Theon vs. Ramsay: Redemption or Ruin in the Fight for Father's Approval

If you are anything like me and House of the Dragon has awakened the Game of Thrones bug in you this is for you.

In season 3 of GOT, audiences (and Theon) get traumatized

by intense torture scenes and the creation of Reek (Theon). Unseemly there is something sinister about these two characters, both are the legal heirs (or become legal heirs) to their respective fathers, but one is a bastard and the other was raised by his father's enemy making them both disappointments to their fathers.

The two also commit villainous acts; Theon takes over Winterfell, (where the Starks raised him) killing many of his friends, as well as two orphaned boys, charring their bodies to pretend they are Rikkon and Bran Stark. Theon does these things to try and prove himself to his father and show that he is a Greyjoy and thus should remain his father's heir (instead of his sister).

Ramsay tortures Theon emotionally and physically, trying to take leads, and threatening the lord Greyjoy (Theons' father). Ramsay removes fingers sending it to Theons' father before sending his manhood essentially 'killing' the family line of the Greyjoys. Ramsay does all of these things to prove that he is worthy to be his father's heir or to even get his father's name.

Both of these boys are met with anger when their fathers learn of their acts; not because of their moral stance, but because they did not think their acts through. The repercussions of the acts they committed is what angers their fathers.

The irony of the two is that they meet as enemies, if they had met as strangers Theon would have been very susceptible to Ramsays' ways'.

Why is Theon redeemable and not Ramsay?

It all comes down to reflection, Theon eventually learns that what he did was wrong whereas Ramsay starts to become proud of the villainous acts he does. Ramsay commits more of these awful acts and enters a point of no return where he could never redeem the pain he causes. Theon becomes a broken man unable to stand up for himself, witnessing the horrors that Ramsay commits. Theon and Ramsay are two boys who have to fight to be 'loved' by their fathers, over actions their father made and now resent them for. They are the same person, but one grows and walks a moral right path (for Game of Thrones) where whereas the other does not.