NOIAF Q&A #1 - The Bolton Birthday Suit

So I recently asked for some questions to do some discussing because, as anyone who's dug into the Ice & Fire fandom has found, it's always more fun together.  A buddy of mine had a handful of questions that sounded like fun to hit; some are classics, some are ones that, to be honest, were new to me.  We'll see.  I'm going to do these questions as single entries, so they're easy to look at without getting insane.  Shall we?

WARNING: As always, this will contain spoilers.  If you haven't read the books, haven't seen the show or just are avoiding spoilers in any way, do not read further because these will contain answers taking into account up to and including even the few chapters that have been released from The Winds of Winter.  You've been warned.

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Here we go!

So here's the list:

• Is Roose Bolton an ancient skin walker?
• What's Arya's end game?
• What's Petyr Baelish's master plan?
• How / when / where will Jon Snow's resurrection occur [or will it]?
• Who is Azor Ahai?  Are there 3 people instead of 1?
• What's next for Bran?
• Where is Benjen Stark?

Is Roose Bolton an ancient skin walker?

This one, honestly, made me laugh at first and I thought "Ok, that's ludicrous.  No, absolutely not."  I'll admit, though, that I hadn't heard the phrase "Skin Walker" before and thought it was some goofy other name for vampire (which was the theory I had heard before, not realizing there was actually another theory).

So first things first, the theory's general "gist" is that he's an immortal and has been alive a very long time and has been wearing the skins of victims that he's flayed.  Creepy, dark and totally sounds like something a Bolton would be down with.

I think everyone would agree Roose is a weird looking dude.  The pale skin, the super pale eyes, the body that's rather average, no defining features; it certainly paints a picture.  Per the Wiki of Ice and Fire page on the theory here, the theory points are these:

• The faceless men can change their faces by using the faces of the slain.  This, or something like it, may have been learned by the Boltons at some point.
• Even if the Boltons didn't go to Braavos, they've been skinning folks for ages and at some point someone must have done something like "Hey, that leg skin looks like it could make a pretty nice sock!" and tried wearing the skin.  Joking aside, we do hear about the Boltons, way back, wearing the skins of their enemies as cloaks, but that's hardly a disguise.
• Morality contradiction - Roose says he would have killed Ramsay, but for it being Kinslaying and he didn't want that bad mojo.  This seems uncharacteristically reverent of him considering the other stuff the man is willing to do.
• Seems likely Roose may be planning to use Ramsay's skin later because to avoid suspicion, Roose (who to all outside eyes, is a normal guy) would need to die at some point.
• It is possible that, because Roose killed his son Domeric because his features didn't match Roose.
• Reek thinks he doesn't seem to age, saying that while past forty, his skin seems unwrinkled, hardly any lines and literally says there was "an agelessness about him."
• His pale coldness and eyes are constantly mentioned.
• Old Nan tells Bran a story of a man who had a child with a woman in white (may have been Night's King).  Old Nan's stories do have a good track record, and the idea is that Roose is the kid.

Thoughts:

I honestly don't know about this one.  I'm leaning towards no, but here's why.

1) Faceless Men Face Magic - I think the mechanics of this have to be an obscenely closely guarded secret.  The faceless men are, if nothing else, on top of their game all the time.  Reading Arya's chapters, you see how they are possibly the most skilled observers ever, and incredible at finding information.  The likelihood of some traveler coming in, learning their secret method and taking off with it, thinking that they would make it a hobby without the faceless men finding out and adding them to the face stock seems like a bit much.

2) History of Flaying - This goes back to point 1; I feel as if there's got to be more to it than just putting on the skin.  In the books, there's a very specific way the faceless men do it (Spoiler: The kindly man uses a knife, slices along her scalp so her blood starts flowing down her face, pulls the "hood" face down over hers.  The blood soaks in, bringing the face to life).  I don't know if a bunch of people (or even just Roose) who use cutting and flaying as a means of torture would think to slice up themselves to make the skins "work."  Also, I'm not so sure I think that just because it works on the face means that it can apply to the entire body.  Another thing that occurs to me is that there may be a treatment, procedure or ritual used on the faces that makes it work for the faceless men.

3) Kinslaying is off limits - Roose raped Ramsay's mother and killed his King at the Red Wedding.  The dude is capable of some awful stuff, so why not kill a bastard?  Why, because he needs to allow his new outfit to grow!  This much does raise a question.  He's hard up for heirs but for some reason is keeping Ramsay around, even though it seems like Ramsay does cause him a deal of grief.  Why keep Ramsay around?  Why indeed....

4) "...an agelessness about him..." - This, to me, is just too vague.  There are just some people that age well or maintain a youthful appearance or just don't seem to wrinkle much.

5) Pale skin, pale eyes - It is true that the "cold" and "pale" aspects and him having a markedly unsettling appearance.  This may be a literary clue where it's trying to hammer something home, but it could just as easily be a red herring.  The one thing that does seem odd is that we've seen albinos and they have red eyes, not strange and pale.  We also have not, in all the POV's, in any place in the world, ever run into anyone else who had eyes like this.  You would think that someone would run across someone with eyes like that and, as much as Bolton's are mentioned, you'd think that they would be mentioned.  This does seem unique and very weird.  The fact that it was passed to another person (Ramsay) too, shows that it isn't a Roose-Only thing like an odd deformity or something.

6) The knowledge of Nan - It's also true that Old Nan has a great track record as a sort of Septon Barth kind of character, so Roose being the possible half-Other son of Night's King could be true if in fact such a thing happened.

My personal thoughts:

The more I thought about this, to my dismay, the more I think it could actually hold water.  Roose is a weird looking guy and we have yet to meet someone else with his condition (the pale eyes).  We know that there is magic in the world that allows for the wearing of skin (albeit, we've only so far known of wearing a face) that allows the wearer to assume an identity, so there could be another offshoot of that kind of magic that Roose is using.  It also would be a pretty interesting twist if he is somehow in communication with the Others and is essentially trying to prepare the way for them on this side of the wall.  Stannis did, of course, pose the largest threat and posing a large enough threat to him to get him to come challenge him when Roose has the advantage could be a pretty good way to thin the opposition for the Others if they did want to hit The Wall.

Some concerns I have.  What is the Bolton's history and family tree?  I feel like we know very little about what came before Roose (the manner of his father's, grand-father's and great-grandfather's deaths, for instance).  What did those guys look like?  How far back can the "pale eyes" be traced?

Verdict: Possible, but no defining evidence.  Will make me look at Roose and Ramsay and their motives very differently now!

What do you think?  Crazy?  Crack-pot?  Convinced?  Hit the comments, I'd love to discuss and see what you guys think.  This one was totally left-field for me and I'm a little shocked that I'm finding myself compelled to give it some credence.

Next one coming up:  Arya: The Pointy End