tze, on 16 March 2012 - 10:10 PM, said:
This brings up a thought that I've been wondering about. A while back I posited (elsewhere) that the Boltons might have started literally wearing the skins of their enemies as a means of trying (and failing) to become skinchangers. Upon further reflection, I think it's interesting to note that the Boltons were literally wearing the skins of dead humans---which sounds quite a bit like what it seems the Others are probably doing (skinchanging into the "skins" of dead men) when creating wights. Given that the Boltons were fighting the Starks, perhaps the Boltons weren't just trying to approximate skinchanging. Perhaps the ancient and terrible Kings of Winter could actually create wights of their own, and it's this skill the Boltons were trying, and failing, to copy.
Which of course would have interesting implications for our current crop of Starks, especially Jon, given his heavy association with ice (the Wall) and death (Ghost).
lockesnow, on 16 March 2012 - 11:28 PM, said:
The boltons aren't trying and failing to do any sort of imitation. they're sending a message about skins. No skin is safe, probably. or possibly that they take men the way wargs take wolves.
For those who think that the story of the Night King was about wedding a dead woman, it's worthwhile to think about Ramsay's "amusements". I think there is something more to it than perversion and cruelty.
In the accounts we have from ACoK, Ramsay practiced his games with the first Reek. Ramsay wore his finest clothes: velvet doublet, sable cloak (like a king, or a groom for a chase in the woods!). Reek and possibly Ramsay practiced necrophilia on their poor victim. And Ramsay, still in the guise of Reek, tells Theon
Quote
I was in service to the Bastard o’ the Dreadfort till the Starks give him an arrow in the back for a wedding gift.
The wedding is thought by Theon to refer to the recent marriage of Ramsay with Lady Hornwood. But, in Ramsay's mind, I think it refers to a mock marriage part of the cruel game he played. Note that the woman was skinned and a dog inherited the name (reincarnation). The skins seem to be kept at the Dreadfort. (In the Roose Bolton thread, it has been suggested that the skins are like the faces kept by the Faceless Men.)
Finally, when Manderly and Theon give accounts of Ramsay's crimes, I realized they follow a significant scenario: the woman has half a day (in fact a night) to flee. At sunrise, horns are blown and the chase begins. I am not sure what to make of this. For me, it evokes the wife of the Night King chased by the Night's Watch (horns) at the end of the Long Night.
Finally, a children's game called Monsters and maidens is mentioned several times through ACoK and ASoS (Rickon, Bran and the Walders, play it, as do Selyse and Edric, as did Arya, as did Shae etc): a "monster" has to chase a "maiden". There aren't many more details about the game, but I suspect it is derived from the same myth that gave birth to Ramsay's "amusements".