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