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

Oh Rickon, why didn't you zig-zag? Sure, you might still have died, and even had you lived probably wouldn't have actually been given the chance to speak, but still - don't make it so easy for Ramsay.

Thankfully, he's probably going to be spared such a fate in the books.

Although Rickon Stark is still largely believed to be dead, he is alive but his whereabouts are unknown. However, according to Wex Pyke, a survivor from the sack on Winterfell, he headed to Skagos. Thus Lord Wyman Manderly, who wants to overthrow the Boltons, plans on retrieving Rickon and using him to trump the claim of Arya Stark (who of course isn't Arya anyway) to take back Winterfell for the Starks.

Thus, in return for Manderly supporting Stannis as King, Davos is sent to Skagos to bring back Rickon. Davos is none-too-happy about this, because Skagos - although technically a part of Westeros - is generally considered to be independent, with its own rules and customs. The people who inhabit it are mostly believed to be savage, and even engage in cannibalism in the winter. To be honest, it's impressive that Rickon would even manage to survive there, if the stories about it are true (and if that is where he went).

Whereas in the show he's given up by the Umbers, here is seems more unlikely that events would transpire to put Rickon Stark in the clutches of Ramsay Bolton. Assuming that Davos does reach Skagos, and retrieves Rickon, then he'd be taking him back to Manderly, who would not give him up to the Boltons. If Manderly were to die during the battle between the Boltons and Stannis, then it's also feasible that Davos would take Rickon to Jon Snow at the Wall.

There is a slight chance he could be intercepted, or that the information given wasn't correct, but at this stage it seems rather unlikely Rickon will die during the Battle of the Bastards.