I Am Very Glad GRRM Decided To Give Theon PTSD Pre Ramsay. The Fact That Theon Gets PTSD In The Middle

I am very glad GRRM decided to give Theon PTSD pre Ramsay. The fact that Theon gets PTSD in the middle of the war, because he has a break is showing that GRRM has an understanding of both PTSD and that torture doesn’t make you a better person or whatever D&D were going for. Theon developed PTSD during a break in war for him, he started his nightmares about dead people which is something that can totally happen to any person that is coming out of the adrenalin rush of survival (of any sort, but in this case war). The other thing is, Theon subcotiously started to regret his actions, deciding against Robb, letting bad come to the smallfolk of Winterfell, that were in no way at fault for his hostage status and the killing of the miller’s boys, as much as he tries to tell himself that they were JUST the miller’s boys and therefore for war purposes not important. But something in him knows that this is bs, that is is wrong to kill these innocent children and all of that triggers his PTSD way before Ramsay starts torturing him. The way it’s done in GoT shows Theon showing regret and remorse after he gets tortured, wich implys that his change in character comes from said torture whereas book!Theon has this point way before. And that is way better. Being a victim does not make you stronger or a better character. Reflecting on your actions and knowing they were bad does. Torture will just screw your brain up, it will not make you a better person, it will just fuck you up. But apperrently D&D think differently- The same thing happend to Jamie aswell, just saying.

I don’t mind character changes too much, if they make sense and are pulled through until the end in general, For example Cersei is way nicer in the show, than in the books, but al least it was worked until the very end, wheras they sometimes choose book traits/arks/quirks in the show, as if they were always in there. Like Cersei’s 3 children prophecy, but in the pilot she said she had a first child with Robert. And they forgot to say 4 children instead of 3 (would’ve worked really well into it actually, she just thinks the first one wasn’t old enought yet, so maybe the new one would be the forth).

And as much as I love Alfie Allens performance on that beach fight. The smile was right out of the books, it’s not at present in the show. A casual watcher would have definitly missed that he used to smile all the time and stopped with Ramsays torture.

And that Cat scene about Jon actually makes her treatment to Jon worse, because they made her say that she wanted to try to love Jon but in the end she just didn’t even try? That’s worse than just not being able to love Jon or treat him better, because it’s not his fault.

And we haven’t even touched Arya and Tywin. Definitly one of the best acted arcs, with some of the best show dialog, but with zero sense towards the plot at all.

And in general the making a book character that is deeply flawed, less flawed to make them more sympathetic is a big GoT issue. Not just on Theon, but Ned, Tyrion, Robert or Dany get that treatment and it takes away so much of these characters, but in some cases (especially Tyrion) it takes the whole character ark away.

Tysha was just a whore and Tyrion never raped her. Theon doesn’t get PTSD from taking Winterfell, he gets it from getting tortured, Ned was the perfect Dad after his death, Robert was a cool guy and wasn’t it fun that one time he hit his wife (only once, only a slap, not that he knocked out 2 of Joffreys teeth or only hit Cersei where Jamie didn’t see or anything)

I think a lot of times Stark family members should have talked about Robb (and Cat), but Ned is the only one that gets mentioned. As if the whole North would just forget their King, as if the Stark siblings would just forget their older brother and as if Theon of all people would forget about Robb, where his whole conflit comes down to choosing Balon over Robb.

But hey, they made Robb marry Talist for love instead of Jeyne because of duty, so why would they mention him at all. I think the only time he even is mentioned later on is by Sansa when she warns Jon, that’s all that Robb is getting.

And now I’m at the point again of noticing how many characters they made changed to, that just made no sense (I get changing Theon’s torture, I wouldn#t want Alfie Allen to get down to an unhealthy weight. I get Tyrion not loosing his nose CGI is expensive, but I do not get changing Robb’s storyline like this, it just accomplishes nothing but making his character an idiot. He was never great at diplomacy but this is straight up stupid and goes directly against Ned’s upbringing.)

And now I want to see the bookTheon plot in Winterfell with Alfie playing slowly spiraling from PTSD and Ramsay whispering into his ear about ways to make it look as if Bran and Rickon were dead. Imagine this amazing and talented actor doing the original scene. We were robbed!

Your post about Theon's Position in Winterfell was absolutely brilliant and I couldn't agree more. But what do you think is the reason for this misconception by so many fans. The books make it very clear. And if I remember correctly there where 3 dialogs just in season one about Theon position as an hostage. And credit where credit is due, I think those where quite good. So it really confuses me why so many fans (especially show fans) seem to misunderstand Theon's situation.

Well there is a scene with Ramsay in season 3 episode 4 where Theon literally sais "My real father lost his head at king's landing.", which tells us 2 things.

1. The showrunners have no idea about Theon Greyjoy and Ned Stark.

2. The showrunners also have no idea that being a hostage for 10 years does psychological damage to you.

I could make a really long list of characters they screwed up by just leaving so much out that the only thing left about them is the shell of their plot without having their core character traits even being there anymore, but in this case it shows so well.

Why would someone say that the man who held them prisoner for a decade is their “real father”? I get it, Ned is a great and interesting character but that doesn’t make him the best person in the world but as the seasons went on, the showrunners decided that whenever someone talked about him he became better person by modern standarts, instead of a decent person by Westeros standarts.

They  changed pretty much everything about the conversation he had with Arya in season 1, when Arya talked about it in season 8 (aka Ned is now pro Arya taking on “masculin traits” for some reason).

And that season 3 scene just shows that really well. There’s a lot more where they screwed Theon up, but at least we had the fantastic Alfie Allen playing him to make up for that.

Let’s be real here Balon (no matter which one) doesn’t even care enough about Theon to order that, but Theon doesn’t know that so I’ll give the character the benefit of the doubt.

I think we all Stockholm Syndrom Game of Thrones. We know it is not nearly as good as it could have been and it got worse after season 5 until the worst came so hard even casual watchers hated it by season 8.

But at core it brought a lot of us into this wonderful story that is based on an incredible book series, which a lot better worldbuilding, dialog and characters, but at least me, but I am sure others too got into it because of the series.

it took us captive and we can’t shake the good things it brought us, so we’re stuck in knowing how much more the characters and the world are in the books, but still have some love for the show that brought us into the washed up version of this world with it’s interesting story, that in the beginning was at core still the same that it was in the books.

Your post about Theon's Position in Winterfell was absolutely brilliant and I couldn't agree more. But what do you think is the reason for this misconception by so many fans. The books make it very clear. And if I remember correctly there where 3 dialogs just in season one about Theon position as an hostage. And credit where credit is due, I think those where quite good. So it really confuses me why so many fans (especially show fans) seem to misunderstand Theon's situation.

Well there is a scene with Ramsay in season 3 episode 4 where Theon literally sais "My real father lost his head at king's landing.", which tells us 2 things.

1. The showrunners have no idea about Theon Greyjoy and Ned Stark.

2. The showrunners also have no idea that being a hostage for 10 years does psychological damage to you.

I could make a really long list of characters they screwed up by just leaving so much out that the only thing left about them is the shell of their plot without having their core character traits even being there anymore, but in this case it shows so well.

Why would someone say that the man who held them prisoner for a decade is their “real father”? I get it, Ned is a great and interesting character but that doesn’t make him the best person in the world but as the seasons went on, the showrunners decided that whenever someone talked about him he became better person by modern standarts, instead of a decent person by Westeros standarts.

They  changed pretty much everything about the conversation he had with Arya in season 1, when Arya talked about it in season 8 (aka Ned is now pro Arya taking on “masculin traits” for some reason).

And that season 3 scene just shows that really well. There’s a lot more where they screwed Theon up, but at least we had the fantastic Alfie Allen playing him to make up for that.

This is beautiful!

One afternoon while working at a small flash studio in LA I had a vision of a Game of Thrones video.  I went home that night and animated the entire thing in 6 hours.  Then I went to work the next day.  I don’t understand how or why my brain works, but here is a thing that I made way back when.  Enjoy.  <3

On Love, Simon

Okay so Love Simon is one of many LGBTQ+ movies I have seen and I can honestly say it wasn’t my taste.

But seeing so many people react with so much happyness and especially young people having a mainstream movie to look at is wonderful.

When I was a teen you had to go and really search for happy LGBTQ+ movies, only Brokeback Mountain was widespread and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

So many LGBTQ+ movies don’t end happyly and you know what it’s amazing to see one that is so popular and spreading and getting seen by teenagers, instead of the many unhappy ones.

Don’t get me wrong there are amazing movies out there that do not feature a happy end and bad ones who do, but growing up I had to search really hard to find something happy (give me all the hurt, as long as there is comfort) and it’s just wonderful to see that that has changes.

So manybe I didn’t like Love, Simon, maybe I thought of all the movies I watched that were way better and did something better than this movie.

But fuck it, I love what this movie does to people and it makes me super happy that people are getting joy out of it. That people are getting more open, that a movie like this exists for teens to just watch and see that maybe the world won#t be all that bad in the end. Screw everything I love how many people this movie made happy!

Totally agree that Theon wasn't treated like a foster kid, and lived with the traumatizing threat of getting murdered for shit he has no control over. Totally disagree that is in any way comparable to Sansa's treatment at Lannister hands. She was literally tortured in front of the court. Repeatedly. Theon's situation is more akin to Dany's child hostages.

I think you can generally compare anything, just how much of it is the same is different.

I was refearing to Cersei thinking that Sansa should be greatful of how Cersei treated her, not Joffrey who tortured her in front of the court, specifically Cersei who was horrible to Sansa on a psychological level but from an outside perspective did everything a person in her position (aka feed her, cloth her etc.) should have done.

That Joffrey tortured Sansa is not acceptable even by Westerosi standarts.

I actually think that Cersei and Ned / Sansa and Theons position as a hostage is quiet comparable, but in the way that Ned handles it a lot more professionally and might I say better.

They both get all they need on a physical level, they spend time with their prisoners children and even come to like them to some degree (apart from Joffrey and Jon), they get educated and spend their time going what other people in their class do.

These points are all met, but the execution itself is different and Ned and Cersei’s reactions to it are different for the person in danger that does not change their position of powerlessness at all, because it is out of their reach to do something about their position.

I agree that Theon’s position is more like Dany’s cupbearers, but Dany is shown to have zero interest in killing them, wheras Robert would have definitly ordered Theon’s execution. But in terms of position/naming it is more alike. Aka hostage becomes ward and hostage becomes cupbearer.