What if Theon had drowned his family?

[devilish]

On 18/07/2016 at 5:49 PM, thelittledragonthatcould said:

And betray his family and become a pariah to them as a result? Sounds pretty dumb. Had Jon Arryn and Rickard gone to war when Ned was a teenager there is zero chance that Ned would have picked the Vale over his own family. Theon is in the same boat.

And have been for thousands of years, I'm not sure your point here?

How is Robb, without a Navy, going to deal with them?

 

 

As for Theon drowning his family, that may have stood a chance if Balon was not a beloved figure amongst the Ironborn. A 'greenlander' killing Balon and Asha would be hugely unpopular and both Victarion and Aeron would react to it, as would the pragmatic Harlaw when his niece was murdered. Theon would be a dead man walking on the Iron Islands and would find no safety anywhere else as a kinslayer.

 

That's true but for hundreds of years they didn't had someone whose a Greyjoy and who embraced the Westerosi ways. That's quite significant. Westeros would unite again one day or another and the iron islands would be crushed eventually. If Theon was able to keep his vows then he would be considered as a prime candidate to inherit the title of Lord Paramount irrespective of whom wins.

You may think its far fetched but putting brainwashed lackeys as leaders had been a reasonably successful tactic used by empires for hundreds of years. For example, by Jesus time, everyone in Israel with an ounce of power was appointed by Rome. The empire  reserved the right to sack high priests and governors at their will. Herod was also a puppet king who knelt at every Roman emperor of the time.