Game of Thrones finale review: The ruins of Castamere

Sunday night's bloody season finale saw the children of Westeros' great houses beginning to forge their own futures

Game of Thrones
(Image credit: (Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO))

Four seasons in, Game of Thrones is littered with the corpses of dead patriarchs from great families: Robert Baratheon, Ned Stark, and now Tywin Lannister. Their wives and mistresses haven't fared much better. Game of Thrones has become notorious for its willingness to kill off major characters, but the weekly discussions of "shocking" deaths sometimes overshadow the far more interesting question the series is asking: What effects do those deaths have on the people left behind?

Last night's season finale, "The Children," tackles the futures of those great houses without the men who once served as their leaders. In every case, their children have been left to carry on their legacies after their deaths. And in every case, their children have branched from the paths their parents would have chosen for them.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.