In game of ThronesMarriage for love is rare, as it is seen as a dereliction of duty, such as the romance between Jon Snow and Ygritte. Unlike Snow, who put his duty above love and returned to Castle Black, Richard Madden’s Robb Stark chose his love for Talisa and dishonored the Freys by breaking the marriage bond.
This ultimately contributes to his tragic downfall, with his mother Catelyn, his wife Talisa, and Stark himself meeting a brutal end at the Red Wedding that fans are still not over.
Fans still can’t get over Robb Stark’s tragic end
To this day, the dramatic heights of Red Wedding remain untouched, which left fans and Talisa’s actress Oona Chaplin heartbroken. Although over a decade has passed since the episode premiered, fans are still not over the tragic ending of Robb, whose downfall stemmed from his meeting with Talisa. His decision to choose love over his marriage pact with the Freys laid the groundwork for his inevitable downfall by causing irreparable damage to his alliance with the Freys.
Although this was not the only factor that contributed to his end, it can all be traced back to his first encounter with Talisa after the Battle of Oxcross, where Robb fell in love with her.
With House of the Dragon Season 3 will deal with the open war between the two houses. It will be interesting to see if the show can reach the dramatic heights of Red Wedding.
The director had to intervene to comfort Oona Chaplin during Red Wedding
Not only was the episode difficult for viewers to understand, but Oona Chaplin was also overwhelmed during filming. Given that Talisa Maegyr had the potential to be a great queen, it was too much for fans to bear that Maegyr and her unborn child were the first to be executed. After the horror of the heinous event, Robb goes into shock and is eventually brutally killed by Richard Madden.
Chaplin recalled that she could not hold back her tears during filming and the director had to step in to console her. She told Entertainment Weekly:
I actually cried when I was dead. The director had to come over: Oona, you have to stop crying, dead people don’t cry. You’re dead, just be dead.
While Talisa’s counterpart Jeyne Westerling was neither present at the wedding nor pregnant in the novel, this change added even more dramatic weight to the already heartbreaking story.
game of Thrones is available to stream on Max.
