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Roose Bolton's masterplan | In Deep Geek | YouTubeToText
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Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
Roose Bolton is a cunning, opportunistic, and risk-averse individual whose primary motivation is self-advancement, meticulously planning and adapting to seize power, ultimately aiming to become King of the North.
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Bruce Bolton has had a rapid rise in A
Song of Ice and Fire and is now Lord of
Winterfell and Warden of the North but
what's next and what is Roose Bolton's
master plan
hi everyone this is Robert welcome to
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Westeros if you want to dive even deeper
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description
when we're introduced to Ruth Bolton
towards the end of book one he is one of
a number of Larger than Life heads of
Northern houses answering Rob's calling
of the banners and he immediately stands
out demanding command of the northern
armies due to his station and Rob's
youth Rob declines and leads himself but
when choosing to split his army he does
give control of the part heading down
the King's Road to ruse we're told that
Rob is unnerved by ruse's eyes soft
voice and the rumors of the dreadfort's
flayed skin chamber but it doesn't
impact his level of trust in him during
the war or the authority he grants him
he trusts ruse with his army because
ruse is clever and cautious unlike great
John Amber say he was clearly more loyal
but perhaps a bit more rash
the plan was for Lord Bolton to take on
Tywin while Rob rushed to relieve River
Run from Jaime's Army Rob was aware
enough that Roose was a cunning and cold
man to see how he was the right man for
this but not aware enough to see how
that could be turned against him
Bruce led a night attack on tywin's
forces attempting to catch the
Lannisters off guard to negate their
numerical superiority Tywin assumed Rob
was leading the northern Army and
designed his strategy to defeat a brass
young man this played right into ruse's
hands because he's not a Brash young man
but a cautious and reserved older man
regardless the element of surprise and
tywin's miscalculation was not enough to
overcome tywin's numbers and better
Armed Forces many have theorized that
Roose lost the battle on purpose that he
was already plotting with Tywin none
other than George RR Martin himself has
pushed back against this idea he says
that Roos was still weighing up his
options at this point and that if he had
won the Battle of the green Fork his
reputation would have skyrocketed he
would have been the man that defeated
the great Tywin Lannister with an
inferior force a victory that would have
enabled him to climb the ladder of power
and glory in a more conventional manner
which brings me to something else George
or Martin has said about Ruth Bolton
that will probably help us understand
him a bit better he's he said that if
you re-read all his sections carefully I
think you will see a picture of a man
keeping all his options open as long as
he could sniffing the wind covering his
tracks ready to jump either way
in other words ruse did not plan to
betray the Starks from the beginning but
he was more than prepared to do so if
the opportunity presented itself it
tells us that for him loyalty is
irrelevant that only what he can get
away with matters and he wants to get as
much as he can but another way ruse only
looks out for ruse
looking back he's willing to be
extremely bloody and make huge grabs for
power but he's not willing to take great
risks to his own person for someone who
makes such big moves in the Game of
Thrones he is very risk-averse when he
kills Rob Stark he's so heavily armored
for the Red Wedding that Catelyn doesn't
even recognize him when he travels
through the neck he has a body double
where his clothes and ride in his
Wheelhouse in case of cranageman
Sharpshooters and their deadly poisons
at Winterfell lady Dustin points out to
Theon that ruse only eats from dishes
that Lord Mandalay has already tasted
these actions all confirm Tywin
Lannister's assessment that ruse is a
weary man
so we have an ambitious opportunistic
man who hides his intentions well and is
risk-averse enough not to do anything
rash until he is 100 sure things will go
his way he may not have been planning to
overthrow the Starks from the beginning
but he was definitely willing to seize
the opportunity if it presented itself
the last video in this series set out to
all of the foreshadowing that was there
for the Red Wedding George RR Martin
gave us a lot in that I suggested that
the moment Roost decided to switch sides
was the day he sent part of his army
coincidentally that part that contained
the most Stark Loyalists and none of his
Bolton soldiers to duskendale into what
turned out to be a trap but that wasn't
the first time that ruse had rather
callously used the ongoing war effort to
strengthen his own hand regardless of
ultimately which side came out on top
while he didn't lose the battle of the
green Fork against Tywin on purpose he
made sure the casualties his side
suffered benefited him most Lord Medgar
of house Kerwin the house closest to
Winterfell and long renowned for their
loyalty to the Starks died shortly after
the battle to wounds received during it
also captured was Sir Willis mandely the
heir to White Harbor also famous for
their loyalty to the Starks and house
hornwood took the greatest losses of all
with their lord killed in the battle and
his only son and Heir killed by Jaime
not long after ruse's bastard son Ramsay
forcibly married lady danella hornwood
the new Widow to claim the hornwood
lands there's really only one way Ramsay
could have known of those deaths so soon
after ruse told him and gave him the
go-ahead though ruse obviously later
claims that Ramsay acted on his own in
order to absolve himself of any possible
blame this is ruse hedging his bets had
the Starks won the war Ramsay would
probably have been forced to give back
his new lands but there's a chance he
wouldn't perhaps he might be able to
keep them as a reward for house Bolton's
crucial role in the war or because ruse
had grown so strong that King Rob had to
allow it to keep him happy thus there's
no risk to ruse at all in this play but
a lot of potential gain after Gathering
the remains of his army together and
learning that the Starks were doing
quite well in the war and had tied
themselves to the phrase ruse then did
the Same by himself marrying lady Walder
Frey the advantages at this point were
clear had the marriages to Rob and Arya
gone through as agreed lady Walder would
have been kin to the queen in the north
ruse could have pushed for his children
with his new wife to marry the children
of Rob and his Frey bride given their
close but not too close family
connections so ruse was tying himself to
the new royal family
Ruth's marriage also meant that
Winterfell couldn't use their new and
substantial Frey Manpower against the
Dreadfort without attacking their own
kin so ruse was positioning himself to
advance whatever the outcome of the war
was then came something unexpected Rob's
hasty decision to break off his
engagement and marry Jane westerling
the phrase with Rob stomped on a stark
banner and rode off the phrase with ruse
complained as well and cited stannis's
loss on the Blackwater as a reason why
their cause was lost anyway Rob would
now definitely lose the war they cried
much was made of Lord Walder Frey's
anger over being denied a royal marriage
his complaints were made a focus and a
primary motivation for his terrible
Revenge so it's easy to miss that this
was being taken away from ruse as well
he thought he had just married the
sister or at least a close relation of a
future Queen but instead he just found
himself married to a powerful but lesser
riverland's house so by marrying Jane
westerling Rob set Bolton ambition back
as well not to mention Arya was thought
dead so that's another missed connection
to the new royal family Arya was due to
marry another Fray this gave the phrase
and the boltons a shared grievance
against Hal Stark both were cut out from
this new Inner Circle simultaneously for
a lesser house in the Westlands and
crucially not only were there Ambitions
and incentives removed they no longer
saw themselves as on the likely Winning
Side they were no longer going to reap
the rewards of Victory which was the
other main reason to be in the war in
the first place it's pretty clear that
ruse had considered that possibility in
advance though and how he might react to
it his plans had to change but when we
see him faced with the crumbling of all
he'd done so far due to Rob's breaking
of his betrothal and so on he doesn't
seem even slightly put out he always
knew there was a chance the north would
lose thus betrayal was always an option
for him it simply wasn't his first
choice so he gets into contact with Tywin
Tywin
I spoke elsewhere about his reasons for
sending the Glovers and Tall Hearts to
attack duskendale but in this context
the two important things that he clearly
won the trust of or at least an alliance
with Tywin Lannister and managed to
eliminate even more of the Stark
loyalist soldiers in his command without
rousing too much suspicion this is the
second time ruse has used this tactic of
secretly putting soldiers he wants to
eliminate in the front line and
protecting his own troops keep an eye on
that he'll do it again more than once
because then came that slight
complication with Jaime Lannister Jamie
got delivered into ruse's hands while he
was still pretending to be loyal to Rob
Stark he should have given Jaime up
straight away but that would have ruined
any burgeoning alliance with Tywin
Lannister and to make things worse Vargo
Haute had cut off Jaime's hand and Tywin
would definitely blame ruse for that so
ruse thinks on his feet and basically
negotiates with Jaime he sends Jaime on
to King's Landing with a guard and Jaime
promises to say ruse wasn't to blame for
the whole hand incident it works and he
heads North summons to attend a wedding
at the Twins then presumably be a part
of Rob's plan to retake his homeland
from the ironborn
he takes his time leading his army to
the twins for what becomes the Red
Wedding on the way to the twins at a
river crossing his rear guard is
attacked by Gregor Clegane and the
Lannister Army but it just so happens
that all the Dreadful men were already
across the river once again the
casualties were shockingly entirely
Stark loyalists particularly house
Mandalay and in particular sir Willis
mandely The Heir was again taken captive
forcing Lord Wyman Mandalay to proceed
cautiously lest his son be executed how
did House Lannister know to Ambush the
northern Army then and wait for the
boltons to be safe before they attacked
I think we can guess
the result is that ruse now arrived at
the Red Wedding with all his own troops
and none of those loyal to Rob
we know what happened at the wedding
although you may not have noticed the
subtle power play that Roost does just
to make sure that Walder Frey does what
he needs to do we often think of the Red
Wedding as being driven by house Frey
but Kat notices something Roose gives a
little speech in which he mentions big
and little Walder Frey and how they are
very much under his protection in the
Dreadfort we see the elderly Lord Walder
phrase squirm at the implied threat it's
clear who is really in charge here
after the wedding someone unexpected
joined ruse's Army heading North now
aiming to reclaim the North in the name
of House Bolton and supported by House
Lannister are you stuck or at least Jane
Poole sansa's childhood friend who had
been given to Roose Bolton by
Littlefinger aryab was just a child when
she left the north so who knows what she
looks like now was the thinking just by
the boy there's an intriguing comparison
to be made between Ruth Bolton and
littlefinger's approaches to advancement
they are very different in character of
course but when you get down to it they
both rely on reacting very quickly to
changing events and using them to climb
the ladder ruse here shifts immediately
from planning to be married into the
Stark royal family to trying to become
Warden of the north himself the
difference is that Littlefinger
proactively tries to create the chaos he
wants to gain an advantage from and
Bruce just introvertedly plans out all
the possibilities in advance anyway Jane
Poole masquerading as Arya is soon
betrothed to Ramsey who Bruce
legitimizes if you're wondering about
lady hornwood who Ramsay married just a
little bit ago sadly she died Ramsay is
well you know what Ramsay is like
marrying a stark is clearly a step up
and he has Theon Greyjoy now under his
control who can confirm to anyone
interested that this is indeed Arya
Stark everyone knows that Theon grew up
with Arya and why would he lie about that
that
Mount Kalin is swiftly dealt with by
Ramsay and ruse heads straight for
Winterfell the Dreadfort may have
previously been home and was definitely
defendable but Winterfell is the capital
of the north so he needs to secure that
to cement his position as Warden of the
north ruse knows that not all of the
northern Lords are a hundred percent on
side but she has done the groundwork the
Starks are dead only Sansa at this stage
is known to be alive and she is now A
Lannister by marriage so there's no one
for opposition to Rally around the next
most powerful family the mandalays are
hamstrung by having their Heir a
prisoner of the Lannisters great John
Amber is a prisoner of the phrase the
cast arcs are split and the dustins and
rice Wells are seemingly loyal because
of family links the other major families
have all lost most of their troops in
the war in the south
the unexpected Joker in the pack here is
Stannis who has brought his army to the
north and seems to be intent on
dethroning ruse oh and winter has of
course come it's so bad that the snow
drifts are tens of feet high against
winterfell's walls and six of the seven
gates to Winterfell have literally
frozen shut again ruse makes the best
use of his circumstances he holds up in
Winterfell while letting stannis's Army
suffer the winter storms added to which
he has come to a secret arrangement with
Arnold carstock who wants to be made the
lord of the carhold Arnold has attached
himself to Stannis but plans to betray
him when the time is right if Stannis
can be defeated ruse will be almost
guaranteed to remain in power through
the winter assuming that he doesn't know
or care about the others that is which
nearly brings us up to date one small
problem that has arisen are the murders
in Winterfell and on the road to
Winterfell have mostly freys and
Bolton's and the resultant escalating
tensions with in Winterfell between the
phrase and the mantelis it turns violent
very quickly between those two and
ruse's solution is to send Frey and
Mandalay troops out of Winterfell to
face Stannis again ruse has used a
battle to keep his own forces safe and
to put his rival soldiers into danger
it's the fourth time he's done it but he
keeps on getting away with it
at the start of this video we asked what
ruse Bolton's master plan was and it
turns out that he doesn't really have
one he's an opportunist but a
risk-averse one someone who plans
meticulously and makes the best of every opportunity
opportunity
that said the problems for ruse will
soon stack up he's made his play to take
over the north on the basis that there
are no more Starks but contrary to what
he thinks bran and rickon are alive and
house Mandalay are actively searching
for rickon Arya is also still alive
Sansa is married to a Lannister but
perhaps she might get her marriage
annulled and there's every chance that
Rob legitimized Jon Snow in his will the
Starks and their allies will come for
him and probably so at some point will
his natural born son Ramsay ruse is very
open about that he knows what Ramsay is
like and he also understands his own
mortality he's no longer a young man by
westerosie standards this is what he
confides to Theon about his wife and his
future prospects
if she his wife pops out Sons the way
she Pops in Tarts the Dreadfort will
soon be overrun with boltons Ramsay will
kill them all of course that's for the
best I will not live long enough to see
new Sons to manhood
as a northerner Roos has no Illusions
about his own mortality despite how
cautious he is but his callous disregard
for his own children his wife and well
everyone but himself is just as cold
just as chilling as the winter that
comes for everyone in the end and it
seems that he has one last objective
to become the King of the North he
confides this to Lady Barbary Dustin she
says this to Theon Lord Bolton aspires
to more than mere lordship why not King
of the North
Tywin Lannister is dead the king Slayer
is maimed to the Imp is fled the
Lannisters are a spent force and you
were kind enough to rid him of the
Starks old Walder Frey will not object
to his fat little Walder becoming a
queen white Harbor might prove
Troublesome should Lord Wyman survive
this coming battle but I'm quite sure
that he will not no more than Stannis
ruse will remove both of them as he
removed the young wolf who else is there
who else is there indeed well quite a
few people as it turns out people that
ruse with all his planning has not
considered people who are very powerful
and will want him Gone John bran Arya
Lord Mandalay Melisandre of Mance Raider
the list goes on but before that day
comes Bruce Bolton wants to rise as high
as he can and by whatever means
necessary the world is his play thing
there purely for his Amusement he wants
to get rid of Stannis then he wants to
be king then well he doesn't really care
he's going to die anyway and perhaps
that is what makes him so dangerous he
won't overreach he won't take shortcuts
with his own security and he's already
accepted that he won't live many more
years make no mistake Bruce Bolton will
have a big role to play in The Winds of
Winter and probably not a positive one
if you'd like to see more videos in this
series on what will happen in the North
in The Winds of Winter and Beyond please
click on the link to the playlist on the
left of your screen or to support this
channel the best way to do that is by
clicking on the link to patreon on the
right of your screen
thanks for watching that's all for this
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