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Lord Karstark Killing Catelyn


Tywin Manderly

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He probably thought in some twisted way he had a right to kill the Lannister hostages, and would get away with it. He might get chastised from Robb, but that would be all. Killing the king's own mother though... even he surely wasn't stupid enough to think that would be okay.

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Why didn't Lord Karstark kill Catelyn in stead of Willem Lannister and Tion Frey, since she was the one who released Jaime Lannister? Was she too hard of a target? Should he have tried?

She probably was too hard of a target, but also his motivating idea was to shed Lannister blood because it was Lannisters who killed his sons, and this was an exchange of two sons for two sons.

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No, he shouldn't have tried. His children were taken away, he took away the Lannister children. Catelyn wasn't the one who killed his kids, it was Jaime so for him the revenge was at the Lannisters.


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Jaime killed his son, so the most vulnerable targets were the young Lannister cousins. Killing Catelyn would have huge repercussions as King Robb's mother and Hoster Tully's daughter; he would have antagonized his King and the Lord of the Riverlands. Killing Lannisters does create any division within the forces.

Obviously, this plan backfired on him.

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Catelyn didn't get punished too harshly so Karstark thought he could kill Robb's hostage with impunity. Robb discredited himself first when he broke his vows to Walder Frey, later when he failed to treat Catelyn as a true prisoner – basically showing his men that he was still a boy at heart.


Also with the Freys leaving, Rickard Karstark certainly believed that Robb wouldn’t risk losing the support of yet another house. He didn’t believe Robb would go as far as to execute a would-be ally and kinsman no less.



Edit: To answer the question, he wouldn't have killed Catelyn because he was certain to get executed for it. His goal wasn't execution, but vengeance and it was Jaime who killed his sons, not Catelyn. Since Robb showed himself "weak" in regards to Jeyne and Catelyn, Rickard believed he could get away with it.


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Catelyn didn't get punished too harshly so Karstark thought he could kill Robb's hostage with impunity. Robb discredited himself first when he broke his vows to Walder Frey, later when he failed to treat Catelyn as a true prisoner – basically showing his men that he was still a boy at heart.

Also with the Freys leaving, Rickard Karstark certainly believed that Robb wouldn’t risk losing the support of yet another house. He didn’t believe Robb would go as far as to execute a would-be ally and kinsman no less.

Actually, I have to disagree. Karstark realized that killing the Lannister kids was going to be big trouble (regardless of the mouth he gave Robb at his capture), otherwise he wouldn't have made sure that most of his own healthy bannermen fled while Karstark and company were doing the murders. Not only did he send his bannermen off in the dark, but he sent them off hunting the Kingslayer, not to return to his KIng and captivity, but to have Jaime killed.

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