Cersei”s ‘Underwhelming’ Death?

Published May 17, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey everyone at Shatontv, it”s Amelia again.

So, there was one bit of S8E5 that really had me thinking.. all my friends who watch the show seem to think that Cersei”s death was really bad writing and completely underwhelming and this seems to be a popular viewpoint on the internet as well. It took me a while to realize why I wasn’t as disappointed as everyone else seems to be.. but I think I cracked it on the second watch.

Think about Cersei as a character: one thing we have always known for certain about her is that she loved her children more than anything and would do whatever it took to keep them safe. In this episode, I think we see her really realize that she fucked up on behalf of her unborn child.. just as it”s too late and Dany is burning the Red Keep. She begins to get emotional and we see her begging Jaime because she has finally realized that there is nothing she can do for her child anymore – it is almost certain that they both will be dead before the day”s out.

What I took from Lena”s performance (which was amazing by the way!) was that Cersei is paying not as everyone expected but in true emotional style as she has finally realized that her naivety and denial have ultimately lead to her losing the one thing she cares about now. I think people were expecting a cut-throat, triumphant Petyr-Baelish-or-Walder-Frey style death but this is much more subtle and more suited to her character – and that”s why I still found it gratifying. She is being punished in a way that is truly more hurtful to her that if someone popped up and surprise stabbed her.. she is being given the time to realize the weighty repercussions of her mistakes.

Ultimately, she has finally come to the realization that stubbornness and cruelty can only get you so far and has ended up being the reason for the death of her child. If she had realized what she was up against in Dany sooner and taken one of the peace offerings, there”s a chance the child might have survived, even if she herself didn’t. I think Tyrion would have been fighting for the life of the unborn as the child itself has done nothing wrong.

I just wanted to try and defend the writing of the show for a second, I really believe they were trying to give people what they wanted – a death that was truly painful for a character that pretty much everyone has come to hate.

Thanks for a truly great podcast – I love tuning in and it makes the wait in between episodes go so much faster!

Amelia from England (The very North… almost wildling territory haha)

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