I Prove Cersei Lanister Is Just The Worst

The Game of Thrones season four finale was a couple of days ago, and while reading reviews I came across an interesting essay on the character I most love to hate:  A Matter of Perspective: A Defense of Cersei Lannister.

Defense?

Of Cersei freakin' Lannister? Oh, it is on, well-read articulate stranger who wrote a thoughtful essay whom I've never met but have now declared as my mortal enemy! It is so on! 

(For readers who aren't interested in the show or the books, this post will be about a show you're not interested in based on books you aren't interested in, so save yourself while you can. For those who are interested in either the show or the books, or both, proceed. Book spoilers ahoy!)

Part of the reason I didn't agree with Mr. Brosnan's take is because I dislike how the HBO show has softened Cersei. I love that horrible bitch. Her POV chapters are the reason that out of the eighty billion pages that is the Song of Ice and Fire saga, I've re-read A Feast for Crows as often as I have. Softening the character is dumb for any number of reasons: it talks down to the reader (I live with teenagers, so I don't need more condescension in my life), it alienates the book fans while risking annoying show fans with a watered-down character, and also, I don't like it. And it leads to essays like this one.

Below is my rebuttal. And yes. I do feel better now!

* * * 


Nope, nope, nope! I liked your article a lot, though I disagree completely. And I think it's great that you tackled a controversial stance for a controversial character, but Cersei neither needs nor deserves our sympathy. (Book spoilers ahead!)
(spoilers)
She killed her best friend when they were just children. She sexually and physically abused Tyrion when he was a baby and she was eight (Oberyn tells Tyrion that he saw Cersei "twist your cock until you screamed" when he was a newborn). At those points in her life, she wasn't enduring Robert (I agree that as a husband, at best he could only be endured). She grew up rich, never missed a meal, went to bed every night warm and safe right up to her wedding night. Granted, Robert was a drunken asshat, but Cersei was a monster long before she married one. 
A not-nearly-complete list of her awfulness: she raised a monster by turning a blind eye to ALL his character flaws. We can't blame Robert for Joffrey; he had next to nothing to do with the little psycho. That's all on Cersei.
Speaking of Joffrey: cheating on the king is punishable by death. It's treason. Not only did she pass off incest babies as the king's, she took every care (opinion is divided if she had an abortion or killed the baby right after birth) to eliminate Robert's children by her, threatened to have one of his bastard daughters killed if she was brought to King's Landing, and turned a blind eye to Joffrey's bastard-slaughtering campaign. Yes, we can't choose whom we love, but most of the time we can absolutely choose who we have sex with. Cersei chose Jamie again and again and again. 
Power games: she can't resist them. ("Seize him. Cut his throat. Wait! I've changed my mind. Let him go...power is power.") Kidnapping and having Tyrion's whore beaten...and screwing it up because she had the wrong whore beaten. (I could write an entire rebuttal on how stupid she is, but I'm too busy with the rebuttal on how awful she is.) Remember: this is a girl who physically and sexually abused a newborn when she was 8, and killed her best friend when she was 10. She was always playing power games, long before Robert came along, long before any of the reasons you cited as proof she's just a misunderstood l'il cutie. 
Her refusal to honor debts to the Iron Bank lead to a country-wide economic crisis. With one act, she dooms Westeros to what could be a decades-long economic depression. Worse, far worse for someone who is supposed to rule, she's got no knowledge of history, leading to the disastrous decision of reinstalling the Faith Militant, a huge factor in her downfall.
Her great love for Jamie? It only lasted as long as she saw him as an extension of herself. The minute he wasn't perfect (minus a hand), her love died. Before that, though, she was cheating on him, on the great love of her life (who, by the way, has never been with anyone but Cersei). I'm not talking about Robert; she had no choice but to have sex with the king her husband. She didn't have to have sex with Lancel, with the Kettleblack, with anyone who she could get to do her dirty work. But she did. Because awww, poor Cersei's so misunderstood.
When she's not playing power games, she's lying. When she's not lying, she's arranging the beating and torture of the innocent: Alayaya is just one example from the above paragraph. Far worse, she handed her maid and Falyse Stokeworth over to Qyburn to be tortured to death for the crime of no crime. NO crime.
She then framed Margaery for adultery (punishable by death, Cersei of all people should know the penalties for cheating on the king!) and, as of the end of A Dance with Dragons, Margaery was going to be tried for same. Cersei's downfall (at the end of Feast for Crows, as well as Dance w/Dragons) is deeply satisfying, but more than that, she's 100% in a mess of her own making. Not a victim. Never a victim. 
She isn't a terrible ruler because she was born into a bad family and bad things happened to her. She's a terrible ruler because she's an awful, awful person and, frankly, not especially bright. 
Poor Cersei? Nope: poor Westeros!
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Published on June 17, 2014 14:23
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