Skip to main content

game of thrones - When did the traitor turn?


Major spoiler for season 3 of GOT:



Lord Bolton betrays the Starks by returning Jamie Lannister to Kings Landing and then assisting in the massacre of the Starks by the Frays. In return, he is made Warden of the North (at least in the hypothetical Lannister victory version of the post war Westeros). Bolton had earlier served with distinction under Robb Stark, including leading the attack in which Jamie Lannister was captured in the first place. At what point did Bolton turn? How long had he been plotting with the Lannisters?




Answer



"When" is a good question. I think the answer is that Roose plots all the time. When Robb called the banners, I think Roose went through his options and thought about how to gain the most from the situation.



Spoilers ADWD below



We get some insight into Roose's mind through lady Dustin, who claims that Roose is somewhat of a psychopath, who has no feelings and likes to manipulate people for his own amusement. Even so, Roose likes to stay "below the radar", let other people take the blame while he reaps the benefits. Walder Frey certainly took most of the blame for the Red Wedding, for example, though my hunch is that Roose Bolton was the bigger culprit (he did personally kill Robb).



It is as Jaime said in ASOS (paraphrasing)-- that every lord has unruly bannermen who envy them their power. Tywin had the Tarbecks, the Tyrells have the Florents, Hoster Tully has Walder Frey, Ned Stark had Roose Bolton. Strength is the only thing that keeps such men in check. And when they smell weakness, they turn.


Spoilers ADWD below



Roose Bolton himself told Theon in ADWD that he had him to thank for winning the North. That house Stark was done when Theon sacked Winterfell. That was almost certainly not when he started plotting betrayal, but it would have encouraged him to set his plans in motion. Also, we do not know whether Roose and Ramsay planned to attack Winterfell, or if Ramsay did it on his own initiative and Roose felt compelled to see it through. We do know that Roose considers Ramsay his only option for house Bolton's survival (unless he lied to Theon about that in ADWD).



Roose found himself in possession of many important hostages, and the leader of big armies. Most notably, of course, he found Jaime which opened a dialogue with Tywin. He also got his hands on the Frey boys in Winterfell, which he no doubt used as leverage against Walder Frey. He sent Robett Glover and Ser Helman Tallart to raid Duskendale, where they were ambushed and defeated by Randyll Tarly and Gregor Clegane. No doubt this was done intentionally in order to kill off Stark loyalists. He did a few such manoeuvres.



It is interesting to note that Roose would never have believed he could take the north in his own name, he is too much of a realist for that: The North would never support Ramsay, or a Bolton, only a Stark. Which is why he could not be seen to be directly involved in the Red Wedding, and why fake Arya was so important to his plans.


So, as for when Roose started planning it, I think the answer is: He always planned it. It was just a question of when he could start doing something about it, when he was given opportunities and when Robb showed weakness.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l

What is the etymology of Doctor Who?

I recently decided to watch Doctor Who, and started viewing the 2005 version. I have the first two episodes from the first season, and I can't help but wonder what is the etymology of the name "Doctor Who"? And why does the protagonist call himself "the Doctor" (or is it "the doctor")? Answer In the very first episode of Doctor Who (way back in 1963), the Doctor has a granddaughter going by the name "Susan Foreman", and the junkyard where the TARDIS is has the sign "I.M. Foreman". Barbara, who becomes one of the Doctor's companions, calls him "Doctor Foreman" (probably assuming that is his name given his relationship to Susan), and Ian (another early companion) does the same in the second episode, to which the Doctor says: Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about? "Foreman" is most likely selected as a convenient surname for Susan to use because it happened to be on display near where the TARDIS landed.