https://archmaester.site/wiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Cersei_LannisterCersei Lannister - Revision history2026-06-15T14:32:09ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.3https://archmaester.site/wiki/index.php?title=Cersei_Lannister&diff=37&oldid=prevArchmaesterjimmie: GoT character article, book-canon ASOIAF (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)2026-06-13T16:26:46Z<p>GoT character article, book-canon ASOIAF (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox character<br />
| image = https://archmaester.site/portraits/got/cersei-lannister.jpg<br />
| name = Cersei Lannister<br />
| title = Queen Regent, Queen Dowager, Lady of Casterly Rock<br />
| house = [[House Lannister]]<br />
| race = Westermen<br />
| status = Alive (as of ''[[A Dance with Dragons]]'')<br />
| region = [[King's Landing]]; [[The Westerlands]]<br />
| born = 266 AC, [[Casterly Rock]]<br />
| died =<br />
| weapon =<br />
| fate = Stripped of power after her walk of atonement; awaiting trial by combat with [[Robert Strong]] as her champion<br />
| actor = Lena Headey<br />
| quote = When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.<br />
}}<br />
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'''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 Baratheon|Joffrey]] and later [[Tommen Baratheon|Tommen]], she wields enormous power, undone in the end by her own paranoia and misjudgment.<br />
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Cersei's three children, [[Joffrey Baratheon|Joffrey]], [[Myrcella Baratheon|Myrcella]], and [[Tommen Baratheon|Tommen]], are not Robert's but the product of her lifelong incestuous affair with her twin brother [[Jaime Lannister|Jaime]], the secret whose exposure by [[Eddard Stark]] helps ignite the [[War of the Five Kings]].<br />
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== Background ==<br />
Cersei was born at [[Casterly Rock]], the elder twin of [[Jaime Lannister|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.<br />
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== Biography ==<br />
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=== ''A Game of Thrones'' through ''A Storm of Swords'' ===<br />
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 Baratheon|Joffrey]] on the [[Iron Throne]] and engineers the downfall and execution of [[Eddard Stark]]. She clashes with her brother [[Tyrion Lannister|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.<br />
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=== ''A Feast for Crows'' ===<br />
Now Queen Regent for her gentle younger son [[Tommen Baratheon|Tommen]], and following the murder of her father [[Tywin Lannister|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 [[House Tyrell|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.<br />
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=== ''A Feast for Crows'' and ''A Dance with Dragons'' ===<br />
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]].<br />
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== Character ==<br />
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.<br />
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== Relationships ==<br />
Cersei's defining relationship is with her twin [[Jaime Lannister|Jaime]], her lover and the father of her children, though by ''A Feast for Crows'' the bond has soured. She despises her brother [[Tyrion Lannister|Tyrion]], blaming him for their mother's death and for Joffrey's murder. Her love for her children, especially Joffrey, is genuine and consuming.<br />
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== Quotes ==<br />
<blockquote>''When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.''</blockquote><br />
<blockquote>''Everyone who isn't us is an enemy.''</blockquote><br />
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== In the television series ==<br />
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 Baratheon|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.<br />
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[[Category:Characters]]<br />
[[Category:Game of Thrones]]<br />
[[Category:House Lannister]]</div>Archmaesterjimmie