Hitting Rickon or not didn't matter. At that point he had drawn Jon into his archer's range and a volley should finish both of them off. Had Jon retreated he was dead. If Jon charges forward, he's not immediately dead, but either will or has drawn his forces into a bad fight. So all good outcomes for Ramsay. Rickon might be valuable as the heir to Winterfell, but killing Jon or getting his army out of position way more so.

Imagine the struggle I had reading the books.

What does she even see in Grey Worm I wonder. He's not the man for her.

its been shown that lf has a strong weakness for his stark loves cat/sansa. while he would certainly commit atrocities to win them over and improve his stock, I highly doubt he would hurt sansa or do anything that would turn her against him. ofc, shes dumb and will likely rebuff his advances and he may turn against her.

I quite liked Jon being a bad general and Sansa saving the day because it shows their past experiences. Jon has led small groups of men and fought a big defensive battle where he just has to inspire his men, but he hasn't really been a general before. It makes sense that he sucks.

Robb was advised well and trained to do it by his father, as he was always going to be the first born, so it makes sense that he's good.

We've seen Sansa learn the political intrigue and strength of character required to stand up to Jon and to save the day.

But we never learnt enough about Ramsey to be able to say he'd be a great general or marksman. Both felt pretty tacked on, given how much opportunity we've had to see him practising at least, but rarely have. Did he even have a bow when we were introduced to him and the stable-master's girl shot the woman?

There's probably no outcome where Jon loses the battle and Rickon survives, so I agree - Ramsey just had to get Jon into archer range.

Yeh, she's unique in that she actually has something littlefinger wants. The only other thing he particularly wants is power, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when the two impulses collide. We've not seen him in that situation before, his motives have always been purely about one thing. Perhaps when he traded Sansa to the Boltons he really did just **** up, and he really will make up for it. Or perhaps his lust for power will overcome everything else.

I don't think Sansa is dumb. I think she was young and naive, and she's becoming rapidly less so for both. The fact that she made some kind of peace with him despite being (rightfully) angry demonstrates maturity.

Got is the best show ever! no wonder even celebrities got hooked! can't wait for the next episode!

Even celebrities!

We see Ramsay take out several Bolton men with his bow when Theon "escapes" and teaching the kennel master's daughter to use one while hunting another girl. As far as a general goes, it was Ramsay that drove the Iron Islanders out of the North(reason Roose made him a Bolton), as well as destroying Stannis' chances by going behind the lines.

We've seen Ramsey been a bad-ass archer before when he "saves" Theon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vhIWC2Boik

Also, on rewatch, the "you little bastard" line was a nice touch.

He drove the Iron Islanders out by deception, and destroyed Stannis with a guerrilla raid, I don't think those count. Perhaps he was trained in the same way Robb was, but that seems quite a jump for Roose.

Archery makes more sense though.

It's not like he was a good general vs Jon though. The only smart thing he did was to get Jon to charge. Other than that, he simply used his superior forces. As Sansa noted, his strength is understanding people and knowing how to manipulate them.

Agreed. Missandei is pure fire. I have her and Dany as 1a and 1b depending how I'm feeling that day. Significant dropoff after that.

Could easily see LF on throne with Varys beside him.

I could see sweet Robin being involved in littlefingers demise

Howard stop being a DOOF and go back to fake-lawyering.

yep, will do, not well-thought out on my part.

Random thought train:

Any chance they can wrap up the sparrow story line on Sunday or is it going to spill over into next year?
Who do we think becomes King if Tommen dies? Any "rightful successors" living in or near Kings Landing?
Agree that there is at least a chance Littlefinger becomes the biggest villain in the entire story, if he isn't already.

Sure, Cersei burns them all.

The obvious Baratheon line dies with Tommen. Jaime, then Tyrion, then Kevan, then Cersei are next in line from the Baratheon line by virtue of Robert's great-great-great-great-grandfather being a shared ancestor with Tywin. If Tommen was legitimatized as a Lannister he'd actually fall between Jaime and Tyrion. Gendry is also a bastard son of King Robert, but pretty irrelevant in this discussion. For the Targaryens we have possibly Jon and then Daenerys.

Basically the next King will be whoever the High Sparrow says. If he says Margaery then it's Margaery. He just needs her pregnant and that works fine.

Cersei chooses violence will be the theme of Ep 10 is my prediction, but my predictions are usually bad.

Maybe the new cold, calculating Sansa will let Robin know how his mom really died now that LF has served his purpose for her.

How obvious was it that the Dany crew would say it was about YOUR surrender, not ours at the beginning? You could practically say it with her (Or whoever said it.)

did i sleep through it, or did Theon/Yara just magically appear before Dany? Seems like they would have rolled up on a fiery massacre in that bay and there could have been some sort of arrival scene.

Yea yea that was interesting to me as well. You'd think something would have happened when 100+ new ships just show up during/after that massive navel siege.

It was surprising, but I'm glad they cut to the chase and got them together quickly for once.

I read an article about who has and has not already signed contracts for the upcoming seasons. That might be considered a spoiler and I suggest to stay away.