61 replies to this topic

[ICE CROW]

I hope Sam meets his father in the next book and kills him, in self defense of course.

[Jory's Shade]

Dragonstoned has the right of it.

[The burned dog]

He is a dick, but he also seems quite intelligent and capable. I think in his right environment he is great man, but he cannot abide weakness.

[Malkan]

dragginstoned, on 23 August 2011 - 11:08 AM, said:

Lets see.

1)  Child abuse --- chains his son to a wall
2)  Child abuse --- threatens to murder his son if he doesnt go to the wall
3)  Slays envoys
4)  Tells a highborn woman on a mission from the Iron Throne that she could use a good raping.
  
Nah... He's a dick.  

Considering what you know about him, you think more interaction is going to turn him into rainbows and puppydog kisses?

who would want that? I like him because he is one of the best commanders and soldiers in the real, he was the only one to defeat Robert in battle on the whole rebellion with nothing more than the vanguard, and he has his own Valyrian steel sword, I want to see more interaction where he kick some ass, not a meaningful reunion with sam when they both hug and cry, maybe they could team up and kill something, if sam ever stops whining that is

[Lord of Casterly Rock]

Tarly is a bit of a grey character. He's able, capable, and in his own harsh way, just and honourable. He also treated Sam quite poorly, but we as readers understand his motives in doing so.

I find I don't hate Tarly. He has potential, though it would be nice to see a confrontation between Sam and Randyll sometime. That'd be interesting to read.

[TheRiderThatMounts]

Randyll Tarly is the perfect example of a medieval military MAN.
He treats Sam bad because he has hich expectations of him.

Randyll Tarly is a great warrior(You may say the Cleganes would beat him in a 1 on 1 but I don't think that would be a fair fight since the Cleganes, especially Gregor, are a little bit supernatural.) and commander. Probably the best in the fantasy world. They don't speak of him much but when they do it is with great respect, borderline fear.
Jamie Lannister doesn't mention him when he thinks about the best fighters in Westeros but he doesn't hesitate when adviceing Cersei to make Tarly at least part of the Council.

What did Tarly do at Maidenpool? He started rebuilding the place.
You may not like his parenting skills but in every other aspect he is top notch.
And, actually, we shouldn't judge his parenting skills either. He hates Sam cause he's a craven, ok. But what about Dickon? He surely loves the boy. And he probably loves his girls too.
He didn't want Horn Hill to go to Sam because his impression was that Sam was incapable of leading the men and taking care of them.
And that's actually great parenting if you look to his men as his children or brothers.
I really hope he finds out about Sam. I would be extremely curious to see his reaction. I am pretty sure he would appologize to Sam and start respecting him.

Randyll Tarly is a good guy.
I think he is the same as Ned. Maybe a little bit harder. But not too much.
Remember what Ned told his kids: "You will feed them, take care of them and, if they die, you will bury them yourselves." Some would say that isn't good parenting either.

[Doran II]

Yeah, he is such a good guy, putting the fault in Brienne in the possibility of her being raped, such a nice guy him

Edited by Doran II, 04 March 2012 - 06:38 AM.

[Drowsey Dragon]

TheRiderThatMounts, on 02 March 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

Randyll Tarly is the perfect example of a medieval military MAN.
He treats Sam bad because he has hich expectations of him.

Randyll Tarly is a great warrior(You may say the Cleganes would beat him in a 1 on 1 but I don't think that would be a fair fight since the Cleganes, especially Gregor, are a little bit supernatural.) and commander. Probably the best in the fantasy world. They don't speak of him much but when they do it is with great respect, borderline fear.
Jamie Lannister doesn't mention him when he thinks about the best fighters in Westeros but he doesn't hesitate when adviceing Cersei to make Tarly at least part of the Council.

What did Tarly do at Maidenpool? He started rebuilding the place.
You may not like his parenting skills but in every other aspect he is top notch.
And, actually, we shouldn't judge his parenting skills either. He hates Sam cause he's a craven, ok. But what about Dickon? He surely loves the boy. And he probably loves his girls too.
He didn't want Horn Hill to go to Sam because his impression was that Sam was incapable of leading the men and taking care of them.
And that's actually great parenting if you look to his men as his children or brothers.
I really hope he finds out about Sam. I would be extremely curious to see his reaction. I am pretty sure he would appologize to Sam and start respecting him.

Randyll Tarly is a good guy.
I think he is the same as Ned. Maybe a little bit harder. But not too much.
Remember what Ned told his kids: "You will feed them, take care of them and, if they die, you will bury them yourselves." Some would say that isn't good parenting either.

Randyll Tarly is not a good guy. While I agree he is an excellent Lord and typical of his time and place in that world, he does not possess a goodness inside him like Ned did. Ned was stern like Randyll and a leader of men, but the comparison basically ends there.

I could never see Ned disown his son, tie him up, threaten to kill him etc or put the fault at a woman if she were raped. Look at what Ned went through raising Jon in his house. He had character and compassion. He lost his head due to his compassion. Tarly never would have thought twice if put in Neds situation back in KL after Robert died.

[Dragonborn]

Randyll Tarly is in no way a good man. No one who wishes a 'good hard raping' on another human being is a good person, nor do they have much honour.
I don't think he is just saying that to 'put Brienne in her place', does Randyll Tarley really strike you as the kind of man who pussyfoots around with words? I would say no, he says exactly what he means.
He is a highly efficient warrior and a fantastic choice to rid Maidenpool of outlaws however I would question his abilities during peacetime when there are less outlaws to contend with...

TheRiderThatMounts, on 02 March 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

You may not like his parenting skills but in every other aspect he is top notch.
And, actually, we shouldn't judge his parenting skills either. He hates Sam cause he's a craven, ok. But what about Dickon? He surely loves the boy. And he probably loves his girls too.
He didn't want Horn Hill to go to Sam because his impression was that Sam was incapable of leading the men and taking care of them.
And that's actually great parenting if you look to his men as his children or brothers.
I really hope he finds out about Sam. I would be extremely curious to see his reaction. I am pretty sure he would appologize to Sam and start respecting him.

There are more aspects to commanding men than just being brave or particularly skilled in combat, infact that combination is almost always a recipe for disaster. Look at Ser Loras for example, he has both bravery and skill in abundance, and is currently (as of aFfC) on the verge of death, with the loss of 1000 other men on his hands. If Randyll Tarly made any effort to build Samwell's confidence, he would have found that Sam is a highly intelligent and compassionate person, two traits that are important for a leader to have.
Whilst I agree that Sam still wouldn't have made a good lord despite these traits, that is no excuse for threatning to kill your own flesh and blood (or anyone for that matter) and if he was as good, intelligent and honourable as people claim, he would have found a better way to circumvent the issue. It has less to do with his parenting skills than it does with just having a generally screwed up set of morals.
Randyll Tarley has already proved himself to be stubborn and pigheaded when it comes to only seeing what he want's to see judging from his reaction to Brienne when she returned after almost single handedly killing Pyg, Timeon and Shagwell.

' "If it please, my lord," Ser Hyle said, "I watched her fight the mummers. She is stronger than most men, and quick-"
"The sword is quick," Tarly snapped. "That is the nature of Valyrian steel. Stronger than most men? Aye. She's a freak of natire, far be it from me to deny it."
I highly doubt he would apologise to Sam, it's not in his nature. He is to stiff and set in his ways.

TheRiderThatMounts, on 02 March 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

Randyll Tarly is a good guy.
I think he is the same as Ned. Maybe a little bit harder. But not too much.
Remember what Ned told his kids: "You will feed them, take care of them and, if they die, you will bury them yourselves." Some would say that isn't good parenting either.

Oh lordy, please don't tell me you just compared him to Ned Stark ?
Ned was compassionate, kind and very fair whilst still being a firm and just authority figure. He even managed to do so withought threatning to kill his children or chaining them up and depriving them of food and warmth...
And since when is teaching children responsibility bad parenting ? The North is a hard place, and if the childeren wanted their pets they would have to be the ones to care for them; not to mention no one else in Winterfell, including the Kennel masters would be game to touch a Direwolf.

Edited by Dragonborn, 18 March 2012 - 06:34 AM.

[Dagos_Rivers]

This might be a spoiler but did anyone else think we would see a meeting between randyll tarly and Sam at the end of A Feast for Crows? I knew that the last chapter would a Samwell chapter and I was expecting that to be the climax, possibly a death sentence on Sam from his father as Sam would have broken his oath by fathering a child.

[ManyFacedOne]

Dagos_Rivers, on 28 March 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

This might be a spoiler but did anyone else think we would see a meeting between randyll tarly and Sam at the end of A Feast for Crows? I knew that the last chapter would a Samwell chapter and I was expecting that to be the climax, possibly a death sentence on Sam from his father as Sam would have broken his oath by fathering a child.

I never thought of that but I wouldn't put it past Randyll.

[machineo]

Sam's a spaz, but he seems to be very perceptive.  I would believe his prediction of his father's reactions would be fairly accurate.  Publicly condemning but secretly proud of his son giving in to macho desires, with an attractive girl, and a son to boot.

[Lyanna Stark]

TheRiderThatMounts, on 02 March 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

Randyll Tarly is a good guy.
I think he is the same as Ned. Maybe a little bit harder. But not too much.
Remember what Ned told his kids: "You will feed them, take care of them and, if they die, you will bury them yourselves." Some would say that isn't good parenting either.

Randyll Tarly had a prostitute condemned to having her genitals washed out with lye. I don't know about you, but that is a really awful thing and something Ned would never ever have done in a million years.

[TheLightningLord]

grandmazter3, on 18 August 2011 - 07:07 PM, said:

Is it wrong to like him a bit?

I like Sam as much as anyone but you gotta see it from his father's POV, that's his heir and he can barely do anything, his house would have fallen if Sam had been named Lord.

Everything I've read about Randyll Tarly seems pretty fair to me. He protects his people, punishes thieves and rapist and with the exception of being sexist he seems like a pretty good Lord compared to the others we have read about.

Aside from his treatment of Brienne and giving  up on Sam, i like him.

Tarly really isn't far from Stannis character wise. He is stern, but has a strong sense of justice. His only questionable personality traits are how he treats Brienne and how he treated Sam. If you think about it, he TRIED with Sam, but there is NO WAY he could've ever been an acceptable heir to Horn Hill. Could you have imagined Sam being a lord? He gave him a choice to live at least. As far as Brienne goes, he just thinks like 99% of Westerosi lords do. In my opinion, Randyll Tarly is on my short list of "Guys who would make great kings".

[Ser Dermett Corbray]

Tarly seems to be the Tyrell's version of Gregor Clegane. A powerful warrior, a great soldier and commander, but an ultimately detestable human being. You would want him in your corner in a fight but you wouldn't want him in your family.

[Lan the Clever]

We can't judge Randyll Tarly by OUR days standards.

He had a heir which was weak, coward, bookish...Not only was he a coward, but he didn't even try to hide it. He was completely incompetent. Some of you say he could have sent Sam to be a maester, but even if we ignore Randyll's obvious prejudice against maesters, Sam might still be a problem should he study to become a maester. By sending Sam to the wall, he eliminated Sam's claim to the Tarly House.

And as to his attitude towards Brienne, it was also justified by the social and cultural structure of westerosi society. For him, to have a woman playing knight was as outlandish as it is for us to see children playing warlord in some regions of our globe.

[David Selig]

Randyll is fair? Did you miss the scene in which he was handing out judgements in Maidenpool in a completely arbitrary and cruel (even by Westeros standards) way?

[Robb Stark The Young Wolf]

Randyll is honorable,cold an a great military commander .The best in whole Reach. We saw that in Roberts Rebellion but that idiot Mace Tyrell stole his victory.

[Silvannister]

I probably would like him more if he weren't such a misogynistic pig. As a feminist, nothing pissed me off more than his comments towards Brienne. Some could argue that most men during that fictional era possessed those sexist notions towards women, but I still think that rape thing was way too much.

[Lyanna Stark]

Silvannister, on 23 April 2012 - 02:06 AM, said:

I probably would like him more if he weren't such a misogynistic pig. As a feminist, nothing pissed me off more than his comments towards Brienne. Some could argue that most men during that fictional era possessed those sexist notions towards women, but I still think that rape thing was way too much.

Tarly is definitely one of the more hardcore "traditionalists" who are all for martial prowess and he snorts and claims a "woman's battle is in the birthing bed", so he clearly sees women as broodmares only, with potential harmful effects if men are subjected to their influence too long (as evidenced by his own son).

Which makes me really want to have a POV who runs into his wife, just to see how on earth that marriage is working out for them.

Tarly is competent to be sure, and a very good commander. He also seems to be regarded as quite honourable, but also very harsh, sort of like Stannis, but with less interest in judging the justice meted out. I think Stannis' sense of justice is up the shitter, but at least he tries to be fair according to his own moral compass when he decides whether to cut people's fingers off, or to hang them. Tarly seems more likely to just punish people with whatever if they are guilty, so sure, he's for law and order and technically a "force for what's right", but his methods are definitely brutal.

So he's definitely no Gregor Clegane who actually indulges in torturing people, but he's also no Ned, or even Stannis. Although out of the three, I'd say he's more like Stannis than he is the other two.