ciscocosta asked: But does Rosse say he actually switched his allegiance, mentally or not, when Theon took Winterfell? I interpret it as his saying "everything was inevitable after that, even my sudden but inevitable betrayal later on." Also, how could Roose have coordinated with Ramsay? Ramsay was Reek at the time and things moved fast when he left the castle to round Bolton troops and eventually sack Winterfell.
In the comments downblog, Gardner Linn points out that Roose did more than think it or say it — he acted on it, sending the Glovers and Tallharts to their doom at Duskendale. (Somehow I’d never managed to learn why that segment of Robb’s forces went to Duskendale and was just as baffled by it during my recent re-read as Robb was, despite having read that book multiple times now.) Unless he’s mistaken, and since I have minimal reading comprehension on this matter I’m hardly the person to say whether he is or isn’t, that means that Roose was a lot less equivocal about abandoning Robb upon Winterfell’s fall than I thought he was.
Good point about Ramsay — Roose would have believed him to be dead, after all. Unless Ramsay alerted his father immediately upon his departure from Winterfell AND heard back from him, which seems unlikely though I’m far from an expert on the speed of ravens, they couldn’t have coordinated even if they wanted to.
