| NOTE: This page only contains information about the book version of Cersei as the show version has major differences and has her own page, thus only information and crimes about the book version are allowed. |
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Queen Cersei Lannister is one of the central antagonists of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series. At the beginning of the series she is the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She is the daughter of Lord Tywin Lannister, twin sister and lover of Ser Jaime Lannister, and the older sister and arch-nemesis of Tyrion Lannister. She is the wife of King Robert I Baratheon and mother of Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, who are all incest-born children. She is also the primary archenemy of House Stark, specially Arya Stark, Ned Stark and Sansa Stark.
Cersei is a vain and prideful woman which is caused by the upbringing of her father, Tywin Lannister, as well as a series of unfortunate events that happened throughout her life. She is deeply worried about losing her children due to a prophecy she heard as a child and desperately tries to save them. She is both a horrific but also a pitiable figure due to her many insecurities. She becomes a POV character in A Feast for Crows.
She serves as one of the two main antagonists of A Game of Thrones (alongside her twin Jaime), the secondary antagonist of A Clash of Kings, a major antagonist of A Storm of Swords, the main antagonist of A Feast for Crows. and a major character in A Dance with Dragons.
Her Evil Ranking[]
Debated Validations[]
- It's possible that her feelings for Jaime are mitigating because she shows concern that Jaime might get himself killed while he is climbing down the tunnels with only one hand and that her father's killers might be waiting for him, widens her eyes in horror when Tyrion even mentions the possibility of Catelyn Stark executing him and agrees to let Tyrion implement his plan to rescue Jaime and specifically instructs Joffrey not to kill Sansa because otherwise the Starks are going to kill Jaime which are all examples of her worrying about his life. When she threatens Tyrion, she tells that she hasn't killed him because Jaime would never forgive her if she did it and on one occasion even agreed to kiss Tyrion when Jaime asked her which shows some consideation over how Jaime feels about Tyrion. However, it's not very clear to what extent she views Jaime as his own independent person or as an extension of herself because she refers to him as "her other half" and thinks that if she were a man, she would be Jaime and also treats him badly when he doesn't do what she says, making this a debated validation.
- It is possible that she killed two newborn bastards of her husband, Robert, and sold their mother into slavery. However, considering that this information comes from Petyr Baelish, who at this point has an interest to make Cersei look as bad as possible to Ned Stark and has also lied to Sansa that Tyrion has ordered his guards to gang-rape his previous wife, it's possible that she didn't actually do it.
- Assassinating Robert Baratheon is only heinous with respect to Cersei being the villain, as despite the novels' treatment of rape being a particular kind of evil, Robert himself repeatedly raped her throughout their marriage, often leaving her sore in the aftermath, and would have tried to have her and her kids executed if Ned had disclosed her infidelities and cuckoldry to him. It is therefore quite a complicated matter to dub his assassination as heinous or anything other than karmic and self-defence with this in perspective.
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
- She was abusive to her younger brother, Tyrion who suffers from dwarfism. While most of the bullying involved teasing and insults, there are a few occasions where it crosses the lines of normal sibling bullying. When Tyrion was born, Cersei hated him for "killing" her mother, she grabbed him by the penis and pulled it so hard that Tyrion started crying. There was another occasion where Cersei pinched her baby brother until he cried. Considering that Tyrion was still a baby, this does cross the lines of normal sibling abuse.
- It is possible that she killed her friend, Melara, by pushing her down a well when she herself was 10 years old because she was afraid of Maggy's prophecy coming true but this is never explicitly confirmed by the books.
- That said, considering that prophecies in-universe, regardless of how debatable their interpretation is, do come true, it is quite likely she did do it.
- When 8-year-old Arya severely injured her son, Joffrey, Cersei ordered Jaime to find Arya and punish her by killing her or by at least cutting off her hand to maim her permanently.
- She had the direwolf Lady murdered out of spite.
- She had Ned Stark's men slaughtered, and had him arrested him for treason.
- Although she was as surprised as anyone else when Joffrey impulsively decided to have him beheaded, she ultimately allowed Joffrey to execute him to not undermine his (illegitimate) authority.
- While she didn't intend for the War of the Five Kings to happen, and Littlefinger is the person who set everything into motion so it could break out, Cersei still shares responsibility.
- She cheated on her husband and pretended that Jaime's children are actually his which later leads to a succession crisis when her secret is discovered.
- She also refuses to leave King's Landing when Ned offers her to do so, but instead stays and by killing her husband, arresting Ned and not stopping Joffrey when he orders his execution, she further deteriorates the situation.
- (Though it should be acknowledged that this is a prime example of the sexism Cersei faces because the only reason why in her case infidelity is punishable by death and she has to hide the fact that she has a relationship outside her marriage is because of the sexist laws of her society.)
- She spoiled her son, Joffrey, and allowed him to do whatever he wanted and get away with almost anything because she was delusional that he was a good boy.
- She is immensely cruel and tyrannical to the smallfolk, even by Westerosi noble standards.
- She ordered all of Robert's bastards in King's Landing killed to secure her son's position on the throne. The bastards in question were a 4-year-old girl and a baby and she also attempted to kill Gendry but he managed to escape.
- Before the Battle of Blackwater Bay, she ordered all the blacksmiths of the city to make weapons and armours for the defenders of the city. She proclaimed that if they don't meet their quotas, she would crush their heads with hammers.
- When she discovers that there is a play which mocks the Lannisters, she orders the puppeteers to be executed. She also orders everyone attending the play to be fined by confiscating half of their property and those who are too poor to pay, would lose one of their eyes for watching the play. Two of the puppeteers become Qyburn's test subjects.
- When she learned that Stannis was spreading information that she is sleeping with her brother, Jaime (correctly so), she wants to impose a rule which forbids anyone to speak about it or else they would lose their tongues. The only reason why she doesn't do it is because Tyrion points out that this way everyone will start to believe these rumors even more.
- During the Battle of Blackwater Bay, she executed several people who were trying to escape to make an example of them.
- She invites all the noble ladies for the duration of the battle and gives them shelter. However, it is revealed that should Stannis win the battle, she plans to order her men to kill her, along with every other woman in the room, to spite her enemies even in death. However, the Lannister forces win the battle and this doesn't happen.
- When she discovers that Tyrion had escaped from the dungeons and has killed her father, she executed the two guards who were responsible for guarding his cell. The guards were drugged by Varys, and thus were innocent.
- She orders the death of the High Septon because she suspects him of being an ally to Tyrion and wants to replace him with someone else.
- She employs Qyburn, who was a former Maester expelled from the Citadel for performing horrible experiments on humans. She provides him with 5 test subjects in total and allows him to experiment on them to develop an undead warrior for her which is invincible. The 5 people she provides die in horrible agony.
- She puts a bounty on Tyrion's head and doesn't care for the collateral damage.
- While it could be argue that putting bounty on his head is justified because he killed her father and she thinks that he also killed her son, she isn't perturbed when various people start bringing her the heads of innocent people (including a child's head); most of whom are dwarves and trying to pass them off as Tyrion's head.
- Whilst she didn't intend for this to happen, she is apathetic to the consequences and takes no action to prevent these deaths, only commenting that she never knew there were so many dwarves.
- It should also be noted that she only considers killing some of the bounty hunters in fury for wasting her time as opposed to the loss of innocent life, and only desists to keep from discouraging the others, and even then, she does indeed give over a bounty hunter to Qyburn after he makes a blatant attempt to trick her by freshly mutilating a dwarf's face, not realising how foolish this was due to Tyrion's scar being old.
- She almost forces herself on Taena Merryweather when she herself is overwhelmed with trauma after remembering Robert doing the same to her and wanting to experience what he felt. While she stops herself and doesn't go through with the act, it's not out of moral standards or remorse but because she realizes it wouldn't bring her any enjoyment.
- When Loras Tyrell asks her to give him command of the army besieging Dragonstone, so he could end the siege swiftly with an assault on the castle, Cersei grants his wish and secretly hopes he would die in battle.
- She tries to assassinate Bron by ordering Falyse Stockworth and her husband to do it. When the plan fails, and Falyse's husband is killed by Bron, Cersei gives Falyse to Qyburn to be one of his test subjects (she is the fifth test subject).
- She orders Qyburn to torture the Blue Bard for several hours to force a confession out of him. Said torture involved plucking out an eye, pulling out several of his teeth, cutting off a nipple, amidst other things. By the time the torture is done, the Blue Bard has gone completely mad from the ordeal.
- Even though she loves them, she is abusive to her brother, Jaime, and her son, Tommen. When Tommen stands up to her, she orders her son to whip his whipping boy until his back is covered with blood or else she would cut off the whipping boy's tongue.
- She frames Margaery Tyrell and three of her friends (who are teenage girls) for adultery, which would result in their execution.
- She plans to send several of her men to the Wall to inspire a mutiny against Lord Commander Jon Snow, kill him, and replace him with someone who is loyal to her.
- She planned to send a group of men to attack the Martell men as they were travelling to King's Landing, kill Prince Trystane and frame Tyrion for this by ordering her men to shout his name. This way, she would break the marriage between her daughter and Trystane.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- She loves her family members except for Tyrion (more specifically, her children,her father, Tywin and her mother, Joanna). She is very protective of her children, doesn't want them to die and constantly fears for their safety.
- When her son Joffrey dies, she breaks down over his corpse and cries and then she stays with his corpse and mourns it for days. At one point, she has a nice dream where Joffrey is still alive and she marries her brother, Jaime.
- She is angry when Tyrion sends her daughter, Myrcella, to Dorn without her permission and starts threatening him. She breaks down into tears when he mentions that if Myrcella stays, she could be killed in the coming battle. She is also shocked when she learns that Myrcella has lost one of her ears.
- In the fourth book she gets very protective of her son, Tommen, after the death of Joffrey. When Tommen chokes on his wine, she is afraid that someone had poisoned him, quickly stands up and goes to him to help. When she discovers that no one has poisoned him, she goes away and starts crying. During her imprisonment by the Faith Militant, she constantly thinks about her son and how she wants to go back to him. When she goes back to him, she starts spending a lot more time with him than ever before because she was relieved to see him again after her long imprisonment.
- At one point, she had a nightmare where Tyrion has tied her up. She begs him to spare her kids, even though in the dream her own life is in danger.
- She loves her father as she wants his respect, constantly thinks about what he would do and is sad when he dies.
- She loves her mother. She blames her younger brother, Tyrion, for "killing" her mother because this is what she saw from her father. She also mentions to Sansa that when she was a little girl she prayed to the Gods to give her mother back.
- Cersei is too tragic to be Near Pure Evil:
- She lost her mother at the age of 7 which has left her traumatized.
- At the age of 10, Cersei received a prophecy from Maggy that all of her kids would die, that a younger and more baeutiful queen would take everything she holds dear and then Cersei herself would be killed by her younger brother. This made Cersei very paranoid about her life and the lives of her children, made her even more abusive towards Tyrion because she believes that he is the younger brother from the prophecy and caused her to become distrustful towards most other people. A lot of the crimes she commits are an attempt to prevent this prophecy from happening and saving her children and herself.
- Her father Tywin was neglectful most of the time, barely displayed any parental love aside from a few occasions and he was a brutal ruler who taught his kids that they should be merciless, that they shouldn't care about morality only about the end results and that they should look down on small folk or anyone who isn't a Lannister. He is also strict with his expectations of her and doesn't allow her to deviate in any way from what he envisions her to be but at the same time he never disciplines her on how she should treat other people properly, never corrects her behaviour and even makes her believe that her younger brother Tyrion "killed" her mother due to simply being born which causes her to hate him. Even after she becomes a Queen, he still acts in a controlling way towards her and orders her around despite the fact she outranks him, doesn't seem to care a lot about how her husband treats her or if she is happy with her life, doesn't take her opinions into consideration most of the time and tries to force her into a second marriage despite Cersei's immense displeasure, which would also deprive her of her position as regent to King Joffrey and force her into another position where she is a powerless housewife to someone else, just because Tywin wants to increase his own power with him possibly even wanting to take the regency for himself away from Cersei. Her upbringing as Tywin's daughter causes her to have a very warped view of the world and because she feels unappreciated by her father and suffers from insecurities, she tries to emulate him in any way she can to win his approval.
- She was married to Robert Baratheon, who cheated on her and abused her by sometimes even raping her which also has an affect on her because she feels powerless during the rapes and she doesn't want this to happen again. The affect the rapes have on her is displayed when she tries to force herself on another woman because she wants to feel powerful and learn what Robert has felt when he had done that to her but stops at the last moment because she realizes she doesn't feel enjoyment and just feels empty.
- She has spent most of her life in a co-dependent relationship with her twin Jaime which is harmful for both of them. While she is overall the dominant party of this relationship and is shown at times to be abusive to Jaime, he has also forced her to have sex with him on multiple occasions, even in one instance sexually assauting her while she is mourning her son.
- In the world of Westeros if it's discovered that she had cheated on her husband with Jaime, she and all of her kids would be executed while her husband also cheats on her all the time with dozens of different women which displays the double standards of Westerosi laws. The reason why she kills Robert and Ned is because she wants to protect her life and the life of her kids from execution.
- In general, she has suffered from systematic sexism throughout her whole life starting from childhood because she was born in a highly sexist society where women are inferior to men and she and Jaime were treated differently because of their gender. Jaime was groomed to become the heir to Casterly Rock and was taught how to rule and fight while she was groomed to be married off and be a housewife despite being older than her brother. When she was married to her husband, she also suffered from the sexism of her society because her husband was allowed to cheat on her while if she was caught cheating, she and her entire family would be executed. She was also raped because there was no definition of marital rape in Westeros.
- She suffers from a lot of insecurities (about being a woman, winning her father's approval, being fit to rule, etc.). She also has insecurities about not having any friends and she immediately decides to befriend the first woman she meets in the fourth book simply because she doesn't want to feel lonely.
- On one occasion, after Ned gives her a chance to escape with her children from the city before he reports to Robert that she had been cheating on him, Cersei tells him that because of this she would allow him to go back to Winterfell and live out the rest of his life if he kneels to Joffrey and swears fealty to him. Ned doesn't do it and he ends up dead for this reason, but there is no indication Cersei wouldn't have kept her word if he had accepted and she still doesn't agree with Joffrey executing him.
- Even though she is rude to Sansa, she still tries to give her advice about how to rule as a Queen, about the specifics of the female body and that she shouldn't love too many people or else she would get hurt. It's implied that the reason for this is because Cersei sees Sansa as a younger and more inexperienced version of herself. While, Cersei lates desires to execute Sansa because she believes that Sansa was involved in Joffrey's death, it doesn't entirely subvert her prevention because during her Walk of Shame, she still noticebly feels bad about how things turned out and that Cersei could have provided a good marriage for her if Joffrey hadn't beheaded her father. Sansa is also one of the people Cersei hallucinates about which indicates that she feels guilty about how she treated her
- She is capable of feeling remorse on certain occasions. After the torture of the Blue Bard, she feels bad for him and tries to justify herself even if she doesn't take moral responsibility for what she did, and for a moment she even considers stopping his torture.
- She is also played for sympathy a lot as shown by the above examples. Aside from the examples that are already mentioned, during the Walk of Shame when she paraded naked through the streets of the city and the common people throw things at her, the story tries to frame the moment as an "Alas. Poor Villain" by presenting it from Cersei's point of view, presenting it in excruciating detail, showing how it affects her psyche. The story clearly tries to make the readers feel bad for her during this chapter.
External Links[]
- Cersei Lannister on the Villains Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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