One of the many changes Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had to do in adopting George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga was cutting some of the characters invented by Martin’s pen. Besides Aegon Targaryen (the son of Rhaegar and Elia), the other prominent absence was Lady Stoneheart, the resurrected Catelyn Stark. In his upcoming Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon book (via EW), author James Hibberd gathered the thoughts of D&D about Lady Stoneheart’s absence from HBO’s series.
“There was never really much debate about [including Lady Stoneheart],” Benioff said. “There is that one great scene.”
“That was the only debate,” Weiss revealed. “The scene where she first shows up is one of the best ‘holy s—‘ moments in the books. I think that scene is where the public response came from. But then…”
The showrunners then explained that one of the many reasons for Lady Stoneheart’s absence was that the story already had another resurrection coming, Jon Snow’s, and they wanted to keep “the powder dry” for that one. They felt audiences needed to believe most characters would stay dead.
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The other reasons involve D&D not wanting to spoil some of the upcoming storylines from author George R.R. Martin’s books. Additionally, the showrunners believe that the Red Wedding was perfectly executed, and they didn’t want to diminish the impact of that scene.
In Martin’s books, Catelyn Stark’s body is found by the direwolf Nymeria a few days after the events after the Red Wedding. Beric Dondarrion then resurrects her even against the Red Priest Thoros of Myr advised against doing it. Thoros’s concerns turned out to be accurate, as the resurrected form of Catelyn turned into a monster void of all humanity.
The Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon book hits the stores on Oct. 6.
Would you have liked to see Lady Stoneheart in the series? Let us know in the comments section below.
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