Were you hugely disappointed with the omission of Lady Stoneheart from the Game of Thrones, the TV adaptation of the popular series of novels – A Song Ice and Fire? You weren’t the only one! In fact, there are still huge debates about this in the world of GOT and ASOIF. Now, with both the show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss coming up with an explanation for this decision, we finally have an answer as to why they choose to omit this character!
Game of Thrones became a massive hit over the years, thanks to the incredible plotline and unpredictable twists it had in the initial seasons. However, the showrunners did mess up a few things when they started to drift away and move ahead of the universe created by the superstar writer, George R. R. Martin. The omission of Lady Stoneheart, the untimely death of Ser Barristan Selmy and the sudden disappearance of Jaqen H’ghar are just of some of the loopholes in the plotline. And yes, let’s not talk about the debacle of the last season.
Who was Lady Stoneheart?
Coming back to Lady Stoneheart in the books. After the events of the Red Wedding, servants from House Frey throw Catelyn Stark’s body into a river. Berric Dondarrion finds her and resurrects her. She comes back as a woman with a stony, horrified expression and a hand perpetually at her cut throat. She never speaks and is given the name Lady Stoneheart.
Her sole purpose is to avenge her family’s death at the Red Wedding (probably the most haunting episode of all of GOT) by killing every one of the House Frey. This character makes quite a few guest appearances in the books. As a result, many avid fans of both the books and the TV series were waiting for her introduction in the TV show. However, it never happened.
Why was Lady Stoneheart not shown on the show?
The show runners had three major reasons for taking this big decision. The biggest of them all was not to spoil the upcoming books for readers, as the duo knew what GRRM had in his mind for the character. Secondly, they thought resurrecting Catelyn Stark before the resurrection of Jon Snow would have diminished the impact and the shock of the latter scene in Season 6. Thirdly, they did not want to undervalue the insane ripples that the Red Wedding episode brought in the pop culture universe. This could have been the case if Catelyn Stark was brought back to life in any which way.
Moreover, they thought an actor with the calibre of the Michelle Fairley would have been hugely underused if she was brought back to play a mute character with very few scenes.
With the justification David and Dan have come up with for completely removing of Lady Stoneheart, it seems fair to say that they were right on this account, at least. Not just fans, even GRRM wanted to see the character in the series, as she does play a significant role in the books.
No one can deny the fact that GOT was a massive hit. As a result, it went on to become the most popular TV show in history, even with the questionable final season. For this to happen, the show-runners did do a pretty good job with their adaptation, and omitting Lady Stoneheart from the show was probably the right decision.
But, don’t lose hope for seeing this character on screen ever! HBO is planning to roll out prequels to the Game of Thrones in 2022. With innumerable stories yet to be told from the massive universe of Westeros, we surely can hope to see Lady Stoneheart playing a crucial role in any of the spin offs that are currently in progress.
