ASOIAF/Game of Thrones: Will the Bastard Bowl, aka, the Battle of the Bastards, take place in the novels like it will in the show?

I don’t think it will.

The Northern battle storyline is mostly fan fiction, very, very loosely based on Stannis’ story arc in A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter.

They’ve gone this way because they’ve built Ramsay into an indestructible super-villain, and therefore, they want an indestructible super-hero(Jon Snow) to take him down. Having Stannis win the battle(as I believe he MIGHT) would confuse and dishearten the audience as they villainized Stannis quite a bit more in the show than in the books, where he is…well, complicated.

The books well…it is an understatement to say It’s complicated. It’s more than that. The coming battle is total cluster fuck.

• Stannis is not dead, though he is in dire straits, stalled by a snow-storm that has claimed most if not all of his horses and some of his southron men.
• But he has a force of hardy northerners working for him who endure the cold better(not the fickle sell-swords he bought in the show) that he has persuaded to come with him—including the Mormonts, as in the show, but some other small houses as well—the Flints, Wulls, Norreys and Liddles, known as “The Mountain Clans.”
• He’s also been joined by the Karstarks, who are secretly supporting the Boltons! But in the Theon chapter from the Winds of Winter, Stannis has discovered their treachery from his captive, Theon Greyjoy, who he has decided to execute.
• He’s also been joined by Mors Umber. The Umbers themseves are split with some supporting Stannis, some the Boltons. Mors supports Stannis, but will not fight his brother.
• Stannis also marches with House Glover, who refused Sansa’s plea for assistance in episode 7. Stannis freed their castle from the Ironborn earlier.(In the show it was the Bolton’s who freed it, apparently.)
• The scattered remnants of survivors of the Battle Outside Winterfell , which occurred at the end of A Clashof Kings, are with Stannis. Hornwood, Tallharts and Cerwyns.
• Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos has just shown up, and Stannis signed his name(in blood) for a large bank loan to procure sellswords.

Stannis is in dire straits but he’s in a very, very, very defensible position, between two natural frozen lakes that they have been fishing in.

The Bolton side:

On the Bolton Side things are also a bit messy.

• besides the Boltons themselves there are the Karstarks, who are pretending to be for Stannis—but Stannis has discovered their ill intent, unbeknownst to the Boltons.
• They have half of the Umbers, who are fighting for the Boltons mainly because the Freys hold their leige lord the Greatjon Umber prisoner down at the Twins. The Umbers may be secretly supporting Stannis.
• They have the Manderlys but they are definitely supporting Stannis; indeed, they may have Rickon Stark nearby.
• Various other houses: Ryswells, Dustins, Cerwyns, Lockes. The loyalty of these houses to the Bolton’s cause is questionable.
• The Freys, led by Hosteen Frey. He leads the Bolton’s vanguard and is known as unintelligent.

It is uncertain how the Battle will play out—but many guess that Stannis will lure the idiotic Hosteen Frey onto the icy lakes where the weight of their armored forces will crash through the ice, where the Freys will perish.

Stannis may have the advantage in the battle due to so many double-crossing and triple crossing northerners. But it may be evenly matched.

I don’t know—but I believe that Stannis will survive the battle and somehow take Winterfell.

Notes:

• Sansa is not in the North. She is safe in the warm Vale of Arryn, last seen dancing with Harry the Heir, teenage heart all a-flutter.
• No Knights of Arryn riding to the rescue.
• The Wildlings are not taking part in the battle.
• Jon Snow, if he has been resurrected, might march south anyway. But travel times are more realistic in the book. It seems unlikely that he will have the time to make it to the battle through the raging snowstorm..
• Rickon Stark is not a prisoner of the Boltons. Rickon’s precise whereabouts are unknown, but he was at the Isle of Skagos. I presume that he will make an appearance with Davos soon.
• Shireen Baratheon is still at Castle Black with her mother and Melisandre. None are with Stannis. If Stannis is going to burn Shireen, it will not be before the battle, as in the snow.

Written June 15th