Season Six of Game of Thrones has been full of surprising re-appearances, reunifications, and resurrections, and even as the show begins to gear up for its finale, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. With the latest episode bringing back Benjen Stark, a character whose fate has been in question since the first season of the show, fans who have been waiting since since Season Four for the introduction of the mysterious Lady Stoneheart were not ready to give up hope. Sadly, it seems that George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the series upon which HBO’s extremely successful show is based, has provided a definitive answer on whether we will ever see the much anticipated character.
Appearing late in the Martin’s series, Lady Stoneheart is the name given to the resurrected corpse of Catelyn Stark. Changed by death into a harsh, unforgiving force of revenge, Lady Stoneheart leads a band of outlaws, the Brotherhood with Banners, in exacting violent reprisal against the Lannisters and Freys– two of the major families responsible for the death of herself and her son.
Many hoped to see Lady Stoneheart appear in the finale of Season Four, but were disappointed when the character was not only introduced, but failed to materialize in Season Five. It was speculated that the concept of Lady Stoneheart was simply too fanciful for the show, which seems to pride itself on maintaining a healthy dose of reality, even while telling a story set in a fantastical world– never-mind Jon Snow’s resurrection or the hordes of icy zombies slowly making their way towards the warmer climes beyond the Wall.
Whatever the reason for Lady Stoneheart’s absence, George R.R. Martin officially confirmed that she would not appear on the show last week at the science fiction convention, Balticon. In a video by Youtuber Preston Jacobs, in which he recounts attending a dinner with Martin, Jacobs offers this tantalizing tidbit:
The Italian then asked George if Lady Stoneheart was going to appear on the show. George said no, that she’d been cut. He said if he were involved in the show things would be different, but he’s busy trying to finish books.
Unless Martin is being purposefully deceptive, this comment seems to offer the final word on Lady Stoneheart. You can stop searching every new episode for hints of Catelyn Stark– it looks like, at least in the show, she’s dead for good.
