Game of Thrones: What does George RR Martin really think about the Red Wedding scene?

Season eight of Game of Thrones is going to be airing on April 14 on HBO and April 15 on Sky Atlantic in the UK. The multiple Emmy Award-winning series has thrilled fans for nearly a decade with its epic storylines and shocking deaths. The one scene that keeps coming back and named as the most jaw-dropping moment in the history of the show has been the Red Wedding.

Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has spoken about what he thought about the screen adaptation of the brutal moment, which fans of the books were highly eager to see depicted on screen.

Martin, 70, admitted that he was shocked by the sequence despite writing the original book A Storm of Swords from 2001.

He revealed: “I didn’t see the rough edit. I had hopes to come to set. I had hoped to come to set for the Red Wedding and be a Stark casualty, having my throat cut in the background, but sadly the press of work did not allow it.

“When I did see the final cut it was vividly and viscerally done, I really felt that David and Dan had turned it up to an 11 in some senses.”

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The US writer continued: “I knew we would get a huge reaction, because I had gotten a huge reaction 13 years ago – I got emails and letters from people, some saying I was brilliant, some saying they would never read another book, some hoping I would die in a fire.

“With TV being much bigger and the Internet being prevalent, I knew it would be big, but I didn’t realize just how big.

“It’s pretty visceral in the books and to be honest I didn’t think that anyone would be able to make it bloodier, but David and Dan brought in Talisa and then made her pregnant.”

He added in the book Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones: Seasons 3 & 4: “That had an impact on even me, because I wasn’t sure if she would end up at the wedding.”

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The Red Wedding was a shock to those unfamiliar with the novels. In the gruesome sequences, audiences saw Catelyn Stark (played by Michelle Fairley), her son Robb Stark (Richard Madden), his wife Talisa (Oona Chaplin) and the rest of the Starks all slaughtered following the marriage of one of Walder Frey’s (David Bradley) daughters to Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies).

The massacre was a conspiracy between the Lannisters and the Freys which was partly down to Walder Frey’s anger at Robb for spurning his daughter in favour of a love union with Talisa.

More importantly though, the killings were aided by House Lannister to take out Robb, who had been proclaimed King in the North and was proving to be a formidable foe in battle.

At first all seemed to be going well as all feasted, but Catelyn quickly realised something was very wrong when she spotted Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton) was wearing chain mail armour under his clothes, suggesting he was getting ready for a fight.

However, it was too late with the trap laid down and the Starks caught in the middle before they were all killed.

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Perhaps the most horrifying moment came when a heavily pregnant Talisa was repeated stabbed in her belly before dying.

Even the Purple Wedding which saw the demise of mad boy-king Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) didn’t have the same shock factor as this moment.

Fans will have to wait until season eight arrives on our screens to see if there will be a sequence to top the Red Wedding given its uncompromising brutality and the way so many key characters were removed from the equation.

Some fans have even theorised there could be a complete massacre in the season eight finale which will see all the characters taken out in one go.

Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on Monday, April 15 at 2am & 9pm on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK

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