The world got to know Lady Catelyn Stark through book series A Song of Ice and Fire. But Lady Catelyn wasn't always a Stark. She was born Catelyn Tully, the eldest daughter of Hoster Tully, the Lord of Riverrun and Warden of the Riverlands. And as a daughter of a High Lord, Catelyn's hand in marriage was an incredibly valuable asset, made all that more valuable by Catelyn's intelligence and honor.
So if Cat had married someone other than Ned, what would the world of Westeros have looked like? These are 10 characters in the series that Cat should have been with, besides Ned.
Rodrik Greyjoy
Although the Iron Islands have always ostensibly been a part of the Seven Kingdoms, their connection to the mainland has always been tenuous at best. Balon Greyjoy was particularly reticent to with the rest of the kingdoms, a reticence he demonstrated in the Greyjoy Rebellion.
But perhaps if he had married his oldest son and heir, Rodrik, to a mainlander, the entire conflict between the Greyjoys and the Kingdoms could have been avoided, and at least the eldest daughter of the Warden of the Riverlands would be well suited to the sea.
Stevron Frey
House Frey may be one of the wealthiest houses in the Riverlands, but clearly most of the noble houses in Westeros look down on them for obvious and understandable reasons.
Hoster Tully forking over his eldest daughter to Walder Frey may not have seemed like an appealing prospect for the High Lord or Cat, but clearly House Frey was more powerful than anyone in Westeros wanted to it, and it would have been smart for the seat of the Riverlands to shore up their strength through an allegiance with the Freys.
Rhaegar Targaryen
It was extraordinarily unusual for a Targaryen heir to the throne to marry outside of his own family, but Rhaegar Targaryen was forced to break tradition when he didn't have an available sibling to marry. Elia Martell wound up becoming his wife, but clearly the firstborn daughters of all of Westeros' high lords were an option.
If the Targaryens had been able to see the rebellion coming, then marrying Rhaegar to a daughter of the Riverlands, a Kingdom that was guaranteed to see a lot of battle, would have been smart.
Mace Tyrell
The Queen of Thorns is ardently open about her own sons oafishness, but the fact that Mace Tyrell was a bit of a dink doesn't mean that Catelyn Tully couldn't have had a good match with him. The Reach and the Riverlands are two of the most fertile Kingdoms in Westeros, and Cat undoubtedly would have had a much more pleasant time living among the flowers.
And Mace married a woman from House Hightower, another incredibly powerful house in Westeros, but one that is already a part of the Reach.
Oberyn Martell
A match between Catelyn and Oberyn certainly would have been an intriguing one. Their personalities seem to be pretty mismatched, but it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't have a lot of respect for each other and their abilities.
Cat wouldn't have been happy with Oberyn's wandering eye, but it would have been fascinating to see how Catelyn fared in a Kingdom where women were seen as equals to men, and a world in which she or her daughters were just as likely to inherit and rule as the men were.
Robert Baratheon
When the rebellion began it was already set and locked that the Vale, the North, and the Stormlands were going to work together in order to overthrow the king. And the marriage of Catelyn to Ned and Lysa to Jon ensured that the Riverlands would stand with them. And of course, Robert wound up marrying Cersei to bring the Westerlands into the fold.
However, any one of the three rebels should have been savvy enough to realize that putting the Lannisters that close to the throne was a potentially fatal mistake, and Robert should have married Lord Hoster's eldest daughter instead.
Jon Arryn
It's hard to say whether or not Jon Arryn and Catelyn Tully would have had the potential to fall in love, but if Jon was anything like Ned then it's safe to assume that they could have had a happy marriage.
Jon was well known for his honor, and Catelyn would have undoubtedly made a spectacular Lady of the Vale, as well as a wife of the Hand to the King. And of course, had Cat been married to Jon Arryn, the plot to murder him wouldn't have come to .
Jaime Lannister
Shockingly, when Jaime Lannister was still on the market and not yet a member of the Kingsguard, his father and Hoster Tully were actually trying to arrange a marriage between Jaime and Lysa.
However, I think we can all unequivocally agree that Jaime does not need one more unhinged lover in his life. Jaime was capable of being monstrous, but it's very possible that a marriage to someone like Cat could have tempered his worst impulses.
Brandon Stark
Although the love between Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully grew to be epic, they weren't ever intended to be married in the first place. Cat was betrothed to Ned's older brother Brandon, and the engagement was broken when the Mad King burned Brandon alive.
Brandon was much wilder and more aggressive than Ned, that was what got him killed in the end, but it would be interesting to see Catelyn as Lady Stark to a much more ferocious wolf.
Petyr Baelish
Isn't is just like Westeros to have some decent, normal woman have to bear the brunt of some man's madness or idiocy. We all know that Cat deserves far better than the sentient slime that is Petyr Baelish.
However, had Petyr actually wound up with Cat to begin with, then the entire War of the Five Kings likely wouldn't have even happened. And Cat's marriage to a sleazeball who loves her is a small price to pay to avoid war.