Yara Greyjoy

Lady Yara Greyjoy, formerly Princess Yara Greyjoy, is a supporting character in HBO series Game of Thrones. She is an ironborn raider born to Balon Greyjoy and sister of Theon Greyjoy. She was based on the character Asha from A Song of Ice and Fire.
She was renamed "Yara" to avoid confusion with the wildling Osha. She was portrayed by Gemma Whelan.
== Biography ==
After Theon was sent away to be Eddard Stark's hostage Yare became a fierce warrior and took part in the family tradition of raiding and pillaging. When Theon returned home Yara didn't think much of him and was annoyed by his conflicted loyalties toward their family and Eddard's son Robb with this influencing Theon to betray the starks and side with his family in their invasion against the north.
Despite this Yara still cared for Theon and tried to convince him to abandon his occupation of Winterfell when it became obvious he was putting his life in great danger. Theon refused out of pride but Yara did not give up on him and tried to rescue him from the torture of Ramsay Bolton.
When Theon came home after escaping from Ramsay he reconciled with Yara by giving up his claim to the slat throne to support hers but they were forced to flee after their uncle Euron ordered their deaths. They met with Daenerys Targaryen and convinced her to ally with them instead of their uncle.
Theon later abandoned Yara after their ship was attacked by Euron. However she soon forgave him when he came back and rescued her, giving her brother permission to go to Winterfell and fight for the starks who he had come to consider his family.
==Differences between the storylines of Yara and Asha==
Like her personality differs from her book counterpart Asha, Yara's story in the TV show is drastically different:
*In the television series, Yara pays a visit to her brother, Prince Theon, at Winterfell prior its burning in the second season, before returning to her conquered seat Deepwood Motte after failing to convince her brother to burn Winterfell and go with her. She later abandons Deepwood at some point during the third season, leaving her garrison under a castellan's command.
**In the novel series, Asha also visits Theon at Winterfell prior the arrival of the northern army, always to convince him to go back to Deepwood with her without success, after telling him that neither their father King Balon nor their uncle Victarion will lend reinforcements to hold the castle. She only lends 10 men to Theon, who later all desert him. Unlike Yara, Asha remains at Deepwood throughout the majority of the third book, as she holds the castle and the lands of Sea Dragon Point as her prize in her father's name. Thus, unlike in the show, Asha staying with her father at Pyke early during the second book, before departing from the Iron Islands to join the war, was the last time she ever saw Balon, who is murdered by his own brother Euron's orders during the third book, only some weeks before the Red Wedding and King Robb Stark's death, making Balon the second of the Five Kings to die after King Renly Baratheon.
*In Season 3's final episode, after the Red Wedding, Yara appears back at Pyke with her father, King Balon, reading a letter from Castellan Ramsay Snow and learning about Theon's capture and mutilation in the Dreadfort, which causes her and Balon to argue about whether letting Theon get mutilated to death or give up the conquered lands of the North. After Balon chooses the former, Yara decides to sail back to the North to rescue Theon at the Dreadfort.
**Unlike the show, neither Asha nor Balon receive any letter from Ramsay about Theon's capture during the third novel, and the two only learn the news about the battle and sack of Winterfell, not from Ramsay himself. It is the drowned priest Aeron Greyjoy, not Asha, who goes back to Pyke after completing the harrying of the Stony Shore in the western coast of the North, and it is Aeron who reacts with Balon upon learning about Theon's likely death, which causes Balon to despair, unlike his TV counterpart. Asha, still in the North, rides back to Winterfell with her warriors to search for Theon's body through the castle's ruins, only to find nothing and then riding back to Deepwood. Balon is indirectly murdered by his own brother Euron, who returns to the Iron Islands the next day, while Robb Stark is still alive and traveling to the Twins.
***In this version of the books, the nobility of the Iron Islands is divided after Euron takes rule over Pyke and the islands are on the brink of civil war, a situation that is discussed by both kings Robb and Stannis Baratheon. Robb was making war plans to fight against Asha and Victarion's forces in the North, which do not come into fruition due to the Red Wedding.
*Yara reappears again in the fourth season, leading a band of ironmen to the Dreadfort in an unsuccessful attempt to take Theon back to Pyke with them, some time before the resolution of the siege of Moat Cailin in the same season. It is never said if Yara stayed at Deepwood Motte throughout the fifth season, in which she does not appear, or if she immediately sailed back to Pyke after her failed rescue mission.
**There is no sneaky raid on the Dreadfort in the novels, and for the entirety of the third novel Asha has no idea if her brother survived the battles at Winterfell or not. Theon is presumed dead by the Ironborn at this point, and Euron is facing opposition and division among the rulers of the Iron Islands.
***After learning about Balon's death, Euron's return and usurpation of Pyke, and Aeron's declaration to restore the kingsmoot to avoid a civil war of succession in the Iron Islands, Asha decides to leave Deepwood to oppose Euron's rule, leaving her seat under a smaller garrison and a castellan, to sail to Harlaw with her supporters and her captive Glovers to claim the Seastone Chair, unlike Yara in the show, who is already at Pyke by the time her father is killed.
*In Season 4, the Siege of Moat Cailin is resolved by the northmen, led by Ramsay Bolton, while Balon is still alive. For the entirety of the fifth season, there is no mention of any new war plans by the Ironborn and no mention of their status and progress in their war campaign in the North, as the story entirely cuts the Ironborn from the northern storyline in Season 5 and solely focuses King Stannis Baratheon's attention on House Bolton and the Free Folk. After her failed attempt to rescue Theon, Yara does not appear in northern storyline at all, and unlike the books, the siege of Moat Cailin is concluded way before Mance Rayder's Battle for the Wall even takes place, and before Stannis arrives at the Wall. Thus the siege ends way earlier than its book counterpart, while Tywin Lannister is also still alive.
**In the novels, the Siege of Moat Cailin last far longer after all the events in the third book and throughout many chapters of the fourth book. The siege continues long after Stannis arrived at the Wall and defeated Mance, Tywin was murdered by his own son, and Cersei Lannister took over her son's regency. The siege against the ironmen lasts throughout a good portion of the early year 300 AC, in which the fourth and fifth novel take place at the same time. By the time the kingsmoot takes place at Old Wyk and Euron is officially crowned king, the siege is still ongoing, but Asha, Victarion, and the Iron Fleet left the North to join the kingsmoot.
***The sole reason why Moat Cailin is surrendered by the surviving ironborn garrison is because Theon informs them that Euron became king and he has no interest in continuing Balon's campaign in the North, nor wish to summon the ironmen still in the North back home, meaning the garrison of Moat Cailin has to die for nothing but glory. This leads to the rage and sadness of the abandoned ironmen and Adrack Humble deciding to yield in outrage. By the time the siege of Moat Cailin is over, Asha is already back at Deepwood Motte after failing to claim the Seastone Chair.
*By the time of the beginning of the sixth season, Yara is back at Pyke, with her father Balon still alive, nearly three years after the Red Wedding and after the other rival kings died, including Stannis. Yara reports to her father that the entire ironborn occupation of the North was undone by the northmen and that her garrison at Deepwood was wiped out for last, in which the Boltons took part. Unlike his book counterpart, who is the second of the Five Kings to die, just a few weeks shortly before the Red Wedding, Balon is the last standing of them, outliving even Stannis, who in the novels is the last one standing of the Five Kings and is currently still alive. Unlike the books, Euron has not returned to the Iron Islands until Season 6, where he kills Balon early in said season. After the deaths of Stannis and Balon, Theon returns to Pyke after escaping Winterfell, which is still held by the Boltons at this time, and reunites with Yara.
**An extremely smaller, simpler, and quieter kingsmoot is held by Aeron at Pyke, with a small amount of ironmen for audience, in which only Yara and Euron participate as claimants to the Salt Throne, with Theon participating as Yara's champion.
***Unlike the show, the Ironborn storyline in the novels was never interrupted and always continued earlier since the Sack of Winterfell, even unseen directly, and plans to continue Balon's northern invasion were discussed by Victarion in the fourth book. When the kingsmoot takes place, Stannis is still at the Wall, Theon is living in a dark dungeon in the Dreadfort, the new Lord of Winterfell Ramsay is still the castellan of the Dreadfort, Lord Roose Bolton and his army are still in the Riverlands, and Winterfell is still an abandoned ruin occupied by vagabonds.
****Asha and an enormous amount of ironborn nobles from every island are all camped beneath Nagga's Hill at Old Wyk for the kingsmoot, which is a grander event than its TV counterpart, that lasts for days in the wait for all the claimants to join, filled with loud feasts and rival parties. By the time Victarion and his supporters return from Moat Cailin and join the event, Asha was already camped with her followers and welcomes her uncle back home.
*****Theon does not serve as Asha's champion, as he is still "Reek" at the Dreadfort, while the northern army is occupied with the siege of Moat Cailin. The Greyjoys are not the sole claimants to the Seastone Chair in this version, and instead they face other claimants from other houses, such as Erik Ironmaker and Dunstan Drumm. After losing the kingsmoot to Euron, Asha flees from Old Wyk with fewer supporters, stopping back at Ten Towers in Harlaw for supplies, to bid farewell to her mother, her uncle, and other maternal relatives, and then leaving the Iron Islands with Lady Sybelle Glover to return to her seat Deepwood Motte, where she lingers with her garrison. At the same time, Euron marries her to Erik, to nullify her as an opponent and gain Erik's full support.
*For the rest of the sixth season, Yara sails to Essos with Theon and their ally ironmen to reach the Kingdom of Meereen for an alliance with Queen Daenerys Targaryen, as Yara still wants to claim the Salt Throne and rule over the Iron Islands, which she still sees as her birthright.
**This highly differs from Asha, who views her failure in the kingsmoot as her defeat, because it is an old and religious ironborn custom that was restored with the independence of the Iron Islands, making Euron's claim and right to rule legal. However, because Euron is an atheist, Asha counts on her priest uncle Aeron Damphair to gain enough support to remove Euron from power, while the latter is busy with his war campaign in the Reach (in truth Aeron has been captured by Euron and dragged inside his galley, the Silence).
*While in the show it was Balon who received a letter from Ramsay at Pyke, and Yara was present, in the novels Asha receives a similar letter from Ramsay during the fifth installment, long after the kingsmoot, while back at Deepwood Motte, and most likely Dagmer too received such letter at Torrhen's Square, which he still holds with hundreds of Ironborn. While in the show Ramsay sent Theon's cut genitals to Balon and threatened to keep mutilating Theon if Balon would not order his invading forces to withdraw from the North, in the fifth book Ramsay sends Asha a piece of Theon's skin, ordering Asha to leave the North with her forces, or else she will face the same fate as that of Theon or the garrison of Moat Cailin, the latter all flayed to death. Asha, who believed Theon to be long dead, was horrified to learn he is still alive and suffering a fate worse than death.
*While Yara remained decided to claim rule over the Iron Islands and keep fighting Euron by supporting Daenerys, Asha considered such quest a thing of the past and accepted that Euron won, while back in the North. She instead was interested in Tristifer Botley's suggestion for Asha's whole party to go live in Essos as traders, by raiding and stealing from pirates and smugglers, and live as free and wealthy sailors and adventurers, an idea that Asha liked. After discussing history around previous kingsmoots with Tris, Asha realized that a kingsmoot can be considered invalid if not all claimants participated in it. Because Theon was a known claimant to the Seastone Chair, but the kingsmoot took place in his absence, and Ramsay's letter confirmed he is still alive, Asha realized she found a way to potentially and legally remove Euron as the King, having considered the idea of supporting Theon's ascension as King of the Iron Islands. This hope is quickly undone by Stannis's arrival at Deepwood Motte.
*In the show, Yara's garrison of Deepwood Motte is wiped out offscreen in a battle against the northmen, in which House Bolton also participated. Unlike Asha, Yara is not part of the battle, as she is at Pyke. Because the ironborn storyline before Season 6 was entirely left on hold since Season 4, Balon remained alive longer and died early in the sixth season, and Euron was never introduced before the Red Wedding nor in Season 4, only appearing in the sixth season, while Euron in the books begins plotting unseen since the beginning of the third book, starting by his capture of Pyat Pree's crew near Pentos, while they were pursuing Daenerys. In the TV show, Deepwood is liberated shortly after Stannis was killed in his battle against the Boltons, his story abruptly coming to an end.
**This drastically differs from the books, in which Asha is back at Deepwood after losing the kingsmoot and faces the incoming arrival of the northmen to restore the castle to House Glover. By the time Asha decides to restore Deepwood to the Glovers herself and sail all her forces back to the Iron Islands, it is too late, as Stannis Baratheon's army of southron knights and northern warriors attack Deepwood, leading to the ironmen to flee through the Wolfswood in the night in the attempt to reach Asha's ships at Sea Dragon Point. In this version, the ironmen already decided to return Deepwood to the Glovers, but they are ambushed by Stannis's army in the forest, as Stannis does not let Asha escape, and the Mormonts cut her retreat by burning or capturing her ships. After her ironmen are killed or captured, Asha surrenders and pleads to Stannis to spare her men. She is captured and becomes Stannis's "prize" to show off to the northmen, with many more northern houses joining his cause.
***This defeat is what gives Asha the definitive acceptance that she will never be the ruler of the Iron Islands nor the Lady Reaper of Pyke, which does not take with any sadness, but as a simple fact. In Asha's culture, a resume of major failures such as losing a kingsmoot and losing her own seat and getting captured, made her unworthy to rule the Ironborn, and she will never eligible as a candidate ever again.
*In the show, Yara never meets Stannis Baratheon and all her interactions with him (as well as Theon's) are omitted, with Stannis dying earlier in the fifth season and Yara only re-appearing afterward at Pyke. Thus, Yara has nothing to do with Stannis's storyline. All of Asha's role and interactions with Stannis's army, mainly Ser Justin Massey who wants to marry her, her guardian Alysane Mormont, her bully and tormentor Ser Clayton Suggs, and King Stannis himself, as well as Asha witnessing the human sacrifices by fire, and the tensions between the northmen and Stannis's aggressive and hostile supporters are entirely cut from the show.
**In the books, Asha becomes the main POV character for Stannis's storyline during the middle of the fifth book. After losing the fight by Deepwood Motte, Asha and her surviving followers are dragged back to Deepwood Motte by Stannis's army, where they become the captives and Stannis assumed temporary rule over the castle. While Asha and nine other ironmen, including Tris Botley and her lover Qarl the Maid, stay with Stannis, all the other valuable survivors are ransomed to their family members and shipped back to the Iron Islands. Stannis only ransoms or uses the captains, knights, notable warriors, and nobles, but he hangs every single other survivor. In the TV version, the entire ironborn garrison of Deepwood is wiped out. It is from Deepwood, not Castle Black, that Stannis begins marching to Winterfell, with an army made of houses of the Stormlands, the Reach, the Crownlands, and the North.
*In the show, Yara meets Theon twice after leaving him at Winterfell; once in Season 4 at the Dreadfort and again Season 6 where she reunites with him very coldly and harshly, after Theon escaped Winterfell with Sansa Stark.
**In the novels, Asha does not meet Theon again for a long time since she left him at Winterfell. Only the following year, she finally meets Theon again in the North, in a more tragic fashion and while both of them became Stannis's captives. After escaping from Winterfell with the help Mance Rayder's companions, Theon and "Arya Stark" (real name Jeyne Poole) are captured by Stannis's vanguard, led by Mors Umber, and brought to Stannis's war camp at a deserted crofter's village, three days far from Winterfell. There, Asha initially does not recognize Theon and mistakes him for an unknown old man, as he is a skeletal, white-haired, nearly toothless, and mutilated man, lo longer handsome. She is shocked and horrified when Theon calls her by name and comments how this time he is the one who recognized her while she didn't, referring to the time when Asha played him by pretending to be a commoner named "Esgred", when Theon came back to Lordsport at Pyke after nine years since Greyjoy's Rebellion.
*In the sixth season, Yara and Theon ally themselves with Daenerys Targaryen, so she can help them defeat their uncle Euron, who in the seventh season allies himself with Cersei Lannister. Yara reached Meereen and joined Daenerys's court after her victory in the second siege of Meereen.
**In the books, it is not Asha who journeys to Meereen for an alliance with Daenerys. It is King Euron himself who sends his brother Victarion and the Iron Fleet to "fetch his bride", Daenerys. Victarion is secretely plotting to "steal" Daenerys from Euron by killing her current husband and take her as his fourth wife, after having three thralls using an ancient horn called dragonbinder, an ancient artifact allegedly created by the mages of the lost Valyrian Freehold, to bind Daenerys's dragons to his will. Victarion reaches the Kingdom of Meereen while the city-state is still under the second siege (also known as the Battle of Fire), leading the Iron Fleet to join the Targaryen side against the Slaver Alliance. At the same time, Asha and Victarion's rival Euron has nothing to do with Cersei and has shown absolutely no interest in her, as he is leading the other Ironborn fleets in a war campaign against the Reach and the Arbor, causing brutal raids and major conquests of castles and towns, notably threatening Oldtown, the largest city in Westeros in the novels, pursuing grander, darker, and more mystical goals than those he publicly declared.
***Asha has nothing to do with Daenerys and Victarion's storylines, and instead she is part of Stannis's storyline. She attempts to ally herself with Stannis, proposing to fight for him against Euron and all of Stannis's other enemies, even offering to help liberating Torrhen's Square from Dagmer Cleftjaw, only to be brusquely turned down by Stannis. Asha wished to make an alliance with Stannis by offering her young body to him so he can marry her as his queen consort, but could not due to the fact that both Asha and Stannis are married to Erik Ironmaker and Selyse Florent respectively. While the Iron Islands follow polygamy, it is only legal for men, while women are only allowed to have one husband. Asha's marriage, however, is unconsummated.
*In the show, neither Yara, nor her ironmen, nor any northern houses are part of Stannis's host during the march to Winterfell and the Battle in the Ice, which is a much smaller and simpler battle than its complex and more stategic book counterpart.
**In the books, all of the aforementioned people are part of Stannis's host in the Battle in the Ice (also known as the Battle of Ice), and Asha witnessed the fire sacrifice of four cannibal soldiers of House Peasebury, done to pacificate a violent snow blizzard tormenting Stannis's forces (which the show replaced with the fire sacrifice of Shireen Baratheon). While Asha and Theon are both held captives in Stannis's camp, they are eventually joined by 6 of the 9 remaining ironmen from Deepwood Motte, who were released by Sybelle Glover after the Braavosi envoy and banker Tycho Nestoris paid their ransoms to hire them as escorts to reach Stannis. Cromm died of his wounds back at Deepwood, while two others stayed there as they are still recovering and remain too weak to travel. Currently, both Asha and Theon, along with the Karstarks and Tybald the maester of the Dreadfort are Stannis's captives and remain at the crofter's village, as Stannis and his army are awaiting for the incoming arrival of Winterfell's cavalry vanguard, made of the Houses Frey and Manderly, commanded by Ser Hosteen Frey and tasked with delivering Stannis's head to Roose Bolton.
***At the moment, aside for Asha and Theon, the six other ironmen—Tris Botley, Qarl, Fingers, Grimtongue, Roggon Rustbeard, and Rook—are also residing in Stannis's camp, but unlike the two Greyjoys they are now free men again, waiting for the battle to start, while their former employer Tycho and the fake Arya Stark are being escorted back to the Wall by Asha's former guards—Alysane Mormont and Ser Justin Massey— and black brothers of the Night's Watch previously sent with Tycho by Jon Snow.
***As Stannis wants to burn Theon alive for his crimes, Asha advised him to personally behead him beneath the weirwood heart tree of Winterfell after he takes the castle, telling that executing Theon in the name of the Old Gods will win Stannis favor of the North, rather than doing it in the name of R'hllor. Obviously, Asha's concern, which is no secret to Stannis, is to have her brother receive a more humane death.
==Trivia==
*The original speech of Asha Greyjoy for the Kingsmoot in the novels was mostly omitted (especially the part of her wish to make peace with the North) and the TV show Yara was reluctant to agree with Daenerys's demand of stopping the Ironborn's tradition way of life if they want independent.
*In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Yara is called Asha Greyjoy, but her name was changed in the TV series; possibly to prevent confusion with Osha the wildling. Ironically, as the daughter of a Great House and one of Balon Greyjoy's only two surviving children, Asha Greyjoy is actually a much more prominent character than Osha; Asha Greyjoy is even a POV character in several chapters. Thus it is curious why they changed Asha's name and not the other way around. It is probably because Osha was already introduced in Season 1 and the similarity with Asha Greyjoy's name wasn't realized until production on Season 2 began.
**In the German dub of the TV series, however, the name of Asha remained unchanged.
*Different from Asha, Yara's sexuality was changed in TV series, as there was a scene in the Season 6 episode "The Broken Man" that described Yara kissing with a half-naked Volantene prostitute after she arrived near the Free City. After the episode's release, the staff of the Game of Thrones Wiki, now called Wiki of Westeros, contacted George R. R. Martin himself for confirmation, and Martin had confirmed that Asha in the novels is neither a lesbian nor bisexual. In the novels, Asha has actually a lover, Qarl the Maid, and it is also known that she had a former childhood lover, Tristifer Botley. She also had multiple lovers or one-night stands with other men, and lost her virginity to a Lysene pirate.
*While the Kingsmoot in A Feast of Crows also results in Euron's victory, it takes place under different circumstances from the TV series. Firstly, the Kingsmoot takes place on Old Wyk, at Nagga's Hill, rather than Pyke. Instead of a two horse race between Yara and Euron, her book counterpart Asha has to face several candidates including her other uncle Victarion Greyjoy. Asha manages to humiliate one of her opponents, Erik Ironmaker, by daring him to stand on his two feet. Erik's support evaporates when he is unable to rise. Unlike the TV series, Asha campaigns on a peace platform castigating Balon's war and advocating making peace with the North in return for some lands of Sea Dragon Point. In the novel, the Kingsmoot almost ends in a fight between Asha and Victarion's supporters until Euron manages to win the Ironborn over by having one of his mutes, Cragorn, blow an enchanted Valyrian horn, the Dragonbinder. Following Euron's victory, Asha and her supporters travel overland through Old Wyk before sailing back to Ten Towers, and then to Deepwood Motte in the North. In A Dance of Dragons, Euron does not intend to kill his niece and nephew; believing the latter to be dead. Instead, he uses a seal to marry Asha to Erik Ironmaker, who rules the Iron Islands in Euron's absence.
*Another small change is that in the books, "Asha Greyjoy" has short black hair, a lean build, and a sharp beak of a nose. In the TV series, "Yara Greyjoy" has brown hair.
*After Season 2, Yara only briefly appeared once in Season 3 and once in Season 4, then not at all in Season 5, before returning as a major presence in Season 6 for the substantial Kingsmoot subplot from the fourth novel. After her return in episode 6.2 "Home", actress Gemma Whelan was asked in interviews if she ever knew when Yara would be returning for her major subplot. Her response was that she never really knew when the Greyjoy storyline would return to focus with the later Kingsmoot subplot: even by Seasons 2 and 3 the production team felt lucky enough to get renewed one season at a time. Thus they didn't have any firmly established plans about whether the Yara/Kingsmoot subplot would appear in Season 5, Season 6, or not appear at all - though Whelan was made aware that Yara could potentially have had much more to do several seasons into the future, but nothing was definitive. She simply had to hope along with the audience that it would eventually appear in the TV series at some point.
*Yara and Theon's storyline of Season 6 was vaguely based on the storyline of Victarion Greyjoy (who was omitted in TV series) in A Dance of Dragons and The Winds of Winter.
*During the kingsmoot, Yara claims that the Ironborn "never left a mark in the world". This line by the show's screenwriters is inaccurate and untrue to the lore, in which historically the Ironborn were dreaded and successful conquerors who used to terrorize, raid, and even rule entire major parts of the Seven Kingdoms, having even defeated the Kingdoms of the Reach and the Storm and ruled the Riverlands for some generations, having posed a major threat against the Kingdom of the North before the Coming of the Andals, having ruled Bear Island, and having gained major alliances by marriage, most notably with the Kingdom of the Rock, as Lelia Lannister was the Queen Consort of the Iron Islands. And the biggest mark left on Westeros by the Ironborn is their former castle Harrenhal, the largest castle in the continent. 
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