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Why did Walder Frey want Catelyn alive?


Alyn Oakenfist

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Tyrion made a fist. "What of Lady Catelyn?"

"Slain as well, I'd say. A pair of wolfskins. Frey had intended to keep her as a captive, but perhaps something went awry.

So we know what went awry, Cat actually went completely insane from the trauma by the end of the ordeal, but the question is, why did Walder Frye want her alive? What use would she have as a hostage? Her kids are dead or married off from what they know, so what value does have, for her to be spared?

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12 minutes ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

So we know what went awry, Cat actually went completely insane from the trauma by the end of the ordeal, but the question is, why did Walder Frye want her alive? What use would she have as a hostage? Her kids are dead or married off from what they know, so what value does have, for her to be spared?

The Blackfish was in charge of Riverrun. Walder would have probably wanted to use Catelyn as further leverage against him.

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4 minutes ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Surely he wasn't foolish enough to think that if Edmure wasn't good enough then Catelyn would be

He didn’t know that, though. The siege didn’t begin until after the Red Wedding. He couldn’t have known how stubborn Brynden would truly be (or how pathetic his sons would be at besieging Riverrun). 
Think of it this way; you have access to his nephew and his niece. You can capture them both and threaten to hang them if he doesn’t give up. Maybe even hang one of them as a message. You can’t do that with just one of them, hence why the threat to hang Edmure was so empty. Catelyn ended up going mad though, which put an end to that plan. 

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2 hours ago, James Steller said:

The Blackfish was in charge of Riverrun. Walder would have probably wanted to use Catelyn as further leverage against him.

Walder could've had some more basic desires for wanting Catelyn alive as well. A literal way of getting back at the Tullys who looked down on him.

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4 minutes ago, Lord Lannister said:

Walder could've had some more basic desires for wanting Catelyn alive as well. A literal way of getting back at the Tullys who looked down on him.

Why haven't I thought of this... Oh yeah because it's absolutely horrifying, but also very possible

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She would still have great value as hostage to keep the Blackfish in check and most of the riverlander lords as well.

I still don't understand why he didn't keep Robb as an heir, he would have been so much more useful. 

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Consider the possibility Littlefinger had some involvement in the entire arrangement. He had every reason to want to try and keep Catelyn alive and it's possible he was aware of the Red Wedding plotting and discretely made promises to Walder Frey about benefits he might get from keeping her for him.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Catelyn is a lady from a high house and younger in the books than the show. She's still of an age to have children and that could be a useful backup plan to the Frey's taking over as lords of the river lands.  Marrying a Tully to a Frey and then sitting in Riverrun would be a sick move that makes sense from the monsters that rule the world of Westeros.  It's always better to keep an asset until you know you don't need it. Gross but calculating which sums up the Frey's and Lannisters both.

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On 10/12/2020 at 2:00 AM, Thandros said:

Consider the possibility Littlefinger had some involvement in the entire arrangement. He had every reason to want to try and keep Catelyn alive and it's possible he was aware of the Red Wedding plotting and discretely made promises to Walder Frey about benefits he might get from keeping her for him.

I always figured that's why Littlefinger turned on Tywin and had Joffrey killed. It was revenge for Catelyn being killed because of their machinations going wrong. I'm sure he's also planning something nasty for Walder Frey now that the Lannisters are collapsing. 

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