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get a free book, and it’ll really help out this channel. Thanks. In Season 6 of the Game of Thrones show, Olenna
Tyrell wonders if Cersei is “the worst person [she’s] ever met” . Cersei does do a lot
of terrible things. While the wife of King Robert, she has a secret
incestuous relationship with her twin brother Jaime, passing off their illegitimate kids
as Robert’s rightful heirs – undermining the political system of Westeros and leading
to war. When Arya Stark tangles with Cersei’s son
Joffrey, Cersei has the innocent direwolf Lady executed , and tries to get Arya “maimed”
or killed . Cersei kills King Robert by getting him drunk during a hunt . Then she ignores
the king’s will to have Ned Stark serve as regent , and instead has Ned imprisoned. That’s all in Book 1. In Book 2, Cersei has Robert’s baby bastard
Barra murdered along with her mother . Cersei has an innocent woman, Alayaya – Ros in
the show – brutally beaten in an attempt to hurt Cersei’s brother Tyrion . She may
also be responsible for Ser Mandon’s attempt on Tyrion’s life . In Book 3, Cersei wrongfully
accuses Tyrion of killing Joffrey , which gets Tyrion sentenced to death. In Book 4, Cersei really goes to town – she
has the High Septon killed , has some innocent dwarfs killed , has some innocent guards killed
, and tries to have Bronn and Trystane Martell and Jon Snow killed. She just loves killin’ . She also sends
a bunch of women to Qyburn to be “used” in horrific experiments , and brutally tortures
an innocent bard . She tries to frame Margery Tyrell and others for crimes that they didn’t
commit , and makes a bunch of bad political decisions – she stops paying the crown’s
debts , gives an expensive fleet of ships to an unqualified pretty boy who steals them
and becomes a pirate , and she lets the Faith Militant arm themselves , leading to the rise
of the High Sparrow. After this farce and disaster, Cersei’s
crimes catch up with her – she’s imprisoned by the Faith, and takes a walk of shame. That’s as far as the books go so far – but
in Season 6 of the show, Cersei wreaks revenge. She blows up the sparrows and Tyrells with
wildfire, and crowns herself Queen of Westeros – in her final form as a sort of Maleficent,
Evil Queen type. So Cersei kind of is… “the worst” . She
hurts and kills innocent people, destabilises the country, and contributes to war. Should we call her… a villain? A “monster” ? Is she just cruel and selfish
and stupid, a “vile … evil bitch”, in Margaery’s words ? Or could there be more
to Cersei Lannister? In the first three books of Thrones, we only
see Cersei through the eyes of other characters – but starting in the fourth book, we get
chapters from Cersei’s point of view. We read her thoughts and feelings, her hopes
and dreams, her past, and glimpses of her future – so we can start to understand,
and maybe sympathise with this complex character. We can even predict how Cersei might die. Her story basically comes down to three main
themes – power, love, and prophecy. The first line of Cersei’s first chapter
says that she dreams of sitting the Iron Throne, “high above them all” . “Cersei wants
to rule” – she “lusts for power with every waking breath” . And it’s a particular
kind of power that she wants. People like Stannis and Robert Baratheon and
Robb Stark have power that you can see – they wear crowns and swing swords and lead armies,
and everyone knows that they’re in charge . In contrast, people like Varys and Littlefinger
and Olenna have a more subtle kind of power . They don’t wear crowns or swing swords
or lead armies – instead, they have secrets, spies and schemes . Their influence is invisible
– but very significant. Varys runs a conspiracy, Littlefinger causes
war, and Olenna kills King Joffrey and grows the power of her house. Without anyone even knowing it, these three
are some of the most powerful people in Westeros . But Cersei isn’t interested in this subtle
kind of power. In the show, Littlefinger tells Cersei that
“Knowledge is power” – but then Cersei demonstrates, in her words, that “Power
is power” . She doesn’t want to influence events from the shadows, she wants people
to know she’s in charge. She wants to sit the Throne, and for “Great
lords and proud ladies” to kneel before her. These ideas about visible power and pride
are at the core of Cersei’s personality, and they seem to have mostly come from Cersei’s
father, Tywin. Tywin was Cersei’s only parent growing up
– after her mother Joanna died giving birth to Tyrion. And Tywin is obsessed with family legacy – with
Lannister power and pride . He says “We must demonstrate the power … of Casterly
Rock for all the realm to see” . These ideas had a big impact on Cersei . She often thinks
on the lessons Tywin taught her . And after Tywin dies – killed by Tyrion – Cersei
thinks of herself as Tywin’s heir . She wants to be seen as the inheritor of his legacy
, and she tries to act as he would . Thing is, Tywin was brutal. He’s responsible for some of the worst atrocities
in Westeros – the extermination of the Reynes of Castamere , the sack of King’s Landing
, Clegane’s raids in the riverlands , the Red Wedding – not to mention his cruel treatment
of Tyrion, and Tysha, and others. The lessons Tywin taught are barbaric – stuff
like “Never wound a foe when you can kill him” , and “The only way to keep your
people loyal is to make [them] fear you” – that people are tools to be used , and
that love is worthless . Cersei follows Tywin’s cruel example, and in some of her darkest
moments, like when she tortures an innocent bard, or thinks about wiping out all the ironborn,
she tells herself that these things are okay, because it’s “what [Tywin] would have
done” . So a lot of Cersei’s brutality in her pursuit of power and pride comes from
the lessons Tywin taught her. But there’s a deeper conflict behind all
this. Cersei thinks of herself as Tywin’s “only
true son” , “as Lord Tywin with teats” . There’s a tension here – because Cersei
Lannister is a woman. There are powerful women in Westeros. Look at Olenna Tyrell, Asha, Catelyn, Sansa,
Arya, Daenerys, Visenya and Rhaenys. But Westeros is a patriarchal medieval society,
which means unless you’ve got dragons, women usually aren’t allowed to hold direct power
in their own right. Some women hold subtler kinds of power like
Olenna – but Cersei isn’t allowed to be powerful in the direct, visible way that Tywin
is powerful. She can’t sit the Throne as Hand of the
King like Tywin. She can’t hold a war council like Tywin,
or lead an army like Tywin. When Tywin speaks, “men obey” – but
when Cersei speaks, people often contradict her, or refuse her, they “push her aside”
– because, Cersei says, she’s a woman . And this deeply frustrates Cersei. She is desperate to be the heir Tywin wanted,
but she “lack[s] the cock” . Cersei constantly broods on the injustice of being “excluded
from power on account of her sex” . She recounts how when she was a child, Cersei
and her twin Jaime looked so alike that no one could tell them apart. But they were treated “so differently”
– Jaime was trained “to fight with sword and lance”, while Cersei was taught to smile
and please. Jaime was “heir to Casterly Rock”, while
Cersei was to be married off to some lord. Jaime’s fate was “glory and power”,
while Cersei’s was just marriage and childbirth . Cersei often wishes that she was born a
man , because if she was a man, she “could rule [the] realm in [her] own name” , and
fight her enemies with a sword. But, she says, “the gods in their blind
malice had given her the feeble body of a woman” . Cersei does use her sex to her
advantage sometimes – she uses seduction to influence people like Jaime and Lancel
and Osney . But she never really works out the kind of subtle power that makes women
like Olenna so influential. In fact, Cersei hates Olenna – calls her
a “disgusting old crone” , calls Margaery a "whore", and murders her in the show. And Brienne,
another powerful woman, Cersei calls “a huge, ugly, shambling … creature” “dressed
in man’s mail”. She calls Princess Elia Martell “feeble
… with black eyes and a flat chest” , calls Lady Lysa Arryn “a cow” , and calls septas
“wrinkled cunts” who “are probably praying for a good raping” . Cersei not only fails
to emulate other powerful women – she hates them, and is cruelly critical of their female
bodies. Cersei’s like, a self-hating woman, a female
misogynist – and this is one of many contradictions in Cersei’s personality. She is desperate for power and pride like
her father, but she’s deeply frustrated by the limitations imposed on her as a woman. Cersei is also frustrated in her attempts
to love. Her mother died when she was young, and her
father Tywin was often “away in King’s Landing” . She never had many friends – there
were “bedmaids and companions”, but “few lasted very long” . Cersei’s closest relationship
was with her brother Jaime – they’d play in Casterly Rock as children, and from a young
age they started to experiment sexually . When a maid “caught them at it”, the twins
were separated and chastised – because, y’know, incest. But the message to Cersei here was that her
most intimate relationship was something seen as shameful and wrong, something she had to
hide . For a while, there was hope that Cersei might have a more socially acceptable relationship
– cause Tywin promised that Cersei would marry Prince Rhaegar , the son of King Aerys
Targaryen. For years, Cersei was happy and excited about
the prospect of marrying Rhaegar – he was “beautiful” and sensitive and strong,
a dragon prince . Cersei dreamed of being his queen . But on the day Cersei was promised
she’d be betrothed to Rhaegar, Aerys refused the match – and Cersei didn’t get to marry
the prince. She felt heartbroken and betrayed – a memory
that still hurts all these years later . Cersei was then told she’d marry someone “better”
instead , but the man she ended up with was Robert Baratheon – the man who killed Prince
Rhaegar . At first, Cersei was optimistic about this new husband – but on their wedding
night, when they first had sex, Robert drunkenly called Cersei “Lyanna” . Lyanna Stark
was the sister of Ned, and died giving birth to Jon Snow. Robert loved Lyanna – and never could let
go after she died. As Cersei says in the show, Lyanna “was
a corpse” and Cersei “was a living girl” but Robert loved Lyanna more than her . Cersei
came to hate Robert . She hated his drinking , and his infidelity , and his irresponsibility
, and that he’d hurt her sometimes . And so Cersei secretly continued her relationship
with Jaime. Cersei says that she and Jaime “are more
than brother and sister”. They “are one person in two bodies”. They “shared a womb together” and when
he is in her, she feels “whole” . The incest aspect is pretty icky here, and their
relationship is messed up in other ways too. Cersei lies and manipulates Jaime , and cheats
on Jaime , and apparently only loves him to the extent that he looks like her – does
Cersei really love Jaime, or does Cersei just love Cersei? It’s a dysfunctional relationship – but
it’s the realest love that Cersei’s ever had. Jaime is there for Cersei , fights for Cersei,
and is the father of her three children. Cersei dreams of loving Jaime openly, of living
with him as husband and wife, with their kids . But, because of the incest, and because
of Cersei’s marriage to the king, she can never openly be with the person she loves. Her whole relationship history is a series
of frustrations and denials – she wants Jaime, she can’t have him. She wants Rhaegar, she ends up with Robert. In the same way that Cersei’s denied the
power and pride she desires, Cersei’s also denied love. And these frustrations feed much of her cruelty
throughout the series. But there’s one more important theme to
cover – prophecy. When Cersei was ten years old, on the same
day she hoped to be betrothed to Prince Rhaegar, she and some friends entered the tent of Maggy
the Frog. Maggy was a witch, a fortune-teller, so Cersei
marched in and demanded to hear her future. Maggy granted three questions. So Cersei asked when she’d marry Prince
Rhaegar, and Maggy said “Never” – that Cersei would marry “the king” . Cersei
asked if she’d be queen, and Maggy said Cersei will be queen – “until there comes
another, younger and more beautiful, to cast [Cersei] down and take all that [she] hold[s]
dear” . Cersei asked if she and “the king” would have children, and Maggy said the king
will have sixteen children, and Cersei will have three . “Gold shall be their crowns
and gold their shrouds,” Maggy said. That’s as far as the show goes, but in the
books, Maggy continued, and added that when Cersei’s “tears have drowned [her], the
valonqar shall wrap his hands about [her] pale white throat and choke the life from
[her]” . Maggy also prophesied the death of Cersei’s friend Melara . Then the girls
left. So what does all this mean? Well, Maggy said that Cersei won’t marry
“the prince”, she’ll marry “the king”, and at first, Cersei thought this meant she’ll
marry Prince Rhaegar after he becomes King Rhaegar . But that never happens – Rhaegar
is killed, and “the king” Cersei marries is Robert. Maggy’s also correct about Cersei’s children
– Robert has sixteen bastards, including Gendry and Barra and Mya Stone, while Cersei
has Joffrey Myrcella and Tommen with Jaime. And Cersei’s friend Melara does die – after
Maggy’s prophecy, Melara drowns in a well . In fact, it’s strongly implied that Cersei
pushed Melara , killed her young friend – partly because she thought Maggy’s prophecy wouldn’t
come true if no one talked about it . So at ten years old, this was Cersei’s first murder
– and it was motivated in part by fear of Maggy’s prophecy. Cersei is haunted by Maggy’s words for the
rest of her life. Maggy accurately predicted Cersei’s husband
and children, and the death of Melara , so Cersei’s afraid the other parts of the prophecy
will also come true – the gold shrouds, the younger more beautiful, and the valonqar. The gold shrouds suggest that Cersei’s children
will die. The younger more beautiful bit suggests that
another woman will cast Cersei down. As for the “valonqar” that will “choke
the life from [her]”, valonqar means “little brother” , so Cersei believes that her younger
brother Tyrion will try to kill her . Maggy’s prophecy threatens everything that Cersei
cares about most – her children, her power, and her life. So she tries desperately to avert the prophecy
. She thinks Tyrion is the valonqar, so she tries to have him killed . She believes Margaery
is the younger more beautiful one, so she tries to get her killed by framing her for
adultery . And she does everything she possibly can to protect her children – but it’s
never enough. Joffrey is murdered with poison and dies at
his own wedding. Her daughter Myrcella is sent to Dorne by
Tyrion, and is attacked in the books, dead in the show. Tommen is married to Margaery, who Cersei
feels is taking him away from her – and he ends up committing suicide in the show
– he’s still alive in the books, but probably not for long. So despite Cersei’s best efforts, her children
are taken from her, one by one, in golden shrouds like Maggy predicted . Despite all
her power, she’s unable to protect the ones she loves . Her attempts to protect herself
by killing Tyrion also fail, and her attempts to protect her power by framing Margaery totally
backfire, getting Cersei locked up and humiliated. The more she fights, the worse things get,
and in Feast, Cersei spirals into fear and paranoia , desperation and delusion , violence
and cruelty . She sees “dwarfs in every shadow”, and makes “foes of friends”
. She convinces herself that Tyrion and Margaery are evil schemers out to get her . She declares
she’d kill all the common people in Westeros “if that was what it took to keep [Tommen]
safe”. She’s a terrible ruler. Cersei becomes everything she hated about
Robert. She drinks too much, and cheats on Jaime,
and makes dumb decisions – Cersei even has sex with a woman and hurts her in bed, only
to pretend the next morning it “never happened” , exactly like Robert . In her desperation
to protect her power and her children and her life, Cersei’s choices get more extreme
until she “destroy[s] herself” politically . Ironically it isn’t Maggy’s prophecy,
so much as Cersei’s fear of the prophecy that causes her downfall. And prophecies are often like that in Thrones
– “The more you try to avoid them, the more you [make] them true” . And the truth
of Maggy’s prophecy is not what Cersei thinks. Maggy said that Cersei will be queen “until
there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast [Cersei] down and take all that [she
holds] dear”. Cersei thinks this is Margaery, who is younger,
and arguably more beautiful . But Margaery probably won’t be the one to cast Cersei
down – she’s dead in the show after all. A more likely queen to cast Cersei down is
Daenerys, now sailing to take Cersei’s throne. Dany is younger and said to be more beautiful
– so she could perfectly fit Maggy’s prophecy. But there’s also another cool possibility
in Brienne, the one who takes Cersei’s dear Jaime from her. Brienne is younger than Cersei. But she isn’t more beautiful – in fact
in the books, Brienne is very ugly – so ugly that she’s called “the Beauty”
as a cruel sarcastic joke . But some fans argue that Brienne has a metaphorical inner
beauty – her heroism, loyalty and kindness. Which does sound a bit lame and cliché, but
it could make sense for Maggy the Frog. Maggy in the show looks like a sexy Halloween
witch, but Maggy in the books is very ugly . Maybe she’d want to teach vain young Cersei
a lesson by referring to a woman’s inner beauty . Also, Catelyn thinks that Brienne’s
eyes are “beautiful”, and she thinks that just after saying she’d like to wrap her
hands around Cersei’s “white throat” and choke her – almost the exact wording
of Maggy’s valonqar prediction. So there’s definitely some connection here
between Brienne and Maggy’s prophecy. But Daenerys might still be a better fit for
the person to cast Cersei down. Either way, all of Cersei’s efforts against
Margaery were probably pointless, and only served for Cersei to screw herself over. Cersei is also probably wrong about the valonqar
– the “little brother” who will kill her. It’s true that Tyrion threatens Cersei – and
thinks he would like to strangle her . But there’s a different possibility that could
be way more dramatic and cool – many readers believe that the “little brother” who
will strangle Cersei is Jaime. Jaime is Cersei’s other younger brother
– he came out of the womb right after Cersei did . They’ve been lovers almost all their
lives, but while Cersei grows ever more cruel and crazy , Jaime in the books takes a different
path. After losing his hand, Jaime questions his
identity , and starts to change , from the arrogant selfish Kingslayer, a man with “shit
for honor” , into someone nobler, someone beginning to seek redemption . He questions
his relationship with Cersei until finally, at the end of Feast, he rejects her entirely,
burning a letter Cersei sent begging for help . Maybe Jaime will finally realise that his
twin has become a monster. Maybe it’ll be up to him to end her reign
of terror. In Season 6 of the show, Cersei destroys the
Sept of Baelor with wildfire. And there are a lot of hints that she’ll
do something similar in the books – Cersei’s often associated with wildfire , and she knows
how to use it . But in the books, she probably won’t just blow up the Sept like she does
in the show – in Book 2, we’re specifically told that wildfire is removed from beneath
the Sept . So book-Cersei will do something else with wildfire – something far more
dramatic. Cersei’s interest in wildfire reminds Jaime
of the Mad King Aerys . Aerys was a cruel and unpredictable ruler, and towards the end
of his reign, with Robert’s Rebellion about to usurp him, Aerys had caches of wildfire
placed “all over King’s Landing” – planning to burn down the whole city and everyone in
it, leaving only ashes for Robert to rule over . He would have got away with it too
if it weren’t for Jaime, who killed the Mad King and his pyromancers – earning him
the name Kingslayer. But thing is, a lot of Aerys’ wildfire is
still down there beneath King’s Landing. Maybe Cersei will use this wildfire to do
what Aerys attempted years ago – to destroy King’s Landing and everyone in it. This could go down when Daenerys Targaryen
– or maybe Aegon in the books – attacks the city. Cersei’ll realise she can’t beat the invaders,
but she won’t want to surrender. As we saw at the Battle of the Blackwater,
Cersei would rather die than be captured by enemies . And with her back against the wall
and her defeat at hand, all her fury and frustration will come to boil – all the slights on her
pride and power, her exclusion due to her sex, the denial of her loves, her fear over
prophecy, her grief for her children, all that pain will light a fire. In Book 1, Cersei asks “what of my wrath,
Lord Stark?” . Game of Thrones is full of characters who
fight and bleed for what they believe in – Robb Stark wars to avenge his father, Daenerys
conquers for her throne, Jon Snow fights to protect the realm. But Cersei has never gotten the chance to
fight, to express her desires with action. She’s always had to wait, to play a role
– “the dutiful daughter”, the “bride”, the “wife”. She’s “suffered Robert’s drunken groping,
Jaime’s jealousy, Renly’s mockery”. She’s “contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark,
and [Tyrion], all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn” . But
her turn never comes. She never gets a firm grasp on power. She never gets to openly love. And of all her children die. So in the end, maybe Cersei will finally express
“[her] wrath”, her rage from all these years, in full, the only way she can. She will set off Aerys’ wildfire to burn
down King’s Landing, to destroy everyone who’s ever defied her. And it’ll be up to her twin Jaime to intervene. Just as he killed Aerys to save King’s Landing
before, he’ll be forced to kill his twin Cersei. He will “wrap his hands about [her] pale
white throat and choke the life from [her]”. One of Jaime’s hands is gold so he might
strangle her with the Hand of the King necklace that Tyrion used to kill Shae – the links
of the chain are hands, and we know Cersei has the necklace in Feast , and Jaime has
thought about strangling a woman with a necklace before . And in a Season 7 trailer, Cersei
stands on a part of Westeros called the Neck, while Jaime stands near a region called the
Fingers. So the hints are all here for Jaime to strangle
Cersei to death. Jaime will kill his lifelong lover, his other
darker half – in an attempt to save the city from wildfire again. But this time, he’ll be too late. Cersei and Jaime “came into this world together”
– and both of them believe that they’ll die together . So as Jaime chokes his twin
to death, the wildfire will rise around them, killing them both, leaving only the ashes
and burned-out throne room we’ve seen in visions . In her desperate greed for power
and love , Cersei will destroy her Throne, and her love, and herself .
Thanks for watching. Thanks to Nina Friel and to Lady Gwyn of Radio
Westeros for feedback on this script – Radio Westeros have a great podcast episode about
Cersei and Jaime – check it out for another great perspective on Cersei’s character. Lots of the ideas in this video come from
the Song of Ice and Fire fan community – check out the subreddits and Westeros.org. And please do sign up at audible.com/asx – you
get a free audiobook, and you help out this channel. Finally, thanks to the Patrons for making
this video possible, including Nolan Conrad, Anna-Maria Klaudt, Ishpaul Bhamber, Jennifer
Rust, master994, and Jubec. Cheers.
what a great video! It'd be a shame...if someone...posted it already....
//sarc
Sopranos style. After Jon wins the night Cersei will just be doing her queen thing and fade to black.
Alt Shift X is awesome.
God, what a total shill in the beginning.