So, why exactly (book)Cersei loves Joffrey so much, to the point of being furious when Robert hits him for gutting a pregnant cat? I get that she's a mother and all, but she has to be at least somewhat aware how fucked up that was and explain it to him?
She does not have that awareness. When Cersei recounts the incident, she describes it as “some mischief with a cat.” (Tyrion VI, ASoS) Robert hit Joffrey so hard that he knocked out two of Joffrey’s baby teeth; I don’t think Cersei’s at all unreasonable for the being angry bit, just about describing Joffrey’s actions as “mischief.”
See also Cersei and Joffrey post-Red Wedding, the incident that led to a broader discussion of Joffrey’s cruelty.
“They should all be put to the sword,” Joffrey declared suddenly. “The Mallisters andBlackwoods and Brackens… all of them. They’re traitors. I want them killed, Grandfather. Iwon’t have any generous terms.” The king turned to Grand Maester Pycelle. “And I want RobbStark’s head too. Write to Lord Frey and tell him. The king commands. I’m going to have itserved to Sansa at my wedding feast.”
“Sire,” Ser Kevan said, in a shocked voice, “the lady is now your aunt by marriage.”
“A jest.” Cersei smiled. “Joff did not mean it.”
“Yes I did,” Joffrey insisted. “He was a traitor, and I want his stupid head. I’m going to make Sansa kiss it.”
Cersei put a protective hand on her son’s shoulder. “Let the dwarf make all the threats he likes, Joff. I want my lord father and my uncle to see what he is.”
Lord Tywin ignored that; it was Joffrey he addressed. “Aerys also felt the need to remind men that he was king. And he was passing fond of ripping tongues out as well. You could ask Ser IlynPayne about that, though you’ll get no reply.”
“Ser Ilyn never dared provoke Aerys the way your Imp provokes Joff,” said Cersei. “You heardhim. ‘Monster’ he said. To the King’s Grace. And he threatened him…”
That’s the incident with the cat writ large and all the more politically troublesome, and it’s clear that Cersei has no clue that this is messed up. If Tywin and Kevan Lannister think you’re going too far with your cruelty…
Cersei’s got a very limited and warped view of what strength is. It’s a big part of her establishing thought processes in AFFC.
This might be the work of Stannis Baratheon, through some catspaw. It could well be the prelude to another attack upon the city. She hoped it was. Let him come. I will smashhim, just as Father did, and this time he will die. Stannis did not frighten her, no more than MaceTyrell did. No one frightened her. She was a daughter of the Rock, a lion.
“No one is to enter or leave without my permission,” she told them. The command cameeasily to her. My father had steel in his voice as well.
Within the tower, the smoke from the torches irritated her eyes, but Cersei did not weep, nomore than her father would have. I am the only true son he ever had.
Should I scream and tear my hair?They said Catelyn Stark had clawed her own face to bloody ribbons when the Freys slew herprecious Robb. Would you like that, Father? she wanted to ask him. Or would you want me to bestrong?
- all from Cersei I, AFFC
But you just have to go back to the Starks to see how shallow this notion of strength is.
Bran thought about it. “Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?”
“That is the only time a man can be brave,” his father told him.
And the reader knows perfectly well that Catelyn didn’t just claw her face to ribbons and cry during the Red Wedding, but tried to bargain for Robb’s life, crossbow bolt in her back and all.
To Cersei, strength is “smashing” people, quashing any and all disagreement by force, and never being disgracefully emotional. She’s got “strong” confused with “vicious.” Forget establishing thought processes, this is one of her most infamous establishing character moments.
The queen regarded him coolly. “I had not thought you so niggardly. The king I’d thought to wed would have laid a wolfskin across my bed before the sun went down.”
Robert’s face darkened with anger. “That would be a fine trick, without a wolf.”
“We have a wolf,” Cersei Lannister said. Her voice was very quiet, but her green eyes shone with triumph.
Yeah, she sure showed the Starks. They were quaking in their boots after that one, rather than keeping in mind that Cersei’s contemptible and cruel and needed opposing. Afraid of her, yes, but brave with it.
With this confusion between strong and cruel, she thought Joffrey - yes, Joffrey - was strong.
Tommen did as he was bid. His meekness troubled her. A king had to be strong. Joffrey would have argued. He was never easy to cow.
Tommen’s eyes were filled with tears. “Weep quietly,” she told him, leaning close. “You are a king, not a squalling child. Your lords are watching you.” The boy swiped the tears away with the back of his hand. He had her eyes, emerald green, as large and bright as Jaime’s eyes had been when he was Tommen’s age. Her brother had been such a pretty boy … but fierce as well, as fierce as Joffrey, a true lion cub.
Joffrey would have seen through [Margaery’s] schemer’s smile and let her know her place, but Tommen was more gullible. She knew Joff was too strong for her, Cersei thought, remembering the gold coin Qyburn had found.
She doesn’t love Joffrey in spite of his cruelty, she loves him because of it. She is neither willing nor able to correct this behaviour.
“The king is my son!” Cersei rose to her feet.
“Aye,” her uncle said, “and from what I saw of Joffrey, you are as unfit a mother as you are a ruler.”
