SHE WANTED A STORM TO MATCH HER RAGE. #lyonwrath. a private, BOOK-BASED, writing blog for CERSEI LANNISTER from grrm's a song of ice and fire.
DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT: incest; domestic abuse; rape; misogyny; abortions & miscarriage; exploration of feudalism, fascism, etc. cersei is a survivor of rape and domestic abuse, which she coped with by having an affair with her twin brother and aborting whatever child her husband happened to get on her while having her brother's children. she is not a good person, she is not a ""perfect victim"", and she is the product of the vitriol misogyny of her feudalistic society. by following this blog, you understand that you will be seeing discussion of these topics here.
BASIC RULES: no god-modding; no character correcting or hate; mutuals only; given the source material, only follow if you are 21+; BOOK-BASED ONLY and skeptical, if not disdainful, of all adaptations; activity will be slow and often consist of much character discussion and theorizing -- i am a huge, genuine fan of a song of ice and fire and grrm, which this blog will reflect; no AI; DO NOT INTERACT IF YOU ARE MAGA OR OTHERWISE SUPPORT TR/UMP.
portrayal notes under cut:
CERSEI IS NOT JAIME'S ABUSER ... or at least not any more than he is also hers. they are codependent and mutually using each other to cope with life within westeros and as tywin's children. if cersei is the embodiment and exploration of misogyny within westeros, then jaime is the exploration of male privilege, which will result in jaime killing her as the valonqar. this expected endpoint of their relationship will color how it is discussed here as a whole.
CERSEI IS NOT THE ""PROBLEM"" IN HER MARRIAGE TO ROBERT ... cersei was abused and raped, repeatedly, by robert for years, while also trying to protect her children from that side of him. she is not a silent, enduring, ""pretty"" victim, but neither is she to blame for her own abuse.
her affair with jaime is not common knowledge and is viewed largely as propaganda during the war of five kings. jon arryn only began suspecting the affair once joffrey, myrcella, and tommen were all old enough to be out of the nursery and among the greater activities of court, which made their uncanny lannister looks too obvious for someone like arryn to ignore.
cersei loves her children as manifestations of her autonomy and love for jaime. she loves them as their own beings, but is always aware that her power, and access to power, is through them.
tywin raised cersei with the expectation of being queen; for as long as cersei can remember, tywin always told her she would be queen, if by marrying first rhaegar targaryen, or then viserys (or rhaegar, again, once elia martell inevitably dies in childbirth), and then, finally, robert after the sack. it's from this that cersei feels entitled to the iron throne despite never having any independent claim whatsoever.
cersei is like tywin: a good courtier but approaches problems too aggressively. this is something that tywin can get away with, as a man, where such behavior is encouraged, with knights at his command, but such aggressiveness is "unseemingly" in a woman, and cersei also has the added disadvantage of never having been educated to be an heir or to be a regent, because it was always expected for her to be someone's wife. combined, along with grief and subsequent paranoia after multiple family members are murdered, results in an inept "reign", but cersei is not, unilaterally, stupid.
jaime being all "who is gonna stop me?" when told he can't be at cersei's bedside during her giving birth and going in anyway is so 🥺 .... I will give him credit for that; the bar may be in hell but he gets credit for that, ajakakak.
part of the ugly tywin/joanna divorce i envision in modern au (specifically developed from when i wrote joanna on-and-off for a while and open to plotting but IS default background for cersei's modern au) ....
because tyrion's birth shatters the illusion of joanna being the "extraordinary woman", post-partum joanna tries to kill herself. the twins witness her walking into the ocean (but it's fine. they're fine) and staying under until tywin has to pull her out. there's another attempt, which they don't witness, which ends with joanna in the hospital. it's after her stay there that she files for divorce .... and tywin drags her over the coals (etc) instead of anything healthy. joanna's mental health is used against her in the custody battle, which results in her not seeing the kids at all in the end and tywin taking everything from her.
but not everything, because there are still some trusts (or stocks or whatever....) in joanna's name that he simply, legally, cannot touch. joanna (re)builds her career as a director in hollywood, which she "put on indefinite hold" after marrying, and builds herself back up in general. she comes out as bisexual and grows as a person; still a lannister, but not as "human-embodiment of the Other" as tywin is.
it's after cersei marries robert that joanna enters their lives again, and ends up inserting herself into it to the point of becoming matriarch all over again. she and tywin do, sort-of, get back together (those extra glasses of wine at christmas, ya know ....) but never remarry and joanna would laugh if it was suggested.
because joanna is still alive, tywin does have a mistress, because what is he, some cuck? this lady "does tywin credit" (i.e: she isn't a twenty-five year old as society would expect of an older, rich, white businessman in entertainment) but is such a nonentity to the kids that it would be hilarious if the lannisters weren't such assholes.
one of the reasons I feel like twow is taking so long (besides ... everything else going on with the franchise) is that twow is meant to close the hard political aspects of the series so ados can focus on the long night.... but grrm's dedication to a certain realism and his complex characters is making that more difficult than he originally planned.
i don't think cersei will blow up KL btw, but I do think she will be blamed for it (and I can very easily see it being the final catalyst to jaime killing her).
cersei needs to be queen in her own power bc she's a lannister and better than everyone but she's a woman so she isn't and being the ruler will prove everyone wrong.
cersei THINKS she's rhaenyra (rightful heir to the throne being denied by malicious parties) but she's actually alicent (grasping for power to put her own blood on the throne) AND YET she's still going to be murdered by her brother like rhaenyra was because being a woman in westeros is hell.
anything and everything. favorites. thoughts on people, on events. what they would do in a certain situation. how things would be different if something had/hadn’t happened. simple questions, complex questions. have at it!
❝ and this is what you want most in life? ❞ ( from joanna )
the green knight starters.
somehow, joanna discovered cersei's little drawing and no amount of cersei telling her it was alysanne and jaehaerys would cause her to believe it the way jaime had; it's clearly herself and prince rhaegar on a dragon. this question feels like a test, but unlike with father, cersei doesn't know what her mother wants to hear.
" father says i am to be queen," she says. she stands at joanna's side, fingers resting on the arm of joanna's chair. emerald gaze never strays, observing every minute flicker of her mother's face; she knows that any displeasing of her mother results in immediate, awful consequences. " every maiden wants to be queen." especially when their king would be the silver prince ! " but i'm a lannister, so i will be. "
something about cersei drawing a picture of her and rhaegar but then claiming it's alysanne and jaehaerys .... cersei wanting to be good queen alysanne but becoming 'aerys with tits' ....
