what happens in renly's tent right after he dies is not quite as dramatic and sexy as jaime's bear pit jump, i would never claim that and am not trying to take away from that scene, but i do not think catbri should be diminished either. catelyn is not putting her own skin on the line in quite the same way, but it's just not true that jaime was the first to care about protecting brienne. she would most likely have died in renly's camp that day if cat hadn't been there too, if not killed by those first knights to rush in, eventually loras and others would have overwhelmed her with sheer numbers as she stood her ground, refusing to leave renly's body. catelyn did save her life that morning. she was the first person to save brienne's life! the second (and last) time cat swears on her honor as a stark onpage is in her attempt to bargain with walder frey for robb's life with jinglebell as hostage, but the first and only other time we see her do that is to attest to brienne's innocence and stannis's guilt wrt renly's death, to try to save brienne's life, to save the life of someone who was not her own child like robb but a woman she'd known for only days. when that oath was not quite enough, when robar royce agreed not to attack brienne and guard the tent entrance instead but would not defend her against his comrades, cat moved without hesistation to do that herself. just as jaime acted on instinct when told to "go get her" by vargo, so catelyn acted at once when told by robar to "get her away"; knocking out emmon cuy herself, directing brienne to leave with her right away, and ordering her own men to protect both herself and brienne by cutting down any who'd get in their way. that's the courage that made brienne swear her sword to catelyn afterward! is that not a level above a childhood crush on her liege lord bc he danced with her once and was polite to her face while mocking her behind her back?
and not too long afterward, catelyn gave brienne her first knightly road trip assignment, her first impossible mission. maybe not quite as quixotic a quest as searching for sansa across the whole realm with little to go on, but it would have been a nearly impossible job even if tyrion had still been king's hand and ready and willing to honor the trade offer. we can say catelyn's severe depression in her grief and her desperation to save her daughters had her unable to think clearly about all that, but imho it still says a lot about not just her trust in brienne's loyalty but also faith in her knighly abilities to believe she could do the job of escorting jaime through a warzone to the capital and escort sansa (and arya, if possible) back the other way basically on her own, with only the useless cleos frey for backup on the first half. catelyn was not just trusting brienne as much as she would rodrik or jory cassel or anyone else who'd served her family for years and years, she was trusting this woman warrior to do the job of multiple such men, and never entirely gave up hope that brienne could finish the job until she reached the twins again and had the red wedding to deal with. is that belief in brienne and entrusting her with such an important assignment not worth more than renly valuing her only for her willingness to simply die in battle?
