Yellowstone’s Jamie Dutton Compared To The Worst Game Of Thrones Star
Yellowstone's Jamie Dutton draws widespread comparisons to Reek, the mutilated Theon Greyjoy, from Game of Thrones.
A series is only as good as the characters that make the story, and every series has to have characters you love to hate, or hate to love, and Yellowstone is no different. With all of the characters fans have had to root for, curse at, and gush over throughout the four and a half seasons (so far), Yellowstone Ranch’s Jamie Dutton is the one that confuses them the most. In fact, he reminds many fans (who have taken to Reddit to discuss this) of a similar character from Game of Thrones, Theon Greyjoy, AKA Reek.
There are a handful of Duttons for fans to get to know over the original series and its two prequel series, 1883 and 1923, but Jaime Dutton is a bit of a conundrum. When we first meet the character, played by Wes Bently, in season one, he is a Harvard-educated attorney that seems to always pull his family out of bad times. As a matter of fact, the character seems to be essential to keep the abrasive Duttons from falling apart from their own hubris.
Of course, as you continue watching Yellowstone, many things about Jamie Dutton start to come to light, including an inexplicable hatred from his sister, Beth (Kelly Reilly), and a seeming neglect from his father, John (Kevin Costner). Of course, most things that are unexplained are not inexplicable, and the character’s story complicates when fans discover he is not a blood Dutton but was adopted at the age of three. While that may explain the treatment of his father, the hatred from his sister comes from his concealment of information during a situation that left her unable to have children.
But how does Yellowstone‘s Jamie Dutton compare to Game of Thrones‘ Theon Greyjoy? The story arc of the character played by Alfie Allen (John Wick and SAS: Rogue Heroes) begins with him as a strong and capable character, a ward of the Starks in Winterfell. After the fall of Eddard Stark (Sean Bean), he aligned himself with the eldest Stark, Robb (Richard Madden), only to turn on him and betray the entire family to help his father take Winterfell.
His story then takes a turn for the worse when he is captured by Ramsay Snow of House Bolton, where he is tortured mercilessly, even to the point of mutilation. The once strong character of Theon Greyjoy is reduced and broken down to what Ramsay calls his pet, Reek. He eventually rebels against Ramsay to assist in Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) escape from House Bolton and begin his redemption.
The connection between the two, as compared by the Reddit thread, boils down to the inability of the fans to keep one feeling about the character. While they start out as solid characters seemingly crucial to the survival of those around them, their actions create a storyline and treatment of those around them that inspires a level of pity unmatched in other shows. One thing we hope for Yellowstone‘s Jamie Dutton is that he gets a similar redemption arc as Theon Greyjoy.
