Game of Thrones A-Z (13 page)

The death of Ned showed that the gloves were off in Westeros, and many other much-loved characters have suffered the same fate. However, none had the same impact, not even Ned Stark, as the bloodletting at the Red Wedding. The events are documented in the third book, 
A Storm
 
of Swords
, with many expecting it to be the final event of series three, as the producers are splitting book three into two seasons – series three and series four.

SPOILER:
When Catelyn Stark seals the deal with House Frey for her King in the North son, Robb, to gain an initiative in his war against the Lannisters, he is informed that one of the terms is a marriage pact between himself and Lord Walder Frey’s daughter. It’s a light moment in the series, with Robb resigned to the pact much to the amusement of his men. However, it kick-starts a devastating chain of events that leads to the slaughter of Catelyn and himself, as well as most of his 3,500 bannermen. Despite the marriage pact, when Lord Frey finds out Robb has wed behind his back, he begins plotting his revenge with Tywin Lannister. As a peace offering, Catelyn and Robb are invited to the wedding of Edmure Tully and Lord Frey’s daughter Roslin – an offer they can’t decline after already causing offence to one of their allies. The wedding is a raucous affair, but Robb is unaware that his bannermen are getting too drunk for what awaits them, and that the musicians are actually knights waiting to strike – and strike they do, butchering the North men. The rigged feast tents collapse and are then set on fire. Wounded by arrows, Robb’s life is finally ended with a knife to the heart by Roose Bolton (played by Irish actor Michael McElhatton) The Freys cut off Robb’s lifeless head and that of his direwolf, with the animal’s head then stitched on to Robb’s body as a mocking gesture about the slain King’s relationship with the creature. Lady Catelyn Stark’s throat is slit and she is thrown naked into a river.

Martin wrote the scene last while working on the third book because he knew it would be heartrending to write. It was inspired by the young King of Scotland James II, who was beheaded after he was invited to a castle under the promise of safe conduct. ‘[It was] the hardest to write,’ Martin said of the scene. ‘That was the most violent and difficult. And I’ve gotten a lot of mail from readers, many of them saying it was brilliant, but others saying they couldn’t read past that, and they were giving up on my book, it was too painful. But it’s supposed to be painful. It was painful to write, it should be painful to read, it should be a scene that rips your heart out, and fills you with terror and grief. That’s what I’m striving for.’

Martin told 
Empire
, ‘I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I’ve created, especially the viewpoint characters. When I’m writing from a character’s viewpoint, in essence I become that character; I share their thoughts, I see the world through their eyes and try to feel everything they feel. So when you share that bond with someone, even a fictional someone, it does become difficult to kill them. So that’s why the Red Wedding was so painful – and there are other painful things too. So it is difficult to kill off a viewpoint character in particular. But on the other hand, I love creating new characters, as you can tell by the number that I create.’

Richard Madden, who plays Robb Stark, told the
Baltimore Sun
 of his upcoming fate on screen, ‘I’m so psyched about that scene. It’s the most awesome cinematic scene. It’s really awesome. I’ve not read that far in the books.

I read season by season so I can keep surprising myself. I think that scene is something that’s going to be done so brilliantly. That’s something they’re just going to nail. I’ve had so much time to become this character. I’ve got a great deal of respect for and ownership of this character.’

RHAEGAR

For a man considered to have been a fine king, Rhaegar was the central figure in the successful rebellion against his father Aerys II, which brought down the Targaryen dynasty on the Iron Throne.

He is an intelligent person, and, if slightly withdrawn, much loved by people who know him, including, surprisingly, Ned Stark. He is a skilled fighter, but he is also known for his music talents, singing mournful songs on his harp and often reducing women to tears.

Cersei was awed by Rhaegar, and her father tried to marry her off to him, but Aerys, the Mad King, refused to allow it. He marries Elia Martell, and they have two children together. But at the Tourney at Harrenhal, he destroys everyone that would fight him, and, when he takes the winter rose crown for the Queen of Love and Beauty, he gives it to Lyanna Stark rather than his wife.

It is believed that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna, Ned’s sister and betrothed to Robert Baratheon, for unknown reasons, and this triggered Robert’s Rebellion.

Robert and Rhaegar have an epic fight at the Battle of the Trident, where a wounded Robert eventually strikes down the Targaryen with his hammer. Many believed he would have been a great king, and cannot believe that he sabotaged his potential with the kidnapping.

However, there is a strong theory that the two were actually in love, and that they had a baby, which turned out to be Jon Snow. Robert’s hatred for Rhaegar would have put the boy in danger, so Ned agreed to pass him off as his bastard son.

S

SANSA STARK

The eldest daughter of Catelyn and Eddard Stark, Sansa’s journey from impressionable girl to hardened and cynical woman is one of the series’ high points. Delighted at the prospect of marrying the handsome Prince Joffrey, she heads to King’s Landing with her father and younger sister Arya.

During their journey, however, she sees the other side of her future husband – witnessing his cruel and vicious streak, as he taunts the travelling party’s butcher’s boy and attempts to strike Arya down before he is attacked by her direwolf. Forced to give her account of the incident in front of her father and Joffrey’s family, she pleads ignorance, claiming she didn’t see anything.

Upon learning of her father’s supposed betrayal of the throne and forced to publicly denounce him as a traitor, she begs for mercy, and is seemingly given this by Joffrey, now King. However, Ned’s reluctant confession to ensure the safety of his daughters is ultimately rejected by the young King, who to the shock of Sansa orders him beheaded.

After her father’s death, she is summoned to see Joffrey, who gleefully shows her the severed head of her father in order to keep her in line. She composes herself, refusing to let him see her in distress. It’s this inner strength that we see constantly during series two, as she is desperate to keep any feelings of hate and revenge secret, hidden deep within so as not to arouse any suspicion from prying eyes and ears in King’s Landing.

She is frequently punished and publicly assaulted and taunted by Joffrey, usually upon hearing news of another victory battle by her brother Robb, who is leading a North rebellion against the Kingdom. But the recently appointed Hand of the King, Tyrion Lannister, is fond of young Sansa and demands an end to the brutality she is dealt.

Following the Battle of the Blackwater, she is freed of her wedding commitment to Joffrey, who will now marry Margaery Tyrell.

SPOILER:
However, Sansa is forced to marry Tyrion, as part of a plan by Tywin to ensure he keeps her prisoner at King’s Landing. The pair marry and, although incredibly disgusted by their union, she thanks him for not bedding her on their wedding night. When King Joffrey is murdered, she is rescued by Littlefinger, who tells her that he murdered Joffrey. She flees with him, and poses as his daughter.

Sansa Stark is played by Sophie Turner. Born on 21 February 1996 in Northampton, she had never acted on screen until she starred as Sansa in the HBO fantasy TV series. However, Turner had known she wanted to be an actress for as long as she can remember – having joined local theatre group Playbox in Warwick when she was just three years old.

‘I always used to make up shows with my friends,’ she told 
winteriscoming.net
, ‘mainly with my close friend Ellie Johnson but she soon got tired of it. I would always be the most crazy, the most loud out of all my friends and I used to channel that energy into dressing up and putting on shows. It’s been a huge part of my life and without acting I would be lost.’

She was 13 when she auditioned for the role of Sansa after hearing about it from a drama teacher who had put her forward. Her drama teacher hadn’t expected it to lead anywhere – she just wanted her young pupil to experience an audition and meet people through the process.

One of those auditions involved the scene where she is shown her father’s decapitated head. Recalling the audition, she said, ‘In order to prepare for a scene as shocking and upsetting as that scene, I had to really remove myself from myself (if that makes sense) and be Sansa, not Sophie Turner acting Sansa, I had to be her. By doing this, it meant that, instead of Sophie seeing all these fake heads, Sansa was seeing all these real heads and so it all became a reality to me. I would often cry when I read the script for the scene because it was such a heartbreaking and horrific scene that it would really get to me.’

Constantly impressing the producers and George R. R. Martin, Turner finally found herself being screen tested with Maisie Williams – who would play her young sister Arya. They immediately high-fived and delivered an audition that sealed both of their lives on the show.

She said, ‘I definitely think that we improved one another’s performances because Maisie was and still is so good at what she does that I couldn’t help feeding off that “annoying little sister” energy that she brought through in her performance and I think she fed off my “annoying older sister” energy that I was giving off, so it just worked.

We had a lot of chemistry that I hadn’t had when I had auditioned with other Aryas. As soon as I entered the room and saw Maisie I gave her a high-five, asked her her name and we just clicked. After every take we would high-five each other and we gave each other a massive hug at the end, we were immediately friends.’

And Turner was certain Maisie would get the part. ‘After my final audition, and my first audition with Maisie, I felt absolutely sure that she was going to be Arya, there was no doubt in my mind. It wasn’t a matter of “Will Maisie get the part?” but “When will it be announced that Maisie has got the part?” I learnt that Maisie had got the part about two weeks after I found out that I had got the part via 
winteriscoming.net
 and I learnt that the lovely, talented Isaac [Hempstead-Wright] had got the part about two months after I learnt that I had got the part.’

Naturally, she felt nervous on her first day. ‘It was a big scene as well – the King’s arrival. And there’s Sean Bean. It was overwhelming, but it was amazing.’

During breaks on the set, she sits in the trailer and plays I-spy with her mother. ‘We point to Blu-Tack on the roof. It gets hideous. My mum has been an influence on me in the way that she is a very independent woman who never has to fall back or rely on other people and she can always find her own way. In the performing arts as a business, it is a very tough business, in which you have to learn to be independent and responsible very quickly and my mum taught me that from a very young age.’

There is a lot more to come from Sansa, and Sophie’s immediate future will be on 
Game of Thrones
. However, she is also looking beyond the series, stating, ‘I have to say that I am incredibly excited for my future, especially if it involves 
Game of Thrones
. I won’t mind the attention because I suppose it comes with being in a television show, especially if it is as big as 
Game of Thrones
! In the future, I don’t really know which roles I would like, I’d like any role and I would dedicate myself to that role, as I have with Sansa. I don’t tend to be fussy about the roles that I would like to be cast as, I really wouldn’t mind… I like variety.’

T

TYRION LANNISTER

Tyrion Lannister, or The Imp, as he’s also known, is the youngest child of Tywin Lannister. He is also known as a half-man, and he possesses a caustic wit, sharp intelligence and a self-deprecating manner used to deflect abuse about his height.

He has also had to rely on a tough skin. Despite his family name, Tyrion is sometimes met with ridicule, and his father has always been unkind to him – blaming him for the death of his beloved wife, Joanna, who died giving birth to him.

His sister Cersei also shares the same contempt for him, while his brother Jaime is the only one who shows him warmth. At 13, he and Jaime rescued a woman from a band of rapists, and Tyrion fell madly in love with her. To his shock and surprise, their feelings were mutual, and he and Tysha were married in secret.

When Tywin finds out, he makes up a story, forcing Jaime to go along with it, telling Tyrion that Tysha is a prostitute and Jaime made up the rape ruse just so Tyrion would finally get to sleep with someone. Tywin promptly has his entire guard rape her in front of Tyrion, making his son go last.

SPOILER:
After he is made acting Hand of the King, following the events that led to Ned Stark’s beheading, and showing good strategy skills, Tyrion shows considerable promise in taking out large portions of Stannis’ army during his planned invasion of the King’s Landing. But he is wounded by a member of the Kingsguard, and passes out. He later discovers that his father is seen as the saviour and he’s now been demoted to Master of Coin. Tyrion is forced to marry Sansa Stark by his father, but refuses to consummate the marriage. Soon after, Tyrion is wrongly accused of the murder of King Joffrey, his nephew. He is condemned to death, but is rescued by his brother Jaime. During their escape, Jaime finally tells his brother the truth about Tysha – that she loved him and she wasn’t a prostitute but a peasant girl. Tyrion is furious with Jaime and abandons him. He discovers one of the tunnels underneath King’s Landing that leads to his father’s room, where he promptly murders him. He flees across the Narrow Sea, with Cersei offering a bounty for her brother. During his journeys, he learns of a woman possessing dragons.