Fashion is Coming: Examining the costumes of “The Last of the Starks”

Tormund’s Wildling furs

Tormund, more than any other character, represents the Northern way—the qualities of the “true North,” as he likes to call it. With most of the Night’s Watch dead and Jon headed to King’s Landing, Tormund realizes that it’s time to take the wildlings home during “The Last of the Starks.” He tells Jon as much when they part ways, proclaiming that he’s “sick of the South.” Poor Tormund doesn’t realize he’s never actually seen the real South.

And Tormund’s attire and behavior over the past few episodes seems to intentionally emphasize just how much of a wildling he still is. He doesn’t don the same restrained, dark clothing as the lords of the North—and he definitely doesn’t act as restrained as the other proper lords of the North during the feast. Instead, he wears Wildling furs that assert the fact that, yes, he might’ve bowed to a king and queen, but he’s still the same leader of the free folk he’s always been.

The fact that Tormund represents the North through his clothing makes his farewell to Jon that much more meaningful. Even though Tormund insists that Jon has “the North in him,” Jon attempts to sever his ties to the Northern ways when he leaves for King’s Landing. This is evident when he tells his sisters that he’s actually a Targaryen, as well as when he gives up Ghost, but it’s clearest in his goodbye to Tormund, who, in this moment, appears to represent all that Jon is leaving behind.