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[Spoilers?] What was the point of Rickon?


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One thing that really gnawed at me this season was Rickon Stark. What was the point of bringing this character back? For all Jon's and Sansa's waffling about reclaiming their home this season his captivity seemed an afterthought, even with the high probability of his death. Did anyone mention Ned Stark's trueborn heir to the Lords they were petitioning? The ones who disparaged them for being a Snow and a Bolton? I can't decide if Brienne knew he was a hostage or forgot how succession worked when she kept saying Sansa was the rightful Lady of Winterfell.

Were we supposed to care as an audience? Could we have been lead to believe he MIGHT survive, or care if he survives, to build some suspense? Surely if he had a speaking part or a few scenes it might have helped! But I guess we wouldn't have the warts, fingers-up-butts, or Tyrion and Missandei at the Seinfeld diner.

The real shame is that compared to the books he had a bit of characterization and a decent scene or two with Bran. He served a nice purpose in setting apart the Starks from the southern lords. The way Rickon was filthy and wild-haired and climbed trees with the miller's son, contrasted with how Joffrey and Mika interact, nicely illustrated how the Stark's and Lannister's ruled their smallfolk.

Its not near as bad as Stannis or Jaime, but seems like wasted potential. Does anyone else get the sense D&D are sloppily tying up loose ends via unsatisfying deaths? It makes you worry about poor Gendry and Jorrah...

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Same reason as the wolfs and giants - budget + people would question forever what happened to X and Y.

 

I dont think the audience cared about Rickon. We arent supposed to. He was never central to the story and was gone a long time. I bet most didn't even remmenber him.

 

Gendry and Arya might bump into each other.

Jorah will definetly die a hero's death because we spent so much time with him and Dany now like's him again so I would'nt worry.

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Same here, Rickon death was just D&D having no good "Ideas" with what to do with him. I'm really glad I read that spoiler, it lessens the blow somewhat on his death for me.

Putting R+L into the equation, its sad that Ned only has one living son now and hes more then likely not gonna procreate, if he even can.

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8 minutes ago, Thoros of beer said:

Ye pretty useless. But it helped Ramsay in winning the battle (if Rohan didn't show up to save the day). Jon disbanded all tactics he had against Ramsay when he saw Rickon die. 

Yeah, I felt a bid sad that after 6 seasons and one death Jon still can't control his feelings. Sansa warned him, he seemed to listen but still: he failed again.

Epic battle though, and the vale rescue was quite obvious. 

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They could have included a short scene with Rickon and Osha or Rickon in captivity, just to make the audience care about him a little bit. They did not even try. I guess that the showrunners just want to reach their endgame, so they just focus on the main characters while killing everybody else off. I think that looking back it would have been better storytelling if they would have merged or not included some characters at all. All those pointless deaths and characters from past seasons coming back just to die without much character development is pretty tiring. Compared to the first seasons the show may look better now with all those big battles and CGI dragons, but it feels pretty empty and lost its heart. I barely care about any of the characters any more at this point. It is one big slaughterfest with one outrageous death after another and it bores me. The books, while also dark still have heart and can make you feel genuinely sad about the fate of the characters.

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His return was to serve as a reason for Jon and Sansa to attack Ramsay, although, as Sansa said, Rickon was lost already.

His death was to make Jon angry. And it actually worked. It was only Jon's super arrow-proof shield spell that made him survive. (Aside from being a main character that was just resurrected ofc)

But it's true that although it was sad how he ran to Jon and died just seconds before getting to him, it was all a bit lacking a real emotion. The Stark children are supposed to be the main characters, yet Rickon was always like the second (or rather tenth) fiddle. He never had his own story. If there was a scene here and there with him since the time he and Osha left Bran, it would be much better. Like this, he was just a character that bears the name of Stark but no one cares about him.

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I'd guess the showrunners spent some time plotting out the season and sketching where they want to go in season 7, and figured that Rickon was surplus to requirements (e.g. Jon Stark becomes Lord of Winterfell, or Sansa and Littlefinger have the northern intrigue while Jon fights elsewhere). To that extent they at least put Rickon to good use as a plot driver -- he drew Jon to arms in the first place, inspired the chaotic battle, and gave Jon his mojo back.

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He's always been the Cousin Oliver of the Stark's. Even in the books he's just the kid following Bran around until Bran tells him to take a hike. So no I don't really think it's that big of a deal. He's like Tommen in that in the books he's too young to have any agency besides being a pawn for all the other characters. 

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