A closer look
George R.R. Martin explicitly created the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones to punish fantasy readers who had been conditioned by decades of Tolkien knock-offs to believe that noble protagonists always survive their foolish mistakes. He was heavily inspired by the actual historical Black Dinner of Scotland, proving that real-world medieval history was significantly more brutal and backstabbing than anything a fantasy author could invent. When the television adaptation finally aired the massacre, showrunners essentially weaponized the shock value, ushering in an era where live-tweeting your own emotional devastation became a Sunday night ritual. It single-handedly destroyed the unspoken contract between television writers and their audience, establishing that absolutely no one is safe and your favorite character is probably going to die horribly. The sheer sadistic pleasure the creators took in watching viewers cry into their popcorn is the true legacy of Westeros
