Finger Lickin' Rickon

[sagaz]

Last week I was reading an essay about the winterfell crypts (I dont want to talk about that) but seeing some passages together naming Rickon highlighted something for me:

With Rickon by their side, the Walders plundered the kitchens for pies and honeycombs, raced round the walls, tossed bones to the pups in the kennels, and trained with wooden swords under Ser Rodrik’s sharp eye. Rickon even showed them the deep vaults under the earth where the stonemason was carving father’s tomb. “You had no right!” Bran screamed at his brother when he heard. “That was our place, a Stark place!” But Rickon never cared.

"Rickon never cared"

His baby brother had been wild as a winter storm since he learned Robb was riding off to war, weeping and angry by turns. He’d refused to eat, cried and screamed for most of a night, even punched Old Nan when she tried to sing him to sleep, and the next day he’d vanished. Robb had set half the castle searching for him, and when at last they’d found him down in the crypts, Rickon had slashed at them with a rusted iron sword he’d snatched from a dead king’s hand, and Shaggydog had come slavering out of the darkness like a green-eyed demon.

"Rickon had slashed at them"

We are all speculating about the return of Rickon as this "original Stark" who is going to be the embodiment of the ancient kings and avenge his family (I know I'd like to see that) but what if he really couldn't care less?

All week this thought was like a little fly. I´m glad I've found this topic.

ETA; The essay was "The Inmortals" by BranVras in Winterfell Huis Clos

[jeyneofthed'Ubervilles]

Psychopaths can also be very charming. That could be useful for a king or a lord or whatever Rickon grows up to be.

[sweetsunray]

Psychopaths can also be very charming. That could be useful for a king or a lord or whatever Rickon grows up to be.

Psychopaths use any possible tool to get what they want (money, sex, power, or even sadistic pleasure): charm, lies, violence, sex, threats, abuse...

[Dr. Pepper]

Psychopaths can also be very charming. That could be useful for a king or a lord or whatever Rickon grows up to be.

Well, see, first we need to meet Rickon in a stage of life where he's not simply acting his age (like a toddler, pre-schooler) or reacting to his environment (several abandonment issues there, home being burned down) to determine if he fits the psychopath profile. Seriously, no one labels 3 to 4 year olds as a psychopath.

[sweetsunray]

Well, see, first we need to meet Rickon in a stage of life where he's not simply acting his age (like a toddler, pre-schooler) or reacting to his environment (several abandonment issues there, home being burned down) to determine if he fits the psychopath profile. Seriously, no one labels 3 to 4 year olds as a psychopath.

Exactly!

[The Fallen]

Is he torturing animals a la Joffrey?

[Balerion06]

That line reads more as:

"[shaggydog] licked the blood off [Rickon's] fingers"

Pretty sure someone in-universe would have made a comment about a kid licking up other people's blood.

[JonisHenryTudor]

Kids tend to put their fingers in there mouth. Yes disgusting, but as others have mentioned he has already suffered tremendously. He is likely mentally distant, and did it out of habit or instinctively. I don't believe that Rickon is on the verge of cannibalism, but if anything perhaps you can see the similarities between him and Ayra. Both children have witnessed some atrocious things, and it is molding them in a specific, yet unique way. Ayra has taken up the role of assassin and while I think that she will eventually be reunited with Nymeria, she will be come to be more dangerous as an assassin. Rickon, on the other hand, is spending a lot of time with his direwolf, and I think they are going to establish a fairly indestructible bond that will manifest in a nasty way. Rickon may not be able to wield a weapon, but I think he is going to wield Shaggydog in a vicious manner.

I could be wrong, but I see the Stark children as parallels of each other.

Jon/Robb - more of the leaders

Bran/Sansa (I will be trashed for this one) - Both are developing as sort of the behind the scenes "puppet masters". Sansa as the developing courtier, and Bran as the master warg, if you will.

Ayra/Rickon - these two have suffered tremendously (not that the other Starks haven't), and their aggression will manifest in a very dangerous way.

[IRON BANK]

Here is my post introducing the much debated quote as evidence - from August 2013 - I shared my work in several threads on the forum.

I have been working on a long writing project in which I am theorizing that the “blood” the direwolves taste emboldens the Stark children. Through TRACKING the blood, I noticed several revelations about Rickon that may foreshadow what is to come.

Rickon is as wild as a “winter’s storm”, says Bran in AGoT, and he adds that Shaggy is “as wild as Rickon”. Child and direwolf mirror one another. Shaggydog infuses Rickon with a wild wolfish spirit. With Shaggy at his side, Rickon visits the crypts at least twice, both times without illumination to guide him. Evidently, Shaggydog can see in the dark, and possibly so can Rickon, an aspect of his god-given talents that his siblings may or may not share. Through Shaggy, Rickon is fearless.

Blood unifies Rickon and Shaggy, the direwolf who has already tasted the blood of two victims. Shaggydog has “bitten Gage on the arm and torn a chunk of meat from Mikken’s thigh” (AGoT 573).

Rickon’s dream about Ned in the crypts is prophetic, a clear and lucid vision of a ghost appearing to his son to ask for a meeting in the crypts of WF. Rickon’s dream is quite similar to the “greendreams” of Jojen Reed whom Bran meets in A Crown of Kings.

Thus, these enigmatic dreams may be the onset of the Stark gifts: warging/greendreaming. Since Bran’s warging and greenseeing are surpassing the capabilities of other greenseers, Rickon may develop a talent for greendreams, a “bonus” gift. Arya can warg Nymeria across the Narrow Sea. Will warging/skinchanging across bodies of water be a Bonus gift unique to Arya or shared by all?

On the day after Bran and Rickon both dream of their father, Rickon “unobserved” frees Shaggydog from his chains. Both disappear into the crypts without a torch. Evidently, the blood Shaggydog samples emboldens both the pup and his four-year-old mate. They feed off one another’s budding powers.

In the darkness boy and wolf patiently await a visitation from Eddard Stark. Meanwhile, Bran tries to visit the crypts, but Hodor is too afraid to go down the spiral stairs. Bran complains to Maester Luwin who generously offers to attend him into the crypts, and since Hodor is afraid, Osha the wildling carries Bran in her arms. Summer goes as well, but he prefers staying close to the bottom of the stairs.

Summer and Hodor are “sensitive” to ghostly spirits, and they are creeped out by the supernatural forces at work.

As Maester Luwin’s torch lights the way for Bran, Summer, Osha, and himself, they arrive at Lord Eddard’s grave.

Maester Luwin “thrust his own arm into the mouth of some giant beast” (734). Unfortunately, the darkness sprang at him [Luwin], snarling” (734). Instead of an empty vault, Shaggydog attacks with ferocity. Shaggydog’s jaws latch onto Luwin’s arm, and Shaggydog’s muzzle glistens wet with blood.

“In the drunken shifting torchlight, they saw Luwin struggling with the direwolf, beating at his muzzle with one hand while the jaws closed on the other” (734).

Bran calls Summer to separate Luwin and Shaggydog, and Rickon calls Shaggydog to heel. Then, Rickon finds his “mean”. Emboldened by Shaggy’s taste of hot blood, Rickon assumes an attitude that denotes authority and he issues a warning to Luwin:

“You let my father be . . . You let him be” (734).

Rickon’s boldness mirrors Shaggy’s boldness in his attack of the Maester. Shaggy perceives a threat, recklessly reacting and attacking an innocent.

Bran soothes Rickon, asking his brother about his dream. Rickon assures Bran that father “promised” he would be home tonight.

Losing his patience for Rickon’s ghost dream, Maester Luwin chastises Rickon for not keeping Shaggydog chained in the kennels. Rickon offers a defiant response that evidences that he has no fear of owning his actions:

“Rickon patted Shaggydog’s muzzle, damp with blood. “I let him loose. He doesn’t like chains.” He licked at his fingers” (734).

Rickon is not squeamish: he pats Shaggy’s bloody nose and jaw, and instead of wiping his fingers on his clothes, Rickon licks Maester Luwin’s blood from his fingers. [see grammar notes at the end of this post explaining thee sentence construction and vague reference error.]

Rickon’s symbolic tasting of human blood, even if transfer from Shaggydog’s muzzle, is an important event that speaks to how the blood motif will play out in the game of thrones . [Excerpt from "The Origins of the Blood Motif"]

Thus, Rickon’s magical powers will prove exceptional, as will those of his siblings. They may share the warging gifts, but Martin hints that the Stark siblings have unique powers that set them apart from one another. For example, Bran controls the wind, and he uses the leaves of the weirwood to speak to Theon and to attract his father’s attention.

Rickon has no fear of the dark “early” on, well in advance of his siblings. The Stark siblings share parallel journeys conquering their fears of the dark.

As early as AGoT, Martin suggests Rickon’s warging/greenseeing powers. Since Rickon does not have a POV, Martin hints at Rickon’s bond with Shaggy, their shared natures, and their mutual wildness through the observations of other POV characters.

Rickon tasting Maester Luwin’s blood in the crypts of Winterfell insinuates Rickon’s “blood-thirsty” nature. Here, Rickon tastes “first blood”, a symbolic initiation in Lord Eddard’s empty grave. Many of these images evoke death, and Rickon and Shaggy are surrounded by death.

GRAMMATICAL CLARIFICATION

PASSAGE UNDER EXAMINATION/ANALYSIS:

“Rickon patted Shaggydog’s muzzle, damp with blood. “I let him loose. He doesn’t like chains.” He licked at his fingers” (734).

“HE” is a vague reference. There are two views of the performer of the action “licked” in the last sentence. Is it Shaggydog who licks Rickon’s fingers? Or Rickon who licks his own fingers?

Grammatically, the passage contains prose narrative interrupted by a direct quote, a separate element with words set apart by opened and closed quotes. See the example:

“Rickon patted Shaggydog’s muzzle, damp with blood. “I let him loose. He doesn’t like chains.” He licked at his fingers” (734).

The antecedent of HE is the subject of the “first” sentence: Rickon. “Rickon patted Shaggydog’s muzzle, damp with blood. “Rickon Speaks”. “He licked at his fingers”. HE must refer to Rickon for two reasons: it makes sense because “Shaggydog’s muzzle” cannot LICK at his fingers. Second, “he” is a subjective case pronoun that stands in for a noun in a sentence.

The ANTECEDENT for HE should be in the prose narrative that precedes the direct quote. The sentence follows:

“Rickon patted Shaggydog’s muzzle, damp with blood.” The only nouns that HE could refer to are RICKON, MUZZLE, and BLOOD.

RICKON is a male gender; MUZZLE and BLOOD are not masculine and do not qualify as appropriate antecedents for HE.

Excellent: This is a great analyses, I like the grammatical support. thanks for this.

[Big Daddy]

After generations of high and mighty nobility, the Stark family could use a bit of a badass as the new patriarch. I hope rickon comes back with a bit of a wild side and some anger issues, just to spice things up.

[Pod The Impaler]

What I'm trying to say is that a psychopath is not as much feral as very calculated, and that violence is a tool to them, rather than something they cannot control. A psychopath is very able to control when to be violent or not, despite their impulsiveness ... What they have a problem with controlling though are their feelings of entitlement and they often self-destruct because of that (see Viserys).

I would tend to agree.

The one true psychopath we see is Cersei Lannister. Yes, she is very dramatic and flips out on occasion, but her brothers both know she resorts to this tactic when she is losing an argument. They also know that she is more dangerous when she's acting nice, usually sign she's concocting sort of nefarious scheme. She can be charming or amorous, when she feels like it, but that is a tool of manipulation. And she's a pathological liar, to the extent where she not only is deceiving others, but even makes up new versions of reality in her head to match whatever suits her best at the moment. She inflicts great harm on others, then blames them for it being "necessary" when really she just wanted to hurt them. As for violence, she routinely resorts to it, not so much with her own bare hands (Melara notwithstanding) but by arranging it be done by others. It is not even a love of violence - it is her total lack of empathy for the suffering of others. What matters to Cersei is Cersei, and only Cersei.

Considering Rickon, this does not sound like what he is. Plus, poor impulse control and seeing only their own wants is normal in a child. Children don't "get" what consequences are until they learn them; children will lash out when frustrated or afraid; children have a hard time imagining anyone else's point of view. That's why children are usually not diagnosed as psychopaths - emotional development of children and adults cannot be compared in equal measure.

Rickon is 5. His connection with Shaggydog may make him more feral than usual, as he unconsciously acts like his wolf and his wolf like him. However, like any 3-5 year old, he wants his mommy and daddy, he's emotionally hurt by their absence and as a result gets upset easily.

I don't think Rickon is going to be too emotionally healthy, what with all the abandonment issues, but a psychopath? No.

[sweetsunray]

Cersei is a strong example of how psychopaths operate, I would agree, except that apart from herself she does seem to have genuine feelings about her children. Psychopaths don't have any genuine feelings of love for their children either. So, I tend to consider her more as a malignant narcissist - almost same profile and tactics, except that they can care about who they consider their family. Mind you, I said "seems" to have genuine feelings for them, because she "loves" them with great dramatic flair: so it may well be her most perfected mask. She is one of the best examples in the books how the pathological lying works, operates and is used as a tool by psychopaths. (There is indirect evidence that Viserys was as much a pathological liar for his "poor me the victim" mask).

It would be wrong to label a child no older than 6 or 7 a psychopath. While empathy is partly an inborn capacity, there are development changes. Calling a 6 year old a psychopath because he may have temper tantrums, steals another child's toy (or breaks it), lies about it is like calling a baby of 1 month old a cripple because he can't walk yet.

Besides, many psychopaths showed no sign or hint of it as a child: just fun, loving, sweet, good children. When puberty hits, it all starts to slide down. By the time they're 19, they shoot their gf in the back of her head for wanting to warn granny that he's been using her credit. They get life, and consider themselves a success, because aren't they just nicely parasiting on society. That's the average, mediocre psychopath who ends up in jail.

[Shebara]

I just started a re-read of the series and caught something interesting in GoT. After Shaggydog attacks Maester Luwin in the crypts, Rickon pets the wolf's bloody muzzle and then licks his fingers.

Prior to noticing this, I felt that we had so little info about Rickon that there was no way to predict what he might be like or what his role might be in the future. I was not necessarily a subscriber to the Rickon Stark, cannibal prince and slayer of unicorns theory.

But, it seems to me that having Rickon licking someone else's blood, having Shaggydog go "rogue" (rather than following the typical Stark direwolf protocol of only attacking those who mean to harm a Stark) and all the Skagos cannibal rumors, GRRM is setting us up for a pretty dark version of little Rickon.

Of course it wouldn't be the first time he set us up to believe something, only to write the complete opposite!

Anyone else find textural evidence for Rickon's future role? Or a similar case of foreshadowing that you only noticed in a re-read?

Cannbal Thenns are to be found where Rickon is supposed to be :)

[Lost Melnibonean]

That line reads more as:

"[shaggydog] licked the blood off [Rickon's] fingers"

Pretty sure someone in-universe would have made a comment about a kid licking up other people's blood.

I agree. Either the George wrote thst line ambiguously to hint at something for the reader, or the line should have been polished by the editor.