Ramsay Bolton

Ramsay Bolton, born Ramsay Snow, is a major character in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of Game of Thrones. He is the legitimized bastard son of Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort and new Warden of the North, and the unidentified wife of a miller.

During the War of the Five Kings, Ramsay is initially loyal to King in the North Robb Stark, retaking Winterfell from Theon Greyjoy on his orders but at the same time sacking the castle as part of his father's scheme to betray House Stark. Following the successful capture of Winterfell from the Ironborn, Ramsay holds Theon captive and utilizes extreme torture to break him into loyal submission; renaming him "Reek". Following Robb's murder and the decimation of the Stark-loyal northern army at the Red Wedding, he follows his father in pledging allegiance to House Lannister and is legitimized as Ramsay Bolton.

Background
Ramsay Snow is Lord Roose Bolton's bastard son and the product of rape. Years ago, Roose discovered that a miller had wed without his permission. He had the miller hanged and violently raped his wife under the tree where the miller was hung. Ramsay was born shortly afterwards, and his mother brought him to the Dreadfort, his father's castle, for Roose to acknowledge as his son. Roose very nearly killed Ramsay and almost had his mother whipped, but relented upon realizing that the child was indeed his.

Ramsay is Roose's only living child following the death of Domeric Bolton, as well as the only possible heir to House Bolton until the birth of a child by Roose's new wife, Fat Walda Frey. He stays behind as castellan of the Dreadfort when his father left for the south to fight in the War of the Five Kings.

Ramsay keeps a pack of dogs, which he employs for hunting. He is also in a relationship with the kennelmaster's daughter, Myranda; he claims that he planned to marry before his father ultimately had him legitimized, but it is a questionable statement.

Season 2
After Winterfell is seized by Theon Greyjoy for the ironborn, Ramsay is dispatched by his father Roose Bolton to re-take it in the name of King Robb Stark. Ramsay's forces besiege the castle and he infuriates Theon by blowing a horn all through the night. The following morning, Theon rallies his men to defend the castle, but he is betrayed and knocked out cold by his men, who accept Robb Stark's offer of mercy for the ironborn garrison if they surrender and hand over Theon. However, the castle is sacked by Ramsay afterwards and instead of letting the ironborn walk free, he flays them alive.

Season 3
Following the Sack of Winterfell, Ramsay and his men take Theon to the Dreadfort, where the ironborn prince is subjected to gruesome tortures. Embarking on a twisted campaign of psychological manipulation, Ramsay poses as an ironborn emissary of Theon's sister, Yara, and falsely claims to have been sent by her to liberate him.

Ramsay sends a false report to Harrenhal, where the main force of the Northern army has established, of the sacking of Winterfell by the ironborn, of the disappearance of Branand Rickon Stark, and that the location of Theon Greyjoy is unknown.

Later that evening Ramsay returns, and releases Theon, provides him with a horse and tells him to ride east to Deepwood Motte, where his sister is waiting for him. Theon's captors, however, track him down and capture him again. As punishment, their leaderattempts to rape Theon. Ramsay appears and swiftly dispatches the kidnappers with bow and arrow, deepening the bond of trust between them. The leader calls Ramsay a "little bastard," hinting his true identity.

Afterward, Ramsay promises Theon to take him to Deepwood Motte. Some time later the men reach a holdfast; Theon questions having to sneak inside since Yara's men are loyal to her. Ramsay warns Theon that some of the men belong to his father Balon. As the mysterious boy struggles to open a locked gate, Theon confesses his jealousy of Robb's status, the murder of the two boys he passed off as Bran and Rickon, and acknowledges that Eddard Stark was his true father. After opening the gate, Theon and Ramsay enter a darkened room. The young man lights a torch and Theon, much to his horror, realizes he is back in the torture chamber. They are soon joined by two men, who proceed to restrain Theon after Ramsay falsely claims he killed their comrades. Kicking and screaming, Theon is refastened to the rack, as Ramsay drops his facade, grins sadistically and tells the men to put Theon "back where he belongs".

Ramsay awakens Theon with a horn to continue torturing him. He threatens to remove Theon's pinky finger if he cannot guess Ramsay's true identity and their current location. After several guesses, Ramsay tells Theon he is correct in guessing that Ramsay is Harrion Karstark, the brother of Torrhen Karstark and the son of Lord Rickard Karstark, and that they are in Karhold (Theon being unaware that both Rickard and Harrion are dead). However he then points out that Theon never asked if he was a liar. He admits that he was lying, and begins flaying Theon's finger while his victim screams for him to cut it off.

Theon is freed from his constraints by two young women, Myranda and Violet. They give him water and clean his wounds. Theon is apprehensive about their aid, until they disrobe and begin pleasuring him. The three are soon interrupted by Ramsay, who enters the chamber wielding a knife. After taunting Theon about his sexual prowess, he orders his men to restrain Theon and then removes Theon's genitals.

Ramsay admits that the rumors about Theon were true, and that he did have a "good-sized cock", motioning towards Theon's blood-stained, badly-sewn up britches before momentarily tricking him into believing that the pork sausage he is eating is his penis. Ramsay talks about amputees having phantom limbs and wonders if Theon will have a phantom penis, feeling an itch whenever he sees naked girls. When Theon begs to be killed, Ramsay states that he is no good to him dead. Ramsay decides to give Theon a new name, and beats him until he starts calling himself "Reek". Ramsay also sends a letter to Balon Greyjoy with a box containing Theon's penis. He threatens to send more of Theon's body parts and flay every ironborn in the North alive if they have not left by the full moon.

Season 4
Ramsay frees Theon from his restraints, but forces him to work for him as a servant and answer to the name "Reek". Some time later, Ramsay hunts a girl named Tansy in the woods with his hounds, Myranda, and Reek. With bows in hand, he and Myranda gleefully pursue Tansy, firing arrows at her as they go. Ramsay explains that Tansy had made Myranda jealous, so she has to go because she causes too many problems otherwise. Myranda manages to strike Tansy with an arrow in the leg before Ramsay happily releases his dogs on her, killing her. Shortly afterward, Lord Roose Bolton arrives at the Dreadfort where Ramsay waits for him. Roose introduces Ramsay to his newly acquired wife, Walda Bolton, and asks to see his captive. Ramsay also greets Locke and congratulates him for his mutilation of Jaime Lannister. Locke assures him that the Kingslayer had screamed loudly enough that Ramsay would have enjoyed it.

Ramsay brings "Reek" to his father, who quickly becomes furious with Ramsay for torturing and mutilating a valuable hostage. Roose explains that he wanted to use Theon as a bargaining chip to rid the North of Iron Islanders, and for that he needed him unharmed. Roose chastises Ramsay for his actions, and laments placing too much trust in him. Ramsay tries to prove that his torture had a purpose. He orders Reek to shave him with a razor, demonstrating that he will never betray them, and adds that his method revealed key information; that Theon did not kill Bran and Rickon Stark. Reek also tells them that their half-brother Jon Snow may be sheltering them at the Wall. Finding it enlightening, Roose sends Locke after the Stark boys, and Ramsay suggests that they kill Jon as well, since he is half-Stark and may pose a threat to their future hold on the North. Roose orders Ramsay to take Moat Cailin, a vital base in the North, from the Greyjoy forces, and promises that if he succeeds, he will reconsider Ramsay's position.

Ramsay engages in particularly violent sex with Myranda, taking her virginity and forcing her to strangle him as they both climax. Meanwhile Yara Greyjoy, intent on rescuing her brother Theon from Ramsay's clutches, leads a force of fifty ironborn reavers in rowing boats up the Weeping Water towards the Dreadfort. They manage to enter the castle and find Theon in a kennel alongside the dogs, but he refuses to go, fearing that this is another one of Ramsay's cruel tricks. Ramsay soon arrives and drives the ironborn from the Dreadfort with his soldiers. When an ironborn asks if they are leaving without her brother, Yara declares her brother to be dead. Later, Ramsay rewards Reek with a bath for his loyalty. When Reek undresses, Ramsay smiles when he notices his victim's missing genitals. Ramsay gently washes Reek while asking his captive whether he loves him, which Reek confirms. He continues by instructing Reek that he has to pretend to be someone he is not: Theon Greyjoy.

Ramsay besieges Moat Cailin and sends Reek to treat with the ironborn garrison, posing as Theon Greyjoy. Theon vouches for Ramsay's promise of safe passage back to the Iron Islands if they surrender. The ironborn surrender, and Ramsay instead flays them all alive. Having taken Moat Cailin, Ramsay and his father meet on an open field. Roose hands him a document legitimizing his bastard son and granting him the right to call himself "Bolton". Ramsay is delighted, and they then make their way towards Winterfell.

Season 5
While eating with his father, Ramsay tells him that he managed to "persuade" House Cerwyn, one of House Stark's vassals, to pay their taxes by flaying Lord Medger Cerwyn, his wife and older brother alive, and coercing their son, Cley, to pay in their stead. Finally out of patience with his son, Roose scolds Ramsay for his actions, because since Tywin Lannister is dead, the Lannisters will no longer support them and they will not be able to hold the North with terror alone, since the Northern Houses will eventually rise up against them at the slightest excuse. Roose then reveals that he has arranged for Ramsay to marry "Arya Stark". When "Arya" arrives, Ramsay greets her with politeness.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Ramsay Snow is Roose Bolton's bastard son. He is an ugly man which even splendorous garb cannot disguise. He is big boned and slope shouldered, with a fleshiness to him that suggests that later in life he will turn to fat. Ramsay is a sadistic sociopath and serial rapist and murderer. He is cruel, savage and wild, taking delight in torturing others. He is quite fond of the old Bolton custom of flaying their enemies alive.

Roose only acknowledged Ramsay in his teenage years, thus Ramsay spent a rough youth in poverty as the bastard son of a poor miller's widow, until he somehow found out about his parentage and insisted on claiming his "rights". The result is that—in contrast with Jon Snow, the bastard of Winterfell—Ramsay is a crude, almost half-feral savage who is uneducated and knows nothing about courtly behavior. When Ramsay does send (dictated) letters to his enemies, they are often extremely crass, unstructured, and blunt, laced with profanity and taunting threats, and with pieces of human skin enclosed. While the letter Ramsay sends to Balon in the Season 3 finale of the TV series is not present in the books, it closely matches his "writing style" from the novels.

One day, Ramsay’s mother appeared at Dreadfort to demand that Roose provide her a servant for Ramsay, who was growing up wild and unruly. He gave her one of his servants known as "Reek" for his stench. It was meant to be a cruel joke, but Reek and Ramsay became inseparable, and committed together savage atrocities. Roose himself has no idea if it was Ramsay who corrupted Reek, or the other way around.

Ironically, Ramsay actually somewhat seems to like his mother, and speaks highly of her—she is after all the one who convinced him to go to the Dreadfort to pursue his "rights", though she also found him wild and unruly. Moreover, Ramsay has actually convinced himself that Roose fell in love with his mother at first sight, and thinks of their union as a poetic romance. In reality, Roose raped the miller's wife on a whim, under the very tree he had her husband hanged from, and afterwards was casually disappointed that raping her wasn't as physically pleasurable as he'd thought it would be.

One of Ramsay's most monstrous hobbies is to have young women stripped naked and released into the Bolton forests, before hunting them with a pack of female feral dogs, that are deliberately trained to be vicious and mean-tempered. If the women do not give him good sport in the hunt, he punishes them by raping them, then flaying them alive. If the women give him good sport in the hunt, however, he will grant them the mercy of a quick death...after raping them first. He then flays their corpses. He names new female hunting dogs after the women who gave him the most enjoyable hunts before he killed them, as a warped way to "honor" them. The skins of his kills are brought back with him to the Dreadfort as gruesome trophies. The bodies of the women are fed to his dogs.

Ramsay is introduced in ​A Clash of Kings​, though his appearance in the TV series was pushed back until the third season. He is first mentioned by Lady Donella Hornwood who notes that he is massing troops at the Dreadfort. She sends him a message inquiring about his intentions, and he rudely answers that it is none of her business.

Following the deaths of Lady Hornwood's husband and son, Ramsay forces her to marry him and to sign a will that names him as her heir, so he can inherit her lands. He rapes her and locks her in a tower, and does not give her any food. When Ser Rodrik Cassel finally arrived to free her, it was too late—she starved to death, after gnawing off all of her fingers. As one of Ramsay's favorite torture tactics, he had flayed the skin off of all of the old woman's fingers, leaving her to bite them off as the only way to end the agony, after which in delirium from hunger she ate some. Ramsay later gleefully boasts about this accomplishment.

Ramsay and his servant "Reek" later caught a peasant girl and raped her to death. Reek continued even after the girl died. It is then that Ser Rodrik's men found them. Ramsay is supposedly killed, and Reek taken prisoner to Winterfell. Rodrik wished to put Reek to death, but needed him alive as a witness to many of Ramsay's crimes, hoping that after Roose Bolton heard his tale, he would abandon his claim for the Hornwood lands.

When Roose is informed about Ramsay's alleged death, he responds coldly "A fate he no doubt earned. Tainted blood is ever treacherous, and Ramsay's nature was sly, greedy, and cruel. I count myself well rid of him. The trueborn sons my young wife has promised me would never have been safe while he lived". Roose's last sentence, which he repeats in the fifth novel, is perhaps a foreshadowing of Ramsay's vile deeds in the show (which have not been performed in the books, at least not yet).

After Theon takes Winterfell, Reek offers to serve him if released from captivity. He becomes one of Theon's supposedly more trustworthy attendants, helping him hunt for Bran and Rickon. It is Reek who advises Theon to kill and flay two unnamed miller's sons to pass off as the Starks, and Theon accepts his advice. Afterwards, Theon orders Reek to secretly murder Gelmarr, Aggar, and Gynir for their knowledge of the truth, and he does. Since Theon needs a scapegoat, he falsely accuses Farlen the kennelmaster and executes him. Theon does not kill Reek, fearing that the blackguard hid a written account of what they had done.

After Rodrik defeats Dagmer Cleftjaw at Torrhen's Square, the Northmen march on Winterfell to liberate it. Theon refuses to give up the castle, using Beth Cassel as hostage to prevent Rodrik from attacking, and his men prepare to make a final stand. Reek offers to help Theon by taking a large sum of money to the Dreadfort and returning with much-needed reinforcements, asking for Palla in return. Theon does not trust Reek but reluctantly agrees, since he has no other choice. He promises to give Palla to Reek providing that he brings two hundred men.

When Northmen led by Rodrik Cassel surround Winterfell, an army of 600 men bearing the flayed man of House Bolton arrives, led by a mysterious armored captain. As Rodrik offers his hand in friendship, the captain cuts off his arm and the Bolton army attack the other Northmen and defeat them, suffering only minor casualties. They enter the castle and the captain presents Theon with the bodies of Rodrik, Leobald Tallhart, and Cley Cerwyn. He removes his helmet and reveals himself to be Reek, then reveals that he is in fact the real Ramsay Snow. He had switched clothes with the real Reek when Rodrik arrived to cheat death and get into Winterfell, while Reek was killed by Rodrik's men. He tells Theon that he would much enjoy the use of his bed-warmer Kyra instead of Palla, and when Theon refuses, Ramsay knocks him out. Ramsay and his men then put Winterfell to the torch and its people to the sword (among them Maester Luwin), as well as abducting Theon and killing almost all the other ironborn. Only Wex, Theon's mute servant, is neither killed nor taken captive, since he hides in the godswood. He follows Osha and Rickon, then goes to the White Harbor and tells Lord Wyman Manderly (using sign language) about Ramsay's deeds and where Osha and Rickon went.

In addition to Theon, Ramsay took two of Lord Frey's grandsons ("Big" Walder and "Little" Walder) who were being fostered at Winterfell, Kyra and six women of the castle staff, among them Palla, Old Nan, and Beth Cassel. The two Frey boys soon entered into Bolton service as Ramsay's squires, after the Freys and Boltons united to betray the Starks at the Red Wedding and switched allegiance to the Lannisters. As for the seven female captives: according to Lord Wyman Manderly (who has heard it from Wex), Ramsay roped them together and marched them to the Dreadfort. The books reveal explicitly only what he did to Kyra. The remaining six women are listed in the appendix of the fourth novel as being held captive in Dreadfort, and their fate is unknown; they have probably been molested and killed like Kyra and many of Ramsay's other female victims, but it is uncertain.

It is unclear from the books whether Ramsay contacted his father after Theon let him go, got orders from Roose to destroy Winterfell and followed them, or that he committed all the above actions on his own and only later reported what he had done to Roose, who had independently come to the same conclusion that the time was ripe to betray the Starks. Roose Bolton and the Freys lie about their reports from what happened at Winterfell. Lothar Frey and Walder Rivers inform Robb and Catelyn that they got a letter from Lord Frey's grandsons: Winterfell has been destroyed and Ser Rodrik was killed by the ironborn, but the survivors were taken to the Dreadfort by Ramsay. Lothar and Walder claim not to be sure of Theon's fate. When Roose reports Ramsay's actions to Robb (falsely making it sound as if Ramsay saved the day by driving the ironborn from Winterfell), Catelyn sharply reminds him that Ramsay has committed many vile crimes, among them murder and rape. Roose answers nonchalantly that after the war is over, Ramsay will be tried for his crimes, and maybe his deeds will atone for the crimes he committed—or not. He is not overly concerned of the possibility that Ramsay may be executed (particularly because he knows Robb will not live long enough to judge Ramsay).

Ramsay's torture and emasculation of Theon are not directly described in A Storm of Swords, but rather alluded to in A Dance with Dragons. Ramsay does not send a letter and a box containing Theon's genitals to Balon Greyjoy, the Greyjoys remaining oblivious to Theon's survival. Ramsay does send his father some skin flayed from Theon's finger, which Lord Bolton shows to Robb and Catelyn before the Red Wedding as proof that Theon is being punished for his betrayal. Ramsay sends a letter of warning to Asha, in which a piece of Theon's skin is enclosed, but that happens much later. Neither Asha nor any of the ironborn know what happened to Theon, believing him to be dead (though a few ironborn lords point out that his death was never confirmed). Arguably this is the only "sane" reason that Ramsay kept Theon alive, though the main reason was still that Ramsay took sadistic glee in unfairly inflicting torment on a random person. The succession laws in the newly independent Iron Islands are unclear, i.e. Asha/Yara feels that as the older sibling she is the heir, but according to the most common inheritance law in the Seven Kingdoms, as Balon's only surviving son Theon is the heir to the Iron Islands. Ramsay is not simply holding Theon hostage, as he has no intention of letting him leave alive and makes no attempt to contact the Greyjoys about his survival. Rather, Ramsay's goal was this very uncertainty: even if Theon were dead, the ironborn's line of succession would at least be clear, but not revealing the fate of Balon's heir generated confusion and dissent within their ranks. The TV version altered this, but still makes clear that Ramsay never offers hostage terms for Theon. In the TV version, Ramsay's plan is that slowly torturing Theon and mailing pieces of him to Pyke will eventually frighten the Greyjoys into withdrawing from the North.

Another possible reason for Ramsay's treatment of Theon is that Ramsay resents him for the time he served Theon in Winterfell, disguised as the original Reek. The fact that Theon treated Ramsay rather correctly and followed his vile advices (among them, killing the miller's sons to cover the escape of the Stark boys) makes no difference to Ramsay. In his eyes that servitude was humiliating, and it is his twisted way to pay Theon back by reversing the roles: now he is the master and Theon is Reek the servant.

Roose is very dissatisfied with several aspects of Ramsay's behavior:
 * Ramsay commits his atrocities openly. Roose chides Ramsay (generally, not in respect to any specific deed of Ramsay) that he hears everywhere tales about him, and that people fear him. Ramsay comments that it is good, but Roose answers, "You are mistaken. It is not good. No tales were ever told of me. Do you think I would be sitting here if it were otherwise? Your amusements are your own, I will not chide you on that count, but you must be more discreet. A peaceful land, a quiet people. That has always been my rule. Make it yours." It seems Ramsay is unimpressed by his father's rebuke.


 * Ramsay is indifferent to the fact that nearly all the houses in the North hate the Boltons. Instead of amicably treating the Boltons' extremely few loyal vassals (Houses Ryswell and Dustin) and allies (House Frey), Ramsay does the opposite:
 * When hearing that Lady Dustin cannot abide him, he contemplates aloud about giving her the traditional Bolton treatment, and burning down her town. Roose winces at that and chides, “There are times you make me wonder if you truly are my seed. My forebears were many things, but never fools".
 * Ramsay and his men go to look for three Freys who disappeared mysteriously on their way from White Harbor to Winterfell, but do not find them. Ramsay is not concerned about his failure, dismissing it nonchalantly with "The world won’t miss a few Freys. There’s plenty more down at the Twins should we ever have need of one."


 * Ramsay speaks openly about the Stark boys, who were allegedly killed by Theon. Roose asks him sharply how many of their grudging friends they’d retain if the truth was known.

Although Ramsay is noted as being a fierce fighter, he is undisciplined in warfare, lacking form or finesse, and is described as wielding his sword like a meat cleaver. Roose admits it is not entirely Ramsay's fault, it is because Reek (the original) was his only tutor, and Reek himself was never trained at arms. In the TV series, however, he is depicted as a deadly hunter and archer, easily dispatching six of his own men within seconds. According to Roose, Ramsay has deluded himself into believing that massacring unarmed prisoners (such as at Winterfell and Moat Cailin) makes him a skilled battlefield commander, when in fact he has never won a real battle. He also receives a long rebuke from his father for flaying alive unarmed men who surrendered Moat Cailin after Ramsay promised them safe passage home. Roose points out that Ramsay will never be trusted again, and the enemies of the Boltons will now fight to the death rather than surrender to them. In the books, Roose never speaks about Ramsay's conduct at Moat Cailin, nor about its long-range applications.
 * Ramsay would not let anyone take his place as Roose's heir. Roose suspects, and is probably correct, that Ramsay murdered his trueborn half-brother Domeric, and intends to do the same with any trueborn children Walda will give birth to. In view of Ramsay's personality, it is likely that the taboo of kinslaying is no more than a joke to him.

In the books, Ramsay is known for his ostentatious taste in clothes; garbing himself in velvet, silk, and satin, usually in the Bolton colors—pink and red. In the show, however, Ramsay's attire is considerably more subdued, in order to fit in with the established drab dress code for northern characters. That being said, the leather jerkin Ramsay wears in season four is, in fact, a very dark shade of reddish purple: a subtle reference to his literary counterpart.

Ramsay marries a fake Stark (actually Jeyne Poole, masquerading as Arya Stark instead of Sansa) also procured by Littlefinger, instead of Sansa Stark herself. In turn, Sansa is betrothed to Harrold Hardyng, Lord Robert Arryn's unlikely heir, instead of Ramsay. Ramsay subjects Jeyne to emotional and physical torture, even forcing Reek to take part. When Stannis Baratheon's army approaches, Ramsay prepares to lead a counterattack, but the actual battle has yet to be depicted.

Notably, Ramsay unwittingly serves as the true catalyst of the Mutiny at Castle Black. He apparently sends a letter to Jon Snow at Castle Black, boasting that he has killed Stannis and captured Mance Rayder (whose execution was faked and whom Jon sent to Winterfell to rescue Jeyne, believing it was Arya), but revealing that Jeyne and Theon have escaped. In the letter, Ramsay furiously demands that Jon return Jeyne and Theon to him, and hand over Selyse Baratheon, Shireen Baratheon, Melisandre, Val (Mance's sister-in-law) and several of Stannis's court to him as hostages, threatening that if Jon does not, he will march on the Wall and kill him. Finally pushed to his breaking point, Jon instead decides that he will head to Winterfell in order to confront and kill Ramsay himself, arguing that Ramsay violated the Night's Watch neutrality first by threatening to kill the Lord Commander. On his way out of Castle Black, however, he is confronted and stabbed by his own men, led by Bowen Marsh. Whether the contents of Ramsay's letter are entirely true or not remains to be seen, since Stannis was revealed to be alive in The Winds of Winter. The subplot of Jon's increasing anger at Ramsay is initially cut from the fifth season, though their rivalry from A Dance with Dragons was alluded to when Ramsay compared himself to Jon and outright expressed a determination to rise to power like Jon did. The sixth season, however, sees Ramsay come into contact with Jon for the first time in the series via the Bastard Letter, which ultimately leads to their climactic showdown, the Battle of the Bastards.

At the end of the fifth and most recent book, Ramsay is still alive.

In the books, Ramsay is often accompanied by a gang of brutal sadistic lackeys called "the Bastard's Boys", who assist him in his atrocities. Ramsay is unaware that they all report to Roose about his deeds, as the latter secretly reveals to Reek. There are no women among the Bastard's Boys. In the TV version, Myranda is loosely a condensed and gender-swapped equivalent to them. She is mentioned to be the kennelmaster's daughter, perhaps a nod to the one called Ben Bones.