In the Game Of Thrones books, otherwise known as A Song Of Ice And Fire, the character Theon Greyjoy begins the story slightly unlikeable, becomes extremely hated, is thought to be dead, then struggles to redeem himself. In that struggle, he somehow finds his way into the heart of the reader despite his past wrongdoings.
A large chunk of A Song Of Ice And Fire follows the Stark family, their downfall, and the subsequent stories of the children of the family, and how they cope with horrible events that happen to them. Theon Greyjoy finds himself in the center of this family, as a ward. For context, on the fictional continent of Westeros, there are 7 great houses that pledge fealty to one king. The leaders of these houses are called Wardens of their respective regions, and all the family members of these great houses are pivotal political players. The Starks defeated the Greyjoys when they tried to rebel from the crown, and the Starks took a son from the Greyjoys to keep them in line.
Theon always felt like an outsider in the Stark family, despite them treating him with respect. Theon grew up with the stark children as somewhat of a sibling to them, but he always felt different because he was essentially a glorified hostage. At the end of the first book, the Warden of the North is executed by the king for crimes he didn’t commit, and this leads to his oldest son Robb Stark declaring independence from the seven kingdoms, and becoming The King in The North.
In the second book in the series, A Clash Of Kings, Theon acts as Robbs right hand man, as they were good friends growing up. Robb trusts him enough to send him as an envoy to Theon’s original home, The Iron Islands, to negotiate with his father to gain ships for Robb’s cause. Unfortunately, Theon allows himself to be manipulated by his father Balon, who also wants to be a king. Deep down, Theon wants to feel like he belongs somewhere, and he wants to be accepted by his father and his people. He doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. In the north he is a hostage. No matter how good they treat him, if his father rebelled again he would be killed. But in his original home, everyone treats him as if he is a northern man, having no respect for the heir to their lands. He is faced with a decision he feels is tough, and he chooses to chase the approval of his people and his father.
Theon betrays his friend Robb, and him, and a few of his ironborn soldiers take over the Starks castle Winterfell. Since Robb is warring in the south, the only people to protect Winterfell are the young Stark boys Bran and Rickon, and older men. They easily take the castle and put a number of the inhabitants to the sword. The place that our favorite characters call home, is torn apart by Theon. At the end of the book, one of Theon’s lackeys that was helping him commit atrocious crimes reveals himself to be the bastard son of an important northern lord that wants to betray the Starks and take Winterfell for himself. This bastard, Ramsay Snow, leads his fathers men into Winterfell and demolishes Theon, and the castle. Theon’s men had already abandoned him before this happened, and his dreams of glory were shattered.
Theon is thought to be dead for two whole books, and everything goes on without him. 14 real life years pass between Theon’s “death” in A Clash Of Kings, and his return in A Dance With Dragons. But the audience doesn’t know it’s him at first. Theon’s old chapters were all titled “Theon”. Every character in the books have their chapters titled with just their name. But in A Dance With Dragons, a character appears who’s chapters are titled “Reek”. The reader finds out fairly quickly that this character is Theon, but it takes over half the book for Theon to remember who he is. During the two books he wasn’t in, Theon experiences this divided identity as a result of being horrifically tortured by Ramsay, so bad that his hair turned gray in his mid 20’s. Theon was beaten so badly into submission, that Ramsay convinced him that he was someone else entirely, that existed only to serve Ramsay, named Reek.
Ramsay and his father now have control over the north, after contributing to the betrayal of their former, now dead king Robb Stark. Theon feels responsible for the death of his friend and king, realizing he chose the wrong side. Throughout the book, Reek does everything in fear of what will happen if he disobeys, but he slowly remembers who he is, and comes to terms with the mistakes he made in the past. After learning to take pride in who he is, and separating himself from the persona of “Reek”, Theon secretly helps northerners in Winterfell. He knows that he can never make up for the mistakes in the past, but he can do what he can to help the people that were truly there for him, that he didn’t see. Towards the end of the book, Theon escapes from Winterfell, and saves a child bride that was promised to Ramsay. He stands up to his abusers, and remembers that he is not Reek, he is Theon Greyjoy.
In the show, Theon’s character arc is already finished, and it is one of the few things the show got right. In the very end, when unexplainable forces are coming to kill Bran Stark, Theon sacrifices his life for him, and in his final moment, Bran says, “You’re a good man, Theon.”