We can’t blame Game of Thrones for playing favourites. We all do. In a series full of diverse characters and complex plot lines, some things get missed while others get highlighted. The Greyjoys have had very little airtime. So far, all the rulers of Iron Islands have to their credit is a few fleeting references and painfully short sequences.
Last week, however, the Iron Islands saw more action than the first four seasons combined. After a hiatus of a season and a half, we met the Greyjoys. Those who know them through George RR Martin’s novels that are the source of the HBO series will note that the Greyjoys and the Iron Islands play a larger and more significant part in the series, most of which has been edited in favour of the more trend-worthy houses and characters.
This left a large part of the audience wondering why last week’s episode was a big deal, and what is this “Kingsmoot” that the internet is going on about. Let’s try to catch up.
The Iron Islands are a part of Westeros and ruled from Pyke, which is both the island and castle of House Greyjoy and home to the Seastone Chair. The head of the House is Balon Greyjoy (Patrick Malahide), who lost two of his sons during the rebellion against Robert Baratheon, and his third and only living son, Theon (Alfie Allen), as a ward and hostage of the Stark family.
But Balon Greyjoy also has a daughter, Yara (Asha in the books). Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) is the pirate princess of the Iron Islands. The islands are a tough, cruel place. The Iron-born pay the price for everything – they kill and capture instead of negotiating or trading. The bold and brazen Yara commands her own longship and can pillage and murder better than any other man on the island.
Game of Thrones is no stranger to strong women. Be it the mother of dragons, Brienne of Taarth, the furious Ellaria Sand, or the ever-amazing Arya Stark, the series often places its female characters at the centre. However, at some point or the other, each of them has had to endure the misogyny prevalent in Westoros.
But Yara is raised to be the heir to Pyke. Balon brings up his daughter like a son – and she is more than willing to be a pirate rather than a lady.
In season 2, when we first meet her, she is favoured by her father over Theon, who has returned to Pyke as an emissary of Robb Stark. Theon is ridiculed and asked to prove his worth as an Iron-born again, while Yara is chosen to lead the assault on the North. She does so successfully. While Theon struggles to get any respect from his crew, Yara is a part of her unruly lot of sea fighters – drinking, eating and fighting with them as an equal.
Yara is an aggressive warrior but not reckless. When Theon murders the Stark boys, she calls him out for not realising their worth as hostages. She believes she is the true heir to the Seastone chair, but she is also fiercely loyal to her brother. When Ramsay sends Balon the severed genitals of Theon, she goes against her father’s wishes to rescue her brother. But she is also wise enough to recognise a lost cause when she sees one. Theon, broken and butchered, refuses to leave with his sister. She then returns to Iron Islands, declaring that her brother is dead.
And now there is a bit of a family reunion happening. Balon Greyjoy has been murdered by his younger brother Euron, who was banished from the Iron Islands. Euron is back and proclaims that he is in fact the Drowned God (the god of the Iron-born). Another uncle has returned, Aeron Greyjoy (played by Michael Feast).
Yara has sworn revenge. Theon, weak and a lot less entitled, is by her side. She is going to challenge her uncle Euron for her right to the Seastone chair at the Kingsmoot, which is Iron Island’s version of a democratic election for a new ruler.
Yara would make a great queen. She is a strong and level-headed commander and her men look up to her and fight for her. No woman has won the Kingsmoot yet, but then there has been no woman like Yara in Game of Thrones either.