Five Ways Game Of Thrones Season 5 Improved On The Books

2. Ramsay Bolton’s character is more textured

Whether on the show or in the books, Ramsay Bolton is a monstrous person. Twisted and sadistic, his hobbies include flaying people alive, hunting human beings with dogs, and psychologically breaking down prisoners whom he then keeps as pets. He’s a bad dude, but the show adds some interesting layers that make him a bit more compelling than he is in the books.

First of all, the producers chose to eschew George R.R. Martin’s physical description of Ramsay when they cast Iwan Rheon in the role. In the books, Ramsay is described as fleshy, with blotchy skin, dry hair, and wormy lips. He looks like the kind of guy you might expect is a violent sadist.

While Rheon can summon a certain creepy intensity, he doesn’t really have these characteristics. Instead, there’s an impish quality to Rheon—he doesn’t look like the kind of the guy might expect is a violent sadist, and the contrast makes his character’s actions all the more disturbing.

Ramsay also displays a little more vulnerability in Game of Thrones Season 5 than he does in A Dance With Dragons. There’s the moment in “The Gift” when Sansa reminds him that any son born to Roose Bolton by his wife Walda could take his place in the line of succession. It’s not often that Ramsay gets uncomfortable, but it happens here. Also consider the bit in “High Sparrow” when Ramsay immediately stops what he’s doing and heeds his father’s command to listen. We’re used to thinking of Ramsay as inhuman, but he does seem to want the approval of his father, a very human trait.

Then there’s Myranda, Ramsay’s paramour. The character was invented for the show, but her relationship with Ramsay establishes that the Bastard of Bolton can attain a certain level of…normalcy…that we wouldn’t expect of his book counterpart. True, their relationship is all kinds of unhealthy—they’re basically two brutal psychopaths who have found each other—but the very fact that Ramsay can have a steady companion at all is a bit of a revelation.

The effect of all this is that, on the show, Ramsay comes off a bit less like a freakish fairytale monster and a bit more like a seriously disturbed human being. That extra texture should make his inevitable (I hope) downfall more satisfying.