"Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers: Robb Stark, death, and the Red Wedding edition. But first a moment of silence in memory of Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn Stark, and all the brave Stark and Tully bannermen who died along with them. Take a moment now to reflect and remember on the trials and tribulations of the first King in the North in three hundred years. Then wait and hope that someday, somehow, Arya Stark will avenge what she just saw. [UPDATED: HBO has released two long Inside the Episode featurettes about the Red Wedding. I'm warning you, it's rough to watch, but rewarding]
Okay, now back to analyzing the "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers and the Robb Stark death scene. This is the big one. This is what book fans have been waiting for, honestly, since the series first got greenlit. The one event (so far) that tops the death of Ned Stark. The Red Wedding. And now we've all seen it. An adventure 65 million three years in the making. The Red Wedding.
I will spare you the gory details in case you haven't watched it yet, so let's talk about a slightly different kind of "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers: how and why the Robb Stark death went down. First of all, this event is called - both in Westeros and by fans - the Red Wedding. For obvious reasons.
The Red Wedding and the Robb Stark death, the biggest "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers you'll ever get, weren't simply caused by Walder Frey's anger at Robb for breaking the marriage pact. That was a real part of the reason - the Freys have a generations-long inferiority complex, and marrying the head of one of the Great Houses would have helped their standing. The betrayal stung.
But there's more to these "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers; the Robb Stark death couldn't have happened without Tywin Lannister. Walder Frey wouldn't dare to break guest right and kill Robb Stark without protection. And Tywin provided it; the whole thing was his idea. You can even hear him suggest it.
In fact, in the best-hidden "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers of the season, we even see Tywin sign the letter authorizing the Red Wedding. Like Tywin says, he is doing whatever he can. And he can do a very great deal. That long lingering shot of him pressing the royal seal onto the letter? That sealed Robb Stark's fate. And it offered Walder Frey a deal to outweigh the enmity of every house in the Seven Kingdoms: supreme overlordship of the Riverlands, and a new role as a Great House.
But House Frey weren't the only troublemakers involved in these "Game of Thrones" season spoilers and the Robb Stark death: House Bolton had just as much to do with it. And they betrayed Robb for the same reason: because Tywin Lannister offered them protection, and supreme overlordship of their region, in this case the North. And they legitimized a fellow named Ramsay Bolton, née Snow, whom you may remember. Now he's Roose Bolton's heir, and Roose is the Warden of the North. Great.
Roose Bolton didn't have as good of a reason as Walder Frey to engage in such vile "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers, but he helped orchestrate the Robb Stark death nonetheless. The Boltons and the Starks have been rivals for going on 8,000 years, and Bolton has always been rather nefarious.
And so it goes. "Game of Thrones" season 3 spoilers move on, whether we like it or not. But because of the Robb Stark death, the Catelyn Stark death, it moves on without the Starks.
