We continue our Game of Thrones House Symbolism series with House Tarly. Support ScreenPrism on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=7792695
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:01
“I’m a Tarly.
00:03
That name means something.”
00:05
The House Tarly sigil is a red huntsman over a green banner.
00:09
The clashing, vibrant colors and the figure in a fighting stance
00:12
highlight the house’s emphasis on battle and military.
00:16
Like the hunter on their sigil, the Tarlys have
00:18
an unstoppable drive —
00:20
this helps them doggedly pursue their goals,
00:22
but it also means they can be overambitious and stubborn.
00:25
“You cannot send me to the Wall.
00:27
You are not my queen.”
00:31
House Tarly was historically a vassal to House Tyrell.
00:34
But it’s one the most prominent houses of the Reach,
00:37
the most fertile land of Westeros,
00:39
so House Tarly is pretty wealthy.
00:40
The highly traditional Tarlys pride themselves on
00:43
faithful service and courage in battle.
00:46
Overall, House Tarly represents military strength,
00:49
old-fashioned values, perseverance, inflexibility,
00:52
contradiction, ambition and loyalty.
00:55
“I won’t let you go!”
00:57
“Move.”
00:58
“No!”
00:59
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01:01
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01:05
Of course, the member of House Tarly we all know
01:07
and love best is Samwell Tarly.
01:09
“I’ve always wanted to be a wizard.”
01:11
And Sam’s the black sheep of his family.
01:14
He clashes with his ultra-traditional father Randyll.
01:16
“I thought the Night’s Watch might make a man of you —
01:22
something resembling a man at least.
01:24
You managed to stay soft and fat,
01:28
your nose buried in books,
01:32
spending your life reading about the achievements of better men.”
01:38
But even if Samwell seems like he’s made of
01:40
different stuff than Randyll,
01:41
both men embody the deeper qualities of their House.
01:44
They echo the huntsman, Randyll in his fierce pursuit of
01:47
glory for the Tarly name
01:49
and Sam in his thirst for knowledge.
01:51
“You may be a coward, Tarly, but you’re not stupid.”
01:54
They’re both steadfast and endlessly passionate
01:57
about their causes.
01:58
“Archmaester, please!
01:59
It’s real.
02:00
I’ve seen it.”
02:01
It might take Sam longer to grow into his Tarly nature,
02:08
but he does share his family’s prowess in battle,
02:11
noble values, and history of overcoming great odds.
02:14
“Fine soldier, your father.
02:15
You don’t look like a soldier.
02:17
But I’m told you killed a white walker.”
02:20
During Robert’s Rebellion, House Tarly fought
02:22
alongside the Targaryens,
02:23
who they saw as the rightful rulers of Westeros.
02:26
Yet while they are traditional and loyal, the Tarlys are
02:29
also tempted by power and glory.
02:31
In season 7, Randyll Tarly abandons his allegiance to the Tyrells
02:35
to serve Queen Cersei in a gamble to replace the Tyrells
02:38
as rulers of Highgarden and Wardens of the South.
02:41
This seems to pay off when the Lannisters eliminate House Tyrell,
02:44
but when Randyll and his son Dickon refuse to
02:47
bend the knee to Daenerys,
02:48
they meet a swift end.
02:50
Randyll’s and Dickon’s deaths showcase both the core values
02:54
and the contradictions of the house.
02:57
Randyll had just shown himself to be opportunistic and faithless
03:00
so it made no sense that he wouldn’t bend the knee
03:02
when he only recently changed sides,
03:04
after breaking a longstanding oath to the Tyrells
03:07
to advance his own house.
03:08
“You will not kneel?”
03:09
“I already have a queen.”
03:11
“My sister.
03:14
She wasn’t your queen until recently though, was she?
03:17
When she murdered your rightful queen
03:19
and destroyed House Tyrell for all time.
03:22
So it appears your allegiances are somewhat flexible.”
03:25
Yet on the other hand, Randyll feels it’s important in battle
03:28
to stand behind his word to the end,
03:31
and if we’re being generous —
03:32
he may believe he’s serving Westeros’ rightful queen
03:35
as she fends off an army of foreign invaders.
03:37
Sure, Randyll used to serve Dany’s father,
03:40
but he is an old-fashioned guy who is not going to accept
03:42
a queen ushered in by Dothraki and Unsullied.
03:45
“An army of savages at her back.”
03:47
So as we’ve seen, sometimes the Tarlys’ determined ambition
03:51
clashes with rigid traditionalism
03:53
leading to inconsistent behaviors.
03:55
“There are no easy choices in war.”
03:57
The house motto “First in Battle” boast of their
04:00
proud connection to the military.
04:02
“With your permission, flogging stragglers has
04:05
a marked effect on mobility.”
04:06
Their most prized possession is the Valyrian steel sword
04:09
known as Heartsbane.
04:10
Tarlys are known for their strength in warfare,
04:13
and they command of one of the biggest
04:14
and best-trained armies in Westeros.
04:16
“You were the only man to defeat Robert Baratheon in battle.
04:19
Not even Rhaegar Targaryen could –”
04:20
“It’s a long ride back to the Reach, Ser Jaime.
04:23
How may I serve?”
04:24
The motto also speaks to the way the Tarlys fight —
04:26
as noble generals, they don’t stand back and send out
04:29
other bodies to fight for them.
04:31
When Randyll fights with the Lannisters
04:32
and supplies his army,
04:34
he personally joins his troops on the battlefield
04:36
and puts his safety at risk.
04:38
The Tarly motto helps explain Randyll
04:41
rejects Sam from his house.
04:42
For the head of a family that’s all about military prowess
04:45
and reputation in battle,
04:47
it’s unfathomable to have a son who rejects
04:50
all of that history for gentle activities
04:52
like reading and learning.
04:54
“On the morning of my eighteenth nameday, my father came to me.
04:58
‘You’re almost a man now’, he said,
05:02
‘but you’re not worthy of my land and title.’”
05:05
But Randyll does have another son who lives up to
05:07
his expectations of military talent and traditionalism.
05:11
“Dickon.”
05:12
“[Laughs]”
05:13
Shortly before his death, Sam’s brother Dickon braves
05:15
his first-ever battles against the Tyrells and Daenerys’ army.
05:19
“I hear you fought bravely at Highgarden.
05:21
Your first battle?”
05:23
“It was glorious.”
05:24
Dickon does well in battle, but his attempt
05:26
to match his father’s stubborn integrity gets him killed.
05:29
Randyll shows mixed feelings when Dickon follows his example.
05:32
“You will have to kill me too.”
05:34
“Step back and shut your mouth!”
05:37
Randyll turned his son into a copy of himself,
05:40
and so he can’t talk Dickon out of being so stupidly stubborn.
05:43
The Tarlys do seem to be aware of their own confusing inconsistencies
05:47
and inconveniently rigid commitment to their causes.
05:51
And we wonder if in his final moments Randyll might question
05:54
whether he was wrong to have such rigid expectations
05:57
of both his sons.
05:58
“You are the future of your house!
06:01
This war has already wiped one great house
06:03
from the world.
06:04
Don’t let it happen again, bend the knee!”
06:06
“I will not.”
06:07
In Dickon, Randyll got the son he wanted,
06:09
but this wasn’t necessarily such a good thing.
06:12
Sam is the son who lives and who actually has the chance
06:15
to continue the Tarly line into the future.
06:17
It’s symbolic that Sam steals his family’s sword Heartsbane.
06:20
He wasn’t given his father’s blessing,
06:23
but he steals that blessing anyway —
06:25
and he’ll be the one to carry on his family’s future
06:28
thanks to his unstoppable will,
06:29
the very thing that makes him such a Tarly.
06:32
“Sam, that’s your father’s sword.”
06:36
“It’s my family’s sword.”
06:39
“Sam, won’t he come for it?”
06:46
“He can bloody well try.”
06:51
The Tarly colors green and red are bold,
06:54
opposing colors that we generally think clash.
06:57
So their colors, too, underline their contradictory nature.
07:00
They’re as faithful as they are opportunistic,
07:03
as glory-driven to rise as they are rigidly immovable.
07:07
The deep green of the sigil’s background is a color of
07:09
growth and prosperity,
07:11
representing the lush and fertile lands of
07:13
the Tarly’s home, the Reach.
07:14
“It’s so green.”
07:16
Green is also associated with greed and ambition.
07:19
The color also reminds us of the Tarly’s historical service
07:22
to House Tyrell —
07:23
which also used green to boast of their wealth from the Reach.
07:27
But most of all, the Tyrell green came to express
07:29
their plotting and opportunism.
07:31
Randyll shows the opportunism of the Tarly House,
07:34
when he switches sides in Season 7.
07:36
Sam does show the Tarly ambition and desire for power,
07:39
just not in the way his father wanted.
07:41
During his time at the Citadel, Sam is constantly frustrated
07:44
with his lack of sway among the Maesters.
07:47
“They set me to the task at preserving that man’s
07:49
window-counting and annulments
07:51
and bowel movements for all eternity,
07:53
while the secret to defeating the Night King is probably
07:55
sitting on some dusty shelf somewhere completely ignored.”
07:57
Sam doesn’t respect the usual chain of authority —
08:00
he shows off and disobeys orders,
08:02
like when he heals Jorah Mormont of Greyscale
08:04
even though he’s been explicitly forbidden from doing this
08:07
because it’s too dangerous.
08:09
After his success, if he’s not in trouble,
08:11
Sam half expects a promotion or some sort of recognition.
08:14
“You expected a reward?”
08:16
Sam is eager to be put into a position
08:18
where he can really make an impact —
08:20
this is due to the urgency of the White Walker threat
08:22
that he knows is real and dire.
08:24
But it’s also due to an inherent Tarly instinct
08:27
to distinguish oneself and rise to a place of influence.
08:31
Red is a color of power, as well as blood and violence,
08:35
symbolizing House Tarly’s battle-hardened readiness to fight.
08:38
Red is also the color of passion.
08:40
A Tarly follows his passion, whether it’s for war
08:43
or for knowledge.
08:45
Sam is passionate about literature and all kinds of learning,
08:48
pursuits that Randyll considers to be effeminate hobbies.
08:51
Randyll sends Sam to the Wall to toughen him up,
08:54
but this doesn’t work the way Randyll intends.
08:57
Instead of developing a taste for battle and violence,
09:00
he grows passionate about a significant cause:
09:03
the fight against the White Walkers.
09:05
And his dedication to this greater battle helps him tap into his Tarly strengths
09:09
and grow into the greatest version of himself.
09:12
“This is irregular.”
09:13
“Yes, well I suppose that life is irregular.”
09:18
House Tarly’s symbol is a striding huntsman with a bow and arrow,
09:22
representing forward movement and a noble form of fighting.
09:25
The hunter’s stance varies in different renderings of the sigil,
09:28
but he’s generally mid-forward stride,
09:31
so the symbol projects that the Tarlys are constantly advancing forward.
09:35
In battle, they advance on the enemy.
09:37
In politics, they’re committed to always progressing
09:39
and improving their house status.
09:41
The huntsman’s arrow is drawn, ready to shoot,
09:44
just as the Tarlys are always battle-ready,
09:47
prepared for any fight.
09:48
The bow and arrow also represent noble weapons,
09:51
out in the open — compared to a hidden knife or poison.
09:54
So the Tarlys do not see treachery and trickery
09:57
as worthy tools in their battle.
09:59
They are up front about what they do and believe,
10:02
even to a fault.
10:03
“We’re not oathbreakers, we’re not schemers.
10:04
We don’t stab our rivals in the back,
10:05
or cut their throats at weddings.”
10:10
Like their figure, both Sam and Randyll are hunting for something,
10:13
stubbornly pursuing their goals.
10:15
No one wants to get between a Tarly and whatever
10:18
he’s set his mind on doing.
10:19
“He risked his own life to save mine more than once.
10:22
He’s a greater warrior than either of you will ever be.”
10:26
Randyll thought his disappointing son was at odds
10:28
with everything House Tarly represents,
10:30
bue we’ve come to see that Randyll
10:32
couldn’t have been more wrong.
10:34
“I made a promise to defend the Wall,
10:36
and I have to keep it.
10:37
Because that’s what men do.”
10:40
The Tarlys can be confusing.
10:42
They certainly have their faults,
10:43
and their overly militarized way of life isn’t for everyone.
10:46
But their stubborn commitment to their values points to
10:49
an admirable nobility and strength of character.
10:52
Now with House Tarly commanding the Reach and
10:54
Samwell left to represent his family,
10:56
it remains to be seen what role this noble house could play
11:00
in the final battle against the the White Walkers.
11:02
“Are you sure you want to do this?
11:05
You’ve always wanted to be a maester.”
11:07
“I’m tired of reading about the achievements of better men.”
11:11
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11:12
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11:13
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11:15
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11:16
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11:19
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11:23
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11:25
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