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How do you feel about Cersei?


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GRRM offers feminist critique through Cersei. Why is it surprising that feminists write a whole ton about her?

I disagree, I think she hurts feminism. She's the kind of woman who makes people think feminist/strong women are bitches. I think there are better females for "the feminists". Dorne not a character, but they are progressive when it comes to womens lib. Danny, Arya, Cat, Margaery would be better role models IMO.

Those people are going think that with or without Cersei. Just look at the (sometimes blatant) misogyny aimed at characters like Dany, Cat and Sansa.

Anyway, you're conflating "strong character" with "role model".

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If Cersei were in the modern world, I could easily see her as some aggressive, mean spirited career woman who screams at her subordinates and shouts into a cellphone as she power walks down the street.



I do pity her though. I think she is just internalizing and imitating all she learned from her father.



The reason she is so brutal and cruel is A) she is a Lannister (better than the rest) and B) she was raised by her father.


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For me Cersei is so frustrating to read. I really want to sympathize with her and find redeeming things about her but the more I get to know her the more I just can't. She becomes less and less gray and more dark. People point to her love for her children as redeeming but I don't see it, she treats them no better than her father treater her, like a tool. The more power she has the worse she gets. Reading her chapters always makes me think of the Mad King Aerys. I really think there is no hope for her, she's not getting a redemption arch like Jaimie or Theon. Even so I doubt her death will feel good to read, I'm sure it will feel tragic, especially if its Jaimie or Tommen who kill her.


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Cersei shares at least one negative characteristic trait with most people in the books.

She has Lysa's over protection of her children.

Ramsay's indifference to murder.

Sansa's tunnel vision.

Little Finger's scheming.

Ser Dontos' drinking problem.

Shae's willingness to fuck people to get what she wants.

Tywin's contempt for low born.

Renly's vanity.

The Mountain's generosity.

Randyl Tarly's parenting skills.

Stannis' forgiveness.

Visery's sense of entitlement.

It goes on

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I liked her better before I read her POV chapters. She's not nearly as interesting as I thought she could be. She's simply stupid and selfish which makes her chapters a boring read. I found myself liking her again at the very end of ADWD when Kevan Lannister observes her after the walk. I think some characters simply work better from a third person's perspective and she's one of them.

I found no pleasure in her walk of shame and I don't understand how anyone could. Cersei explains all her mistakes with misogyny but that chapter reminded that she's not wrong about everything. The only reason she was humiliated was because she was a woman, not because of her horrible deeds.

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I get why people think she is kind a tragic character, but I just can't. She was mean and nasty before the Maggy stuff and it's just gotten worse from there.



She loves her children? What - she gets a medal for that? Very few parents don't love their children. I'm not convinced she goes above and beyond in that regard. It's part of the human condition. I'm also not convinced that her love for them isn't because they are a reflection of her, like Jaime. Love, yes, but with a bit more narcissism laced in than usual. Also, remember that saving her children is a desperate attempt to foil the prophecy, so can be seen as another selfish act. (that last bit is sorta weak, but worth mentioning I think)



She was not given a fair chance in life because of her gender? I can't deny that, but gender bias isn't the only advantage/disadvantage people have. She was born into a rich, powerful family and is absolutely beautiful. Those are some decided advantages right there. The orphaned beggars down in Flea Bottom aren't shedding a tear for her. So yeah, by our standards, the gendar bias is rough and frustrating, but there have been so many other advantages she's had that she's basically flushed down the toilet because of her bitterness and short-sightedness. Her arrogance, entitlement, and incompetence is holding her back, not her sex. I wonder where she got that from (Tywin, I'm looking at you).



So no, Cersei doesn't get any special sympathy from me. She's nasty, cruel and murders people on a whim. She deserves to have her crimes be made public, suffer that humiliation and then be executed. The walk of shame was unfair, but damn if karma didn't give her a preview of what she deserves.



I love reading her chapters though. Gasoline on a fire is the perfect way to describe them.


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I love reading her chapters though. Gasoline on a fire is the perfect way to describe them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrq7KISyyd8

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I kinda feel sorry for her, even though I know she doesn't deserve it. She just doesn't get that as much as she blames the world, Tywin, the fact she's a woman, Tyrion, her intellectual inferiors or whomever else, she's really her own worst enemy and the root cause of all her own problems.


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I hate what GRRM gave us in AFFC. I think he retconned her with Maggy. Don't get me wrong, I dint think she's a bloody genius or anything but the degree to which she ran into the stupid pole seemingly overnight was a bit unbelievable.

Begin blasphemy

I think show Cersei is a better, more nuanced and interesting character than AFFC Cersei, though the few major moments of whitewashing they did (mostly in service of black washing Joffery) were annoying.

/blasphemy

I have high hopes for ADWD cersei being slightly more nuanced and worthy a villain, much as she appeared for the first three books.

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