Game Of Thrones Season 6: 8 Ways Battle Of The Bastards Will Be Different In The Books

One of the strangest decisions in the lead-up to the Battle of the Bastards came when Smalljon Umber arrived at Winterfell, bringing with him Rickon Stark, Osha, and the head of Shaggydog.

The Umbers are, in the books and the show, a house very loyal to House Stark, as evidenced by the Greatjon's fierce support for Robb Stark to be crowned King in the North.

Such was the weirdness of this betrayal that almost instantly it was theorised they were just playing the Boltons, and that they'd ultimately betray them (in a sense, somewhat similar to how the Manderlys have infiltrated the Boltons in the books). When the time came, they'd change sides, and help Jon's forces overcome the numbers to defeat the Boltons. Alas, the battle came and went, and no such move was made, with Smalljon Umber have his throat ripped out by Tormund.

In the books, some of the Umbers (led by Mors) are currently fighting on the side of Stannis, while the others have sworn a highly dubious fealty to Roose Bolton, and the reason for that is their hatred of the Boltons and loyalty to the Starks (it's worth noting at that, at this stage, Greatjon isn't dead, but held captive at the Twins, while Smalljon actually died during the Red Wedding, and that most of the Umber forces rode south with Greatjon, meaning most of what's left behind is made up of old men).

The Umbers are not loyal to the Boltons, and they very much want to kill the Freys too, who make up part of Roose and Ramsay's forces. No matter who wins between Ramsay and Stannis, there's almost no way they would actually fight against forces led by Jon Snow or any other Stark, nor would they turn Rickon over to Ramsay if they had him - which, as far as we know in the books, they don't.