Aeron Greyjoy - The Damphair

Saucer and I have agreed to do a post on characters/players that are not our favorites. So this post is dedicated to my least favorite character. I am not ashamed to admit that I would prefer to read chapters written from Joffrey's point of view than this boring priest or whatever he is supposed to be:

Ok I will admit he looks sort of cool here

Maybe I am being a little too hard on him, but Aeron Greyjoy came along at exactly the wrong time for me. I'm not really the biggest fan of the Greyjoys in general. It took me awhile to warm up to Theon's chapters. But his story did eventually become interesting. Plus, he interacted with familiar characters. It's not like I am racist again the Ironborn, but I just don't care so much about their plight or storylines. They are savage men of the sea and I really don't have a lot of interest in them. That said, I think their involvement WILL be important and I like Theon and Asha and am warming up to Victarion.

But back to Aeron. He is Theon's uncle and the youngest brother of House Greyjoy. He apparently used to be a big drinker and could win pissing contests (seriously)! But after a near-death experience at see where he almost drowned (not to mention held prisoner by the Lannisters), he had a spiritual awakening. He now follows the "Drowned God", has long hippy-seaweed hair and drowns potential followers. Then he attempts to "revive" them with an old school CPR method. If he succeeds, they get to be his followers, called the "Drowned Men". Aeron himself is called "The Damphair". As I was searching for pictures to use for Damphair, I realized that he was on the show last season! Look at this:

 

Well I'll be damned! Was I falling asleep during this scene or something? Note to re-watch Season 2 now! I appears as though he is attempting to drown Theon in one of his stupid ceremonies. I don't remember this happening in the book, but who knows. They are long books and Theon's chapters (especially the early ones) sometimes bored the crap out of me. But I still don't think Theon was drowned. It doesn't mention it on the wiki page so whatever!

Reasons I hate Damphair: Now that I wrote his background, he actually is kind of interesting. But as I said before, he couldn't have come at a worse time. After the amazing A Sword of Storms, I was super excited for A Feast for Crows. Even though I had prepared myself in advance for NO Tyrion, NO Dany and NO Jon Snow, it was still tough. I didn't get to hang out with some of my favorites and spent too much time with others (Sam and Brienne). And to top it all off, we get saturated with two new Houses (Greyjoys and Martells). Of course I knew who they were, but I wasn't prepared to jump into their heads. They had been more or less in the background before. And the very first unfamiliar POV chapter was the Damphair and it was so boring. I am sorry to say it, but it really was super dull. I don't think I am alone. I have read on message boards that there are people who skipped the Damphair chapters, but I don't do that. I love these books and feel that everything is important, even if it's not my favorite. Plus, I am glad I kept reading because both the Ironborn and the Martell storylines came through (but not because of Damphair) and I like their chapters now. But that doesn't mean I still don't hate the damn Damphair. He is a hardass and humorless and seems like a real Debbie Downer. He hates his brother Euron and he organizes that whole Kingsmoot thing. I am too tired to go into that one! It will have to wait for another post. But Damphair disappears after the Kingsmoot and his fate is unknown. Bad for him, but good for me. We haven't had an Aeron Greyjoy chapter since!

Awesome artwork of the Kingsmoot

Reasons I love Damphair: Ugh I don't really like him at all. But I suppose he would be helpful to have around if you were about to drown and needed to come back to the light!

The Rest: I am going to skip my high school and Sticks section tonight. Mainly because I am super tired but also because Damphair just isn't worth it. He is like some crazy born again dude who drowns people. It is hinted there is more to him, but we don't see it. And I don't want some poor hockey player to be stuck with Damphair as his Game of Thrones alter ego. That is just mean and unfair. Unless you can think of a good one? Saucer? Anyone? I didn't think so!

~Beddee