‘Game of Thrones’ season 4 finale: The shock of what DIDN’T happen
Typically on CarterMatt, we keep all of our “Game of Thrones” articles here completely spoiler-free of anything that happens in the George R.R. Martin books, and for good reason. The show has the creative license to diverge from the source material whenever it wants, and we never want to be someone to ruin something for a fan who is getting surprised as things go along. Also, while we know of certain elements of what happens in the books, we have not read them and are wary of passing along misinformation.
We are breaking this vow for this particular article simply due to the overwhelming reaction of book fans tonight over what was not included in the finale. So fair warning now: STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO AVOID BOOK SPOILERS. We do not want to take the fun away from you!
Now, we press onward, and we talk about the omission whose name is Lady Stoneheart. Given the timeline of events in the books, it was expected that we would see this resuscitated form of Catelyn Stark at some point before the end of season 4. She is an enormously important character in the books, and is responsible for doing many things that are either awesome or extremely cold depending on the event.
Even a casual show fan may have heard this name spoken on the internet this season … but alas, there was no Michelle Fairley appearance. What may have happened? We’ve comprised a few theories.
- Not wanting a shock ending – The show could have easily made Stoneheart a cliffhanger, but they are not traditionally a fan of that with their finale. Given that they wanted to save this for some undisclosed period in the future, there was no reason to press this into an already-packed finale.
- Schedule – Michelle Fairley filmed an arc on “Suits” and also “24: Live Another Day” during her time away from the show, and leaving her off this season allowed them to focus on other great things. This could still be a big reveal for the show down the road.
- Body count – There were already so many killings this season that the show may have wanted to save someone so dangerous for a point in the future.
Have any theories on what happened? If so, share below, and head over here to see some additional news and updates from us at CarterMatt via our official newsletter.
Photo: HBO
eyez1227
June 17, 2014 @ 1:10 am
Not finishing the season which concludes storm of swords without that scene where she hangs the freys was very disappointing and they better not cut her character like they did with coldhands . Still pissed about that even if he was not a key character that didn’t have a huge a story arc ;for readers the way we envisioned him was great and shouldve been put in no matter importance. And why didn’t mance tell jon and show him the horn. And the three eyed raven looked like Dumbledore sitting in a tree and why didn’t Jamie tell tyrion about tysha ” where do whores go?” Was so funny In the book when tyrion was drunk. But LS was the end of the book so why not put it in?
GameofMisogyny
June 16, 2014 @ 6:42 am
Weiss and Benioff are cutting Lady Stoneheart. They won’t do her plotline.
Michael Potts
June 16, 2014 @ 8:51 am
Not confirmed, but I damn well hope not. I’d say more likely to be one of the above suggestions.
Stones
June 16, 2014 @ 12:45 pm
Prove it
Evanesims
June 16, 2014 @ 4:17 pm
They need to. Although she appears for a short period of time, she still has an important part
eyez1227
June 17, 2014 @ 1:32 am
Very important part and grrm said some characters were cut from the show but there were reasons why they were put in the book. We know the book isn’t done so cutting her character would be wrong especially if they will be important later in the other books that he hasn’t thought of yet. But I still believe she will be in next season and can only hope.