Game Of Thrones: Ramsay Bolton And His Evilness
In today’s world full of entertainment outlets, Game of Thrones, a show that first aired in 2011, based upon the books by George R.R. Martin, has managed to gain a mass following from citizens all over the world. This show tells the rather long and complex story that revolves around taking power in the kingdom of Westeros. There are many families involved in this process throughout the show, so viewers are introduced to an overkill amount of characters to form opinions about. Fans also get to watch as these characters perform both heroic acts and terrible things. The character most notable for performing the latter of the two is most definitely Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon). This character was introduced in season 3 as the bastard and only son of Lord Bolton (Michael McElhatton). Because he is a bastard, he is viewed as a less fit leader than any non-bastard alternative. Ramsay knows this, and he is willing to do whatever it takes to inherit his father’s last name, and the title of lord. This proves to not be an easy task as it forces Ramsay to become sick and twisted character that has no regard others as long as it benefits him in some way. He steals scenes and makes them utterly hard to watch. While he does have a motive for these actions, that does not excuse him of his crimes against the other characters in the show.
His first headline in the series already proves to viewers that he is indeed evil and sadistic as it involves relentlessly torturing of Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen). He was given this opportunity after the Bolton house captured. The Boltons have a history of flaying their enemies in the show, but it is said that the practice is outdated and not seen anymore. Because Ramsay wants to eventually lead this house after his father passes, he shows a great interest in his house’s past that he believes they never should have abandoned. He flays Theon because of this for quite a long time. Although torture is usually used for some type of gain such as the gain of information, Ramsay has no dark motive for performing torture other than his wanting to after Theon has already given up all that he knows. He makes this apparent to both viewers and Theon himself when he states that “This isn't happening to you for a reason, well one reason: I enjoy it!”. His torture methods are far worse than what viewers see from other characters enforce in the show as well. His torture involves constant psychological torture constantly breaking Theon down as well as the great amount of physical pain that he afflicts him with from lashings and cutting. This torture is so severe that Theon eventually requests that Ramsay cuts off his finger. This torture eventually ends as Ramsay cannot keep Theon in his dungeon forever, but he does not grant Theon his freedom.
After all, Ramsay decides that instead of setting Theon free to transform him into a mindless and severely damaged servant who is purely loyal to Ramsay due to fear and fear alone. At this point, Ramsay does not view Theon as a human being, so he strips him of his birth name. Theon is given the servant name Reek. In the scenes Theon appears in after this process, he is shown as severely damaged mentally. He is always very nervous around Ramsay and often physically shakes. Ramsay also makes Reek sleep in the kennels with the dogs rather than giving him a proper place to live. Reek is of no use to Ramsay, yet Ramsay keeps him as a pet for entertainment and intimidation. He enslaves him and makes him perform the tasks of a lowly servant despite the fact that Theon was a noble born. There would be much better use for Then Greyjoy rather than Reek, but Ramsay does not care. He just wishes to see his torturous ways continue to intimidate his enemies. He also forces Reek to go an “hunts” with him where they set women into the woods to chase down and kill. While this act is evil enough on its own, forcing someone else to partake in this act is far worse. When his father sees what Ramsay has made of Theon it is shown that he disapproves of Ramsay’s actions despite not punishing his son. Ramsay argues with him saying that this is the history of their house, but Roose still shows disapproval. Nevertheless, because Ramsay was responsible for taking Winterfell, he is finally legitimized by his father to become a lord and earns the name Bolton.
As a lord, it is decided that Ramsay must marry. Because of the loyalty that the North still has to the Stark family, Roose asks Lord Baelish (Aiden Gillan) to give him Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) to Ramsay as a bride. Baelish is also a suspicious man who will do most things for personal gain, so he accepts. At this point, the North thinks that Sansa is the only non-bastard Stark child that is still alive. However, her brothers Rickon (Art Parkinson) and Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) remain despite Theon saying that he had killed them. The wedding would legitimize the Boltons’ rule of Winterfell. When she arrives in Winterfell, she quickly recognizes Theon who used to be a brotherly figure before betraying the Starks. Still, she is disgusted by what Ramsay has done to him. Theon reveals to her and the Boltons that Bran and Rickon are still alive to apologize to Sansa. Sansa forms a rather negative opinion of Ramsay, as she should, but at this point, there’s not much that she can do. The wedding occurs, and it is clear that Sansa does not wish to consummate the marriage. However, Ramsay rapes her and forces Reek to watch from the corner of the room. Ramsay inflicts more abuse on Sansa following the wedding, and he kills a woman who tried aiding Sansa in an escape from Winterfell. Ramsay keeps Sansa practically locked in the castle as he keeps her as a prisoner wife. Sansa is forced to live with Ramsay for a terrible period of time. Eventually, Reek helps her escape Winterfell and gives her to Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), who helps reunite with her Half-Brother, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who is acting Lord Commander at the Wall in the North. Theon returns to his home at Pyke.
Although both of his prisoners have escaped him, Ramsay’s terribleness does not end. He captures Rickon Stark when he is turned over to him by an allied house. He also sends a letter to Jon at the wall saying that not only has Jon betrayed the North but also that his armies will defeat Jon’s, after which, he will force Jon to watch Ramsay’s soldiers rape his sister and Ramsay’s hounds eat his brother before spooning his eyes out. In response, Jon marches his armies to retake Winterfell. Before the battle occurs, Ramsay releases Rickon on horseback into the open field between him and Jon. As Rickon rides, Ramsay takes shots at him with a bow. Rickon is killed moments before he reaches Jon. This is Ramsay’s last evil act before his armies are defeated, Sansa takes control of Winterfell and he is fed to his own hounds.
Still, some would argue that his most evil act did not involve the Starks or Theon at all. After Ramsay was named a lord, His father’s wife gave birth to a son. Ramsay felt threatened by a true-born Bolton as he was born a bastard. He feared that his father would eventually make his new son the lord of Winterfell in place of Ramsay. Roose assured Ramsay that his inheritance would remain the same. However, Ramsay felt that it was necessary to feed his father’s wife and son to his hounds and kill his father to prevent this from happening again. He murdered his own family just to secure his place of power at Winterfell.
Game of Thrones has seen quite a bit of villainous scum during its now 7-year run-time, but Ramsay Bolton is far worse than any other character to appear on the show. The entire existence of this character was purely to torture Theon and Sansa. While viewers also hate other characters such as Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), nothing they do compares to Ramsay’s crimes of torture of Theon and others, enslavement of Reek, rape of Sansa, hunting of humans, and countless murders including those of his last remaining family members. Cersei and Joffrey show loyalty to their houses and families at least, but Ramsay shows loyalty to no one and only wishes to see himself gain from his actions. Joffrey is usually in the conversation of show’s most hated character along with Ramsay. However, they are very different. Viewers hate Joffrey more because he is annoying than evil. He does behead Sansa’s father, Neddard Stark (Sean Bean) and is very cruel to Sansa while she is in King’s Landing. However, he never rapes her or murders anyone himself. Instead, he is shown as being whiny and spoiled. He is king, but he never has any real power as his advisors are really in control. Ramsay is not like this. Ramsay is much eviler than Joffrey. He doesn’t just threaten evil acts, he carries them out, by himself if he must. On CinemaBlend’s current poll Joffrey is trailing to Ramsay as the most hated character in the entirety of the show. Ramsay was also not only voted by viewers to be the worst character on the show, but 145,000 readers of The Atlantic voted Ramsay Bolton to be the most despicable, sadistic and utterly evil character on all of Television. Even with the millions of television characters that exist in the world, Ramsay was decided by a mass audience to be the worst. This is because his actions have no reasoning behind them or sometimes benefit himself. On top of all his other crimes, he is selfish and cares for no one other than himself.
