Cersei Lannister
| House / Order | House Lannister |
|---|---|
| Race / Culture | Westermen |
| Status | Alive (as of A Dance with Dragons) |
| Origin | King's Landing; The Westerlands |
| Born | 266 AC, Casterly Rock |
| Died | |
| Weapon | |
| Fate | Stripped of power after her walk of atonement; awaiting trial by combat with Robert Strong as her champion |
| Portrayed by | Lena Headey |
Cersei Lannister is the only daughter of Tywin Lannister, the widow of King Robert Baratheon, and a viewpoint character beginning in A Feast for Crows. As Queen Regent for her son Joffrey and later Tommen, she wields enormous power, undone in the end by her own paranoia and misjudgment.
Cersei's three children, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, are not Robert's but the product of her lifelong incestuous affair with her twin brother Jaime, the secret whose exposure by Eddard Stark helps ignite the War of the Five Kings.
Background
Cersei was born at Casterly Rock, the elder twin of Jaime. As a child she visited the witch Maggy the Frog, who prophesied that she would be queen until a younger, more beautiful queen cast her down, that she would have three children who would die, and that the valonqar (the "little brother") would one day choke the life from her. These prophecies haunt Cersei throughout her life. Married to Robert Baratheon for political alliance, she found him a drunken, unfaithful husband who called out the name of Lyanna Stark on their wedding night, and she turned to her brother for love.
Biography
A Game of Thrones through A Storm of Swords
After Jon Arryn discovers the truth of her children's parentage, Cersei has him poisoned. When her husband Robert is killed in a contrived hunting accident, she installs her cruel son Joffrey on the Iron Throne and engineers the downfall and execution of Eddard Stark. She clashes with her brother Tyrion over control of King's Landing and survives the Battle of the Blackwater. Joffrey is poisoned at his wedding, and Cersei, certain Tyrion is guilty, drives his trial.
A Feast for Crows
Now Queen Regent for her gentle younger son Tommen, and following the murder of her father Tywin, Cersei rules increasingly alone, drinking heavily and trusting no one. Convinced that the prophesied "younger queen" is Tommen's wife Margaery Tyrell, she schemes against the Tyrells. To create an instrument against them, she restores the Faith Militant and arms the Faith, a catastrophic miscalculation. The High Sparrow uses that power to arrest both Margaery and, on charges of adultery and treason, Cersei herself.
A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons
Imprisoned by the Faith, abandoned by her allies, and refused aid by an estranged Jaime, Cersei confesses to lesser sins and is forced to atone with a naked "walk of shame" through King's Landing while the smallfolk jeer and pelt her. Broken but unbowed, she returns to the Red Keep and demands trial by combat, championed by the monstrous Robert Strong, widely believed to be the reanimated Gregor Clegane.
Character
Cersei is proud, vain, and fiercely protective of her children, in whom she sees the only people worth loving. She believes herself as capable as any man and resents being denied power for her sex. Yet her judgment is poor: she mistakes ruthlessness for cunning, surrounds herself with flatterers, and her arming of the Faith destroys her. The prophecies of Maggy the Frog drive her to fear and cruelty.
Relationships
Cersei's defining relationship is with her twin Jaime, her lover and the father of her children, though by A Feast for Crows the bond has soured. She despises her brother Tyrion, blaming him for their mother's death and for Joffrey's murder. Her love for her children, especially Joffrey, is genuine and consuming.
Quotes
When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
Everyone who isn't us is an enemy.
In the television series
In HBO's Game of Thrones, Cersei was portrayed by Lena Headey. The series carried her beyond the novels: she ascends the Iron Throne as queen in her own right after Tommen's suicide and destroying the Great Sept of Baelor, and dies in the rubble of the Red Keep alongside Jaime. None of these events have occurred in the books, where she awaits trial by combat.