Have you ever read any mythology or legend or fantasy? Oaths, prophecies, wishes, etc., always get tripped up on a technicality. That’s practically the point of them.
I think there’s a great chance the Umbers are still loyal to the Starks, and that wasn’t Shaggydog’s head (seemed a bit small to me). The scene really made a point of Lord Umber (Smalljon?) refusing to kneel and swear an oath, and they included that for a reason – very possibly because the Umbers are perfectly willing to betray the Boltons, as long as they don’t have to break any oaths.
Of course, they did leave Rickon with a psychopath… but that might have been Rickon’s idea – it fits with his personality, I think, that he’d risk himself (and possibly even command the Umbers to comply) in order to set up the Boltons and retake Winterfell.
Plus, it’s pretty clear, narratively, that Ramsay is being set up for a big fall (remember his dad’s “if you act like a mad dog, you get taken out back and put down” line?), and I think there’s a great chance this will be part of it. There’s also one more big Northern family that was mentioned we haven’t met yet – the Manderlys – and I distinctly remember from the Red Wedding episode that a Manderly lord (a fat guy wearing the merman sigil) was murdered. If we see a Manderly in the next few episodes, and they also ostensibly agree to fight with the Boltons, then I think that it will be pretty clear that Ramsay is about to be stabbed in the back.
I just hope Rickon survives!
Theon was not a nice guy, and in effect, he “deserved” his torture. Rickon is a nice guy (actually a nice kid) and doesn’t deserve to be tortured. So I doubt he will be.
On the other hand, in the last episode, Walda and her newborn son (the very definition of an innocent) were torn to death by Ramsay’s hounds.
I thought it basically meant “you might have won the war but you have no chance of keeping this kingdom together without the Targaryens”.
From the POV of Ramsay, wouldn’t he simply want to kill him? Either that, or use him as bait for Theon, Jon and/or Sansa.
And Shireen deserved to be burnt to death?
A lot of this episode felt like checking off boxes, like they were working their way through a ‘To Do’ list we all knew would have to be done:
Jon revived - check
Jon leaves the Night Watch - check
Arya gets her eyesight back - check
Rickon shows up again - check
Dany get to the Widowed Khaleesi place - check
Not so much that it was predictable, more that we knew these things must happen before the story can move on.
There is room for disagreement here but whatever Theon might have deserved, it wasn’t torture.
Did you happen to notice my very next sentence? I recognize that in this show innocents do not have plot armor.
“Deserves” got nothin’ to do with it.
We don’t need to see Ramsey torture Rickon because between Reek/Theon, Sansa and other random people he’s killed, we’ve already established that Ramsey is a sadistic lunatic.
We don’t need torture to transform Rickon from an arrogant, treacherous prick into a humbled, sympathetic character to redeem.
There are a shit-ton of other story lines going on that it doesn’t make sense to devote a lot of time to Ramsey tormenting Rickon and Osha.
According to this…
The oathbreaker is Smalljon Umbers. If you recall, his father was fiercely loyal to Rob and declared him King of the North (after helping him cut his bloody tough meat).
From the look on everyone’s faces, I’m pretty sure everyone felt John Snow completed his obligation to the Watch.
Or maybe Sam is the oathbreaker, as for all intents and purposes he has “taken a wife, and fathered a (adopted) children”?
I thought Gilly might be trying to tell him she was pregnant with his son. It was kind of awkwardly done either way…
Okay, I had to rewind to listen again because this line was so jarring:
Jaquen: If a girl tells me her name, I will restore her sight.
Me? I?! What the hell happened to Jaquen?
But Rickon isn’t being left alone with him. Osha is there too. Her presence makes absolutely no sense from either the perspective of Ramsay or the Umbers. Ramsay has never met her and doesn’t know of her role in Bran and Rickon’s escape. If the Umbers are allying themselves with the Boltons because they hate wildlings so much, why wouldn’t they just have executed her rather than dragging her hundreds of miles as a captive of no value? Osha may be a Trojan Horse.
It’s interesting to see how much hate Olly inspires. The viewers see things from Jon’s perspective since he is one of the main characters, but from Olly’s perspective – a young boy watching his family and village slaughtered by wildlings – his feelings of betrayal by Jon are understandable
Regarding “oathbreakers” – pretty much all the lords are oathbreakers at one point or another, whether it’s breaking an oath to the Targaryens or the Baratheons or the Starks or the Boltons.
If the Umbers were really on the Starks side giving up the last living male heir as a peace offering and sending in a single female wildling as a trojan horse makes zero sense. He would have just knelt and kissed the ring and waited for an opportune time to stab him in the back.
Good point – she may be there to help protect Rickon. I’m looking forward to finding out.
Not if they’re unwilling to break an oath. Further, maybe there’s a larger plan that requires Osha and/or Rickon to be inside Winterfell.
But we’ll see. I just think it’s likely that things aren’t quite as they seem – and that everything is pointing to Ramsay having a big fall (finally!).
Though I have trouble believing roots could have grown through him; no tree is more ancient than Max von Sydow.
Plus if it was uncomfortable having roots grow through him he could have moved. Just how fast can roots grow?
I hope next week instead of the past he shows Bran the movie The Seventh Seal.
Walda unfortunately had the fat gene. Those people invariably die in shows filled with beautiful people. As for the newborn son, we hardly knew ye! I would be surprised if Rickon is tortured, but with GoT it would be foolish to say for sure. I rather doubt we will see Theon levels of torture.
I wonder what Physical Challenge Daenerys will have to complete in order to remain one of the Real Khalwives of Vaes Dothrak, which she doesn’t want to do anyway.
Anyone think she’ll go back to Meereen at the head of a khalasar?