It can be hard to tell how Game of Thrones characters are going to react to each other after a long time apart, but we’re days away from witnessing a scene that could have any number of possible outcomes.
And holy heck is it going to be ... fun? Let’s go with fun.
[Warning] The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones' seventh season.
Game of Thrones has featured a number of reunions and historic meetings in season seven, but this week’s episode is going to show us something very interesting based on the promotional images: What happens when Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy see other again on Dragonstone?
This is a big deal
Melisandre was wise to slip out of Dragonstone before being spotted by Snow or Davos, and the fact she’s still alive at all is due to her resurrection of Jon. The debt for her past sins in general — not to mention the immolation of Shireen in particular — has somewhat been paid by that act, but both men threaten her life if they were to meet again. So she finds their presence to be a compelling reason to get the hell out of there.
Theon may not have the same option.
We know why he shows up at Dragonstone. Daenerys had asked if “all” the Greyjoys are dead or had been captured, and we then see Theon pulled from the water. He tried to claim that he attempted to save Yara, but it was pointed out that any attempt would have ended in his death.
So the men on that ship have a pretty good idea about how Theon reacted to Euron when they met, even if the viewers may have more sympathy for his PTSD-like symptoms after being a victim of so much violence and directed torture.
But his name still gives him power, and Daenerys would want to meet with a surviving Greyjoy who is sympathetic to her cause. And this is where things get interesting.
Theon may have suffered at the hands of Ramsay Bolton, but we have to remember what an insufferable asshole he was before that situation. Not that I’m saying he deserved to be brainwashed, castrated and held captive ... but Theon’s surprise capture of Winterfell was never a good idea, and it ended poorly for just about everyone involved. And that includes the Boltons.
A lot of blood was spilled along the way, though. And it’s blood that Snow likely has not forgotten. The two men grew up together at Winterfell, and Theon’s betrayal was as dishonorable as it was ill-advised. Jon has many good reasons to wish to kill Theon on sight, especially since Theon’s actions look even worse when you consider the vast holes in Snow’s knowledge of what exactly happened and when.
Theon helped Sansa escape Ramsay, sure, but does Jon know that? It’s also important to remember that most people believe that Bran and Rickon were killed by Theon. Snow knows that Rickon survived, at least until Ramsay’s arrow at the Battle of the Bastards, but he has no way to know that Bran is back at Winterfell.
Which brings up the whole other question about whether Bran is going to be able to tell Jon about his relation to Daenerys before those two very attractive individuals make out.
But I digress. Bran is alive and at Winterfell, Theon helped Sansa escape Ramsay, a living Greyjoy is still a pretty nice thing to have around and the show has simply spent too long giving Theon reasons to be hated and then pitied for Jon to kill him on sight. That being said, this is another example of how the speed of information informs the story, and how much of all this violence could be avoided if Daenerys had walked into the flames and emerged with three cell phones instead of baby dragons.