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 sheer number of grisly murders earning it the name the Red Wedding.

Robb Stark

The King In The North's Tragic Demise At 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 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 would appear that despite his mistake, he and his family are safe now, and he has both the of the Freys and the North, as well as a blessed marriage to Talisa, whom he loves. It’s a fairytale ending, which is partly why the Red Wedding was so tragic.

The Red Wedding begins with the stabbing of Talisa, an act so shocking that Robb freezes and is shot multiple times by crossbow fire.

Unfortunately, Game of Thrones 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 Stark

The Impact Of Catelyn Stark's Murder On The Stark Family

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 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 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

A Symbol of War's Brutality

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 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 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.

Robb & Talisa’s Unborn Child

The Heartbreaking Loss Of An Unborn Stark Heir

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 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.

Grey Wind

The Stark-Direwolf Bond Broken

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 Game of Thrones sees him lying in the mud and watching Arya hiding across the yard.

The shrinking number of direwolves reflects the shrinking power of the Starks.

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

The Role Of Joyeuse Frey In The Frey-Stark Conflict

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

A Foreshadowing Of Revenge

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 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 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

The Impact Of The Northern Losses On The War

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 Game of Thrones 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.

Changes From The Red Wedding In The Book

Key Differences Between The Red Wedding In The Book And The Show

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 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 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

The Fate Of The Survivors After The Red Wedding

While those who die in the Red Wedding were hugely significant characters in Game of Thrones 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, Arya Stark and her capture Sandor "The Hound" Clegane 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 Game of Thrones 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.

After parting ways with The Hound, Arya started her own journey of revenge, becoming a warrior trained by the Faceless Men.

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 of House Frey, avenging her family in one of Game of Thrones' most crowd-pleasing moments.

Other Major Game Of Thrones Events With High Death Tolls

The Red Wedding Is One Of Several GoT Episodes That Writes Off Multiple Characters

The Red Wedding remains one of the most shocking Game of Thrones episodes — if not the most shocking — for many viewers. Fans unfamiliar with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels were completely blindsided by the massacre of the Stark family. Not only was it sudden in the sense that there had been little to suggest Walder Frey would betray the Starks, but the moment the deaths start in the episode itself came almost out of nowhere.

However, The Red Wedding (or as it's actually titled, "The Rains Of Castamere" wasn't the only Game of Thrones episode that killed off multiple main characters. There are two specific episodes that stand out for being just as brutal when it comes to the deaths of main characters, although only one of these can claim to be as unexpectedly violent.

The first Game of Thrones episode with a comparable kill count to the Red Wedding was season 8's "The Bells". This episode saw Daenerys become the Mad Queen, and also included the deaths of Euron Greyjoy, Qybrun, and both the Mountain and the Hound during the long-anticipated "Cleganebowl" brawl. However, these can't be said to be as shocking as The Red Wedding since the episode occured toward the end of the final season of Game of Thrones. By this point, viewers had come to expect the deaths of multiple characters per episode as the show reached its conclusion, which definitely wasn't the case for The Red Wedding.

The other comparable example is episode 10 of Game of Thrones season 6, "The Winds of Winter". Much like The Red Wedding, this episode killed off multiple named characters in a single event with little-to-no warning, both in the mid-long term sense, and within the episode itself. "The Winds of Winter" is the Game of Thrones episode in which Cersei destroys the Sept of Baelor by blowing it up with wildfire.

Lancel Lannister, Kevan Lannister, Loras Tyrell, Mace Tyrell, the High Sparrow, and — perhaps most shockingly of all — Margery Tyrell are all killed in an instant. To make the episode even more heartbreaking, Tommen Baratheon then takes his own life by swiftly walking off of a high balcony. It's perhaps the only episode of Game of Thrones that matches The Red Wedding for shock factor, and it remains just as memorable a moment in the show.

Reactions To The Red Wedding Made It More Iconic

"The Rains Of Castamere" Is A Strong Argument Against Batch-Releasing Shows

It's an understatement to say that Game of Thrones was a talking point during the years it was on the air. The show managed to completely capture the cultural zeitgeist, and was seen by many as a leap forward when it came to entertainment on the small screen. A key factor in this was that episodes were released weekly, and in the seven days between each installment it was heavily discussed by Game of Thrones fans, both casual and dedicated.

The Red Wedding tapped into this phenomenon, and it's the fact it became such a talking point that led to "The Rains Of Castamere" being such an iconic episode. Outside the show itself, The Red Wedding was something of a cultural moment, with the shocking and brutal deaths being discussed and dissected perhaps more than any other episode in GoT.

While it certainly still holds up years later, it's also notable how much of the hype around the episode came from the many reactions and discussions about it while season 3 was still airing. Looking back at the entire show in retrospect, The Red Wedding was also perhaps the definitive episode that proved literally no Game of Thrones character was safe, and represented the point that viewers knew any and all predictions about what was to come could be undone in a single scene.

Typical TV History Made The Red Wedding More Shocking

Robb Stark Was Being Set Up As A Hero

While Robb Stark may not be the most memorable Stark sibling by the end of Game of Thrones season 8, this was far from the case during season 3 when The Red Wedding occurred. For viewers unfamiliar with A Song of Ice and Fire, Robb was being set up as the most likely of Ned Stark's children to take the fight directly to the Lannisters and sit on the Iron Throne. Many even considered him to be the "hero" of the show, which is why the moment he was killed at The Red Wedding was such a jaw-dropping scene for so many fans.

At the time of his death, Robb was embracing his identity as the King in the North. He'd just got married, and was expecting a child with his wife. He was more invested in the fate of the Seven Kingdoms than ever before, because removing the Lannisters from the Iron Throne and securing peace for the realm was now a personal matter. In any other TV show, this would have been a turning point in Robb's journey, a moment that saw his narrative elevated and his importance in the show significantly increased.

However, as The Red Wedding proved, Game of Thrones didn't play by the rules of other fantasy TV shows. Robb's journey up until that point had, if anything, simply happened to set up his death, so it became as shocking a twist in the narrative as possible. This becomes especially apparent looking back, as he's one of several characters who had a large amount of screen-time considering how early on in the show they were killed.

This, above all things, shows just how smart a narrative decision for Game of Thrones The Red Wedding was. It subverted all expectations viewers may have had about Robb having a traditional journey, and established that the fate of Westeros wouldn't be decided by anyone who fit the traditional archetype of a hero.