No that's exactly how it doesn't work. And wow minor houses support them! Minor houses like Mormonts should stay out of this or follow a larger house. They are only sending people to die for no reason, with zero chance of winning. And Umbers aren't double betting. I think you are confusing the show with books. In the books the northern storyline is full of intrigue. Preston Jacobs made some interesting videos on YT about who is supporting who, I recommend his videos. Just don't watch his videos about ''The Dornish masterplan'', they are tinfoil nonsense. Anyway, in the show Umbers aren't double betting. They gave Rickon to Ramsay ffs. Rickon is confirmed to die because of this action. How on earth can you think they will switch sides in the show? The Vale does have family connections and I don't think it's stupid they get involved. I'm just saying the entire north is stupid. Also another quote from Daenerys: ''I am a queen, not a politician''. Yes, the makers of this show truly do not understand feudalism.
The northern houses are honorable, this extends to loyalty to house Stark, this is also what got Ned killed because he was stupid honorable. so it it out of character for the northeners to do a stupid honorable thing?
Bran is Mia. It was Sanaa's inherited authority that lead to the arranged marriage with Ramses. Don't try to out nerd me.
Jon was named the Heir by King Rob Stark (albeit while he thought his two full brothers were dead) before he went into an obvious trap. Those loyal to Rob would recognize Jon's right to ascension, if neither Bran nor Rickon live/claim it (otherwise it might get murky); and they accept his perfectly reasonable excuse for no longer being Night's Watch (and thus ineligible for Kingship due to their vows). Sansa would never be recognized as King of the North (or Queen), short of particularly strange plot developments. She MIGHT be able to claim Winterfell and be the defacto leader of the Stark family, but even then Tyrion would have more claim to Winterfell than her at that point (legally speaking), though of course the North might not recognize that marriage for various reasons (her having remarried and thus throwing the legality of Tyrion's claim into question... though honestly I think Tyrion would be just as happy to not try to claim Winterfell unless he needed to). For some reason I couldn't think of "trunk" at the time of posting, and wanted to distinguish between a small log such as one might use for a small fire. I suppose I could have gone with "large" rather than "giant" but that's besides the point. (For what it's worth, those trees are actually rather small compared to many of the trees in the forests I live near.)
Ramsey does play, he can't stop toying/playing with his prisoners. that is his problem. and is shaggydog dead? if that is the case shaggydog lost a lot of skull size before becoming a decapacitated head. could be a failure on the prop departements part sure.
the show doesn't really lie to the audience like that. if there is a subterfuge going on the viewer is usually in on it. for example the 2 boys theon killed. WE weren't lead to believe it was rickon and bran. anything is possible but my money would be on shaggydog dead.
your argument is that characters presumably killed/dead offscreen are unlikely to be really dead, EXCEPT for shaggydog? I mean yeah there is stannis but that was to create theories for people to see if he was really dead which Brienne confirmed to Davos and Mellisandre only a few episodes ago.
there was nothing about the hounds final scene that made me think he was dead. he was left seriously wounded. that wasn't a lie to the audience to find out that he didn't die. stannis got hacked by a sword. we didn't need to see his head rolling to know brienne hacked him with her sword. no lie to the audience there either. and no mystery either. that's silly. so we see shaggy dogs head propped on a table. no mystery or lie to the audience there either. its a dead direwolf.
The sword could have been swung at the tree though. also that wasn't shaggydogs head unless the prop departement ****ed up the size.
anything is possible I guess. im just going by how the show has handled things in the past. its not like a cheesy thriller where you see someone die and then they reappear later with some lame explanation. I will say that there is a higher chance its not shaggy dog than there is that stannis isn't dead. brienne simply had no reason to show him mercy and the guy had just burned his own daughter. hes dead.
Entirely believable though. Gotta save money for Wights and Danny riding a Dragon you know. Besides, all the Direwolves have been relatively small on the show due to "we only have actual wolves and stunt dogs to work with in filming this stuff" issues. I'm not saying you can't be right mind you, that the Umbers didn't want to or failed to kill Shaggydog* and got a replacement head (showing off proxy kills in Winterfell certainly seems to be a popular past-time), but I am saying that the head size is not in any way hard evidence that Shaggydog lives. Fortunately, it looks like they'll be going with the Battle of Winterfell as their big season-ending fight, as the other possible stuff (Dorne, Meereen, Castle Black [again], giant naval battle as part of the Iron Islands civil war...) looks like it's been pushed around (possibly for the season-ending "oh crap, what's gonna happen now?" scene or possibly never). Even if not, it'd surely get handled next season, which is STILL probably faster than Martin can get his sixth book out. Point being, unlike with the books, we'll get material to confirm or deny our suspicions and theories and guesswork relatively soon. *(Honestly, the main thing that would sell Shaggydog not being dead is Rickon's attitude during his brief scene kind of just standing there looking rather sullen/angry rather than jumping on people trying to tear their throats out with his teeth after seeing his beloved Shaggydog's head rolling around... but even that can be attributed to inconsistency of writing or off-screen character development instead.)
and of course it is not at all weird that a house that is very traditional like the umbers decided not to bend the knee to show fealty.
I keep an open mind. It's entirely Firking possible that the new head of that House Firking doesn't care to bend the Firking knee to the **** Ramsay. That ****. Or it could be a Firking act, and he's actually quite Firking honorable and gives a Firk about Firking tradition and eagerly looks forward to murdering the **** Ramsay. (Sadly this post will probably not have the desired impact due to censoring, but I thought it would be funny to try anyway.)
As I understand it, only a few of the houses have actually allied with the Boltons (and clearly Gerressen believes at least one of them to be faking it). Most just don't want to fight/lose another war, as I saw it (though this again depends on how much of the Conspiracy might remain, many might be willing to fight, but for Rickon rather than for Sansa and a Snow, or are too entrenched in their plan as it is... again if they have oneO.
Also forgot to mention. Arya, a 50kg girl, got stabbed like 3 times in the belly, and the waif twisted the knife the last time. And she still jumps into the water, gets on land and shambles away. And everyone just looks whitout doing nothing. Then we have the 100kg Areo Hotah. A hunk of meat who gets stabbed once and immediately falls to the floor.
