Cersei Lannister is basically one bad day away from losing it entirely.
Her grasp on sanity, like her grasp on the Iron Throne, is as tenuous as the strained relationship between her and her lover/brother Jaime. For the briefest of moments during the Game of Thrones season finale, many of us thought she had taken her first wise step by agreeing to march her armies north and help humanity survive alongside the Stark and Targaryen forces — but it turns out that was an ill-conceived lie!
Many fans are so skeptical about every move she makes that they don’t even believe she’s as pregnant as she says she is.
I am not buying that Cersei is pregnant
— Luke Lyons (@ljlyons) August 28, 2017
The notion that Cersei would fake her pregnancy makes more sense than it should. For one thing, she uses her pregnancy to keep Jaime close right as he’s beginning to drift away. In addition, she slyly allows Tyrion to believe she’d work with her political opponents to help protect her unborn child.
After the Stark “feud” in Winterfell over the last several weeks, we know the show has no problem leaving the audience in the dark about a character’s true motives for dramatic purposes. There seem to be many advantages to being pregnant and Cersei has no moral compass to stop her from lying about it.
Maybe she really is just making it all up!
interesting #GoT theory; Cersei not really pregnant but using this to manipulate Tyrion and Jamie. She was so obvious touching her belly…
— Rachel Wied (@RShapiro815) August 28, 2017
Showrunner David Benioff weighed in on the controversy in a behind-the-scenes video:
It’s a little bit of a poker game they’re playing there because it seems like she’s bluffing and he reads her bluff, but she wanted him to read her bluff — this was all part of her game. Cersei’s become quite good at playing this game. She wasn’t in power but she was on the edges of power, and she learned how to operate in that environment. She plays Tyrion pretty beautifully here.
Fyi everyone, Cersei is not pregnant. The witch told her 3kids & all will die. Guessing this was her way of getting Tyrion back on her side
— تمنا (@lifeastam) August 28, 2017
Finale director Jeremy Podeswa shared his perspective on Cersei’s behavior:
I believe that she is really pregnant. I think she’s capable of any kind of treachery, but I feel that the fact that she has a new life within her does give her a different kind of core strength now, and even the strength to let Jaime go, for example, because she’s not truly alone anymore.
https://twitter.com/_pushx/status/901996890748850176
Rumors are circulating that perhaps Tyrion cut a deal with Cersei in exchange for military support, but Podeswa doesn’t think Tyrion would betray Dany so quickly.
He was quick to note, however:
One never knows with this show, how it’s going to unfold. But I feel like at this moment in the story, [Tyrion’s] devoted to [Dany], and his goals are her goals. But I think the more that she acts independently, the less of a role he has to play in shaping all those things, and so where that ends up going in the future, only Dan and David know. It could go either way, I would say
https://twitter.com/RJaiks/status/902033548999348224
One thing is certain: Cersei Lannister is as fascinating now as she was when we first met. We’ll keep tuning it to watch, always hoping she gets what she deserves but also, deep deep down, rooting for her to show everyone what she’s made of.
Podeswa had this to say about the Lannister Queen:
What’s so great about Lena [Headey] is she is never a simple villain. In all of this we see her humanity, and when we find out that she’s going to have a baby again, I think part of us is hoping that this is transformative for her. Every character in the show does have that kind of complexity, but in this final episode, we see so much of the complexity of who she is and nothing is ever at face value with her.
https://twitter.com/jukutundis/status/898981513248727040
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