How is Euron different from other Ironborn?

[Ordos]

I have read some threads of how particularly evil Euron is and I cannot understand how he is any worse than say Balon or Victarion or any other Ironborn.

I do not understand why Aeron has a particular dislike for Euron. He rapes and plunders like any Ironborn. He takes what he wants because he can. Just like any other Ironborn he 'Pays the Iron price'.

In my view he is your typical Ironborn with two key differences: He is more intelligent and has grander schemes when compared to other Ironborn. He plans to take all of Westeros with dragons by forging an alliance with Dany. He also knew that the Reach was weak so he attacked.

If Aeron just wants to stick to coastal raids as Victarion will do, then that is just a disagreement in policy. Euron is a strong leader and can lead the Ironborn to greatness. He is more than qualified to be King of the Iron Islands.

It seems Aeron dislikes Euron for more reasons than just being the most powerful force in Westeros as opposed to coastal raids and isolationism. What is it?

Also his plan is better than Victarion's because having no allies and just doing coastal raids is in the long term unsustainable. Sooner or later their enemies will get together and fight back. Look what happened with the Greyjoy rebellion. So Euron instead decides to build an empire by taking all of Westeros.

[joluoto2]

He has the smarts. Ironborn don't like that. He behaves like a furreiner.

[Ramsay B.]

There has been some speculation that Euron sexually abused Aeron when he was younger. On a few occasions, he thinks about the noise the rusty hinges made on the door when Euron used to enter his room when he was younger. He fears Euron and those bad memories obviously have something to do with it.

[Davos Greyjoy]

I think most Ironborn are very superstitious, or "religious" depending on how you look at it. His own family are scared that he will lead them to doom. Kin slaying , King slaying, doing his brothers wife,,,,

[Blutraven]

It's implied that Euron raped or at least sexually abused Aeron as a child, which leads to Aeron's particular hatred of Euron. He also had sex with Victarion' s wife and is generally believed to not be a godly man.

[N/A]

he has an eye patch ,it makes all the difference in the world :pirate:

[Blutraven]

Double post

[Kienn]

he has an eye patch ,it makes all the difference in the world :pirate:

Definitely this. The rest of the ironborn don't appreciate being turned into a stereotype.

[I am a bastard's bastard]

I dunno if its just the povs we get of him but i always hated the creepy sexy pirate sorcerer uncle. way more so than any the other ironborn.

mighty potato has it right i think its the eye patch

[Iona]

Aeron is a priest of the Drowned God. Euron hangs out with sorcerers and drinks shade of the evening. So no love on that front.

Then there's that rusty hinge creepy stuff we don't know all about, could be a factor.

Don't know if Aeron knows about the dirty trick Euron did to Victarion's wife, but I think he very well might.

Euron has a crew of mute people (guys who had their tongues cut, ffs!) on his ship.

Euron just happens to arrive back from his exile the day after Balon accidentally falls off a bridge...

I really can't blame Aeron for feeling the way he does about Euron.

[Return of the Third Reed]

Euron is, essentially, the man Victarion, Aeron et al wish they could be.

[Winter's Knight]

This. This is why they hate Euron.

[Danelle]

• Religion, The Ironborn are devout. The Drowned God doesn't necessarily have to be a kind or benevolent deity, but he is a god, whose worship is strongly linked to the culture of the Ironborn. The Ironborn are pious and devoted to their god. I think that the only time that an Ironborn converted to another religion, was when Baelor Blacktyde was sent to Oldtown and became a follower of the Seven. I think that Asha, Theon and Victarion, three different characters with different personalities and attitudes, think of the Drowned God in their pov's. And what does Euron has to say about religion?

  Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray.

  Apparently Euron enjoys to offend and challenge others. This is not typical Ironbrn behaviour.

• Euron's actions in regards to hostages and war prisoners are also controversial, even by Ironborn standards.

  "Sold?" There were no slaves in the Iron Islands, only thralls. A thrall was bound to service, but he was not chattel. His children were born free, so long as they were given to the Drowned God. And thralls were never bought nor sold for gold. A man paid the iron price for thralls, or else had none.

  The children of thralls and salt wives could enjoy more benefits than their parents, as long as they converted to the worship of the Drowned God. The smallfolk of Lord Hewett's Town were instead sold to slavery. Not only that, but the events that took place after Euron captured Lord Hewett's castle are particularly revolting, even by Ironborn standards.

  He shames Hewett as he once shamed me, the captain thought, remembering how his wife had sobbed as he was beating her. The men of the Four Shields oft married one another, he knew, just as the ironborn did. One of these naked serving wenches might well be Ser Talbert Serry's wife. It was one thing to kill a foe, another to dishonor him. Victarion made a fist. His hand was bloody where his wound had soaked through the linen.

  Victarion wanted Talbert Serry dead, he was his enemy, he had to vanquish him. The desire to defeat your enemy and take away his wealth and assets is acceptable by the Ironborn. The need to humiliate your enemy, even after he has been defeated, to have him watch as his wife and daughters serve the Ironborn naked, and they are later sexually abused as a result, is not expected.

Euron is apparently more dangerous than the rest of his family

Balon was mad, Aeron is madder, and Euron is maddest of them all.

He doesn't simply want to rebel and declare himself King of the Iron islands, he doesn't care about the watery halls of the Drowned God. I think that the only time that the Ironborn extended their rule beyond the Islands was during the reign of Harwyn Hoare. It wasn't until Aegon's Landing, when the Ironborn were forced to withdraw back to their islands. I don't think that Euron cares about the Iron Islands or the Ironborn at all.

Euron chuckled. "And for the Seastone Chair. It is yours, once I claim the Iron Throne. You shall follow me as I followed Balon . . . and your own trueborn sons shall one day follow you."

"Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap."

"Tell me true, nuncle," Asha said, "why did Euron go away so suddenly?"

"The Crow's Eye oft went reaving."

"Never for so long."

"He took the Silence east. A lengthy voyage."

"I asked why he went, not where." When he did not answer, Asha said, "I was away when Silence sailed. I had taken Black Wind around the Arbor to the Stepstones, to steal a few trinkets from the Lyseni pirates. When I came home, Euron was gone and your new wife was dead."

"Ironborn must not spill the blood of ironborn."

Apparently the incident with Victarion's thrid wife was so controversial that Balon had to sent Euron to exile.

Not to mention that certain powerful lords are not easily impressed and have good reasons to fear the Tyrells

Lord Rodrik's mouth puckered. "These rocks, you mean? All four together wouldn't make Harlaw. We have won some stones and trees and trinkets, and the enmity of House Tyrell."

"The roses?" Nute laughed. "What rose can harm the krakens of the deep? We have taken their shields from them, and smashed them all to pieces. Who will protect them now?"

"Highgarden," replied the Reader. "Soon enough all the power of the Reach will be marshaled against us, Barber, and then you may learn that some roses have steel thorns."

And then there is his attitude during the Kingsmoot. He knew when to strike and how exactly. He knows the weaknesses of others and usesthem against them. During the Kingsmoot, the conteders for the Seastone Chair had not only to convince the Ironborn but mostly to impress them. Asha simply offers peace, Victarion simply offers war and Euron simply offers them everything.

but I shall give you Lannisport. Highgarden. The Arbor. Oldtown. The riverlands and the Reach, the kingswood and the rainwood, Dorne and the marches, the Mountains of the Moon and the Vale of Arryn, Tarth and the Stepstones. I say we take it all! I say, we take Westeros." He glanced at the priest. "All for the greater glory of our Drowned God, to be sure."

And how Aeron reacts to that?

Aeron Damphair reached within himself for his god and discovered only silence. As a thousand voices shouted out his brother's name, all he could hear was the scream of a rusted iron hinge.

[Return of the Third Reed]

This. This is why they hate Euron.

God, she said she'd keep those portraits to herself.

[TalalOfDorne]

Well for one thing he is not a godly man

He also goes overboard concerning some things he does.

[Gneisenau]

I do not understand why Aeron has a particular dislike for Euron. He rapes and plunders like any Ironborn. He takes what he wants because he can. Just like any other Ironborn he 'Pays the Iron price'.

People can hate people who are of the same culture for any arbitrary reason.

[Muggle]

Even Theon appears to be afraid and hate him. And Theon left the island as a boy. Look at this snip from his sample chapter in TWOW

Theon remembered. An old man, huge and powerful, with a ruddy face and a shaggy white beard. He had been seated on a garron, clad in the pelt of a gigantic snow bear, its head his hood. Under it he wore a stained white leather eye patch that reminded Theon of his uncle Euron. He'd wanted to rip it off Umber's face, to make certain that underneath was only an empty socket, not a black eye shining with malice.

[Ordos]

• Religion, The Ironborn are devout. The Drowned God doesn't necessarily have to be a kind or benevolent deity, but he is a god, whose worship is strongly linked to the culture of the Ironborn. The Ironborn are pious and devoted to their god. I think that the only time that an Ironborn converted to another religion, was when Baelor Blacktyde was sent to Oldtown and became a follower of the Seven. I think that Asha, Theon and Victarion, three different characters with different personalities and attitudes, think of the Drowned God in their pov's. And what does Euron has to say about religion?

  Apparently Euron enjoys to offend and challenge others. This is not typical Ironbrn behaviour.

• Euron's actions in regards to hostages and war prisoners are also controversial, even by Ironborn standards.

  The children of thralls and salt wives could enjoy more benefits than their parents, as long as they converted to the worship of the Drowned God. The smallfolk of Lord Hewett's Town were instead sold to slavery. Not only that, but the events that took place after Euron captured Lord Hewett's castle are particularly revolting, even by Ironborn standards.

  Victarion wanted Talbert Serry dead, he was his enemy, he had to vanquish him. The desire to defeat your enemy and take away his wealth and assets is acceptable by the Ironborn. The need to humiliate your enemy, even after he has been defeated, to have him watch as his wife and daughters serve the Ironborn naked, and they are later sexually abused as a result, is not expected.

Euron is apparently more dangerous than the rest of his family

He doesn't simply want to rebel and declare himself King of the Iron islands, he doesn't care about the watery halls of the Drowned God. I think that the only time that the Ironborn extended their rule beyond the Islands was during the reign of Harwyn Hoare. It wasn't until Aegon's Landing, when the Ironborn were forced to withdraw back to their islands. I don't think that Euron cares about the Iron Islands or the Ironborn at all.

Apparently the incident with Victarion's thrid wife was so controversial that Balon had to sent Euron to exile.

Not to mention that certain powerful lords are not easily impressed and have good reasons to fear the Tyrells

And then there is his attitude during the Kingsmoot. He knew when to strike and how exactly. He knows the weaknesses of others and usesthem against them. During the Kingsmoot, the conteders for the Seastone Chair had not only to convince the Ironborn but mostly to impress them. Asha simply offers peace, Victarion simply offers war and Euron simply offers them everything.

And how Aeron reacts to that?

All good points but that does not defeat the point that a culture that embraces plunder, milder forms of slavery and isolationism and endless war makes it easier for individuals like Euron to thrive and get away with more extreme crimes as the standards of what is justice are less clear cut compared to places like say... Braavos.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

I don't than he is that different. He just hides his true face and he is not a godly man.

[VivaVictarion2]

Sorry to go back to the rusty hinge thing again, but I've always thought it entirely possible that the screamin' hinge is from a dungeon door in Lannisport. Although there is solid evidence that Aeron spent a lot of time in holdings "befitting his station" as a lord (If i recall correctly, he got drunk with Lannister men while prisoner), I'm sure he spent at least some time in a dark dungeon like a common soldier. After all, he washed up on shore and seemed near death, so his i.d. as Balon's bro couldn't be confirmed right away.