanted to be more integrated into the happy family he watched grow up around him. Be he was told it wasn't his, and that it never would be. And so he took what he wanted (like a model Greyjoy). For Theon, Winterfell was a representation of family, acceptance, honor, all of those things he saw around him every day growing up but could never have. By taking Winterfell, I think he's making a grab for those things, as well as for power and acceptance from his father. But what he doesn't understand is that in taking the castle by force, he destroys the very thing about Winterfell he is most jealous of—the possibility for belonging and respect from its people. The people of Winterfell were loyal to the Starks, and Theon expects that same loyalty from them, but in taking the castle, he's already done an incredibly dishonorable thing, in their eyes, which means they will never give him what he wants. And this makes him angry. Which makes him behave even more horridly, which makes them hate him more. (I had forgotten that the scene on the show where he botches the execution happens… only in the books it's the kennel master, and Theon's blaming him for Ironborn deaths it is implied that Theon had a hand in. *facepalm*)
So basically, Theon grasps at the thing he wants that has always been denied him and destroys it and himself in the process. Nice work, Failsauce Kraken.