yeah, the whole "CAT WAS SMART BUT NOBODY LISTENED TO HER" narrative has always been lol.
She - like pretty much all the Starks - crumbled and did something immensely stupid whenever the opportunity arose. She kidnapped Tyrion because of something Littlefinger told her. She alone offered for Robb to marry one of the Frey girls and told Robb after. And she tried to trade Jamie for Arya/Sansa, got denied by Robb, and decided to sneak off and let him go anyways without ever setting up any sort of exchange or certainty she was getting something in return (hint: she never did).
Cat and Ned are both LOLterrible at decision making and got absolutely worked anytime they tried to have dealings with anyone in the game.
yeah, the whole "CAT WAS SMART BUT NOBODY LISTENED TO HER" narrative has always been lol.
She - like pretty much all the Starks - crumbled and did something immensely stupid whenever the opportunity arose. She kidnapped Tyrion because of something Littlefinger told her. She alone offered for Robb to marry one of the Frey girls and told Robb after. And she tried to trade Jamie for Arya/Sansa, got denied by Robb, and decided to sneak off and let him go anyways without ever setting up any sort of exchange or certainty she was getting something in return (hint: she never did).
I mean, I agree wrt Tyrion. But (iirc, someone please correct if this is wrong, maybe just a book thing?) I believe Tyrion offered peace terms that included the return of Arya and Sansa in exchange for Jaime. She did act in bad faith as far as Robb is concerned but I'm almost positive those were at least part of the terms Tyrion offered when he was still Hand. Then of course Tywin showed up and the rest is history. But what lengths would you not go to for your children? Strategically it might have been disastrous but I can't blame her too much there.
That said, it's not really fair to blame the disasters which resulted from Robb not marrying the Frey girl on her. Arranged marriages were obv common in that world, there was nothing really even controversial about that part. Edmure wasn't consulted when the Red Wedding was arranged, they just told him he was marrying ole girl, he said no, was told yes he was and that was that. And it wasn't like she did all that and then Robb said no. He accepted the arrangement and then backed out once he found Talisa. He even admitted (to the Freys!) that he was in the wrong there.
(I also happen to believe she was wrong on principle in supporting Renly's claim over Stannis' but others may disagree, there's a good argument that strategically Renly was the better choice even though his claim was dog ****)
I mean I'm not sure how anyone can argue that Ned doesn't get got if he listens to Cat and stays in Winterfell; and it's a whole different story if Robb goes through with marrying the Frey girl.
Favorite part of the series so far is when wildling guy brought snow back to his stomping grounds and asked to have a chat with the rest. Other wildling headman gets mad and insults him. he then beats him to death and says nah bros let's actually have a chat
