5 things nobody wants to admit about Game of Thrones

Robb Stark kind of deserved to get betrayed at the Red Wedding

Our next point of discussion pains me to write, but I'm going to do it anyway. Robb Stark, the Young Wolf, was a heroic Thrones character who united the Northern houses in a war against the Lannisters after his father was taken prisoner. But we don't really remember him for that; we remember him for the horrifying death that he, his wife Talisa and his mother Catelyn Stark suffered at the hands of the Freys in season 3.

Known as the Red Wedding, this traumatic event bonds all Game of Thrones fans. To this day it remains one of the most tragic reading experiences I've ever had, and the television show captured it perfectly. When the Freys turn on Robb, you're terrified and outraged. This fantasy world is so unfair. Why do heroes like Robb Stark always end up brutally murdered?

Well, because Westeros is peopled with realistically terrible people, and those willing to bend their morals to fit the system are usually more likely to succeed than those who stick strictly to their ideals. Or so Game of Thrones would have us believe, at least in its early seasons.

Yet for as terrible as the death of Robb Stark was...it was also warranted in its own way. I'm not saying he deserved such a horrible death, with his wife and mother murdered around him. But did he deserve to be betrayed by the Freys in some way? Yeah. Yeah, he did.

This is something that George R.R. Martin makes relatively explicit in his novels. The impetus for the Red Wedding is that early in the war, Catelyn enters Robb into a betrothal pact with House Frey so that he can cross through their fortress and secure a crucial victory. However, Robb then marries someone else in secret, and backs out of the deal with the Freys.

In the books, this is painted as two warring obligations forcing Robb to make a bad decision. He sleeps with a young woman from a noble house named Jeyne Westerling, and rather than dishonor her, he marries her. He lets his idealism guide him to keep Jeyne's honor intact, and subsequently slights a powerful house whose support he needs because he wasn't thinking clearly of the bigger picture, which leads to a lot of people dying.

The show makes Robb's motives even more selfish, because he marries Talisa out of love. There's no idealogical conflict for television Robb Stark; he simply meets someone else and then throws a solemn vow made in his name out the window. Is it any wonder the Freys were angry?

I wouldn't wish an awful death on Robb and Talisa, certainly not being stabbed to death at dinner. But it's pretty understandable that the prickly House Frey would turn their back on him after he proved to them he couldn't be counted on to keep his word.

That's the thing about Westeros. You never know who's a good guy, and whose decisions will lead those around them to ruin: