Fans will never move on from Game of Thrones' most controversial episode, titled Red Wedding, which sees the unforeseen bloody culmination of Catelyn and Robb Stark's character narrative.
Widely known for being the most brutal show of the generation, it's hard not to wonder if the upcoming prequel, House of the Dragon, could somehow exceed that level of twist. Thankfully, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin finally has an answer.
Another Red Wedding Massacre in House of the Dragon?
During House of the Dragon’s premiere episode with Vanity Fair, Martin and writer Ryan Condal revealed that there would be a scene in the prequel that could rival the contentious Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones.
"That scene is… You don’t want to use the word “enjoyable” for a scene like that, but it’s incredibly powerful. It’s visceral and it’ll rip your heart out and throw it on the floor. It has the kind of impact that the Red Wedding had. It’s a beautifully done scene of something horrible."
George R.R. Martin Opens Up About Writing The Red Wedding Episode
George R.R. Martin – who created Game of Thrones and is now set to introduce the prequel House of the Dragon, even had a "painful" time penning the Red Wedding chapter, as he told The Independent:
“I finished the entire book, except for the Red Wedding [chapter], that was such a painful chapter for me to write, losing some characters that I had come to know and love. Nine years I’d been with these characters, and now I was going to kill them horribly! That was difficult.”
Even the legendary author believes that the chapter was too horrible for TV but still grateful for the buzz that it reached.
“It’s a horrible chapter, and it upsets people, it makes people angry, it makes people sad. People throw the book against the wall or into the fireplace. When it was on TV, it had the same effect on tens of thousands, if not millions, of people. To my mind, that’s good. We’re talking about death here!”
Martin went on to discuss how the Red Wedding chapter signifies the real world, particularly how it could be devastating to experience an unexpected loss of a loved one.
“We all in our real lives have experienced death, your parents die. Your best friend dies. Sometimes, in a really tragic situation, your children die or your wife or husband dies. It’s terrible. It affects you. It makes you angry, it makes you sad. In our entertainment, television, film, books, over the centuries as it’s evolved, death is often treated very cavalierly. Somebody is dead, we’ve got a mystery, and the detective has to figure out who did it."
Martin concluded by revealing foremost his reason for writing the Red Wedding chapter, making sure that people who either read the book or watch Game of Thrones could mourn for their favorite characters.
“We never consider who the corpse is, or what his life was like… what it’s going to be like without him. If I’m going to write a death scene, particularly for major characters, I want to make the reader feel it. That’s what the Red Wedding, I think, successfully accomplished. People felt that death.”
House of the Dragon will premiere on HBO on August 21.
Also read: House of the Dragon: Matt Smith Prepares for Battle in Full Targaryen Armor in New Photo
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