I have this cracked out theory that the Skagosi are just… completely chill. They have no idea about any of those stories about them, they just think ppl on the mainland seem pretty shy. They’re just hanging out, petting their unicorns, happy as pigs in mud.

I think the three youngest Stark kids are going to be an absolute horror show as the series comes to an end. They're all super-wargs, they're all SO deeply traumatized, and as far as I can remember, none of them have even heard of the concept of "abominations" they could be committing, Bran having already done more than a couple of those. AND THEN there's the whole issue of the greenseer magic he's downloading from Bloodraven. It's gonna be a wild ride I really cannot wait.

A little bit of me hopes that Davos steals a unicorn from skagos and rides it into battle with Stannis, a woman can dream...

Honestly Davis in Winds might be what I’m looking forward to most. His chapters were so good in Storm and Dance

The point about the shaggy dog story is interesting. However, I interpret shaggydog’s name as showing the story from Rickon’s perspective. In the beginning, the Starks aren’t exactly a perfect family, but 3-year-old Rickon would certainly think that life is generally pretty good. And then, a bunch of strange people come to visit. And then his brother is sleeping for a long time. And then his dad, sisters, and half-brother leave, never to return. His mom won’t stop crying next to his sleeping brother, and his oldest brother is too busy to play. And then his mom leaves, and his sleeping brother wakes up… The point is, none of this makes sense to a child that age. From his point of view, everyone is being weird and sad and disappearing, and he doesn’t know why. Think of it this way: When I was three, my parents separated. I would cry for hours after leaving one parent’s house. I couldn’t understand why my dad lived somewhere else. What Rickon is going through is a thousand times worse, and nobody’s giving him any answers. Everything is pointless and meandering and dumb from his view, and that’s the real shaggy dog.

I think that Rickon is essentially completely feral at this point after warging shaggy dog for so long when he is so young. I think Davos will probably find him alive and well on Skagos but decide to leave him there. If Rickon is brought back to claim the north, I think everyone will have to pretend that this wolf-child is completely normal and a viable heir to winterfell and totally not a crazy wolf human warg hybrid.

It's relatively minor but both The Cannibal and Shaggydog have very similar descriptions both being coal black and with bright green eyes

I think that idea behind Rickon was to show how dangerous warging actually is. Unlike with Jon, Bran and Varamyr who all seem to have at least some control over their wolves, Rickon is way too young to do anything like that. In fact, it seems somewhat obvious from text that it is Shaggydog who is the dominant persona. Thus, I think that Rickon will be "dead" when Davos finds him - not physically, but his humanity will be gone forever and he will just be a feral child. That might even serve up as a bit of foreshadowing of what could happen to Bran. Also, as cool as it is, that Cannibal theory makes no sense for three reasons: first, like you said, he would be way too old; second, it was mentioned that dragons can't handle cold; third, someone would have noticed him since he's a ginormous dragon. However, I'm willing to subscribe to the possibility that he did flew to the North and died there, and that we might see his skeleton.

It is hard to tell without knowing what the motivations of the people of Skagos are, but if they First Men Traditionalist, a young Stark warg that you can raise with First Men traditions seems like a prefect opportunity to bring the rest of the south more in line with First Men culture.

My own theory: we may not get a POV chapter of Davos in Skagos. GRRM likes to have battles where one side is about to lose and then at the last minute, a third army arrives as a surprise and turns the tide of the battle (the Tyrells and Tywin in the Battle of the Blackwater, the Boltons save Theon from Rodrik Cassels army, Stannis saves the Nights Watch, Victarion's fleet in the Battle of Fire). Perhaps Davos has not only got Rickon, but he got the entire Skagossi army to join Stannis' cause, and they'll arrive last minute in the Battle of Ice to save Stannis, (causing Wyman Manderly to switch sides too as he promised.) This would be interesting + it would save precious TWOW pages + we could hear about Davos' Skagos adventure in past tense in a Davos POV chapter. But IDK, I'd like to see a POV chapter in Skagos to satisfy my curiosity P.S. This could set up a conflict for control of the North: Stannis, Rickon, and his new Skagossi army on one side VS. ressurected Jon Snow (soon to be Jon Stark when Robbs will is revealed) and his wildling army?

“When the winds of winter is released” wishful thinking never hurt anybody!😂

I feel like Davos sees a happy Rickon and decide to Leave him there as to not expose the boy to the intrigues of court.

1. Davos doesn't speak the Old Tongue, and the Skagosi likely don't speak the Common Tongue. So Osha has to do the translating. 2. Rickon is a skinchanger with Wildling blood (Bael the Bard). He might be preferable to the Skagosi as lord of the North, as he represents the true First Man. He even has red hair. 3. The Skagosi might want to fight the house Frey. They broke guest right, which we know the First Men take extremely seriously, and they are an Andal house that slaughtered hundreds of First Men. 4. Sending ships to Eastwatch is never considered dangerous because of the Skagosi, so they don't seem to raid much. Despite the weakness of the North, neither the Umbers nor the Karstarks have mentioned their coastline being raided.

I would be totally sold on Rickon getting back to his deep Statk/First Men roots on Skagos as a major plot point if George had kept the Five Year Gap. I feel like it would be rushed without it, but if he'd spent literally half his life up there with Osha then it's a lot more plausible. We'll hopefully see how George reconciles this (or doesn't)

It's an interesting observation that Rickon shared Shaggydog's kill in that cut Jon chapter because it's loosely implied that that still happens anyway; only it's more subtle and happens in a Bran chapter rather than Jon's, so we see it through a child's perception rather than an adult's. In AGOT Bran VII, after Rickon and Shaggy were found in the crypts and Shaggy bites Maester Luwin, Bran notes: ...Rickon patted Shaggydog's muzzle, damp with blood...He licked at his fingers... George is a tricksy bird! Does that mean Shaggy licked at Rickon's fingers? Or does it mean Rickon licked at his own fingers? Those have very different connotations. Remember, Rickon's fingers were covered in Luwin's blood after he touched Shaggy's muzzle; so if Rickon licked his own fingers, that means he tasted Luwin's blood and engaged in a loose form of cannibalism. Which could foreshadow what you mentioned Rickon may be doing on Skagos to enhance his warging. Had this occurred in a Jon POV, I don't think the wording would've been so ambiguous; Jon being an adult would've specified who licked at whose fingers and likely would've expressed discomfort had it been Rickon that licked Luwin's blood from his (Rickon's) own fingers. Nice video, as always.

I like your point about how the Skagosi would hate Rickon if they find out his heritage! i think thats very plausible. I can see it going two ways: the way you described, they kill him. OR Davos is warned in time and makes the hard decision to keep Rickon's secret. All the turmoil on his way there, the plots resting on Rickon claiming his identity... he throws them away. There is this boy and he is living a strange live but he seems happy. and safe. If Davos takes him back, the only thing waiting is to be used as a pawn and constat peril, likely even death. So he makes a decision only Davos could: he leaves Rickon where he is and tells everyone back in Westeros that he is dead, maybe forges some kind of "proof". Leaves him in this strange place, a nobody but happy. It would be a nice foil to characters like Dany and (f)Aegon who's lives revolve around legacy. they are facing grief and struggle and causing misery, all for claiming a birth right, an interitance. This storyline would showcase that maybe thats not everything. The way to win the game is not to play at all.

While the other Stark children are being inculcated into the various cultures of the South or the East, and Bran is being turned into something more than human, Rickon seems to be going full old-school in the only place where the old traditions of the First Men are being kept alive... no pun intended. While we might see the whole rumor/tradition of the Skagosi eating their opponents heart and liver as cannibalism, it wouldn't be the first time George turned the Southern/colonizer perspective on it's head by conferring real/magical power to the Skagosi... enough to keep the island from ever being colonized by the Seven Kingdoms or even the original Andals. I would also expect Skagos to still be a place of power for the Greenseers and for wargs and the like to be honored and raised up even more than Beyond the Wall. My hope is he'll come back completely OP and totally demented by any Southern standards, but more like the Starks of old, and ready to dive fangs-first into the battle at the side of Azor Ahai.

The foundation of the theory may be shaky, but the idea of the people of Skagos being labeled cannibals and them correcting others by saying that they practice Cannabilism - as in a religion where they venerate Cannibal the now-ancient dragon - would be a hilarious and awesome twist imo.

The fact that the main house in Skagos is called Magnar (house King in the old tongue) may speak on how closer they are to the wildlings than they are to the broather north and in how they actually may be quite developed (just as the Thennites are when compared to the rest of the wildlings)

I love Davos' chapters, but I doubt we'll get any with him actually in Skagos. We may get some flashbacks but we just don't have enough time/page space to do a whole mini arc over there. That would be cool, though But I'm thinking Davos & Rickon are already back & probably encamped with manderley soldiers & other Northerners (and possibly an army of Skagosi) just outside of Winterfell. And that we'll see them either during or right after Stannis's battle at the crofter's village

Wex is going to become the de facto squire for Davos. He'll teach him more use things than Theon. They are both recently literate, so they may bond over that. Wex is still learning to read

Rickon Stark, The Black Wolf. He is going to come back into the story with a vengeance, like Theon Stark or Cregan Stark in the body of a 4 year old

We're also told 1000 times that dragons don't like and don't fair well in the snow, (save the Ice Dragon) so I'm quite positive Skagos/the North is the last place a dragon would go

Imagine George knowing his whole fan base thinks rickon dies. So he simply lets him live.

That's **Lord** Davos, tyvm!😋 Edit: I really appreciate your content that's written on screen but not spoken! I also find Flement Brax's absurd helm to be amazing.

Imagine if Davos gets there and Rickon has been captured and married to the chiefs daughter. But they just want a ticket out with the long winter coming so they join the war. Could be a badass warg king. Then have conflict with the Manderlys for worshiping the 7 but Rickon is old school old gods and is having none of it. More chaos for the north haha

I don't know if I agree that the Skagosi discovering Rickon's Stark identity would lead them to kill him, more likely they'd marry him to one of their own, so they could have their own hand in Winterfell, perhaps paralleling Viserys II ?

The First Men were not repelled from most of Westeros, they adopted the religion and the culture of the Andals until the two groups became more or less indistinguishable.

I super hope we get to see Skagos. I fear that it'll be elided--that we'll get a Davos chapter where he's already on the return boat ride home from Skagos with Rickon. I suspect we'll only hear about Skagos briefly through flashbacks that take less than a page. Something like this: "While it was a relief to finally get away from that cold and rocky island, Davos had to admit that it had been an easy voyage of discovery there. Almost inviting! The men there dressed like savages and acted queerly, but hardly more so than Osha, the Wildling in whose charge Rickon was being raised. He never saw evidence of cannibalism or human sacrifice. Nor did he ever see the much-famed unicorn--though one Skagosi chieftain named Tersketlon claimed to wear the skin of one, wrapped around his waist, as a sort of unsewn kilt. When greeting Ser Davos, Tersketlon had even wiggled a sort of horn from his crotch, like a lewd codpiece, with his left hand. But it looked nothing like the unicorn horn he had once seen in a book, over Shireen's shoulders, as she read to him some ancient maester's words about natural history. The horn looked more like a misshapen antler, or a large goat's horn. Or maybe even a piece of driftwood. A pity, Davos thought, that he could not have gone there instead in a time of peace, bringing with him a small fleet of literate maesters to draw all they'd seen and record every word. He might have been the first Westerosi man to travel into the interior of Skagos in centuries. And yet he had nothing much to report aside from one man's lewd crotch gestures."

This one one of the chapters I'm most excited about. Good video

As someone who just started ISOIAF in October and just caught up with it, I'm glad your channel popped up in my feed. Im happy I can finally watch lore and theory videos and wait in agony with everyone else. Great job!

Great video, looking forward to rickon!

I hadn't actually given Skagos much thought, so this was a nice change of pace, hopefully, the Skagosi aren't as hostile as their dread reputation says, and the lords can see a good opportunity in forming closer ties with the mainland by supporting Rickon's claim to Winterfell. Additionally, the island might not be as sparcely populated as the rest of the North (since they trade in obsidian, it's implied to be a volcanic island, so the soil should be fertile-> larger agricultural output to support the population) so theoretically there'll be plenty of soldiers for the North in the coming conflicts, and likely to repopulate as well later.

Love the video! Crap you asked questions and I don't remember what they were! There's a long-standing tradition of marrying a beaten down rival and so the Starks could be fairly closely related to the Magnars going back to that rebellion 100 years ago. In fact maybe the Starks are working now because they've had an infusion of magic blood from that theoretical Skagosi maid. Also if you look at the location of the island and compare it to Hardhome then look at the sigil of House Crowl it just feels like there's a story there about the doom of Hardhome.

1:24 "Conversely, the maesters seem to be a more unbiased source, (which is a sentence that has never been written before)." Hahahaa! 😂👌🏾

Still brutal on Shaggydogs POV, we read about how he eats a wildling mother and child that escaped from the failed wall siege. Brutal since it reads like he's hunting stags.

love twow videos 💨💨

Company of the cat just posted a really interesting video linking the skagosi to the hairy men and ibbenese, especially since the hairy men are said to ride shaggy unicorns and have a history of sailing, it could make sense that they are a stranded population.

It’s cannibal island because the dragon cannibal is their trust 🙏 Davos gonna eat rhaegal when he betrays dany for Faegon. BELIEVE BRO

I am ready

The skagoses massacre the neighborhooding island is based on a true incident in new Zealand some Mario went and massacrered All the men and took all the women from an island.

George is definitely making progress on winds so I believe we'll get it soon everyone can say what they want but I think optimism is warranted rn based off what he's been saying

I think it would interesting and suitable sad for Rickon's story if he had found family and acceptance and the attention he wasn't necessarily getting at Winterfell, only to have Davos come and spirit him away. Because he was so young Rickon often seems forgotten and overlooked and we see how this effected him. Could be too maybe the people there were teaching him to utilize and refine his warg and greenseer abilities.

Rickon is gonna have a crazy comeback arc. I imagine he has a 3 foot growth spurt, gets absolutelt shredded, works he way up the ranks in the Skagosi hierarchy, and becomes their leader, only to join forces with the North bannerman still loyal to Starks and overthrows the Boltons and Freys in a brutal battle... they need to animate this and the whole story more closely to the source material.

I love the theory that Skagos is just a regular place with regular people.

Davos pulls up to skagos, rickon calls asha 'momma' , davos gonna have to say "well shit, he's not gonna have a mother in winterfell." And does the right thing cause davos is like the most righteous character in the series.

100 years before the current books would put it either at the first Blackfyre rebellion or between the first and the second. The standard pattern is for the number two house in a region to join the Blackfyres against the #1 house. I think the Skaggs joined House Bolton against the Starks in the Blackfyre rebellion. I think that'll come out early in Winds of Winter and make it seem like oh crap Rickon is in serious danger but then it'll come out later that a Stark married a Magnar after that rebellion was put down and so he's with family of a sort.

I don't believe that Davos knows nothing about Skagos, he's was a smuggler and if i remember well he once traded with Eastwatch by the sea wich is literally in the Skagosi strait so probably he know the basics of Skagos

How could Osha board a ship to Skagos while concealing the identity of a 4 year old red haired boy and his direwolf? Could she really pass him off as her son and Shaggydog as a pup from north of the wall, completely unrelated to the Starks direwolves?

Rickon is just too young to be able to do anything. The legacy of the Five Year Gap continues...

There are not enough pages left to flesh out Skagos properly. The rest of the series is doomed to feel rushed.

Living with the Skagosi and all their crazy First Men traditions/rituals for so long, might actually helped Rickon develop his warging powers. And as others have already stated, he might be doing that without control, thus becoming a wild, feral warg-child with no real sense of morality and/or danger. Sort of like a berserker. At the same time, there's Bran who learns to practise warging in a more "professional" manner, but we also see him going rogue and having his dark moments. If the two work together, they might be the best option to deal with whatever is in the crypts at Winterfell. Or maybe Davos arrives in Skagos and finds out that Rickon has been eaten and he was delicious. Wouldn't that be a day to remember...

Don't the Stark children have ancestors on Skagos which is the reason Rickon is sent there for safety?

0:36 DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE??

Are the Manderly's playing Davos? Y'all think Rickon is still alive and well?

the name skagos always struck me strange. it is in the first tongue as you said, which isn't spoken by westerosi first men, only by some wildling tribes, yet it sounds like something out of valyrian. it was the language of the first men, before they adopted the common tongue, which is the andal language. with some first men families like dayne and hightower showing physical features similar to valyrians, it leads me to believe there may be a connection to valyrian and/or valyria or the surrounding area. we know the first men also came from essos, perhaps they were a people related to valyrians in some way, perhaps genetically and linguistically, perhaps only linguistically with a few interminglings with the "proto-valyrians", hence daynes and hightowers.

Doesn't Ned have a Skagosi relative (grandmother/great-grandmother)? That would somewhat coincide with the end of their rebellion.

Jojen promised the wolves will rule again so I’ll be upset if Rickon and Shaggydog don’t make it to the end

You said "Cannibal would be very old" and stuff but dragons can live a very long time. I agree with you that it's unlikely that it is in Skagos though.

❤

3:25 "Soon"

I think Rickon will be feral to a point. But he will be pretty messed up given most if not all of his family left him. He had no clue why…

I am pretty sure that Davos dies in even numbered books, so book six is gonna be hard on him. He seems to survive in odd numbered books though!

I think Rickon and Shaggy Dog will be the bridge between the wildlings and the people of the north.

Wooly Rhinos

Imo the unicorns are diregoats, sorta like direwolves being bigger wolves. Rideable goats with two horns twisting into one horn with long-term breeding with horses.

one question how could osha take rickon skagos there are big frozen ocean

I always thought Skagos was just a way to get rid of Davos. How the heck would Rickon get there.

Why is the bottom half of Sam’s face grey?

Imagine they are cannibals and eat wargs/ green dreamers to improve their own abilities. Like davos turns up to find out they just ate rickon

I believe Rickon will awaken his warging powers on the island and become a king/god to those on the island

He's gonna refuse power. A shaggy dog tale.

So, yeah, Rickon will be riding a Unicorn with Shaggydog at his side, while marching to Winterfell with an Army of Skagosi possible Cannibals, rebel Northern Lords, Crannogmen and maybe Jon Snow and his Freefolk pals, against Ramsay Bolton (if Winds of Winter actually comes out).

Rickons current story is the opposite of a shaggy dog story. We haven't seen anything. And shaggydog was named, in book 1.

Not to sound dramatic or anything but if Davos dies a part of me will die too

Bet Davos is going to have an ‘apocalypse now’ experience, with the whole island worshiping the warg boy, whom Possibly is even controlling cannibal..

So why Rickon named the wolf Shaggy Dog is totally irrelevant because Rickon didn't name the wolf, George did. He named the wolf Shaggy Dog for one of two reasons (that I can see): 1 - It's a standard swerve. Rickon's story is NOT a shaggy dog story & he will ultimately be very important 2 - It's a double bluff. Rickon's story IS a shaggy dog story & ultimately he will not impact the narrative in any consequential way It's 6/5 & pick 'em folks, I have no clue.

Who knows? they might even rally behind Rickon

Cannibal might be alive; he was a wild dragon after all.

Rickon is the only chance for house Stark surviving.

0:45 nope, the first men were not repelled from most of Westeros, according to the history, we have been provided so far. The Andals just conquered them, dominated them and intermarried with them. It is much like what happened with the waves of invaders that came to England. The North was the main kingdom that the Andals did not manage to conquer.

i really want see cannibal he must be enormus if he is still alive biggest dragon ever live on westeros , like 3 time bigger then balerion ever was , banger and john will ride him

I think the unicorns will turn out to be rhinoceroses.

Davos is Azor Ahai

Did you say "shaggydog" is a term for a pointless story? I have never heard that shaggydog is a literary term before. Is it a post generation X-wing thing?

0:35 ROCK AND STONE??????

Jojen paste is a ridiculous theory. The weirwoods have red colored sap.

The role is distraction. A Shaggy Dog story is a joke that doesn't go anywhere. Rickon's story is pointless. (At this point all of ASOIF is pointless because he's never going to finish it).

0:36 composed entirely of what? You never finished the sentence, but Rock & Stone to you too, brother

"Soon will be" and "When the Winds of Winter is released" are rather juxtaposed statements I feel 😂

🌝

Not enough telepathic leeches.

Hey

RIckon is not dying. Starks are safe in the most dire places. they only die when they go south

GRRM has to cut down on POV characters. Sadly I think Davos’ time will come to an end on Skagos in Winds. That Bran foreshadowing of a woman sacrificing a man to a Weirwood tree will be Osha sacrificing Davos. He’ll try to smuggle Rickon out but Osha & Rickon will be a “part of the tribe” & expose him. We’ll see the sacrifice from Davos’ perspective. That will be the end of Rickon’s Shaggydog story.

Unicorns? Cannibals? barbarians? So pretty much how the romans and anglo-Saxons Saw the Scottish?

With some slight speech training you could be a great narrator. Have you considered a theatre class?

@0:47 no? The First Men certainly weren't repelled by the Andals. They were conquered and assimilated into Andal culture in most of Westeros (prominently not in the North, the Iron Islands and possibly not in Dorne either). I guess you just chose poorly what word to use. @2:00 likely to be true. Stories of sacrifices to Weirwood trees are plenty and most definetly simply fell out of favour with most Old Gods worshippers. Or there are two variations on the Old Gods (I can elaborate on that, but it's mostly conjecture). @3:44 House Brax is not minor but one of the more powerful ones in the Westerlands. That's like saying the Karstarks are minor. The rest was fine though.

Speculating on every single bit of lore won't make the next book come out any faster.

the character drawings in the videos are lame lol they make the characters on the civ x videos look like they were drawn by frank frazetta. other than the awful character drawings im enjoying the videos