Even though it ended five years ago, to this day, people still talk about Game of Thrones’ most gruesome deaths and shocking moments. From the Battle of the Bastards to the death of Ned Stark to so much more, countless scenes have taken viewers’ breath away or made them exceptionally stressed and/or angry. So, on that topic, George R.R. Martin revealed the moment from the show’s source material that left fans throwing their books away, and let’s just say that when I watched the same scene, I wanted to chuck my TV too.
I’m, of course, talking about The Red Wedding – a GOT moment that truly still shocks most people even though the book it’s in was released in 2000 and the episode that featured it aired over a decade ago. In both the show and the books, the absolute massacre of the Starks took fans by surprise and left them screaming, crying and maybe even throwing up. According to Geroge R.R. Martin, this sequence made readers throw their books too, as he told Rolling Stone in 2014:
In 2000, when the book came out, I got tons of letters from people: ‘I’m so angry with you – I’m never going to read your work again. I threw the book into the fire, then a week later I had to know what happens, so I went out and bought another copy.’ Some people were so horrified that they said they will not read any more of my work. I understand that.
In A Storm of Swords, Robb and Catelyn Stark along with many of their soldiers are murdered. It’s an absolutely gruesome scene, and thankfully, Martin understands just how horrific it is, and he even had a hard time writing it.
He noted that in the same interview, explaining that this infamous moment was something he avoided, because it was hard for him to kill off such beloved characters. However, he knew it had to be done:
The more I write about a character, the more affection I feel…even for the worst of them. Which doesn’t mean I won’t kill them. Whoever it was who said ‘Kill your darlings’ was referring to his favorite lines in a story, but it’s just as true for characters. The moment the reader begins to believe that a character is protected by the magical cloak of authorial immunity, tension goes out the window. The Red Wedding was tremendously hard to write. I skipped over it until I finished the entirety of A Storm of Swords, then I went back and forced myself to write that chapter. I loved those characters too much. But I knew it had to be done.
While I haven’t read the books, I distinctly remember watching the Red Wedding, being so upset, and understanding the value it added to the story. It caused a massive shift in the show, and it totally changed the trajectory of the Stark family as the two running it were brutally killed.
In terms of the show, Season 3, Episode 9 – “The Rains of Castamere” – has gone down as one of the episodes of Game of Thrones with the most meaningful deaths and it’s remembered as one of the most disturbing and jarring moments in the whole show. In fact, Martin thinks the scene is “worse” in the series than it is in the books, and he explained why, saying:
The TV Red Wedding is even worse than the book, of course, because [GoT creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] turned it up to 11 by bringing in Talisa, pregnant with Robb’s child, none of which happened in the book. So we get a pregnant woman stabbed repeatedly in the belly.
Not only were Robb and Catelyn killed – marking painful deaths and the departure of two beloved Game of Thrones cast members (Richard Madden and Michelle Fairley) – Robb’s wife and child were also taken out in a brutal fashion. Overall, it’s a remarkable, unforgettable and brutal scene that left me and so many who watched the scene in shock.
So, yeah, I get why it was this moment that caused Game of Thrones readers to throw their books across the room; I would have too. Now, to go back and watch this infamous and legendary sequence from the fantasy series, you can stream GOT with a Max subscription.