Game of Thrones Season 4: Five Things We Learned
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Life In Essos Is About To Get Very Interesting
For the first four seasons, only Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), Ser Jorah (Iain Glen) and their small circle of characters have been active in Essos, the continent to the East of Westros and the Seven Kingdoms.
But in the fourth season finale, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) boarded a ship heading to the free cities of Essos and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) booked a trip to Braavos as she charts her own destiny.
Conceivably, Tyrion, Varys and possibly even Arya can eventually come into contact with Daenerys and Jorah. Even if these characters remain separated, three of the show’s most compelling characters have gotten a much needed change of scenery.
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Bastards Can Be Legitimized
Ramsay Snow (Iwan Rheon) rivals the late King Joffrey with his love of sadism and cruelty. He is a true bastard in every sense of the word.
However, Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton) has legitimized Ramsay and officially recognized him as Ramsay Bolton, his son and heir. This brings up an important question: why didn’t the honorable Ned Stark (Sean Bean) ever do the same thing for his bastard, Jon Snow (Kit Harington)?
During the third season, Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) hinted that she almost legitimized Jon Stark when he was sick and she made a promise to the gods that she did not keep. With Jon as the oldest living son of Ned Stark, is it possible that he could someday become legitimized as well?
Jon Stark does have a nice ring to it.
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There's a Power Vacuum In King's Landing
Earlier in the fourth season, Davos (Liam Cunningham) predicted that the Lannisters would lose their grip on the Seven Kingdoms once Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) was dead. Now that Tywin has been killed, we’ll soon see if Davos was right.
Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aiden Gillen), Tyrion and Varys could have filled the power gap left by Tywin’s death, but none of them will be in King’s Landing when a new Hand of the King is named. Who is left to pick up the pieces? Queen Regent Cersei (Lena Headey)? She hates her people as much as they hate her.
Margaery (Natalie Dormer) knows how to make the common people love her, but will she be allowed to rule? As for King Tommen Baratheon (Dean-Charles Chapman), he’s still far too young to be an effective leader. There’s blood in the water at King’s Landing. Someone will take advantage of this.
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White Walkers Come From Little Babies
The threat of the White Walkers may be the endgame of “Game of Thrones,” but we know very little about them. Even the book readers have largely been kept in the dark about the origins of the White Walkers.
That’s why it was such a shock to see the last son of Craster brought to a White Walker palace, where a White Walker (King?) picked up the infant and began transforming him into a White Walker.
We’ve known since season one that the White Walkers can turn any dead man, woman or child into a zombie-like creature called Wights. But the White Walkers can apparently fully convert children if they get to them when they’re young.
Is there a limit to the White Walker’s ability to transform humans into their own kind? Do their victims have to be children in order to work? It may be quite some time before we get answers.
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The Children Are Still Alive
For the most part, “Game of Thrones” has veered away from standard fantasy tropes. Tyrion is the only dwarf that the show has really focused on... and he’s not a subspecies of humanity. He’s just a man.
As for giants, we’ve seen them only three times beyond the Wall. But in the fourth season finale, we finally saw one of the Children of the Forest as she saved Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and most of his friends from the White Walkers’ living skeleton warriors.
The Children appear to be the “Game of Thrones” equivalent of elves, and the one that we saw has the ability to throw magical fire from her hands. If more of the Children are alive beyond the Wall then it could mean that Bran and company just made some very important allies in the coming war against the White Walkers.
