Game of Thrones: Season 3: Episode 9: The Rains of Castamere

*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Oh Game of Thrones, you have broken my heart! Never has a tv series taken me on such an emotional journey in one episode and never have I been left with no idea of what can possibly happen next.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that knew, as soon as Robb Stark's wife told him she was pregnant, and it was apparent what joy the news brought him, that something terrible was going to happen to him. Then when Melisandre appears to use her magic to curse Robb, Balon Greyjoy and Joffrey Baratheon, it was clear his fate was sealed.

But even that knowledge couldn't prepare me for this week's episode:

• Talisa brutally stabbed over and over in her stomach. 

• Robb, wounded by crossbow bolts, distraught, lost and finally stabbed.

• Catelyn, desperately trying to save her oldest son only to be driven mad by grief and pain, before her throat is slit.

• Grey Wind, Robb's direwolf, caged and killed.

• The Northern Army destroyed.

• Arya, who sees everything but can do nothing, and had been so close to being reunited with her mother and brother.

 

It was horrifying, vicious and brutal. I held my breath from the moment the doors to Walder Frey's banquet hall closed until the three Starks lay dead. When Grey Wind took his last breath, looked at Arya, and then closed his eyes, I finally started to cry. The fact that thinking about it a day later still makes my eyes well up is a testament to how truly fantastic this show is. Seriously, if you don't watch Game of Thrones, you should be.

So all you Jon Snow lovers, look away now while the rest of us take a moment to indulge in a few pictures of the delicious Richard Madden and his alterego, Robb Stark: