It's a Bad Day for a Red Wedding

Note: I wanted to re-read the Red Wedding scene, but haven't gotten to it yet, and don't want to wait any longer to write this post.

Episode Nine of Season Three, Game of Thrones. SPOILER ALERT (show and books.)

I had been looking forward to it, but dreading it at the same time. The Red Wedding is brutal and devastating.

I've always liked Robb, though he was a shadowy figure in the book and not a point of view character. I enjoyed seeing more of his story in the show, but absolutely hated his love story with Talisa. This is one instance in which aging the characters makes some actions annoying at best, infuriating at worst.

The Red Wedding plotters didn't just murder Robb and Catlyn. They murdered as many of the Stark forces that they could. A poster on TWoP had a good point about this. We didn't see any of Robb's bannermen other than Greatjohn Umber (in Season One) and later Roose Bolton and Rickard Karstark. I would have loved to see one of the Mormont women (good counterpoint to Brienne) and a few others with a few lines in earlier episodes. It would have made the massacre even more poignant to recognize another few of the victims.

What I liked: After the Tully/Stark contingent arrives, we see a welcoming scene when food is offered (though its significance is not explained in the show.) Walder Frey is sleazily creepy in his meet-and-greet, especially towards Talisa (why is she there anyway?)

It appears that bygones are bygones until...

Cat sees the doors being closed   
She hears the opening of "The Rains of Castamere"
She realizes Roose Bolton is wearing armor

Cat tries to warn Rob, but it's too late. The Freys stab Talisa repeatedly in the abdomen, fall Robb with crossbow bolts until Bolton moves in for the kill, and shoot Cat with crossbows, and later cut her throat.

Through the massacre, old Walder is drinking wine and clearly enjoying himself.

Meanwhile in the stables, Grey Wind is penned up. Arya had arrived at the Twins with the Hound, who planned to ransom her. For a brief moment, it looks that Arya may be able to free Grey Wind, but the Freys kill him before she can.

I want to recommend Rhiannon's post on this episode. I don't necessarily agree with her about Cat's clawing of her face, but I agree with most of her other comments.

One last thing about Talisa's death: Talisa was pregnant and her killers targeted her stomach. I can't do a full book/TV comparison here because I haven't re-read the wedding scene. But Talisa wasn't in the book, Robb's book-wife Jeyne wasn't at the wedding and apparently wasn't pregnant.

In light of our current political climate in which many conservatives value embryos and fetuses above the women who carry them, I'm distressed about this change. Is Game of Thrones saying that being killed along with your mother, friends and associates isn't bad enough? Do we really need to add a fetus to make it horrible?