yes, the cat chapters ARE quite painful to read.

Are you even thinking about what you’re saying before you say them? She offers Tyrion a drink and suddenly Tyrion WON’T report back to the Lannisters that Catelyn was there? Or that this would make all the witnesses forget that Tyrion named her in front of them all and no one would hear that she was not at Winterfell, which she would only leave for dire reasons?

Oh Ser Rodrik. Poor Guy.

Glad you’re enjoying them!

yes. exactly. one of those moments where you say.. well shit… everything is about to get crazy.

which it does.

You are assuming everyone and their mother didn’t already know that Catelyn was just in King’s Landing. Shit didn’t hit the fan until she arrested Tyrion.

She could have just as easily played it like Littlefinger, and offered the guy a drink.

hear hear!

I knew I’d seen you before! You were on the EW site referring to all those who disagreed with you as “the unwashed idiots”!

Proving nothing, of course.

Ludwig,

I get it. Some people actually might think Catelyn is not as bat shit crazy as she is. Well she’s not exactly crazy, she is as is described in the reviews not really that smart.
“check yo’self before you wreck yo’self” that’s the best phrase to describe her.

What I wanted to ask though is why you feel inclined to go ranting on several websites against people thinking catelyn isn’t really the smartest person. Perhaps the fact that many people, including many experienced readers really don’t like or understand Catelyn might change your views. This site is made to portray people’s feelings on a (re)read, respect their opinions.
I find it personally quite childish and annoying to see you on 2 websites in a few weeks time trying to destroy a discussion/review.

O, make no mistake, I really like this project and enjoy most of the chapter reviews. Also, Elena as well as Rachel are really good at writing from a passionate and engaged perspective.
But this site’s perspective on Catelyn Stark was warped from the start: Even Jay (who is a very long-time reader) seems to be incapable of dispassionately judging Catelyn’s decisions in the novels and resorts to selective reading when presented with textual evidence that invalidates his position.
I find it really disappointing because there are so many Catelyn-haters (especially among first-time readers) who could learn something from an experienced reader’s fair assessment. Well, hopefully someone schools them in on of their own awful Catelyn-hate-threads on Westeros.org… 😉

Yeah, totally with you on the Catelyn dislike. Least favorite character in the entire book by far.

Ludwig,

I agree with you totally. The answer is to vote with your feet.

On the other hand the not-Cat-chapter chapters here are usually pretty a good read, so lets not throw the baby out with the bath water…

Yeah, that must be why you use CAPS LOCK to express your absurd judgements…

In all of your Catelyn chapter reviews you misrepresent her as some kind of irrational termagant who’s deliberations and decisions lack “logic” – of which we are led to believe you are some kind of expert. Well, as someone who has studied logic, I have to break it to you: Your judgements do not display a proficiency with logic but a propensity for ludicrousness.
There is no problem with not liking or not understanding a protagonist. But you (as well as Rachel) are constantly trying to pass your unchecked sentiment off as a reasonable assessment of the narrated events while, in fact, it isn’t. This has been pointed out to you and backed up with textual evidence before. Nothing against iInterpretation and identification but there are facts in the text and they show you to be wrong.

calmer’n you are…

Foreseeably, your Catelyn-bashing has reached ridiculous proportions at this point of the story.
It is especially preposterous of you to pass your patently irrational and impulsive damnations as some kind of valid “point” with any “logic” to it. You are not making any logical points here, you are engaged in histrionic rambling because you don’t like something. In other words: You are being childish.

@Rachel:

“She arrests him because she CAN!”

No. Catelyn arrests Tyrion because she MUST.* It is obvious that if he had not recognised her in the inn, she would have let him go.

I find it really strange that a long-time reader as yourself is incapable of thoroughly reading and soberly judging a limited third-person account of one character’s actions, without interposing his knowledge and hindsight in order to invalidate an admittedly rapid but nevertheless reasonable decision under very adverse and dangerous circumstances.

*: Mirroring your absurd assessment, I could not resist some hyperbole.
Of course, Catelyn had other options. But most of them (including, naturally, to let Tyrion go back to King’s Landing or Casterly Rock after having recognised her) would have been detrimental to the Stark’s safety and left their family without any political clout.

Annnnd now I have that rap song in my head. On repeat. Thanks, ladies.

I remember my initial read of the chapter, not so much thinking from Catelyn’s side (even though it’s a Catelyn POV), but from Tyrion’s side (“Oh, WHAT the FU–“) and feeling a stab of pity for the little guy (since he was, up to that point, my favorite character).

But mostly I felt a rush of YESSSS! Because I DID see this as a fuck up on Catelyn’s part–I believed in my heart Tyrion wasn’t responsible for the assassination attempt on Bran–but I knew this… THIS… would really get the ball rolling.

It felt that one event would be the first real dislodged pebble that was bound to create an avalanche of reaction in a world already filled with Stark/Lannister tension. And, loving stories as I do, my heart skipped a few beats in anticipation to the events that would surely follow.

So while I did not necessarily love the chapter in and of itself (I did love the description of Masha Heddle’s sourleaf-stained teeth), I loved the ending for what it represented: plot careening forward.

damn this blog is nowhere near as enjoyable as it could have been. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I love the fact that I can thoroughly dislike Catelyn. Not because she is evil, kills puppies. Throws children out the window or cheats on her taxes.

But because I can not agree with her choices. And the way she handles those choices.. I know I couldn’t do things the way she did. (doesn’t mean I’m right. it means I’m different)
And that is so awesome. That an author can create people. Not just characters. We don’t like or relate or agree with everyone in our lives. Sometimes you can just not like a person on sight. Or instantly Just click and become the best of friends. That’s just how the individual works.
GRRM made a relatable world then tweaked it toward the fantastic. and gave us people to journey with, not hero caricatures. love them or hate them. Find them boring or enthralling. It doesn’t matter because they tap into us and make us feel, to judge or back them. That’s how life is. Varying degrees of gray. And that’s why aSoIaF is so damn magical…Well part of the reason.

@ saurian – you have opened a wonderful and previously untapped dimension to this story: WWSRT? now i am going to read future Cat chapters with that in mind!

well, with Rachel and I being the two readers now you certainly don’t have to feel like it’s “just you” who simply cannot understand the woman. catelyn is a walking disaster, for sure…i mean, could she fuck things up any more if she were trying to act with that as the end goal? i’m honestly not sure…

I would have just loved to hear Ser Rodriks internal monologue ( I can just hear him saying fuck a lot under his breath)
..Even for the entire journey after they came back from delivering the message. Once Ned made it clear the whole idea was of them coming, was retarded. I wonder if Ser Rodrik fantasises about smothering Cat in her sleep. I know I do.

As a mother who had a child so sick in hospital that he almost died twice. (some years ago..he’s fine now.) I so don’t get Catelyn. Her reactions and motive are skewed in my opinion. Yes I had to leave my sons bedside to care for the rest of the family and the household. but I was never far from him either. The woman offends me. whenever I read a Cat chapter I constantly felt like screaming. “Get your shit together you batshit crazy bitch”…But maybe that’s just me.. 🙂

Although I absolutely adore this series and love each and every character in their own way, I can totally see how you would consider Catelyn to not be the sharpest bulb in the drawer. And I can appreciate that there should probably never be a Sansa chapter directly following a Catelyn one.