Game of Thrones season 6, episode 2: Ramsay Bolton actor Iwan Rheon on the character's horrific murders

"It shows a level of ambition we’ve not yet seen. It’s very similar to how a lot of how totalitarian dictators solve their problems by getting rid of anybody in their way, with a very Stalin-y way of doing it"

*WARNING* MAJOR SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES SEASON 6, EPISODE 2*

Though it may not have been the most shocking moment of Game of Thrones' second episode, there's still a pretty great need to talk about what Ramsay Bolton has been up to. Some very, very bad things; it turns out.

Call him the show's new Joffrey all you like, but Ramsay's arguably surpassed the brattish monarch in pure villainy; with the latest episode seeing him go on a brutal killing spree against his own family, in an attempt to secure his position on the throne.

Sure, no one was too grieved about him stabbing his own father in the heart, considering Roose Bolton was the one who personally orchestrated the Red Wedding massacre, and slaughtered Robb Stark by his own hand.

But also killing his own stepmother and her newborn baby by unleashing the dogs on them? Probably went a tad too far there, Ramsay.

"It shows a level of ambition we’ve not yet seen," Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay, told Entertainment Weekly. "His problem solving is quite basic. It’s very similar to how a lot of how totalitarian dictators solve their problems by getting rid of anybody in their way, with a very Stalin-y way of doing it."

"His stepmother gives birth to a baby boy, and that’s alarm bells right there, and his father’s warned him [about his uncertain place in the family after losing his bride Sansa Stark]," Rheon continued. "Instead of maybe trying to wait and see, it’s, ‘You have to go, mate, sorry.' It’s not calculated, it’s reactionary. And it has an effect on him, which he didn’t expect."

Writer Dave Hill added that the possibility of having to kill his own father had always plagued on Ramsay's mind; "He’s never ruled it out. What he cares most about is power. As long as he was the sole son, the only possible heir, it was fine."

"Ramsay’s sad, he’s not a complete psychotic madman. He regrets having to kill his father. He’s actually trying to live up to this father’s standards and become the man his father wanted him to be — in his own sociopathic killer way."

Game of Thrones airs on Sunday nights in the US, at 9PM on HBO; and will be simulcast at 2AM on Sky Atlantic in the UK.