Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire, has taken the world by storm over the last few years as the series was adapted into a faithful and highly popular television series. There's a wealth of characters within the series who deserve a mention, whether for good or bad, and so this article will look into some of the fathers of Game of Thrones.
A warning for those who have not read the books: There may be some spoilers following so proceed at your own risk! You have been warned.
Often forgotten, this is a dad worth mentioning in the series. He was King of the Iron Islands and fathered four children: Rodrik, Maron, Asha (renamed Yara for the show), and Theon.
As a young boy, Theon was taken by Ned Stark to Winterfell as a hostage after losing after them in battle. Balon never made any attempt to speak to his son and became resented by Theon for this. When Theon finally returns home to forge an alliance between the Iron Islands and Winterfell, his father is indifferent and clearly prefers Asha. He looks down on Theon for not having grown up on the Iron Islands and see him as weak. He believed in the Iron Price, of taking spoils of war, of blood and death, and didn't think his son was capable of following these beliefs.
He criticises his children, especially Theon, and does not appear to have a fatherly bone in him. He is a terrible father, but this is nothing new in the world of Westeros. Also, would it kill him to crack a smile once in a while?
Jaime is an interesting father. He has no feelings at all for his children and only sires them to make the mother happy. Oh, and did I mention that the mother of his children is his twin sister?
Jaime is madly in love, and is obsessed, with his sister, Cersei, and they have an ongoing relationship that was hinted at when they were young and learning about themselves. Jaime is the father of Joffery, Tommen and Myrcella yet cares nothing for any of them. When one dies right before his eyes, he does nothing to help and later, wants sexual relations with his sister by the dead corpse of his child as they are waiting to be laid to rest.
He is an interesting father as he has no attachments to his children who were also born out of an unwed, incestual relationship, whilst Cersei was married to King Robert Baratheon. Robert did not sire any of his three children though the majority of the Kingdom believe they are his spawn. Jaime is another unfit father in this deadly game.
The Lannisters do not seem to make good parents. Tywin is the father of twins Jaime and Cersei, and of 'the imp' Tyrion. Though Tyrion is a well loved character and seems the most like his father in some ways than the others, his father would happily disown him if he could.
Tywin only cares about ruling the kingdom through his children, so much so, that he is willing to marry them off to unsuitable partners to build alliances and keep their power. He ruins Tyrion only chance at happiness by taking away his wife, having his men rape her and then force her to accept payment for this, so that he can tell Tyrion she was a prostitute. Excuse me? Then when Tyrion falls in love again, this time with an actual woman of the night, he steals her away too. He blames his youngest for a lot of things that went wrong in his life as he sees him as an abomination and also refuses to let him have any inheritance, despite being kin, and so does everything he can to make Tyrion miserable.
Jaime appears to be his favourite child as he likes to see himself in the golden boy who is the best fighter in Westeros and who managed to take the country for them, and though he is not the perfect, doting father to Jaime, he's certainly a lot kinder to him than he is his other children. He has little respect for Cersei and deems her unfit to rule because she is female and seems to believe that she should raise her children and leave the politics to the men.
He lives with his many daughters and procreates with them. Any sons they have are instantly sacrificed to the White Walkers. What else is there to say about him? There's more incest and emotional distance in this father / daughters relationship and it's sickening as he uses them to keep house for him.
He has eight bastard daughters but he is a loving father regardless, unlike those in Westeros who disown their bastard children (and there are a lot of them). Oberyn is a fighter, and being aware of the state of the political affairs, brought all of his daughters up to be fighters too. As is seen with Arya Stark, it is deemed unusual for a female to fight in this series as they are expected to be the nurturers or the sex objects. But Oberyn refuses to have this life for his daughters and so teaches them to be able to be their own heroes and not to have to depend on men to save their lives or even to give them the lives they deserve outside of the war.
The Sand Snakes are a force to be reckoned with and make for some interesting plot lines. But then, look at who their father is. How can they not be total epic badasses?
Other than Oberyn Martell, Ned Stark is the only other decent father I can think of in a series of hundreds of characters. Ned has five legitimate children and one bastard child (though there are a lot of theories flying around about this!) They are: Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon and Bastard Jon Snow.
Ned is a great dad as he does not treat any of his children differently, not even Jon. He allows Jon to interact with his other children, much to Catelyn's dismay and anger, and teaches him the same lessons. He is eventually supportive of Arya wanting to learn to fight and helps her to improve. He tries to keep his family away from the capital of the country as he knows being in the centre of a political storm would be poisonous to them.
He is fair and just man. The first lesson we see him teach his children is that if you are to pass judgement upon someone and sentence them to death, then you should also swing the sword yourself. He is an honourable individual but unfortunately, honour means little when playing against those who will break the rules. As a father, he is one of the greatest in the series and will be sorely missed. Remember when you thought he was the main character? What a laugh George R. R. Martin had over that!
And finally, let's not forget the worst father of them all. George R. R. Martin, who created this fantastic series and manages to leave us distraught with every book we read, every episode we watch, every character we love! I don't know whether this makes him the best or worst father but he needs some recognition as father of the series.
Can you think of any more good or bad dads that should have made
the list? Let us know in the comments below!