THEON MONTH | DAY 1 - FAVORITE QUOTES

[alley_skywalker]

They made a pitifully small assembly; the ironmen were few, the yard large. “The northmen will be on us before nightfall,” he told them. “Ser Rodrik Cassel and all the lords who have come to his call. I will not run from them. I took this castle and I mean to hold it, to live or die as Prince of Winterfell. But I will not command any man to die with me. If you leave now, before Ser Rodrik’s main force is upon us, there’s still a chance you may win free.” He unsheathed his longsword and drew a line in the dirt. “Those who would stay and fight, step forward.”

 — ACOK, Theon VI

There are so many Theon quotes and moments I love! It would be impossible to choose just one or even a top three. So I decided to highlight this one, because it’s one of my favorites (especially because it’s such a bright spot in the horrifying bleakness of Theon’s downward mental health and moral spiral in Clash) and it’s also such an underrated moment no one really talks about.

In the show, Theon gets this rousing speech about fighting and dying gloriously and if he’d gotten to that moment in the books he might have made a similar speech to the men who were still with him. But they’re not there yet. There’s no host at his gates yet, though they know it’s coming, and Theon isn’t stupid. As much as he holds out some shred of hope, does everything he can to survive, he surely understands he’s critically outnumbered. He also knows that not only are the people of Winterfell (whom he also refuses to summarily execute when his lieutenants suggest it, mind) are against him, but his own men aren’t exactly inspired to follow him. Morale is low as hell. He runs a very high risk of being abandoned and leaving himself even more vulnerable that he already is.  

And yet he still offers them an out.

He offers them a chance to leave, to live, and when they take him up on it?

 "Go, then,“ Theon told them. "Run to my sister. She’ll give you all a warm welcome, I have no doubt.”

Maybe a bit petulant, but he doesn’t bother to really shame them. (Wex’s loyalty does that.) Nor is this a trick to root out traitors or anything. He’s just genuinely giving his men a chance if they want it. He feels hurt and abandoned, but he’s not even truly angry and he doesn’t want to force anyone to die for him. For all the posturing he does to Asha about how men should fight for him because he is their Prince, when it comes down to it, he doesn’t actually want that. Even in all the darkness, all the awful things he’s done, he still makes this bid for honor, for decency, because that’s far more at the core of who he is.

He knows they’re likely to die if they fight. He knows they very well may leave him if given half a chance.

He lets his men go.