The Red Wedding is one of the most shocking moments of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and many named and unnamed characters are murdered in cold blood.
Rodd Stark’s demise was one of the most shocking moments in Game of Thrones but he wasn’t the only one who died 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 Game of Thrones season 3, Robb has spent over one and a half seasons Below the Neck. The Kings in the War of the Five Kings 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.
Robb Stark
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 Ned Stark’s death in Game of Thrones season 1, Robb rises to the fore as the new main character of the Stark family. It will 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, Game of Thrones does not have 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 died after Roose Bolton stabbed him in the stomach, kidnapped 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 Stark
Catelyn acts as Robb’s guide in Game of Thrones. 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 although 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 were wed and returned to the Northern camps, Catelyn knew that there would be a price to pay for Robb breaking his vow with the Freys.
Catelyn’s afraid of becoming prophetic when the Freys broke the rule of guest right and committed 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 Game of Thrones. 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 Stark
Talisa and Robb’s marriage is one of the few in Game of Thrones 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 change makes the Red Wedding even worse. 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 was 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.
Robb & Talisa’s Unborn Child
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 most horrific deaths on Game of Thrones, Talisa is stabbed multiple times in the stomach. The look on her face as she’s having stabbings 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 possible, murdering unarmed women under guest rights, but to kill a pregnant woman is a whole new level of vileness.
Gray Wind
Just when it seemed that the Red Wedding couldn’t get any more brutal, the Frey soldiers rushed out to Gray 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. Gray Wind’s last moment in Game of Thrones 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.
Joyeuse Frey
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 Game of Thrones.
Wendel Manderly
Wyman Manderly’s son Wendel appears during the shocking moment of the Red Wedding and is cut down by crossbow fire. Wendel is the only other high-born Northern Lord besides the Starks who died in the Red Wedding, and the crossbow bolt through the back of his head and out of his mouth is a grisly ending 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 Game of Thrones season 6 when Lord Wyman Manderly declares his allegiance to Jon Snow.
200-300 Northern Soldiers & Riverlanders
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 provided 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 Game of Thrones isn’t a horrifying event only because the nobles died, 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.
Changes From The Red Wedding In The Book
The Red Wedding in the Song of Ice and Fire books is mostly accurately depicted in Game of Thrones. 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 changes to Game of Thrones season 3 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, A Storm of Swords, many more named characters are murdered. Smalljon Umber, Dacey Mormont, Donnel Locke, Owen Norrey, Robin Flint, and Lucas Blackwood all died for the North. Ser Benfrey Frey, Ser Tytos Frey, Ser Garse Goodbrook, and around 50 Frey soldiers were killed in the fighting on the betrayedrs’ side. These characters did not appear in Game of Thrones 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.
The Four Characters Who Survived The Red Wedding
