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How Come No One is Suspicious about Melara's death?


Craving Peaches

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She was the last one seen with Cersei, since Jeyne Farman left shortly before the fortunes were told. And Melara was a noble, not just some peasant girl. Now I'm not saying everyone should instantly pin Cersei as the killer but no one aside from Cersei seems to even mention her death. Jeyne at least I reckon should be suspicious of Cersei because she last saw Melara with Cersei. And how did they manage to sneak out? Did Cersei have a cover story ready? How did she explain Melara's death? If someone saw all three go out but Melara didn't return...Melara wasn't quiet either. If a young noble girl suddenly died, shouldn't it attract more attention? Shouldn't somebody apart from Cersei mention it?

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my impression (from Cersei's memories on the Rock , Tyrion's memories and opinion about slaves and Casterly Rock) is that Tywin had a "quiet people, quiet land" policy in the Rock. I mean , Cersei could sell Robert's mistress and children to slavery and no one, not even Robert, said anything. I know Robert is not a model dad , but the fact that Tywin had such a grip on the West and its people that half-royal children could be sold by his daughter says something! 

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It looked like an accident, I suppose. Probably was, more or less - there are more reasons for feeling guilty apart from a direct shove down a well. Cersei could have dared her to jump over the well. She could have failed to get help quickly enough. She could have quarrelled and made Melara walk home on her own in the pitch dark, and well was basically a hole in the ground. Things like that.

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10 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

It looked like an accident, I suppose. Probably was, more or less - there are more reasons for feeling guilty apart from a direct shove down a well. Cersei could have dared her to jump over the well. She could have failed to get help quickly enough. She could have quarrelled and made Melara walk home on her own in the pitch dark, and well was basically a hole in the ground. Things like that.

Maybe, but the way Cersei thinks about it strongly suggests to me that Cersei either pushed her down the well or deliberately left her there to drown.

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Melara had turned out to be a greedy little schemer with ideas above her station. 

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Cersei did not care to think about Senelle. She repaid my kindness with betrayal. Sansa Stark had done the same. So had Melara Hetherspoon and fat Jeyne Farman when the three of them were girls.

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She could still hear Melara Hetherspoon insisting that if they never spoke about the prophecies, they would not come true. She was not so silent in the well, though. She screamed and shouted. 

 

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31 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

It looked like an accident, I suppose. Probably was, more or less - there are more reasons for feeling guilty apart from a direct shove down a well. Cersei could have dared her to jump over the well. She could have failed to get help quickly enough. She could have quarrelled and made Melara walk home on her own in the pitch dark, and well was basically a hole in the ground. Things like that.

Yeah, I don't really like how everyone instantly assumes that Cersei killed her and how this is constantly used as a "proof" that "she was born evil". On my read, I didn't even realize that this was a possibility before I went online and saw all those people claiming that Cersei pushed her childhood friend down a well.

 

I am not saying this is not something that could have potentially happened, but I don't like how fans use it against Cersei and treat it as an undisputed fact when the only things we know from the text are that Melara fell down a well, Cersei was nearby to hear her screams (but it's never specifically stated she didn't try to help), that she thinks Melara betrayed her in some way and that she feels bad over her friend's death.

 While there are some things that are only implied in those books and not spelled out, I feel in this instance, there is way too little to make a judgement (unlike, say, Ramsay gelding Theon even though it's not spelled out in the text, but we know he did it).

 

If Cersei really killed her, I guess we will find out the truth in future books.

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16 minutes ago, boltons are sick said:

but it's never specifically stated she didn't try to help

But if Cersei had tried to help, why didn't she think about that when she thought about how Melara had repaid her kindness with treachery?

Also,

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A young girl sat beneath a fountain, drenched in spray, and stared at her with Melara Hetherspoon's accusing eyes

Why would she imagine Melara looking at her like that?

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Just now, Craving Peaches said:

But if Cersei had tried to help, why didn't she think about that when she thought about how Melara had repaid her kindness with treachery?

For that matter, Cersei also doesn't think about how she pushed her friend down a well and even in her own thoughts, she describes that Melara fell down a well not that Cersei pushed her.

Cersei killing Melara is nothing more than a fan theory that's no more valid than say L+R=J but the fandom has decided it's canon. We will probably have more answers about that in TWOW, but before that book comes out, Cersei killing Melara shouldn't be treated as anything more than a fan theory.

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11 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

 

Why would she imagine Melara looking at her like that?

There is a thing called "survivor guilt" where the survivor feels guilty for being alive when a loved one dies. Or she tried to help her, but couldn't save her. Or, the two of them had an argument shortly before the accident (considering what Cersei thinks about Melara in the present) and she feels guilt that they had an argument and this is how they separated...

 There are a million reasons why Cersei could feel guilt without her intentionally killing Melara.

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3 minutes ago, boltons are sick said:

she describes that Melara fell down a well not that Cersei pushed her.

Melara could have fallen in and then Cersei left her to die. She doesn't have to push her in to kill her. Also, I am not a fan of assuming people are guilty just because of what they've done previously, but Cersei is of a depraved enough disposition to murder multiple innocent newborns. I don't think assuming she left someone she considered to have wronged her to die is that much of a stretch.

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6 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Melara could have fallen in and then Cersei left her to die. She doesn't have to push her in to kill her. Also, I am not a fan of assuming people are guilty just because of what they've done previously, but Cersei is of a depraved enough disposition to murder multiple innocent newborns. I don't think assuming she left someone she considered to have wronged her to die is that much of a stretch.

The thing is, we also don't know if Cersei really didn't try to help her, but she just failed. It's never stated that she just walked away from the well and left Melara to drown there either.

 And yeah, while Cersei has a cruel streak, and her leaving Melara to die is a possible interpretation, we don't have enough evidence to support that this is what really happened.

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8 minutes ago, boltons are sick said:

 And yeah, while Cersei has a cruel streak, and her leaving Melara to die is a possible interpretation, we don't have enough evidence to support that this is what really happened.

We don't have proof beyond all reasonable doubt either way, I grant you. But if we go back to the original topic of my post, regardless of why Cersei killed Melara or not, why does no one else mention her death? A young noble girl falling down a well and drowning at Viserys' name day tourney should have been noted and noticed by more than just Cersei.

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Just now, Craving Peaches said:

We don't have proof beyond all reasonable doubt either way, I grant you. But if we go back to the original topic of my post, regardless of why Cersei killed Melara or not, why does no one else mention her death? A young noble girl falling down a well and drowning at Viserys' name day tourney should have been noted and noticed by more than just Cersei.

Probably because at that point more than 23 years have passed, so of course no one is going to talk about it anymore. I would imagine that at the time it happened, it was the biggest topic at Casterly Rock.

 The reason why only Cersei remembers her is because her brothers never had any relationships with Melara.

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for those who think Cersei is innocent in Melara's death : people, just look at the pattern. Cersei does not think straight of killing Melara . but Cersei's good at being in denial. her thoughts about Sansa's betrayal and Margery's supposed treason in Blue Bard's fate show clearly that she likes to believe her own lies . the woman genuinely starts believing Margery's infidelity after she fabricates Margery's high treason on her own! that doesn't show she was born evil , but it certainly shows that she had an evil strike at that age. 

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"This maegi made certain prophecies. I laughed at them at first, but ... she foretold the death of one of my bedmaids. At the time she made the prophecy, the girl was one-and-ten, healthy as a little horse and safe within the Rock. Yet she soon fell down a well and drowned."

Cersei is afraid of Maggy's powers of prophecy because her prediction of Melara's death came true.

If Cersei had heard the prophecy and then later of her own free will chose to make it come true - that wouldn't prove anything.

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Tywin's influence and Cersei's acting, I assume.

As for whether she killed Melara or not, it is heavily implied that she did kill her or, at the very least, not help her. It is not directly spelled out, but I assume we will have more conclusive evidence in the future books. It is possible she did not directly kill Melara (or it was an accident), of course, but the hints are suggesting otherwise. The only thing I do not understand about this though: why would Cersei kill Melara and deliberately fulfil the prophecy she wanted to believe was fake? I know the whole thing is supposed to be self-fulfilling (the more Cersei tries to avoid it, the more it comes true), but, as dumb as this is about to sound, I think she would wait at least some time before doing anything. To make sure the prophecy is not fulfilled and Melara lives that night. Unless the girls had a fight or argument that escalated, of course.

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On 1/23/2023 at 9:11 PM, Craving Peaches said:

She was the last one seen with Cersei, since Jeyne Farman left shortly before the fortunes were told. And Melara was a noble, not just some peasant girl. Now I'm not saying everyone should instantly pin Cersei as the killer but no one aside from Cersei seems to even mention her death. Jeyne at least I reckon should be suspicious of Cersei because she last saw Melara with Cersei. And how did they manage to sneak out? Did Cersei have a cover story ready? How did she explain Melara's death? If someone saw all three go out but Melara didn't return...Melara wasn't quiet either. If a young noble girl suddenly died, shouldn't it attract more attention? Shouldn't somebody apart from Cersei mention it?

Ever played Crusader Kings III? Apparently medieval children, especially the nobility, have a habit of drowning.

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Just now, Craving Peaches said:

No, but I played CKII. But I never pruned the family tree by drowining my bad heirs, they were all killed in some other manner.

In CK III child rulers can take a decision to "meet peers", sort of like "host feast" for the children. In one of the events one of the children disappear from surface while swimming and the options are help, call for help or "I'm sure s/he went back home" for some reason this third option is so common with the ai, in a decent sized kingdom realm almost every one of these meetings end up with at least one drowned child.

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