The fanny from hell

Agree. And who cares about those, honestly? A writer can't please everyone.

Another aspect I thought about: there's a subsection of book readers who love the military/strategy angle on ASOIAF. And it's been known for ages that the closer the series got to its end, the more prevalent the magical aspect would be. But this chapter brought home not only how big a role magic would play, which we could infer from other POV's, but a special aspect about it: this guy, Euron Greyjoy, will be bending the natural order on a big scale to turn the tides (pun intended) in a battle, and perhaps even summon creatures from the sea. This development is bound to annoy some of that subset of readers.

If anything, this chapter has proved that the Grejoy characters are very underrated by the fandom. It's debatable whether Theon belongs to them in the narrative sense, but there's a reason for House Greyjoy to have more POV characters than any other family beside the Starks.

Certainly, that's as preposterous as the other side of the spectrum claiming Victarion is the evilest of evil characters in ASOIAF. He's certainly done fucked up things (top of which would be the murder of his salt wife, which still torments him BTW), but he's got redeeming qualities, unlike Euron as far as we know. I'm totally on board with the idea that certain individuals are indeed "born" evil or, better put, are evil from the age children usually can tell right from wrong. Whether Euron falls into this category remains to be seen. For those craving for "nuance" in every single character, the "failed greenseer" probable backstory is certainly one. As is being raised in a culture like the Ironborn and being Balon's heir during his youth, both of which would provide a good environment for his psychopathic tendencies to thrive. It's very likely Quellon paid too much attention to his first born in detriment to all his other kids, which would be another factor (TWOIAF's relation of Balon as a precocious overachiever and that Aeron's and Urrigon's abuse went unpunished support this).

I can't help but laugh at those who smugly decry Euron as an "uninteresting villain" because he's not complicated or a deeply conflicted character. Newsflash: not every villain needs to be Walter White, nor should be. That Euron is, morally speaking, very straightforward makes him "uninteresting" or a "badly written character"? Funny that real-life irredeemable psychopaths such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, Jack Unterweger, etc. have fascinated generations of people, and no, not only "weirdos" or "goths". Excellent chapter, and I'm hyped. I've always liked the Damphair, and hopefully we'll at least see one more POV from him.