Thank you!

Well, the part in Jaime’s arc that parallels Theon’s rescuing Jeyne is not his actions in the Riverlands (those have some echoes in Theon’s occupation of Winterfell actually) but his leap into the bear pit to rescue Brienne in ASOS. Both are objectively heroic acts in which Jaime and Theon risk their lives to rescue Brienne and Jeyne respectively. I’m personally more partial to Theon’s because it’s such a triumphant moment for him in his defiance of Ramsay and break away from the persona of Reek that Ramsay tortured him into. His overcoming of the conditioning Ramsay subjected him to is very poignant to his arc, and so his leap with Jeyne crowns Theon’s identity struggle while also showing his changed perspective and how he is turning away from his previous dismissal of people on account on status and rank. His rescue of Jeyne is a heart-stirring moment because of how selfless it is – Theon chooses not to tell the spearwives and Mance that Jeyne is not Arya from the very start, recognizing that they would not go to the trouble of rescuing her if they find out the truth and thus snuffing even that little bit of hope she had. He starts ADWD trembling at the mere thought of escape and thinking everything a test so that Ramsay could cut off another part of him but ends it taking a leap of faith on a last desperate hope that he might manage to save Jeyne. He had no hope himself; best case scenario was that they manage to reach Stannis in which case Theon knew he’d be executed while worst case was that Ramsay would catch up to them and inflict more torture on him. All of Theon’s options are bad, but he still chooses to leap for Jeyne’s benefit..

But does that one heroic act mean that Theon’s arc would now turn redemptive? Not necessarily. After all, Jaime’s rescue of Brienne was not the start of a redemption arc, neither does one singular act magically wipe Theon’s slate clean. But it could be….. and I think there’s a very good chance it would be. Because while Theon’s arc, like Jaime’s, is clearly one of identity, I think there is a very good
chance that his identity arc would segue into a redemptive one. Because of
this:

Ned Stark’s sons are all dead, Reek thought. Robb was murdered at the Twins, and Bran and Rickon … we dipped the heads in tar
… His own head was pounding. He did not want to think about anything
that had happened before he knew his name. There were things too hurtful
to remember, thoughts almost as painful as Ramsay’s flaying knife …

“I’m not him, I’m not the turncloak, he died at Winterfell. My name is Reek.”

Theon spends the entirety of ADWD
struggling with who he is until he reclaims the identity of Theon of
House Greyjoy by the end of it. But Theon of House Greyjoy is also Theon
Turncloak, is also the Prince of Winterfell, is also the man who
betrayed Robb and took his castle and killed his people. Reclaiming
Theon means reclaiming Theon’s sins as well, something that “Reek” did
not want to think of. It’s easier, in a way, for Theon to just be Reek,
to be a different person from the one who committed those crimes. It
makes dealing with his guilt easier, makes it easier for him to run from
what he has done instead of accepting responsibility for it which is
something he is still trying to do.
He is still trying to deflect the blame; there is a lot of guilt in his chapters and he has
voiced (and reflected on) his responsibility for what happened in
Winterfell, but he keeps swinging back to trying to distance himself
from the blame in an attempt to deal with that guilt. It’s easier to
think of justifications and to think that he had no other choice but for
Theon to have a true redemption arc, he has to face what he has done
and to accept that he did have a choice.

Of course we have to take into consideration that he wasn’t really
in a fit mental state to truly deal with anything for a good portion of
ADWD. His development from Reek back to Theon is slow and gradual but
the cusp of it is when he identifies himself out-loud as Theon Greyjoy
while still inside Winterfell. He hasn’t completely broken free
of Ramsay’s hold on him neither has he completely shed the influence of
the Reek persona, but he is now in a more fit state to truly deal with his previous
actions. And not just owning up to it, he has done that to an extent; no
I mean really owning it. Stop running from it, stop displacing
the blame, stop thinking they were “just” some miller’s boys or that he
had no choice or that it was only Ramsay who killed them.

So Theon has a lot of work to do first, starting by accepting responsibility for what he has done instead of deflecting the blame.

The
part about the miller’s boys does reveal a flaw in Theon’s process
though which is that his guilt is primarily focused on Robb himself.
It’s Robb’s castle he occupied, Robb’s kingdom he caused the downfall of,

Robb’s people he killed, Robb’s little brothers he didn’t
kill…. and that’s not the point. These people don’t matter because they
were Robb’s, they matter because they were people. He’s made that
connection with Jeyne whom he didn’t save because she is Arya Stark but
because she still matters even if she isn’t Arya. That applies to all
the others too. The miller’s boys matter despite not being Bran and
Rickon, and he has to let go of that lifeline of trying to convince
himself it wasn’t as bad just because they weren’t.

So I’d say that Theon might be heading for a redemption arc that saving Jeyne was the first step of, but he needs to stop rationalizing his actions first before he gets there. He is aware of his responsibility for all of it (”I made myself the Prince of Winterfell [..] and from that came all of this.” “My work. My ghosts.”) but he is still shying away from it and being defensive. He is still deluding himself with the thought that he did his best to protect the people of Winterfell…. who wouldn’t have been in danger if it hadn’t been for him (Oy, that line of thinking is just a tad too familiar. Oh Jaime and Theon. If I had a penny for every parallel between you two.) He is still thinking that they were only some miller’s boys and he had no choice because they needed two heads. He is still putting the blame of that on Ramsay alone. For him to achieve redemption, that self-delusion, even if it’s to deal with guilt, needs to stop.

But you know, Bran is set to do something at the heart tree to stop Theon’s execution, probably establishing another connection with him in the process. He is in the company of the man who thinks that good deeds do not wash away the bad, nor the bad the good. Who knows if he’d confront Jon Snow at one point or the Winterfell woman folk that Ramsay imprisoned in the Dreadfort, and how that could affect him. That part of Theon’s arc is only just beginning, we’ll see where it leads.