Edmure Tully

Soft of heart and soft of head.

-Gemma Frey. (George R.R. Martin – A Song of Ice and Fire)

Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully in Season 3 of
Game of Thrones.

The book series A Song of Ice and Fire, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, are full of supremely competent and commanding figures. Men, women, and even boys and girls who are either resourceful, charismatic, or cunning. Skilled and deadly.

Edmure Tully is not one of those men. As written by Martin in ASoIaF, and portrayed aptly by Tobias Menzies in GoT, he is instead one of those most tragic of things in a world as grim, hard, and cruel as that of Westeros: He is a good man, who tries his best.

He tries his best at being a Lord leading his House during one of the most destructive wars his country has ever experienced. He tries his best at being a battlefield commander despite not having any experience. He tries his best at being an equal player with other characters. He fails every time, and sometimes without realizing it. What’s worse is that he doesn’t just fail because he has no talent for any of these things – he actually does. He fails because he often does exactly what he shouldn’t, all the while believing that it’s the right thing to do, not just practically but also morally.

This bears repeating: In a world where being manipulative, conniving, and ruthless is not just recommendable but essential to survival, Edmure Tully tries to do what’s morally decent. And too often it’s exactly what he shouldn’t do.

That said, he's not without his flaws. He's impulsive, short-sighted, hungry for glory, and in the book series has a reputation for lechery. Yet despite his failings, or maybe because of them, he’s one of my favourite characters of the series.

Two moments seem to define Edmure Tully for me. The first occurs in the ASoIaF series, where he allows refugees to shelter inside the castle of Riverrun, When asked why, the grim, cruel world that Martin has built makes Edmure’s answer stand out all the  more:

“Because they are my people, and they are afraid.”

While this moment has not been (thus far) portrayed in Game of Thrones, the second has been: On the death of his uncle Hoster Tully, the former lord of Riverrun, Edmure must light his funeral barge as it drifts downriver with a flaming arrow. He misses his shot three times, and ends up being shoved out of the way by the more skilled Brynden ‘Blackfish’ Tully, who lights the barge on the first shot.

Both these moments establish Edmure clearly to the audience of both the book and the tv series. His first test as Lord is to light his uncle’s pyre, and he fails. He gives starving, frightened people a safe haven in Riverrun, and in doing so threatens the castle’s already-precarious food supplies. Later on he defeats a sizeable invading force, only to learn that by engaging them in open battle and forcing them to retreat, he’s ruined King Robb Stark’s chance to lure the invaders into a trap in which the leaders would have been killed and the army destroyed.  When told he has to go through with an arranged marriage to someone he’s never met, he naturally protests his lack of choice in the matter. He’s then threatened to do it, and rightly so: The marriage is seemingly the key to a vital alliance, and by refusing it Edmure is being selfish, even though most people might react the same way.

No matter what he does, no matter how he tries, Edmure Tully is more of a hindrance than a help. And this actually makes him not only one of the more sympathetic, but also one of the more human characters of the series, whether in the books or the show

"Sorry. I didn't know."

I suppose that’s mostly what draws me to him. Of course we love skilled heroes, and we love seeing them triumph against all odds. We love them being chosen by destiny or having a certain something about them that makes them stand out or go that extra step. 

However, I think at some point we all feel like Edmure: We do our best. We try and we often don’t do badly, but all too often it just isn’t enough. That’s not a message one finds very often in either TV or literature, and it can be difficult to pull off without coming across as nihilistic. 

ASoIaF, oddly enough, actually manage to avoid nihilism in this one case: Despite his failings, Edmure Tully keeps going. He stays true to his family, to his convictions, and in all the series he remains one of the few consistently morally-upstanding characters who continues to try to do what he believes is right and good, even when it would be easier for him not to.

Edmure Tully tries. He fails, but he tries. It’s easy to forget how important it is to try, even if it would be easier not to. If we believe something is worth fighting for, then the least we can do is stand up and try to fight for it. Our best might not be enough, but if we never even try we’ll never find out if it might have been, after all.

And even if it isn’t, Edmure Tully stands as an example of how that’s still not a reason to not keep trying.

---

The trailer for Season 3 of Game of Thrones can be viewed here.