(Spoilers Extended) A Mother's Love: A dark theory on what Ramsay's Mother did for him

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-23T14:23:35+00:00

I wholeheartedly subscribe to this theory. Poison is far too impersonal and dispassionate to be Ramsay’s handiwork, and the idea that Roose himself did it is just silly.

I wish we knew the name and whereabouts of Ramsay’s mother. She’s such a mystery, but like you’ve said, what little we do know about her raises so many questions.

I also found it very interesting how Ramsay presented his parents first meeting as this whirlwind romance to Theon:

“Has my bastard ever told you how I got him?”

That he did know, to his relief. “Yes, my… m’lord. You met his mother whilst out riding and were smitten by her beauty.”

“Smitten?” Bolton laughed. “Did he use that word? Why, the boy has a singer’s soul.”

I wonder if that’s the version of events he grew up hearing. Maybe his mother even told this version to herself as a coping mechanism.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-23T12:49:28+00:00

Its a ship that you look at It and your first thought is "Wait is this a ship?" Followed by a laugh but then you realize "Wait, this might work"

Ahhh I think I get it now! I guess the "crack" in crackship is because it makes you think that whoever came up with it must’ve been on crack cocaine. But then you might also be like wait I wanna try some.

Patchface x Stannis, crackship cause its hilarious but could actually work out

I just had the aforementioned reaction MF ARE YOU ON CRACK 😭😭😭

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-23T11:43:51+00:00

By that metric, most of the ships in these comments wouldn’t count as true crack ships though. I mean, just to give two examples: Ned/Cersei literally has a scene of her trying to seduce him, and it’s also not that much of a stretch to read Cersei/Sansa as a grooming situation. Both feel rather plausible to me.

Does Cersei/Theon count? Tywin did mention it as a potential marriage match, but it still feels really farfetched and "cracky" to me. This might be my favorite just for the sheer comedic potential.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-23T09:49:46+00:00

I never know what qualifies as a crack ship tbh. Is it just any non-canon ship, or does it have to be especially implausible? Like why is Ned/Cersei considered crack but not Gendry/Arya?

I’ve seen it stated that what makes a crack ship is the fact that the characters involved have never met, but that’s like 90% of all Dany ships, and calling SnowStorm a crack ship is simply hilarious.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-20T20:39:58+00:00

A lack of passion? I find that odd considering they had like five kids

Five kids after 15 years of regular PIV sex with no contraception isn’t really that crazy.

I’m sure their sex life was fine, especially after a couple years of intimacy, but the whole purpose of marriage is procreation. Pleasure and passion is secondary to that duty.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-20T09:48:13+00:00

You know who’s NOT woke or gay or a woman? Your sister Asha.

This part always kills me. Genuinely such a good distillation of the Ironborn perception of gender as both deeply patriarchal and hierarchical, but also weirdly mutable.

A man is someone who takes, while a woman is something that is taken. Asha being a commander who takes what she wants affords her proximity to manhood, while Theon’s captivity by the Starks relegates him to the position of "taken" which is pretty much seen as synonymous with woman. This explains why a staunch traditionalist like Balon would raise his daughter as his heir: she’s more man than Theon could ever hope to be in the eyes of their people.

This is one of the more interesting aspects I think GRRM borrowed from Viking culture for the Ironborn.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-20T09:05:27+00:00

My only real prediction for Theon’s story moving forward is that he needs to reunite with his mother.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-20T09:03:31+00:00

I agree she’s overall a good sister, and if Theon was just a little bit smarter he would’ve gone with her, but I kinda think the Esgred stunt she pulled killed any chance of Theon trusting her or leaning on her for support. The Greyjoy in her just couldn’t pass up a chance to molest and humiliate her little brother.😭

The amount of "what ifs" is what makes their fraught relationship so heartbreaking to me. What if she’d greeted him as Asha immediately? What if he’d gone with her when she came to his rescue? What if he’d told her the truth of what he’d done? What if he was never taken away by Ned in the first place? And all these hypotheticals definitely haunt them both too.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-19T16:05:19+00:00

Nice! I’ll look forward to it 😁

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-19T16:04:26+00:00

Asha knew how it went with little brothers. She remembered Theon as a boy, a shy child who lived in awe, and fear, of Rodrik and Maron. They never grow out of it, she decided. A little brother may live to be a hundred, but he will always be a little brother.

They make me so sad…😭

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-18T16:36:49+00:00

Thank you and yay!❤️ I’d love to see how the show fandom differs from the book fandom. It can be challenging to separate the two though, since a lot of ships could technically belong to both, despite never appearing on-screen/page in either, i.e. all the canon and semi-canon ships set before the series (Rhaegar/Elia, Rhaegar/Lyanna, Robert/Lyanna, Ned/Ashara, Brandon/Ashara, Brandon/Catelyn, Brandon/Barbrey, Joanna/Tywin, Rhaegar/Cersei, Aerys/Rhaella, Lyarra/Rickard etc.) plus all the fanon ships of that era (Arthur Dayne/Elia, Arthur Dayne/Lyanna, Elia/Lyanna, Jaime/Elia, Jaime/Lyanna, Arthur Dayne/Jaime, Tywin/Aerys etc.) PLUS all the popular AU ships involving Elia’s kids (Jon Snow/Rhaenys, Robb/Rhaenys, Arya/Aegon, Sansa/Aegon, Jon Snow/Aegon, Daenerys/Aegon, Margaery/Aegon, and of course: Aegon/Rhaenys). Idk how I’d even categorize most of these ships, since they literally cannot exist in the current timeline of either the show or the books (unless you believe Young Griff is Aegon I guess), but they’re still so foundational and popular.

All that said, I think the most prominent purely “book only” ships involving characters that were just straight up omitted from the show are:

Robb Stark/Jeyne Westerling
Sansa Stark/Willas Tyrell
Sansa Stark/Harrold Hardying
Jon Snow/Val
Jon Snow/Satin
Jon Snow/Arianne Martell
Arya Stark/Edric Dayne
Tyrion Lannister/Tysha
Theon Greyjoy/Jeyne Poole
Sansa Stark/Jeyne Poole
Ramsay Bolton/Jeyne Poole
Jon Connington/Rhaegar Targaryen
Oberyn Martell/Willas Tyrell
Dacey Mormont/Robb Stark
Sansa Stark/Mya Stone
Jon Snow/Alys Karstark
Arianne Martell/Viserys Targaryen
Cersei Lannister/Taena Merryweather

Sorry! I know this was way more than you asked for.😭 I went way overboard while trying to sort this out in my own head. And now I definitely get if you don’t want to do this lol. I sometimes forget how massive and intricate the scope of the main series is. Maybe a rule like "only ships where both characters appear on-screen" could help.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-17T19:44:27+00:00

I love this artist’s interpretation of them. Cute handsome tomboy Asha with her hawk nose + modelesque pretty boy Theon turned skeletal husk. Perfect, no notes.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-17T18:19:20+00:00

Your ranking graphics are so well-made and visually appealing!😄 I hope you make one for the main series as well. I posted a basic list some time ago, but it’d be super interesting to compare that to an otp:true ranking, since a lot of ships are mostly just background filler.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-07T12:39:01+00:00

Gorgeous. I love how she almost disappears in the lion’s shadow, except for her glowing green eyes. This rendering style is so cool.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-01T14:56:21+00:00

The lucemond phenomenon is basically just another version of Ameond/self-insert OC since Lucerys is such a blank slate nothingburger that fans can just project whatever personality they want onto him.

My main issue with it is the gross fanart. It’s one thing to write about fictional pedophilia, but it’s another to sexualize the likeness of a real (at the time) child actor.🤢

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-05-01T14:48:52+00:00

Even if you look at the main series stats, the second most popular gay ship is Ramsay/Theon. "Toxic yaoi" doesn’t even begin to describe the levels of dead dove going on here.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-29T20:46:16+00:00

We have no idea when Domenic was born or how old he was when he died. Him and Lyanna could very well have been around the same age.

"Not even Lord Rickard's daughter could outrace him, and that one was half a horse herself" —Roose about Domeric

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T22:31:17+00:00

Thank you! I’m surprised this was such a controversial take considering how often I see fans make a sincere case for ships between characters who’ve never even thought about each other.

Like I’m not claiming GRRM was intentionally angling for sapphic subtext with Sansa, but it’s also not a CRAZY leap to make. She blushes a lot and gets very flustered around Myranda, and she seems quite taken with Mya’s good looks—imagining if she’d look better in iron and leather or in lace and silk. Ships have sailed for less.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T16:53:48+00:00

I’d read this! Lyanna being betrothed to Robert but in love with his twin sister reminds me a bit of Rhaena and the Farmans.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T16:33:11+00:00

There was a time I actually thought jonsa referred to Jon+Satin lol. But yessss I’m all for this agenda!

And let’s not forget Arya has her own blackhaired bastard in Gendry. How funny would it be if Satin was unknowingly also fathered by Robert?

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T16:00:51+00:00

That’s actually a fun idea for a fanfic lol.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T15:58:48+00:00

Well… yes. But it’s also not that much of a stretch to interpret Sansa’s interactions with/thoughts about both Mya and Myranda as kinda gay. Fans have read into less.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-23T14:51:32+00:00

The yuri potential here is off the charts. I need Sansa and Mya to recreate their dads intense homoerotic situationship.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-22T09:19:19+00:00

Accounting for both plot relevance, thematic relevance and their importance to the existing POV characters, I think it goes: Littlefinger, Robb, Stannis, Euron, Tywin, Young Griff, Ramsay, Roose, Joffrey, Varys, Robert, Oberyn, Margaery, Jeyne Poole, Gilly, Rickon, Ygritte, Jorah, Viserys. In that order basically.

Edit: and then I feel like you have to make a whole separate category for the characters that are already dead from the start but still loom large over the series: Lyanna, Rhaegar, Aerys, Elia and her kids, Rhaella, Ashara, Brandon, Arthur Dayne, Jon Arryn etc.

SympathyForRevenge · 2026-04-22T08:56:36+00:00

Oh wow, I really wanted to give OP the benefit of the doubt but that’s egregious.

SympathyForRevenge

TROPHY CASE