The Greyjoy Rebellion

"The Greyjoy Rebellion" is the second short of the eighth season of Histories & Lore. It is the hundred and seventeenth short of the series overall. It was released on December 3, 2019 in Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season. It was narrated by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister and Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy, and written by Dave Hill.
==Premise==
==Narration==
Jaime Lannister: It should not be hard to recruit lords into a war against an enemy known as "the Mad King." We can even understand the lords who chose to honor their oaths and fight for him. But the krakens of House Greyjoy sat out Robert's Rebellion on Pyke with their tentacles up their arse.
Euron Greyjoy: My father Quellon was old, and sitting is what old people do best. Well, second best. He would have sat out the whole war if not for my brother and me. We convinced him that nobody would fear the wolves of the sea if we curled up by our fires while others feasted on the spoils of the Mad King.
So the old man creaked into his rusty armor and set sail for the Reach only to be routed by Tyrell longboats. When my father sadly fell in battle, my older brother Balon beat a tactical retreat to his own inheritance as the new Lord of the Iron Islands.
Jaime Lannister: I'd rather die in the Reach than live on the Iron Islands.
Euron Greyjoy: The roses are prettier to pluck. But my brother was getting old and felt that longing to sit, and the Seastone Chair was as good a place as any.
Within a few years, he realized that sitting is only fun if everyone else has to stand. He had the priest reforge...
No, that's not right. They picked up sticks on the beach, wove them into a new ancient driftwood crown, and declared Balon the King of the Iron Islands.
Unfortunately for my brother, the other king in Westeros, Robert Baratheon, was famously bad at sharing, and his father-by-law and Warden of the West, Tywin Lannister, had a mighty fleet at Lannisport within striking distance of the Iron Islands.
Jaime Lannister: Yes, you were very clever. And how brave burning our ships at anchor in the night.
Euron Greyjoy: They would have burned the same in daylight. Lions are lazy beasts. You didn't rouse until long after I set fire to your proud mane.
I planned it all, you know? My first torch took your father's flagship. If it makes you feel better, we didn't loot it. Out of respect and time.
Jaime Lannister: I don't think I ever saw Robert happier than the day he heard about the Greyjoy Rebellion. He'd been king for a handful of years and many handfuls of other things, and it was clear to him and everyone else how ill-suited he was to rule. But battle, he could do. Unfortunately, by the time we raised our army, we seemed to be winning the war.
Balon's eldest son, your nephew, died trying to storm Seagard, and his men were thrown back into the arms of their Drowned God. If we wanted battle, we'd have to hurry north before the Ironborn put down their own rebellion.
Euron Greyjoy: And we would have if I'd had my way. Rebelling was a stupid idea.
Jaime Lannister: Never stopped your people before.
Euron Greyjoy: Before Balon put those sticks on his head, I told him that if he wanted to rule the Iron Islands, all he had to do was give King Robert a tour of them. Why waste our forces fighting a war we couldn't win for a place our enemy wouldn't want?
With the Iron Fleet, we could reave not just Westeros, but the rich lands beyond the Sunset Sea. But my brother was too attached to that Seastone Chair. He commanded me to sail the Iron Fleet against Robert's navy before he could ferry his army to Pyke.
Jaime Lannister: A navy commanded by Robert's younger brother Stannis, most known for sitting in a besieged castle eating dogs and horses. Remind me, how did you fare against a man who'd never commanded ships in battle?
Euron Greyjoy: Nearly too well.
Jaime Lannister: Stannis smashed your Iron Fleet at Fair Isle.
Euron Greyjoy: After I sailed it into a strait, where our numbers and the size of our ships would work against us. It took some doing to convince my men to rush into such an obvious trap. Stannis was not a subtle man.
Jaime Lannister: You would rather claim treason than defeat?
Euron Greyjoy: Victory would have only delayed it. We couldn't hold off Robert's forces forever, but we could waste enough Ironborn that we wouldn't even fill our own islands after the war. I made sure the Silence escaped.
That was enough for me. That, and watching your army smash my brother's castle soon afterwards.
Jaime Lannister: Why didn't you just abandon him after Fair Isle? Why risk your precious life fighting for him at Pyke?
Euron Greyjoy: I wanted to kill the best knights in Westeros.
Jaime Lannister: You failed.
Euron Greyjoy: So did you. I expected pursuit when I fled Pyke on the Silence. But I suppose you were too busy not punishing my brother to not punish the man who burned your father's fleet. And now, I'm back.
Jaime Lannister: You were back. But what is the King of the Iron Islands when he's off the Iron Islands?
Euron Greyjoy: I will never see those shit-stained rocks again. But I'm getting old, and I find myself wanting to sit down as my father and brother did in their time. They just chose the wrong chair.
==Appearances==
===Individuals===
*Ser Jaime Lannister
*King Euron Greyjoy
*King Aerys II Targaryen
*King Robert Baratheon
*Lord Quellon Greyjoy
*King Balon Greyjoy
*Lord Tywin Lannister
*Prince Rodrik Greyjoy
*Lord Stannis Baratheon
===Houses===
*House Greyjoy
*House Targaryen
*House Baratheon
*House Baratheon of King's Landing
*House Tyrell
*House Lannister
*House Baratheon of Dragonstone
===Events===
*Greyjoy Rebellion
**Raid on Lannisport
**Sea battle off Fair Isle
**Siege of Pyke
*Robert's Rebellion
**Battle at the Mander
**Siege of Storm's End
===Locations===
*Westeros
**Iron Islands
***Pyke
****Pyke castle
**The Westerlands
***Lannisport
***Fair Isle
**The Crownlands
***King's Landing
****Red Keep
*****Throne room
==Cast==
*Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
*Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy
==Behind the scenes==
*This is the fourth of four shorts on the Greyjoy Rebellion.
*Similarly to the show ("Dragonstone"), Euron claims he led the Ironborn attack on the Lannister fleet; in the books, Euron planned the attack, but his brother Victarion Greyjoy was the one who led the ironborn, and he personally threw the first torch at Tywin's flagship. As in the novels (A Feast for Crows, The Reaver), it is typical to Euron to make plans, send others to execute them, and eventually take all the credit to himself.
*According to the novels, it was not Euron but Victarion who commanded the Iron Fleet at a sea battle off Fair Isle.
*There is no mention, neither in this short nor the former three shorts about the Greyjoy Rebellion, that Jaime participated in the Siege of Pyke or in any other stage of the rebellion. This is consistent with the novels, in which Jaime is never mentioned whenever the rebellion is referred to, but inconsistent with the show ("Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things", "Dragonstone", "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"), according to Jaime fiercely fought against the Ironborn at Pyke. 
*Euron gives very lame excuses for the defeat at Fair Island, as if he wanted to lose, and deliberately led the Iron Fleet into an obvious trap set by Stannis; he claims that a victory would have only delayed the inevitable outcome of the rebellion. Jaime easily refutes Euron's poor reasoning by pointing out that Euron could have defected, but stayed and fought at Pyke. Euron's answer, that he wanted to kill the best knights in Westeros, is also an unconvincing excuse, especially in view of his admission "Rebelling was a stupid idea" (Tyrion says the same in "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"). It is unlikely the selfish and treacherous Euron would risk his neck for a lost cause.
==Gallery==
Game of Thrones Season 8 Histories and Lore - The Greyjoy Rebellion
==References==
Category:Shorts narrated by Euron Greyjoy
Category:Shorts narrated by Jaime Lannister
 02
 
C.03B
Category:Shorts written by Dave Hill