This analysis explores the likelihood of Ramsay Bolton killing his father, Roose Bolton, in the A Song of Ice and Fire books, contrasting it with the TV show's portrayal and examining the motivations and potential consequences within the book's narrative.
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will Ramsay kill his father Roose Bolton
in the books he may be capable of it but
will he actually do it let's take a look
at the evidence hi everyone this is
Robert welcome to inde deep geek on this
channel we dive deep into A Song of Ice
and Fire as well as other great fantasy
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before betraying the Starks at the Red
Wedding Roose Bolton shored up his
alliance with his co-conspirators the
phrase by marrying one of Lord walder's
granddaughters rather un originally
named Walder with an a at the end by the
end of A Dance with Dragons it appears
that she is pregnant and rousa Pines
that the Dreadfort might become overrun with
with
boltons but then he says that Ramsay
will probably kill them all in order to
ensure that he inherits The Dread for
himself and we already know that Roose
also believes Ramsey killed his trueborn
son demeric years ago given all that
surely Roose is aware of the possibility
that Ramsay might kill him too but will
he be able to stop it will Ramsay kill
Roose in the Game of Thrones TV show
this question has already been answered
of course Ramsey did Kill roose's new
child and his wife and Roose himself
however Ramsay's character and story arc
is definitely one of the many changes
the show made to the books in this case
they went to Great Lengths to make
Ramsey a central villain figure
especially in the wake of Joffrey's
death there was a narrative impetus to
make him the Lord of The Dread Fort so
that he could have full command of the
Bolton armies against Jon Snow and Sansa
Stark in the books however it's not so
straightforward on either count Sansa is
not involved in the northern plot at all
not yet at least it's Jane P not her who
was forcibly married to ramsy and Jon's
death is likely to be handled
differently there's no guarantee he
leads an Army against the boltons at all
let alone something like the battle of
the bastards maybe he will but even then
the circumstances of the battle will
surely be different if only because of
Stannis in the show he makes it to
Winterfell with his army only to be
wiped out by the superior Bolton Force
yet in the books it's an army of fras
and mandes he's about to face and they
are headed to stannis's location near a
crofter's village rather than Stannis
headed for them at Winterfell and he has
prepared an icy trap that most of the
fandom believes will work and it seems
likely that the mandes will reveal their
true colors and turn on the phrase a
very different battle indeed so things
are different in the books but that
doesn't mean that everything will be
different and Ramsey himself is quite a
similar character in particular it's
clear that Roose almost expects Ramsey
to kill any children he has with Walder
with an a this is the whole quote from
Roose when talking about the dread Fort
being overrun with
boltons if she pops out Suns the way she
Pops in Tarts The Dread for 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 and boy Lords are the
bane of any house Walder will grieve to
see them die though which goes to show
not only that Ramsey has absolutely no
quals about killing family members
including babies but just as importantly
that he by implication does want to be
Lord Bolton one day Roose expects him to
get rid of anyone challenging his place
in the line of succession so might
Ramsey take the next psychotic step of
logic and speed up the process
completely by killing his father we get
an Insight when Roose insults Ramsay
reminding him that he is a bastard son
despite him being officially legitimized
in the previous chapter
and taking Theon his favorite toy from
him we read this again from theon's
paav reek saw the way Ramsay's mouth
Twisted the spittle glistening between
his lips he feared he might leap the
table with his dagger in his hand
instead he flushed red turned his pale
eyes from his father's paler ones and
went to find the
keys quite revealing Theon sees that
Ramsey wanted to kill his his father in
that moment why didn't he he was Rose's
only living son so finally air apparent
well we don't know for sure but it
certainly doesn't seem to be a
particular love for his father or fear
of Roose or a recognition that he has
few supporters in the Bolton retinue
that holds him back Roose even laughs at
the idea that he might have supporters
and even though roose's guards were
outside there has to be a chance that as
the only living Bolton left even
standing over his father's dead body his
men and vassals would have no choice but
to obey him particularly if he blamed
Theon say for killing Roose kinslayer or
no the law and tradition would both make
him Lord of The Dread so perhaps he
thought that better opportunities would
come or more likely given his impatience
earlier in the chapter perhaps he wanted
to marry the fake Aya Stark first to
cement his claim not just to The Dread
Fort but also Winterfell and the North
before he killed his father but
shouldn't Roose realize all this as well
he knows what Ramsay is like and has a
notably cautious character for example
he has a decoy wearing his armor when he
passes through the neck for fear of
cranman arrows and Lady Dustin points
out that Roose never eats or drinks
without seeing Lord mandley consume it
first but in the scene with Ramsay that
we've just quoted Roose dismisses his
guards first it's just the three of them
when Theon thinks Ramsey is close to
jumping the table the caution Ruth has
shown elsewhere seems to be lacking here
maybe he takes it for granted that
Ramsay is conditioned to obey a bit like
how Ramsey believed reek was so loyal
thanks to his brutal conditioning but as
we saw he was wrong not only did reek
Escape he began calling himself Theon
again Roose might have similarly
misjudged his son he laughs at the idea
that Ramsay had men of his own but he
might be so overconfident in his control
of the dread fought men that he has
failed to note the most direct approach
next time if there is a next time Ramsay
might not back down his Fury might win
out over his conditioning he's a man
with a vicious temper and Roose doesn't
seem to fear any consequences from
provoking him but there is another
possibility here maybe Roose is simply
at a loss as to what to do about Ramsey
he says to Theon tell me my Lord if the
kinslayer is a cursed what is a father
to do when one son slays
another does Roose truly believed that
the old gods have cursed ramsy that they
would curse him too if he had Ramsey put
to death Roose is too much of an enigma
for us to know exactly what he believes
or feels or if he feels at all he could
send Ramy to the wall but then he would
have no Heir until his new wife produces
a child and house bton would be in a
very precarious position as long as
Ramsay keeps on murdering roose's other
children and Roose definitely wants
there to be an air for House Bolton then
there's a kind of stalemate here Roose
knows Ramsey might want to kill him but
doesn't feel he can do anything about it
so he is probably left to Simply keep
his distance from his own son Roose
doesn't have to ever be alone with
Ramsey again a security practice often
seen in real world dynasties of the
ancient world for example but again even
though he has shown quite a bit of
caution elsewhere he has not shown it with
with
Ramsay this is quite a dark thought but
perhaps Roose has simply accepted his
fate he definitely appears to be more
accepting than most of his own mortality
mentioning to Theon that he won't live
to see any new Sons live to manhood we
don't know exactly how old Roose is
probably middle-aged or something like
that certainly not old old so it seems a
little fatalistic of him to be so
certain that he won't survive the next
15 or 20 years say has he simply come to
an acceptance that having made so many
enemies of the other Northern houses
living in a time of war with a hard
winter coming and a sun like Ramsay the
odds are against him surviving long term
he has already secured what Millennia of
boltons could not replacing the Starks
as preeminent house in the north so his
place in history is secure it's now just
a matter of see seeing how long he will
survive that for if he has accepted that
he won't live to old age and that Ramsay
will kill all his other children he has
accepted that ramsy will succeed
him with Theon leaving Winterfell our
last P character has gone from Roose and
Ramsey's side so we don't know firsthand
anything that happens there for the
foreseeable future now ramsy has the
lordship of Winterfell secured and a
reason to be very very angry with the
loss of his wife and Theon and
threatened by the announcement of waler
with an A's pregnancy what might he do
if Ramsey does kill Roose early in the
Winds of Winter it sets up a few
intriguing possibilities for the story
going forward because Winterfell is a
Tinderbox right now with competing
groupings at each other's throats quite
literally at times they're being held
together only by a fear of Roose and the
Allies he has the fras and the
Lannisters or in some cases perhaps a
personal iation with Roose or desire for
advancement if Roose dies yes the dread
fought men and direct vassals will
probably follow Ramsey but so many
others would turn on him Ramsey has made
a lot of enemies with his behavior lady
Dustin the hornwood the mandes and so on
and few allies Roose has explained this
to him and may think he understands but
Ramsey has repeatedly shown that he acts
without thinking of the consequences Ram
Ramsey might also not be able to keep
the Allies that Roose has made for
himself especially the phas the
Coalition that swept the Bolton to power
May well fracture because Ramsay can't
or won't see the implications of killing
his father without something significant
happening at Winterfell it's hard to see
how stannis's snowbound weakened army or
any other might successfully Siege a dug
in Bolton force in the castle and just
as a thought perhaps Ramsey has already
killed his father we wouldn't know and
although I believe the pink letter
wasn't actually written by Ramsey why
would someone else write it as if it's
from Ramsay if Roose was still alive and
in charge surely Jon would be more
provoked by a letter from the man he
knows betrayed Rob it's far from
conclusive but definitely food for
thought if we're looking for further
hints in the text then perhaps Tywin
Lannister the person Roose Allied
himself with death at the hand of the
son he considered a bastard but probably
wasn't could be echoed by ruses at the
hands of the son who was a bastard but
now technically isn't in every case
there's an element here of evil being
the cause of its own downfall Roose
tells Theon the rather horrible story of
how Ramsey was conceived I'll spare you
the details but if Roose had not been
the horrific man he is Ramsay wouldn't
even exist and his son demeric who seems
to have actually been quite a a decent
human being would still be alive and
Roose wouldn't be facing the threat of
his own son murdering him Ramsay may
have the motive means and probably will
have the opportunity to murder Roose but
it will do him no good he may rule for a
while but soon the Starks will return to
Winterfell and then surely he too will be
be
gone if you'd like to see more videos
like this digging into the northern
plotline and A Song of Ice and Fire
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