10 Game of Thrones dads who give Father’s Day a bad name

Randyll Tarly

The ways in which Randyll Tarly messed up his son Sam are well known. A proud, chauvinistic man, Randyll detested the fact that Sam was shy, bookish, and not given to traditionally “manly” pursuits like hunting and fighting. In the name of toughening Sam up, Randyll exposed his son to all manner of abuse and degradation, making him bathe in aurochs blood, forcing him wear his mother’s clothes, having him starved and caned, and more.

That all climaxed when, years after Randyll’s wife Melessa gave birth to a second son (one who acted much more to Randyll’s liking), Randyll gave Sam a choice: give up his claims on the Tarly inheritance, travel across the continent and join the Night’s Watch, where he would likely never see his home again, or; die in an unfortunate hunting “accident.” Sam, cowed by his father all his life, chose the Night’s Watch, and the rest is history.

Sam is a talented, intelligent, sensitive person, but his instinct is always to belittle and downplay his own achievements, a habit that can be traced directly back to Randyll’s crap parenting. Randyll never actually wanted children. He wanted an heir, and he wanted that heir to behave in a very specific way. Sam wasn’t the heir Randyll wanted, so he made his life a living hell until Dickon came around to take the pressure off.

Happily, Sam eventually managed to find his own inner strength, and can now stand up to his father. But with a halfway-decent dad, that wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.