The 50 Best Game of Thrones Characters, Ranked
14. Lady Catelyn Stark
This stoic northern lady had the perfect combination of Stark nobility and Tully’s fighting spirit. Catelyn was a strong woman who fiercely loved her family and did everything she could to protect it. Michelle Fairley played a matriarch we respected, despite her outward hostility towards Jon Snow.
Unfortunately, Catelyn put trust in people who were less than trustworthy, namely Lord Petyr Baelish and Lord Walder Frey. She also had an interesting relationship with her son Robb. The two loved each other, but occasionally clashed over how best to handle his war effort. In the end, both of them made errors in judgment that led to the massacre at the Red Wedding.
Catelyn also carried around tremendous guilt for her behavior towards Jon Snow. She believed the gods were punishing her for reneging on a promise to love the boy if only he survived a disease he caught in infancy, a disease she indirectly wished on him in the first place. But we don’t hold that against her. She raised at least two Kings in the North, and her youngest daughter carried out the Stark family’s final revenge by slitting Lord Frey’s throat. Not a bad family legacy to leave behind.