Rodd Stark's demise was one of the most shocking moments in but he wasn't the only one who diess at the Red Wedding. After Ned Stark is executed by Joffrey Baratheon, his eldest son, Robb Stark, calls the banners of the North and marches on the South, intent on revenge. His bannermen go further and declare Robb King in the North, and the Houses decide their fight is no longer only for revenge, but for freedom from the Seven Kingdoms as well. Despite his young age, Robb is a talented general and wins many battles, including one against Jaime Lannister, where the Kingslayer is captured.
By season 3, Robb has spent over one and a half seasons below the Neck.
The have died, been beaten, or like Robb have experienced a number of setbacks. His mother releases Jaime much to his bannermen’s dismay, he executes the head of House Karstark for insubordination, and he dishonors the Freys by breaking his marriage pact and eloping with Talisa Maegyr. Seeing the war effort lost, the Freys and Robb’s bannermen, the Boltons, throw a wedding party for Edmure Tully, and it’s there they exact their coup, with the grisly murders giving it the name the Red Wedding.
Before the Red Wedding, Robb Stark pleads for forgiveness from Walder Frey in order to retain his honor after breaking his pact.
It appears that Walder has forgiven him and all is well when Edmure Tully agrees to marry the old man's daughter. After season 1, Robb rises to the fore as the new main character of the Stark family. It would appear that despite his mistake, he and his family are safe now, and he has both the support of the Freys and the North, as well as a blessed marriage to Talisa, whom he loves. It’s a fairytale ending.
Unfortunately, does not do fairytale endings. The Red Wedding begins with the stabbing of Talisa, an act so shocking that Robb freezes and is shot multiple times by crossbow fire. He finally dies after Roose Bolton stabs him in the stomach, betrayed by his own bannermen.
The ramifications of Robb’s death are spread throughout Westeros. The Lannisters are finally able to win the war they started, the War of the Five Kings after the two most powerful leaders are removed. This death fractures the Stark family to a catastrophic degree as their one hope for safety and vengeance is killed.
Catelyn acts as Robb’s guide in .She gives him advice and shows him love when he is at his lowest. She is older and wiser than her son, but her motherly worries often fall on the deaf ears of the young lovers.
As the liege lord of the Freys, Catelyn knows how proud Walder is, and though she doesn’t suspect something as evil as the Red Wedding, she remains nervous about returning to the Twins. From the moment Talisa and Robb are wed and return to the Northern camps, Catelyn knows that there will be a price to pay for Robb breaking his vow with the Freys.
Catelyn’s fears become prophetic when the Freys break the rule of guest right and commit the massacre known as the Red Wedding. She is the first to realize what is happening after seeing chain mail under Roose Bolton’s wedding clothes. Before she can warn Robb, she is shot multiple times with crossbow bolts; then the next scenes ensure Catelyn’s death is one of the grimmest in all of
Her last act shows her to be as scary a mother as any in Westeros as she slashes Walder’s wife’s throat and watches Robb die. Catelyn yells out in grief before having her own throat slit.
Talisa and Robb’s marriage is one of the few in that is done out of love rather than duty. The two actually care about each other, and Talisa opens Robb’s eyes up to caring about both his own soldiers and the ones he’s fighting against. She may have been a great queen had the events of the Red Wedding not happened.
Tragically, her marriage to Robb is probably the final straw that made the Boltons and Freys plot the massacre. Not only did Robb break a solemn vow to the Freys, but he lost the support of many of his bannermen in doing so.
Talisa surprises Robb with her pregnancy at the feast and this . It should be one of the happiest nights of their lives, but the massacre extinguishes any hopes for their family. Talisa is the second death after her unborn child when she is stabbed multiple times in the stomach. Talisa doesn’t even seem to be in pain; her emotions read horror, shock, and grief more than anything else.
As she reaches out to Robb’s hand, she expires.
At the start of the celebrations, Catelyn overhears Talisa telling Robb that they will name their child Eddard, and she smiles, appreciating her daughter-in-law for the first time. Then the Red Wedding begins, and in one of the Talisa is stabbed multiple times in the stomach. The look on her face as she’s being stabbed does not even seem to be of pain, just horror at the thought of the child inside her. The Freys and the Boltons are as depraved as can be, murdering unarmed women under guest right, but to kill a pregnant woman is a whole new level of vileness.
Just when it seems that the Red Wedding can’t get any more brutal, the Frey soldiers rush out to Grey Wind, who is in a pen out on the castle grounds. The giant wolf bares its teeth at the men-at-arms, but the soldiers shower him with bolts. Grey Wind’s last moment in sees him lying in the mud and watching Arya hiding across the yard. The two share a gaze and because of the linked fates of the direwolves and the Stark children, Arya understands what is happening inside the castle to her brother.
The shrinking number of direwolves reflects the shrinking power of the Starks.
Lady Joyeuse Frey is the eighth wife of Lord Walder Frey. Like all of his wives, Joyeuse is young and for the most part innocent. Seeing an opportunity, Catelyn grabs her during the Red Wedding massacre and holds a knife to her throat, threatening to kill her if they don’t let Robb go. Walder is unfazed and says he’ll just get another. Catelyn, true to her word kills the innocent woman. It is one final exclamation point on how despicable Walder is and tragically makes Catelyn’s last act a violent and immoral one, as it is all tragedy in this episode of
Wyman Manderly’s son Wendel appears during the and is cut down by crossbow fire. Wendel is the only other high-born Northern Lord besides the Starks who dies in the Red Wedding, and the crossbow bolt through the back of his head and out of his mouth is a grisly end for a member of a noble house. His death does have lasting implications as it spurs his father to support the Starks, in his honor. House Manderly reappears in season 6 when Lord Wyman Manderly declares his allegiance to Jon Snow.
Many Riverlanders attend the wedding as well as a sizable retinue of Robb’s northern forces, consisting of Manderlys, Starks, and Boltons. The men sit and feast in honor of the marriage, courtesy of the Freys who supply them with food and drink, which should have been an early clue of the Red Wedding. As the meal nears its end, the Freys and Boltons slaughter the drunk soldiers. The Red Wedding in isn’t a horrifying event only because the nobles die, but the vast amounts of Northern and Riverland soldiers who were killed enrage the common folk and pit them against the Boltons and Freys in later seasons.
The Red Wedding in the books is mostly accurately depicted in .Both scenes are shocking in literary and television forms. Due to the epic length of the book series, many more characters are able to be described and mentioned than a television show could ever hope to, so there are some and who dies and who doesn’t. Jeyne Westerling — Talisa's counterpart in the novels — is not present at the wedding, nor is she pregnant. Another change is that Catelyn holds a knife to “Jinglebell," Walder’s court fool, though the result is the same.
In the book where the Red Wedding happens, many more named characters are murdered. Smalljon Umber, Dacey Mormont, Donnel Locke, Owen Norrey, Robin Flint, and Lucas Blackwood all die for the North. Ser Benfrey Frey, Ser Tytos Frey, Ser Garse Goodbrook, and around 50 Frey soldiers are killed in the fighting on the betrayers' side. These characters did not appear in save for Smalljon Umber, but their House names will be familiar. The breadth of dead noble Northerners in the novels makes it more clear that the Boltons betrayed their countrymen as much as their liege lords.
While those who die in the Red Wedding were hugely significant characters in and their loss was certainly felt by fans, the brutal betrayal at least included some survivors. Four key characters live through the events of the Red Wedding with Edmure Tully, who was marrying Rosaline Frey, being the key captive taken by the Freys. Edmure's uncle, Brynden "Blackfish" Tully happened to be relieving himself at the time of the ambush and managed to escape. Meanwhile, arrived just as the fighting broke out and The Hound was able to get them both to safety.
Edmure spent most of the time as a prisoner of the Freys even after his son with Rosaline was born.
He was eventually freed and was seen attending the committee to choose the next king of Westeros in the finale. Though Walder Frey didn't worry much about "The Blackfish" escaping, Roose Bolton seemed to recognize the threat he posed. Blackfish was able to assemble a small force of Tully soldiers and take Riverrun back from the Freys only for Jamie Lannister to force Edmure to turn it back over.
In the end, leaving Arya Stark alive proved to be the most fatal mistake for the Freys. After parting ways with The Hound, Arya started her own journey of revenge, becoming a warrior trained by the Faceless Men. When she returned to Westeros, she made killing Walder Frey her first order of business before conducting her own remake of the Red Wedding, disguising herself Walder Frey and poisoning all surviving male members of House Frey, avenging her family in one of ' most crowd-pleasing moments.
