selkie studies for a warmdown

they don’t know I used to sail the deep and tranquil sea

(based on desdémone by alexandre cabanel)

Rambling about theon because i have nowhere else to say this…

So I’ve finally started reading the books, like, actually committed this time. And honestly, one of the biggest reasons I hesitated for years was Theon/Reek, Jeyne Poole, and Ramsay’s whole storyline. I’ve been thinking about it for so long, especially about how the fandom, at least from what I’ve mostly seen through the show, has this really unsettling lack of empathy for Theon.

I don’t fully know how the book fandom treats him yet, though I have seen some more nuanced takes. But before anything else, I need to say this plainly: I’m an empath. I feel stories deeply. I attach to characters in a way that’s almost physical sometimes. And I knew for a fact Theon’s storyline was already one of my favorites in the show. Not because he’s likable, he really isn’t… but because it’s one of the most emotionally and morally complicated arcs in the entire story. So yeah. This was inevitable.

So why am I writing this?

Because every time I see people cheering for Theon’s suffering and i saw a lot of them, defending Ramsay’s torture, or saying he “deserved everything he got,” I lose a little more faith in humanity. I’m not even exaggerating. And the hypocrisy of it makes it worse.

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Theon Greyjoy is awful. He’s arrogant, insecure, cruel, selfish, and capable of doing truly horrific things. GRRM doesn’t soften that. If anything, he makes sure we see exactly how insufferable and morally repulsive Theon can be.

And that’s on purpose. GRRM wants us to hate him. He wants us to be angry. He wants us to want punishment. And for a brief moment, when consequences finally come, we are satisfied. Justice, right?

But that’s only the first step. A trap.

Because Theon’s story isn’t actually about punishment. It’s about empathy. About humanity. About how far people are willing to go before they stop seeing someone as human. How far can we cheer for punishment.

GRRM could’ve made Theon a background character. He could’ve let him die offscreen or be punished without ever giving us access to his thoughts, he could’ve given him a quick punishment, s beheading, hanging, exile. But he didn’t. He gave him POV chapters. He gave us his fear, his shame, his self-loathing, his constant need to belong somewhere. He shows us not just what Theon does, but what’s going on in his head when he does it—without ever excusing him. He never excuses him. He instead shows us how horrible Theon can be. While acknowledging his flaws and vulnerability.

And that matters.

Theon is a character built on identity confusion. Greyjoy or Stark. Hostage or family. Son or political pawn. Friend of Foe. He belongs everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Even inside his own head, there’s no stability… he’s always performing, always posturing, always trying to be something. That doesn’t excuse his actions, but it explains why he’s so desperate, so reactive, so destructive.

And then comes Reek. The things that walks and Reeks the halls.

This is where everything shifts.

Because GRRM knows we wanted Theon punished. He also knows most people don’t actually think too hard about what punishment looks like once it stops being abstract. So he pushes it further. He asks: how far is too far? When does justice stop being justice and turn into something else entirely?

The punishment you wanted and screamed and hoped for comes. But is it what you imagined? Is it just? Is it proportionate? Is it humane? Or is it something closer to erasure? Is it actually punishment and just cruelty?

Yes, Theon deserved consequences. That’s not debatable. But Ramsay’s torture isn’t about justice like everyone loves to frame it. It’s about control. About humiliation. About breaking someone down until there’s nothing left. Theon isn’t just punished… he’s unmade. Stripped of being a Greyjoy, a Stark, a kraken, a wolf, a lord, a man, a human. Reduced to a thing. A smell. A flinch. A survival instinct. A thing that Reeks.

That’s the point.

And anyone who looks at that and says “he deserved it” honestly scares me a little. Because at that point, you’re not talking about justice anymore, you’re talking about cruelty feeling satisfying. Satisfying for you and you frame it as justice.

Call me dramatic, but Theon’s story is about what it means to be human. Not just for him, but for us watching it happen. It asks whether empathy has conditions. Whether there’s a line after which someone stops being worth it. How much can someone be punished so they can atone?

That’s exactly why I hesitated to read the books. I knew I’d struggle. And I also knew I’d feel overwhelming empathy for Theon, because empathy is literally the core of his arc.

And weirdly enough, despite how horrific it is, I think Theon’s story is kind of hopeful. I know that sounds insane. I’m only near the end of AGOT, but I already know a lot of what happens because I had to spoil myself. I needed to brace for it.

His story is about the human mind when everything else is gone. When the body is broken. When identity is shattered. When survival replaces dignity. Humanity becomes the last thing you’re clinging to. The constant pull between Theon and Reek, memory and conditioning, selfhood and fear, is one of the most psychologically fascinating things GRRM has ever written.

I don’t think his story ends happily. I think he'll die because at this point, death i a mercy. I think it ends with something quieter and harder-earned: a fragile sense of self, a reclaimed humanity, a kind of hope that exists despite everything. It would be humane if he died in a place where he always wanted to belong to, and always belonged to. In Winterfell. He’s The Prince of Winterfell after all… but his story is about a sense of identity and he wouldn’t have done what he did before if he didn’t want a place to belong to. I don’t think it’s gonna be happy but for him, it will.

And this is where Jeyne Poole matters.

Jeyne is there for a reason. She’s the innocent. She didn’t do anything wrong. With Theon, we’re forced to sit in moral discomfort. With Jeyne, there’s no debate. Her suffering is unjust, full stop.

And that’s the question GRRM is asking: if you can feel for her, why not him? Why does innocence unlock empathy, but guilt erase it completely?

Ramsay exists to make that contrast unavoidable. He shows us that while Theon is awful, there are levels to evil. And putting an awful person into the hands of someone infinitely worse doesn’t create justice… it creates horror.

What really gets me, though, is the hypocrisy of Theon’s haters, especially the ones who defend his torture. They list his crimes like they exist in isolation. “He killed two kids.” “He betrayed the Starks.” “Did this, did that”

Okay… So did half the cast commit atrocities. Arguably even more awful than him.

This is a story full of morally fucked characters. Tywin is praised as “ruthless” for mass murder. Tyrion can be cruel when he wants to be. Robert. Jaime. Cersei. Jon, dany, Even Robb “who wasn’t malicious” still led people to their deaths. If the rule is “bad actions deserve Ramsay,” then a lot of characters should be lined up.

But they aren’t. Because suddenly things aren’t black and white anymore. Except somehow they are when it comes to Theon. Because Grrm made it hard and showed us how complicated humans can be, the layers.

And that’s exactly why his story matters.

Because Theon Greyjoy isn’t here to be loved. He isn’t here to be redeemed in some neat, comforting way. He’s here to make us uncomfortable. To make us squirm. To force us to look at our own limits and ask: who do I even feel empathy for? How much suffering is too much? When does justice stop being justice and start being cruelty?

And if that makes people defensive, angry, or uncomfortable? Good. That’s exactly the point. That’s the whole point of Theon. Because his story isn’t about punishment. It isn’t about satisfaction. It’s about humanity. It’s about empathy. It’s about holding someone accountable and still seeing them as human. That’s the whole of point of him being called Reek and Ramsay's punishment, he stripped him away from everything and made him into Reek. He is no longer human in Ramsay's eyes. Or you. He is no longer humans and no longer deserves empathy.

And if you can sit with that, even for a second, even when it hurts, then you get why Theon’s story matters.

That's all… i just wanted to share my thoughts because it’s been plaguing me for so long.

You will have your vengeance, it’s set in stone…

Had so much fun with this, i love drawing blood and injuries and i had this planned for so long, though it’s a bit rough but i like it. Ik she’s supposed to look like a corpse and almost “old?” But i wanted to keep her youth and human look more so yeah… i really like it.

The Ghost and the Maiden…

Currently reading the books, finally committed to reading them since I started a year ago, stopped, and now came back to them. And honestly one of the reasons I stopped the first time was genuinely Theon and his whole storyline 🥲💔 im still in AGOT, almost finished, and I’m already scared. I was reading Sansa chapters and I read Jeyne Poole’s name and I literally said “oh no!” out loud. Every time I read and Theon is somewhere in a scene, I immediately feel depressed.

Pray for my sanity please because I legit feel way more connected to the characters than I ever thought I would. Even Jon. I didn’t care for most of the characters in the show. Jon, Robb, Bran, even Ned. And now I’m scared 💀💔

I’m really not ready for Theon’s story.

This drawing isn’t a ship. I just thought they would make a haunting drawing together. And honestly I just wanted to draw him and share my thoughts on him because I think people can be… interesting when it comes to how they think about his torture.

I go into conversations about Theon and so many people have absolutely no empathy at all. And I genuinely think some of them are hypocrites. People say Theon killed two boys and did what he did in Winterfell, and sure, I don’t think he shouldn’t be punished. But the way people think Theon is the worst and most evil character and that he deserves everything that happened to him is honestly wild to me.

Especially when characters like Tywin, Tyrion, Gregor, etc exist.

To me, I really think GRRM wrote Theon’s character to see how far people want to see someone punished. Theon’s whole story, at least to me, is basically us screaming “he is bad, he needs to be punished!” And when the punishment comes, we say “good!” But then we take a step back and ask how far can someone be punished to atone?

And honestly I lose faith in humanity the more I see people say he deserved all of that torture. To me, no one and I mean NO ONE deserves that. Maybe some other characters, sure, but in my opinion Theon didn’t deserve it.

He deserves punishment. A beheading, hanging, whatever. But not this.

And I think that’s the point of his character. How far can someone be broken before we finally say “it’s enough”? And yeah, I’m not saying you should love Theon or excuse everything he did. If anything, what he did brought consequences on himself. But I don’t think he deserved it at all.

No one deserves to be tortured by fucking Ramsay.

Idk maybe my over sympathetic brain is doing it’s thing but idk, i love Theon… and poor jeyne…

Wanted a place to talk and say this because it’s been in my mind since i watched the show years ago and saw how people thought of Theon's torture. The dude is awful and insufferable but still…

how insane is it that catelyn spent the whole war not knowing if arya was dead or alive, grieving her one moment and scheming to get her back the next. to lose her last son at the red wedding, only to be resurrected and find out that she might have lost arya that night too. to learn that her daughter has been alive the whole time, but that she might have died trying to get home.

BUT despite her descent into violence and vengeance, lady stoneheart’s search for arya is her last source of hope. yes she wanders the riverlands hanging freys, but first she stops to ask if they’ve seen her little girl. and then to find out that sansa escaped king’s landing? that both of her girls are finally free? now that duty no longer stops her from saving them? there IS hope for lady stoneheart, and it exists in the form of her daughters.

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