Does Cersei truly love her children, Jaime, anyone?

[Monk Meth-]

cersei is no doubt a loving mother.... it drove her mad.

[DornishKnight]

Cersei is an utter sociopath. She probably loves her children (and maybe Jaime), but she hurts them with every action she takes.

[Castel]

Cersei loves her children. She is definitely not an ideal mother but she loves her kids. Undoubtedly she loves that she can rule through them but there's some genuine love there.

That's more than she can say for anyone else, even her twin. Her love of Jaime is based on some narcissistic need and completely dependent on how useful he is to her, as is her love of everyone really. The minute anyone challenges her she clams up and pushes them away.

So in terms of unconditional love (the way people mean it, I think it's a joke) , in a limited sense anyway, she's incapable of it, her love of other people is tied into how the bow and scrape to her.

[Melpomene]

I'm not sure if it is actual love, or the general love of goals, pride and power that overwhelms her. A threat to her kids is a threat to her own position in life.

Afterall, she depends on her own current power on the status of being the mother of the king. If no king, then it all goes down the drain and she has to live life off court. Along with status, she will also no longer be that famous beautiful woman, something that she values.

She has pride over Joff more than anything, the handsome first born heir, whom she seems to deny any problems associated with him.

Now that he is gone, her dependency is on Tommen when it comes to sustaining her position. And she seems to be much rougher on him on account that he isn't this glorious, handsome fellow.

Marcella...don't see much interaction with her. She wasn't overjoyed, but otherwise she didn't even seem too worrisome when Marcie left for Dorne, and she barely showed any solid longterm concern when she heard about the attack. She only quickly went back to her own dilemna. I'm not a mother, but if I heard that my child was almost killed by being whacked by an axe, I would do way more than just say "Oh no, the poor thing" then continue on thinking about my problems in life. Wail and worry, then whoop some serious ass if I could, then make plans to get my babeh back.

It is kind of ironic. Cersei complained often and resented heavily about being treated differently, being intellectually ignored, and being used as a marital pawn by her dad because of her gender; but she essentially showed the same prejudice against her own daughter. She gloated over Joff, fussed over Tommen, but barely showed any interest in teaching or influencing Marcie in how to be a strong political woman in a man's world.

Marcella was shown to be a very smart little girl, with keen observation and a care towards others, and valued people like Tyrion. She probably even had the most potential to be the best leader out of all three kids once she grew up - but Cersei didn't really seem to notice it, or least didn't embrace and nurtured it.

(Granted, it might have been for the best that Cersei didn't try to train her daughter, considering she was awful and bitter at many things. But you get my drift)

Minus her scuffle with Marg marrying Tomment, she also seemed to have accepted the arranged marriages of all her kids, but she continuesly bitches about being in one herself and refused to be in another.

And not sure about anyone else, but having sex with someone when your child's body is only a few feet away seems a bit off to me...and I currently dislike her treatment of Tommen, regardless of her intentions.

Overall, there might have been a form of love there. Obviously she doesn't dislike her kids. But I think the previous poster hit the nail on the head - she really is living through her children, and heavily so. She is also naturally very narcissistic anyhow, and has willingly killed other innocent children and cared less over the rapes of other women, so her true empathy towards another person would likely be limited.

With Jaime: Unhealthy relationship. Cersei was mainly lustful towards him if anything, where he carried the image that she wanted of him. They had a "glamourous" type of relationship with hot nights and sneaky rendezvous, but once they faced real problems in life and real life problems in relationships, they crumbled. One can argue that Jaime martured, but Cersei did not. Jaime faced a major change of his appearance, a change of perception in life and hardships, and he accepted it and decided to grow/go along with it. Cersei also faces changes in her appearance, witnessed a change and variety of life's hardships, but either denies it, ignores it, doesn't care, or grows more bitter.

[klassickasey]

I disagree, for the most part. For me, the only truly honest affection I saw Cersei have for her children was when Myrcella was shipped off to Dorne and in my opinion, that had more to do with that fact that Cersei saw herself in Myrcella, not because she 'loved' her daughter so much. I doubt she would care half as much if Tommen were shipped off.

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. I mean, it's debatable, but I doubt that was what GRRM was going for.

Cersei is very protective and possessive of her children because I think they're the only people she feels calm around and can be more herself with. She doesn't have to put on airs or be leched at, she can just be "Mommy" and not "Your Majesty". Don't get me wrong, she loves being Queen and having power, but I think her children are precious to her because they love her for her and not her beauty or behavior. No matter what, they will never judge her or leave her.

IMO, Cersei hides behind her love for her children especially Tommen. She fears the Tyrells influence on Tommen, not for his sake, but because of her own. She believed she could just manipulate Tommen anyway she could to be her pet, yet when Tommen starts becoming, um idk, 'kingly' she has a problem with it, even though he is the king. If she cared about him being a good king so much she would let Loras Tyrell train him. She doesn't let him do anything, because she doesn't care about his rule, she only cares about her own.

Tommen is a child. Of course she's going to be protective of people taking advantage of him, which is exactly what the Tyrells are trying to do.

I think she feels that Tommen is just not cut out to be king, he just doesn't possess leadership skills. I think her hope is to be the power behind the throne running things long enough until he has a child that will hopefully be a better king, then she can die in peace.

She did the same thing with Joffrey. I interpreted, 'My son Joffrey rules now' as 'I rule now'. She thought she was going to rule the 7 kingdoms and be able to put her supposed 'puppet' son out of the way. However, she couldn't control Joffrey. She may have some love for her children, but it doesnt compare to the love and obsession she has with power.

Everyone learns in AFFC that she is paranoid and has a huge chip on her shoulder for being a woman and not allowed to actually 'rule'

It could be just me.

You're not thinking about why she wants power though. True, it's due to her frustration and natural Lannister pride and ambition, but I think it's also about security for her family and children.

It's the same kind of love she has for Jaime....I never....never....ever believed Cersei loved Jaime. Cersei seduces him and uses him to do her bidding. Anyone remember how cruel she was to Jaime in AFFC? However, when she gets in trouble, all of sudden 'I love you Jaime, save me Jaime.' Is that what love is? She loves Jaime more than anything in the world.....but not so much that she is above sleeping with other men to do her bidding. Cersei's love for Jaime is no different then her 'love' for Lancel or the Kettlebacks. Ask Jaime how he loves Cersei. Jaime gave up his life to be near Cersei. He has never been with another woman, nor does he even remotely desire to. She is all he needs, even after he finds out about how she was being plowed by their cousin.

Cersei DID NOT seduce him. That directly goes against canon. She and Jaime began experimenting as children and have always been close.

I think as twins they were just always very close and could only truly confide in each other. They're so alike that helps reinforce their egos and vanity. Both get to be with themselves in respect, because Jaime is what Cersei would be if she were a man and vice versa.

It became unhealthy later in life, but I do think they honestly loved each other for many reasons. As twins, brother and sister, seeing themselves in the other, the great sex, the security, the intimacy.

Cersei only truly loves 1 thing: Power, because she always somehow believed it was hers for some reason. I could be wrong though. Anyone else felt like this?

GRRM does not write one-note one-dimensional characters like that, especially ones of Cersei's importance to the story.

She does horrible things and is self-serving, but her redeeming quality is her devotion to her children. They're her heart and her hope.

She does love them, she talks about them often and spends most of her days with them. If she didn't care about them her behavior would be completely different.

Perhaps she does possess sociopathic tendencies, however I think that she legitimately places her children before herself like any mother does.

I have a feeling that if she ever does get a redemption from GRRM it will be by sacrificing her life for Tommen and/or Myrcella.

[dtones520]

I think she loves her children, but she also uses them as a means to an end with her lust for power. You can see she was truly pained by Joffs death, and he may have been her favorite child, she doesn't seem to look at Tommen or Myrcella in the same light. Then again we didn't get a POV of her with Joff alive, so who knows.

I don't think she truly loved Jaime, in the sense that someone loves their soulmate or spouse or whatever. She loved him as her brother and twin, but she loved the power that he helped her get and the protection he gave her. Notice that as soon as Jaime is gone/loses his hand she starts opening her legs to anyone that can help her acheive what she wants to acheive.

But most of all she loves power and everything tht comes with it and whatever can help her gain more power is what she truly loves.

[Davos55]

She is so sociopathic that it is hard to say. I think she just uses Jaime though, and he deserves better!

She definitely fits all of the criteria for having antisocial personality disorder and being a true sociopath.

[Silver Spearwife]

I think...Cersei could have loved her children totally and unconditionally. There's a theory that she was distraught over Joffrey's death because it brought her one step closer to hers in the prophecy. I don't believe that. She loved Joffrey as much as she was capable of loving one of her children.

She's just insane. The prophecy drove her insane. She can see her doom before her all the time, getting closer, and it made her lose it. I mean, I think she had to be not quite all there to begin with, and I think her memories of Maggy's tent support that, but the prophecy didn't help.

How to put this. I don't think she can really feel love, not the way most people do, and not the way many other characters do. But I do think she loves her children and loved Jaime as much as she was capable of loving anyone.

[Castel]

Never mind.

[TheWrongKindOfSnow]

I think she did/does love her children, and Jaime. She wants her children to be powerful and in part tries to live her own ambitions vicariously through them, sometimes to the extent that it completely overshadows any more genuine concern for her children's welfare - but that doesn't exclude love, its just an unhealthy expression of it seen in parents who value superficiality. And I can't think of any other reason she should have cared about Joffrey to the extent she did other than blind maternal devotion - given his personality, there can't be a rational explanation for why she liked him.

I wish we could have seen more of her relationship with Jaime before the rift between them developed - its referred to by both of them as some kind of almost mystical bond, and I don't think that can be dismissed as not real love, even if in actual fact it is - like her love for her children - just a matter of feelings induced by their biological connection and twisted up with self-serving motives. I'd actually like it if Cersei isn't reduced to just crazy-evil in the end, and if the positives in her relationship between Jaime could be restored (not sure how the incest would be dealt with in that scenario, though), but so far it doesn't seem to be going that way.

[Qhorin Halfhand and Yoren]

I think that there are some times that she loves her children and other times that she does not and only thinks of herself and even abuses her children for the sake of her own power and selfishness as she does with Tommen. However I do believe that her grief over the loss of Joffrey was genuine for example.

Her selfishness, lack of human decency, unlimited narcissism can be an obstacle in her love relationships and that can also be seen by her relationship with Jaime. Even with the way she sees Joffrey and Tommen, the first seeing to some extend as an extension of herself (so her love is to some extend narcissistic) while with Tommen she doesn't like what she sees and even abuses at some points the poor kid. Still there are times that she shows that she loves them.

I have similar views over real life abusive parents as well who abuse their children for their own selfishness, I consider that to be very shitty behavior, and no I don't believe that while doing so they are showing love of their children. Now some of those parents might not love their children at all, while others might love them some of the time. (There exist of course many parents who neither abuse their children, and their love is pretty consistent and unconditional in comparison to the quite selfish abusers). I believe that love can be consistent and unconditional but is not always unconditional and consistent. A person as selfish, power hungry, abusive and vain as Cersei even in the few cases of people that she can love, she does not love them always consistently and unconditionally.

[twikee]

Of course she does not love her children. She only protects them because she is afraid they's die, because if they die she dies too. Cersei has a habit of thinking about things that only concern her, that's why she cant think of Jaime without seeing herself with him.

[Pyat>Daenerys]

Cersei loves people through which she can excersise her power and influence.

[krtmd]

You can argue, well, does she genuinely love her children, or does she just love them because they're her children? There's certainly a great level of narcissism in Cersei. She has an almost sociopathic view of the world and civilization.

-GRRM

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/george-r-r-martin-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140423#ixzz3g4SoVJ5H 
 

[INCBlackbird]

she only "loves" them because they "are a part of her" so to speak. She "created" them, same with Jaime because he is her twin and she sees him as the male version of her.  She has no concept of loving a person for who they are though. So according to my personal definition of love, no she didn't.

[King Viserys Targaryen IV]

I think that Cersie loves her children as much as a sociopath can actually love someone. And primarily she loves them because she sees them as an extension of herself, much like she would lover her arm or her hair.

 

I think that if one of them ever, in her mind, betrayed her she would cut them out of her mind and life instantly

[Balerion the kitten]

Cersei "loves" her children and jaime cause she views them as extensions of herself. And cause of this she expects them to be the way she wants them to be, do what she wants them to do, when she wants them to do it. Cause she can't quite grasp the concept that although they are her blood, and although they are her flesh, and although they look like her, they aren't "hers". They are themselves and can act for themselves.
It's why she lashes out at tommen when he displeases her, but then later thinks "no harm must ever come to my sweet boy". It's why she behaves in a very disrespectful way to jaime but then goes "I love you, I love you, I love you. Come at once."

"Be gentle, Cersei, I'm only jesting with you. If truth be told, I'd sooner have a nice whore. I never understood what Jaime saw in you, apart from his own reflection."
She slapped him.

Tyrion got it the other way round. Cersei only views her reflection when looking at jaime. Plus

The reflection in the water was a man he did not know. Not only was he bald, but he looked as though he had aged five years in that dungeon; his face was thinner, with hollows under his eyes and lines he did not remember. I don't look as much like Cersei this way. She'll hate that.