Wild Speculation About That Letter.

[Uncle Benjen's]

Spoilers for S6E4 lay ahead, ye have been warned.

**Purely based on the TV series**

Although this is labeled as wild speculation I am going to attempt to approach this rather empirically to provide a well reasoned argument. 

~

So, the letter in question: the Bastard letter addressed to the Jon Snow. The wild speculation concerns the writer of that letter.

The question must be asked of who benefits from this letter being sent.

 

So Ramsey?

I'm not so convinced, from doing this he is showing the opponent all his cards. While it seems in character, if D&D continue GRRM's tradition, nothing is quite so obvious. Not only this but he is revealing to Jon that he preparing to mount an attack, putting Jon on full offensive.

This has seriously weakened Ramsey's position as Jon would now be actively seeking out allies to help him fight, whereas before he was quite passive. This letter would make little sense for Ramsey to write it, unless he is truly a mad dog.

 

So, Littlefinger?

The next stage of Littlefinger's power grab is to bring the North under his control. He appears to doing this through Sansa Stark, possibly attempting to place another heir he can manipulate like Robin Arryn. However why would he benefit from directly addressing Jon.

As far as Littlefinger knows Jon is still Lord Commander, and surely he would have knowledge of the dwindling numbers of Nights Watchmen, and I doubt he would see the need for Jon to be involved at all for risk of having an extra, potentially problematic political unit to deal with in Jon which would weaken his position and hold on Sansa.

He already has enough forces in the Vale army to take Winterfell and swoop in to save his damsel in distress (Sansa). Or he could be severely underestimating Jon or due to him not knowing of Jon's abdication from the role of Lord Commander, and assuming Jon wouldn't want to be caught up in the aftermath of a conflict he is directly involved in. But this is Littlefinger; the guy is everywhere all at once.

 

So, who does benefit from it? 

Sansa Stark.

I put it forward that Sansa wrote the letter addressed to Jon in order to get him on the offensive and fighting for her cause of restoring Winterfell to the Starks. The letter immediately creates a sense of urgency. Sansa knows she needs Jon's full support and his willing free folk. Although she may have already convinced him he was very reluctant to agree fully. This is the right kind of way to motivate Jon and get him on the offensive.

Sansa also appeared unfazed by the letter and even carried on reading when Jon stopped to hit home the point about what Ramsey would do to her. Manipulating what Jon said earlier about their Father's ghost haunting Jon.

Remember Sansa has spent a lot of time with Littlefinger who seemed intent to give her advice and possible off camera seminars into becoming a master manipulator in the Game of Thrones ((first 5 lessons for 50 gold dragons, sign up today and come Spring you will be Lord of Harrenhall)). And who else but Littlefinger penned a letter to another Stark that got them on the offensive and thrust into conflict.

Sansa is obviously being touted as the next big political player in the series. Due to the patriarchal nature of Westerosian (not the bad pussy ofc) society Sansa will have to utilise someone who can embody her political agendas but appeal to the right pepple: Jon. Much like Yara Greyjoy is having to do so with Theon (moar possible speculation) and also mirroring Littlefinger's rise in a society obsessed with birth over merit.

However I must confess I know a flaw in my own. It becomes unravelled when you begin to question how Sansa would get a stamp with the Bolton sigil on it.

Now I know why it is so hard for D&D.

~

I hope you enjoyed and it didn't get a little bit crackpot. I apologise for any grammar or spelling mistakes, I am writing from a phone.

Let me know what you think.

 

 

[Good Guy Garlan]

11 hours ago, Uncle Benjen's said:

While it seems in character, if D&D continue GRRM's tradition, nothing is quite so obvious. 

See, that's a problem right there. D&D are not continuing GRRM's tradition in that regard. They don't do mysteries or conspiracies or traps anymore. What little intrigue they include is superficial, and their reveals are clearly telegraphed in advance. What we see is what we get, basically. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath. 

[bb1180]

I don't know that it works.  Aside from the Bolton seal on the letter,  there are a couple of other issues. The first is that we see one of Bolton's men enter the gates at Castle Black,  presumably carrying this message.  The second is that Sansa would not know that Ramsay had Rickon. 

 

[Lord Lyman]

I think this is Ramsay. There was too much information in there that Sansa didn't know about and its even a stretch to think the Littlefinger knew about them. Although given some of the other illogical things on this show, like Myrcella's 2 month old perfect corpse, he has a slight outside chance. Plus neither Sansa or Littlefinger have ready access to a Bolton messenger.

[The Snark of Winterfell]

3 hours ago, Good Guy Garlan said:

See, that's a problem right there. D&D are not continuing GRRM's tradition in that regard. They don't do mysteries or conspiracies or traps anymore. What little intrigue they include is superficial, and their reveals are clearly telegraphed in advance. What we see is what we get, basically. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath. 

I agree. The show is straight forward devoid of conspiracy.  In the books, I think it was Mance or Stannis, who are both dead in the show.  Was holding out hope for Stannis until this last episode.

One possible benefit to the letter could be getting Jon to leave the Wall so Ramsay's Northern Allies won't have to attack the Night's Watch.

 

[TickTak7]

Interesting post. 

I think sometimes though, we just have to accept on face value what the show is giving us - more so lately, as D&D seem unable to properly include the mystery, conspiracy, and uncertainty that the books had. 

I think it's from Ramsey, and I think it makes sense that it's from Ramsey, because Ramsey has the most to gain from Jon leaving Castle Black and bringing Sansa to Winterfell. 

 

[Laughing Storm Reborn]

Ramsay: he does not know sansa is in cb

Sansa: she does not know about rickon in wf

Littlefinger: who knows, deus x benioff

Stannis alive with spies and brienne's fielty: GET HYPE

 

truth be told... I DO NOT CARE

[Ncgunner]

Yup Garlan has it right -- what passes for "plotting" and "scheming" in GoT now is about at the same level as what you would expect fro Once Upon a Time or Scandal.  Ever since the show got beyond the ready-made material in the books, there has been a marked difference in the complexity and logical consistency of the political maneuvering

[Uncle Benjen's]

Speaking truthfully I had forgot about seeing the man with a Bolton sigil on his shield before the letter was delivered - certainly throws a spanner in the works. Also the point about Rickon is another spanner as well - or crafty Sansa could've simply lied about that in the letter not knowing that Rickon is actually hostage to Ramsey. 

I appreciate the points about the show writing style - it seems ever since season 4 the intrigue has disappeared - shamefully so as they had done the big reveal about Littlefinger sending the letter that sparked the initial Lannister-Stark conflict.

I thought it would be a nice way for the show writers to show Sansa's development into being a true player in the game of thrones as per Littlefinger's advice in season 4 & 5 by mirroring his tactics. I can't help but feel that D&D have missed a trick with this - they love big reveals and surely revealing it was Sansa who wrote the letter is worthy of falling into that category.

One can always dream, I suppose.

[princess_snow]

9 hours ago, bb1180 said:

I don't know that it works.  Aside from the Bolton seal on the letter,  there are a couple of other issues. The first is that we see one of Bolton's men enter the gates at Castle Black,  presumably carrying this message.  The second is that Sansa would not know that Ramsay had Rickon. 

 

This is what I was thinking.