Does anyone like Catelyn?

[Minsc]

But she's horrible to Jon, so I say she's not a good mom. I have a step daughter and my wife is step mom to my older kids. Our kids are all brothers and sisters. I wouldn't accept my wife treating my other kids differently, let alone cruel. Fuck that bitch.

Catelyn holds no relationship with Jon at all, nor is she horrible to him she just refuses to take on a role that is not demanded of her and it would be quite disrespectful of her if Ned tried to pressure her into it. Simply, understand that Catelyn is not Jon's mother nor his stepmother thus she has no responsibility to act out these roles just because Jon wants a maternal figure.

[Zar Lannister]

There are Cersei fans out there? :P

Yes? Cersei is quite an interesting character. So is Catelyn, and they kind of contrast each other. Catelyn is not my preferred character but I think her character is very human.

[Winterz]

I think Cat is a good POV for Westerosi noble women. Her story tells it all.

And I'm sure many people like her because of her strong motherly personality in such fierce world.

[Sordelor]

Catelyn holds no relationship with Jon at all, nor is she horrible to him she just refuses to take on a role that is not demanded of her and it would be quite disrespectful of her if Ned tried to pressure her into it. Simply, understand that Catelyn is not Jon's mother nor his stepmother thus she has no responsibility to act out these roles just because Jon wants a maternal figure.

When Bran felt Catelyn said to Jon: "It had to happen with you". What you say there is not a reason to say something like that to Jon.

[Minsc]

When Bran felt Catelyn said to Jon: "It had to happen with you". What you say there is not a reason to say something like that to Jon.

It is called being out of your mind with grief, kinda like how she wasn't sleeping or eating.

Almost every character does something worse then just saying a nasty comment once yet somehow people seem to let those go for most characters.

Catelyn was meant to be a wife, mother and homemaker, not meddle in politics or military tactics.

Catelyn repeatedly show keen political insight throughout the series, and quite frankly is one of the only people in Robb's army (or the Stark family) to ever show a full understanding of politics.

[Sordelor]

She may be the only one of the Stark family with a full understanding of politics, but from origin she is not a Stark but a Tully.

[Minsc]

She may be the only one of the Stark family with a full understanding of politics, but from origin she is not a Stark but a Tully.

That is probably the reasoning for that, seeing if we also look at Ned's siblings they have no understanding of politics also.

[pytri993]

Cat is first and foremost a mother. What she did, she did out of love for her children. The fact that in the end she did a poor job protecting them does not change my opinion of her. Perhaps she was a bit too naive now and then, but she's one of the few characters who did not have any particular hidden agenda

[ogma107]

I tend to dislike Cat because in a sea of complex, dynamic characters she is completely one note. Obviously, it is admirable for a mother to sacrifice so much of her own life for her family, but at the same time maybe we would all like her better if we could crawl in her head and feel her pain, her torment, her loss. We could sympathize with the utter destruction of her life and her family.

Instead, I found her annoying. She was constantly meddling.

The threat she posed to Robb, and her negotiations for exchange of hostages with the Lannisters, was subversive in the worst way: it was out of love.

People justify a lot of terrible things with good intentions. I could not tolerate Cat constantly undermining Robb's impressive but fragile reign over the North when she had no leadership aspirations of her own.

Also, slightly off point, but maybe another reason I didn't like her that I did not realize until I started typing this is that she is the woman who seems to most ascribe to traditional gender roles. In a world of so many badass women, Cat just wants peace, home and family. It's hard to dislike someone who wants those things, but it's easy for her to pale in comparison to some of her stronger female counterparts.

[The Killer Snark]

Hated her in the first novel. Liked her from the second onward. She's a decent person, just at first frustratingly naive.

[protar]

I'm sort of ambivalent towards Cat. I see her as a character who's rather interesting to analyse, but not particularly interesting actually read. She's one of the more realistic characters in the books in contrast to say Tyrion and Dany who are very much larger than life, and personally I prefer the latter kind of character. I'm reading fantasy for a reason after all. There's a lot of deep layers to Cat but they're hidden under an awful lot of depression and moping, especially after the first book. I liked her a lot more in AGOT. Obviously she has lost her husband and her family, but so have all of the other Starks. They're not very happy about it, but even Sansa who arguably has things the worst manages to take solace in somethings.

[Northern Pride]

She is rigid, a horrible stepmother, rarely smiles and takes me as not very kind. I never liked her from her first chapter. Actually I really dislike her. That is all.

[Stark Revenge]

I like her, except for how she treated Jon.

[The Killer Snark]

The way she treats Jon is inexcusable, and her relentless studipidity in the first book goes a long way to causing the War of the Five Kings. From the second book on, she changes, partly on account of recognising her own erroneous judgements, and becomes one of the few people associated with the Stark cause who has any common sense.

[TheQueenOfThorns]

I like Catelyn, character flaws and all. I dislike the way she treated Jon and many of her decisions are hastily made and not well though out, IMO, but I do like her as a character, overall.

[joanimal]

Personally I really related to Catelyn as a woman. I was really shocked when I googled character popularity at some point and saw her as one of the ten most hated characters on, I think, 'The Tower of the Hand'. I think her motivations are ultimately family orientated and I respect that. I see a lot of people have criticised her decisions but on the whole I think she did the best with what she thought she was confronted with at the time. Unfortunately judging people are acting by the same morals, values and standards in this world is in itself a big mistake.

I also had a problem with how she treated Jon but reflectively I think that the way Ned handled his coming into the household and never giving her any explanation went along way to colouring her treatment of him. Not that I think it was right or anything I could do to a child myself.

[AbareBlack]

For the most part, I really like Catelyn. Some of her chapters, particularly those dealing with her grief, read like a Soap Opera and that appeals to me. Having lost nearly everybody she's ever loved, she's sort of got this 'medieval Monica Quartermaine' thing going on.

Her treatment of Jon actually doesn't bother me. I don't condone it, but I can look through her eyes and understand it. He's a living, breathing reminder of Ned cheating on her. And while logically I think she knows that isn't Jon's fault, it doesn't change anything for her emotionally. That kind of complexity just makes me like her all the more.

[Breastplate Stretcha]

I'm not sure why people hate her. She's a sympathetic character whos chapters are some of the best in the series.

I'll see people on these boards admit that they skip entire chapters from certain PoVs and I wonder why the hell they even read this series.

[The Killer Snark]

I would never skip even sentences, never mind pages, never mind chapters from any book I'm reading, even if I hate it. Especially not with something I enjoy. If people are going to congratulate themselves on getting through something this epic, surely reading the entire thing and picking up every single plot-point and nuance is the only sensible thing to do, along with this being the only way they can really say they've read the books.

[Sordelor]

That is probably the reasoning for that, seeing if we also look at Ned's siblings they have no understanding of politics also.

That's true, but then she doesn't really count as a Stark.