What if Cersei loses her trial?

[The Mother of The Others]

Considering the Maggi the Frog thing..... if Cersei loses, the forces of prophecy would be in a mad dash to kill Myrcella and Tommen first before the headsman could kill Cersei. It'd be expedited blood magic doom, man. For Cersei's kids it'd be like they were living one of those Final Destination movies where every object was suddenly trying to kill them in time to fulfil Maggy's prophecy. In other words, it'd be awesome, but it'd be stupid awesome. It'd be like an episode of Tales from the Crypt had taken over the SOIAF series.

[chimere]

To the people saying she can't lose because her champion was built to win, I think this is only half true. Yes he was made to be powerful, but what if Qyburn can't control him? Qyburn is Dr. Frankenstein and Ser Robert Strong is the Monster. I have no idea what G.R.R.M is going to do, but it's not completely crazy to think that Ser Robert will go nuts and try to kill everything in sight sometime before the trial.

[Light a wight tonight]

But it doesn't follow from this that Varys needs to put Cersei back in power to achieve his goals, because he's already gotten all the benefit he needs from Cersei's incompetence (he killed Kevan to keep Kevan from fixing Cersei's preexisting mistakes, not because his plans are dependent on her making even more mistakes). Killing Kevan means Varys already has the "benefit" of a noted incompetent running things in King's Landing (Mace Tyrell), so he doesn't need Cersei in power to ensure that Aegon faces an incompetent foe. (And after the Walk of Shame, Kevan's death really can't "automatically" give Cersei a means to seize her former power regardless.) If Cersei wins her trial, Tommen's legitimacy as a trueborn son of Robert Baratheon is given religious approval, and Houses who want to maintain the status quo are given a perfect excuse to support the now-unambiguously-legitimate Tommen over the possibly-fake Aegon.

With trepidation I feel a need to contradict Tze on something. The Tyrells also have a very competent Randyll Tarly in town, and in fact serving on the Small Council.

Of course, Varys has more quarrels for his crossbow.....

[The Mother of The Others]

Please not Randyll too, Varys! His end needs to be more...... sensual.

To the people saying she can't lose because her champion was built to win, I think this is only half true. Yes he was made to be powerful, but what if Qyburn can't control him?

Ah, so it could be one of those exploitable weaknesses ("Robot-ism"?) that a great fighter could hope to identify during the battle, Bronn style. Hold a sword to Qyburn's neck and tell him to tell Strong to power down. Etc.

[the_one_who_was_promised]

Sorry if this may have already been mentioned, but has the prophecy been accounted for in people's estimations of whether or not she wins her trial? It is prophesised that a younger more beautiful will take everything that she holds dear away from her and that she will actually die at the hands of a younger brother (whether that is one of her own biological brothers or simply just someone else's "younger brother" remains to be seen) and that she will outlive her children.

With the above in mind, I had imagined that Cersei would survive her trial with the younger woman being Sansa or even Brienne (if we interpret beauty differently from the conventional sense, plus there is a possibility that Jaime could fall for her, hence she could be perceived by Cersei as taking him away from her), and that the younger brother could actually be Jaime or Tyrion (with Jaime possibly repeating the action of killing Cersei in a manner akin to the killing of the mad King, or Tyrion killing her out of revenge).

However, as someone else has said...

Yup,The Hound/Gravedigger as the champion of the faith, younger brother prophecy alert ;)!

This would also fit very nicely with the younger brother prophecy, especially as it is hinted that only Sandor is capable of killing Gregor/Robert. But, as far as we are aware, her children are alive and it has also been mentioned that the Valonquar would strangle Cersei. The only way to get round this I suppose would be for Sandor to defeat Gregor in the trial, with someone else then killing her by strangulation were she to lose her trial - would it at all be conceivable then that Jaime could be called upon to carry out this sentence? Or maybe Stannis (since her failure to prove the legitimacy of her children would render him King, and hence enable him to dispatch the "King's justice" so to speak). However this does not as yet, resolve the issue of her surviving children.

[Mrs.Grumpy]

Considering the Maggi the Frog thing..... if Cersei loses, the forces of prophecy would be in a mad dash to kill Myrcella and Tommen first before the headsman could kill Cersei. It'd be expedited blood magic doom, man. For Cersei's kids it'd be like they were living one of those Final Destination movies where every object was suddenly trying to kill them in time to fulfil Maggy's prophecy. In other words, it'd be awesome, but it'd be stupid awesome. It'd be like an episode of Tales from the Crypt had taken over the SOIAF series.

Lol

[tze]

With trepidation I feel a need to contradict Tze on something. The Tyrells also have a very competent Randyll Tarly in town, and in fact serving on the Small Council.

The problem with that argument is that Randyll Tarly isn't actually in charge. While Randyll Tarly is only serving as Master of Laws, Mace Tyrell is Hand of the King. As the King is a child and there is no longer a Regent (thanks to Varys's murder of Kevan), the Hand of the King is now essentially the de facto ruler of the realm. Randyll Tarly might be more competent, but his position does not grant him the powers of the King---Mace Tyrell's does. Aegon wants the Iron Throne, and as a practical matter, and thanks to Varys murdering Kevan, his opposition is now going to be led by Mace Tyrell.

There's been quite a bit of speculation that Randyll Tarly will actually end up turning his cloak and siding with Aegon, which would render his presence on the Small Council rather moot---but even if he somehow does choose to stay loyal to Tommen and House Tyrell, the fact remains that Mace, not Randyll, is the one calling the shots. Varys doesn't need Cersei reinstated in order to have an incompetent person exercising the power and authority of the Iron Throne (and thus, serving as Aegon's primary adversary), because Mace Tyrell already fulfills that role.

Sorry if this may have already been mentioned, but has the prophecy been accounted for in people's estimations of whether or not she wins her trial?

First, I'd say there's a difference between "losing her trial" and "getting killed". Tyrion lost his trial by combat, but he definitely didn't end up dying. There are a number of ways for Cersei to lose her trial but then to escape King's Landing before her execution can be carried out.

And second, Maggy said that Cersei will lose "all that [she] hold dear", and losing her trial would mean Tommen and Myrcella would publicly be declared bastard abominations born of incest. I can't imagine such a declaration, by an armed Faith, would really enhance the chances of Cersei's children surviving. Yes, they'd no longer be true adversaries for the Iron Throne, but I have a great deal of difficulty seeing the Faith declare them abominations born of incest and then just allowing them to quietly withdraw into private life. "Abominations" are, by definition, not "supposed" to exist. According to Catelyn,

If the boy was truly Jaime’s seed, Robert would have put him to death along with his mother, and few would have condemned him. Bastards were common enough, but incest was a monstrous sin to both old gods and new, and the children of such wickedness were named abominations in sept and godswood alike.

The Faith might very well consider itself within its rights to have Cersei's children put to death for the "crime" of being "abominations" born of incest.

[FuriousGeorge]

The problem with that argument is that Randyll Tarly isn't actually in charge. While Randyll Tarly is only serving as Master of Laws, Mace Tyrell is Hand of the King. As the King is a child and there is no longer a Regent (thanks to Varys's murder of Kevan), the Hand of the King is now essentially the de facto ruler of the realm. Randyll Tarly might be more competent, but his position does not grant him the powers of the King---Mace Tyrell's does. Aegon wants the Iron Throne, and as a practical matter, and thanks to Varys murdering Kevan, his opposition is now going to be led by Mace Tyrell.

There's been quite a bit of speculation that Randyll Tarly will actually end up turning his cloak and siding with Aegon, which would render his presence on the Small Council rather moot---but even if he somehow does choose to stay loyal to Tommen and House Tyrell, the fact remains that Mace, not Randyll, is the one calling the shots.

I think the political situation in Kings Landing is very much up in the air. King Regent has just been slain in his personal chambers. No one can say who will be calling the shots as we do not know the result of the political battle that will come about because of the power vacuum that has just been created,

[the_one_who_was_promised]

The problem with that argument is that Randyll Tarly isn't actually in charge. While Randyll Tarly is only serving as Master of Laws, Mace Tyrell is Hand of the King. As the King is a child and there is no longer a Regent (thanks to Varys's murder of Kevan), the Hand of the King is now essentially the de facto ruler of the realm. Randyll Tarly might be more competent, but his position does not grant him the powers of the King---Mace Tyrell's does. Aegon wants the Iron Throne, and as a practical matter, and thanks to Varys murdering Kevan, his opposition is now going to be led by Mace Tyrell.

There's been quite a bit of speculation that Randyll Tarly will actually end up turning his cloak and siding with Aegon, which would render his presence on the Small Council rather moot---but even if he somehow does choose to stay loyal to Tommen and House Tyrell, the fact remains that Mace, not Randyll, is the one calling the shots. Varys doesn't need Cersei reinstated in order to have an incompetent person exercising the power and authority of the Iron Throne (and thus, serving as Aegon's primary adversary), because Mace Tyrell already fulfills that role.

First, I'd say there's a difference between "losing her trial" and "getting killed". Tyrion lost his trial by combat, but he definitely didn't end up dying. There are a number of ways for Cersei to lose her trial but then to escape King's Landing before her execution can be carried out.

And second, Maggy said that Cersei will lose "all that [she] hold dear", and losing her trial would mean Tommen and Myrcella would publicly be declared bastard abominations born of incest. I can't imagine such a declaration, by an armed Faith, would really enhance the chances of Cersei's children surviving. Yes, they'd no longer be true adversaries for the Iron Throne, but I have a great deal of difficulty seeing the Faith declare them abominations born of incest and then just allowing them to quietly withdraw into private life. "Abominations" are, by definition, not "supposed" to exist. According to Catelyn,

The Faith might very well consider itself within its rights to have Cersei's children put to death for the "crime" of being "abominations" born of incest.

Did Maggy not prophesise that another younger or more beautiful woman would be responsible for Cersei losing all that she holds dear? :- "Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

I definitely agree that both children could likely be declared abominations and sentenced to death as Ned Stark told her would happen if she didn't escape KL before he would tell Robert of their bastardy in GoT, however if we were to follow the prophecy in its literal sense and interpret all that Cersei holds dear as including her children and her power, then another "younger or more beautiful" may ultimately be responsible for this loss.

Hence, if she is condemned by the Faith and loses her power and her children as a result, then all that she holds dear has not technically been taken away from her by the "more beautiful" other stated in the prophecy, as Margaery surely cannot be held responsible for this outcome.

Of course, that would not prevent her escaping KL herself and ending up being killed by the Valonquar later on in the books, but at this point, I am inclined to believe that events will transpire as prophesised by Maggy, but that is just my personal interpretation.

[Darth Visenya]

The High Sparrow and the Faith Millatant are in a very precarious position, yes they may be armed but their numbers arn't huge and a lot of their soliders arn't well trained, my guess is a Lannister host putting them all to the sword if they try and overthrow the King, which I would like to see, power in the hands of Religious Zealots never goes well, or perhaps for the High Sparrow to win the Throne only to have Daenerys turn up and immolate every last one of them straight after, I wouldn't mind that either thinking about it now.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Cersei won't lose. The narrative just doesn't call for it yet.

[The Black Hawk]

PARTY Cersi is dead Cersi is dead Cersi is dead. Who else will jump and scream yes when she dies because I really want her to die

[Darth Visenya]

I would rather see The Faith Millatant wiped out than Cersei, they have the potential to do far more damage, she was an idiot giving them the right to arm themselves back.