It was bad enough that Cersei was dreadfully underused throughout Season 8. The fierce queen who screamed defiance in the face of family and fate itself went out with a whimper. Where was hedgewitch Maggie’s prophecied valonduar, the “little brother” to wrap his fingers around her neck? Failing that, where was Arya, ticking off the biggest and juiciest name on her list? Failing that, where was the drama?
Those final scenes under King’s Landing stretched logic (and some viewers’ patience) to the extreme.
Wasn’t Jaime literally impaled on Euron’s huge sword? How was he still walking?
This at least, is true to the books where their twins’ bond is costantly stressed. In Book 3, A Storm of Swords, Jaime thinks to himself: “I cannot die while Cersei lives. We will die together as we were born together.”
But why, exactly, did they have to die like that?
Cersie layers on the foreshowing in Book 4, A Feast For Crows: “We will leave this world together, as we once came into it.” But it is another crucial line from the Lannister queen which seals their fate.
Right there in Book 1, A Game of Thrones, Cersei tells Ned Stark: “Jaime and I are more than brother and sister. We are one person in two bodies. We shared a womb together. He came into this world holding my foot, our old maester said.”
The horrible conclusion is that the HBO show killed the twins just for one (admittedly very cool) shot.
Seriously, the roof fell on them, but then Tyrion tunnels into the enormous chamber and we see only a small convenient part of it actually collapsed. Just enough to kill them and bury them in a perfect recreation of that womb.
If the entire foundations of the Red Keep hasd come crashing down on Cersei, symbolising her broken hopes and ambitions, that might have been fitting. But just enough to perfectly create one excellent screengrab smacks of the flawed and retrofitting failings of Season Eight.
Too many things happened in the final season just so something later on would work. Or even just for a cool, illogical visual.
Take last ride of the Dothraki at Winterfell. Yes, it looked amazing when the blades ignited and then were swallowed by darkness. But it seems that was the point. Just a breathtaking (if rather murky) visual which squandered eight years of build-up. Not to mention the fact it was implied that was all of them gone, but suddenly there were hundred more ready to pillage King’s Landing.
Likewise Missandei’s convenient capture, just so so could be killed by Cersei (for no real reason) as an excuse for Daenerys to go mad.
In the end, Cersei’s fate summed up the entire ending, buried ignomiously in the rubble.
