Stevron Frey’s death is far too suspicious IMO

[King_Tristifer_IV_Mudd]

The fact that nobody thought his wounds were that serious, only for him to turn up dead in his tent 3 days later is super suspicious. Given how scummy the majority of his family is, I suspect one of them murdered him. Only to move up 1 rung on the ladder.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

It's been theorized by many, me included, that he was murdered by his own grandson Black Walder while he was recovering with Black Walder intending to shortcut his inheritance of the Twins. 

[Alden Rothack]

1 hour ago, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

It's been theorized by many, me included, that he was murdered by his own grandson Black Walder while he was recovering with Black Walder intending to shortcut his inheritance of the Twins. 

Lord Walder may even have allowed it because it fit better into his revenge plans

[Quoth the raven,]

Ser Stevron was an old man.  Even a minor injury can strain an older person.  Stevron fought bravely and he died fighting for Robb. 

[Castellan]

It does seem handy especially since there seems to be a lot of emphasis that he is different from the other Freys and things might have been different had he lived.

Then again it may be partly to show a missed opportunity - Catelyn suggested he send Stevron to parlay with Balon, instead Robb sends Theon with disastrous effects and Stevron goes into battle for Robb.

 

[James Arryn]

2 minutes ago, Castellan said:

It does seem handy especially since there seems to be a lot of emphasis that he is different from the other Freys and things might have been different had he lived.

Then again it may be partly to show a missed opportunity - Catelyn suggested he send Stevron to parlay with Balon, instead Robb sends Theon with disastrous effects and Stevron goes into battle for Robb.

 

Eh, I think a non-Theon Robb envoy to Balon on the brink of invasion ends up just as dead as Stevron was anyways, Balon invades anyways, and Walder is pissed about broken oaths and dead sons regardless. Not sure what opportunity was there. All this is premised on the knowledge that Balon is a stubborn idiot, of course, but I feel pretty safe there. 

[Canon Claude]

14 hours ago, Quoth the raven, said:

Ser Stevron was an old man.  Even a minor injury can strain an older person.  Stevron fought bravely and he died fighting for Robb. 

Why would he go anyway? He has sons and grandsons to do his fighting for him. And it isn’t like Stevron is hoping to show his gallantry, he’s not portrayed as a man obsessed with bravery and war prowess.

[Castellan]

2 hours ago, James Arryn said:

Eh, I think a non-Theon Robb envoy to Balon on the brink of invasion ends up just as dead as Stevron was anyways, Balon invades anyways, and Walder is pissed about broken oaths and dead sons regardless. Not sure what opportunity was there. All this is premised on the knowledge that Balon is a stubborn idiot, of course, but I feel pretty safe there. 

I don't think Balon would kill envoys but I agree Stevron would not necessarily be successful just because he is not the man's blindingly ignorant son.

[Alester Florent]

It's unlikely that any envoy to Balon would be successful, but Theon is especially disastrous because it removes the one hold Robb has over Balon. Theon has been treated well by the Starks but he's still a hostage: Balon might well not risk an attack on the North so long as Theon is by Robb's side. Even if he doesn't care that much about Theon personally, it might antagonise his captains (who will be alarmed at how callously Balon is treating his own son and concerned about what it means for them) and provides a ready-made figurehead and rallying-point for any opposition to Balon and his plans.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

13 minutes ago, Adelstein said:

It's unlikely that any envoy to Balon would be successful, but Theon is especially disastrous because it removes the one hold Robb has over Balon. Theon has been treated well by the Starks but he's still a hostage: Balon might well not risk an attack on the North so long as Theon is by Robb's side. Even if he doesn't care that much about Theon personally, it might antagonise his captains (who will be alarmed at how callously Balon is treating his own son and concerned about what it means for them) and provides a ready-made figurehead and rallying-point for any opposition to Balon and his plans.

Balon would have backstabbed the North regardless, and he had already written Theon off as wolfish and a greenlander, he certainely wouldn't have stopped his plans for Theon. 

[Alester Florent]

Just now, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

Balon would have backstabbed the North regardless, and he had already written Theon off as wolfish and a greenlander, he certainely wouldn't have stopped his plans for Theon. 

Curious though, isn't it, that Robb's forces had left the North months earlier, and Balon still waited until Theon was home before taking any action?

I don't think we can take Balon's abuse of Theon at face value. I think on some level he still wants his son back, and absuing Theon is in part intended to push him to be the son he wants.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

7 minutes ago, Adelstein said:

Curious though, isn't it, that Robb's forces had left the North months earlier, and Balon still waited until Theon was home before taking any action?

I don't think we can take Balon's abuse of Theon at face value. I think on some level he still wants his son back, and absuing Theon is in part intended to push him to be the son he wants.

He had already started to assemble his forces and fleet before Theon's return, something Theon noticed and that made him uneasy, that's not a good sign, not counting the way he and Aeron immediatly start treating Theon. 

And Balon is the man/father who said that he hopes that Theon gets killed so he won't stand in Asha's way for the throne, and he didn't abuse Theon to toughen him but because he's an asshole and that he views Theon as weak and "wolfish" and because Theon is most likely a living reminder of his crushing defeat. 

If he waited a bit it was most likely because he couldn't have fully assembled the Ironborn forces by then, and maybe because he wanted to see at least if his suspicions about Theon were true or not or because he didn't want to look too much like a bad father, but it's very unlikely that he would have waited forever for Theon.