Cersei Lannister the Sympathetic Villain

[SeanF]

This is a very good way to put it. I keep bouncing back and forth on exactly how I feel about Cersei's Walk of Shame. Part of me is jubilant all her chickens have finally come home to roost. After all, this is exactly what she had in mind for Margaery Tyrell when she began this Faith sponsored slut hunt.

I think she just wanted Margaery to be killed, but now you mention it, Cersei would find it absolutely hilarious if Margaery had her hair shaved off, and was paraded naked through the city.

[Cas Stark]

Yes, Cersei has never flinched from using her societys patriarchal views on women's sexuality AGAINST OTHER WOMEN, she frames Margaery for committing adultery, frames other innocent girls for sex crimes they didn't commit....but somehow now I am supposed to feel sorry for Cersei that the only punishment she gets in the entire series is an ironical one because she is getting the punishment that she has attempted to foist onto other women...that of being punished for exercising their own sexual agency...worse, she has attempted to have them punished for exercising sexual agency they never even exercised but which she did. um, no. no sympathy.

[danm_999]

I think she just wanted Margaery to be killed, but now you mention it, Cersei would find it absolutely hilarious if Margaery had her hair shaved off, and was paraded naked through the city.

We know Cersei gets a kick out of this shit;

“Perhaps they were deceived as well, my lord,” said Septa Moelle. “I cannot speak to this. I can only swear to the truth of what I discovered

for myself when I examined the queen.”

The picture of this sour old crone poking her wrinkled fingers up Margaery’s little pink cunt was so droll that Cersei almost laughed.

[Alayne's Shadow.]

I disagree with every action Cersei made while in charge of KL. She's a highly entertaining character, but she's in no way close to a good, even okay person, especially considering Falyse and others. Yet, I can't help but hope she gives the new High Septon to Qyburn. The WOS didn't made me feel like any kind of Justice was served, it only made me feel bad for Cersei and wonder how awful could something like that be. They literally stripped her of all her power, and the chapter in itself... It's just awful. I don't think I've ever felt as bad for a character as I felt for her there. And the WOS doesn't help in any way, It's basically humiliating Cersei for being a woman. I can't see how people can feel any kind of pleasure in that act. It's just the WOS, her thoughts during it, the fact that we're inside her head... I just can't help but feel sympathy for her.

[Blueberry Stark]

I disagree with every action Cersei made while in charge of KL. She's a highly entertaining character, but she's in no way close to a good, even okay person, especially considering Falyse and others. Yet, I can't help but hope she gives the new High Septon to Qyburn. The WOS didn't made me feel like any kind of Justice was served, it only made me feel bad for Cersei and wonder how awful could something like that be. They literally stripped her of all her power, and the chapter in itself... It's just awful. I don't think I've ever felt as bad for a character as I felt for her there. And the WOS doesn't help in any way, It's basically humiliating Cersei for being a woman. I can't see how people can feel any kind of pleasure in that act. It's just the WOS, her thoughts during it, the fact that we're inside her head... I just can't help but feel sympathy for her.

Me too. Sexualized punishments and humiliation, which is what the WoS undoubtedly is, are horrific to me, even in fiction. I don't want her to give the High Septon to Qyburn though; that's another punishment I wouldn't wish on anyone!

We know Cersei gets a kick out of this shit;

That quote about Margaery is a great example of why I love Cersei so much as a villainous character. She is truly horrible, but in such an unapologetic, funny way.

[StannisBamfatheon]

This whole "Cersei is a great mother" argument is horse shit, or rather that she's protective of her children or something. If she is she's quite bad at it. One is a dead sociopath who catalyzed a war that devastated the country. Another is maimed, nearly died, and was used as a pawn in political machinations in Dorne. And the last one is a puppet king and being manipulated by the Tyrells. That's 0-3 on the protection front gang. Seriously the Cersei defense force has no leg to stand on.

Oh and having sex with people as a reward for murdering someone, reaaaaallllly great person there, all the little girls of Westeros should follow her shining example!

[Frumpus]

Wow, too many people see things in black and white in this thread.

To me, Cersei is fully sympathetic. She wasn't the one behind all of the murders that readers and viewers alike hate, and since the article is solely about the tv show, well we all know that they made her even more sympathtic on the show, going to great lengths to show her distance herself from Joffrey's madness.

Who cares if she gave some people over to Qyburn? They weren't anyone that the audience cares about.

[amanofhonor]

What would you expect? with Tywin out of the picture its Cersei vs everyone, besides she won against Ned Stark so its least 3-1

[Drogon'sWrath]

Wow, too many people see things in black and white in this thread.

To me, Cersei is fully sympathetic. She wasn't the one behind all of the murders that readers and viewers alike hate, and since the article is solely about the tv show, well we all know that they made her even more sympathtic on the show, going to great lengths to show her distance herself from Joffrey's madness.

Who cares if she gave some people over to Qyburn? They weren't anyone that the audience cares about.

Like most characters, Cersei does have a degree of greyness to her. I think she does care about her children, albeit in her own controlling, paranoid way, and yet she treats Tommen poorly in Feast. However, she is a very dark shade of grey, whereas Jaime is slowly but steadily becoming a lighter shade of grey and Tyrion is among the most morally ambiguous characters of the series.

As for the murders, yes she was behind them. She just didn't physically carry them out, ala Charles Manson. And the whole Qyburn thing is horrendous. I truly hope you were trolling in some places, because there is no way to justify the murders she ordered and her sending people to be physically and violently tortured by Qyburn.

[The Frosted King]

Going by the show, she's partially sympathetic, due to loving and being rejected by her husband, then later by her favorite son.

Going by the books, my heart is stone.

she's horribly malevolent, snide and arrogant. No wonder she's alone against the world. People like that tend to turn everyone but family against them.

[Cas Stark]

Cersei is less grey than even Roose Bolton, who was kind to his wives as far as we know, who even admits affection for Fat Walda, who was proud of his true born son...so at least one time he had some normal impulses and relationships.

Cersei has none of this. She hates and fears her father. She hated and had her husband murdered. She uses her children as pawns for her own personal aggrandizement and the brother she claimed to love so much she turned on the first time he ever refused to do what she wanted. She has no friends, no allies, not one relationship even of an equal. She only will tolerate toadies who suck up to her.

Her last friend was Melara, who she pushed down the well when she was 10.

[Twist]

I really hated cersei until I read a feast for crows, reading her pov for the first time revealed whole new facets to her character. Rather than being a 1 dimensional mother bitch she's actually extremely paranoid (maggy the frog's fortune telling at least fed this paranoia if it didn't spark it in the first place), a victim of the sexual inequality of westeros, but at the same time quite delusional (she always refers to how she would've been treated differently and had more freedom to decide on her own destiny if she were a man, but she thinks she's as clever as her father when she clearly doesn't think through the consequences of her actions which often come back round to bite her on the bum), and generally quite a sad, desperate, and extremely bitter character. So in some ways I feel sorry for her as a victim of her circumstances, but she does herself no favours whatsoever, so that sympathy is very short lived.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

Wow, too many people see things in black and white in this thread.

To me, Cersei is fully sympathetic. She wasn't the one behind all of the murders that readers and viewers alike hate, and since the article is solely about the tv show, well we all know that they made her even more sympathtic on the show, going to great lengths to show her distance herself from Joffrey's madness.

1. We know it's about the show. Which is why people say it's a shame that the writer is only looking at the show, when it ISN'T a really fleshed-out portrayal of how she actually is.

2. We know it isn't just black and white, which is why, if you actually read the responses, you'll see people who hate Cersei but who are also uncomfortable with the Walk of Shame.

Who cares if she gave some people over to Qyburn? They weren't anyone that the audience cares about.

I hope to hell you're joking. This is breathtakingly obtuse and that is the absolute nicest way I can put it.

[The Ned's Little Girl]

Being sympathetic toward a person never negates the horrible things they have done; the horrible things that Cersei has done only make extending compassion more difficult. But because it's difficult doesn't mean that compassion should be completely withheld. In my own opinion.

It's an easy thing to be sympathetic to Sam Tarly for example. He's a genuinely good person with a good heart. He also doesn't need nearly as much sympathy as someone like Cersei does. She won't be able to begin any kind of redemption in her life unless somebody at some point has some compassion for her (if some measure of redemption is indeed possible at all; one never knows about that). In my own opinion.

For all the reasons enumerated so well in this thread, Cersei Lannister has completely wrecked her own and many other lives and that's putting it mildly. But such things cannot be overcome with hatred and repugnance, only with compassion. Extending compassion toward anyone can never be considered to be a bad thing.

Again, I am absolutely not excusing her for her atrocities. I just think that such a monstrosity - even self-inflicted monstrousness - as Cersei Lannister is cause for sadness and hence, compassion.

In the final analysis, W.W.S.M.D.? What Would Septon Meribald Do?

[Cas Stark]

Well, Ned Stark showed her compassion, didn't he? He told her he knew her secret and gave her a chance to save her life and leave Westeros with her children. And we know how that turned out.

So, I think we already know how Cersei repays compassion, because she sees it as weakness, something to be preyed upon and used.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

I don't feel any sympathy for Cersei and I don't give a damn about her problems and what she had been through.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

Well, Ned Stark showed her compassion, didn't he? He told her he knew her secret and gave her a chance to save her life and leave Westeros with her children. And we know how that turned out.

So, I think we already know how Cersei repays compassion, because she sees it as weakness, something to be preyed upon and used.

Basically this. Compassion is admirable, but even it has its limits.

[Lonin]

I am not sure what GRRMs plan is for Cersei's story arc... I often like villain's similar to Cersei - but she is just not very likable with almost no redeeming qualities. Maybe in future books she will become more likeable and sympathetic, not sure how.

[Cas Stark]

Anything is possible, but at this point, I would find it hard to imagine anything that would realistically change Cersei's essential character.

She spent her time imprisoned with not an ounce of reflection her mistakes...but wishing death on her enemies and those around her, even her walk of shame, which caused so many to feel sorry for her, spend a good portion of that too, fantasizing about killing various people, the septas, soldiers, etc. This is who she is.

[David Selig]

1. We know it's about the show.

We do? How? It's mentioned plenty of times in the article that it's about book characters.