Randyll Tarly is not the nicest person on Game of Thrones. He named his son Dickon. He bullied his other son, Samwell, and gave him the choice between joining the Night’s Watch and death. In George R.R. Martin’s books, he’s horrible to Brienne of Tarth — when he’s not tormenting Dickon’s father-in-law or attacking his wife’s family.
But still, Randyll Tarly has had a, shall we say, rough time lately on the TV show. Even by the standards of Game of Thrones, which tortures everyone. And in the process, Randyll provided an answer to the most baffling Thrones question right now.
Spoilers for recent episodes below…
The biggest question mark, going into season seven of Game of Thrones, was, “Why does anybody recognize Cersei Lannister as a legitimate monarch?” Her claim to the Iron Throne is tenuous at best, based on her marriage to Robert Baratheon and the fact that she was mother to two other kings. The nobles of Westeros have gone to ridiculous, bloody lengths to keep a woman with a stronger claim off the throne before.
And then there’s Cersei’s history, including the fact that she was condemned and publicly humiliated by the High Septon (and then was suspiciously absent when the High Septon was blown to bits, along with hundreds of nobles and clergy.) She’s no longer bothering to hide her penchant for incest, and she’s elevated Qyburn, a failed Maester whom everybody despises, to the position of Hand of the Queen. Basically every social institution in Westeros, from the church to the Citadel, frowns on Cersei and those close to her.
And yet, she’s holding onto the throne, even if she doesn’t control any actual territory to speak of, outside of King’s Landing. Given that Game of Thrones has given us a dozen scenes discussing what makes a monarch legitimate, and exploring why the common people don’t just murder their rulers, it seems odd that we see people apparently accepting Queen Cersei, the First of Her Name.
But then there’s Randyll Tarly, the stubbornly loyal lord of the Reach, who has a ginormous stick up his butt. Randyll Tarly’s family has sworn loyalty to the Tyrell family for centuries, but then he betrays Olenna Tyrell and supports the Lannisters. And he stays so loyal to Queen Cersei, he’s willing to be burnt alive by Daenerys’ dragons (and even let Dickon choose the same fate).
I was honestly a bit confused by this whole storyline, with all the other stuff happening on Game of Thrones this season, until I went back and rewatched the second episode of the season, “Stormborn.” That’s where Randyll makes his fateful decision and throws Lady Olenna Tyrell under a bus. And he basically does it out of pure xenophobia.
Randyll’s xenophobia is mentioned right before he gets toasted alive, but you hear a lot more about it back in “Stormborn.” That’s where he listens to Cersei’s sales pitch, in which she says Daenerys is just like her father, the sadistic Mad King, and hears about the hordes of Dothraki and Unsullied that Daenerys has brought to Westeros. Cersei doesn’t seal the deal, but her brother Jaime does.
“I’m a Tarly,” he tells Jaime. “That name means something. We’re not oathbreakers. We’re not schemers. We don’t stab our rivals in the back or cut their throats at weddings. I swore an oath to House Tyrell.”
Jaime makes several arguments in response to Randyll’s puffery:
(1) Randyll also swore an oath to the crown, which is only relevant if you believe Cersei has a legitimate right to that crown.
(2) Lady Olenna has lost it—she’s “broken” and hell-bent on revenge.
(3) If Randyll joins the Lannisters, he’ll get a promotion to Mace Tyrell’s old job, Warden of the South. (Though Tarly should really ask Bronn how Jaime’s grand promises turn out.)
(4) Daenerys has brought “foreign savages and eunuchs” to Westeros — and even more importantly, if Randyll stays loyal to the Tyrells, he’ll be fighting alongside those people.
And this is the argument that strikes home. Even more than Cersei’s nightmare vision of the Dothraki and the Unsullied rampaging across Westeros, Randyll Tarly just can’t stand the idea of being in the same army as them and treating them as comrades. So he’s willing to forsake centuries of loyalty and even get burnt alive, ultimately, to avoid being tainted by these foreigners.
In his final moments, Lord Randyll even decides to cast Daenerys (who was born on Dragonstone) as a foreigner. “Say what you will about [Cersei], she was born in Westeros. She’s lived here all her life,” he says. But meanwhile, Daenerys is “a foreign invader, one with no ties to this land, with an army of savages at her back.” And that’s why he takes death by dragonfire over even accepting Daenerys as legitimate enough to send him to the Night’s Watch.
The notion that Cersei is being kept on the throne by pure xenophobia is an intriguing one, and I wish Game of Thrones had been able to spend more time on it. We do see how this fact of life constrains Daenerys’ options: her best fighters are the Unsullied and Dothraki, but she can’t use them to attack King’s Landing, or she’ll prove Cersei’s fearmongering right. She’s initially forced to rely on her Dornish and Ironborn forces, which turn out not to be worth that much, until she finally uses the Dothraki to wipe out the Lannister army. And we certainly heard plenty about the Westerosi fear of Dothraki back in the first season, when Daenerys first married Khal Drogo.
But I hope at some point, the show really delves into the question of just how big a problem this hatred of foreigners is for Daenerys—especially since it’s just going to be more and more of a challenge as she gets closer to ruling.
Seasons five and six of Game of Thrones focused heavily on religious zealotry, following Martin’s book storyline. Cersei gambles on elevating the High Sparrow, an uncompromising fundamentalist, to a position of power, and this backfires. The metaphor of powerful people attempting to use religious fundamentalism as a blunt instrument against their enemies only grew more fascinating the more we got to know the High Sparrow and saw that he was gleefully aware of the contradictions in his situation.
So now Cersei’s storyline has swerved, and fear of outsiders has replaced an over-zealous love of god as her weapon against her rivals. The television version of Cersei increasingly seems to be positioned as a giant object lesson in manipulating forces you can’t control—and an allegory for real-life situations in which cynical people in positions of power attempt to exploit the beliefs and prejudices of others.
But you have to wonder if Westerosi nationalism will bite Cersei in the ass as badly as religious extremism did. After all, Westeros isn’t really much of a nation anymore, thanks to Cersei, Littlefinger, and a few others. The Seven Kingdoms are a broken mess, in which almost all social institutions have collapsed, from the church to the great houses. Laws aren’t being enforced, customs aren’t being maintained, and it’s increasingly unclear what it means to be “Westerosi” at this point.
As entertaining and fascinating as Game of Thrones has been this season, that’s the main thing I’ve missed: the exploration of Westeros as failed state. (This is something you really have to turn to George R.R. Martin’s books to get a clearer picture of.) If anything, travel across the Seven Kingdoms is growing faster and faster as the show’s pace speeds up, which inevitably leaves the impression that Westeros is in tip-top shape. And yet, we know enough to understand that Daenerys and Cersei are fighting over a shell of a country. And I’m dying to see just how Cersei’s gamble on Westerosi xenophobia plays out (especially since she’s only on the throne thanks to the support of foreign bankers). Game of Thrones has pulled the rug out from under its characters so many times, I can’t wait to see what dust this particular rug kicks up.
Before writing fiction full-time, Charlie Jane Anders was for many years an editor of the extraordinarily popular science fiction and fantasy site io9.com. Her debut novel, the mainstream Choir Boy, won the 2006 Lambda Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Edmund White Award. Her Tor.com story “Six Months, Three Days” won the 2013 Hugo Award and was optioned for television. Her debut SFF novel All the Birds in the Sky, won the 2016 Nebula Award in the Novel category and earned praise from, among others, Michael Chabon, Lev Grossman, and Karen Joy Fowler. She has also had fiction published by McSweeney’s, Lightspeed, and ZYZZYVA. Her journalism has appeared in Salon, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and many other outlets.
This post does a much better job at drawing out these issues than the show itself does. I think you’re right…I just worry that the show writers lack the appreciation or the ability to deal with these issues effectively.
I think this is a good example of the show suffering from the shortened season. With a full-length season, they’d have room to explore issues of xenophobia and failed states. With fewer episodes, I fear we’re just going from set-piece to set-piece wrapping up threads from the previous six years and gearing up for the finale.
I was surprised that no one pointed out the Dany was, in fact, born in Westeros.
It’s too bad Dan and David got so burnt out that they decided to cut the season short by three episodes…that’s the assumption I’m making based on interviews I’ve read. They didn’t even want to do an 8th season. This strikes me as an odd choice given how true to the books they were early on.
I get that we are approaching the “end game/climax” but there is a still one whole season left and we are moving through the plot at warp speed, and I think it’s leaving a lot of good story development in the dust. A shame. The show is still enjoyable, but it’s losing a lot of what made it amazing.
Cersei has ascended to the throne despite being totally unsuited to rule, surrounded by enablers united primarily by hatred and xenophobia. I can’t imagine something like that ever happening in real life.
The show is suffering badly from the compression. I get it, the writers want to move the plot forward and wrap the show up for good, but one of the strengths of Game of Thrones was that it let things unfold gradually and felt natural in doing so. Conversations between characters weren’t just blatant exposition dumps or sequential plot-advancers. They served to lay out information that wasn’t necessarily crucial to the very next scene or two, but gave a richer feeling to both the characters and the world they inhabit. In previous seasons, we’ve been able to explore questions of royal legitimacy, religious fervour and how war shapes people’s lives, as well as enjoy what felt like believable, realistic character development, and a huge part of that was tied up in how conversations between characters were written. Now that they’re just careening towards wrap-up, you *really* feel the absence of that, and the many lingering questions no-one bothers to address.
The xenophobia against Dany’s troops has always been obvious, and those scenes you cite are why.
@3 – Sophist: Well, she was born on Dragonstone, which is not attached to the continent of Westeros… it’s a weak argument, but at least they’re right about her not being raised there.
Cersei could be compared to Catherine the Great of Russia. Catherine, as Empress and a German Princess, had no claim to be Empress other than being mother of the heir. Catherine’s reign lastest past her son’s majority so Tommen’s death wouldn’t necessarily rule Cersei out in this comparison either.
@5 Right? I said something to that effect on the Facebook post. Cersei feels like a very unsubtle commentary on recent political trends of playing on xenophobia and fear of the other to strengthen one’s own position. Her platform, such as it is, isn’t so much “What will I do to earn your trust?” as “Here are a list of reasons you should be afraid of those strange people over there.” Almost feels like the writing staff are trying to make some manner of point or something. Perish the thought.
Seems to me a total stranger, daughter of a known lunatic backed by the equivalent of mongol raiders and brainwashed slave soldiers and winged weapons of mass destruction is a legitimate object of concern if not terror.
“Xenophobia” implies an irrational fear, Being distrustful of the good intentions of someone who has imported entire Dothraki khalasars into your country is entirely rational. The Dothraki have a well-earned reputation of pillaging, raping and slaving anyone who cannot resist them. All that you have that the Dothraki will not go on a rampage is Dany’s assurances. The Westerosi see slavery as repugnant, the Unsullied must seem a particularly terrible example, Thousands of men turned into automatons, less out a sense of personal duty and honor, but merely to survive. Can you trust someone who is essentially a stranger to your country to use those forces to the realm’s benefit if you do not know her?
The USA has embedded in the Constitution that the President must be a natural born citizen and not under the influence of foreign powers. Is that xenophobia? The reason the Framer’s had for doing that wre based on some real life examples of how foreign and foreign backed rulers brought countries to bad ends (the Polish Commonwealth, for instance).
I think the show bungled the High Sparrow’s arc, making it a simple “religious extremism is bad” story. The book version feels more complex in that the reason the Faith comes to the forefront is because it was the only functional institution for justice as the aristocrats and monarchy had abdicated their responsibilities to maintaining some semblance of the rule of law (often actually undermining it). That it is not well suited for fulfilling that role is part of the tragedy of the situation.
Westeros is not a failed state, it’s not a utopia, Westeros simply is a despotism, a sample of basic tyranny. Westeros folk is coward, nonchalant, ignorant and ethically dysfunctional; Even the elite is locked into a power struggle, doesn’t care about the well-being of their subjects. The scholars and academics of Westeros have isolated themselves from the rest of the society. They define their purpose as solely as observers. They don’t share their knowledge with the society, they don’t contemplate about the improvement of social life and welfare of humanity or care about individual rights. They don’t practice basic philosophy. The whole Westeros culture is a sample of nihilistic, apathetic, the usual third world mess and it has very little difference than Mogadishu. With the great help of luck, Peter Bailish’s well-calculated stratagem and unamassed demonstration of cruelty, Cercei managed to destroy almost every opposing power house in Westeros. And became a self-declared tyrant of the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys is a revolutionary, people around her believe and regard her as a holy chosen one, with a numerous unique set of skills. In a world such as this, I don’t think Randyll Tarly’s xenophoby is a big thing or unexpected.
Not to get off track here, but in fact there’s almost no record of why the Convention adopted the “natural born citizen” clause, nor of what it might mean. Literally the only piece of evidence is a letter from John Jay to Washington in July 1787 stating (without explanation) that the Commander in Chief should be a “natural born citizen”. At the time Jay wrote that letter, the Convention had not settled on the powers of the president. When they later did, and made him Commander in Chief, they apparently took Jay’s advice. That’s all there is.
Comments #10 and #11 do a good job of addressing the charge of xenophobia. The invaders who back Dany have brutal reputations and are known for taking slaves (in the case of the Dothraki) and being slaves (in the case of the Unsullied).
There’s no better way to unify the squabbling inhabitants of a kingdom than to invade with a force of foreigners known for their mercilessness. In fact, Jorah points this out in A Clash of Kings.
The people of Westeros have good reason to be wary of a queen who has never spent meaningful time on their continent, leading an army of brutal invaders, and willing to rekindle a war that had nearly ended. This is not a monarch who would be good for the people, despite her rhetoric.
To be entered under interesting/not interesting – Dickon was a diminutive of Richard.
I had been puzzled and fascinated how in the show this season, Cersei seems to be keeping it together as Queen remarkably well–attracting support from Euron Greyjoy, Randall Tarly and the Iron bank, delivering several impressive military victories, keeping Jamie and Qyburn well under her thumb, and making good on several bloody revenges. Compare to the Cersei of the later books, which is like watching a car crash in slow motion.
Part of this is the show’s fixation on building her up into an adversary worthy of Daenerys Targaryen. This post does a good job pointing out the forces behind that apparent stability and how they might backfire upon her. I hope that is what happens. Part of the fascination with Cersei in the books was watching her make fatally shortsighted decisions time after time after time, and I’m slightly worried the show will throw that out of the window for a high-concept “duelling Queens” plot.
When you put it that way, it makes me wonder if Cersei will start asking to see her birth certificate…
I don’t think she actually cares much about a birth certificate… :)
Westerosi are pretty xenophobic/racist, and it’s not just against Dothraki or Unsullied. There are racial divisions within Westeros, between kingdoms/areas settled by Andals (the Reach, Casterly Rock, the Riverlands), the North (populated by descendants of the First Men), the Dornish (mixed with refugees from Essos), and even the Ironborn. Randyll Tarly obviously thinks of Wildlings as little better than animals. From this point of view, the Targaryens were probably always seen as foreigners, so it doesn’t matter where Daenerys was technically born.
The Targaryens were foreigners and proud of it! Look at the lengths they went to keep the blood of Valyria ‘pure’. The really funny thing is as Dragonlord houses go they were nothing special.
A wise man once said that the cause of suffering is desire. So the more we want things to happen in a certain way, the more we’ll suffer.
In this case, you (and many others, I’m sure) were confused about something that the show explained. Maybe they didn’t beat us over the head with it, but it was explained. There was also another scene in the same episode with Tyrion telling Dany why she shouldn’t use her Dothraki or Unsullied against Westerosi armies. At the time, most people just complained that the show was trying to make things harder for Dany, so she wouldn’t simply win right away.
Some other people complain that we don’t see characters travelling from one place to another. Something tells me that if they showed a quick scene of people travelling, there would be complaints about how short those scenes were.
Maybe it’s human nature. We love to complain. Heck, I’m complaining about complaints!
Some people want everything to be spelled out on screen.
@24 – There are hints dropped in the main story and pretty much stated outright in The Princess and the Queen that the Targaryens believed that the ability to bond with dragons was a hereditary trait. As the dragons were the source of their power over Westeros, their desire to keep the blood of Valyria “pure” was attempting to maintain that trait in the family.
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Yes we do, I’m sorry but its called good storytelling. If you don’t set stuff up or show some travel time or at the very least acknowledge that some time has passed somehow then it all comes off as deus ex machina. Personally I liked how they showed the travel time back in the first season. How many episodes did it take Jon and Tyrion to get from WF to the wall? It seemed more organic than just teleporting all over Westeros.
Let me ask a question. If time is meant to pass offscreen during all this travelling then why is Gilly’s son, born way back in season 2, still only like two years old? Or here’s another one, Jon fought the army of the dead at Hardholm back in season 5. Since then Jon has gone back to castle black, travelled all over the north before finally retaking WF, gone from WF to Dragonstone, then from DS to Eastwatch and the army of the dead (an army that doesn’t need to eat or sleep) hasn’t made it to the wall yet? What have they been doing all this time, marching in circles?
More on topic for this thread I find that the way the show used Randyll Tarly was just another epic fail. Let’s start off with the fact that Randyll Tarly fought for the mad king during Robert’s rebellion. He stayed loyal to the Targaryen king. Say what you will about the man (he’s a total asshole to be sure) but one thing he wasn’t was a turncoat. So the show is telling me that not only does Randyll choose not to remain loyal to the Tyrells but he joins up with the person who is not only responsible for murdering his liege lord (and most of his immediate family) but also murdered the pope and blew up the Vatican? All because he doesn’t like that the daughter of the king he stood by during the earlier rebellion didn’t grow up in Westeros? Sorry but I just don’t find that believable.
@29: They showed travel back in the first season because plot actually happened while they traveled. All this traveling they are skipping would literally just be shots of people barfing off ship rails, with nothing of consequence happening.
It really doesn’t take much brain power to realize that “Hey, it probably took a while to travel from point A to B”, or “Hey, maybe these scenes had time pass in between”. We don’t need a text scrawl at the bottom of 2 months later to let us know that time can and has passed. It should be common knowledge that sailing on a ship probably takes some time.
I’m not saying their timelines are perfect — a lot probably doesn’t match up if you “real world” it. But it’s close enough. Just repeat the MST3K mantra.
And the xenophobia thing is mentioned and explained several times on the show. I think for people it’s hard to pick up on because we are NOT a xenophobic society, the US being one of the most heterogenous places in the world, and so to us we hear “xenophobic” and we just think “hah yea those kook minorities” and don’t really get how an entire society can think that way, even when it’s told to us.
Or maybe I’m just being too optimistic.
The xenophobia was just a plot device to get Randyll Tarly to defect to Cersei’s cause so that she wouldn’t get steamrollered by Dany. D&D are making it easy for Cersei just because they love Lena Headey. And I get it, she is the best actress on the show but they are giving her everything way too easy. She is all knowing and all powerful and everyone loves her even though she blew up the pope and the Vatican! There is no way she should even be sitting on the throne.
From a television-only fan, the show could use some moving along.
Like the Dornish and all the Tyrells, I would expect the Tarlys to have a completely different story if the books ever continue.
@30 – naupathia: Not only do we not need to have “two months later” written on screen, different plotlines are happening at different times.
@11 “I think the show bungled the High Sparrow’s arc, making it a simple “religious extremism is bad” story. The book version feels more complex in that the reason the Faith comes to the forefront is because it was the only functional institution for justice as the aristocrats and monarchy had abdicated their responsibilities to maintaining some semblance of the rule of law (often actually undermining it). That it is not well suited for fulfilling that role is part of the tragedy of the situation.”
Yes, this – I was a little disappointed that they made the High Sparrow so outrightly villainous. At first I thought he was kind of an interesting combination of Pope Francis and Bernie Sanders, but they then made it a much more sinister thing.
The thing about the way the show is going is that it’s not very nuanced – it’s kind of hard to make a point against xenophobia when they have developed things thus far such that it’s perfectly rational to fear them. I said this in one of the show discussion threads, but these aren’t immigrants and refugees, they are a literal invading force, including an army that is factually known to rape, enslave and pillage their conquests. And frankly I’m not sure Dany’s motives are any more noble than Cersei’s. So better the devil you know than the one you don’t.
I mean, when you come down to it, fighting the Night King is xenophobia too. Or necrophobia? ;)
But others have also made good points that Randyll’s turning against the other Tyrells (especially given that he had remained loyal to the Targaryens to the end) also is shrug-worthy.
Hah, no, it was just a joke. That’s not an interpretation I’ve ever heard, but I’m just basically saying that while I think there are real concerns regarding xenophobia to address regarding migrants and refugees, I’m not sure it’s fair to apply them to an actual army that we know does in fact want to take over. I mean – Randyll IS a xenophobic dick, we know that from how he treats Gilly – but I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong in opposing Dany (although maybe you could argue that his opposition to her isn’t based on the right reasons).
But I’m also not a huge Dany fan so…