14 DAY TRIAL // This Sunday, “Game of Thrones” fans had the shock of a lifetime when several leading characters met a very untimely demise on episode 9 of season 3 of the HBO series, “The Rains of Castamere.” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, author George R.R. Martin sheds some light on the shocking scene.
For starters, memes like the one attached to this article are not accurate, no matter how much of a hit they are with fans of the series.
Writing the Red Wedding scene on which the aforementioned episode was based was not easy, and neither was it particularly satisfactory, Martin says.
*Fans who have not seen the episode yet are encouraged not to read any further than this – major spoilers ahead.
However, it was necessary: Martin aims to avoid predictability in his work and he knew from the start that killing Ned Stark (another unpleasant surprise for fans) would mean that readers would start rooting for Robb, his son.
“I killed Ned because everybody thinks he’s the hero and that, sure, he’s going to get into trouble, but then he’ll somehow get out of it. The next predictable thing is to think his eldest son is going to rise up and avenge his father. And everybody is going to expect that. So immediately [killing Robb] became the next thing I had to do,” he says.
Martin might make it sound like he derives pleasure from killing his most popular characters, but he is actually more hurt than any reader at having to take such action.
For instance, with the Red Wedding, he describes it as the hardest scene he ever had to write.
“The entire book was done and there was still that one chapter left. Then I wrote it. It was like murdering two of your children. I try to make the readers feel they’ve lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it’s a superficial experience isn’t it?” Martin asks.
In the same interview, he explains that he was inspired by similar events in history for the Red Wedding. Please refer here to see it in full.