[Red Wedding — Lore]
The events of the Red Wedding effectively end the conflict between House Stark and House Lannister in a decisive victory for the Lannisters and King Joffrey Baratheon . Not only was Robb himself killed in the betrayal, but the entire Northern army that Robb led to southern Westeros was also destroyed; save only for those forces of House Karstark , which had earlier abandoned Robb to return home after he executed Rickard Karstark , and the forces of House Bolton and their bannermen which turned on the other Northern Houses. For his part in the betrayal, Lord Frey was granted the castle of Riverrun and promised Lannister protection from any northern retaliation. Lord Walder had his men capture Edmure out of his marriage bed alive, as Riverrun had not yet fallen to Lannister forces and Edmure was a valuable hostage to hopefully negotiate its surrender in the near future. Roose Bolton, for his part in the Red Wedding, is awarded the title of Warden of the North , drastically elevating his House's stature. The Boltons are also granted the lands of Winterfell itself.
The very morning after escaping the Twins, Arya and Sandor stumble upon a group of Frey soldiers, where one of them mockingly intimidates her mother's cries and boasts over his role in desecrating her brother's corpse, to which Arya immediately comes over and kills the very soldier, while Sandor kills of the rest. After her training with the Faceless Men , Arya goes to the Twins and assassinates Walder Frey and his sons Black Walder and Lothar , for their roles in the Red Wedding and the deaths of her mother, brother, and pregnant sister-in-law. She also murders the entire male Frey household, effectively fully avenging the Red Wedding. Arya tells Walder’s latest wife, "When people ask what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey."
Michelle Fairley had not read the A Song of Ice and Fire novels before working on the show, but was told almost immediately after filming of the first season began by other actors who had that her character would die in the Red Wedding. Author George R.R. Martin revealed that he was hoping to play one of the casualties at the Twins, but his schedule prevented him. He also felt that his presence would distract viewers from such a powerful scene.
The Red Wedding plays out somewhat differently in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. To begin with, most of Robb's leading bannermen, prominent members of other major Houses from the North, are killed in the betrayal. Many of these were secondary or tertiary recurring characters such as Dacey Mormont, Lucas Blackwood, and Wendel Manderly, who had become regular fixtures in chapters focusing on the Stark storyline, but could not realistically have all been fit into the limited running time of the TV series. Almost every major noble House in the North loses at least one immediate family member in the massacre. Thus, the impact of the massacre is even deeper in the book narrative, since many established characters besides Robb and Catelyn are also killed.
Theon unwittingly serves as a catalyst of the Red Wedding: while lying injured at the Crag , Robb is devastated to hear from Ser Rodrik Cassel about the alleged murder of his brothers ; Jeyne Westerling (Talisa's analogous character in the novels) "comforts" him at bed; the next morning, Robb feels honor-bound to marry her, thus breaching the pact with the Freys. Later it is revealed the Westerlings (except Jeyne's brother Raynald) have collaborated with the Lannisters.
As author George R.R. Martin has repeatedly said, he refused to plot out the books down to the slightest detail before he began, and if writers can be categorized into "architects" who plan out everything in advance, or "gardeners" who assemble a general plan for where things are planted but then lets them grow on their own, Martin definitely considers himself a gardener. Even so, he did establish a general outline which planned out the largest plot points and most important character deaths before the first novel was even published. Like the execution of Ned Stark at the end of the first novel, Martin always planned that Robb Stark and his entire army would be killed at the Red Wedding, as it was one of the most pivotal events in the entire storyline, concluding the Stark-Lannister war while setting new plotlines into motion.
Greatjon Umber was present at the Red Wedding in the books, but Clive Mantle , who played him in Season 1, was unable to reappear for Season 2 or Season 3. In the epilogue of A Storm of Swords' , it is revealed Greatjon does not die at the Red Wedding, but is taken prisoner. Several Freys enter into drinking contests with Greatjon to try to incapacitate him when the fighting started, but he drinks them all under the table, and is still able to put up a significant fight. It takes eight men to subdue Greatjon, and even so he manages to kill one assailant, seriously wound two more, and bite half the ear off another. However, Greatjon's son Smalljon Umber is decapitated by Bolton men.
The Greatjon is the only head of a noble House from the North present in the Twins at the time, which is why the Lannisters wanted him taken alive as a valuable political hostage. The heads of three other major Houses are not present for the wedding: Maege Mormont , Galbart Glover , and Jason Mallister . Robb had sent the three to treat with the crannogmen of House Reed to coordinate their plan to retake Moat Cailin from the ironborn and carry a letter naming Robb's heir - as Jeyne Westerling is not known to be pregnant at the time. Lord Jason left the party to reinforce his home castle at Seagard . Lord Jason's son and heir Patrek Mallister is present at the Red Wedding. The whereabouts of Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover, like Howland Reed , remain unknown.
Talisa is the first to die in the episode, but her book counterpart Jeyne Westerling is also not present at the Red Wedding, having been left behind at the safety of Riverrun with Brynden. Further, Jeyne is not pregnant in the novels; her mother Sybell Spicer makes sure of that (presumably by giving her daughter Moon tea). According to Richard Madden (Robb Stark), the reason that the TV series has Jeyne/Talisa die at the Red Wedding is because they didn't want the audience to harbor any romantic illusions about her escaping to give birth to Robb's child, who would one day dramatically return to avenge his death. This is one of the fantasy stereotypes that George R.R. Martin himself set out to deconstruct with the series, i.e. the assumption that Robb would live to dramatically avenge his father Ned's death. The TV series wanted to make it clear with the Red Wedding that Robb isn't going to live to avenge his father, nor is Robb's child going to live to avenge him. As Madden said, "I think it was important for her to die because it's a full stop to that train, the story of that army. I think if there was anything left... I think it's more tragic that there's nothing left over from it. There's no possibility that Talisa's in hiding, and she's going to have a baby, and one day that baby will take over as King in the North. I think there's something tragic about it all being cut short instantly."
Another minor change is that while Arya did arrive at the Twins as the Red Wedding was taking place, the betrayal began slightly before she arrived and fighting was already breaking out in the camps. Arya thus never got close enough to personally witness the death of Grey Wind or her brother's mutilated corpse. In both versions, however, Arya still wants to rush into the castle to try to save her family, but the Hound knocks her unconscious to prevent her from trying - saving her life in the process, as he realized any attempt to intervene at this point was suicidal. In the books, he rides her down on horseback and hits her in the back of the head with the blunt end of a longaxe. The chapter ends with Arya being hit with the axe, and Arya's survival is not revealed to the reader until much later in the book.
As a side-effect of the Red Wedding, although no other house has repeated the breaking of the right, it has left a more lasting stain on the ancient guest right, with safety and security in a strange castle no longer being considered guaranteed.
When Davos arrives at the court of lord Wyman Manderly , one of the attending Freys, Ser Jared, tells the Freys' version of the Red Wedding: " The Red Wedding was the Young Wolf's work. He changed into a beast before our eyes and tore out the throat of my cousin Jinglebell, a harmless simpleton. He would have slain my lord father too, if Wendel had not put himself in the way ." Davos is shocked at the enormity of the lie, which Lord Manderly seems to believe. Jared continues to lie, claiming brazenly that Robb murdered Wendel " And many more. Mine own son Tytos was amongst them, and my daughter's husband. When Stark changed into a wolf, his northmen did the same. The mark of the beast was on them all. Wargs birth other wargs with a bite, it is well-known. It was all my brothers and I could do to put them down before they slew us all ."
The Boltons are revealed as turncoats when they assist House Frey in the massacre known as the Red Wedding . As a reward for their betrayal, Tywin appoints Roose as the new Warden of the North as well as the new Lord of Winterfell .