I don't think I'm going to give up entirely hoping Talisa = Jeyne until the Red Wedding. Like Ramsay Bolton, I think that's a revelation that could well have been deliberately postponed to the third season.
But, yeah, it was absolutely stupid and adolescent of Robb to throw away an important alliance in a fit of pique because he'd rather marry a girl he'd just become infatuated with than the one he felt like his mother and Walder Frey were conspiring to stick him with against his will. The book just camouflaged that by having Jeyne's mother forcing a shotgun wedding on them, so Robb could frame the matter as a question of honor while actually following his own inclinations. And the baldly practical "honor" of maintaining a commitment with a grasping ally (especially an agreement made under a certain degree of duress and without his personal input as to the terms) was held in a certain degree of contempt -- not unlike Ned's opinion of politics, as being something filthy he wanted as little to do with as he could possibly avoid. On further reflection, I can see why the showrunners played it that way -- it was a selfish and shortsighted decision of Robb's, and I think I'm okay with having that made more plain and less excusable. Besides, we've seen so much more of Robb on screen than we had in the books -- he's not some distant effigy of a noble would-be king, we already like him, the showrunners can afford to have him do something a bit tawdry and human.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-06-06 09:58 pm (UTC)But, yeah, it was absolutely stupid and adolescent of Robb to throw away an important alliance in a fit of pique because he'd rather marry a girl he'd just become infatuated with than the one he felt like his mother and Walder Frey were conspiring to stick him with against his will. The book just camouflaged that by having Jeyne's mother forcing a shotgun wedding on them, so Robb could frame the matter as a question of honor while actually following his own inclinations. And the baldly practical "honor" of maintaining a commitment with a grasping ally (especially an agreement made under a certain degree of duress and without his personal input as to the terms) was held in a certain degree of contempt -- not unlike Ned's opinion of politics, as being something filthy he wanted as little to do with as he could possibly avoid. On further reflection, I can see why the showrunners played it that way -- it was a selfish and shortsighted decision of Robb's, and I think I'm okay with having that made more plain and less excusable. Besides, we've seen so much more of Robb on screen than we had in the books -- he's not some distant effigy of a noble would-be king, we already like him, the showrunners can afford to have him do something a bit tawdry and human.