content: '''Ramsay Bolton''', previously known as '''Ramsay Snow''', is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation ''Game of Thrones''.
  Introduced in 1998's ''A Clash of Kings'', Ramsay is the bastard son of Roose Bolton, the lord of the Dreadfort, an ancient fortress in the North of the kingdom of Westeros. He is subsequently mentioned in ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000) and ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005). He later appears in Martin's ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011). Ramsay is an amoral and vicious sadist who strives to be legitimized as a true Bolton by his father. He is directly responsible for several atrocities in both the novels and television show, including the brutal torture of Theon Greyjoy; however, his role as a primary antagonist is greatly expanded in the television adaptation.
  Ramsay is portrayed by Welsh actor Iwan Rheon in the HBO television adaptation. Rheon has received critical acclaim for his performance, although his character's reception has been more polarized; he is widely considered to be one of the show's most brutal and hated villains. In 2016, ''The New York Times'' referred to the character as "arguably the most hated man on television" and "the signature ''Game of Thrones'' villain". In 2019, the Red Cross conducted a study using international human rights laws, and determined Ramsay to be the ''Game of Thrones'' character who committed the most war crimes, with seventeen violations.