A Song of Ice and Fire/Characters/House Greyjoy: Difference between revisions

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== '''Balon Greyjoy''' ==

 

 

The head of House Greyjoy at the start of the series, brother of Aeron, Victarion and Euron, father of Asha and Theon. A cold, grimly determined and humorless man who wants to return the Ironmen to the heights of their historical power, before Aegon the Conquerer destroyed their holdings on the mainland. He rebelled once against Robert's regime when it was still new, only to be defeated and have two of his sons killed while Theon, the last, was taken as a hostage for his good behavior. When he hears about the new war breaking out, he knows it is time to strike again...

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]: And [[Bus Crash|off-screen no less]], with the perpetrator almost certainly being a Faceless Man sent by his brother Euron.}}

* [[Lean and Mean]]

* [[Pride]]

* [[Revenge Before Reason]]: Passes up a plan to get fabulously wealthy by striking Lannisport to take revenge on the North.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: This pretty much sums up his strategy for the War of the Five Kings. He basically had two options: side with the North and try to keep the realms divided and too weak to stop him from reviving the old way, or side with the Lannisters against the Starks and hope for some generous concessions when the Starks have been crushed. He tries to [[Take a Third Option]], seceding and taking on the Starks at the same time. So even if he defeats the Starks, it will just allow the Seven Kingdoms to consolidate and crush his tiny rebellion that much faster.

 

 

 

Last surviving son of Balon Greyjoy, after his elder brothers were killed in an ill-fated rebellion, and heir to the Iron Islands. Eddard Stark took him hostage after Balon's uprising ended, and Theon is a reluctant member of the Stark household as the story begins. Skilled fighter, ladies' man, and a schemer whose ambition is much bigger than his ability. His constant desperation to prove himself sets him up as the main villain of the second book. {{spoiler|By the fifth book he's been driven through insanity and out the other end by Ramsay Bolton's tortures, and now has a few less fingers, toes and teeth. His mind shifts from his new identity of Reek, Ramsay's slave, to his memories of who he once was and back again.}}

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: During his {{spoiler|takeover of Winterfell, Bran and Rickon}} escape, so Theon (thinking it's better to be hated than laughed at) mounts their heads on the wall. {{spoiler|It's not really Bran and Rickon, just a miller's children, but the fact remains that he beheaded two innocent children in a desperate attempt to maintain his authority.}} He then threatens to do it ''again'' later to {{spoiler|Ser Rodrick's daughter, who he had grown up with in Winterfell.}} It's really hard to feel sorry for him after this.

** It is testament to {{spoiler|just how terrible his torture at the hands of Ramsay Bolton was}} that most readers ''do'' actually feel sorry for him.

* [[Raised by Natives]]: The first 10 years with the Greyjoys and the later 10 with the Starks. The result? He is too much of a Stark to be a Greyjoy, and too much of a Greyjoy to be a Stark.

* {{spoiler|[[Rape by Proxy]]: Ramsay Bolton orders "Reek" to assist him in the bedding of his new wife "Arya " On the wedding night.}}

* [[Slave to PR]]: Desperately wants the approval of his family, and bitterly resents it that even his efforts to [[Pet the Dog]] after taking Winterfell are met with contempt.

* [[Smug Smiler]]: [[Lampshaded]] quite a bit, his tendency to keep up a smile in even the most inappropriate situations is perhaps his most memorable feature. Other characters describe it as if the situation is some kind of joke that only he's clever enough to understand. It's one of the main reasons why several characters can't bring themselves to like him.

** {{spoiler|Ramsay Bolton took note of this, too. And didn't like it. Which is why, as of Dance of Dragons, Theon is missing teeth and never smiles anymore.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Trauma Conga Line]]: Everything that happened to him while Ramsay Bolton's prisoner. Anything that can turn a child-murderer into a [[Woobie]] is pretty horrific.}}

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: His whole motivation is to get Balon's approval.

** The discovery that his real desire has always been {{spoiler|to be a Stark implies that he might have had some of this towards Ned Stark.}}

 

 

 

Balon's only daughter and an accomplished raider. A strong-willed and independent lady, Asha is very ambitious and often enjoys teasing her weaker brother, Theon. Popular with the crew of the ship she captains but resents the unwillingness of the ironmen to accept a female leader.

* [[Action Girl]]

* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: When she is captured by {{spoiler|Stannis}} in ''A Dance With Dragons,'' she wasted no time in submitting to him, without a hint of defiance. Apparently, this was taught by her father: as long as you bend the knee, you can rise up again, sword in hand. If you're dead, well, you have no choice but to stay down.

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: Averted. She acts seductive with Theon only to embarrass him.

* [[Daddy's Girl]]: The otherwise staunchly traditional Balon wanted her to be his heir.

* [[Daddy's Little Villain]]: She certainly fits the letter of this trope, if not the name.

* [[Hot Amazon]]

* [[The Ladette]]

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Though many of the characters got a little of this between the adaptation between books and series, Asha's probably the most prominent example. Besides a name change, she went from being power hungry, self-serving, and cruel to being borderline heroic (for an Iron Islander) and actually caring about Theon.

* [[Pirate Girl]]

* [[Rebellious Princess]]: Subverted.

* [[Surrounded by Idiots]]: Feels this way a lot among her fellow Ironborn.

 

 

 

Once a laid-back fellow who partied too hard, Aeron suffered a [[Near-Death Experience]] that left him a changed man. As a fervent priest of the Drowned God, he is fiercely dedicated to his faith and seeks to hold the Iron Islands to the old traditions. Needless to say, having Theon (whom he sees as weak), Asha (who seeks to disrupt the patriarchal order of House Greyjoy), and Euron (self-explanatory) in his family complicates this.

* [[Wild Hair]]: In addition to only bathing in salt water, he weaves seaweed into his beard.

 

 

 

Younger brother of Balon and heir-apparent to the Seastone Chair, Victarion is everything a Greyjoy should be: strong, duty-bound and honorable. He is a powerful fighter, but has no great ambition beyond engaging in great battles. Though he prefers reaving and war to the complex world of politics, having only Asha and Euron as the alternatives to the throne forces him to throw his lot in at the Kingsmoot.

* [[Badass]]: He's perhaps the greatest warrior in the recent history of the Ironborn, and pretty much the physically strongest character in the canon after he gets his augmentation.

** [[Badass Abnormal]]: After Moqorro heals his arm with magic, causing it to appear burned while also massively increasing his already prodigious strength.

* [[Blood Knight]]: He likes battle, especially when the enemy puts up a good fight.

* [[The Berserker]]: ''"Come!"'' he roared, ''"Come and kill me if you can."''

* [[The Brute]]/[[The Dragon]]: Although he acted in the role of [[The Dragon]] for Balon and later for Euron after the Kingsmoot, he really prefers acting as [[The Brute]]; he doesn't want to have to bother dealing with the complicated worlds of politics and religion, he just wants to be set loose on the battlefield.

* [[The Captain]]: not just of his own ship, but of the ''entire Iron Fleet''.

* [[Divided We Fall]]: Asha warns him that they have to work together to keep Euron from being selected King. He laughs it off, refusing to make her his [[Number Two]] because it goes against tradition. Too bad, because the support of Asha and her followers might have been enough to win the throne.

* [[The Fettered]]: Victarion is rigidly loyal to Ironmen traditions, even when it forces him to do things he doesn't want to do. {{spoiler|His chains might be coming off, though, because when Euron, now his rightful king after the kingsmoot, sends him east to bring back Daenerys Targaryen so that Euron can wed her, he decides to take her for himself instead.}}

* [[The Gwen Stacy]]: Victarion loved his wife; this was good. Euron seduced (or possibly raped) his wife; that was not. Victarion was angry; that's understandable. Victarion ''beat his wife to death'', because [[Blue and Orange Morality|that's what a real ironborn has to do when his wife cheats on him]].

* [[Obliviously Evil]]: Victarion does many monstrously evil actions, but doesn't see them that way because he's so devoted to Ironborn morals and traditions to be consciously evil. 'Evil' is also such a relative thing in this setting...

* [[Double Standard Rape (Male on Male)]]: Doesn't quite have this attitude, but certainly does not see it as a big deal. When a maester on his ship comes to him to tell him that three men dragged him into the hold and "used him as a woman", Victarion treats it as a tiresome complaint, and simply tells him to man up and gives him a dagger to stop it happening again (despite being well aware the man will probably not be able to use it.) Later, when his arm is hurt, he tells the same maester "I'll make the crew a gift of your arse" if he can't heal him.

* [[Real Men Love Jesus|Real Men Love The Drowned God]]: Victarion is a very, very religious man. So much so that he has no fear of drowning and wears extremely heavy (and protective) armour even while sailing. In the Ironborn's faith, if a man dies by drowning the Drowned God take his souls to his watery halls (think Valhalla with a slight underwater theme) to drink and fight and feast and fuck mermaids (don't think too hard about the last part) for eternity. {{spoiler|After Moqorro heals his arm he starts worshiping R'hilor a bit on the side too.}}

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Not so much in ''A Feast For Crows'', in which he comes across as an honorable warrior (albeit a rather bloodthirsty one), but his chapters in ''A Dance With Dragons'' are basically one long strong of [[Obliviously Evil]] [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]].

** Specifically, his fleet encounters a large number of slavers. He kills the slavers (good), but he also kills and mistreats a lot of the slaves too (not good).

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Averted, because to the other Ironmen he was doing what's proper and right when a man's wife strays. The closest anyone comes to calling him on it is Asha's sad reaction when she finally learns the truth. "I feel sorry for you... and sorrier for her."

* [[World's Strongest Man]]: He contested this position with Gregor Clegane, even before his enhancement. Now that Gregor's dead (seemingly) and with his new super-strong arm, he's likely the strongest man period.

== '''Euron Greyjoy''' ==

 

 

Also known as "Crow's Eye," Euron is a cunning pirate who was banished from his home by his family after he seduced Victarion's wife, forbidden to return for as long as his brother Balon lived. The day after Balon died, Euron returned. He wears an eyepatch and is feared by those around him for his reputation for cruelty and mind games. His longship is called the ''Silence'', because all its crewmembers have had their tongues ripped out.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Has his moments; his recollection of a dream in which he could fly (see below) has him mention that when he woke up he was told by everyone that it was just a dream and that (obviously) he can't really fly. He then says something to the effect of: "But how can I know for certain that I can't fly unless I try by jumping out of the window?", and he implies that he would be willing to risk almost certain death to find out.

* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: Most of his evil deeds involve this.

* [[The Evil Genius]]: Appears to have been his role in the Greyjoy family before Balon banished him.

** His visible eye is frequently called his "smiling eye", so presumably whatever is underneath the patch got him the nickname "Crow's Eye".

* [[Horny Vikings]]

* [[Pirate]]: Euron takes the reaving culture of the Ironmen [[Up to Eleven]]. After getting ostracized, he spent his time looting and pillaging his way through distant lands.

* [[Post-Rape Taunt]]: Euron seduced his brother Victarion's wife, and by Ironmen custom Victarion had to kill her to keep his honor. We only have Euron's word on whether or not it was consensual.

* [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]]: ... maybe. In one scene he describes a dream that sounds similar to Bran's coma visions. Whether it's the same thing or not has [[Epileptic Trees|planted some trees]].

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]/[[Memetic Badass]]: He's a living legend among the other ironmen.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: He delivers one of these to the Ironborn to get himself chosen King.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Euron fancies himself a [[Chessmaster]] when he returns to the Iron Islands and wins the throne, but he's not all that good at manipulating the Ironmen. When they start to resist his grand ambitions, he has no answer but to walk away in a huff. He also seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that Victarion hates his guts.

* [[Smug Smiler]]: It runs in the family.

 

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[[Category:Characters]]