⚠️WARNING— SA AND DOMESTIC ABUSE ARE BEING HEAVILY DISCUSSED HERE⚠️
⚠️ABANDON ALL HOPE ALL BRAIMES WHO ENTER HERE!!! THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!!⚠️
I genuinely hate how much people enjoy Cersei being domestically abused or gaining weight due to alcoholism. It genuinely irritates me when I see Jaime being painted as a victim more than Cersei, because it’s fundamentally untrue. You can make a (weak) case for Tyrion, maybe… but Jaime? Absolutely not.
Let me get this out of the way IMMEDIATELY. CERSEI IS EVIL. SHE DOES AWFUL SHIT. I KNOW THIS. That does not, however, mean she “deserved it”.
Cersei Lannister is a textbook example of a character being both abuser and victim. Yes this is known. But when I see people giggling about Robert Baratheon smacking Cersei across the face or saying Cersei should’ve just “done her job” and given him a trueborn child, my blood actually boils. Cersei was routinely assaulted by her husband for nearly 20 years and no one cares because she isn’t a perfect victim. She goes into detail describing what he did to her, how much physical pain and actual humiliation she’d endured throughout her marriage, and yet it all seems to be glossed over by braime shippers or Robert and House Stark stans who want to paint Cersei as deserving of being violated and cheated on that way in order to make their GOAT or their ship seem more worthy.
Also, let’s wake this up— Cersei does not physically abuse Jaime, and the fact that I’ve seen that multiple times is actually insane to me. A woman slapping a man (who is taller and stronger than her and can stop their interaction at any given moment) once or twice isn’t abuse, it’s not like she gave him a shiner or took one of his teeth out??? It’s not like she beats him??? I’m well aware that abuse comes in many forms, but we’ve seen MULTIPLE TIMES that Jaime is more than capable of stopping Cersei when he isn’t enjoying something she does. He doesn’t turn into some meek little doe around her.
He stopped her from giving him a bj in the White Sword Tower (he stops her once and she LISTENS by the way), but when he ignores her clear stop sign at the Sept, that’s not SA?? The first time we see Cersei and Jaime together in AGoT, he tells her to “come here and be quiet”. Let’s not pretend like he’s some dainty little princess being kept in shackles by his wicked twin sister. But still, people still say she abuses him and “manipulates him”, which I find laughable. Jaime very easily could have kept his titles and stayed his stupid ass at Casterly Rock. He didn’t because he wanted to stay with Cersei.
And the “manipulation” or “grooming” people speak of so frequently is literally her asking him a simple question, and him giving an answer. Even in ADwD he doesn’t regret it, he never once says that he wishes he’d stayed Tywin’s heir. Cersei is unkind to him after he loses his hand. Of course she is. I’m not denying that. But in what way is that manipulation? She asked him if he wanted her or the Rock, and he said her. Sure, he was a teenage boy, but she was a teenage girl. Pointing out, any difference between them would be openly admitting that Jaime was dumb as a box of rocks (and I’m not talking about his dyslexia so let’s not pretend that’s what this is).
Cersei has said in her POV chapters that Jaime never takes no for an answer when she’s having sex with Taena. I don’t think she was talking about his determination to be better with swordplay. Jaime has been noted to be persistent and forceful, he fantasizes about smashing Cersei’s teeth in and calls her a whore when he hears she cheats on him (mind you he was the side piece for 20 years), it’s abundantly clear that he’s not a teary-eyed lover boy like every single braime I’ve ever seen likes to say. Cersei and Jaime have an incredibly unhealthy dynamic, which isn’t good for either one of them, but let’s not create some black-and-white situation between them. Jaime is very much a medieval man who had the power to make every single choice he did throughout the series, and Cersei was sold and abused and entirely humiliated for years. This is why it always baffles me when people say he’s a “victim”. Jaime had EVERY SINGLE CHANCE to make their dynamic healthier, but he chose to lean into it. He didn’t “revert to his old ways because of Cersei’s toxicity”, he made a deliberate choice to harm the woman he supposedly loved because he was horny.
⚠️⚠️okay! Now we’re getting to the dark part! Please stop reading if detailed accounts of SA bothers you!⚠️⚠️
“Oh!! But Cersei was enthusiastic at the end!!” Well think. THINK. If you’ve tried to tell the man you loved to stop and that now isn’t the time or you're not in the right place but he continues ANYWAY, wouldn’t you say what you have to from that point forward to get him off you?! Trust me, as someone who’s been through this, I’m telling you. That man was a fully grown person with a working brain and critical thinking skills. He just did what he wanted and Cersei had to go through with it.
And then he goes and burns her fucking letter when she writes to him begging for help, all to traipse after a girl half his age (who is wayyy too good for him, btw) through the woods. I really hope Lady Stoneheart gets that fool good— I do NOT want him to be the one who kills Cersei.