‘The Children’ is the fourth season finale of HBO’s fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 40th overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Alex Graves.
The first surreal scene of the episode opens with an argument between Tywin and his daughter Cersei, who told her father the truth about her incestuous relationship with Jaime. Then she goes to Jaime and confesses that she has just confessed the truth to their father. The drama was caused because Cersei didn’t want to separate from her son, thus prioritising her maternal instincts over her obligation to remarry.
The unreal thing about the plot is that there is no record of highborn women throwing these tantrums, not marrying an immensely wealthy man joining the richest Houses of Westeros, disobeying the father. The feminist message is obvious. And the worst thing is that stupid Jaime plays along with her sister-lover, allowing himself to be seduced instead of hating her when she has just instigated the court to execute their brother, Tyrion, of whom Tywin says that he would be executed the next day. All those feminist scenes should make the white man nauseous. But Jaime even fucks her in front of the cameras on a table.
Finally, Bran and those who help him reach their destination far north of the Wall (click on the image to see the details), where they would meet the Children of the Forest. It is a pity that the writers and the director have spoiled the next scene with absurd violence emerging from the snow that had nothing to do with the spirit of that arrival at the most mysterious place in Martin’s novels. Whoever lives in the labyrinthine cave under the weirwood tree is a mummified man, although he is alive. This is how he appears in Martin’s prose rather than how he was filmed in various HBO seasons.
On the other side of the Wall we see another feminist scene. After her knight-errant duties, Brienne finds Arya in the Vale and tells her that her father taught her to use the sword. A conversation ensues in which they tell each other that neither of their respective fathers originally wanted to train them in the martial arts, but they yielded after the girls’ insistence.
We then see the scene where Brienne defeats the much-feared Hound in single combat. The viewers swallowed the whole scene without questioning its historical accuracy, as this type of sexual inversion against the best fighters of a kingdom didn’t occur in the Middle Ages (or even in our times).
The final scene of the season, after Tyrion killed Tywin, becomes unreal again. Arya, now freed from the Hound, gets a free raid to Braavos through the sea in search of adventure. We can already imagine what would sexually happen in the Middle Ages to a pretty teenage girl who tried to travel half the world without male company.
Outside of that scene there’s nothing to tell about this premiere, except to show how Tywin’s body lies in the Sept of Baelor before he is buried. Incidentally, in a future episode the man who will preside over the Sept, the High Sparrow, will explain to Jaime: ‘Do you know why we use these stones [placed on the eyes of the dead]? To remind us not to fear death. We close our eyes on this world and open them on the next’.
