I am appalled at Cersei Lannister! (and birthday wishes)
I'd like to offer early birthday wishes to kitsah!! Happy birthday, dear kitsah! We'll have to have a Lee-tastic celebration (and I'll make Cowboy shooters for you)!
Cersei
The 'appalled' is because I can restrain myself no longer. I've been scribbling notes here and there with my ongoing thoughts of Martin's A Feast for Crows, and I was planning to wait to post until I had gotten a bit further along, but this latest Cersei chapter just has me staring at the page in horror at her idiocy!!
I have just finished reading the Cersei chapter where she makes the deal with the High Septon to restore the Faith Militant.
When Jaime calls her "a fool. A beautiful golden fool," he has no idea just exactly how accurate he is at the time, because at that point, she hadn't just legally armed a mob who could possibly rise up against her! She always thinks that she has manueuvered others to get what she wants, but she doesn't have the foresight to realize the possibilities of what could happen down the road.
Up until now she's made a series of bad decisions and choices - one of them being to deny payment to the Iron Bank of Braavos, and being incredibly rude and dissmissive to their envoy. Her arrogance is breathtaking. Her lack of compassion in regards to all the "sparrows" and the victims of war that the High Septon describes is not surprising, however. Cersei is unceasingly mememememe.
She surrounds herself with weak and inexperienced men who she seeks to dominate rather than with strong men whose respect she might earn. Permitting the young admiral to captain the rising new fleet with inexperienced men rather than captains who survived the fires of the Blackwater is incredibly foolish, as even Pycelle tries to point out. She trusts Taena for some bizarre reason, which I will never understand, especially when her paranoia in every other direction is rampant. And her behavior in regards to Tommen just disgusts me - she refuses to teach him statecraft, and she doesn't want him to attend council meetings - she actually sees her young son as a rival for her authority! "The rule was hers; Cersei did not mean to give it up until Tommen came of age. I waited, so can he. I waited half my life."
It's one thing if she intends to rule; it's quite another if she does not even want to equip her son for the day when he must have the same responsiblity. She is so drunk with power, and selfish and grasping in her desire to become her father that she doesn't understand her own responsibility in raising a king. What does she expect Tommen will do when he turn 16 and suddenly has a kingdom to care for? Furthermore, she makes no efforts to improve public opinion toward the Lannisters - allowing Tommen to join Margaery in her regular excursions would go a long way toward popularizing the young king, but instead she's blind to the fact that the Tyrells are well-loved and she and the Lannisters are becoming even more hated than before. She's just as bad as Lysa Arryn, in her own way.
It's very interesting, what Petyr Baelish says of Cersei:"-I might have to remove her from the game sooner than I'd planned. Provided she does not remove herself first." Petyr teased [Sansa] with a little smile. "In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn."
It also makes me wonder just how deep and far his game goes.
Tommen is adorable, though. I had such a grin on my face when I read this line:"Yes, but I am the king. Margaery says that everyone has to do what the king says. I want my white courser saddled on the morrow so Ser Loras can teach me how to joust. I want a kitten, too, and I don't want to eat beets."
Sam
Remind me not to eat lunch while reading about Sam Tarly being seasick! Ugh! I love how Sam sharpens his knife and looks after Gilly to protect her from the sailors who speak ill of her. It's so sad when Sam finds about Jon switching the babies, which goes a long way to explain Gilly's despair. Poor girl! But when they end up on Braavos, destitute, and with Maester Aemon dying, I feel so very sorry for Sam (and Gilly!). I love that he and Arya meet.
Jaime
I realy liked this:No man can choose his brothers, Jaime thought. Give me leave to pick my own men, and the Kingsguard will be great again. Put that baldly, though, it sounded feeble, an empty boast from a man the realm called Kingslayer. A man with shit for honor.
Jaime truly desires to be a better man, but his past is an oily cloak that taints everything he touches. I find it very interesting that when Jaime realizes that Kevan knows about him and Cersei, his first thought is not shame or fear on his own behalf - rather, he is concerned that Cersei knows that Kevan knows, and therefore might try to have Kevan killed to protect her secret. While Jaime has wanted to come clean about it, he has seen how far she has been willing to go to hide the truth from the world, and as a result rejects him, until it suits her purposes. It's so sad that he's realizing now that his great love affair was instead a huge manipulation for Cersei to get what she wanted. It was never really about him for his own sake.
I like this quote:"Of late, Cersei always seemed to have a flagon of wine, she who had once scorned Robert Baratheon for his drinking. He misliked that but these days he seemed to mislike everything his sister did."
The scales are falling from his eyes.
Some other random bits
Cersei
The 'appalled' is because I can restrain myself no longer. I've been scribbling notes here and there with my ongoing thoughts of Martin's A Feast for Crows, and I was planning to wait to post until I had gotten a bit further along, but this latest Cersei chapter just has me staring at the page in horror at her idiocy!!
I have just finished reading the Cersei chapter where she makes the deal with the High Septon to restore the Faith Militant.
When Jaime calls her "a fool. A beautiful golden fool," he has no idea just exactly how accurate he is at the time, because at that point, she hadn't just legally armed a mob who could possibly rise up against her! She always thinks that she has manueuvered others to get what she wants, but she doesn't have the foresight to realize the possibilities of what could happen down the road.
Up until now she's made a series of bad decisions and choices - one of them being to deny payment to the Iron Bank of Braavos, and being incredibly rude and dissmissive to their envoy. Her arrogance is breathtaking. Her lack of compassion in regards to all the "sparrows" and the victims of war that the High Septon describes is not surprising, however. Cersei is unceasingly mememememe.
She surrounds herself with weak and inexperienced men who she seeks to dominate rather than with strong men whose respect she might earn. Permitting the young admiral to captain the rising new fleet with inexperienced men rather than captains who survived the fires of the Blackwater is incredibly foolish, as even Pycelle tries to point out. She trusts Taena for some bizarre reason, which I will never understand, especially when her paranoia in every other direction is rampant. And her behavior in regards to Tommen just disgusts me - she refuses to teach him statecraft, and she doesn't want him to attend council meetings - she actually sees her young son as a rival for her authority! "The rule was hers; Cersei did not mean to give it up until Tommen came of age. I waited, so can he. I waited half my life."
It's one thing if she intends to rule; it's quite another if she does not even want to equip her son for the day when he must have the same responsiblity. She is so drunk with power, and selfish and grasping in her desire to become her father that she doesn't understand her own responsibility in raising a king. What does she expect Tommen will do when he turn 16 and suddenly has a kingdom to care for? Furthermore, she makes no efforts to improve public opinion toward the Lannisters - allowing Tommen to join Margaery in her regular excursions would go a long way toward popularizing the young king, but instead she's blind to the fact that the Tyrells are well-loved and she and the Lannisters are becoming even more hated than before. She's just as bad as Lysa Arryn, in her own way.
It's very interesting, what Petyr Baelish says of Cersei:"-I might have to remove her from the game sooner than I'd planned. Provided she does not remove herself first." Petyr teased [Sansa] with a little smile. "In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn."
It also makes me wonder just how deep and far his game goes.
Tommen is adorable, though. I had such a grin on my face when I read this line:"Yes, but I am the king. Margaery says that everyone has to do what the king says. I want my white courser saddled on the morrow so Ser Loras can teach me how to joust. I want a kitten, too, and I don't want to eat beets."
Sam
Remind me not to eat lunch while reading about Sam Tarly being seasick! Ugh! I love how Sam sharpens his knife and looks after Gilly to protect her from the sailors who speak ill of her. It's so sad when Sam finds about Jon switching the babies, which goes a long way to explain Gilly's despair. Poor girl! But when they end up on Braavos, destitute, and with Maester Aemon dying, I feel so very sorry for Sam (and Gilly!). I love that he and Arya meet.
Jaime
I realy liked this:No man can choose his brothers, Jaime thought. Give me leave to pick my own men, and the Kingsguard will be great again. Put that baldly, though, it sounded feeble, an empty boast from a man the realm called Kingslayer. A man with shit for honor.
Jaime truly desires to be a better man, but his past is an oily cloak that taints everything he touches. I find it very interesting that when Jaime realizes that Kevan knows about him and Cersei, his first thought is not shame or fear on his own behalf - rather, he is concerned that Cersei knows that Kevan knows, and therefore might try to have Kevan killed to protect her secret. While Jaime has wanted to come clean about it, he has seen how far she has been willing to go to hide the truth from the world, and as a result rejects him, until it suits her purposes. It's so sad that he's realizing now that his great love affair was instead a huge manipulation for Cersei to get what she wanted. It was never really about him for his own sake.
I like this quote:"Of late, Cersei always seemed to have a flagon of wine, she who had once scorned Robert Baratheon for his drinking. He misliked that but these days he seemed to mislike everything his sister did."
The scales are falling from his eyes.
Some other random bits
- Jaime's memory of Aerys raping his wife is horrible.
- I'm fascinated by these stories of Criston Cole, the Kingmaker who brought on the Dance of Dragons by setting Aegon II over Rhaenyra when Viserys I died.
- Euron has a horn that supposedly binds dragons to his will?! Yikes!
- I want to smack Ser Arys Oakheart! What a blinded fool. I can't believe that he was seduced so easily by Arianne, and what is Quentyn up to with the Golden Company? I felt like I missed something there.
- So Petyr has conspired with Ser Lyn Corbray? and he says he's bought Ser Lyn who is "a man of simple tastes...all he likes is gold and boys and killing." Interesting that Petyr refers to boys, particularly after Ser Lyn was making unseemly comments about Sansa: is that part of Ser Lyn's camouflage? Huh.
- Davos the Onion Knight is dead?! Say it ain't so! I liked him.