Catelyn Stark dies in the A Song of Ice and Fire books much like she did in deaths at the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones and ASOIAF were shocking enough, but that Catelyn comes back in A Storm of Swords' Epilogue is just as big a twist.
Dubbed Lady Stoneheart, she has only made a couple of brief appearances in the books so far, but should have a bigger role to play Brienne of Tarth will betray Jaime Lannister for Lady Stoneheart - and she is one of the books' most fascinatingly dark and tragic figures.
Catelyn Stark Is Resurrected By Beric Dondarrion In A Storm Of Swords
The Lightning Lord Gave Her The Last Kiss
Catelyn's death may have been the same in Game of Thrones, but the books do take things further. After the Red Wedding, the Freys dump her naked body in the river (the Green Fork). Three days later, the body is found by none other than Arya Stark, who has warged into her direwolf, Nymeria (another aspect the show cut). Nymeria drags Cat's body from the water, but runs off when she hears the Brotherhood without Banners approaching.
As A Feast for Crows revealed, Beric performed what's known as the last kiss, or the kiss of life, to bring Cat back.
Death is not necessarily permanent in Westeros, as shown by Jon Snow's resurrection in Game of Thrones. And, before him, there was Beric Dondarrion, who was brought back to life half-a-dozen times by Thoros of Myr, before his final death at the Battle of Winterfell in season 8. In the books, however, Beric's true demise came much earlier, as he sacrificed his own life to resurrect Catelyn.
As A Feast for Crows revealed, Beric performed what's known as the last kiss, or the kiss of life, to bring Cat back. This is how Thoros had revived Beric himself: to do it, one fills their mouth with fire, and then breathes the flames into the dead person. Typically, however, this is not used for resurrection, but is simply a custom among the followers of R'hllor, the Lord of Light, believing it cleanses them to send them on their way. With Beric, however, the Lord of Light's magic intervened, bringing him back, as Thoros describes to Arya in A Storm of Swords:
"I have no magic, child. Only prayers. That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth, I knew there was no hope. So when his poor torn chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god’s own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord’s servants as they died. I had given it a time or two myself, as all priests must. But never before had I felt a dead man shudder as the fire filled him, nor seen his eyes come open. It was not me who raised him, my lady. It was the Lord. R’hllor is not done with him yet. Life is warmth, and warmth is fire, and fire is God’s and God’s alone.”
Then, in A Feast for Crows, Thoros describes how Beric performed the last kiss himself to resurrect Cat, telling Brienne:
"Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life ed from him to her. And... she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.”
There are two particularly interesting aspects to Stoneheart's resurrection. One is that Cat had been very much unrelated to the Lord of Light, as she instead followed the Faith of the Seven. And yet, R'hllor chose her for a reason, which suggests a higher, yet-to-be-revealed purpose than simple vengeance. Second is that Beric died, unlike Thoros. Given Thoros notes how long Cat had been dead, a difference to Beric's resurrections, then it meant a greater effort and a bigger trade: light for light, life for life.
How Lady Stoneheart Is Different To Catelyn Stark
Her Appearance & Personality Have Both Changed A Lot
Catelyn, like the rest of the Starks, is very much a decent, honorable person for the most part. She is somewhat cold, at least when it comes to her treatment of Jon Snow (whom she never warms to), and has a certain cunning too, but above all, she's loyal, loving, and protective of her family. Like most characters, she may not always do the right thing, but she's absolutely one of the characters we're supposed to root for.
Game of Thrones Secretly Showed Lady Stoneheart Would Never Work
One of Game of Thrones' biggest departures from George R.R. Martin's books was cutting Lady Stoneheart, but its adaptation of Catelyn Stark shows why.
Lady Stoneheart is a little more complicated. Her return finds her moving through the riverlands as the new leader of the Brotherhood without Banners, killing Freys, Lannisters, and Boltons as revenge and justice for the Red Wedding. Her actions are understandable, but take on a much darker tone: there's a bloodlust; she is a character who is driven by vengeance, to the point of it consuming her.
Her face... is marked by long scars and scratches, from where she tore at her own face in anguish after Robb Stark was killed in front of her (a horrifying detail that Game of Thrones omitted).
Stoneheart is also quite different in of appearance. She has a large scar on her throat, where it was cut open at the Red Wedding. Her face, too, is marked by long scars and scratches, from where she tore at her own face in anguish after Robb Stark was killed in front of her (a horrifying detail that Game of Thrones omitted). And she can barely speak, given the gash in her throat. Much of Cat has been lost in place of Stoneheart, making the name particularly apt.
What's Lady Stoneheart's Real Purpose In A Song Of Ice & Fire?
There Has To Be More To The Undead Catelyn Than Vengeance
So far, Lady Stoneheart's story has been about bringing justice to anyone involved in the Red Wedding, typically in brutal fashion, such as hanging them. That is going to reach its most extreme point in The Winds of Winter, with the resolution of what happens with Brienne and Jaime: Stoneheart has demanded that Brienne bring Jaime to her, and she may be obliging. It's possible she will try to have Jaime killed, or make a deal with him that leads to other Freys, Lannisters, and Boltons being murdered.
There is presumably more to her story; a reason she was brought back beyond simple vengeance.
Still, there is presumably more to her story; a reason she was brought back beyond simple vengeance. One of those is to show how death (and war) changes people. Resurrections are supposed to have a cost: Beric lost a little more of himself each time he was brought back, but we didn't know the character well enough to truly feel the impact of that. Similarly, Game of Thrones didn't explore it much with Jon, either. Stoneheart is by far the biggest and best example, then, of how a person comes back different, if an extreme one, and that magic always has a price.
The other factor in her return, and what her real arc may be, concerns her daughters: with Catelyn coming back, then her story has to directly intersect with at least one of Sansa or Arya, if not both. Of those, the clearest path forward would be with Arya, who herself is a character driven by revenge. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine Stoneheart serving as a warning of what Arya could become if she allows herself to continue being driven by vengeance, similar to the Hound in Game of Thrones season 8.
Lady Stoneheart In The Winds Of Winter Must Break A 24-Year Trend (& GRRM Rule) To Make Up For GOT Cutting Her
Game of Thrones did not resurrect Catelyn Stark like the A Song of Ice and Fire books did, but The Winds of Winter can more than make up for it.
Alternatively, Lady Stoneheart may sacrifice herself for Arya in some way, like Beric did at the Battle of Winterfell. Beric sacrificed himself for Arya, and given he dies to bring Cat back in the books, he is effectively her replacement by that point in the story. While the Long Night will presumably be quite different since there's no Night King in A Song of Ice and Fire, it could be that Stoneheart dies to save Arya, while perhaps at the same time helping teach her a valuable lesson and regaining more of her identity.
Why Game Of Thrones Cut Lady Stoneheart
Showrunners David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Had Their Reasons
Unfortunately for anyone hoping to see Lady Stoneheart in the show, Game of Thrones didn't include the character. Parts of her role may well have ended up with others, such as Beric and the Hound. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had their reasons for cutting her, which they explained in James Hibberd's book, Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series:
- Because of Jon Snow's resurrection, which they knew they'd have coming up. The showrunners wanted to keep their "powder dry" for that, rather than having too many resurrections and risk diminishing returns.
- A reason that's kept vague, because of where her story is headed and not wanting to spoil George R.R. Martin's plans, but is seemingly because of how things were diverging even at that point.
- Not wanting to bring Michelle Fairley back to Game of Thrones' cast as someone who is essentially a zombie that doesn't talk, after giving her such an iconic exit with the Red Wedding.
Those reasons are understandable, at least, and do explain why Stoneheart wasn't in Game of Thrones. Hopefully, The Winds of Winter will do justice to her story when it eventually releases.
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Game Of Thrones
10/10- Release Date
- 2011 - 2019-00-00
- Showrunner
- David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
- Directors
- David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff
Cast
Jon Snow
Isaac Hempstead WrightBrandon Bran Stark
WHERE TO WATCH
StreamingBUYBased on George R. R. Martin's ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, Game of Thrones is a fantasy drama set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos. It follows noble families like the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryen vying for control of the Iron Throne while a rising threat from the undead looms in the North. The series received significant critical success and amassed a loyal fan base due to its high production values, sprawling sets, iconic characters, and shocking twists.
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- Created by
- George R.R. Martin
- First TV Show
- Game Of Thrones
- Cast
- Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Graham McTavish, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Emma D'Arcy, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey
- TV Show(s)
- Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
Game of Thrones is a multimedia franchise created by George R.R. Martin. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, which lasted for eight seasons. After the incredibly divisive final season of Game of Thrones, the series was followed up by the prequel series House of the Dragon, which also received critical acclaim.
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