Garlan Tyrell

When Stannis Baratheon's fleet sails up the Blackwater to seize King's Landing, Garlan fights on the side of the Lannisters and their Tyrell allies. Petyr Baelish suggests a ruse: wearing the armor of Renly Baratheon, Stannis's brother, dead for months by then. The effect on the enemy ranks, who see through the smoke and fire what looks like a king they believed fallen, is genuine panic.

Wearing that armor, Garlan duels Ser Guyard Morrigen and kills him. The battle ends in Stannis's defeat, and back at the Red Keep, once the swords are put away, Garlan presents his sister Margaery, Renly's widow, to the young king Joffrey. Joffrey's broken betrothal to Sansa Stark is set aside, and a marriage to Margaery is arranged instead.

As a reward for his service at the Blackwater, Garlan is granted the lordship of Brightwater Keep, the former seat of House Florent. The appointment makes him Lord of Brightwater Keep and head of a new Tyrell branch.

At the wedding of Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister, Garlan is one of the few Tyrells who approach her without reserve: he asks her to dance, passes along the affection of his wife Leonette, and tries to ease her fears about marrying Tyrion, whom he describes as a bigger man than he looks. He also makes her laugh with the story of how his brother Willas earned his own nickname before anyone crueler could hang one on him.

Days later, at the wedding of Joffrey and Margaery, Garlan speaks kindly to Tyrion and rebukes Joffrey for humiliating his new brother-in-law by destroying his wedding gift. When Joffrey chokes to death in the middle of the feast, Garlan is among those who try to save him, without success. Once Tommen is proclaimed king, Garlan stands guard beside him while the Kingsguard regroups at the White Sword Tower.

Back in the Reach with half the Tyrell forces, Garlan sets out to reclaim Brightwater Keep, still held by Ser Colin Florent. Before he can finish taking it, word reaches him that ironborn raiders have landed on the Shield Islands, and he has to raise men from across the Reach to answer that threat while still settling the matter of Brightwater Keep.

Meanwhile, in King's Landing, Margaery has been imprisoned by the Faith Militant. She asks that Garlan stand as her champion should the matter come to trial by combat, but the queen regent Cersei Lannister points out that only a member of the Kingsguard can serve as a queen's champion, and Garlan is not one.