Was Domeric really Roose's son?

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

3 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

Please see my edit to OP with a summary of elements. Also, other comments upthread. You only seem to be addressing #6.  In ASOIAF, family traits do matter, more than in real life. Yes, exceptions exist (Sam, etc). Domeric is not described as having any classic Bolton traits, unless "quiet" counts.

Well, the rest of your arguments have little substance. It's composed of a large amount of "could haves". Sometimes mutually contradictory. Like you when you observe that Lady Dustin seems to have liked Domeric, and from that you go to the bastard theory, while one paragraph later you notice that Domeric looked like a friendly, decent enough fella - but you somehow don't even touch on the hypothesis that maybe the lady liked Domeric, simply because Domeric was likable (unlike his psycho, raping, sadistic, murderous half-brother)?

And as for the observed lack of familial similarity - I don't know if something that ubiquitous can even be called "exception". Ned and Brandon. Arya and Sansa. Willas, Garlan and Loras. Bob and Stan. Cat and Lysa. Euron, Victarion and Damphair. Doran and Oberyn. Arianne and Quentyn. Joffrey and Tommen. Tyrion and Jaime. Rhaegar and Viserys. Egg, Daeron, Aerion and Aemon. Daeron II and Blackfyre. Aegon the Unworthy and the Dragonknight.

And, as noted a few times above, it brings nothing into the story.

[sweetsunray]

5 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

Yes, exceptions exist (Sam, etc). Domeric is not described as having any classic Bolton traits, unless "quiet" counts.

I don't know whether Roose and Ramsay, two individuals, are enough to typify "classic Bolton traits". We can't even say what typical Lannister traits are, aside from looks, and we have more than 2 people for that, but obviously Tywin and his father and his brother Gerold were two very different personalities. Meanwhile the son who's said to be most like Tywin, Tyrion, is speculated by readers to not be Tywin's son at all; that he may be a Targ. So? There are only two families that are described to have certain typical personalities - Targs with their fire and blood, and the Starks with wolfish but ice cold blood. And even there plenty of Starks and Targs differ enormously from individual to individual.

Furthermore, a trueborn Domeric would still have a Ryswell mother. Since when can't a trueborn son inherit traits from his mother. Do we know what Bethany Ryswell was like? Not at all.

Finally, even psychopaths father perfectly social and altruistic children that would never harm a fly, despite the fact that psychopathy has a genetic hereditary component. And then yet again their (great-)grandchild may grow up into a psychopath, despite being raised in a loving, protective home.

[SummerSphinx]

On 1/14/2017 at 4:26 PM, bemused said:

I agree with a lot of @sweetsunray's observations but I think we differ on some important side issues to this question.

I don't think Domeric was Roose's son , but Brandon's (except with a few added wrinkles) I had an old thread about this from 2013, which I've always meant to update. Some of my opinions have evolved since then and I needed to work around problems arising from a changing wiki and consideration of the time line.

I also find @John Suburbs post interesting but am not sure I see Roose's nature as quite that defined, yet ... maybe...

I think I need to update my own thread.

 

Sorry I missed this earlier. Could you link to your old thread here? Thank you.

[bemused]

@SummerSphinx

Well, I can, but it doesn't fully represent my thoughts now, so I've pulled it up and am reworking it, among other things...( I didn't want to go into a whole essay on your thread , and take it sideways...

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/85429-roose-killed-domeric-and-barbrey-knows-it/

 

[SummerSphinx]

I am not saying your theory @sweetsunray is a bad one.  I just think it is very premature to say it is the only good one and the only possible one.

You seem to be saying:

1. All the info provided about Domeric is included only to show indirectly that Rhaegar could outrace Lyanna; and

2. It is necessary and essential for GRRM to put this information into these huge volumes because it confirms one possible version of the KotLT theory that you happen to like (one that involves a wild horse chase in which Rhaegar catches Lyanna); and

3. It would somehow be too obvious if Selmy or Connington just remembered how awesome Rhaegar was on a horse; it can only be done indirectly by having Roose's dead son be a stand-in; and

4. Domeric is dead and has been too neglected for too long to become interesting in his own right now. 

I am not going to say this is impossible or even bad, but it is very, very far from being established that this version must be so. 

We are given extraordinarily little real information about the KotLT.  We don't know for certain the mystery knight was Lyanna, and if it was only Lyanna.  

Even if Lyanna was the mystery knight, it isn't essential that Rhaegar outrode her to catch her. GRRM is far more creative than I am, and I can whip out 3 alternatives in less than a minute:

1.  Rhaegar tracks down the horse by following hoof prints into the woods, hides nearby, and grabs Lyanna as she starts to saddle him up later.

2. Howland Reed has been sent dreams and visions from Bloodraven and/or tCotF . It is essential that Lyanna and Rhaegar conceive Jon, so Howland leads Lyanna and/or Rhaegar to a place that causes the discovery. Or Rhaegar falls asleep by a weirwood and dreams of Lyanna with a laughing tree face right next to a specific landmark he knows. He goes there and finds her half garbed.

3.  Lyanna temporarily succeeds in outracing Rhaegar, but she loses some clothing to a branch during the chase. Rhaegar uses his hounds to quietly sniff her out.

I am not saying you are wrong, but I don't think your theory is significantly more substantive than a lot of other theories and isn't required by the text.

Finally, even though Domeric is dead, Lady Dustin, Roose Bolton, and Ramsay are not. If Domeric was a Stark bastard, it would inform us about these other active players in the game. 

I wasn't shocked Arya was caught by Harwin, she was really young. I think you are over playing that one.

In the end, GRRM will go his own way. Things are not always as they seem.

You might be right (and if you are, I will say "good call" you know how to anticipate GRRM.) But only winter is certain. There are many other possibilities.

I didn't suspect Lysa killed Jon and sent the secret warning to Cat under Littlefinger's direction when I first read GoT. Or a dozen other things.

On 1/13/2017 at 5:25 PM, sweetsunray said:

The parallel that George bridges between Lyanna and Rhaegar with Domeric is interesting and noteworthy, but I do not take it as a literal one, or as something that is meant to tell us something about Domeric, such as his parentage or identity. Imo George uses Domeric to tell us something about Lyanna and Rhaegar.

Consider the question, "Why did George elaborate on Domeric's skills, when Domeric is a dead character and only important to tertiary characters such as Ramsay and Roose?"

Domeric is just not important enough. Lyanna and Rhaegar are also dead characters but who they were and what happened in the past between is pivotal. Unfortunately, the witnesses are all dead, except perhaps for Lem if he's Richard Lonmouth (and we do not know how much Richard was a witness to), and Howland Reed who's kept off page. The only way that George can sprinkle clues here and there, after Ned's death is through in world coincidental parallels (but deliberately incorporated by the author), apart from an info dump via HR (who was not an eye-witness to the kidnapping) or a flashback reveal in Bran's POV through the weirnet.

"Jousting, riding and harp": Domeric has all in common with Rhaegar. He is like a Rhaegar stand-inn. We also learn that Domeric, the Rhaegar stand-inn, was such a good rider that he rode better than Lyanna. Of course, Domeric never actually raced against Lyanna. Roose's comparison is like a reporter saying that Usain Bolt could outrace Ben Johnson even though both sprinters never actually competed against each other in real life. But someone else who was a contemporary horseback rider  of Lyanna did outrace her - Rhaegar. Hence, why we learn that Domeric was a great jouster, rider and fond of harp. If and when Lyanna had attempted to flee from Rhaegar on horseback, Rhaegar would have been able to catch up with her. That is what the Domeric info is about.

This is not an isolated parallel, with a male horserider being able to catch up with Lyanna. In aSoS, Arya tries to escape from the BwB not long after being taken by them at the Inn of the Kneeling Man. She manages to outrace almost everybody, except for Harwin, who catches up with her, compliments her by telling her she rides like her aunt Lyanna, nonetheless Harwin can still beat her in a race. So, we have Arya being a stand-in parallel for Lyanna, and a highly trained horserider (as the son of the master-of-horse) catching up with her. This doesn't mean that Rhaegar should now be regarded as the son of the stablemaster. After all, Harwin is not a full parallel to Rhaegar, since Harwin doesn't joust (as far as we know) and doesn't play harp either

But basically George used Domeric as a stand-in character to tell us something about the "kidnapping" or KotLT search: Lyanna was very good at horseriding, but a skilled and trained exceptional horserider such as Rhaegar could outrace her.

 

 

[SummerSphinx]

I already addressed this upthread. I'll just cut and paste my response.

7 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

I don't know whether Roose and Ramsay, two individuals, are enough to typify "classic Bolton traits". We can't even say what typical Lannister traits are, aside from looks, and we have more than 2 people for that, but obviously Tywin and his father and his brother Gerold were two very different personalities. Meanwhile the son who's said to be most like Tywin, Tyrion, is speculated by readers to not be Tywin's son at all; that he may be a Targ. So? There are only two families that are described to have certain typical personalities - Targs with their fire and blood, and the Starks with wolfish but ice cold blood. And even there plenty of Starks and Targs differ enormously from individual to individual.

Furthermore, a trueborn Domeric would still have a Ryswell mother. Since when can't a trueborn son inherit traits from his mother. Do we know what Bethany Ryswell was like? Not at all.

Finally, even psychopaths father perfectly social and altruistic children that would never harm a fly, despite the fact that psychopathy has a genetic hereditary component. And then yet again their (great-)grandchild may grow up into a psychopath, despite being raised in a loving, protective home.

None of this is real life, we have to enter into the "rules" of a make believe world with Baratheon characteristics, Targaryen characteristics, etc.  These characteristics are usually tied to the House sigil.  So even though Ned, Lyanna, and Brandon were all different from one another (the Quiet Wolf, the Wolf Maid, the Wild Wolf), they were all believably wolves.

In this instance, Domeric does not seem like one who loves carrying around an image of a  Flayed Man and retreating to the Dreadfort. It isn't that he is different from Ramsay, it is that there seems to be little obvious connection to the creepy sociopaths of the Bolton line.

He does seem significantly more like his mother's house sigil (a horse), which I did mention in my OP. And Roose is quiet, I grant you that.

But the difference from the Bolton family and it's sigil isn't the only reason for the idea that Domeric was a Stark bastard.  It might be a sign Domeric bonded with horses like Lyanna did...in a mystical, skinchanging sort of way, a Stark trait. It also helps describe why we get so much detail from Lady Barbrey about her sex life with Brandon, it explains how she blames Ned for her not being a Stark (he wouldn't marry her and legitimize her child), it gives Roose Bolton more motivation for the cruelty of the Red Wedding. 

Of course siblings are different, but there is a lot more going on here then just that.

I will add: 

I am inferring things from circumstantial evidence, and I am very aware that I am doing so. Because I am aware, I know it isn't 100% certain that this must be so,  and I am not presenting it as 100% certain. It is one idea I am floating, and parts of it conflict with other ideas I am floating.

However, you seem to be overstating my claims so you can more easily shoot them down.  

In the artificial world of ASOIAF, sigils are relevant, family characteristics are relevant, and we are encouraged by GRRM to consider them more seriously than we would in the real world. 

[SummerSphinx]

8 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

Well, the rest of your arguments have little substance. It's composed of a large amount of "could haves". Sometimes mutually contradictory. Like you when you observe that Lady Dustin seems to have liked Domeric, and from that you go to the bastard theory, while one paragraph later you notice that Domeric looked like a friendly, decent enough fella - but you somehow don't even touch on the hypothesis that maybe the lady liked Domeric, simply because Domeric was likable (unlike his psycho, raping, sadistic, murderous half-brother)?

And as for the observed lack of familial similarity - I don't know if something that ubiquitous can even be called "exception". Ned and Brandon. Arya and Sansa. Willas, Garlan and Loras. Bob and Stan. Cat and Lysa. Euron, Victarion and Damphair. Doran and Oberyn. Arianne and Quentyn. Joffrey and Tommen. Tyrion and Jaime. Rhaegar and Viserys. Egg, Daeron, Aerion and Aemon. Daeron II and Blackfyre. Aegon the Unworthy and the Dragonknight.

And, as noted a few times above, it brings nothing into the story.

They are not multiple arguments, they are multiple elements of a single inferrential argument.  None of the elements alone prove the argument. (For example, if the only element I had was "Barbrey liked Domeric, she doesn't like Ramsay" I would never run around jumping to the conclusion that Domeric was a Stark bastard).  Even all the elements together can never prove the inference 100%, that's just how inferential arguments work.  

Some inferrential arguments are more persuasive than others.

If the elements are patently true or have a reasonable basis, it helps strengthen the case. 

My elements are based on things that actually are directly referred to in the books.  Barbrey slept with Brandon. Check. Barbrey and Bethany were sisters. Check. Bethany was Lady Bolton. Check. All Domeric's "brothers" died in the cradle. Domeric had traits in common with Brandon. There is no obvious sign of "flayed man" behavior or tendencies. Etc.

Yes, it is possible that Barbrey just liked Domeric because he was friendly, her nephew, didn't flay people, and loved horses like her dear, dead lover Brandon. I'm not ruling that out.

Yes, it is possible that Domeric was friendly and wonderful, and he just secretly flayed a few people on the side that nobody missed. But that actually is speculation that has no basis in the books. As presented, no flaying.

Collectively, I think the elements are at least consistent with Domeric possibly being a Stark bastard.

It helps explain why Roose would make the bastard Ramsay his heir even though he suspected Ramsay killed Domeric.  He may genuinely have believed Ramsay was his and Domeric wasn't.

[Jon Fossoway]

15 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

 

Furthermore, a trueborn Domeric would still have a Ryswell mother. Since when can't a trueborn son inherit traits from his mother. Do we know what Bethany Ryswell was like? Not at all.

 

No, actually we do. Roose says she never made a sound in bed. It's a very curious thing for George to attribute to Beth. I said earlier it can interpreted in funny ways but also in a more sinister one: Beth was scared shitless of Roose. 

He wanted a brother by his side, so he rode up the Weeping Water to seek my bastard out.  I forbade it, but Domeric was a man grown and thought that he knew better than his father.

Now, Domeric going against Roose is something new. People during the saga tend to die when going against him.

[sweetsunray]

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

You seem to be saying:

1. All the info provided about Domeric is included only to show indirectly that Rhaegar could outrace Lyanna; and

2. It is necessary and essential for GRRM to put this information into these huge volumes because it confirms one possible version of the KotLT theory that you happen to like (one that involves a wild horse chase in which Rhaegar catches Lyanna); and

3. It would somehow be too obvious if Selmy or Connington just remembered how awesome Rhaegar was on a horse; it can only be done indirectly by having Roose's dead son be a stand-in; and

4. Domeric is dead and has been too neglected for too long to become interesting in his own right now. 

 

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

However, you seem to be overstating my claims so you can more easily shoot them down.

See what you wrote in your defense, and then your overstatements of my points. Raven-crow or kettle-pot perhaps?

How are the books constructed with characters? There are POV characters who serve as a perspective on events, not as objective recording cameras but as flawed or misdirecting narrators, but also as people we the readers can emotionally connect with. Then there are non POV plot-characters. They play crucial to intermediary roles in the plot to create issues, problems, but also solve issues, a helper or a romantic interest and basically help move the plot beyond the power of the POV characters. Some of these are major, others are less so, and some are just a blip, like the catspaw who comes to assassinate Bran. Then there are the background characters who serve as a background info to secondary characters, background of a plot, reveal off-page information or fill in the gaps.

How does George provide information? Almost anything but direct. We have a POV for one book who could give us some information of RR and the ToJ and Harrenhal, but George instead gave us an incomplete puzzle through that POV. The POVs present heavily distorted information, even as we witness events through their eyes. Meanwhile he conveys far more accurate information through symbolism and parallelism, as if the truth is echoed in a tourney's joust, the appearance and name of a horse. George doesn't do straightforward and complete answers of the mysteries he set up. We don't get Maigret or Poirot to do an exposition of whodunnit, how and why in detail. So, when you say "he could have Selmy remember Rhaegar's riding skills" (actually he said Rhaegar rode "brilliantly"), then I'm wondering whether we're talking about the same series, which is an exercise in vaguery. George doesn't do simple, straightforward info, and even when he gives us an answer it's incomplete or unconfirmed and often in unrelated locations/time/POV/event.

So we have Theon as a POV character, a distorted lens on the events in the North, Winterfell and Stannis's camp. He's also a plot mover in aCoK with his actions and choices by taking WF and making it look as if he killed Bran and Rickon. And again a plot mover when he takes Jeyne Poole. The aDwD and part tWoW plot he's a lens of is in how the Boltons will lose Winterfell. A winter siege and a straightforward battle are unlikely to be succesful. It will need turncloaks, false allies, making mistakes, traps and lures and the loss of assets to make that come about. And we are given hints to these in aDwD. So, the Boltons are the family to topple, and his allies are the ones to die or betray him. Of those "allies" the Manderlys and Barbrey Dustin are the more important ones. Manderlys motive is easily based on the red wedding and the Starks giving them a home, and we already know there's a rivalry against the Boltons since Lady Hornwood. The Manderlys are the Bolton-ally that Roose Bolton obviously shouldn't trust. George can't make all the Bolton allies be like Manderly - obviously untrustworthy. He has to have less obvious betrayers as well, people who sound loyal to him, whom he can expect to  be loyal, who acted loyal in the past when the Boltons didn't have power yet. Such an ally is Barbrey Dustin. And yet she requires a motive too. Domeric is the motive.

That the Boltons were never all that long term plot-important a family (like the Lannisters) is because there aren't many to begin with, and George didn't spend his time on creating an elaborate history of the family either. We certainly don't have an elaborate family tree. Roose and Ramsay were developed as characters as George wrote. In aGoT he set up Roose Bolton already in a position to be an untrustworthy ally for Robb. Then in aCoK he invents Ramsay, a bastard. But he needs to make it believable that Ramsay gets to lead the home garisson. If Roose can father a bastard then we could expect him to father trueborn children as well, and to emphasize Ramsay's viciousness, George invents Domeric rumored to have been killed by Ramsay. George also already suggests that Barbrey Dustin is not on par with the Starks, because she doesn't come to the harvest feast. From aFfC, George begins to set up and clarify the possible relations that can make Barbrey turn away from Roose. In the appendix we get a lis for the Dreadfort as Roose Bolton, dead Domeric who died of a bad belly and Ramsay, and then the retinue. In the same appendix we get a list for the Ryswells, starting with Lord Ryswell, Barbrey Dustin his daughter, her liege man Stout, Bethany Bolton his second daughter who was Roose's second wife and died of fever, and his quarrelsome cousins Roger, Rickard and Roose Ryswell. The text of aDwD however says Roger, Rickard and Roose are Lord Ryswell's sons (even though the aDwD appendix calls them cousins again). And not until aDwD in the text is it clarified that Bethany Ryswell was Domeric's mother, that Domeric served as a page with Barbrey, before he squired at House Redford in the Vale, providing the motive for Barbrey Dustin to be loyal to the Boltons on the one hand, but also a turncloak to them out of personal revenge.

At this point George has to color in Domeric somewhat, but only insofar it provides us direct info on Roose and Barbrey. For example, while Roose Bolton gives info on his son (and the mother, who never made a sound in bed), Roose is bragging about Domeric to Theon (the complete opposite of what he does about Ramsay). So, dead Domeric is used to give us character information about Roose - that of the proud father who makes do with the bastard son he considers pretty much worthless and more a pain than a gain. The bragging info though was relayed to Roose by Barbrey. So, dead Domeric is used to give us character information about Barbrey before we meet her in person - the proud childless aunt who hates the bastard on suspicion of having murdered Domeric. Sugar aunts don't become sugar aunts without bonding with their nephew at some level, and as Lady of Barrowhall she can't stay extensive periods at the Dreadfort, so Domeric's made a page of her for a while. Then the talents must be filled in. They need to be everything that Ramsay's not - intellectual, cultured and skilled. George ends up with a near parallel to Rhaegar and exploits the parallel to relay us something about the Rhaegar-Lyanna dynamic.

In each and every sense Domeric is an off-page dead background character used purely to relay us context:

• Why the bastard Ramsay ends up in control of Roose's garisson: the trueborn son died
• That Roose could be a proud father, while loathing his bastard: skilled and cultured Domeric 
• Why Barbrey Dustin is one of the more loyal powers of Roose: marrital ties with offspring
• Motive for Barbrey Dustin to see at least Ramsay dead: he was her beloved nephew, suspected to have been killed by Ramsay
• A parallel to Rhaegar and hint at us that Rhaegar could catch up with Lyanna

He already provided the info we need to have about Roose-Barbrey dynamics, about the characters alive. Domeric not being Roose's son adds nothing to what we already have and muddies the waters.

You also beg argument of motive for me pointing out the parallel use. You claim that it is my pet theory that Rhaegar caught Lyanna racing after her with the KotLT story. I never positively claimed this was my theory. I actually mentioned two situations where it could be relevant: KotLT OR the kidnapping of Lyanna. I don't know which of the situations it is. Any scenario on the crowning of Lyanna, the KotLT (and whether they were unmasked by Rhaegar) and the kidnapping is speculative. We hardly have any circumstantial evidence on it. Even some of the text used to propose Lyanna as the KotLT are hints and based on literary analysis deduction of puzzle pieces in several arcs that are certainly not related to Harrenhal, Lyanna or Rhaegar. While I lean towards Lyanna being the KotLT, I'm not 100% sure of it yet either. What I am pointing out though is that in one or both scenarios George is telling us that 1 ) Lyanna was a phenomenal horse rider 2 ) still beatable. And that in the one direct reference to someone who's able to outrace Lyanna, that character is mentioned in a way that Rhaegar inevitably comes to mind.

While other characters who knew Rhaegar can of course comment on his jousting and riding skills to themselves or others (which they do, despite your early negation of it), nobody can actually tell us that Rhaegar outraced Lyanna, since there was either no witness to it (KotLT) OR the witnesses are all dead (the kidnapping). On top of that the characters who knew Rhaegar, know little to nothing about Lyanna, other than that she was a wild beauty. Selmy can't make a commentary statement about Rhaegar outracing Lyanna, because he doesn't know Lyanna's riding skills, and to him naturally a skilled top tier jouster could outrace any woman on horseback. The only way that George can clue us in on Rhaegar-Lyanna dynamics that occured in secret, long ago, is through a parallel or a flashback vision. 

Personally, I'm more inclined to think it's a parallel commentary on the kidnapping of Lyanna. On the one hand we're given the information that Lyanna was a superior horserider. George probably did this for the KotLT identity and to fit the "wild Lyanna" profile. But then that leads to issues with the kidnapping. If Lyanna was such a great horserider, then surely she could have escaped her captors. We know she did not escape them, so many readers conclude that Lyanna never even tried. Arya's failed attempt at escaping the BwB and Rhaegar-parallel-Domeric outracing Lyanna serve as George's comment, "Well maybe she tried to escape, but was outraced anyhow."

It doesn't matter whether you expected Arya to fail because she was so young. The fail-to-escape situation is realistic in Arya's arc. I never claimed it was unrealistic. What is remarkable about it is that George inserts a Lyanna link in there. Arya's caught, Harwin compliments her on her riding skills and how she rides like her aunt Lyanna (info on Lyanna's riding skills without it being an info dump), but stresses he could still catch her. The scene would work just as well without the Lyanna-tie. So, I can only conclude that George didn't put it in there for Arya's sake, but to reveal us something about Lyanna, her riding skills, but also escape attempts that fail, especially since George has a tendency of people ending up being kidnapped in the Riverlands at inns (Tyrion, Arya, Brienne, and supposedly Lyanna as Rhaegar is said to have fell on Lyanna not far from the Crossroads Inn).

And sure you can sum up all sorts of creative ways for George to have Rhaegar catch Lyanna, but the issue still remains how George can clue us in on the scenario he has in mind. Aside from a weirnet vision, he can only do that with parallels, with stand-inns, using present events and then remarking on Rhaegar or Lyanna. I follow textual hints. The coulds are fun, but without some textual clues, they're nothing more than irrelevant fun. 

Anyhow, just to show that your assumptions about what I was arguing and why I was arguing is completely off the mark.

[sweetsunray]

2 minutes ago, King Merrett I Frey said:

No, actually we do. Roose says she never made a sound in bed. It's a very curious thing for George to attribute to Beth. I said earlier it can interpreted in funny ways but also in a more sinister one: Beth was scared shitless of Roose.

True. Bethany was "quiet" in bed. We know that of her.

[sweetsunray]

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

In this instance, Domeric does not seem like one who loves carrying around an image of a  Flayed Man and retreating to the Dreadfort. It isn't that he is different from Ramsay, it is that there seems to be little obvious connection to the creepy sociopaths of the Bolton line.

You don't know that. Nothing in the text suggests that Domeric was ashamed of being a Bolton.

 

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

It might be a sign Domeric bonded with horses like Lyanna did...in a mystical, skinchanging sort of way, a Stark trait.

A Stark trait that was believed to be no more than fairytales by Rickard Stark and Ned Stark. The direwolves were gone for 200 years. The Nightfort and the Black Gate are closed for 200 years. Less than 200 years before current timeline the Stark brothers heavily protested against a Stark daughter marrying a Royce of the Vale. And Bloodraven is the last known wizard. But by the time of aGoT, skinchanging and dragons and magic are nothing but fairytales, despite the fact they fought a wildling king who'd have had skinchangers in tow.

There is no actual evidence that Lyanna skinchanged horses. It's fun to speculate on it, but Arya (a confirmed skinchanger) can ride like Lyanna without skinchanging a horse (she only skinchanged Nymeria and cats so far).

The Ryswells have a horse sigil and breed horses. So, there's nothing weird about the son of a Ryswell being a great horserider, especially if he spend years as a page at Barrowhall, where the ruling lady is a Ryswell and the neighbours are Ryswells with huge horse herds.

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

Barbrey slept with Brandon. Check. Barbrey and Bethany were sisters. Check. Bethany was Lady Bolton. Check. All Domeric's "brothers" died in the cradle.

I don't see how being sisters, Bethany being Lady Bolton, Barbrey sleeping with Brandon and miscarriages are evidence that Domeric is not a trueborn Bolton. It might if we actually had a parallel of a similar prior case. Robert sleeps with a Florent at Stannis's wedding to Selyse. Selyse has had many miscarraiges and only Shyreen survived to grow up into a lovely kid (who's not autistic like her father and fare more friendly than her mother Selyse). Shyreen is still Stannis's trueborn daughter, and Robert's bastard with a Florent was not made into a trueborn son of Stannis. Robert didn't sleep with Selyse either.

 

7 hours ago, SummerSphinx said:

Domeric had traits in common with Brandon.

Huh? I don't remember Domeric being described as a wild personality ready to fly off the handle on a moment's notice, nor a womanizer. Brandon didn't play harp as far as we know.