In the Game of Thrones TV show, Stannis Baratheon
dies with all the pathos and excitement of a damp fart. After a storyline four seasons long, he rolls
over and dies, and it’s the Starks who defeat the Boltons and retake the north. But in the book series, northern politics
is an intricate web of alliances, rivalries, secrets and lies, while an apocalyptic winter
rises. And through the ice, Stannis marches on Winterfell,
with a plan to defeat the Boltons. The Boltons are holed up in Winterfell with
an army of Freys and northmen, most of whom secretly hate the Boltons . Wyman Manderly
“plots betrayal” , Barbrey Dustin stalks the crypts, and Theon is traumatised by Ramsay,
who calls Theon “Reek”. Ramsay doesn’t marry Sansa – he marries
a girl called Jeyne who the Boltons claim is Arya Stark. Up on the Wall, Jon Snow tries to make peace
between the Night’s Watch and the wildlings, along with Melisandre, and Stannis’ family. Jon hears that his beloved sister Arya married
Ramsay , so he and Melisandre send the wildling king Mance Rayder to rescue her. Melisandre pretended to burn Mance, but that
was an illusion, and he’s actually still alive. So Mance and six wildling women infiltrate
Winterfell, and with their help, Jeyne and Theon escape to Stannis. Stannis and his army prepare to fight the
Boltons. But at the end of the latest book, Jon gets
a mysterious letter from Ramsay, called the Pink Letter. It says that Stannis is dead and Mance is
captured. Ramsay says he wants his bride back and wants
Theon back, he demands Stannis’ family, and some wildlings – “Keep them from me”
he says, “and I will cut out your bastard’s heart and eat it” . So Jon is shook, and
he declares that he’ll leave the Night’s Watch, and “ride south” to fight Ramsay
– so then the Watch stabs Jon to death. The Pink Letter changes everything in the
north. But fans suspect that it’s a trick or a
fake – Tormund warns us that the letter might be full of lies . So is Stannis really
dead? Was this letter even written by Ramsay? What’s happening at Winterfell in the Game
of Thrones books? It’s hard to believe that Stannis is dead
, cause his story’s not over yet. The whole fifth book builds up to his battle
for Winterfell , and author George Martin said we’ll see the battle in the next book
. So why would Stannis suddenly die off-screen in this letter? Why spoil the climax of his story? Stannis is in a bad situation . His army is
“snowbound” and “starving” in a village near Winterfell. And the Boltons send the Freys out to attack
him . But Stannis is confident – he says “let them come”, and says he’ll turn
“the ground” to his “advantage” . What does he mean? At the start of the book, it says that Stannis
once went to an island with a lighthouse. He learned that sometimes, people would turn
off the lighthouse and create a false light somewhere else to lure ships into danger . And
now, it just so happens that Stannis’ camp has a watchtower with a “beacon fire”
that burns day and night . And next to the camp are some frozen lakes . His men fish
the lakes, by cutting holes in the ice, and the ice becomes so dangerous that some men
fall through into the water . So if Stannis puts out the fire on his watchtower, and he
lights a false beacon on the frozen lake, he could lure the Freys onto the dangerous
ice, and attack them there – maybe break the ice with catapults so that the Freys fall
through and drown. That must be what Stannis means by turning
“the ground” to his “advantage” . So the hints are all there –it seems almost
certain that Stannis will use a false fire on the lakes to defeat the Freys. You can read more about this theory in the
articles below. But if Stannis wins this battle, why does
the Pink Letter say Stannis is dead? Well last time we see him, Stannis specifically
says “you may hear that I am dead” , so some fans think he’s planning to fake his
own death. Cause as well as the Freys, the Manderlys
are coming for Stannis. But the Manderlys are coming “separately”
from the Freys , cause they’ve been fighting – at one point, Wyman serves meat pies made
out of Freys. Wyman is planning to betray the Boltons – and
he made a secret deal to support Stannis . So instead of fighting each other, maybe Stannis
and the Manderlys will work together – and will trick the Boltons into thinking that
Stannis is dead. So like, after Stannis beats the Freys, Wyman
could go back to Winterfell and tell the Boltons that Stannis was defeated – as proof, Manderly
could have Stannis’ sword Lightbringer, which Ramsay says he has in the Pink Letter. But secretly, Stannis would be still alive
– he could use the low visibility in the snowstorm to sneak up for an attack on Winterfell
. And Ramsay would be totally unprepared, thinking Stannis is dead. He’d just be angry that Jon sent Mance to
steal his bride. That’s why Ramsay threatens Jon in the Letter,
and demands Jeyne and Theon, who would likely seek refuge with Jon at the Wall. So this is a pretty likely explanation of
the Pink Letter – Ramsay wrote the letter, thinking that Stannis is dead, though Stannis
is actually still alive. But there are other theories. The letter seems to fit Ramsay’s personality
– it’s angry and cruel . Ramsay repeatedly calls Jon “bastard” – cause Ramsay is
insecure about being a bastard himself . Ramsay is also “cunning” and manipulative – he
might be trying to provoke Jon into doing something stupid. But some details of the letter seem off. In the book, we see three threatening letters
from Ramsay. Asha Greyjoy gets a letter, Jon gets a letter,
and then Jon gets the Pink Letter. And these letters are described in detail. Asha’s letter is “tightly rolled and sealed
with a button of hard pink wax” . It’s written in “blood” , that looks like “brown”
ink. The handwriting is “huge” and “spiky”
. It’s signed by Ramsay, and by his allies Lady Dustin, Cerwyn, four Ryswells, and one
Umber. The second letter, to Jon, is described almost
exactly the same way. “tightly rolled and sealed, with a button
of hard pink wax” , blood-brown ink, huge spiky hand, signed by Ramsay, Dustin, Cerwyn,
Ryswells and Umber. It’s all super specific and consistent,
so it’s weird that the Pink Letter is described differently. It’s got a “smear” of pink wax, but
there’s no mention of brown ink, or a huge spiky hand. It’s signed by Ramsay, but not by anyone
else. Why is the Pink Letter different? Some of the content of the letter is also
suspicious. Like, it makes sense that Ramsay wants his
“bride” Jeyne, and his “Reek” Theon. And it makes sense that he wants Stannis’
family as political prisoners. But Ramsay also says he wants the “wildling
princess” Val, and her baby nephew . Why would he want these wildlings? How does Ramsay even know that Val’s baby
nephew exists? If Ramsay really did capture Mance, he could’ve
interrogated him to learn these details. But it’s not clear why he would care. So it’s surprising that so much of this
letter is focussed on Mance and the wildlings – is he just that angry at Mance for rescuing
Jeyne? The letter refers to the Night’s Watch as
“black crows” , a term that’s almost only used by wildlings. The letter talks about heads on walls, and
threatens to cut out Jon’s heart, when Ramsay’s favourite kind of execution is flaying. But there is another character who once threatened
to cut out Jon’s heart – a wildling who would care about Val and the baby, the only
character mentioned by name in this letter – Mance Rayder, the wildling king . Maybe
the reason why the Pink Letter is different to Ramsay’s other letters, and the reason
why it’s so focussed on wildlings, is that Ramsay didn’t write it – Mance did. In the books, Mance Rayder is a maverick charismatic
leader, who uses “cunning” and deception to manipulate people. Right of the start of Book 1, when King Robert
visits Winterfell, Mance is actually at that feast – he climbs the Wall, and comes in
disguise to spy. In Book 3, Mance claims that he has the Horn
of Winter , a magic Horn with the power to destroy the Wall – but it turns out, Mance
lied to manipulate Jon . Mance has history with Jon – the first time they met, Mance
warned Jon not to play tricks with him – but Jon ends up betraying Mance by leaving the
wildlings. So maybe Mance pulls a trick on Jon by writing
the Pink Letter. Mance has recently used a lot of the same
language that’s in the Pink Letter – he calls Melisandre a “red witch”, calls
Jon “bastard” , and calls the Night’s Watch “crows” . He says that Mance was
burned “for all the world to see” , and the Pink Letter says Mance is in a cage “for
all the north to see” . It’s probably possible for Mance to fake a letter from Ramsay
– when Mance infiltrates Winterfell, he pretends to be a singer called “Abel”,
and he hangs around the Boltons , so he mighta learned enough about Ramsay’s character
to impersonate him in a letter. Mance speaks with Theon, so he coulda learned
about Ramsay’s relationship with “Reek” and with Jeyne. And he maybe could’ve stolen some pink wax
and a raven to send the Letter – he woulda been in a rush, so maybe that’s why the
letter’s sealed with a “smear” of wax. The difficult question is why Mance would
write the Letter? Like, even if Mance could predict that the
Letter would make Jon ride south with some wildlings, how does that help Mance? Mance doesn’t want the wildlings to fight
in Stannis’ war – Mance says his “people have bled enough” . Maybe Mance wants help
to escape Winterfell. But if Mance wants help, there’s gotta be
a better way to ask for it than to impersonate Ramsay to provoke Jon into rallying wildlings,
it’s a ridiculously convoluted plan. Why would Mance ask for “Reek”? And why ask for Val and the baby, his baby
– that could only put them in danger, right? Mance does seem to have some secret plan in
Winterfell – he investigates the Winterfell crypts . And the name Abel is anagram of Bael,
a legendary wildling said to have snuck into Winterfell and stolen a Stark girl – just
like Mance sneaks into Winterfell to rescue Arya Stark . Bael is said to have hidden in
the Winterfell crypts – so maybe Mance’s plan is to hide in the crypts. Maybe he’s searching for the real Horn of
Winter there – he searched for the horn in “graves” beyond the Wall – maybe
now he’s searching for it in Stark graves. So Mance is up to something. And there are connections between Mance and
the letter. But it’s hard to see why Mance would write
the Letter. Another theory is that Stannis wrote the Pink
Letter. Cause in his last chapter, Stannis is facing
a battle he might not win. Even if he beats the Freys with a beacon and
the lakes, there are still thousands of Boltons in one of the strongest castles in Westeros. Stannis’ army might not be enough – so
maybe he wants the help of Jon and the wildlings. Stannis has asked for Jon’s support before,
but Jon said he's sworn to the Night's Watch . Asking directly doesn’t work. But if Stannis fakes a letter from Ramsay,
threatening Jon and his sister, and threatening the wildling king Mance… That could motivate Jon and the wildlings
to ride south and help Stannis win his war. This could also fit with Stannis’ plan to
make Jon Lord of Winterfell – if he leaves the Watch, he might as well take up Stannis’
offer. And thing is, Stannis just captured a Bolton
maester , who would know Ramsay’s writing style, and might have the wax and raven to
send the Pink Letter. Stannis also captured Theon, who could tell
him about Mance and Reek and other details in the letter. So it seems possible for Stannis to write
the Pink Letter. And unlike Mance, Stannis has a clear motive. But the biggest problem with this is that
Stannis' army is starving, it’s so bad they’re starting to eat their own dead – so Stannis
doesn't have time to wait around for Jon and an army to travel down from the Wall. That distance would take weeks or months to
cover in winter, by which time Stannis and his army would be dead . It might work if
Stannis sent the Letter earlier, but earlier he didn’t have Theon and the maester, so
he wouldn’t know about Mance and Reek and the stuff in the letter. Also, faking a letter just isn’t Stannis’
style. Like, it’s one thing to pull off a military
maneuver with a false beacon. But faking the Pink Letter means impersonating
Ramsay, and emotionally manipulating Jon – Stannis is terrible with emotions, he’s bad with
people , and psychologically manipulating Jon with a fake letter just isn’t the sort
of thing he’d do. Further, if the real purpose of the Pink Letter
is to motivate Jon to come south, you’d think it’d talk more about Arya, and less
about hostages and Mance. Why would Stannis demand “Reek”, when
Stannis already has “Reek”, and Jon doesn’t know what a “Reek” is? Stannis probably didn’t write the Pink Letter. Some fans argue that Melisandre wrote the
Letter. Mel does have secret schemes happening – she
faked Mance's death, and sending him to Winterfell was her idea. Jon suspects that Mel has some other secret
plan with Mance . So some fans think that Mance and Melisandre wrote the Letter together
– though the motive is still unclear. Melisandre has visions of the future in her
fires, and she actually predicts the arrival of the Pink Letter before it comes . So maybe
she also knew what would happen after the Pink Letter came – that Jon would be stabbed
to death, but then be resurrected by Mel’s magic, that would ultimately help save the
world. Maybe Mel finally realised that Stannis isn’t
the chosen one – Jon is , so she could’ve written the Pink Letter to get Jon killed
to fulfil his destiny. But Melisandre repeatedly warns Jon not to
get stabbed , and last we saw, she still thinks Stannis is the chosen one . So there’s no
real evidence for Melisandre writing the Pink Letter. Another possibility is Barbrey Dustin. She’s a new character in Book 5, and she’s
mysterious. Openly, she supports the Boltons, but she
hates Ramsay , because Ramsay murdered her nephew . Barbrey asks Theon to show her the
Winterfell crypts , around the time Mance asks about the crypts – so some fans think
Mance and Barbrey might be working together. There’re also hints of Barbrey working with
Wyman Manderly and his conspiracy – like maybe they wrote the Pink Letter to lure Jon
south so he can be King in the North – go watch our Grand Northern Conspiracy video. So there’s a lot of intrigue and mystery
happening in the north – it seems like every second character has some secret plot or identity
– even this bloody baby is actually secretly a different baby, because Jon swapped him
with Gilly’s baby. But most of this stuff is probably unrelated
to the Pink Letter. The Pink Letter is memorable cause it’s
the last thing that happens before Jon dies. And it’s been nine years since that book
came out, so fans have had a lot of time to overthink it and come up with crazy theories
about who wrote the Letter. The theories are fun, but based on the text,
it the makes the most sense for Ramsay to write the Letter. Cause the Letter doesn’t just have a plot
purpose of provoking Jon and getting him stabbed. It has an emotional purpose by forcing Jon
to choose between family and duty, and setting up Ramsay as a hated enemy. If it turns out that the Pink Letter was a
fake for some obscure subplot, that could take away from the emotional weight of this
gut-punch at the end of the book. And there can still be a twist to the Pink
Letter – that Stannis isn’t really dead, cause there actually are strong hints in the
text that Stannis will beat the Freys. But we’ll only know the truth when the next
book comes out – until then, all we’ve got is theories. If you wanna know more about the mysteries
of Game of Thrones, you’ve gotta check out the books. As well as the main series, there’s the
worldbook, and Fire and Blood, and the Dunk and Egg stories, and you can get any one of
these on audiobook for free right now by signing up for a trial with Audible. Members get an audiobook each month, and if
you cancel, you keep the audiobooks. You can listen in the car or the gym or while
you wait for winter to come. Sign up at audible.com/asx. Thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe, and comment below
who you think wrote the Pink Letter. Thanks to Patrons Ayoub Alami, Jen, Kasey
Kennett, Teresa, Mollie Marie Rose, and Tybor. Cheers.
Love that guy, he used to be so neutral, but ever since the season whose name must not be spoken, he low key roasts the 2ds.
Dude, as Stannis's #1 fan (yeah, yeah, bite me) I couldn't believe how dumb and rushed Stannis's demise was.
"B-but but Alex! Stannis's death was a work of art! You're just jelly cause he was your favorite character!"
-Actual things said to me about his death in season 5, possibly the worst season outside season 8...
HAHA I watched this video earlier today (yesterday). I got a laugh at that line, too.
Is it just me or the name Barbrey Dustin is a play on the name of a famous Hollywood couple - Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffiman?
Why this have so few comments?