LogFAQs > #873965856

It's everything here - writing, acting, and directing. Theon's every scene and dialogue emphasizes how desperately he yearns for approval, how much he wants others to see him the way he sees himself - a prince, or a conquerer, or a noble, or a stud, or a great leader of men. Yet the way others respond to Theon always cuts him down. One specifically notable instance: after a magnificent coup in taking a castle in which 'five hundred men could hold Winterfell against fifty thousand,' Theon calls for reinforcements from his father. His sister is dispatched - and she tells him his accomplishment is worthless. And she's not wrong - holding Winterfell is costly and strategically useless. It's a pure ego move meant to slap his dick on the table and ask his father to admire it - that's Theon for you.

Alfie Allen is incredible as Theon. I've already talked about Theon's uniquely unsettling face that just invites pain. It's a slightly bug-eyed face that winds up exaggerating all of its expressions - it smiles a little too widely and innocently, it twists a little too strongly in anger, it contorts beautifully in frustration. He's not a big man; when he tries to loom tall he actually seems a bit impotent. You can see every doubt and insecurity - and by god there are so many - etched on Theon's face. The curled lip when he tries to get high-and-mighty, the jittery demeanor that comes out so much stronger later as Reek... so good.

I really want to comment on some of the filmmaker's choices here. Everything in S2 Theon's arc is shot through a greyish lens. The Iron Islands look grim and dank. Theon's highest moment there is being reborn and drowned by Aeron Damphair, a positively miserable-seeming experience that Theon himself soaks up, attempting to imbue himself with Ironborn-ness. Winterfell gets darker and darker as it goes on, until it looks like it's dusk when Theon hoists those charred bodies of the miller's boys - an unforgivable act by any standard - above its gates. It's positively miserable when Theon behads Ser Rodrick; it's ridiculously messy, and he requires three swings to get the axe through, a visual signal of Theon's weakness.

The perfect scene to encapsulate all three of these elements: the end to Theon's arc of misery. Rather than surrender himself, Theon rouses his men with a speech. Facing imminent death, Theon's happy to grab his Ironborn identity, to talk big, to die with a bloody sword. The music swells magnificently; Winterfell is as brighter than it's been all season; Theon pumps his fist, spittle flying everywhere; his eyes bulge as he realizes that this is his swan song and that he and his men are going to become legends.

And then he gets smashed on the back of the head by his own subordinate. 'Let's go home.'

Book notes: Reek (the disguised Ramsay Bolton) is excised completely from Season 2 Theon. It's an interesting decision and one that plays out perfectly on screen. The added mystery of 'who the hell burned Winterfell' is awesome as well. Also, Book Theon is a lot more confident in his suaveness. I think that the show is reasonably true to this - the only problem is, we can't literally see things from Theon's POV, so we're much more viscerally aware of how dorky he is.

We lose some of the political maneuvering that Bran is supposed to do, but I think it's a fair trade for the visualization and just how goddamn great this arc is on screen.

I don't talk too much about the Northmen in this writeup. They deserve better, but they are not the reason this arc is up here. It's all Theon. This arc is one of the reasons I wanted to do this project to begin with - Theon is unnotable in Season 1 and kind of a drag starting from Season 3 onward. But for one season, he's perhaps the best part of a show crawling with amazing subplots.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness