Why They Don't Celebrate Father's Day on Game of Thrones

The last episode of Game of Thrones' fourth season just aired, titled The Children. The episode was a big finish to a season that was full of huge moments, with payoffs for some of the storylines that have been building up for a while now. The bits that fell outside of what happened in the books felt like pure fanservice, in the best possible way.

The episode aired on Father's Day, which made us think of whether they celebrate the occasion in Westeros. Tyrion has already shown us one possible answer to that question. Thinking about the different fathers we know about in the series though, it's easy to see why that probably isn't the case.

So what's the scorecard for the fathers on the show? Let's take a quick look at some of the people to pick.

Robert Baratheon
The late king can't be blamed for Joffery (not alone anyway) but he's also left a string of illegitimate children across the kingdoms, and never cared to do anything about them. This meant that when Robert died, his illegitimate children were slaughtered without mercy, something he could have easily taken steps to prevent - if he cared.

Eddard Stark

Robert's best friend Eddard 'Ned' Stark seems like a much better father, having raised his children to be honourable and seemingly bringing them up well. On the other hand, Ned was willing to leave his son Bran apparently dying because his boss told him to travel for the job. That doesn't sound too great does it? And he also killed Sansa's direwolf simply to keep the queen and Joffery happy. Not so great after all Ned.

Roose Bolton
The Lord of the Dreadfort has been having some touching moments with his newly-legitimised son on the TV show, but if you've read the books, then you know that Roose actually had another son. This son was murdered by Ramsay early on, but Roose didn't do anything about it because he didn't have any other heirs. If your kids are dispensable, then you're not a good father, even if you do have a Lion King moment with the remaining son later.

Walder Frey

Continuing southwards, we meet the patriarch who rules the Twins. The man who hosted the Red Wedding, Walder isn't a loveable man in any sense. He's got a huge brood of children, but he seems to have trouble remembering their names, and doesn't seem particularly upset when they get killed.

Hoster Tully
Catelyn Stark turned out all right, but Hoster Tully's other daughter is Lysa Arryn. Remember her? The Lady of the Eyrie? The one who poisoned her husband, set off a huge civil war, and spoiled her child to the point of breastfeeding him even when he was old enough to order people to their death? Lysa was in love with Littlefinger, and got pregnant while they were all living in Riverrun. Hoster made his daughter have an arbortifacient, and married her off to the elderly Jon Arryn, a man old enough to be her father himself. So Hoster's scorecard isn't looking all that great either.

Tywin Lannister

On the one hand, he is rightly considered one of the greatest men in Westeros. He proves that the pen really is mightier than the sword. If Machiavelli existed in Westeros, Tywin could have given him notes.

On the other hand, Tywin seems keen to kill off one son, and is willing to use that to blackmail his other son. His daughter is treated only a little better, and he uses the death of Joffery to serve as a lesson in politics for his other grandson Tommen. A great man? Maybe. A good father? Definitely not.

Jaime Lannister
While Jaime has been slowly improving since we first saw him throwing an eight year old boy out of a window, his own children, born out of his incestuous relationship with his own sister haven't fared too well. And Jaime clearly doesn't care - in the books, he has sex with Cersie next to the body of their dead son. On the show it is even worse, as the act looks more like rape.

Randyll Tarly
Jon Snow's best friend on the Wall is Samwell Tarly. Randyll is Sam's father, and a good contender for the role of worst father ever. Sam is the firstborn son, but he's a fat coward, and so Randyll punishes him repeatedly to try and make Sam worthy of the family name. When that doesn't work, Randyll tells Sam to give up his life as a noble and live in exile in the North. If Sam doesn't do this, then Randyll promises to kill his own son.

Bonus: Craster
The wildling lives North of the wall, so this doesn't really count, but he's much worse than all the others on the list, even Randyll Tarly. Craster rapes his daughters and sacrifices his sons to the Others, the monstrous cold-demon-things that live beyond the wall. It's a harsher world there, but Craster's method of survival is by far the most reprehensible we come across.

So are there no good fathers out there? Well, Mace Tyrell seems to be decent, and Doran Martell and Oberyn are both greatly loved by their children. Selwyn of Tarth doesn't seem too bad either, but no one seems to be good in George R R Martin's world, just, not bad.

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