Quote Originally Posted by Uchiha Barles View Post
What? Why would he burn the farmer's kids? Of all the random...
To prove that he wouldn't tolerate any dissent and that he could catch Bran and Rickon. That being said, and I'm not attemping to imply anything as a spoiler but simply reflecting on the decision making here, killing two random kids and claiming it's them is pretty much the worst motherfucking plan. It can get exposed as bullshit any number of ways and it's GUARANTEED to turn everyone in Winterfell against him forever.