Black Tom Heddle
Lord Butterwell's grim good-son, a black-bearded knight with a dark reputation and a sword always half-drawn. Whatever is rotten at Whitewalls, he is near the middle of it.
A soul born at The riverlands, sworn to The Black Dragon's Men.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
On the page. Cut down by Dunk at the gates of Whitewalls (TMK, ch. 11)
Lord Butterwell's grim good-son held the gates of Whitewalls with treason on his sword when Bloodraven's army ringed the castle. He crossed steel with Ser Duncan the Tall and died of it, in the last fight of the Second Blackfyre Rebellion ÔÇö a rebellion that never managed a battle.
The end comes for him at the gates of Whitewalls, sword in hand, holding a line that has already lost. BloodravenÔÇÖs army has surrounded the castle by the time the fighting starts, and there is no realistic outcome left for the men defending it ÔÇö only the manner of the losing. Ser Duncan the Tall crosses steel with him in the chaos of that last stand, and Black Tom Heddle dies of it, one of the very few casualties in a rebellion that otherwise collapses almost entirely without a pitched battle.
Their chapters, book by book
The Mystery Knight 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
As with the rest of the Whitewalls conspirators, Black Tom HeddleÔÇÖs story belongs to The Mystery Knight, which no season of the show has yet adapted. There is accordingly no performance to compare against the page; the characterÔÇÖs brief but violent role at the novellaÔÇÖs climax gives whoever eventually plays him a compact, high-impact showcase whenever the production reaches that far.