Apparently Riverrun is situated so that the army besieging it has to split up into three separate camps. A competent commander, therefore, would be concerned about having his forces attacked one-by-one and defeated in detail, but Jaime Lannister is kind of a tool.
And an impatient tool, too. Jamie has ridden out to chase off raiders in order to stave off the boredom of a siege. Robb decides to take advantage of the fact that Jaime is actually deeply stupid. I'm coming to the conclusion that Robb's not a strategic genius so much as everyone else in this setting (save certain Lannisters) is deeply stupid.
But we don't get any of the good stuff, dear reader, because George apparently doesn't want to let us get inside the heads of any of the Five Kings. Nor are we allowed to have Jaime as a POV character yet - mostly because his characterization in this book could be summed up as "stupid incestuous asshole," and it's a bit too late in this book to start doing some character development. So instead we have to let Catelyn Stark stand on the sidelines and fret while someone else fights her battles for her.
Again.
This is unfair, I know, because Catelyn is a) old for the setting and b) a woman in a sometimes-"hard" fantasy setting. But you know what? I don't care. Catelyn Stark is not and will never be my favorite character, and frankly it's a chore to get through her stuff while the action is happening off-page.
George was a TV writer for a while, so I wonder if this was his way of skimping on the budget. Frankly unnecessary because, hey, it's a book. So we have to hear about the battle secondhand once it's over. Jaime tried to kill Robb when he saw he'd lost the battle, and Torrhen and Eddard Karstark gave their lives to save Robb's. Now their father Rickard wants vengeance for their deaths. Hmm, maybe the whole "father to his men" trope is overrated, Robb? I mean it's great that your followers will die for you, but that kinda seems like it's more trouble than it's worth.
Theon Greyjoy also wants to just kill Jaime and be done with it, but at least Robb understands the value of a hostage. (And, um, remember: Theon is a hostage. He's with the Starks because the deal is they'll kill him if his father gets uppity. Robb might want to remember this...)
Okay, so they captured Jaime, but the Lannister host is still besieging Riverrun. Still, that's bound to upset the balance of power, no?
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