You know you should be worried about the third episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones because you see Ramsay Bolton (formerly known as Ramsay Snow) smile in the trailer. Nothing good can ever come out of that. Ramsay is not a nice guy. He is the ghastliest, vilest, and most ruthless bully in probably all of Westeros.
Right from his first appearance on screen, we’ve been prepped to understand that his depravity knows no bounds. Let’s revisit, in as little gruesome detail as possible.
Ramsay (Iwan Rheon), and his paramour, the kennel master’s daughter Myranda, hunt Tansy, one of Ramsay’s bed-warmers whom Myranda is jealous of. After Myranda shoots Tansy with an arrow, Ramsay unleashes his bloodthirsty hounds on the poor woman. When his father, Roose Bolton, sends him to Winterfell to recapture the castle from Theon Greyjoy, Ramsay does so, but also tortures, maims and completely destroys the Iron born, turning him from a confused little wretch to a quivering slave. When married to Sansa Stark to strengthen his father’s hold on the North, Ramsay rapes and abuses her. In the episode that has shocked us and reminded us again of what a heartless world these characters inhabit, Ramsay kills his father when he learns of the birth of his new half-brother. He then lures his stepmother and her infant son to the kennels, and feeds them to his hounds.
Breathe. Take a break. Okay? Let’s resume?
Ramsay has no redeeming quality. In a universe crowded with contemptible and vicious murderers, rapists and monsters, Ramsay is George RR Martin’s most evil creation. Yet.
Till the Purple Wedding episode in season four, it was collectively acknowledged that Joffrey was the most wretched and revolting brat in all of the Seven Kingdoms. He was crazy, out of control and loved to torture physically and psychologically. We heaved a sigh of relief when he was poisoned to death on his wedding. But clearly, Martin was only grooming us to meet this son from hell.
Unlike Joffrey, Ramsay is not a spoilt brat. He is an out-and-out psychopath. Born of rape and called the “Bastard of Bolton” until his father legitimises him in season five, Ramsay is a creature of pure hatred, anger, and brutality.
While it may be hard to believe, Ramsay’s character is much worse in the books. He flays men and inflicts pain till they beg to be killed, hunts and rapes women, kills his loyal servant Reek (Theon carries this storyline in the book, and has for now escaped Dreadfort, the seat of House Bolton).
Ramsay is the worst, but that is something we have always known. What he did to his infant half-brother was heartless, but how was the audience not expecting something that heinous and ugly from Ramsay? In a show in which we’ve seen exploding skulls, deathly nose-bleeds, mass assassination, countless beheadings, flayed men, the immolation of a princess by a king, and many other such depictions of gross violence, Ramsay’s actions sadly fit right in. This wasn’t the first time the show killed a baby, and maybe it won’t be the last. But this does mean that the extent of Ramsay’s violence has peaked, and it will all go downhill for him now. Or we can at least hope so.
Unfortunately, that might not be as soon as the next episode. The trailer finds the members of House Umber presenting Ramsay, the residing Warden of the North, with a gift. This gift could be Rickon, the youngest member of House Stark. Rickon, who disappeared from the series two seasons ago, was sent to the Umbers with the wildling Osha. Uncontrollable after having killed his father and angry at his absconding Stark wife, Ramsay could now wreak chaos out of spite and his base nature.
If that is really is the case, then Martin has outdone himself when it comes to cringe-worthy plot twists. We see Rickon after two years, and we see him in a situation we can assume he won’t be able to get out of alive. Let’s just hope that Osha is just as fierce and that Rickon’s direwolf, Shaggydog, is wild.
At the end of the last episode, Ramsay is on his way to Castle Black to kill Jon Snow. But as they say far away in the iron islands – what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger. Jon is alive. He is back from the dead and we don’t know how this killing him again business is going to work out. We don’t know his powers or weaknesses yet.
All we do know at this point is that if all men must die, we’d like to begin with Ramsay Snow/Bolton.