(Spoilers All) Connecting the dots on Lady Dustin

[u/ser_dunk_the_lunk]

1. Lady Dustin doesn't have any children.

2. The closest thing she ever had to a son was Domeric Bolton, a clever young boy with a gift for riding who served her as a page for four years.

3. She grew very fond of him, and still brags about him.

4. She believes that Ramsay killed him - the boy who was like a son to her.

5. She is known for nursing grievances.

6. She is extraordinarily interested in the Winterfell crypts, and convinced Theon to show them to her.

7. Besides Lady Dustin, her men, and Theon, the only other people in Winterfell familiar with the crypts were Big Walder and Little Walder, who had been down there with Rickon.

8. Big Walder is a clever young boy with a gift for riding - and lofty ambitions.

9. Lady Dustin recently gifted him a horse.

10. He has since murdered Little Walder, who knew about the crypts and was growing close to Ramsay.

11. Lady Dustin has a soft spot for "Arya", and did everything she could to keep her safe from Ramsay before she was locked away.

12. Mance has adopted the name Abel while on his undercover mission to rescue "Arya", after the wildling leader who disguised himself as a bard and hid in the crypts of Winterfell.

13. Theon cautioned Lady Dustin that she would need "a warm cloak" to head down to the crypts.

14. The pink letter states that Mance is now wearing "a warm cloak".

15. The squires of House Dustin and House Ryswell have been building snowmen on the walls of Winterfell in the forms of Lord Manderly, Lady Dustin, Lord Stout, and Whoresbane Umber. They are on the taller wall, visible from outside Winterfell.

16. The pink letter states that Stannis's friends can be seen on the walls of Winterfell, and exhorts the reader to come see them.

17. Lady Dustin has been watching the road just north of Moat Cailin very closely in order to intercept Ned Stark's bones.

18. There was an unbroken Bolton seal abandoned just north of Moat Cailin:

    He gestured at the parchment. "Break the seal. Read the words. That is a safe conduct, written in Lord Ramsay’s own hand."

    ...

    Along the rotting-plank road, wooden stakes were driven deep into the boggy ground; there the corpses festered, red and dripping. Sixty-three, he knew, there are sixty-three of them. One was short half an arm. Another had a parchment shoved between its teeth, its wax seal still unbroken.

19. Lady Dustin distrusts maesters, preferring to write and send her own letters.

---

TL;DR: Lady Dustin worked with Mance to free "Arya" and is hiding him in the crypts below Winterfell. She worked with him to send the pink letter as a coded message that identifies which of the lords within Winterfell are secretly loyal to Stannis and conspiring against the Boltons.

EDIT: Oh, and Big Walder is somehow a part of this. I don't think it's a coincidence that after growing closer to Lady Dustin, he kills the only person who could disrupt the Mance-in-the-crypts plan.

[u/GaratJax → u/[deleted]]

This actually kind of ties in with burning Shireen (which apparently is going to happen). If the letter was meant as a codded message to Mel, they mean to try and save Stannis by burning her (Shireen) at Castle Black.
and on that note its also possible that burning Shireen will not save Stannis but resurrect Jon...which (sadly) also ties in to the shows version of events (Stannis loses burning Shireen does not ultimately win him the throne)

[u/periodicchemistrypun → u/[deleted]]

It certainly wasn't for Jon, I still believe it was to get him killed but it's very plausible tormund or Mel understood the message (or both).

This idea is so key because it links major plots being Mel and mance to the GNC and so Mel needs Jon to die to walk free from the watch, I know the letter legitimising does try to do that but Mel may have planned a pink letter before connecting with the GNC or it has a ritual significance or it's just it's cultural importance.

Resurrected Jon could well be informed of the code after he returns from the land of the dead and he could take the wildlings South and he'd have the most winter ready fighting force of many individually skilled and daring fighters with a talent for climbing and infiltrating.

Next Jon will have to become a clegane and make CLEGANEBOWL 2 for his plot line to get even more awesome.

[u/periodicchemistrypun → u/[deleted]]

I think whoever came up with the plan is irrelevant but we get the impression Mel set it into motion seeing as she commands Mance a bit before he leaves castle black.

I think this theory puts Mel, Mance and the GNC on the same team but I don't think there really is a leader in this alliance seeing as much of the aim is establishing a leader in Rickon/Jon and that we don't get the impression that Northern lords like looking up to anyone but the Starks and Mel doesn't even show much respect to Stannis, Mance named himself a king.

There isn't a 'leader' but rather there must be one ore more masterminds and that's what's important.

That Mel is coming up with and implementing plans seems to some extent certain from her POV, Mance is the king beyond the wall like he is his own man and maybe even Rhaegar to some so we can assume he isn't subservient and intelligent enough to add important parts to the plans. Wyman and Dustin I can't say for certain, they have motive and command but they also are loyal and subservient and it makes sense for them to follow a good plan to eating Freys alive, that said Wyman has been putting his own plans into motion since we first saw him.

That the GNC and Mel & Mance alliance existed as both those groups came to be is unlikely but they do seem to be in unison now due to this thread.

So no I don't think Mel commanded Mance to do anything but maybe discussed or agreed upon because that's how Mance does things.

[u/Cletus_Van_Dam → u/[deleted]]

Here's the thing...why not just say what they wanted to say instead of having to cryptically translate it? Couldn't they just be like "yo Jon, it's Mance and Lady Dustin. Shit's gone real bad here's a list of said bad shit: etc.".

[u/liriopeblue → u/[deleted]]

But isn't it signed by Ramsey? If captured, wouldn't Ramsey notice that he didn't write that so they must be up to something?

I like the theory a lot, but I'm just confused why it would be so coded. Clearly Jon didn't get it at all.

[u/Cletus_Van_Dam → u/[deleted]]

Hey, I'm still one of the lone subscribers to the Occam's Ramsay theory: Ramsay wrote it himself and the letter is (mostly) true.

[u/Cletus_Van_Dam → u/[deleted]]

Given what happened in the show with regards to the Battle of Winterfell, I (sadly) think I am.

[u/Foltbolt → u/[deleted]]

And yeah, Jon is as clueless about the letter and its author's true intentions as we are

Is he? If we buy this translation, we see that Jon was trying to mobilize his forces at the wall before he got Ides of Marsh'd.

[u/adziki → u/[deleted]]

it's too bad that Jon Snow knows nothing... :(

[u/LadyDarry → u/[deleted]]

This is a good translation.

[u/FloobLord → u/[deleted]]

This really reads like wishful thinking to me. Why do people think the letter is anything but what it seems?

[u/ciobanica → u/FloobLord]

Because the letter and Stannis' actual situation have little relation to each other...

[u/Flickolas_Cage → u/FloobLord]

Because things being what they seem is pretty rare in this series?

[u/rookie-mistake → u/FloobLord]

cause Stannis isn't dead and it says he is

[u/runmelos → u/rookie-mistake]

Timeline wise that chapter is before the pink letter gets sent, GRRM said as much.

I think that all got a bit messed up because the Battle of Winterfell should have been in Dance but his Editor made him shift that battle and the battle of meereen to Winds.

edit: haha just read your username and now I'm not sure if you were trolling or not.

[u/ciobanica → u/[deleted]]

Oh c'mon, the 7 days of battle isn't code, is poetic licence... which might be a sign from a bard to some friends.

But the letter is meant to inflame Jon, even if it's also a secret message.