[Red Wedding — Lore]
Jon survives the injuries inflicted by Ygritte and has largely recovered, though he still grimaces while getting dressed. At some point, Jon has been told about his half-brother Robb's death at the Red Wedding and wanting vengeance for his family, but decides to stay at the wall. He shares with Sam that he had always been jealous of Robb for having more of their father's affection and for being better than him at riding, fighting, and winning the affection of other girls. Still, he says he could never bring himself to hate Robb, as he was also always a good friend and honorable person. Sam responds by saying he has felt the same way about Jon, that Jon is better than him at everything (except reading).
Some time later, the surviving heads of all the Northern vassal Houses convene in Winterfell's great hall, along with the lords of the Vale who came to their rescue with their large army (such as Yohn Royce and Littlefinger). They debate what to do next. Lyanna Mormont rises and shames those who did not join Jon and Sansa to help defeat Ramsay. She reiterates that the North knows no king but the King in the North , whose name is "Stark." Lyanna continues by saying that Jon may be a bastard but she doesn't care and he is a Stark to her. She hails Jon as the new King in the North. Wyman Manderly , whose son Wendel was killed at the Red Wedding, also rises to apologize, saying he didn't send aid before because he didn't want to send his men to die for nothing, but now Jon has avenged the Red Wedding.
Unbeknownst to Jon, late in the third novel Robb names him as his heir: since Jeyne Westerling has not given him heirs yet, Bran and Rickon are reported as dead, Arya is missing, and Sansa was forced to marry Tyrion - the Lannisters could lay claim to the North. Robb realizes that he needs to name a new heir, because if he dies there will be no obvious successor to challenge the Lannister's claim through Sansa, and decides Jon is the best choice - given that Robb is a king, he can simply issue a decree legitimizing Jon. Catelyn pleads with Robb not to choose Jon, and instead pick a very distant cousin from House Royce , but Robb does not listen to her. He signs the decree in the presence of several of his northern lords as witnesses. However, it is unknown what has become of the decree, as it is no longer mentioned in the books. It is speculated that Robb has given it to Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover , whom he sent on a mission to seek out Howland Reed (therefore they do not attend the Red Wedding), but their current location is unknown. So far in the books, Jon has not received the decree, and has no idea of its existence.
After his marriage, Tyrion starts bonding with Sansa and lightly enhances his relationship with her, making crude jokes in an attempt to cheer each other. The two discuss how they would punish social enemies, rather than the harsh reality of political ones. Both Shae and Tyrion silently remark on Sansa's innocence when it comes to vulgar language, until he is called away when Tywin calls a meeting of the Small Council where Joffrey happily informs him that Robb and Catelyn Stark have both been murdered at the Red Wedding by Walder Frey . He orders Grand Maester Pycelle to thank Frey and command him to send Robb Stark's head, which he will serve to Sansa at his wedding, fulfilling an earlier promise to her. However, Tyrion threatens him yet again before Pycelle can send any messages to the Twins . After the end of the meeting, Tywin and Tyrion discuss the details of what consequences the Red Wedding might have on the war. Tyrion knows that Walder Frey will receive all the credit for the massacre, but also the blame, and correctly deduces that Tywin is the true mastermind behind the Wedding, much to his displeasure. Tywin tells him that Roose Bolton is Warden of the North until he impregnates Sansa Stark, but Tyrion assures him that he can't and won't do it even forcefully. Tywin lectures Tyrion on protecting family legacy and that the house that puts family first will always prevail over the family the fulfills the wishes of its sons and daughters first.
Sandor mounts his horse with her, and picks up a Frey banner for their safety as he tries to slip away through the chaos. They both witness Frey and Bolton soldiers parading her brother 's mutilated corpse, with the head of Grey Wind attached to her brother's body. Arya and Sandor then flee the castle on horseback while the Stark army is massacred during the Red Wedding .
After killing Lord Walder, Arya uses his face to impersonate him and hold a feast in honor of all of his sons. She gives a rousing speech, "reminiscing" over House Frey's victories, before offering her audience a toast of poisoned wine. As Walder's many sons drink from their chalices, Arya refuses to let any of the women partake, aware of their innocence. She then elicits cheers from the many Frey sons upon the mention of the infamous Red Wedding, though then goes on to subtly mock them by reminding them of how they butchered a pregnant woman, cut the throat of a mother of five, and slaughtered the Starks after inviting them into their home. As the Frey sons begin to cough up blood from the poison, Arya watches with satisfaction as they all die before removing her mask and revealing herself. Before leaving, she asks Walder's wife, Kitty Frey , to tell anyone that might ask what happened that "the north remembers", and remarks that winter has come for House Frey.
The group stops at High Heart where a woods witch known as the Ghost of High Heart looks at Arya closely (in the show she is replaced with Melisandre). She becomes frightened and whimpers: " I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death... you are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone! ." Arya wonders if the woman is mad. She also gives them other prophecies, among them about the Red Wedding and Catelyn's resurrection. When they move away from High Heart, Thoros looks in his flames and sees that Catelyn isn't at Riverrun and there is something dangerous happening that they don't understand. They plan to take Arya to Brynden Tully instead, at which point she angrily runs off, devastated that the Brotherhood prevented her from reaching Riverrun while he mother was still there.
Arya begins reciting the names of the first twelve people on her list while being taken to Harrenhal. Soon after she starts working there under Weese's supervision, she adds him, and this is the end of her list because he is beating her. Sometimes she says the phrase "Valar Morghulis", which she learned from Jaqen, along with her list. So far, four of the people are still alive, two (the Cleganes) are in uncertain status, and seven are confirmed dead. In the books, Melisandre never retrieved Gendry from the Brotherhood Without Banners, so the Red Woman, Beric, and Thoros aren't on the list. She also does not add "Walder Frey" to her list: rather, she states that she would have added "the Freys" to her list - any and all of them who took part in the Red Wedding - but she wasn't sure which ones specifically took part in it and which ones didn't.
Tyrion realizes how unhappy Sansa is with him and their marriage, and reassures her that they will not consummate it unless she wants to, even if that means never. The morning after the wedding, Shae is pleased to see that Sansa's bedsheets are unstained as it means that Sansa remains a virgin. Sansa and her new husband find themselves getting along rather well, sharing jokes and a common enemy in Joffrey. However, their cordial relationship suffers a crushing blow when Sansa receives news of the deaths of her mother and brother at the Red Wedding , an event orchestrated by Tyrion's father.
At the end of the wedding itself, Sansa comments bitterly that "we have a new queen." Tyrion encourages her to look on the bright side: at least she isn't Queen. Later, at the wedding feast, Olenna walks up to Sansa to offer her condolences over the Red Wedding and invites her to visit Highgarden sometime when things settle down. During the exchange, Olenna toys with Sansa's hair and Hollard's necklace in a grandmotherly fashion.
Sansa believes herself the last of the Starks, except for Jon, after hearing the news about the alleged deaths of Bran and Rickon and about the Red Wedding. Although she has no idea what has become of Arya, she presumes her dead, too.
On the night that Sansa and Ramsay wed, Theon is forced to give the bride away and watch as Ramsay proceeds to forcibly consummate their marriage. While all of this is happening, Theon wears a tunic identical to the one that Robb wore at the Red Wedding . Over the next few days, Ramsay continues to force himself on Sansa, who turns to Theon for help only to discover later on that he informed Ramsay of her escape plan. She demands an answer for his latest betrayal and coldly expresses approval when he tells her about the horrific tortures Ramsay put him through. Theon shamefully admits he deserves to be "Reek" and lists the many terrible things he did, the first of which was betraying Robb.
One of Robb's most serious mistakes is taking nearly all the armies of the North to the south, leaving the North scarcely defended - a very tempting target for the ironborn which they cannot resist. Sending Theon to the Iron Islands (against Catelyn's advice) is an additional mistake: the ironborn's invasion would have probably occurred in any case, as two facts strongly imply: the Iron Fleet is ready to sail when Theon arrives, and the frigid welcome he receives; however, Theon does what none of the other invaders would do - taking Winterfell, which is erroneous both strategically and logistically, as Asha (Yara's name in the books) explains him. Thus a chain of events is opened, and results in the Red Wedding.
Many disasters could have been prevented had Robb returned to the North as soon as he received reports about the ironborn's invasion: even if he had reached Winterfell too late to save his brothers, he'd still have had the Freys, Karstarks and Boltons on his side, wouldn't have met Jeyne Westerling, and the Red Wedding would have never occurred. In such a scenario, Robb might have lost all the lands he conquered and eventually found himself caught between the Lannisters and ironborn, but still it would have been much better position than how things turned to be.
In the novels, Theon's actions at Winterfell have a significantly greater effect on Robb's eventual downfall than in the show: the alleged murder of Bran and Rickon causes Robb to have sex with Jeyne Westerling out of grief; afterwards, Robb feels honor-bound to marry her, and thus he breaks the alliance with the Freys, setting into motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the Red Wedding. Moreover, the grief over Bran and Rickon causes Catelyn to release Robb's most important captive, and that rash act results in the loss of the Karstark troops, which makes Robb's position even worse. Thus Theon unwittingly serves as a catalyst of the Red Wedding, although he has no idea of it and it has never been his intention (very similarly to the way Ramsay unwittingly serves as a catalyst of the mutiny at Castle Black in the novels, by sending the Bastard Letter ).
In the Sept of Baelor at the Purple Wedding celebration, Joffrey and Margaery are wed. At the wedding feast, a band plays " The Rains of Castamere ," the song which was played at the Red Wedding as the signal for the massacre to begin; Joffrey throws money at them and tells them to go away. Later, Dontos Hollard performs in front of the royal family and Joffrey promises a gold dragon to whoever knocks Dontos's hat off, which leads to many objects being hurled at his head.
Meanwhile, Catelyn's uncle Brynden, who fortuitously escaped the Red Wedding, manages to retake Riverrun from the Freys, drawing both Brienne and Jaime there for opposite purposes. When Jaime parleys with the Blackfish, the latter quips that he assumes Jaime is there to fulfill his vow to Catelyn but he doesn't see her daughters. When their meeting goes nowhere, Jaime discreetly meets with Brienne upon her arrival, he allows her to negotiate with the Blackfish so that Brynden and his men can leave the castle at night to travel to Winterfell. Before she leaves, she points out that if she is unsuccessful, then she will be compelled by honor to Catelyn to fight against Jaime. Jaime voices his hope that it doesn't come to that. Afterwards, Jaime pays a visit to the captive Edmure, and the two of them reminisce about Catelyn. Jaime mentions how she once hit him on the head with a rock when he was her prisoner, prompting Edmure to laugh. Though she undoubtedly hated him, Jaime claims he didn't hate Catelyn, even going so far as to say he actually admired her more than Eddard or Robb. Still, Jaime is ultimately successful in helping the Freys retake Riverrun , which culminates in the death of the Blackfish.
Perhaps the most significant difference from the books to the TV series is Catelyn's fate after the Red Wedding. In A Storm of Swords , three days after her death - Catelyn's body is found by Nymeria who drags it out of the river, which is then found by the Brotherhood Without Banners. Harwin begs Thoros to revive her, but Thoros refuses, since it had been too long. Despite Thoros's objection, Beric Dondarrion then gives his own life to resurrect Catelyn; that proves to be a serious mistake.
Taking on the moniker Lady Stoneheart (also known as the Silent Sister, Mother Merciless, and the Hangwoman), Catelyn becomes the new leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Under her leadership, the Brotherhood falls low, to the point it is no longer different than any outlaw gang; its members even violate the sacred guest right . Rather than protect commoners, as they did when Beric was still alive, they hunt down and murder numerous members of House Frey out of revenge for the Red Wedding. As a result, many of the original members (among them Edric Dayne and Anguy ) abandon the Brotherhood. Thoros stays with the Brotherhood, though he strongly disapproves of what it has become.
Following a bloody encounter with Rorge's gang near the Inn at the Crossroads , Brienne, Pod and their companion Ser Hyle Hunt are taken captive by the Brotherhood; they unjustly accuse Brienne and Pod of serving the Lannisters, since Brienne carries a Lannister sword and Pod was Tyrion's squire. Brienne is shocked and sorrowful to see the monstrous creature that Catelyn turned to be; for a moment, she thinks she is caught in a nightmare. One of the attending people, Jeyne Heddle, comments that death and guest right don't mean much anymore since the Red Wedding.
Jaime and Brienne arrive at the gates of the Red Keep. At first, Jaime is apprehensive at the thought of being recognized in his current condition, but after a peasant bumps into Jaime and calls him a "country boy", Brienne smiles at Jaime, reassuring him. Her oath to Catelyn becomes more important than ever, following her death at the Red Wedding, and her discovery that Arya is not present at court, contrary to what Littlefinger previously told Catelyn.
Brienne, shocked to see the monster Catelyn turned into, tells her she was looking for Sansa, and that Jaime has changed; her words fall on deaf ears. Lady Stoneheart incorrectly believes that Jaime was involved in the Red Wedding, and gives Brienne a choice: "Take the sword and slay the Kingslayer, or be hanged for a betrayer." Brienne refuses to make the choice; Lady Stoneheart commands to hang them. As the ropes tighten, Brienne screams a word in order to save her companions.
Despite his love for killing people and being cynical, Sandor maintains certain limits regarding violence. He is seen horrified by the massacre commited at the Red Wedding, the way the Stark's army was brutally eliminated and how the Freys desecrated Robb Stark's corpse by cutting off his own head and replacing it with the head of his wolf Grey Wind.