Ahead of Winds of Winter Release, Author George RR Martin Says 'Red Wedding Was Hardest to Write'
Fans of the "Game of Thrones" books and TV series can point to the "Red Wedding" scene as one, if not the most, shocking and memorable events of the series. The scene is shown in "The Rains of Castamere" episode in season three of the hit HBO show, which features Lady Catelyn Stark and her son Robb being betrayed by the Freys. As Catelyn and Robb are two of the main characters in the series, it was surprising that they were killed off at all.
Right after the episode aired, fans took to Youtube to post reaction shots to the "Red Wedding." "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin was also aware of the huge impact of the scene, as he joked back in 2012 at Comic-Con that "he will visit a country with no television when the episode goes on air."
In an interview with ABC news, the author reveals that writing the "Red Wedding" was the hardest thing he's ever done.
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"I couldn't write it when I got to it," he said. "I skipped over it—I finished the entire rest of the book with a hole in it."
Martin admits that he struggled killing some of the characters in his books.
"I knew it was coming but it was very hard to write and was the hardest thing I've ever wrote. I went back and made myself write that scene because it was painful to kill these characters I'd created and lived with for so long," he said.
The author said that he expected some negative reactions regarding his decision to kill off Robb and Lady Catelyn, and he said, "When the book came out we got a tremendous reaction to it. I got angry letters that said 'I'll never read your work again.' The TV show version is 13 years later and I knew, having been through it once already, we would get a similar reaction."
Meanwhile, the book's sixth installment, "The Winds of Winter" does not have a release date yet. On a recent post on Martin's blog, the author quashed rumors that the book was getting released this year.
He wrote, "I've said it before and I will say it again, I don't play games with news about the books. I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on WINDS. When it's done, I will announce it here."
