genderbent theon already compels me in its usual setup (i.e. she is still the hostage) but tbh in a world where theon was born a girl (teora? theia?), asha would be the one sent away as a hostage because she'd be the heir.
she'd be 13-14 when she arrived at winterfell, still young, but old enough to have her psyche mostly shaped by the iron islands. alannys raised her to be bold. how would she handle her new position in a foreign society? she'd be a good deal older than sansa and arya, but i would like to see how they interact. maybe besides jon, arya could see asha as someone she related to. as the heir to the iron islands the crown would definitely look into getting her married off, arguably more so than theia. but the starklings are too young, and benjen took himself out of the equation. would robert consider another great house? edmure? willas or garlan? would she then have been sent to riverrun or highgarden instead? (maybe not the reach, though, since baelor blacktyde was already sent to oldtown.) i am beginning to like the idea of asha being sent to be part of catelyn's entourage in winterfell in preparation for her eventual marriage to edmure.
meanwhile balon would raise theia as his heir. most likely she'll be similar to asha in the original timeline, although she wouldn't have had her own crew for as long. maybe she'll still have a fondness for fashion, which she probably won't be as mocked for, written off as a young woman's acceptable frivolity. i also think if asha is getting married earlier balon might also want theia married if he's serious about theia inheriting over asha (which he probably would be, the thought of greenlander grandchildren ruling his throne would drive him crazy). one way to ensure theia's inheritance would, as unsavoury as it sounds, be marrying her to one of her uncles, probably victarion. otherwise allying with another major house would also be good, maybe one of the goodbrother triplets? they're about robb's age. wouldn't it be cute if they were also redheads.
asha tully-greyjoy travels to meet her father to offer an alliance against the lannisters, insisting to her husband that she can go alone. theia sits in the place of honor beside their father, with a tall auburn boy that reminds asha of the boy who sent her here. while theia is sent to capture deepwood motte like asha in the original timeline, our asha is not trained at arms and probably stays on pyke.
winterfell is never sacked. robb never marries jeyne westerling. the red wedding still happens, but at robb's wedding to a frey daughter rather than edmure's. the freys do not have their paper-thin excuse this time, and they will be even more reviled by westeros, if that is even possible. edmure will be held prisoner, which could be good news or bad news for asha depending on how much she likes him.
asha is probably one of the first to know of balon's death at pyke. she quickly moves to claim the seastone chair while theia and victarion are away, but euron suddenly returns, and aeron calls for a kingsmoot. which euron probably still wins. and the greyjoy sisters will have to work together to save the situation...
