In Memoriam: A Tribute to Those We Loved & Lost in Season 3

Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark. IMO, She was not only the best actress on the show, but her last performance in the Rains of Castamere was more than incredible and I'm still aggravated that she never won an Emmy for it. No matter how many times you watch it on screen, Fairley always delivered on an emotional level. Even if someone wasn't a fan of Catelyn as a character, they have to admit that Fairley did an excellent job with nearly every scene she was in.

Much better than Vargo Hoat IMHO. I wish they had kept him alive for a while longer. I really miss this guy

So much this. Thank you for that post.

(I liked Catelyn as a character. She's defo on my top 10 list.)

He died in S4, didn't he?

Jeor Mormont - the Old Bear was a great character and such a badass. He has so many good quotes and died fighting. The best commander the watch has had for a long time and arguably miles better than Jon Snow ever was.

Rickard Karstark - child murdering cunt deserved to die, but hey, his last words were pure gold.  "Kill me and be cursed, you're no king of mine" <- by far the best last words we have ever heard on the show.

Oh this season was tough for me...I lost my two other favorites Catelyn and Robb.
I agree with all of you about Michelle Fairley, I still am shocked that Emilia got nominated over her for that season. Michelle always infused her role with warmth, caring, intelligence and she was fierce as Catelyn. You had no doubt that Catelyn had an iron will. I loved her chemistry with Richard Madden, they worked so well together and illustrate how Game of Thrones can be very good at getting the right people to play the right duo. One of my favorite scenes of Michelle's outside of her work in Rains of Castamere is when she is confiding in the Blackfish about Bran and Rickon. Also, I know this scene was not popular, but I liked her conversation with Talisa about why she feels her family is cursed.
Richard Madden, my   I just adored his Robb. He had such charisma and strength in the role. We did not really get to see Robb in battle, which is a shame, but Richard played him in such a way that you knew he was a fierce warrior and there was a good reason why the Northmen declared him their King. He was a believable leader. Of course, it helped he was easy on the eyes but Robb wouldn't have been half the TV character without Madden's talent.  It breaks my heart every time the show mentions Robb (or Catelyn, or Ned) these days. I really think out of the 20 something cast, he and Alfie Allen were (and are) easily the best. His work in Rains was top notch as well, chemistry with Michelle was perfect but I think he also had two very stellar scenes during season 3: bitching out Edmure in Walk of Punishment and Kissed By Fire...the anger he showed at the Karstark and his men and the anger he had executing him...I really believed that at the moment Robb probably was on the warpath and probably could have killed the Mountain with his bare hands because he was so angry in those scenes.
Jeor Mormont-James Cosmo, he really came across like a father figure on the Wall and while the Old Bear was a strong and stern man, he also had a caring way about him. His demise was so sad and the fact that the Night's Watch rebels were drinking out of his skull was rage inducing.
I can't say I miss Rickard Karstark as a character, I think his time was up at the right time and he deserved what he got, but the actor was so good in the role as a stern and unrelenting man. He looked like a Northerner and he acted like a Northerner.

I do have to admit the show is not the same for me after Ned, Catelyn and Robb died. It mirrors how I feel when I read the books after those characters are gone.

 I think you said what I had trouble getting out, they represented to virtue of duty and honor the most.  I also agree hearing the North Remembers from the old woman in Winterfell and having Sansa visit the crypts brings all of that back but also serves as a reminder that type of nobility, honor and duty does not pay off in Westeros these days, so the surviving Starks (Jon included) have to find a way to honor those traits but adapt to survive as well, so it will never be the same with the remaining Starks.

RIP, Queen Ros, the first and still best invented side character.

I'm another Team Young Wolf stan, but I feel like the show kinda lost the ball with them by late s2, so Robb and Cat's loss didn't hurt as much as it did reading the Red Wedding. Catelyn especially had not much to do before 3.09 except for her scenes with Talisa and the Blackfish, and it was very frustrating that Robb/Talisa got more focus than one of the series and the Stark family's central relationships. It felt like they were better off gone tbh, since I didn't really need more eps of Robb/Talisa in the honeymoon phase while the Tullys moped out in the rain. Though I am glad we got that second Robblisa sex scene, so that both of them could be seen naked.

@rooseisazorhai, it was. The show definitely did not use the budget to focus more on his war campaign. We kept being told he was winning battles but we were only seeing before and after those battles. I know it was season 1, but seeing the battle of Whispering Wood where Jaime was captured would have been cool. I will also attribute that to a lot of Robb's battles happening off screen in the books and Catelyn mainly being related information as to what happened.
7timesdamnedshewolf, It would have been nice to have Robb tell Catelyn she was going to be a grandmother, just for a nice little scene between two characters who finally would have had a bit of good news (even though it was all cruelly snatched away in episode 9). I would not have minded more focus on the Robb and Catelyn (no him comforting her after her father died, that could have been a nice scene) relationship but I'd say the show was not too interested after a certain point of developing Robb beyond his relationship with Talisa to build up to the Red Wedding and Catelyn as the grieving widow and mother. And those two were my favorite characters and I thought Michelle and Richard handled the material they did get very well but it could have been better. I do agree, I did not mind the extra naked time for Robb and Talisa, both of them are seriously good looking people.