The Red Wedding changed TV forever — and Game of Thrones never topped it

Whether you watched Game of Thrones as it aired, or you ended up catching up at some point, the Red Wedding was that one moment everyone just dropped what they were doing and stared at the screen. It changed TV forever, and it was a moment that the series (and arguably no other TV show) was able to capture again.

If you haven’t actually watched Game of Thrones and don’t know about the Red Wedding, please go watch it first. This is one of those TV shockers that you need to see without spoilers as much as possible. However, this is also one of those iconic moments that won't be ruined if you know some of the spoilers, since you still won't quite understand the way it changed the show or the whole of TV. I just think it’s better going in without knowing anything.

The Red Wedding built on the Game of Thrones season 1 finale

The Red Wedding was one of those important scenes that was built up from the previous two seasons. It wouldn’t have worked had it happened in the first season. It needed Ned Stark’s death in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season 1 to set up the devastation that Walder Frey's brutal coup would cause to the Stark family and to the North as a whole.

This sort of payoff is what the first five seasons did so well, and that’s because they had the great source material to work with. The seasons built up one by one, taking us on a wild journey that we just couldn’t predict.

After all, who really thought that Ned Stark was going to be executed? That just doesn’t happen to a main character, and here we had him being publicly executed, despite a deal already being made to save him. It was ruthless, but it just set the stage for worse moments to come. That built up to the Red Wedding, as we realized the type of subtle power the Lannisters held.

Nobody expected the entire wedding to play out the way it did

Okay, so, book fans knew exactly what to expect: Walder Frey murdering Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn after luring them to the Twins for Edmure Tully's wedding. It was already a well-known scene from the books, and many readers watched Game of Thrones season 3 eagerly waiting for the show-first fans to get a glimpse into the wild mind of George R.R. Martin.

I guess, if you’re also a fan of history, then you would have expected it. I have loved English history for decades, and once I saw it was the inspiration for Game of Thrones, I had an idea of the way that the Red Wedding could have gone. My question was whether the show was willing to do something that just hadn’t been done on television.

You see, in the world of TV, the good guys have to win. We do eventually see that in Game of Thrones, and in a way, I think that what makes the ending a little weaker. The benefit of the Red Wedding is that it zigs when most people would expect it to zag. The good guys don’t win, and they have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

We go all the way back to the deal that Catelyn Stark made, for her son Robb to marry a daughter of Walder Frey. Robb broke his word by marrying Talisa Maegyr, and there had to be consequences for that. Now, in a lot of shows, those consequences would be a small fight or a few people turning their backs, but Game of Thrones decimated the Stark family in one moment.

While there were certainly clues to what was going to happen, nothing quite prepared us for the shocking moments of death and destruction. “The Lannisters send their regards,” will always stick out as one of those lines that brings devastation. The world of TV was flipped on its head, and it left us wondering what could possibly happen next? How was the side of good ever going to rebuild?

Game of Thrones lost its surprise element after the Red Wedding

Sadly, nothing topped the Red Wedding. Sure, there were other moments that we looked forward to, such as the Purple Wedding, but none had the same gravitas. Nothing had that shock factor, with multiple characters on one side losing their lives and that sense that the fight was over.

There was a visual artistic element to the Red Wedding, as well. You see, Talisa Stark could have been stabbed in the back, or could have immediately had her throat cut, but the show went for the visceral image of stabbing her multiple times in her pregnant belly, indicating that the Boltons and Lannisters wanted to rid the world of future Starks at the same time.

While Robb was hit by multiple arrows, it’s Roose Bolton’s dagger that kills him, stabbing him through his heart. It was his heart that had caused the massacre in the first place, and Roose was highlighting that with the final action.

Then there was Catelyn Stark’s death, where her throat was slashed in the final shot of the episode. Catelyn had been able to use her words to help negotiate deals. This act silenced her. In the books, this plays a part in her later arc, but for the show it was still an arresting way for her to go.

Let’s not overlook the events going on outside, where Robb's direwolf Grey Wind frantically tried to get out of his cage, only to be killed while he was still trapped inside it. There’s the desecration of the bodies, and all Arya can do is watch from a distance, with the Hound keeping her protected to make sure nobody knows she’s there. It marked pain and loss, as we all wondered what was going to come next.

And yet, nothing was able to deliver in the way the Red Wedding did. Game of Thrones tried with the death of Jon Snow, but even then, we knew that with all the buildup, his death couldn’t be the end. There was an attempt with the Battle of the Bastards as well, but by that point, the Starks needed a win, otherwise the show wasn’t worth watching. The Red Wedding was simply the only time that something like this could happen, subverting the regular form of storytelling and leaving us devastated, confused, and scared to see how the story would play out.

Let’s be honest, it was the peak of not just Game of Thrones, but of TV as a whole.

Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO Max. The next series in the franchise, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, premieres January 18, 2026.