If you have no idea who or what Lady Stoneheart is in regards to HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” have finished watching the series, AND have no intention of ever reading George R. R. Martin‘s novels, you can proceed with reading this piece.
If, you care about spoilers in both the series and the books….
You should probably read something else. We’re giving you fair warning thar be spoilers here.
Seriously. You don’t get to complain if you keep reading.
Hoookay. So. In GRRM’s books, a vengeful spirit is resurrected after the Red Wedding by Thoros of Myr, and bombs around with the Brotherhood without Banners (led by Beric Dondarrion) for awhile. Wrecking havoc on those who deserve it, and a pair who don’t really, but that’s besides the point.
She is the ghost of the North, Lady Stoneheart- Lady Catelyn Stark.
We knew for a long time that David Benioff and BD Weiss weren’t going to be including the character in her respective season of the show, which irked many fans. Such an amazing twist (like finding out Theon was Reek after almost an entire book rather than OH HI I’M ACTUALLY THEON) that would’ve helped possibly propel the later disappointing seasons.
The reason for this? Why, Benioff and Weiss thought if you saw Catelyn come back as Lady Stoneheart after the Red Wedding, you wouldn’t be impacted enough by Jon Snow’s murder and subsequent resurrection.
As the pair told Entertainment Weekly:
“Part of the reason we didn’t want to put it in had to do with things coming up in George’s books that we don’t want to spoil [by discussing them], We knew we had Jon Snow’s resurrection coming up. Too many resurrections start to diminish the impact of characters dying. We wanted to keep our powder dry for that. Catelyn’s last moment was so fantastic, and Michelle [Fairley] is such a great actress, to bring her back as a zombie who doesn’t speak felt like diminishing returns.”
This is upsetting, and just goes back to the point that the writers, showrunners felt their audience was fucking stupid. Here’s a raven for you gents- we’re not. And now, we’re even more pissed off because of COURSE we knew Jon was coming back, whether we’d already seen other characters (Dondarrion, The Mountain, hello?!) or not. So you seriously decided to leave out one of the coolest things for Catelyn, because you didn’t think the impact of Jon later on would be as strong?
I’m angry all over again now.
I guess if you want, pick up the giant “Game of Thrones” box set and subject yourself to a nice hate rewatch.
