SPOILER: No Lady Stoneheart. EVER.

If you’ve read any of my Game Of Thrones comparative op-ed pieces between the books and the show, you know I prefer the books to the show is almost everything.  And that this post is in fact a giant spoiler if you haven’t read further than book 4.

It looks like my opinions are going to stay that way.  Entertainment Weekly ran an interview with Catelyn Stark actress (and Hermione Granger’s mother in a small scene in the Harry Potter film series) Michelle Fairley which pretty much tells us what I didn’t want to hear.  Here are a few of the questions and responses lifted from the article:

You couldn’t have missed the online furor over the lack of Lady Stoneheart in the Thrones finale. Were you surprised by that attention?

I actually haven’t seen any of that. I don’t look that stuff up. I avoid it like the plague. I was totally unaware.

There was a lot of online conversation. I heard third-hand that you were basically told that it’s not likely to ever happen. Is that accurate?

Yeah, the character’s dead. She’s dead.

Do you have a preference at all—do you think Catelyn’s arc should end where it ended, or would you be into the resurrection idea?

You respect the writers’ decision. I knew the arc, and that was it. They can’t stick to the books 100 percent. It’s impossible—they only have 10 hours per season. They have got to keep it dramatic and exciting, and extraneous stuff along the way gets lost in order to maintain the quality of brilliant show.

What’s next for you?

A couple things. I’ve been doing other jobs while doing 24. I want to keep working, as long as it’s exciting and stimulating and engaging, I want to keep doing it.

If you are unfamiliar with who or what Lady Stoneheart is, remember how Thoros of Myr can bring Beric Dondarrion back from the brink of death?  Well, after the Red Wedding at the Twins and before Arya boards the ship that takes her across the sea towards Braavos, she has a wolf dream and slips into her now wild Nymeria’s mind.  She as the wolf is drawn to the familiar scent of her mother’s body, now cold and drained of blood and laying naked face down in the river.  The wolf pulls the body onto the shore, and nudges it, urging it to move, which it doesn’t.  The sound of approaching men drives the wolf away, and Arya wakes up.  What we find out later is that the approaching men are Dondarrion and the Botherhood Without Banners, and Thoros brings her back.  BRINGS.  HER.  BACK.  From being dead for at least 4 days with her throat slit.  She then takes a new name to match her new being, Lady Stoneheart.

“She don’t talk, but she remembers.”

So yeah.  No Lady Stoneheart.  Color me disappointed in Benioff and Weiss for making this decision.  But at least Lena Headey had a sense of humor about it.