Softening of Cersei?

[Seaworth'sShipmate]

Its been commented on before, but D + D really have softened and humanized Cersei Lannister's character. Don't get me wrong. She still is made out to be a heartless, hateful and power-hungry person. My own brother who never read the books stated "she is the worst" apart from her son Joffrey.

Missing in the show is her level of promiscuity and cruelty that are in the books. I don't think she will sleep with all the kettle black bros in the show, and I don't think there will be a lesbian romance with Taena Merrywhether. Do D+D just want to make her more relatable, and less hysterically incompetent and cruel?

In fact, she has never looked better than she has in this season, season 5. Instead of the paranoia and stupidity that fueled her choices in AFFC, most of her decisions in the show (thus far) don't seem utterly mad.

She is definitely right to fear that Myrcella will be harmed in Dorne, and even arming the faith militant makes some amount of sense (to those who don't know the history.)

Myself and a lot of the audience probably sympathized with her when Margarey and her friends made snide remarks to Cersei, about her "early morning drinking" and how Margarey was sleeping with her son. Margaret just seemed so bitchy and trashy when she was telling Cersei how "exhausted" she was from Tommen and how he is such a vigorous "half lion/half stag." If we didn't know anything about Cersei from before Season 5, we might be tempted to think she is just some good-hearted, but harried and put upon woman who is just doing what she thinks is right.

The High Sparrow and his monks are very popular with the small folk, and for all their fanatacism seem committed to helping the poor and disadvantaged. Cerise realizes that the old religious authorities aren't respected and by hitching her star to a growing populist movement, it could lead to her advantage (which we all know isn't the case).

[The_Spanish_Inquisition]

Show Cersei has always seemed less obviously crass and a little sneakier, I guess. Quieter and more cleverly underhanded where book Cersei was in-your-face. She's still a conniving bitch, but show Cersei seems a little more motivated by fear and anger than book Cersei, where her primary motivation comes across (to me) as arrogance.

They are definitely humanizing her. I couldn't believe the scene where she begs Tywin not to marry her off to Loras. I can't picture book Cersei ever showing vulnerability like that. I love it - book Cersei was so obviously evil that she was almost a caricature of a stock villain, in my mind.