We love the women the fandom hates: Cersei Lannister Day I
A part of this great fandom initiative womenlovefest. A short meta about Cersei Lannister, specific spoilers as of book one, more generally spoiler-ish about her portrayal in general (although no specifics are provided about events later than GoT finale).
[Note: arguments about whether or not I'm right in my subjective views on the character, as well as disagreement about Cersei's character, is not welcome here right now. This is a squee post (even though it's in the form of an opinion piece) meant to celebrate and while I welcome debate in general (I thrive on polite confrontation until I get all stressed out) this is not the appropriate time and place.]
It’s tough with Cersei to separate what I want her to be from what she is written to be, from what she was written to be - at first. She was promising and interesting, if not likeable. She was angry about being denied her heritage because of being a woman, she was rightly furious about her husband’s behaviour, she was a survivor of domestic abuse who did evil things for her children. She was not great at raising her children, but she was… well. Fierce.
And then Jaime Lannister got his own POV and it was clearly meant to cast him in a more sympathetic light. So that was what I expected from Cersei’s POV as well: to constitute a restitution, to present her as more relatable. But that wasn’t to be, not really. Cersei was to be shown as erratic and vain, shallow and at times stupid, even devoid of humanity at times. And Jaime is clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, you’ve surely noticed? He thinks he can come out with the news of his parentage, for goodness sake. But following the one time Jaime’s the one who gets to bear the brunt of the blame - Bran’s fall, that is, which he did ‘assuming’ Cersei wanted him to, and that we’re told (by her) she never did - she gets to stand accused of being solely responsible for all evil, for corrupting Jaime, for using him and betraying him.
And to me, that speaks not to her being more evil than him, but to him being given more leeway from society they’re written in, and from the author as well.
TBC.
[Note: arguments about whether or not I'm right in my subjective views on the character, as well as disagreement about Cersei's character, is not welcome here right now. This is a squee post (even though it's in the form of an opinion piece) meant to celebrate and while I welcome debate in general (I thrive on polite confrontation until I get all stressed out) this is not the appropriate time and place.]
It’s tough with Cersei to separate what I want her to be from what she is written to be, from what she was written to be - at first. She was promising and interesting, if not likeable. She was angry about being denied her heritage because of being a woman, she was rightly furious about her husband’s behaviour, she was a survivor of domestic abuse who did evil things for her children. She was not great at raising her children, but she was… well. Fierce.
And then Jaime Lannister got his own POV and it was clearly meant to cast him in a more sympathetic light. So that was what I expected from Cersei’s POV as well: to constitute a restitution, to present her as more relatable. But that wasn’t to be, not really. Cersei was to be shown as erratic and vain, shallow and at times stupid, even devoid of humanity at times. And Jaime is clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, you’ve surely noticed? He thinks he can come out with the news of his parentage, for goodness sake. But following the one time Jaime’s the one who gets to bear the brunt of the blame - Bran’s fall, that is, which he did ‘assuming’ Cersei wanted him to, and that we’re told (by her) she never did - she gets to stand accused of being solely responsible for all evil, for corrupting Jaime, for using him and betraying him.
And to me, that speaks not to her being more evil than him, but to him being given more leeway from society they’re written in, and from the author as well.
TBC.