Ah, Cersei Lannister, you truly did deserve better. Sure, you eventually became an irredeemable monster who would burn it all down just to make sure she wasn’t the only one who lost, but your hardcore heel turn and eventual demise was all too convenient and contrived. Cersei’s future misery was foretold by Maggy the Frog when she was just a girl, and that shadow forever loomed over her life and decisions. She knew she would be queen, but was supposed to be married to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, the then-heir to the throne. Unfortunately her own brother/lover Jaime killed King Aerys II and Robert Baratheon became king and her husband, which was worse than a death sentence for the ambitious, vivacious young Cersei.
Headey injected nuance into her performance where she could, and there are some brilliant moments where Cersei has moments of relatability or tenderness. In the season 2 episode “Blackwater,” she helps young Sansa soothe her nerves with wine and contemplates poisoning her children to save them from the horrors an invading Stannis might unleash upon them. Her children were the thing that she lived for and would die for, knowing full well she was destined to outlive all three of them. (Thanks, Maggy!) In the end she was reduced to an archvillain, a smirking sliver of her former self, and I can only pray that the same doesn’t happen to Alicent.
