Talisa Maegyr was an improvement on the character of Jeyne Westerling

Reimagining Jeyne Westerling as Talisa Maegyr was one of the biggest changes Game of Thrones made from book to TV series.

The Red Wedding is one of the most iconic and devastating plot twists in both George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series and the Game of Thrones television series. In the books and the show, the Red Wedding couldn’t have happened without Robb Stark choosing to marry a woman he loved instead of honoring his promise to marry one of Walder Frey’s daughters. Known in the books as Jeyne Westerling and in the show as Talisa Maegyr — with both characters later taking the last name Stark — the two ladies arguably serve the same narrative purpose, yet there are many key differences in their stories.

Jeyne

Robb met Jeyne in the books during the War of the Five Kings when he and his army stormed the Crag, the home of Jeyne’s family House Westerling. Even though House Westerling was sworn to House Lannister, Jeyne ended up nursing a wounded Robb back to health after his forces won the battle. While there Robb heard that his younger brothers Bran and Rickon were dead. Unaware that the boys killed weren’t actually Bran and Rickon, Robb was understandably devastated. Jeyne tried to console Robb and they ended up sleeping together, leading to Robb marrying her to protect her honor and out of love for her.

When Robb left to attend the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey — the wedding intended to reforge the alliance between the Starks/Tullys and the Freys — Jeyne stayed behind at Riverrun as her presence would just feel like rubbing salt into Walder Frey’s wounds. As such, Jeyne wasn’t present when Robb was slain at the Red Wedding, though her marriage to Robb is still what made Walder Frey want to stab the Stark and Tully forces in the back. When Jaime Lannister took control of Riverrun, he discovered that Jeyne still lived, but her mother fed Jeyne daily potions that prevented her from becoming pregnant, meaning she never conceived a child with Robb.

Talisa

Talisa Maegyr — played by Oona Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin and great-granddaughter of Eugene O’Neil — had quite different origins from Jeyne as Talisa was originally a noblewoman from the Free City of Volantis. She became a healer and traveled to Westeros, where Robb met her tending to a wounded Lannister soldier after a battle during the War of the Five Kings.

She and the King in the North formed an immediate bond between them. Talisa chose to follow Robb’s army, during which time the two of them grew much closer, eventually admitting their deep feelings for one another, sleeping together, and then marrying in private. Continuing to help others with her skills as a healer, Talisa also supported Robb and even gave him advice, and became pregnant with Robb’s child. Unlike Jeyne, Talisa traveled to the Twins for what became the Red Wedding, where she and the unborn child were slaughtered by the Freys.

Who was the better character?

Talisa ultimately served the story in the show much better than Jeyne did in the books. Both made the Red Wedding possible and proved how Robb was truly his father’s son, choosing honor and what he believed in over what was practical, even if it led to dire consequences. Book readers didn’t really get much of a chance to know Jeyne, though, and she mostly just served as a catalyst for an important plot twist and for Robb’s character development.

On the other hand, viewers of the show got a chance to really know and care about Talisa over the course of seasons two and three. They saw her unafraid to get her hands dirty and be on the battlefield, tending to soldiers with grotesque and life-threatening wounds. Audiences learned of her beautiful backstory that explained why she left behind the life of a noblewoman in Volantis to become a common healer in Westeros.

Robb’s choice to violate the promise made to Walder Frey felt more justifiable seeing the chemistry between him and Talisa. He not only loved her, but he truly respected her as he engaged in genuine conversation with her about battle tactics and his own inner conflicts and struggles, not to mention admiration for her healing skills and compassion. The show also featured Catelyn Stark slowly warming up to Talisa and even opening up to her, such as Catelyn telling Talisa the story of how she wished ill of Jon Snow as a child and feels that is the cause of her family’s suffering.

Talisa being at the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey might not have made a lot of sense from a strategic standpoint, but having Robb see his wife and unborn child die made the Red Wedding even more shocking and devastating to witness. By not being there, Jeyne lived on in the books, but her reappearance just felt like tying up a loose end before quickly joining the ranks of once important and now irrelevant characters in George R. R. Martin’s world. In this case, the show did a better job with Talisa than the books did with Jeyne.

Season 8 of Game of Thrones premieres April 14 on HBO.