In this Golden Era of television, viewers would be hard pressed to find a character that has induced more rage and disgust than “Game of Thrones’” resident psychopath, Ramsay Bolton. He has tortured, flayed, and murdered his way through the North, mostly because he gets his jollies from it. But now, at long last, House Stark has given the bastard his comeuppance. Now that he has been torn to shreds, let’s look back at all the damage Ramsay has caused.
Ramsay was introduced to the series as the leader of an army from House Bolton assigned to take back Winterfell from Theon Greyjoy. Robb Stark offered mercy for the Greyjoy soldiers if they surrendered. The soldiers turned on Theon and surrended, only for Ramsay to violate Robb’s promise by flaying all the soldiers and burning Winterfell.
Ramsay then began a season-long process of cruel torture to break Theon, pulling all sorts of devious tricks. Once he got the information he needed, Ramsnay revealed to Theon who he really was and returned him to the torture chamber of the Dreadfort — the Bolton’s ancestral home where the skins of their enemies hang from the rafters. Ramsay forced Theon to take on the servant identity of “Reek” by flaying and amputating his extremities, culminating in castrating his captive and sending his genitals to the other Greyjoys.
With Theon effectively broken, Ramsay decided to get more sick joy out of hunting an innocent girl named Tansy, simply because she was making Ramsay’s equally sick girlfriend, Myranda, sort of jealous. He killed her by releasing his hunting dogs on her.
Ramsay’s father, Roose Bolton, also flayed his enemies, but even he has standards. He raged at Ramsay for torturing Theon, but Ramsay tried to mollify him by revealing that Theon told him Bran was alive and promising to use his broken slave to take Moat Cailin, a valuable base, from the Greyjoys.
After thwarting Yara Greyjoy’s attempt to rescue Theon, Ramsay did a repeat performance of his capture of Winterfell. This time, he used Theon to trick the Greyjoys into surrendering Moat Cailin with the promise of mercy … only for Ramsay to flay every last man. The base’s capture earned Ramsay his father’s respect and a document legitimizing him as a Bolton.
Still, things quickly turned against the Boltons. They betrayed the Starks by killing Robb and his mother at the Red Wedding and join the Lannisters, only for things to fall apart when Tywin Lannister was killed by Tyrion. With the Lannisters in disarray and Ramsay still torturing everyone, murmurs of mutiny begin to surround the Boltons.
To placate the North, Roose agreed to have Ramsay marry Sansa Stark, so as to appear to be a proper house instead of just a group of horrifying murderers and ostensibly to give some legitimacy to the Boltons’ claim on the North. The move that angered Myranda. Ramsay responded by vaguely threatening Myranda by reminding her what happens to people who “bore” him before forcing himself on her.
Ramsay humiliated Sansa and Theon by making his slave confess to killing Sansa’s younger brothers. Roose put a stop to it by announcing that his new wife, Walda Frey, was pregnant. The announcement rattled Ramsay, as he realized that the new child would become a threat to Ramsay’s status as Roose’s heir.
Then, in the most controversial moment in “Game of Thrones” history, Ramsay raped Sansa and forced Theon to watch. He flayed Sansa’s elderly maid and forced her to look at the corpse, gloating about how Winterfell was now in control of the house that killed her mother and brother.
Upon hearing word that Stannis Baratheon wanted to lay siege on Winterfell, Ramsay destroyed Stannis’ forces through a mix of sneak attacks and brutal open warfare. But when he returned, he discovered that Sansa and Theon escaped and killed Myranda as they left.
Furious that Sansa has escaped, Roose warned Ramsay that if she was not brought back, he would rescind Ramsay’s title as his heir. In a panic, Ramsay stabbed Roose in the chest before killing Walda Frey and his newborn half-brother with his hounds. Ramsay then declared himself Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.
Realizing that Sansa had made it to the Wall and reunited with her half-brother, Jon Snow, Ramsay sent a bloodthirsty letter demanding that Jon hand over Sansa or he would flay every wildling under his protection.
Ramsay also revealed something even more horrifying for the Starks: as a token of loyalty in exchange for helping eradicate the wildlings Jon let past the Wall, one of the smaller houses in the North handed over Rickon Stark to Ramsay.
At the “Battle of the Bastards,” Jon planned to lure the Boltons into fighting on their terms, but that changed when Ramsay baited Jon by letting Rickon run to him. Once Jon was out in the field, he killed Rickon with arrows and sent his troops in, forcing Jon’s men to come and rescue him.
But Ramsay didn’t count on Sansa having reinforcements. The knights of House Arryn came in and trampled the Bolton forces, forcing Ramsay to retreat. Jon and his wildlings then stormed Winterfell, allowing Jon to finally beat Ramsay to a bloody pulp.
