Whether she’s emerging unscathed from a burning pyre or flying her dragon to a war summit, Daenerys Targaryen is big on grand entrances. When she arrived at the Dragonpit aboard Drogon, it was a jaw-dropping experience for almost everyone there.
But not for Cersei Lannister, who also likes to put on a show and isn’t keen on being one-upped. If she was impressed, she immediately covered it up. Game of Thrones star Lena Headey talked about what was going through Cersei’s mind at this point to Entertainment Weekly:
I think she’s immediately envious because Daenerys is more beautiful and younger than she is and the prophecy says somebody younger and more beautiful will take her place so I’m sure that’s at the forefront of her mind. And Tyrion is her Hand, so she couldn’t be any worse.
Heady is referencing the ominous prophesy of Maggy the Frog, delivered to the young Cersei in a flashback in “The Wars to Come,” the season 5 premiere. “You’ll never wed the prince,” Maggy tells Cersei. “You’ll wed a king … You’ll be queen. For a time. Then comes another — younger, more beautiful — to cast you down and take all that you hold dear … The king will have 20 children, you’ll have three. Gold will be their crowns; gold their shrouds.”
Much of Maggy the Frog’s prophesy has come true, and it haunts Cersei: she didn’t wed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, but rather married King Robert Baratheon. Robert’s whoring produced many illegitimate children, while Cersei had three children sired by her brother Jaime, and all whom died.* And now, a young, beautiful queen has appeared, possibly to cast Cersei down and take all she holds dear. It may already be happening — Cersei has always held Jaime dear (and probably still does, despite her paranoia) and now he’s left her to join the fight against the White Walkers.
EW also asked Headey about Cersei telling Teams Daenerys and Jon Snow that she’d help them to fight the army of the dead when really she intends to let them all kill each other while building up her own armies. “I think her lie will be very shocking,” Headey said. “She’s such a bitch. She’s so unforgiving of everybody.”
We’ll see how the prophesy pans out for crooked Cersei in season 8. Until then, please enjoy Lena Headey’s starring role in this new music video by Kasabian.
“King for a Day.” Cersei knows something about that.
*Cersei mentioned losing a black-haired unnamed infant son to fever while visiting Lady Catelyn Stark early on in season 1, which means she actually bore four children, one of which was probably Robert’s. Cersei mentions the unnamed child again in “The Wolf and the Lion.” The show hasn’t brought him up since, though, which could be an error or just an instance where, in a world with as high an infant mortality rate as this one, families only count the children who live to see childhood. Staff writer Bryan Cogman thinks along those lines. “Maggy’s just speaking of the three official kids who lived and were known, etc,” he told Watchers on the Wall. “The black haired baby was kept quiet.”
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