Character Tribute: Brynden "Blackfish" Tully

Hello Throners!

So a while ago (okay, ages ago...) I started this series to shine a light on underappreciated or minor characters from the ASOIAF universe. Today's episode is going to be about Brynden Tully a.k.a. "The Blackfish".

Before the books

Not much is known about his early life apart from him being five years younger than his older brother, Hoster, which would make his birth in the years between 243 and 245 AC respectively. He squired for Lord Darry and was knighted eventually.

In 260 AC, when the Fifth (and final) Blackfyre Rebellion (a.k.a. The War of the Ninepenny Kings) broke out, he fought and gained renown as a great knight throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

After his father died, his brother Hoster became the Lord of Riverrun and as such arranged a betrothal between Brynden and Bethany Redwyne, which, to Hoster's great dismay, he refused, putting a large strain on their relationship. He also turned down offers from Jonos Bracken and Walder Frey to wed either of their daughters. (Some fans have come to speculate about him being homosexual because of this, but GRRM hasn't said anything about why he refused.)

Some years later this (or something else) led to an argument between the brothers in which Hoster calls him the black goat of the family to which Brynden replies since their sigil is a fish he should be called a black fish and from then on he took the Tully sigil with a black trout instead of a white one and since then has been known as "Blackfish".

Although he had a difficult relationship with Hoster he had a very good one with his nephew Edmure and hise nieces Catelyn and Lysa when they were young. They would always come to him with their problems when their father was busy or their mother ill. He would always listen patiently and give them his advice on the matter.

After Lysa's marriage to Jon Arryn at the beginning of Robert's Rebellion he chose to go with Lysa to the Vale, which Hoster took as a personaly slight and refused to speak of or to Brynden for years to come.

Time of the books

This is where we get to meet Brynden for the first time in the books. While traveling with her prisoner Tyrion to the Vale to meet her sister, Catelyn encounters her uncle at the Bloody Gate, the first line of defense of the Vale, where the Blackfish serves as the commander, the so called Knight of the Gate. After quarreling with Lysa about sending aid to the Riverlands he resigns as Knight of the Gate and accompanies Catelyn to meet Robb at Moat Cailin.

There he quickly becomes part of Robb's war council and leader of his scouts as which he is also responsible to lure Jaime Lannister, who besieged Riverrun with his troops, to the Battle of the Whispering Woods where he was soundly defeated. At the following lifting of the Siege of Riverrun, Brynden commands Robb's vanguard which shows the amount of trust Robb puts in his great-uncle.

Afterwards, Hoster for the first time in years agrees to see Brynden and the two reconcile, with Hoster stating, that he is too old and sick to fight. Seeing his brother weak like he is really gets to the Blackfish, showing he still cares for his brother despite the years of strife between them.

He accompanies Robb in his campaign in the Westerlands, so unfortunately there is a time we hear nothing about him. However when his brother is about to die, he is sent for by Catelyn and Maester Vyman, the maester at Riverrun. He returns together with Robb and scolds (unrightfully imo) Edmure for his Battle of the Fords, in which he defeated Tywin Lannister, but foiled a plan of Robb and Brynden, to lure Tywin back to the Westerlands and fight him on a ground of their choosing. More about that later though.

After Rickard Karstark is imprisoned for murdering the two Lannister boys held captive as hostages, the Karstark men leave Riverrun and the Blackfish is sent after them with a hundred men, though there is no great hope of bringing them back.

When Hoster finally dies, he receives a funeral according to Tully traditions, meaning that he is put on a boat floating down the river and his heir shoots burning arrows at it so it catches fire. After Edmure is unable to do so after a few attempts, he silently hands the bow to Brynden, who hits the boat at the first attempt.

When Robb and Edmure leave for the Twins where Edmure is to wed one of Lord Walder's daughters, Brynden stays behind as castellan and Warden of the Southern Marches, tasked by Robb to protect his queen, Jeyne, and the Riverlands. Because of this he is not present at the Red Wedding and he keeps on fighting after Robb's death and Edmure's capture although there is practically no chance if victory. In an attempt to withstand a long siege, he expels the smallfolk from Riverrun and picks clean each and every field he is able to reach so he can feed his men.

He is besieged until Jaime Lannister arrives with his men from King's Landing to either storm the castle or force a surrender of the castle from Brynden. For that, Brynden agrees to a parley, but only because he wants to hear Jaime's reasons for not releasing Arya and Sansa (as promised to Catelyn), he wanted to see Jaime's stump and he claims that sieges are rather dull, so he needed entertainment. So as a result the parley leads to nothing and Jaime, through threats and promises, convinces Edmure to yield the castle if he is allowed to go inside. Before he does so however, he let's the Blackfish escape through a slightly raised water gate.

That is the last we hear of Brynden Tully, but it is supected (by Jaime as well as fans) that he might try to free the captive Edmure on his way from Riverrun to Casterly Rock and try a Tully restoration in the Riverlands.

My personal opinion

So the reason I do this series is to shine a light on minor characters, that are not fleshed out on the show due to limited time and to show that there are great characters apart from all the fan favorites like Jaime, Jon or Arya.

To me, Brynden Tully is one of these great characters because he has a lot of background history and is a renowned knight and warrior throughout Westeros as seen by e.g. Jaime's reverence for him. Despite the quarrels with his older brother Hoster he is true to his family to a fault and will do anything for them. He is however not without a fault just like any other character in the series. Although he is true to his family and a great knight, he is no saint.

When the war broke out in the Riverlands, Edmure opened the gates of Riverrun to accept all the fleeing smallfolk into his castle to protect them, because he cared about his people, the people he is sworn to protect. Brynden just doesn't seem to give a s**t. When he is castellan after the Red Wedding he expels all the people Edmure took in and leaves them with nothing to fend for themselves. Not a great way to care about the people you swore to protect! I know why he did it, he wanted to keep the mouths he had to feed as small as possible, still a d**k move...

The second thing I don't like about him is how he (and Robb) gave Edmure s**t for fighting the Battle of the Fords, when Edmure had no idea about their plans, because they didn't let him know. Edmure, the de facto lord of the Riverlands (, Hoster was sick and in no state to govern) and Robb's most important vassal. They don't let him know of their plan. Not a great move...

Still, despite these faults, I like him as a character. He is willing to do anything to keep his family safe, be it good or bad, and he is the last hope that House Tully has to become the primary house of the Riverlands again. At least the last hope I can see.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend!

#CharacterTribute