The Blackfish

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
That night they made camp on thesouthern edge of the bogs,
halfway between the King's Road and the river.
It was there Theon Greyjoy brought them further word.
From her uncle. So Brendan says to tell you he's
crossed swords with the Lannisters.
There are a dozen scouts who won't be reporting back to Lord
Tywin anytime soon forever. He grinned.
Sir Adam Mahbrand commands theiroutriders, and he's pulling back

(00:42):
S burning as he goes. He knows where we are, more or
less. But the Blackfish?
Vows he will not know when we split.
Unless Lord Frey tells him. Catelyn said sharply.
Theon, when you return to my uncle, tell him he is to place
his best Bowman around the twinsday and night with orders to
bring down any Raven they see leaving the battlements.
I want no birds bringing word ofmy son's movements to Lord

(01:04):
Tywin. So Brendan has seen to it.
Already, my lady, Theon replied with a cocky smile.
A few more blackbirds and we should have enough to bake a
pie. I'll save you their feathers for
a hat. She ought to have known that
Brendan Blackfish would be well ahead of her.
Brotherhood is a strong aspect within A Song of Ice and Fire's

(01:25):
great collection of character based themes, with Jamie and
Tyrion, Rob and John, the three Baratheons as prime examples.
And, well, you know, there's there's plenty of others.
I. Don't need to list them.
These are very familiar of course, because we've seen a lot
of these brotherly interactions first hand through various
POV's. But of course these
relationships exist in the past as well through older
generations. The so-called puppet masters

(01:46):
whose strings our main characters dance upon, who in
turn danced upon the strings of their parents.
Sir Brendan Tully, AKA Blackfish, certainly had to do
his share of dancing, not only to his parents and the
conditions of the realm around him, but his brother's tune.
And that was a cause for a lot of conflict.
And that conflict indirectly ledhim to being in the right place

(02:07):
at the right time to come help save the day and assist Rob
Stark establish his new Kingdom.Now, even as that Kingdom and
its king has fallen, Blackfish continues the struggle.
So hello and welcome to another episode of History of Westeros
podcast. It's good to be back covering
the books again after a while. It's so much fun to dive into
the much greater level of detail.

(02:28):
We couldn't possibly do a full episode on TV Blackfish.
There just isn't enough to go on.
We would have to draw on book material to fill in the gaps or
maybe it would be a really shortepisode.
But this political conditions ofa time when he was born
throughout the time now there's just so much to get into and
really excited to be doing this.Get want to give a few bits of

(02:50):
thanks before we get to the meeting material.
I want to thank our Co writers, mostly Joe Buckley who wrote
about half of this episode, and Rainey Targaryen, whose timeline
expertise was particularly valuable in this episode.
Because we don't have precise dates on either Brendan or
Hoster's birth, nor Ed Muir and a lot of these other Tullys.

(03:11):
So playing with these ranges of dates makes it a little trickier
than. When we have precise dates.
But in any case, we nailed a lotdown.
You're going to like it. Thanks to Jeff Gnarly, the Long
snapper History of Westeros's First Sword, and our dragon
rider patrons. Lord Mark of House Joseph, the
Snow and Winterfell, rider of Mazela Carthorough, a white

(03:32):
dragon with green scales, horns,wings, and talons.
Tulaneous the Talon, King of Gagasos, rider of Hilarious, a
red dragon with scales, horns, and talons of midnight Black.
Jinx of House Liere Green, queenof the Rainwood, Rider of
Irogenia, A sulphic albino dragon with amethyst eyes and
opalescent wings. We're going back to the time of
Sir Brendan Tully, the Blackfish's early days, before

(03:54):
he had either a nickname or evena SER.
He might not be your first thought when either of these
subjects are brought up. He's an unmarried uncle, and he
doesn't have any descendants of his own, but he is a family man
Despite that, and he's pulled quite a few strings of his own,
especially that of his brother, who was of course pulling his
strings. Or perhaps it would be better to
say he didn't pull strings so much as refused to let his own

(04:17):
be pulled. And when a puppet doesn't?
Behave the way that it's master wants.
It kind of has a trickle. Down.
Or a trickle. Up effect.
Brendan's repeated refusals to Mary, for example, had a
difficult to determine but clearly significant impact on
Lord Hofstra's plans. In general.
His impact on politics was significant but indirect, though

(04:38):
it's is not his Forte and it is something he, like many
soldiers, disdains. In addition to refusing to be
part of the game. He was, is, and will continue to
be. If you ask us, a major player
when it comes to warfare. And warfare is a major part of
the game. Even modern soldiers are told to
use the KISS principle as often as possible.

(04:59):
KISS stands for Keep it simple stupid.
So when I say the soldierly way is the simple.
Way. It's not an insult, it's in fact
the opposite. Keeping things simple is a form
of wisdom. Making things complicated
doesn't make you smarter. Sometimes it does the opposite.
And what house makes its goals simpler than House Tully?

(05:19):
Family, duty, honor, in that order, right?
Well, maybe not, but usually. And Blackfish is named so
because he's different. His nickname derives from his
brother naming him a maverick. That's the implication of that
black sheep of the family clichethat gets thrown around in our
world as well as in Westeros. And this is what Hofstra Tully

(05:40):
was referring to, except he, youknow, called him a goat instead
of a sheep. Same difference.
But even when he left Hoster, hewent to go guard Hoster's
daughter Lysa. And many years later, when he
left Lysa's service, he did it to go fight for.
River Run and the King in the North, who would not forget Rob
is half Tully himself and looks.Like a Tully.

(06:01):
That's family and duty right there.
And As for honor, well, even theBlackfish's bitterest foes
believe he deserves a noble death, being a great warrior and
commander. Who?
Stays out of politics. That's a really good way to be
considered honorable and to be respected, though not getting
your hands dirty in politics is a little different than getting

(06:21):
your hands dirty in war. Yeah, Westerosi respect the
latter a lot more than the former, generally speaking.
And Brendan Blackfish is one of the most famous Knights in the
land, period. He has a major influence on the
War of 5 Kings, and he's a huge figure in the life of one of our
main POV characters, Catelyn. He appears poised to play a
continuing role as well, a topicwith many subtopics that we will

(06:43):
explore fully by the end of thisepisode.
Brendan telly also sparked some debate whether he's just a good
man, a selfish self-contained old grump, or somewhere in
between. Whichever is true, Brendan is
multifaceted and complicated, asyou would expect coming from
George. He is the type of man who's
simultaneously fondly regarded as a warm parent by Catlin, even

(07:07):
though he's not a parent. And revered as a hero by young
Jaime Lannister, all while having long standing mysteries
of his own. The Brendan we meet in the
series is aged, nearing his 60s,which is an accomplishment for
any man in Westeros, let alone aseasoned warrior.
Surviving that long is hard, andyet he remains at least
reminiscent of the young warriorhe was, even if he isn't quite

(07:29):
as quick or strong as he once was.
His abilities as a commander have only grown.
He's always been brave, but overthe years he's a crude
experience. Glory and his fame has spread.
He's basically now a living legend.
But this is the History of Westeros podcast, so we have to
go back to the past before we reach present Brendan.

(07:51):
Find what earned him his fame and adulation.
Early life. Between 2:38 and 2:40, ACA new
heir was born to the Lord of River, and he was named Hoster,
the future father of Catlin Weiss and Ed Muir.
While he was born to inherit, aswe knew he later did, his first
heir would have been his youngerbrother, born some five years

(08:13):
later between 2:40. 2:00 and 2:45.
And that's our subject, Brendan.No ordinary name.
While Blackfish is a standout nickname that is used more often
than his real name, Brendan is an extremely notable name as
Brandon Rivers, AKA Bloodraven, had recently become Lord
Commander of the Night's Watch after a long famous or perhaps

(08:36):
infamous career. Has handed the king.
A Dance with Dragons Brand 3. I have an Uncle Brandon.
He's my mother's uncle. Really.
Brandon Blackfish, he's called. Brand said.
Your uncle may have been named for me.
Some are still not so many as before.
Men forget. Only the trees remember.

(08:59):
May have been named for me is technically correct, but clearly
an understatement. Sure, they might just like the
name, but it's literally impossible that the Lord and
Lady of River Run didn't somehowtake note of the fact that
Bloodraven, famous in the realm for decades, the son of the King
and Melissa Blackwood, who's a vassal of the Tulleys, was named

(09:19):
Brendan as well. I mean, come on, that's that
can't just be coincidence. But Bloodraven isn't the only
connection to the crown. So it gets deeper.
In fact, another Blackwood was even closer.
The Queen of Westeros, in fact, was a Blackwood herself, none
other than Black Betha. And when Brendan was born, she
had been queen for nine years, or roughly at least nine years.

(09:42):
And this nod to a Blackwood may not have pleased the Brackens,
but they surely would have less hatred for this particular
Brendan, especially compared to Bloodraven, right?
The current Lord Bracken Jonas, as in around the time of the
where the books are now, tells Jamie I'm fond of the man.
I won't deny that. When Hoster reveals when he's
near death that Lord Bracken hadoffered his daughter to marry

(10:03):
Blackfish, that was one of the many marriages that Blackfish
rejected. And this is probably Lord
Jonas's sister that we're talking about, since we're about
one generation back when that offer was made.
The Tullys had a. Perfect record of siding with
the Crown against the Blackfiresand were notable for their
support of Aegon the Conqueror himself, meaning that the
Tulleys had a long record of backing House Targaryen, one of

(10:26):
the first hands of the king for Aegon the Conqueror was a
Tulley. Brendan is a name ripe with
meaning, given all this history of the Targaryens and the
Tulleys in the Blackwoods. And you might say, wait a SEC,
Hoster Tully turned on House Targaryen at the outset of
Robert Trebellion. What are you talking about?
Perfect record. Well, they had a perfect record.
They just don't anymore. And it's always been easy to

(10:48):
justify Hoster turning on Aries.Anyone turning on Aries had
fairly good justification, especially those families who
were directly impacted. But there's more to it than
that. And it happened right around the
time we're dealing with. Something was to come that
would. Shake up that loyalty, and what
was once a stable and proud tradition of the Tully dynasty
would begin to. Erode right before the time

(11:11):
Blackfish was born. The Royal Tully bombs.
This period of time would prove quite famous for births of major
characters, including the mothers and fathers of many of
the adults who are now in their primes.
Tywin, Kevin and Jenna Lannisterall born around this time.
Aries Targaryen himself a littlebefore Stefan Baratheon around

(11:32):
this time. Barristan Selmy is about 6 to 9
years older than Blackfish, and Given how those two are compared
a lot and how they would all these men would interact at
major points throughout the coming half century or so is
entering how close they are at birth.
Perhaps due to their staunch loyalty or esteem, or for
reasons outside of our knowledge.

(11:53):
House Tully maintained those ties dating back to the conquest
certain. Celia Tully at this time was
daughter of the Lord of River Run, betrothed to Jaharis, the
second son of King Aegon The 50 unlikely in the year 237, and
this is about 5 to 8 years before Brendan was born, and
only about a year or three before Hosters.

(12:13):
So there's a chance that she, the Celia Tully that is, was
their elder sister, but it's more likely she was their aunt.
For reasons too lengthy to bringup here.
Just trust our timeline expert Rainey.
So I double checked her work andI agree with that conclusion.
But there's also a third possibility, which is that she's
like 1/2 sister, you know, maybethis Lord of reverend married

(12:33):
more than once. That happens sometimes.
Two years later, though, Prince Duncan the Small renounced his
claim as the King's heir in order to marry his beloved
common girl, Jenny of Old Stones.
And that. Made you Aries?
The heir to the throne, which meant Celia was on track to be a
Tully Queen of Westeros, something never before seen.
Soon came a revolt in the Stormlands as Duncan was

(12:56):
betrothed to Lauren Lyle Baratheon's daughter, and his
daughter was marrying the Crown Prince.
Of course, that's Duncan. So he lost out on that, which is
a big deal. You, I thought you were going to
have your daughter become the queen and then, sorry, that's
cancelled. You would wonder how the Tullys
would react to this. You know, they wouldn't be happy

(13:17):
that this patrol that was brokenpublicly.
But on the other hand, that madeCelia, you know, in line to
become queen. So they would probably assist
the crown. In this rebellion to set down
the Baratheons. So imagine their disappointment.
The Tullys, that is, when a yearlater, not unlike Leanna and his

(13:38):
own grandson Rhaegar, Prince Jahari snuck off with his.
Sister Prince Shera and they married in secret and
consummated it and they were legitimately in love and King
Aegon and Queen Beth of Blackwood just accepted the
marriage. At that point, there wasn't much
they could do. This very much upset Lord Tully
as well as Lord Tyrell, whose son Luthor instead married a

(14:02):
queen rather than Princess Shera, the Queen of Thorns that
is not a Targaryen. It likely upset much of the
Reach and Riverlands as well, because, hey, the Riverlands was
probably feeling kind of proud about the prospect of Celia
becoming queen. That would have been the second
straight Riverlands queen because Beth the Blackwood, you

(14:23):
know, was queen before. But unlike the Stormlands, the
Riverlands and Reach didn't actually rebel.
But we all know houses hate to be humiliated like this.
Not everyone reacts as poorly tolosing their crack at having a
queen in their family as, say, Walder Frey, another Riverlands
house, nor even Lionel Baratheon.
Nonetheless, just because they didn't rebel doesn't mean it

(14:43):
wasn't a huge insult. We're told that it was exactly
that. So with.
Hoster Tully being the future heir, he spent his childhood
being raised for lordship by a father who had suffered this
particularly great insult at thehands of House Targaryen, so
from a very early age. This was, you know, in his
sphere of existence, and it probably sank in.

(15:04):
It would likely be years before his family set this herd aside,
if ever. And thus Brendan also would have
been raised in this attitude alongside this recent insult.
That may have been a big part of.
What they believed. Remember all this in particular
when we get to Robert's Rebellion as men and women of

(15:26):
honor all over Westeros struggled oath to Liege or mad
king, which do we do? It's a tough choice, but if you
had some sort of insult from a previous generation, well, that
might tip the. Scales and how Tully had a
particular insult of that that I've just mentioned.
So you can see why they sided with the non Targaryens.

(15:47):
Of course there's other reasons for that, you know, the South
run conspiracy talk and all that.
But still this insult probably mattered on top of all that.
But when Robert Trebellion brokeout, Blackfish was about 40.
So we got a lot of history between now and then to cover.
So let's move away from the setting in which he was born and
move on to the man himself. The Blackfish night.

(16:13):
OK, so he hadn't actually earnedthat nickname yet, and he wears
the Tully colors most of the time, but we're going to use it
now to simplify and to differentiate him from
Bloodraven. Too many Brendans in these
parts. Blackfish was apparently
knighted in his mid teens, whichis very much on the early side
of things. This also means that his father,
who died in 264 or later, lived to see his son achieve this

(16:37):
honor, though unfortunately we don't have any details on what
he did to get knighted so fast. But considering his personality,
the type of man he was and stillis, it's not hard to guess that
it was just general greatness, general talent, just good with
the sword, brave, all that stuff.
That's basically what gets you knighthood in the early days

(17:00):
anyway. So it's probably that, as we see
with multiple other characters, like Brendan, being a second son
was set on a different path as his brother, not unlike that of
Ned Stark, right? Rob and John had much different
paths. Brendan's not a bastard, but you
can kind of see the difference between a first son and a second
son like Bran. Bran is a second son and he

(17:22):
bought he was going to become a knight, you know, And that's
basically the track that Brendanwas on being a second son, kind
of like Ned Stark, also a secondson, but the Riverland's
equivalent, which is knighthood instead of, you know, the
Northern equivalent, which doesn't really have a name.
And of course a lot of second, third, etcetera sons become
better fighters than their firstborn brother.

(17:43):
And it just makes sense, right? Because they get to focus on
fighting while the first born has to learn how to rule and all
these other things in addition to learning how to.
Fight so. It pays to focus on one thing as
Brendan B Fish AKA Jeff Hartline, nicknamed after our.
Subject today as noted in his Blood of the Conquer series.

(18:06):
There's a kind of a set Rd. for knighthood with milestones,
right? You get a, you become, you're a
page, then you're a Squire, and then you eventually become a
knight, earning your spurs. Now, Brendan followed this
model, though we don't know if he actually did the page thing.
Some people skip that, and he may have, he may have done that,
but maybe not. What we do know is that he was
sent off to Squire along with Norbert, future Lord of House

(18:30):
Vance. At Castle Derry.
Now How's Derry was noted for its staunch loyalty to House
Targaryen, so that might come up.
Later, we don't know the name ofthis particular Lord Derry, but
looking at the dates, it's pretty likely the father of
Raymond Derry. And Raymond was Lord of Derry at
the beginning of the series. Now he's dead now.
So as you would expect, not onlyis Brendan being trained in arms

(18:53):
from a young age, he's rubbing shoulders with his father's
vassals and other people around,establishing ties and
friendships as we see every smart family do in Westeros.
And of course, he's leaving an impact because as we said,
everyone in Westeros, with few exceptions, really respects
people who are good at fighting.So anywhere Brendan went,
probably he was impressing people.
And as we see even from his enemies, even when he's old,

(19:16):
this richest form of social currency, martial skill comes up
again. He's so often compared to
Barristan Selmy, and Selmy is often considered one of the best
we've ever heard of from any era.
And Selmy was more of a a white knight, right?
I mean, he wears the colors white even because of the
Kingsguard. Brendan's more of a black

(19:37):
knight. Through the whole of his life to
this point, the king had been Egg on the 5th, the unlikely
right brother of Maester Eamonn.Egg.
This is Egg we're talking about.He's the one who sent Bloodraven
to the wall. Politics society seemed to have
a lot in common with his namesake, right?
Obviously we just talked about how Blackfish doesn't get
involved in politics too much, and Bloodraven was very

(19:58):
involved. But outside of that, skilled
Archer, skilled swordsman, skilled at controlling
information. Blackfish's skill with
information control is battlefield information.
Not let you know, not the politics, not Master of Whispers
type stuff. We're talking about killing
Ravens and enemy scouts. All that while deploying scouts

(20:20):
and messengers of his own. He understands this probably
better than anyone we know. And.
We see him nail that shot in hisbrother's funeral scene, right,
lighting the funeral boat on fire from a distance.
And his namesake Bloodraven vanished beyond the wall,
officially speaking circa 252, when Brendan himself, Blackfish

(20:42):
would have been around 7 to 10 years old.
So there's no chance that they had contact, you know, face to
face, but. Perhaps some of the Lords of the
Riverlands employed some of his personal guard, and certainly
they told stories. But the Raven's teeth, many of
them, that's blood. Raven's personal guard, many of
them took the black with him. But.
Given that many of them did not all, well, where did they go?

(21:06):
A lot of them maybe went to get jobs with different Lords around
the realm. Having been with Blood Raven
gives them a little extra clout and maybe some of them went
around as trainers or masters atArms and you know, maybe Brendan
had some contact with some of these guys.
This Black Knight versus white Knight concept is something I
want to come back to because I think it's really interesting to
consider. Typically, the Black Knight is

(21:29):
associated with. Evil, but not really in
Westeros, and certainly not the case with Brendan Tully.
I wouldn't call him chivalrous though.
He's not really a knight who puts protecting the weak
particularly high on his list. At least not a weak common born
weak members of his family maybe.
Duty sounds noble, but consider that Sand Oracle Gain was doing

(21:52):
his duty when he killed Micah Corn Half Hand would surely
approve of duty before honor. For example, remember that he
told John that their personal honor means nothing next to
their duty to protect the. Realm, what the Night's Watch
gives up is their families, and that's the first word for House
Tully, though, so that's where the comparison kind of falls

(22:12):
apart. The contrast this to sell me.
Who also gave up his inheritanceleaving his family, right?
He doesn't protect them at all. He's given them up entirely.
Even though taking the white brings honor to your family, it
means you're no longer really a part of the family.
So it's kind of a weird dichotomy.
And the Night's Watch, like Selmy's oath to the Kingsguard,

(22:36):
is gone. I mean, this is a lifelong oath.
They give, so he's kind of left his family.
I always thought that was kind of a odd little thing to square.
Blackfish wasn't doing that kindof thing.
It's funny though, despite not joining one of these martial
orders like the Nights Watch or the Kingsguard, he really lives
a lot. Like one of them didn't have his
own family, right? And the Nights Watch puts duty

(22:58):
first. The Kingsguard focuses on
protecting one particular family, right?
The Blackfish is also kind of focused on protecting one
particular family. It's just his, not the royal
family. He's kind of like a Kingsguard
with his to his own house who gets to leave whenever he wants
because he didn't actually swearan oath.
So he has more freedom than a Kingsguard or Man of the Watch,
but he exercises basically none of these freedoms except for,

(23:21):
you know, leaving Lysa and leaving Hoster.
But basically, he's just as chaste, just as dutiful, just as
dedicated as any of the best from either the Night's Watch or
the Kingsguard. And that kind of makes me.
Wonder why he was never chosen for Aries or Jahari's
Kingsguard. Maybe he didn't want to be, but
it could be that several, if notmost or all of the Kingsguard

(23:42):
died at Summerhall before Brendan was famous.
So you would think that that wasa time when maybe the the ranks
were thin and someone like him who was kind of coming into his
own might have been the guy to take a place.
But maybe not. Maybe there's more to it.
If not for Aries making his moveand giving a white cloak to
Jamie, maybe it would have been Blackfish, but again, maybe he

(24:03):
would have refused. Not that refusing the Kingsguard
is something that comes up. Much but Blackfish.
I could see him doing that. I could see him being different
because he's different so many other ways and not that having
Jamie at court worked out for. Aries.
But Blackfish, Can you imagine him at court?
I don't know. He just doesn't seem to fit
right? He doesn't mince words like

(24:24):
virus or even Selmy. Selmy's straightforward with
battles, right? He's an open kind of guy and he
but he's very careful with his words.
He speaks politely, doesn't wantto offend.
Meanwhile, Blackfish is the opposite in both cases.
He's different in that he says what's on his mind and he
conducts battles in kind of a sneaky and subtle way.

(24:46):
A Game of Thrones Catlin 6 What madness is this?
He said bluntly. Brendan Tully had never been a
man to blunt the edge of his words.
A knight ascent with the moon not even full.
Even Lysa should know that's an invitation to a broken neck.
Note there that the Knight of the Gate is calling the Lady of
the Erie. By her first name while directly

(25:08):
insulting her by saying even Lysa should know in front of a
few of her subjects. That's not normally how you know
Knights speak about their, you know, superiors, but here he is
just saying what's on his mind. Selmy would not talk like this.
Let's not forget how he also tears into Ed Muir after the
Battle of Stone Mill. He's again the reverse of Sell

(25:31):
Me Here. Sneaky on the battlefield, but
extremely straightforward with his words.
He's described as blunt more than once, and really, you don't
need to have seen that description because the way he
talks just points that out directly.
So again, figuratively, Black Knight kind of means evil, but
it doesn't. Apply here it's the literal.
Sense in which Brendan is a Black Knight.

(25:52):
Meaning he's a knight of shadowsand darkness who makes expert
use of surprise and secrecy. So it's just the first time we
see him in action. His leadership is crucial to the
ambush, which is called a battleBattle of the in the Whispering
Woods, which takes place at night.
Given his great expertise in these forms of warfare, perhaps
that's the aptitude he showed inan early.

(26:15):
Age, not just fighting, but sneaking around in the
battlefield and ambushing and things like that.
Having a talent for that sort ofthing.
But there weren't any major warsthat we know of around the time
he was knighted. So it had to be something.
But it wasn't, you know, actual combat experience in in a major
war, again, that we know of regardless.
Of. How he earned his early minor
fame. We do know how he became known

(26:37):
throughout the realm, and it didn't take much longer than
this. Family fame name.
In that order? No, not in that order.
First the fame, then the family,then the name.

(26:57):
In the year 260, when Brendan was somewhere between 18 to 21,
one last attempt to take the throne from the Targaryens was
made by a Black Fire claimant. It was the.
War of the Ninepenny Kings. And around the time of this
knighting was also the tragic ofSummerhall, which led to the
crowning of Jairus the Second. And we all know what comes next.

(27:18):
The. War of 9 Penny Kings is
responsible for so much of the relationships we see on page.
As we've noted many times over, it was really like a a wartime
boys club that stretched over the next 4 decades.
So many important meetings happened here that lasted a
lifetime. Like Beresen Selmy, like the
fate of House Baelish, and like the twisted friendship of Tywin
Lannister and Aries Targaryen, Brendan was fully formed in the

(27:41):
war. His exploits were said to have
earned him fame across the SevenKingdoms, and it's not redundant
to say that only Beresen earned more from the fighting.
In terms of renown, despite being knighted at a young age,
Brendan was likely an afterthought to.
Most in the war at. First, because he was just the
second son that most people hadn't heard of.
Sure, he'd been knighted early, but we're talking thousands and

(28:01):
thousands and thousands of Westerosi commanded by veterans
from other regions. I mean, there's guys again.
Tywin Lannister, heir to the West, Hoster Tully, his brother,
heir to the Riverlands. Orman Baratheon handed the king
in Lord of Storm's End. Stefan Baratheon, his heir.
And by war's end, it's Lord because Orman was killed by none
other than Melius the Mantras himself.

(28:21):
Gerald Hightower, Lord Commanderof the Kingsguard, was there,
and he took over command after Orman's death as well.
Brendan was way down the peckingorder, but by the end, his name
was on the lips of many. So we can.
Safely say he. Accomplished some pretty
impressive feats, and one day, maybe in Fire and Blood or maybe
A Song of Ice at Fire, we'll learn what some of those feats

(28:42):
were. It wouldn't be.
Command, Probably because he wasso young then and there were so
many veterans with higher standing.
But the war was. Fought on the Stepstones and was
said to be bloody. The Stepstones would would not
be a place where you would have typical pitched battles.
There's probably a lot of. Back and forth and ambushing and
surprise attacks. There's not a lot of castles

(29:03):
there, so Blackfish might have been right at home.
Or that, and this may have explained why he made such a
name for himself. To take a step back.
From meta perspective, an interesting thing about
Blackfish is that most of what we know of him.
Is through Catlin. 'S point of view until Jamie
comes along, and by then Cat doesn't have a point of view

(29:23):
anymore, and so we see him through most of Jamie's eyes.
To Cat, he's a beloved protective uncle whom she is
fond memories of from her earliest of early memories.
To Jamie, he's a hero. Use that term living legend
again. That would apply here and also
he was an idol. A Feast for Crows Jamie 5.
But at that age no girl interested Jamie half so much as

(29:46):
Hoster's famous brother who had won renowned fighting the 9
Penny Kings upon the step stonesat table.
He had ignored poor Lysa whilst pressing Brendan Tully for Tales
of Meilis the Monstrous and the Yvonne Prince.
Now I feel you, Jamie. We would like to press him for
those tales too. Some other time, perhaps?
Lord Hoster. Matchmaker.

(30:08):
In 264 AC or a little later, Hoster and Brendan's father
passed and Hoster inherited River Run, joining that new wave
of nine penny veteran blood coming into power.
As we just discussed, Brendan himself was for a time Hoster's
heir, but he was never heir to River Run because Catlin was
born before their father died. You know, dynastic confusion

(30:29):
there. But it doesn't even really
matter because Brendan probably didn't care.
He doesn't seem like the type towant to rule.
You know, like, like Ned. Stark always thought it was all
meant for his brother and didn'treally ever want to be lured.
Brendan kind of seems like he's cut from the same.
Cloth and he actually got his wish.

(30:50):
He didn't have to rule River Runat any point, despite not
wanting to be air. He didn't sever his ties with
the political landscape, right? And politics as a way of
involving you even when you don't want to be involved.
And now Hoster, who's perhaps giddy with all the new friends
he'd made at this 9 Penny King social.

(31:10):
He had strong ideas though. He was very involved in
politics, and he seemed to be pretty good at it.
He had his marriages that he planned, and he'd unlike a lot
of typical high Lords, his marriages went outside of their
region. Well, some of them anyway.
He even found an incredibly goodmatch for Brendan Bethany
Redwine of the Reach. And as we know, the red wines

(31:35):
certainly weren't a family to besniffed at, and they certainly
aren't now. They have the largest Navy in
Westeros right now. Well, maybe not for long thanks
to Euron, but that's still a bigdeal, right?
They ruled the Arbor still do well.
Again, Euron has has something to say about that.
But they're a huge family, rich and powerful.
And given that the region is next door to the Riverlands, the

(31:57):
Reach, meaning not not the Arborspecifically, but the the fact
that they also border the Westerlands, this is a great way
to kind of tie things together. And remember, the Westlands had
just suffered through the rain Tarbek Rebellion.
And again, Tywin Lannister was on the rise right about then.
In addition, there's a little bit more to it.

(32:18):
The red wines were among the three houses along with the
Tulleys and the Tyrells who lostout on their Targaryen marriages
with under the, you know, under the kingship of Egg and his wife
Beth of Blackwood. So it's interesting that these
two jilted families would try toform a marriage alliance.

(32:38):
Maybe it's related to that. I mean, this is still a, you
know, a generation later, but this could definitely be
connected, you know, But there would be no red wine Tully
marriage, no Bethany Blackfish. He refused it and he kept
refusing after that. And Hoster just won't let it go
afterwards. And it's become, it becomes a
part of him. People outside of their family

(33:01):
talk about it. You know, the Lannisters were
talking about it. Some of the people that are with
Jamie at the siege of River Run bring it up like, oh, he's so
stubborn and even his own brother couldn't move him to the
marriage bed. It's just something that is
associated with him constantly. And it's the beginning as well
of the fracturing right When they were young, Hoster and
Brendan were close, but this wasa major beginning of a dispute

(33:27):
that would never be truly resolved.
Hoster was all about the good ofthe family, the politics, the
duty as he saw it, right? We're not saying that Hoster was
in the wrong, but we are saying that Brendan Hoster saw things
differently. One of the largest conversations
about Brendan Tully is why he turned down the marriage comes
up at the siege of River Run again, and it comes up in a lot

(33:49):
of places. It's basically just associated
with stubbornness, though. That's what people call it.
But it might be more than that. Let's make some guesses, because
we don't actually know. George R Martin himself said
that he won't expand on this reasoning at all.
We're left to our own devices. George will not give any clues

(34:09):
on it. He's been asked point blank, and
he's maintains his air of mystery.
Which might mean it's relevant to something later.
Or it might mean George just hasn't fully fleshed out himself
yet. Either way, I hope we find out
one day. It's probably not something
shallow though. Like just he wasn't attracted to
her because Hofstra arranged several marriage proposals, and

(34:31):
what, are we supposed to think? That he's just that picky?
I don't know. It doesn't.
Seem like him and it's also could be that he's gay, but you
know, there's plenty of examplesof gay people in Westeros
getting married and having families while, you know, just
playing along or whatever you want to call it.
Plenty of examples of gay men father and children both in the
real world and in Westeros. So this isn't enough to go on.

(34:52):
Either. It's certainly possible though,
but there's really no. Actual evidence for it, just the
fact that he never married isn'tenough to declare something like
that. It just remains a possibility.
But perhaps Brendan didn't want to see the toll he's so
embroiled with these other houses, right?
His brother was making unusual marriages outside of the region,

(35:13):
and maybe Brendan was against that.
There's. You know again though, that.
Maybe doesn't work either because he spurned a Bracken
marriage and a Frey marriage too, and those are both
Riverlands marriages, so any combination of these are
possible. But there's no singular piece of
evidence that he's just stubborn, or that he's gay, or
that he's both, or that he's against these alliances.

(35:34):
These are all just possibilities.
He kept it to himself, just like.
George R Martin So maybe Blackfish is taking a page from
the man himself. It may well be that he had some
other love that he refused to spurn.
Hey, like Barristan himself, theman we're constantly comparing
him to, who had a thing for a chardain.

(35:56):
But again, total guess, faint possibility, no evidence, just
ideas. The only real direction we get
from the text could be interpreted many.
Ways too. And this is Catlin.
Who is very confident that Brendan would never marry the
Game of Thrones Catlin, 11. Even on his deathbed.

(36:16):
Catlin thought sadly. He has not wed.
You know that, Father. Nor will he ever.
So yeah, we just don't know. Martin hasn't given us a lot of
clues and we may never learn. It may be one of those things
that George decides to leave open-ended.
There's also one last possibility, which is that he's
just stubborn. He doesn't like to be told to

(36:37):
what to do. He's proud.
He does things his own way and he just doesn't want to have
matchmaking done for him. Maybe it's just a decades long
case of digging his heels in, but don't forget what a big deal
it is. Refusing your leads Lord is
really rare, and it might just be because Brendan is so much a

(36:58):
factor on his own, because he's so famous on his own and.
It's why he can get away with it, you know?
Someone of lesser standing mighthave just had to go along with
it. Regardless, he refused and it
was let left that way and the argument resulting in more
arguments drove a wedge between them.
As the years went on, this bitterness only grew.

(37:19):
It's likely that this didn't help calm Hoster that Bethany
Redwine went on to Mary Mathis row him, a prominent Lord of the
Reach gave him three children. You can imagine Hoster seething
over the years watching his prize catch solidify another
house. An interesting side note is that
one of Bethany Redwine's children was the accuser of

(37:41):
Darian of the Nights Watch. Random connection there.
Darien obviously went on to accompany Sam Gilly and Maester
Eamon on their way to Old Town, and in Braavos he abandoned them
to go drink and be with prostitutes.
So Sam Gilly and Maester Eamon can all squarely place this
problem at Brendan's feet. I'm just kidding.

(38:01):
It might be worth noting that Hoster was at least potentially
right about producing offspring.The Tullys did end up needing
help later on. But I don't really see it that
way. It's.
Worth throwing out there, but ifBrendan had his own children,
then, you know, they might have helped out during the war.
But I think that's that's a little much.
But there would be more errors as opposed to just Ed Muir.

(38:23):
Right now, Ed Muir is the heir and he's in captivity and that
complicates things. If he had married, who knows
what he would be? He'd never be the man he is now.
He wouldn't have his reputation.He probably wouldn't have.
His famous customized Tully sigil either.
The Obsidian Trout. The Game of Thrones Catlin 6

(38:48):
During one of their louder quarrels when Catlin was 8, Lord
Hoster had called Brendan the black goat of the Tully flock.
Laughing, Brendan had pointed out that the sigil of their
house was a leaping trout, so heought to be a black fish rather
than a black goat, and from thatday forward he had taken it as
his personal emblem. Despite his fame and how
frequently nicknames in Westeroswere born of deeds in combat,

(39:10):
Brendan took the name of Blackfish not from something
amazing he did in war, but from an argument with his brother
when he was around 30, long after the 9 Penny Kings.
When, with regards to Selmy, there's another big difference
between the two of them. Berishen got his nickname.
Name at age 10, so advantage Selmy there.
But anyway, the fact that Brendan seems to have derived

(39:31):
some humor. He was kind of laughing about
this argument while annoying hisbrother.
Maybe that just supports the theory that he's just, that's
just who he is. He doesn't like to be bossed
around and that's it. Simple as that.
And when Brendan eventually returns to River Run with Catlin
in A Game of Thrones, one of thethe first thing Hoster says.
Now, to be fair, Hoster's you know, in his, you know, not in

(39:52):
his right mind. He's very.
Sick and he's on painkillers. Milk of the poppy and all he's
still. First thing he says is Bethany
red wine. He starts complaining about
that. And Catelyn relays that to
Brendan, and Brendan just laughs.
You just think, of course, of course he brought that up.
It may just be coincidence. It's probably just coincidence.
But the actual first mention of Obsidian or dragon glass, which

(40:15):
is its nickname, of course, is Blackfish's, Well, Blackfish.
It's blue and red for House Tully.
And his cloak is that color, butthe black fish pins it.
To him is to his shoulders. If it's not a coincidence, then
join me in getting excited abouthim as a commander in the War
for the Dawn. You know something about that
symbology of an Obsidian fish. There's quite a lot that would

(40:36):
have to happen before that though.
We're a ways from him interacting with the armies of
the dead and the on the White Walkers and all that.
And he's a family first guy. That's his priority.
Let's not forget that. So his changed emblem, let's
talk about that for a second. The Tulleys are an ancient house
and have been ruling the Riverlands for 300 years and
have had River Run for like 1000.

(40:57):
Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms would know that their sigil is
the trout and the blue and red, they all are familiar with that.
It's a famous pairing. So that sigil is mentioned
multiple times throughout the text, especially in River Run.
The guards wear fish Crest Helms, hosters, bedposts look
like leaping trout. It's everywhere, you know, just
like the other great houses. The Tulleys, you know.

(41:19):
Well, they've had this. Who knows which Lord Tully had
that bed made over the years? There's been plenty of pride and
some vanity mixed in all these great houses.
Their sigil is a big deal, you know.
Illyria likes to make fun of that, but it is what it is.
Brendan himself separated from this a bit and made it his own
right. Maybe this annoyed Hoster or

(41:41):
maybe he didn't care, but maybe because it was in reference to
their argument, I'm going to I'mgoing to lean towards it
annoying him a little bit and it's not a good look when your
vassal and your brother. Has decided to distinguish
himself. From his own line, I I don't
know how big a deal that was, but he certainly got away with
it. We can also guess that.

(42:01):
Brendan himself didn't care. What other people thought of it,
including his brother, he liked to have that level of
individuality and the Blackfish sigil kind of gave him that and
it fits him perfectly, right? He's devoted to family.
It's still a trout. But he does it in his own way as
the colors indicate or lack of color indicates in this case.

(42:22):
Here's another parallel to his namesake.
By the way, Bloodraven had a dragon on his personal Crest to
show his allegiance to House Targaryen.
But it was a pale white dragon in in color with red eyes like
him. Very personalized.
So Brendan Tully doing the same thing as well, making the the
the sigil his color. But despite both these guys

(42:42):
being like Maverick types. They were both heavily relied
upon because they were so good at what they did or do.
Unlike Bloodraven though, Blackfish was actually very
popular with his older brother'schildren.
Uncle Brendan. Despite his failed findings for
Brendan, Hofstra secured himselfa wife and Manissa went.

(43:05):
There's no specific date on their marriage, but we can
assume it was likely around 260 to 262 as Catelyn was Manissa's
third pregnancy. So when 260-4265 when when
Caitlin was born, that's also when Brendan lost his air status
that he probably didn't care about.
The relationship between Caitlinand Brendan is an important one,
but we'll get to that later because she's still just a
little baby at this point. Hoster and Manissa would also

(43:28):
have more kids to follow. Circa 260-6268, Caitlin was
joined by Lysa. And around 270, Ed Muir arrived
and he became the heir. So the Tullys played that happy
family for several years. Everything was was good for a
while. But then Manissa's death
happened. Unfortunately the ven is hard to
pinpoint it. It's like a 10 year range on it,

(43:51):
but I'm guessing it's more towards the.
Beginning of that. Somewhere between 268 and 78,
but probably towards 68, and that's because Kat.
Doesn't remember her very well, so you got to figure she was
more on the young side. It would be interesting to know
how well Manissa and Brendan gotalong, but given how well he got
along with pretty much the wholefamily other than his brother,
it was probably very painful forhim, especially because he got

(44:13):
along with the kids and it wouldbe painful for them, so he would
share in their grief. It was certainly painful for
Hoster. A lot of marriages are political
in Westeros, but sometimes they work out and there's love in
these marriages despite them being political, and this is
definitely one of those times. A clash of kings, Catlin one.
He talks of his regrets, of unfinished tasks, of people long

(44:37):
dead and times long past. Sometimes he does not know what
season it is or who I am. Once he called me my mother's
name. He misses her still, Sir,
Brendan answered. It's a fair guess that her death
put a strain on Hoster and Brendan's relationship because,
you know, she didn't have there were that balance wasn't there
anymore, that love wasn't in hislife anymore.

(44:58):
Kind of like how Tywin went from, you know, what he was to
what he is now, just a more severe version of himself when
Joanna died. I think it's probably fairly
similar. It's a great counter example or
similar example rather. And despite this brotherly
arguing, Hoster's three childrenhad a pretty happy childhood,
right? This is the only conflict that
we know of. Everybody else seemed to get

(45:19):
along really well. The Blackfish played uncle, you
know, he was probably pretty happy to do this.
And Catlin remembers very fondlythese childhood memories
relating to him. The Game of Thrones Catlin's 6.
Nonetheless, during all those years of Catlin's girlhood, it
had been burned in the Blackfish, to whom Lord

(45:40):
Hustler's children had run with their tears and their tails when
father was too busy and mother too.
I'll, Catlin, Misa, Edna, and yes, even Peter Baelish, their
father's ward. He had listened to the more
patiently as he listened now, laughing at their triumphs and
sympathizing with their childishmisfortunes.
Cat's memories show an interesting side to Brendan's

(46:02):
character, too. Up to this point, you would be
forgiven for thinking Brendan a quiet, reserved man, more in
love with his sword than anyone else and quite emotionally
distant. But don't forget how blunt.
He is with his words, He doesn'tmince.
He says what's on his mind. And as we know George RR Martin
too, he likes to be more complicated than that.
He doesn't like. To make things too simple, when

(46:22):
there's depth to be explored within a character and Brendan's
too important to be relegated totwo-dimensional character
status. He very obviously cared for the
children, especially Catelyn. And maybe you could say that
while Hoster had the way to the realm and running the family,
Brendan was kind of the cool uncle who's able to take joy in

(46:44):
the little things, such as beingwith his family, just hanging
out with them day-to-day and enjoying life that.
Way. He seemed to care for them more
than his simple duty as an uncle.
Again, family is the first word for House Tully, and it's kind
of cool though, to think about how despite being a renowned
warrior and just a badass all around, he could hang out with

(47:05):
his family, laugh and play gamesand listen.
He was said to be a. Very good listener by Catlin.
At some point in their childhoods, these three young
Tullys, Lisa Catlin and Ed Muir,the War of 9 Handy Kings became
important again, even though it had happened in in the past,
because during the fighting, Hoster befriended Lord Baelish,

(47:25):
the father of Peter. And of course, because of that
friendship, Hoster agreed to foster.
Hey, nice rhyme there, a young son, and that's him, Peter.
So he lived there and he got along with Blackfish too.
Blackfish apparently was like a second uncleish type thing.
So he had he did have warmth foroutside his family even though

(47:46):
he generally focused on just them.
So as those 3 grew, so did Peteralong with them and he became
enamored with the girls, especially Catelyn as we well
know. And it was.
Reached the point that it was hegot so serious about.
It and so in his. Head about it that when it was
announced that she was going to be betrothed to Brandon, or that

(48:07):
she was betrothed to Brandon, itwas official.
Littlefinger tried to kiss her that same night, and of course
she rejected him. So he went and got drunk and
passed out. But Blackfish is the one who
carried him to bed, maybe savinghim from some embarrassment,
showing that tender side again. Although maybe it would have
been better if he didn't becausethis is the night that Lysa came

(48:29):
to his room after he was drunk but before he passed out.
Slept with him if she got pregnant.
And that didn't go well. Since we know the Blackfish was
the one they ran to, kind of thecool uncle they could talk to.
Imagine Lysa going to talk to him about this, running to him
and be like hey I'm pregnant blah blah blah.

(48:49):
So he probably knew about Hostergiving her tansy to abort it,
right? Abort the baby.
So that couldn't have helped hisrelationship with Hoster.
Remember that this incident nearly killed her and he already
having disputes with his brotherand loving his nieces and
nephew. How could this have not?

(49:12):
Bothered him a lot. Soon enough, the Tournament of
Harrenhal came around. It was held by a relative of
Lady Manissa because she's from House Went.
That's who ruled Harrenhal until, well, until early in the
series about. The time of Feast for Crows, the
Windsor pretty much done. So it seems likely the Tullys
were there because that's, you know, that's their family.
That's their family by marriage.And all the, you know, Catlin's

(49:34):
half went. So as a side note, we don't
really hear of. Blackfish taking interest in
tourneys. Again, the opposite of Selmy.
You know, Selmy is a famous tourney night Blackfish.
We don't hear about him competing in a single
tournament. To go deeper, given that Catlin
was about to be married, Blackfish was also surely
around. When Brandon Stark ran off to

(49:55):
the Red Keep in his famous furious rage, demanding that
Rhaegar come out to die because he believed that Lyanna was
kidnapped. What did Brendan think of that?
Of Brandon, Marion, Kat and general, of Lyanna and Rhaegar?
What did he think of that? I wonder if he offered to help
track them down or something. Or I wonder if he didn't do
anything and maybe felt guilty later as others surely did, that

(50:20):
he hadn't tried to intervene or not.
I mean, it wasn't his fault. It wasn't his duty, but
sometimes honorable men and women, they say I could have,
they think I could have done more.
They take the responsibility on themselves.
And this kind of seems like the kind of guy Brendan is.
Whatever he thought or felt about it, though, it marked the
end of what was possibly the best time of his life.

(50:42):
Maybe he's not counting his childhood.
Perhaps it was the end of spending day in and day out with
family and relative peace. And war was what came instead.
Robert's Rebellion. As the mention of Brandon, Liana
and Rhaegar might have hinted toyou, the War of the Usurper
right around the corner had House Tully chosen a different

(51:03):
side if they had kept with theirtraditional Targaryen loyalties,
well, War of the Usurper is probably what it would be called
today. Instead of Robert's.
Rebellion, because again, the victors get to.
Decide these things. This is a major decision for
Hoster, though it would have hadto be difficult.
The Tullys again, long history of siding with the Targaryens.
But look at the recent history, look at Erisen, look at Celia

(51:26):
Tullys rejection. Things weren't so good as they
had. Been and the Riverlands being
the Riverlands is always in a tough spot when it comes to war
because they're in the middle, right?
They're they have the most shared borders with other
regions. And they don't.
Have a lot of natural defenses outside of the rivers.

(51:46):
There's not a lot of deep forests or big mountains or
anything like that. I kind of imagine this is a head
cannon moment here, that Brendanhimself was part of these
councils and he would focus and think about a lot the various
strengths and weaknesses of their neighbors.
You know, kind of calculating itall decide, well, who do we have
the best chance against? Well, meanwhile, Hoster focuses

(52:08):
on the politics, the appearances, the alliances and
the marriages. It seemed like they were a good
team when they worked together because they had complementary
skills. But again, these difficulties
between them on the personal level may have, you know, it
probably didn't help in spots like this.
Remember Jahari's Targaryen spurning Celia Tully to marry
his own sister in secret? Hoster again was born just after

(52:30):
that, Brandon five years later. The two of these guys grew up
hearing about that. So again, it comes up and it's
huge. Let's think of it this way.
Take the pride. It's so common with these noble
families. Had your Harris married Celia,
the Tullys of then would be living under a Tully queen now
or under her descendants half Tully Princess and princesses
running around. They got Aries and Royella

(52:52):
instead. Can.
You imagine that the. Bitterness is like this is what
we get. We could have our house could
have been the royal family and we get this instead.
You could easily see them just shaking their heads like.
What? Every time Aerie did something
crazy. They'd just be like.
This wouldn't have happened if that was a Tolly Queen, right?
What an embarrassment. Imagine Dante from clerk saying.

(53:13):
I shouldn't even be. Here today, it's the same kind
of Yeah, they they wouldn't be having to choose sides in this
war. For one thing, they would
easily, they would know who to side with their family.
They would be an easy choice. So even though Hoster put family
first, probably, as much as we can tell, it might have been
satisfying to turn against a king and a queen who wouldn't
even exist had his family not been jilted.

(53:37):
And it's not like the Targaryenswere going to offer the
satisfaction of any marriages this time either, while the
Starks and the Aaron's. Well, that is exactly.
What they were offering Stark and John Aaron were going to
marry Tullys, what the Targaryens offered.
What the chance to do your duty to a king that's terrible, who
burns people alive who've brokenthe feudal contract many times?

(54:01):
What's more satisfying than thatthough is picking the winner.
They, you know, maybe the Tullys, if they had been on the
other side, it would have pushedthe war that way.
But had the Tullys been on the losing side, on Robert's side,
they would have been amongst themost punished I think other than
the Baratheons. And as wars, especially civil
wars, tend to tear apart the realm, it has a trickle down

(54:25):
effect and tears things down on a smaller.
Scale Regions. Families are torn apart even
when they fight for the same side.
The Riverlands divided. It's not like Hoster had a
choice that wasn't war, and eventually he did choose
rebellion as we know. Even though the Brandon Catlin
marriage was. Off.

(54:45):
Because Brandon was dead, he presumably still felt the same
way about who his friends were and where his long term
interests lie. So Ned had agreed to take his
brother's place, but the marriage didn't actually come
right away. Nor did the marriage to Lysa,
nor even the idea. Because at the time, well, John
Aaron had a a living error. First there was a lot of

(55:05):
fighting in the Riverlands, subjugating those who chose
Targaryen over Tully. Then came the key battle of
Stony Sept, that which convincedAries that this rebellion was a
real threat. And Stony Sept is in the
Riverlands again. Remember earlier I mentioned how
everything happens in the Riverlands?
Well, the final battle also happened in the Riverlands, the
Battle of the Trident. Right.
Curiously though, we don't really know what Brendan.

(55:26):
Did during any of this? It's obvious that he
participated in its sum, form orfashion, we just don't know
exactly how or why. There's no mention of what
Hoster commanded him to do, whatbattles he fought in, not even
if he was at the Trident later on, which is pretty curious in
and of itself. And we get a pretty thorough
list throughout the series of who was there.
But no one mentions the Blackfish.

(55:46):
So we have a we have a few options.
We know that Hoster himself fought in the Battle of the
Bells, and we have this example of one of the only mentions of
the event. Ari overhears this.
Wilson, the company of the Brotherhood, without manners
between Notch and Gendry. A Storm of Swords Arya 8 Who did
it then asked Gendry Hoster. Tully Notch was a stooped, thin

(56:08):
Gray haired man born in these parts.
This was Lord Good Brook's village.
When River undeclared for Robert, Good Brook stayed loyal
to the king, so Lord Tully came down on him with fire and sword.
After the Trident, Good Brook's son made his peace with Robert
and Lord Hoster, but that didn'thelp the dead nun.

(56:29):
So Knox seems pretty certain that it was Hoster himself, but
that doesn't exclude Brendan's involvement.
We really don't have enough infoat this point.
It seems Hoster was fairly pragmatic and willing to do what
needed to be done. We already know he wanted the
village burnt, so really it's a question of whether he'd want to
do it himself. Would Brendan disobey an order
like this? Maybe.
I mean, we've seen him disobey other things, especially

(56:51):
marriage. And you know, this is burning
villagers. That's that's a bit harsher then
again. This is war and Brendan
understands that well, and he may have understood why this
horrible command had to be issued.
And he himself, in the Dance of Dragons, ejected useless mouths
from River Run while scouring the land around it of food,
probably dooming them all, especially with winter coming on

(57:14):
top of it. So.
He. Did similar here.
I guess Edmure is the tell of you who seems to care about.
The commoners in this way, not Brendan.
But his own personal loyalties may have come up as well.
Recall that Brendan squired for Lord Derry and the Derries are
staunch Targaryen loyalists. That may have really torn him
apart on the inside a bit if he had to fight against.

(57:36):
Any of them. It may be also why he didn't
want those entangling marriages early.
It may relate to that. And let's not sleep on old
Norbert Vance, who squired with Brendan.
We don't know. What side the Vances were on
during the rebellion? But maybe they were on the
Targaryen side and that made it even harder for Brendan.
It's also important that House Lannister hadn't taken a side

(57:58):
yet and they remained in the West really near River Run with
that army just poised to strike,so Hoster had to worry about
that. Obviously Tywin had been handed
the King so for Aries so he could easily see how they might
take the Targaryen side. So maybe Brendan was held back
in order to stay and guard against an attack from the West

(58:21):
if. Tywin's going to come for you.
You want the Blackfish there dealing with them, you want your
best man in position for that. And he seems to be an expert in
defense as much as he is on offense, so it would fit that
well as as much too handling Tywin, certainly tougher than
handling those good brick villages, right?
But whatever the arrangement, Hoster felt he could rely on

(58:45):
Blackfish despite their disagreements.
But the outlook was different for Brendan himself.
How's Tully divided? After the Battle of the Bells,
it was time to make things official.
John Aaron's heir had died during that battle, killed by
John Connington himself. So the North Riverlands Vale
Baratheon Alliance sealed this deal with a double marriage.

(59:09):
The original marriage to Catlin and Ned, you know, instead of
Brandon and Catlin and of courseLysa and John Aaron.
Now, the Lysa Jon Erin part was kind of rushed and announced
kind of late in the game. So it's a very different
situation personally for Lysa asit was for Caitlin.
And Lysa has to marry someone, you know, 40 years older than
her, whereas Caitlin got to marry Ned Stark, who's about her

(59:31):
age. And this is also the time when
Robert announced his claim to the throne, presumably after
discussing it with these other great Lords who were present.
They all kind of agreed that hisclaim was the best, that his
leadership was vital and Blackfish was.
Probably there for all that he was probably part of these
chess, he wouldn't leave the famous Blackfish.
Out of these important conversations, I wouldn't think
a big swing for the realm and all these families, right?

(59:54):
This is a huge turning point, and Brendan's life took a big
swing on that day too. Right after the ceremony, he
informed Hoster that he would beleaving his beloved.
Home to accompany Lysa at the Erie.
Hoster immediately disowned Brendan and didn't say his name
again till A Game of Thrones when he's on his deathbed.

(01:00:16):
I don't think there's a clear piece of evidence that Hoster
loved his brother and relied on him again.
They were close to his boys. He took this.
Personally, it seems like from Hoster's point of view, not a
point of view chapter, but from his perspective, his famous
brother. Here he is leaving right when
the war is getting serious and he's so vital, he's such a
valuable. Asset.

(01:00:36):
Right after how Tully has sealedits future with his final
commitment via double marriage. I mean, has there ever been a
double marriage of two daughtersto two different great houses in
one ceremony? I, I didn't actually research
that particular thing, but I don't think so.
I really don't think so. Either way, it's quite a time to
announce that you're leaving, right?
So remember, aside from when abroad for the war, River had

(01:00:59):
always been home for Brendan andhe seemingly adored the castle
and his family. But I mean from his perspective
these marriages and alliances meant the family was breaking
apart anyway. For now they'd remain at River
Run, but after the war Callan would be heading north when Lysa
would go E only. Hoster and Ed Muir would remain
and they had each other. Plus, it certainly seems Brendan

(01:01:21):
was more fond of the girls. The Tansy incident could weigh
here heavily, too, if he knew about it, which he probably did.
As we said earlier, it's really hard to imagine Blackfish, a guy
who doesn't really play politics, being OK with his
brother tricking his knees into having an abortion because of
politics. Right.
He's this is no way he would be cool with that.

(01:01:41):
Weather tensions had been particularly high with Hoster
around this time. Well, we don't know.
You know, they're always arguing.
But it seems like this would have made it worse, all the
things happening. But any or all these guesses
could be close to the mark. We don't have to assume.
It's just one thing. There's a lot of things that
could be involved here. So again, we consider the type
of man he was. And at heart, he's a soldier, a
protector. Did he look at his two still

(01:02:03):
young nieces in the time of war and decide he would go with the
obviously weaker one in the aim of protecting her?
Was it like his protective instinct kicking in?
All we know. Of Lysa and Brendan kind of
fits, doesn't it? Also, he may have been impressed
with John Aaron. John Aaron's the one who, you
know, called the banners and, you know, rejected the call for

(01:02:24):
the heads of his wards. That is how someone should
behave, I would think. From Blackfish's point of view,
he'd say hey. That's a man standing up for
people that he treats his familythat aren't actually family.
Regardless of his reasoning, John Aaron was probably pretty
happy to get the great Blackfishon his.

(01:02:45):
Immediate side I mean. They were already on the same
side. But, you know, in his employ.
And we're told Blackfish gained more renown during the war.
But again, no specifics. The Battle of the Trident itself
is the next major battle, and it's also pretty detail light
despite being so famous, so there's a chance we learn more
later. I hope so.
But I definitely figure that Blackfish was leading outriders

(01:03:08):
and fighting in skirmishes aheadof the main battle and then
fighting in that too, kind of like what he does in the War 5
Kings. Either way, the war took a while
longer to officially end, but itwas certainly over. 1 wonders if
he returned to the Riverlands atall before taking on his new
duties as a peace and resident of the Vale, but it seems
unlikely because of again the difficulties with his brother.

(01:03:28):
The night of the gate. Lysa lost her pregnancy during
the war and it broke her heart because Cat thinks that it's
because, partly because she didn't lose hers.
Lysa couldn't bear to hold Rob. She started crying the first
time she was handed him and never held him again.
So if Brendan's protective nature factored in before, it

(01:03:50):
may have kicked in into an even higher gear now.
However, he may not have known alot of this because he was away
from the war. It's not exactly kind of his
kind of battle. He's a soldier, not a you know
what kind of guy that maybe is the best at handling emotional
issues. Although we are told he's a good
listener, which just by itself counts for a lot, but it's a
soldiers job he was given at some point probably not that

(01:04:13):
long ago. Given a comment by Ned who said
that I heard he'd been made night of the gate.
Which you wouldn't think that would have happened so long ago.
Jon Erin bestows him. This title, which is a very high
regarded title, it's the bloody gate is the gate that it refers
to and this guards the entrance to the veil itself.
How nice that the veil, this vast region has this nice tight

(01:04:35):
entrance that it's really hard to to go elsewhere unless you're
coming in by ship. So you could see why it's placed
with such high. Esteem and Lysum might have felt
more comfortable with him being there, especially, you know,
knowing how protective he was ata younger age and if you've
watched the TV show or read Catlin's description.
You can conjure up a pretty goodimage of the bloody gate and why

(01:04:55):
it's just so difficult and so imposing to an invading army.
The Game of Thrones Catlin 6 Shewas about to say as much when
she saw the battlements ahead oflong parapets built into the
very stone of the mountains on either side of them.
Where the past shrank to a narrow defile scarce wide enough
for four men to ride abreast, twin watchtowers clung to the

(01:05:17):
rocky slopes. Joined by a covered.
Bridge of weathered greystone that arched above the road.
Silent faces watched from arrow slits and tower battlements and
bridge. When they had climbed almost to
the top, a knight rode out to meet them.
His horse and his armor were Gray, but his cloak was the.
Rippling blue and red of river Run and a shiny black fish
wrought in gold and Obsidian pinned its folds against his

(01:05:40):
shoulder. Who had passed the bloody gate?
He called. As you can imagine, and as we
know from history. Well, and probably no one even
tried to attack the bloody gate while Brendan was there.
As far as we know, there's no evidence that that happened.
And it would be crazy to do that.
So it's it's a safe guess that it didn't happen.

(01:06:00):
But we do know that Brendan heldthe position until Catlin's
arrival with Tyrion around 298. And he was, you know, somewhere
around the veil all that time, either as the night of the gate
or, you know, with John Aaron orsomewhere else with Lysa for
about 16 years. And most of that was peaceful.
But he still remained estranged from his family that whole time

(01:06:21):
apart from Lysa. But she was getting worse every.
Year. And, you know, her psyche was
eroding, her paranoia was getting worse.
And while he himself is, you know, very steadfast at his
duties, he probably kept his skills maintained.
But we don't really know what happened during the rest of
Westeros either during the 16 years.

(01:06:42):
So, you know, it's it's it's just a big kind of empty space
there. But it was probably mostly
peaceful, except for about 6 years after he arrived.
War broke out again next to bailon Greyjoy's first rebellion.
But the veil? Was.
Really far from the Iron Islands.
I'm not sure that they got involved much.

(01:07:02):
Brendan may have wanted to be involved, but we don't know that
he was. And he was around 50, so maybe
he didn't actually want to be that involved.
And also of note, during this long stint where he was about 9
years into his time at the Erie at this point where the the
great joy rebellion, Lysa gave birth to a young Robert Aaron.
So he's, you know, the new heir to the veil.

(01:07:23):
And just four years after that, that's when hoster be started
getting really, really ill, which is where the book begins.
Book one starts with this as thestatus quo.
Now, unlike the TV show, Brendandoesn't show up until like
season 3. Blackfish has evolved really
early on in the books and right away in terms of Rob's campaign.

(01:07:43):
And this starts with a decision to switch nieces while the
Tullies are all over, are makingmistakes, they're being crazy.
You're becoming undead. Blackfish stands tall and
persistent and consistent. Thanks to the history of
Westeros Blood riders Kohal Kohi, master of the bow, called
Sun Piercer, Slayer of all the pumpkin spice vendors in

(01:08:05):
Westeros, and Vorsaki, wielder of a Valyrian steel air act with
a dragon bone hilt and our cell sword captains Peter Blaise of
the Emerald Isle, captain of theWeirwood Wanderers to long
lives, quick deaths, cold beer and warm women.
Dagron Marshall of the Axe, captain of the Red Tide.
Resistance is futile. Chiron calls Bane, captain of

(01:08:26):
the stone Shields. The torrent breaks upon the
stone. Hema Helmuth, captain of the
Whispering Children. Dead men tell no secrets.
Lady Lazara Dajo, the Iron Lily.Master Archer, castellan of the
summer. Alan Keep, arboreal Point,
captain of the all female wailing widows, women and
children. First Cody, the Crimson Bastard
of Bracken, captain of the Red Waist Exiles and recruiter of

(01:08:47):
the Free Folk. Cameron the Hammer of Hornwood,
captain of the English Lions, with the motto Honor is the
reward of virtue. Also a reminder to visit
historyofwesteros.com from time to time, especially if you plan
on shopping at Amazon. We've got a lot of links to a
lot of cool products there that are Game of Thrones related, and
anything you buy through those links tracks back to us and we

(01:09:08):
get a little bit of credit. So you'd be supporting the show
by shopping there? A Song of Ice and Fire and
Blackfish. In A Game of Thrones, Catlin
makes her infamous decision to take Tyrion at the end of The
Kneeling Man and then secretly take him to the Erie so as to
avoid trouble on the way back toWinterfell and to seek support
from Lysa and the Vale in the possible upcoming confrontations

(01:09:28):
with the Lannisters. Catlin and company did still
find trouble on the road, running into the Mountain clans
and eventually being saved by a sortie led by Sir Donald
Wainwood and taken to the BloodyGate.
Sir Donald, actually, interestingly enough, is the one
who replaces Blackfish when he departs.
As Night of the Gate. So when uncle and niece meet
again after so many years, Catlin gives us our first
description proper of Sir Brendan and you can tell how

(01:09:50):
happy she is to see him. The Game of Thrones Catlin 6.
Take off your helm. I would look on your face again.
The years have not improved it, I fear.
Brendan Tolley said. But when he lifted off the helm,
Catlin saw that he lied. His features were lined and
weathered, and time had stolen the Auburn from his hair and
left him only Gray. But the smile was the same, and

(01:10:13):
the bushy eyebrows fat as caterpillars and the.
Laughter in his deep blue eyes. And Brendan gives something away
when we first meet him, when Catlin tells him all she knows
about the Lannisters and John Erin's death and everything
else, his immediate response reads.
Their Game of Thrones Catlin 6. Your father must be told, he
said at last. If the Lannisters should March.

(01:10:35):
Winterfell is remote and the Vale walled up behind its
mountains, but River Run lights right in their path.
Brendan's first thought as a. Family and his ancestral home
Even with the animosity between them, Brandon puts his brother
first. We also don't really have to
spend too long to learn that theBlackfish is quite vexed with
his niece and how she's descending into paranoia and not

(01:10:57):
protecting her family. You know that's probably the
biggest thing for him. A Game of Thrones Catlin 7 At
the doors to Lice's apartments, they met her uncle Storming.
Outgoing to join the Fools Festival, Sir, Brendan snapped.
I'd tell you to slap some sense into your sister if I thought it
would do any good, but you'd only bruise your hand.

(01:11:18):
He's just disgusted with Lice's insistence on hiding, and
especially with not helping. And he?
Immediately agrees to go with Catelyn and help her son Rob,
who again is half Tully, and he just declared war on the Iron
Throne. So clearly he's going to need
some help. And there's likely a multitude
of factors that led Blackfish tomake this decision, like
annoyance with Lisa, maybe boredom, you know, or just the

(01:11:41):
fact that he knew Rob would needhelp and he saw it as his duty a
lot. Probably all these things
matter, but you know, he also got to return to the Riverland,
which probably was a plus. The Game of Thrones.
Catlin 7 I asked your sister forleave to take 1000 seasoned men
and ride for River Run with all haste.
Do you know what she told me? The Veil cannot spare 1000

(01:12:02):
swords or even 1 Uncle, she saidyou are the Knight of the Gate.
Your place is here. Well, I told her she could
bloody well find herself a new Knight of the Gate.
Blackfish are. No, I am still a Tully.
I shall leave for river run by Evenfall.
That last line is perfect, right?
It's their house, words looming large.

(01:12:24):
It's he declares that he's done with being a Knight of the Gate,
a great honor that he's held a long time.
Deciding that his duty is to fight for the more imperiled
side of his family. You know, Lisa seems pretty
safe. I seriously doubt the highly
prestigious position of Night ofthe Gate has seen a lot of
voluntary defections. Like this but comparing him to
the Kings Garden nights. Watch though that this is kind

(01:12:45):
of a cushy job considering how ridiculous it would be to attack
the bloody gate. Lots of reasons to think his
niece Lysa and great nephew Robert Aaron were safe.
Right? Little finger aside.
But. Rob was clearly in great danger
and. Catelyn too, so it was time to
go. The young wolf's right hand
fish. License paranoia and hoster

(01:13:07):
disownment make it entirely possible that Brendan hadn't
seen his birthplace during his tenure in the Vale, but to
return he would have to fight his way there.
The route they took was not exactly direct as you can see
here on the screen. But it was safer.
It didn't take long for Brendan to make his mark in yet another
war. His reputation being what it
was, almost immediately Rob madethe very smart decision to make

(01:13:28):
the Blackfish the leader of his outriders, his eyes and ears.
George does a fantastic job of showing the finer points of
warfare. Through Brendan, we often think
of a war hero. Here we are again with this
comparison. Again, like a Barristan the Bold
type cutting his way through an entire town to save his king, or
through the Golden Company. And while Brendan is certainly
capable of such fighting skill, it's his.

(01:13:49):
Forethought and tactics that really help Rob's campaign.
Firstly, he clashes with Adam Marbrand's outriders, managing
to repel them, which allows Rob's forces to move down into
the Riverlands and Adam Marbrandis highly regarded.
Even more importantly, Brendan is able to deal with the
Lannister scouts and halting their communications by bringing
down all the Ravens, Referring back to the quote at the

(01:14:11):
beginning of this episode. By doing this he's able to hide
the fact that Rob intends to split his forces.
Without this simple help, Rob would have likely been finished
before he started. One of Brendan's biggest marks
on the War of the Five Kings is engineering the Battle in the
Whispering Wood. Remember the timing?
Rob had just crossed into the Riverlands, but Jamie
Landershare had already been making his mark, defeating Lords

(01:14:32):
Piper and Vance in the Western Hills before moving on to River
on Itself, winning a battle beneath its walls and then
putting it under. Siege.
So Jamie obviously scored first in the war.
He's taking the. Air of the region.
Remember, Hoster is gravely ill by this point, so Ed Muir is
pretty much running things and he put a major castle in his
control. It wasn't a great look for Rob's
campaign and it made Jamie. Look brilliant, but not for

(01:14:55):
long. It's all downhill for Jamie from
there, and Blackfish, who had long looked brilliant, reminded
the realm that he was still a factor despite his age.
Thanks in large part to Brendan,Jamie became a prisoner at River
Run, only to come back later with an army.
Thanks to Blackfish it all. Comes in circles.
While Jamie's mistakes were moreegregious, more costly, Tywin

(01:15:17):
himself also underestimated who he's up against.
He couched his plans in the typical overconfidence and in in
experience of youth thinking toomuch of his own son's
tendencies. Perhaps he should have been
thinking of Blackfish. Tywin even pointed out how
terrible the optics of sending Selmi away were, especially if
he showed up alongside Renly or Rob Stark.

(01:15:38):
But he didn't give the same way to Blackfish.
Selmi is certainly more traditionally popular, and in a
war of legitimacy, popularity ispowerful, but still, Blackfish
on your side means a lot. Tywin and Jamie prepared for the
King in the North, and they should have prepared for the
Blackfish. But in their defense, he had
been night of the gate for so long, how were they to even know

(01:16:00):
he had left the veil? They didn't realize he was with
Rob until it was too late. They didn't see him coming.
That's Blackfish in a nutshell, isn't it?
Being less popular than Selmy has its advantages, after all,
but we got to give Rob his due as well.
You know, he split his infantry in cavalry to prevent Tywin and
Jamie linking up something that could have made the war
unwinnable for the North. And when our subject, possibly

(01:16:23):
out of action for a very long time, proved he was amazing.
Still, Rob was quick to maximizehis talent and make good use of
him. So that ruse was enough to fool
Tywin at the Battle of the GreenFork and allow the more
impressive plan to be enacted. But instead of just riding up
and attacking Jamie's camp, the Northmen used Jamie's arrogance
against him. Brendan himself made the call on

(01:16:44):
Jamie's personality, getting a read on how to make use of his
impatience and being confident in it.
Rob agreed. A Game of Thrones.
Catlin, 10, the King Slayer, is restless and quick to anger.
Her uncle Brendan had told Rob and he had wagered their lives
in the best hope of victory on the truth of what he said.
Brendan then showed his worth ashe went ahead of Rob's main

(01:17:05):
force, scouting all ancestors and stopping the enemy from
doing the same. If this part of the plan had
failed then the rest would have come crashing down with it.
It was Blackfish's expertise that made it work.
It was a difficult plan to pull off.
Without the right people, they wouldn't have been able to do
it, and the right people in thiscase is our man.
A Game of Thrones Catlin 10 Rob had given Blackfish 300, picked

(01:17:28):
men and sent them ahead to screen his March.
Jamie does not know. Sir Brenton said when he rode
back. I'll stake my life on that.
No bird has reached him. My Archers have seen to that.
We've seen a few of his outriders, but those that saw us
did not live to tell of it. He ought to have sent out more.
He does not know. Rob then sent out a small unit

(01:17:48):
of men wearing Tully colors. Jamie, believing this to be a
harrying force, rushed out head first right into the whispering.
Wood. And who led the party that Jamie
followed? Sir Brandon Tully.
And we all know what happened next.
The Northmen rushed from the trees, destroyed the Lannister
forest and captured Jamie. It was a great victory.
And all in King's Rob's army knew the Blackfish.

(01:18:09):
Was the chief architect of it all.
Return to River Run. Brendan didn't have to wait long
for glory to come. Again, but the.
Battle of the Camps. Rob moved to free River Run from
its siege. As we all know, when River Run
is in a pinch, the Sluice Gate is open, turning the castle into
an island. This left three Lannister camps
northwest and east. Because they cannot.

(01:18:29):
Sit together. Thanks to Brendan's earlier
movements, the camps were all completely unaware of Rob's
coming. Brendan was to strike first.
He descended on the North camp out of nowhere, striking a huge
victory and drawing the W camp over to help, only for Rob to
then come in to finish the plant.
The result was an overwhelming victory for the North and no
short thanks to Brendan. Back at Tywin's war camp, Tyrion

(01:18:52):
hears a much better account of the battle than ours.
The. Game of Thrones, Tyrion 9 The
Blackfish led the van, cutting down our centuries and clearing
away the Palisades for the main assault.
By the time our men knew what was happening, riders were
pouring over the ditch banks andgalloping through the camp with
swords and torches in hand. I was sleeping in the West camp
between the rivers when we heardthe fighting and saw the tents

(01:19:14):
being fired. Lord Brax LED us to the rafts
and we tried to pull across but the current pushed us downstream
and the Tully started flinging rocks at us with the catapults
at their walls. I saw.
One raft smashed A kindling and three others overturned.
Men swept into the river and drowned.
And those who did make it back across found the Starks waiting
for them on the riverbanks. And just like that, the

(01:19:36):
Blackfish is home again. And waiting for him was a quick
break from war and his unfortunately dying brother
Catlin goes to Sea Hoster in themidst of River Run celebrations.
And they talk about Rob and the war, and then Brendan comes up
in conversation. And despite the fact that he was
so crucial in saving everyone from siege, this old grievance

(01:19:57):
returns immediately. A Game of Thrones, Catlin 11.
Even so, spit on the girl, the red wines, spit on me, his Lord,
his brother, that Blackfish. I had other offers.
Lord Bracken's girl, Walder Frey, any of the three, he said.

(01:20:18):
Has he wed anyone? Anyone.
Maybe this is a decent window inunderstanding.
Why Brendan got so annoyed with his brother?
It had been decades and it was still the first thing out of
Hoster's mouth. I mean, jeez, right?
It might get to to somebody. I could see it getting to you.
Get to me. Brendan on the other hand, just
again he laughed it. Off.

(01:20:38):
The Game of Thrones Catlet 11 Brendan Blackfish chuckled.
I'm too old a soldier to believethat Hoster will be chiding me
about the red wine girl even as we light his funeral pyre, damn
his bones. At one point, Catlin walks into
her father's solar to find Brendan sitting by the bed in
his armor, a travel stained cloak and dusty boot, which I

(01:20:59):
think shows us again how much Brendan wanted to be by his
brother's side in these final days.
His loyalty trumped their disagreements.
It's rare of George to give us any strong family moments like
this, but this reconciliation ofBrendan Hoster?
Super subtle, but really excellent.
Really touching. But nonetheless, there's still a
war to be fought and that had totake precedence.

(01:21:19):
Brendan soon on the move again. Rob made the plan to go further
W, leaving Edmund behind to protect River Run and Hold.
Off Hwy. now. The details we have for this
part of the war are a bit thinner as we have no point of
view for it. Catlin was sent S to treat with
Renly while Theon was sent home to the Iron Islands.
But we do catch up and learn what Rob and his great uncle got
up to after the fact. Upon learning that a new

(01:21:40):
Lannister host was being raised at Oxcross, Rob luckily had
Greywyn find a secret track through the Western Hills which
allowed them to use Brendan in much the same way as he did
before, as a master outrider andscout killer.
Which he did exactly that. And soon enough they were able
to sneak up on this new host, which was completely
unsuspecting, and destroy it before it could become useful to

(01:22:03):
Tywin. This victory was perhaps even
more impressive than the previous because.
The host was gone and Stafford Lannister was killed and the
Westerlands were now just wide open for Rob and Brendan to do
their thing. This continued for a while with
much raiding and killing until eventually Rob's forces had to
return to River Run. And while they were gone, Edmure

(01:22:24):
had successfully defended River Run from Lannister forces, which
was not what they wanted. They wanted him to get past they
Edmure wasn't supposed to. Do that.
He pushed them back too far. This is where one of the biggest
contentions of Rob War strategy arises.
And maybe some of the blame is on Blackfish.
We're not sure, as we shortly find out after Ed Muir managed

(01:22:44):
to delay Tywin just long enough to hear that Stannis was about
to attack King's Landing. And so Tywin was able to turn
around, link up with the Tyrells, and stop Stannis
rescuing King's Landing. And that was bad for the North
and the Riverlands. That was their best chance to
win the war. And unknowingly, Ed Muir messed
it up. So this is possibly because of

(01:23:05):
bad communication, but we bring this up because Brendan is on
Rob's side in this. He berates Edmure.
It's a point well recognized by more than a few essays and blogs
that have been written in our community that Edmure did what
pretty much anyone would do. He protected Riveron and then,
believing he could gain his sideadvantage, went further.
He was not told to do what he did, but it didn't seem like a

(01:23:28):
stretch to to pull that off. Either way, a communication
mistake, but Edmure suffers the backlash.
A Storm of Swords, Catlin. 2. The Blackfish cleared his throat
and said. I think we've all heard
sufficient of your boasting, nephew.
Edmure was taken aback, boasting.

(01:23:48):
What do you mean? I mean.
Said the Blackfish. That you owe his grace, your
thanks for his forbearance. He played out that mummer's
farce in the Great Hall so as tonot shame you before your own
people. Had it been me, I would have
flayed you for your stupidity rather than praising this folly
of the Fords. So perhaps this is Brendan and

(01:24:08):
Rob bearing some pride in not and wanting to blame Ed Muir
instead of blaming themselves for not getting better orders.
Or perhaps they did get better orders and and, and Ed Muir took
it upon himself. We don't.
We weren't there for the conversation of what was said to
Ed Muir. But as we know, this is just the
start of Rob's troubles. You know, it went so well for a
while. And then it started to go
downhill. Not long after this, he's forced

(01:24:29):
to sentence Lord Ricard Carr Stark to death, and Blackfish
comes into this as someone who gets asked for advice.
But. His advice isn't great.
Soon, Hoster. Finally.
Dies. It might not have affected Rob
all that much, but it definitelyrocked the worlds of Caitlin and
Brendan. One lost a father, the other
lost the older brother he'd beenarguing with for half his life,

(01:24:50):
but whom he still loved despite all that.
One of the cooler Blackfish moments in both the show and the
book is that Tully funeral for Hoster.
When Ed Muir misses the funeral boat with the flaming arrows
several times, he thrusts the bow to Sir Brendan, who nails
the shot with one try. And of course, it's pointed out
that Hoster missed his first shot too, but his second shot

(01:25:11):
got there. The Red Wedding.
As valuable as Blackfish was with planning, battles and
strategy, he wasn't much help with politics, something Rob
sorely needed. The incident with Ricard
Karstark and then the Jane Westerling situation showed the
need for skilled political thinking because these were hard
to handle and they weren't battlefield situations.

(01:25:32):
Which is the only thing, an important thing, but the only
thing that that Rob and his teamseem to be great at, Rob
lamented saying. I should have thought of.
This referring to the idea of trading Jamie for Sansa and
marrying Sansa to Loris Tyrell, bringing the Reach into the war
on their side. Or, you know, Robert Aaron might
have worked. As just as well, but either way.

(01:25:56):
That that idea wasn't proposed. Apparently Rob acts like that
idea was never brought up, whichmeans neither Catlin nor
Blackfish nor any of the other Lords had this idea, and it's
kind of an obvious idea. Blackfish or Rob or Ned, all
these guys are soldiers first, not politicians.
It really shows. They really needed someone like

(01:26:16):
Hoster Tully himself, whose illness kind of took him out of
the picture until he died. He's the kind of guy that would
have seen some of these angles. He was a political guy.
And this might have been what Walder Frey and Tywin Lannister
realized that, hey, Hoster's outof the way.
You got this young kid, you got this, you know, his uncle who's

(01:26:38):
just this battle tested guy thathas no political experience.
Basically. He might have realized this is
where we can win this war, not on the battlefield, but.
You know, in the in the deal making room, whatever you want
to call it. Just like you would want Brendan
on your side if you might suspect an ambush, you'd be the
perfect guy to help sniff that out.
But this kind of trap, the Red Wedding, I don't know if he

(01:26:59):
would have been the right man for that, but we don't know
because he wasn't there. Ed Muir married Rosalynn with
Rob along to offer his apologies, which was a condition
of the Alliance trap. He took his mother and uncle,
not his great uncle. Brendan was left behind.
To. Protect River Run.
And he had a new title to accompany it, Wharton of the

(01:27:20):
Southern Marches. As the party leaves, Catlin sums
up her confidence in the idea ofBlackfish being the one left
behind to guard them. A Storm of Swords, Catlin 5.
Queen Jane would be safest behind the high strong walls of
River Run with the Blackfish to protect her.
Rob had even created him a new title, Warden of the Southern

(01:27:43):
Marches. Sir Brendan would hold the
Trident. If any man could, all the same,
Catlin would miss her uncle's craggy face and Rob would miss
his counsel. So Brendan had played a part in
every victory her son had won. Galbert Glover had taken command
of the Scouts and Outriders in his place.
A good man, loyal and steady, but without the Blackfish's
brilliance. We don't know what actually

(01:28:04):
happened at the Red Wedding. Don't need to rehash that.
Don't need to guess how it affected Brendan much, either.
His nephew is captured, likely to die from where he's sitting.
And his great nephew and king slaughtered Catlin.
His niece, who we'd held hands with at his brother's funeral,
had had her throat cut and thrown naked in the river.
Only License was left in the world, and she was to die not

(01:28:26):
long after Brendan had fought his way back to his.
Family helped rescue them from siege only to see them lose and
die anyway outside of battle, while the niece he left behind
was also killed, also not in battle.
That left him. Basically alone again, without
much family to speak of. Well, there's still duty and

(01:28:48):
honor, though. Warden of the Southern Marches.
Brandon not being a meek nor mild man, River Run remained
defiant even when the nasty old phrase came and knocking.
Here's where opinions differ greatly on Blackfish.
When River Run was originally threatened, Edmure brought in
all the small folks take refuge within the castle walls,

(01:29:09):
Brandon. Did the opposite, citing that
more mouths need more food and knowing the frays are coming to
siege, the Blackfish kicks them all out, leaving them to their
own defense. A feast for crows.
Jamie 5. Can we starve the castle out?
Sir Davin shook his head. The Blackfish expelled all the
useless mouths from River Run and picked this country clean.

(01:29:30):
He has enough stores to keep Manand Horse alive for two full
years. That's pretty bad, but he's also
not wrong. He knows there's a siege coming.
He knows there isn't going to behelp for a while.
All the river Lords minus Titus Blackwood are bending the knee.
Without the small folk, he can perhaps hold off the phrase for
two years, if he keeps them not so long at all.
So it's a pretty difficult choice.

(01:29:51):
Brendan knows he's going to be vilified for it, but he does it
anyway. And he also scoured the
surrounding land, as we said earlier, so the fries couldn't
use the surrounding land for their own.
Food, but neither. Could those small folk?
So he was tasked with holding River Run.
And he was going to hold it despite having to do awful
things to reach that goal. There's something we haven't
mentioned yet, which is that Brendan had another task and

(01:30:14):
when Rob and the others went N, he was left or he left his young
wife behind. The queen girl, Jane, the one
that Catelyn feels confident leaving behind because it's
Brendan guarding her. And he intended to do that.
He did his duty as best as he could.
And when the phrase finally did arrive and threatened to.
Hang Ed Muir. He didn't budget.

(01:30:36):
After a short treatment, the siege leader Ryman Frey begins
to bring Edmure before the gallows, which we know is just a
bluff. And Blackfish called it again
and again and again he calls it.His bluff is repeated over and
over, but of course it just getseasier to call over and over,
probably. Does he know?
Ryman is full of it. Or is he just, well, this is my

(01:30:57):
job. It doesn't matter if you hang
Edmure. I got ordered from the King and
that takes precedence. Or maybe it's just because he
realizes that if he opens the gates and you're screwed either
way, well. It's it's not like.
It's will save him so and also there's this whole Brendan maybe
not wanting to be told what to do.
Just being stubborn. A Feast for crows, Jamie.

(01:31:18):
Five. I would.
But where to begin? Whilst I've been building Rams
and siege towers, Ryman Frey hasraised a gibbet.
Every day at dawn he brings forth Edmure Tully, drapes A
noose around his neck and threatens to hang him unless the
castle. Yields the Blackfish pays his
mummer show no mind, so come even fall Lord Edmure is taken
down again. So this goes on and on with

(01:31:40):
neither side budging until Jamieshows up with more men and a
better plan. He actually gets Brendan to a
parlay on the river on Drawbridge and.
Jamie has, you know, decent intentions.
He's we know from his internal point of view that he's a lot
different man than he is. The beginning of the series.
Brendan Blackfish doesn't know this.
Brendan mistrust Jamie from the start, repeatedly calling him

(01:32:02):
Kingslayer, not really even entertaining Jamie's offers.
He basically says I. I'm only out here because I'm
bored. A feast for crows, Jamie Six.
Are there any terms you will accept?
He demanded of the Blackfish. From you, Sir.
Brendan shrugged. No, why did you even come to
treat with me? A siege is deadly dull.

(01:32:23):
I wanted to see this stump of yours and hear whatever excuses
you cared to offer up for your latest enormities.
They were feebler than I'd hoped.
You'd always disappoint, King. Slayer the Blackfish wheeled his
mare and trotted back toward River Run.
As I mentioned. Earlier, Brendan was a major
hero of Jamie's when Jamie was young.
So this is a pretty important point for Jamie's arc, one that

(01:32:45):
George has repeated in a few places, which is the realism of
meeting your heroes, your personal heroes.
Usually the hero, the person, doesn't measure up to the
stories told about them. In this case, that's not the
problem at all. Brendan does live up, it's just
that Brendan hates Jamie. And understandably is upset

(01:33:06):
about the Red Wedding calls Jamie's honor into question.
And as someone that adheres to acode of honor, Brendan to the
for the most part, he just, you know, has nothing but disdain
for Jamie. So imagine being Jamie and
having someone you, you know, idolize.
Just look. Down on you with disdain like
that doesn't feel good. I mean, Jamie can handle it.

(01:33:26):
He's a, he's a, he's an adult, but still, it didn't feel good.
But he does his best impression of Tywin, you know, being
dispassionate, doing his thing while holding a war council.
And this is interesting because a lot of the Riverlords are in
this council and they have this great high opinion of Blackfish,
stubborn to be respected. And this war council includes

(01:33:49):
the aforementioned Norberg Vance, now old and blind.
Who remember Brendan squired with him.
He offered to try to talk to Brendan and maybe convince him,
you know, a familiar face, but that's not what happens.
Jamie instead goes himself to EdMuir, convinces him to release
River Run because he's the Lord of River Run and, you know, and

(01:34:09):
if you don't, I'm going to, you know, shoot your kid on a
trebuchet. So this finally works.
The Lannisters and Phrase take the castle, but they have a
little bit of a surprise when. They take control.
A Feast for Crows, Jamie 7. He did swim, said Edmure

(01:34:30):
sullenly. He had the same blue eyes as his
sister Catlin, and Jamie saw thesame loathing that he'd once
seen in hers. We raised the port Collis on the
Watergate. Not all the way, just three feet
or so, enough to leave a gap under the water, though the gate
still appeared to be closed. My uncle is a strong swimmer.
After dark, he pulled himself beneath the spikes.

(01:34:51):
So Brendan manages to pull off one of the better escapes in the
series, kind of like his namesakes arch enemy Bitter
Steel, swimming under a barely raised portcullis and swimming
down a river. That's a pretty impressive feat
for any man, let alone A1 approaching his 60s.
Though he did grow up in the Riverlands, which probably means
he knows how to. Swim and that's the last we see

(01:35:12):
of Brendan Blackfish. As he heads out into the
Riverlands, Jamie sends scouts after him.
Hunting Parties is pretty confident that they'll catch
him, but they don't. Throughout this episode, we've
made a lot of comparisons between Brendan and Barristan
Selmy, and here's with yet another The two were similar in
their youth and similar in theirlater years.

(01:35:33):
Both were dismissed, slash chased out by.
Lannisters as it goes. And forced to go on the run and
to find a new slash old cause. In the case of Barristan, Tywin
makes a shrewd point. A Game of Thrones.
Tyrion 9. I'm dismissing Selmy.
Where was the sense in that? Yes, the man was old, but the
name of Barristan the Bold stillhas meaning in the realm.

(01:35:55):
He lent honor to any man he's served.
Tywin was dead on the name barristan the bold held a lot of
esteem and so does the name Blackfish as with Barristan
being dismissed slash disappearing with no one really
knowing where to find him until he.
Popped up to support Daenerys. We can assume Brendan is going
to do a very similar thing, although it won't involve going

(01:36:16):
to Essos or Daenerys. It's worth noting that Jamie
claims he intended to let Blackfish take the black.
Yeah, his name kind of already fits it right?
But no, I think Jamie's telling the truth there, but it's not a
sure thing. But you could argue that Brendan
would rather die defending his homeland anyway.
It's interesting to consider, though, what he would have

(01:36:37):
thought of such an offer. We know the Nights Watch is
desperate for men. Someone like Brendan would be
really helpful right there. And he's already got the, you
know, the. Right color cult clothing to go
along with it, but Brendan seemsto share his niece's disdain.
For. Lord Commander Jon Snow, right?
Catelyn hated Jon Snow and Brendan may not have a great
opinion of him, but in the conversation with Jamie, he

(01:36:59):
indicates that he doesn't trust John.
Maybe he's just saying that, youknow, maybe he's doing a mummer
impersonation here to to preventJohn from becoming a target.
If he just disavows friendship or interest in John, maybe that
helps keep John safer. Remember Rob?
Names John his heir in his will and maybe Blackfish knows this.

(01:37:21):
Blackfish wasn't there. He was already left behind when
Rob wrote his will. Rob wrote his will after having
left Blackfish behind. So he might not know about it.
But if he did, tis would definitely he wouldn't want to
say, yeah, I like Jon Snow. He wouldn't want to be like, I
hate that guy. I don't you know, he's got
nothing to do with me. He would want to keep him safe.
But it's it's kind of fun to imagine the possibilities there

(01:37:42):
because it could be just a simple, straightforward, Catlin
mentioned him, so he shares the opinion of of his niece there.
But we don't, we don't know whathe did, we don't know where he
went. We don't know whether he knows
about John being the heir and wedon't know where he's going.
But we definitely have some great ideas that I think you'll.
Like future fish so. There are many possibilities for

(01:38:06):
what the Blackfish can do with his relative freedom.
Even though he's a haunted man, he is out there and capable.
It's a safe bet that the Tully words, though.
That's where we should look to kind of get a guideline.
Honor, I think, will take distant third place right now
because family and duty are really going to demand his time.
And he's doesn't exactly have a lot of family out there, so it

(01:38:29):
really helps us narrow it down. Ed Muir is obvious as a
possibility, but there's also Arya and Sansa and Robert Aaron,
who is his, who is his great nephew.
He has no idea where Arya and Sansa are for the most part so.
There's not a lot of reason for him to think about them.
And of course, I left out Brandon Ricken because like most
people, he thinks they're dead. Speaking of dead, well, it's

(01:38:51):
probably going to be not long if.
He's unless it's already happened off screen that he's.
Found out about. Catlin So that's his family, but
his greatest duty is to his deceased king, who is also a
great nephew and. Rob's Queen Jane Westerling, who
he's sworn to protect. So let's see what happens next.

(01:39:15):
The Brotherhood without Blackfish.
There's an outside chance that Brendan is going to head back to
the veil. He's he's obviously going to
have ties there because of SweetRobin.
And Sweet Robin is a young man with no one to protect him.
And Peter Baelish is in charge of him.
So that's risky bridge to build on now, though, because that's

(01:39:37):
kind of far away and we don't really know what Brendan knows
about Littlefinger and what opinion he has of him, but he's
probably not a fan. The other aspect is that one of
his last kin is in the Vale withSansa, but he doesn't know that
either. Like we said earlier, it would
be interesting if he goes there because if he sees her, I mean,
Littlefinger points out repeatedly that Sansa is the

(01:40:00):
spitting image of Catlin at the same age.
And of course, Brendan would catch that.
Too if he sees her, if he sees her, but it doesn't seem likely,
but if he does, if she sees him.Is that maybe her way out be
like? Hey uncle, get me the heck out.
Of. Here.
But Littlefinger would see that coming.

(01:40:20):
If Blackfish shows up, he's going to know.
Better hide her. But I don't think this is very
likely. I think that the Riverlands is
far more likely. It's his home, it's where the
Kingdom is, and it's where, you know, where his most important
family members are, so. Seeking out the Brotherhood
Without Banners seems by far themost likely.
It's also what Jamie is worried about him doing.

(01:40:40):
The new Lord of River on Emmon Frey freaked out when he heard
Blackfish escaped. They perhaps have already sought
him out, meaning the Brotherhood.
Here's why Jamie leaves Ed Muir alone with Tom O Sevens the
singer, a scene clearly not meant for casual fans to get.
Not only is Tom, the same singerwho made the song mocking Ed

(01:41:01):
Muirs floppy fish, Jamie thinks he's tormenting Ed Muir by
leaving him alone with him. And that is what it looks like.
But Tom is a member of the Brotherhood Without Banners and
No. Doubt they had a very
interesting conversation, him and Ed Muir.
One might think Blackfish came up in that conversation and his
need to escape. This is a potential match made

(01:41:22):
in heaven. Check.
This out, by this point in the story, the Brotherhood is
already killing Fray's left, right and center.
Brendan's going to be all about that.
He would also be aware that through all all the war, the
Brotherhood have been helping out the smallpoop, killing
Lannisters and generally siding with the Tulleys, at least
siding with their agenda. So that certainly makes sense

(01:41:45):
and is a great fit. And of course you haven't.
Forgotten Brendan's skill set that he displayed not only in
the War of the Five Kings, but probably before.
The Brotherhood are good at whatthey do.
But Brendan is a. Master of this sort of thing,
his experience with scouts, knowing the land, knowing the
enemy, just tactics, all that stuff.
Brendan would be perfect as a new like type commander of the

(01:42:09):
Brotherhood. They would just do so well under
him, mixing them with his level of expertise.
This is it's pretty exciting, I got to say.
But the interesting part about all this is, you know, it's
really hard to predict is again,meeting his niece, Lady
Stoneheart. What is he going to do?
What is he going to react to her?
Like, is it going to really creep him out?

(01:42:29):
Or is he just going to roll withit, be like, well, she's killing
frays and Lannisters and that's what I want to do.
This is creepy as heck, but it'sworking.
Or would he just get really angry?
You know, would he be like, thisis wrong?
This is of the seven Hells or something?
I don't know what he would call it, but maybe he would want to
end her suffering or I don't know.
It's really. This is This is a difficult call
here, but as long as he has. Living family.

(01:42:51):
Living Family. That's going to take priority
over revenge. Even though revenge might be
easier to get at this point, I do think with his skills might
be able to manage both. Let's keep that in mind.
We know Jamie and Brienne are headed back to Lady Stoneheart,
so perhaps there's even an opportunity for Brendan and
Jamie to meet again because Brendan may already be with them

(01:43:13):
at that point in which Brienne comes and tricks Jamie to leave
his army. Blackfish may be already among
them, so we may get some back and forth between.
Jamie and the Blackfish again, and maybe we'll see Brienne and
Blackfish do some chatting. That would be kind of cool.
The Brotherhood with the Blackfish.
We've been looking at everythingthrough a Brendan tinted.

(01:43:35):
Lens. That's hard to say fast.
Given that this is an episode about him, but let's take a look
from another point of view. The Brotherhoods in this case,
obviously they're going to be aware of who he is, but it goes
farther than that. A good number of the lads in the
brotherhood are simple folk. From the Riverlands.
They aren't professional soldiers, you know, they don't

(01:43:56):
raise banners. Hence the name.
They're simply just swept up in the carnage of war.
But all of them, to a man, have heard of the Blackfish.
They've been fighting the phrase.
It's been a hard war, it's been a hard life.
And then in walks this hero thatthey've been hearing stories
about since they were born. A knight famous outside of the

(01:44:17):
Riverlands throughout the entire7 kingdoms.
So this is a game changer for them.
It's like morale is really important in war and getting
this guy on their side, boom, that's a huge boost to morale
all around. And the brotherhood are not, you
know, it's, it's like I said, it's a hard life.
They're falling apart a bit and you know, so this could really
pump some energy into them. Do you remember how Jamie grew

(01:44:41):
up idolizing the Blackfish? And Jamie is the son of the most
powerful Lord in the Kingdom andthe youngest ever to join the
Kingsguard, and he idolizes Blackfish.
So if Jamie feels that way, justimagine how the small folk feel
about the Blackfish. And as we mentioned with
Barristan, honor and fame are are part of the package.
After months or years of living in caves and hanging people

(01:45:02):
commanded by a walking corpse, Blackfish again coming in there,
that's going to shine a little. Light on things.
And of course you know the non Riverlanders.
It's still the name Tully. I mean the Tulleys are one of
the great houses and they get toserve under him and not an
undead tally which they were serving under before.
It lends purpose. And it might even be possible

(01:45:23):
the few of these outliers can bemaybe redeemed, you know, being
around Brendan, maybe by it's those who survive the war.
If any of them do, being around a a guy like him might, you
know, having a trickle down effect on their personalities.
Maybe it'll make them more honorable in the long run.
And since Lady Stonehart startedcalling them shots, they have
not exactly behaved with honor. They've gotten darker and

(01:45:43):
darker. Which is possibly by Brendan.
Won't get along with this group so well.
As great a fit as it seems, it might not actually work out.
It just comes down to what his attitude's going to be, what his
goals are going to be, and how other people view him.
He. And again, he's not terribly
sentimental or compassionate, sohe might be willing to get his
hands dirty to work with the undead, to work with these

(01:46:06):
bandits, if it means killing. Lannisters and frays.
Hips do lie, after all. So for a while there was a
popular theory that Brendan escaped with Jane Westerling,
who many believed to be pregnantwith Rob's air and was trying to
get her safety, ignoring the considerable logistics of
helping a pregnant young woman swim to the river.

(01:46:27):
There's a a roadblock to this theory.
The reason the theory exists is because Catlin and Jamie's
description of Jane Westerling'ships were very different, and
this is of course would normallybe major evidence.
Unfortunately, George confirmed.That it was a mistake.
So that's it. The hips, they do lie.
So we just have to lay that theory to rest.

(01:46:48):
Brendan's almost certainly by himself, so where's he going to
go? Obviously we talked about the
Brotherhood being kind of hard to find, but of course.
They may have found him and Jamie's war counsel, and in
various conversations it's pretty clear that a lot of the
River Lords aren't happy with their current circumstance.
So things start to turn and theyhear that Brendan is part of the

(01:47:09):
reason why it. May encourage them to switch
sides sooner than they might have because of.
Their hero being out there doingthe work that they by honor feel
that they should be doing too. It probably shamed a lot of them
to bend the knees to the Lannisters.
And they would. Love to have a second chance to
do the right thing. There's even the outside chance

(01:47:29):
that he goes North, right, you know, to Mage Mormont and and to
do all that. But I really don't think so we
should consider it. But he's a Riverlands man, and
he's a family man, and he probably wants revenge, and
revenge is there where he already is.
No need to go anywhere else. So in summary, Brendan is quiet

(01:47:53):
except when he's not plain and reserved, giving him an air of
mystery in addition to his badassery.
And he loves his family and his home, but he also expelled
hundreds of small folk and was willing for the Garrison of
Reverend to die if it meant taking a few 1000 Freys and
Lannisters with them, despite the fact that it seemed certain
that no military victory could be achieved.

(01:48:14):
Is this an endearing last stand,or pointless stubbornness or
pride? It's one of the most divisive
opinions among fans about a single character.
It's probably one of those arguments that's going to live
forever. We're not going to know.
We're not going to. It's about.
It's a moral conundrum. Brendan is also a key example,
despite being a simple character, of being complex the
same time. Sure, he's a knight, a shining

(01:48:36):
beacon of honor, but he's a master of ambush, of scouting
and tactical advantage, not traits generally connected to
knighthood. This could be a decent clue that
honor is something that Brendan adheres to where possible, and
something he'll put aside when he needs to.
When push comes to shove, he wants results, not glory,
especially when family weighs inthe balance.

(01:48:56):
He's certainly not perfect by any standard.
But among the Westerosi characters we know well, he's
one of the better ones as far asmorals and ethics go, but still
far from perfect. Another comparison to Beres and
Selmy here, who we see struggle with his possible past choices
like Danny and Maureen and due to OC sworn and how the politics

(01:49:17):
are all just the kind of thing he doesn't.
Want to be involved with? I would think Brendan would also
not take as long to make a. Decision.
More importantly though, is who Brendan has been an acclaimed
warrior in the War of Ninepenny Kings, a steadfast rock against
the tide of tradition in terms of marriage, a clearly loving
uncle, and a difference maker inthe War of 5 Kings.
He shows us another side of the old Knights that litter the

(01:49:39):
story and provides a complex juxtaposition as a man who both
loves his family and yet is willing to be separate from it
entirely. There's no character like him,
without a doubt. There's only one black fish in
those rivers. Stay tuned after the credits for
a brief extra thought on the Blackfish's future based on A to

(01:50:00):
the Winds of Winter spoiler. Producer of this episode was a
Shia. Thanks to Michael Klarfeld for
the video intro and outro. Thanks to Joey Townsend and
Jesse Koal for the intro and outro music.
Thanks to mccallschickofvassalsofkingsgravepodcast@hyperbol.com
for the female voices. Thanks to Martin Lewis of Echoes
of Ice and Fire. For the section readings.

(01:50:21):
Thanks again to Joe Buckley and Rainy Targaryen for helping
write this episode. Thanks to Lord Rob the Bilt,
Stoneborn, rider of the Unicorn Desolation.
Thanks to the. Mysterious BR.
Hand of the King Thanks to Lord Michael Valerian, Night of High
Tide and Guardian of the DeLorean.
Hand of the Queen, Lady Sue, then Sinistra, the learned
holder of the left-handed Valerian shears, called

(01:50:42):
Tennant's Hand of the Beard. Lord Jim the Fortuitous of the
Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire Blog and Warden of the
West. And host of the two wage.
War Podcast Lord George Storms called the cunning Lord of the
Chiliad and warden of the East Beth the Unfrozen is Lord of the
bricks and castle Crimson light,defender of the old gods and.
Warden of the North. Lady Kelly Mcmath of Covington

(01:51:02):
is Lady of the Villa Hills and Crescent Springs, Warden of the
South. Lord James Tuttle is King of the
Step Stones and the Narrow Sea commander of the Royal Fleet
consisting of the Narrow Fleet led by flagship Caraxes and the
Bloodstone Fleet led by flagshipPrince Damon.
Charlotte Oster as Corsair Queenof the Western Shivering Sea,
commander of the Briny Fleet, whose flagship is the Barnacle
encrusted Pilot Hall of Mercenaria.

(01:51:24):
She carries the nacre inlaid shucking blade grass load.
Ships from both fleets have beenengaged in battle in recent days
and the conflict could escalate.Thanks to Sir Valentin of House
to Jen, creator of the Game of Predictions.
Our small council is Lord James Inkblade, the Scholar Knight
Master of Whisperers, Grand Maester Surya of the Barrows,
Cinder of the Citadel, Lord Robert Jacobs, Master of Coin,

(01:51:47):
Rosie the Clever, Master of Laws.
Lords and ladies in their castles include Lady Dyer, Liz
of Castle Nachi, the Alpha patron, Lord Dan of the Red
Mountains and Castle Great Bell,Breaker of the Second Stone,
Lord Skip of the Veldt, Lord of Castle Ganges, Gregor the
Toasty, Lord of the Bread Court,Alicia Everlasting of the Green
Blood, Lady of Desert Roads, Lord Ryan of Castle Stonegate,

(01:52:08):
Guardian of the Rocky Mountain Pass, Lord Garen de Havilland of
Devil's Hand Keep, Ashland, Winter of the Hawks Eye, Lady of
Castle Skyfall, Lady Mikkel of Moonacre Wit, leader of the
Weirwood Protectorate Alliance, the Lord of the Halls of Castle
Hillcrest, is wielder of the Valyrian steel machete,
Everglades. Lord Alistair Whitaker is Lord
of the Donald. Lord Bemi Snugglebunny is
guardian of the hidden 100 acre weirwood and holder of Vocal

(01:52:31):
Snugglebunny. Brian the Defender is Lord of
the Spear Fort and the Three Lands, last scion of Clan
McCulloch strength. Curve.
The Bastard of the Wolfswood is First Forester of the Old Gods,
sworn the House Ironwood. Listen for the silence.
Connor of the Dungeon Master is Lord of Catamount Keith and
guardian of the Smoky Mountain Pass Lady Baelish is Dark Widow
of Harrenhal. Our King's Justice is Sir Troy,

(01:52:53):
the Steady wielder of the Valyrian steel blade.
Fate, our Queen's High Council is Lady Jane of House Seltigar,
the Emerald of the Evening, wielder of the Valyrian steel
axe Painkiller, mistress of sea eagles and mistress of ships.
Lady Mai of House Swan is Mistress of Whispers.
Helia of Upstate is Master of coin.
Grand Maester M Elizabeth is middle daughter of Liana
Mormont, first lady to forge both the silver and Valyrian

(01:53:15):
steel. Lake Bull Bethe of House
Copperhoof is still Waters run Deep, Master of Laws.
The Council the Beard is led by Grand Maester Clark, Protector
of Wisdom. And beards.
Our Kingsguard is led by Lord. Commander Sir Christopher Dane
of Starfall, Sentinel of the Torrent.
Our Queen's Guard is led by LordCaptain Commander Hey the Helmet
to sell sword. Sentinel Lady Nymeria of House

(01:53:36):
Sea Pirtle, Alexander of House of Tradies from the seat of
Dune. I must not fear.
Fear is the Mind Killer. Jane Grey, Becca the Bard,
Songbird of the North, and Sir Eric Redbeard Odinson, wielder
of Tempest of Monstrous Warhammer.
The Beard Guard is Lord Commander George the Golden, Sir
Joshua Oakhart the White Oak Lady Rita the Copper Man.
Unbound dance the. Fervor, Sir Jeff Warden of the

(01:53:58):
AC, wielder of triad. The multifaceted beard of
platinum. Red and brown.
Stay Frosty Lord Commander Daenira Flint of the
Knightboard, avenging the memoryof brave Danny, 1st Ranger
Fabian Flowers, Ambassador GreenShield, First Builder Patch,
Face of Motley Wisdom, and 1st Steward Sir Jurian of the
Torrentine called Pale Wind. I had a little extra tidbit that

(01:54:20):
I was going to save after the credits.
And the reason, of course, is because it involves, well, Winds
of Winter spoiler. Not from one of the Winds of
Winter chapters, but something George said in an interview.
Now, of course, there's a lot ofWinds of Winter fan theories,
including Brendan, like the attempted rescue of Edmure and
Jane Westerling because they're being moved from river runs
casually rock. And Jamie's very worried about

(01:54:40):
this. He gives Thorley Prester a
knight who Jamie trusts. 100 men.
And then says double it. And then he says double it
again. As his suspicions grow and he
thinks about it more, he's worried about the possibility of
ambush. And here's where the little Tea
Wow spoiler comes in. George said that the prologue of

(01:55:01):
The Winds of Winter will includeJane Westerly, so include her
probably means that she's not the point of view.
It might be Prester himself. It could be Blackfish himself.
It could be one of the other characters in this party.
But there's a decent chance thatwe see Blackfish in the prologue
of The Winds of Winter involvingsome sort of attempt to bring

(01:55:22):
Jane Westerling back, to captureher, to get get her back to
rescue her, etcetera. And I'm very much looking
forward to that. It's one of the fun things about
this episode that gives it a little extra juice is the idea
that Brendan might be the one ofthe very first characters we see
when we finally get The Winds ofWinter.
Whenever that. Comes.
So that's it. That's all a little tidbit is.

(01:55:43):
We don't have much to go on, of course, because it's just a
little snippet from George, but it's definitely worth thinking
about. And that's it for today.
Thanks everybody for listening. See you next time.

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