A Clash of Kings — Theon VI

Bolton's bastard comes to Winterfell's rescue — and sacks it: Ser Rodrik betrayed and cut down, the castle burned, and Theon clubbed senseless by his saviors.

The chapter retold

Ramsay Snow — the Bastard of Bolton — arrives at Winterfell under the banner of rescue, and instead sacks it. Ser Rodrik Cassel, having retaken the castle from Theon at terrible cost, is cut down under a peace banner by Ramsay’s men, betrayed at the exact moment victory should have been secured. What follows is a slaughter — Winterfell burned, its garrison butchered, Theon beaten senseless by the very saviors his desperate gamble summoned to his aid.

It’s the book’s cruelest structural joke: the ironborn conquest that horrified the North all book long turns out to be a lesser tragedy than what replaces it. Roose Bolton’s bastard doesn’t take Winterfell to rescue the North’s honor — he takes it to erase it, and the castle that survived Theon’s occupation does not survive Ramsay’s rescue. Ser Rodrik’s death under a peace banner marks one of the war’s ugliest betrayals, and Theon, humiliated and battered, ends the chapter having lost everything his gamble was supposed to win him.

This movement: Valar Morghulis

• Tywin is Hand and savior; the Tyrells bring a queen and a rose-colored future; Sansa is quietly set aside.
• Winterfell is sacked — by Bolton men under Ramsay's flayed banner, not the ironborn; Luwin dies at the heart tree.
• Bran and Rickon split shadows: Rickon east with Osha, Bran north with the Reeds toward the Wall.
• The Fist of the First Men: three horn blasts in the dark, and the dead come with the snow.

The fallen — spoilers

• Ser Rodrik Cassel — Cut down under a peace banner by the Bastard of Bolton's men.