Well, I’ll get into this in detail in ASOS, but yes. What people forget is that in ASOS, Rickard Karstark ordered his men to desert before he carried out the murder of the two prisoners, so unlike in the show, Robb isn’t losing thousands of soldiers – he’s already lost them.
Meanwhile, no ruler (King or Lord Paramount) can allow hostages to be murdered by his bannermen against his explicit orders. To allow that example to stand is to risk the complete disintegration of his army, as lords realize that there is no penalty to treason and wanton disregard of the oldest laws known to the First Men.
RFTIT Tumblr Backup 