The demise of Cersei Lannister was far from anything viewers imagined, or wished, for one of Game of Thrones’ biggest villains. But what did the writers tried to say with making her die the way she did?
Cersei Lannister is without a doubt one of the most memorable characters from Game of Thrones. Some people absolutely despise her while at the same time she has a rather large community of fans you can see around the internet — both mostly agree she was one of the better villains in the show’s history. One of her first scenes, in the very first episode, is her condescendingly extending her hand to Ned, to grant him the great privilege of kissing it. Ever since that moment, fans despised her- though in a good way, since she’s a great villain. While her twin brother Jaime also had a rather similar start with the viewers that changed over time, Cersei’s status as a villian remaind intact until the very ending of the show. Sure, she’s had moments of showing her human side throughout the series, and her unbounded love for her children is one of her most defining qualities, but at the end of the day, she’s always someone you don’t root for. She’s an antagonist, and her interests are almost never aligned with the characters that you want to succeed. …
In celebration of Emmy Night, we decided to take a look back at the record shattering performance of Game of Thrones in the different guilds and awards.
HBO’s biggest hit in history Game of Thrones already concluded over a year ago, but the conversation around the show doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Tonight the Emmy Awards will be given in a virtual conference, and for the first time in a decade without GoT in the mix, giving room for fresh blood like HBO’s Succession and Netflix’s Ozark to flourish. …
The richness of the World of Ice and Fire deliberately encourages the viewer to be extremely invested in it’s universe and characters, and come up with elaborate theories and over-analyzations. Eventually, it seems like the thing that drew so many people to the success of Game of Thrones backfired and served as a key factor to one of the biggest backlash events in entertainment history.
I’ve let the end of Game of Thrones and the online backlash against it stew in my mind for a while. The more I think about the final season the more I appreciate it, despite also becoming more aware of its flaws. The backlash itself is particularly noteworthy in the history of film & TV, comparable to perhaps only The Last Jedi, but I would still say on another level entirely. …
Game of Thrones and the rich world of George R. R. Martin provided us with a variety of complex and multilayered characters. In my opinion, the one that went through the most fascinating personal journey was Jaime Lannister, the infamous Kingslayer.
When Game of Thrones was roughly in the middle of its run, there was a popular joke about a fan telling a new viewer that Jaime is one of his favorite characters, only to be met with disbelief, since that surely didn’t seem like the case back then. During season 1, I don’t think there were many people that liked this guy. He was arrogant, cruel and perhaps even a little bit annoying. Even during his captivity with the Starks in S2 it felt like in every moment you want Catelyn to bash another rock into his head. …
Bran Stark or The Three-Eyed Raven becoming King of Six Kingdoms was probably the most surprising moment in the last season of Game of Thrones. And even book readers were shocked when they heard that this is how George R.R. Martin plans to end his book series. But why Bran? What did the story want to say with it?
If I’m allowed to talk about my personal experience with the story, I must say that I thought that the endgame ruler would be predictable. Either Jon or Daenerys, maybe Sansa or even no one. And when I say no one I don’t mean Arya Stark, but no ruler at all, but separated kingdoms. Over the years there were many memes how Hodor or Hot Pie will end up on the Iron Throne. Game of Thrones was unpredictable show by its nature so it was normal that some people thought that even endgame ruler will be unpredictable, yet I wasn’t one of those people. There are not so many feasible characters for the role right? So you can imagine my shock when I heard leaks that Bran Stark will be the first elected king of Westeros. Wait, what? How? Why? …
The Game of Thrones series finale is probably as unconventional as it can get — but I think that’s exactly what makes it so beautiful and true to the complete story of the show
I remember it clear as day. Exactly one year ago, 05:30 am, the screens blackens for the very last time in a Game of Thrones episode with the HBO static logo while Ramin Djawadi’s beautiful “A Song of Ice and Fire” reaching its crescendo. I remember standing up knowing that a big chapter of my life just ended- it might be a TV show but for many of us it was much more than that. It practically defined many of the things I spent my time doing in the last decade. …
The final episodes of Game of Thrones presented the downfall of the Lannister legacy — and managed to do so in a much more emotionally impactful way than we could have ever imagined
Game of Thrones always knew how to break the hearts of its viewers. Scenes like the Red Wedding, Shireen’s Sacrifice and Jorah’s Death in the battle of Winterfell to name a few, all resonated heavily on our emotions and stuck with us for a lot of time. I never would have imagined though, that the writers will manage to make a good contender for the title of the most heartbreaking scene in the show, at least for me, from the death scene of no other than Cersei Lannister.
Most people would consider Cersei to be a villain of sorts. Speaking in the most superficial terms possible- Cersei Lannister is perhaps the endgame villain of the entire show. I’m sure many people dreamed of many scenarios for her death scene- perhaps one of the Starks taking vengeance for all the hardships she inflicted on them, Jaime Lannister killing her only to reveal he is Arya Stark wearing his face or maybe Daenerys Targaryen roasting her with one of her dragons. The writers of the show however decided to go in a completely different route, and make her death scene rather sympathetic — and one of the saddest moments of the entire show. She dies in the arms of Jaime helplessly while the Red Keep collapsing around them. I’m sure the fact it was paired with Jaime’s death surely helped it be as sad, since Jaime have become a fan favourite for many people throughout the years. However I do think there’s a deeper reason to that — the fact this scene is a tragic ending to the rather unconventional and unique love story of Jaime & Cersei Lannister. …
After building it’s reputation as a show full of tragedies and shocking twists, the final season of Game of Thrones presented us with final tragedy— the tragedy of Daenerys Targaryen
Game of Thrones was always known as a show filled with tragedies. The Red Wedding, Hold the door, Ned’s death and so on, made this show iconic and unique and people loved those scenes. They built Game of Throne’s reputation as a show where anything can happen and even major characters can die. Game of Thrones stayed true to itself, saving the biggest tragedy for the very end — Daenerys’ downfall.
Looking a few seasons back, Robb’s death was indeed shocking and tragic, an event that surely reshaped the television landscape for many shows to come. But the power of the Red Wedding doesn’t necessarily come from the mere shock of it, but it comes from the fact that it completely changed the nature of this tale. During the first 3 seasons, fans thought that The Lannister-Stark War will be in the center of the story, the spine that will hold everything together. And, suddenly Robb was dead. Wait, what this means? …
One of the major factors for the controversy around the final season might be the fact it changes the viewer’s entire perception of many events preceding it.
The ambitious yet ever-divisive final season of Game of Thrones aired a year ago and left some viewers disappointed. Despite being one of the largest and most thought-of and time consuming production efforts in the history of television, some people were left with the notion the writers forgot about the true nature of their characters and messed up a lot of story-arcs. I beg to differ.
The point of this article is not to attack people who disliked the ending, but to show what was, in my opinion, the root of controversy in the last season that made people throw the “bad writing” argument on every eyebrow-raising event. Yeah, one can criticize some things in the writing of the season, but those things existed for every season in the past and yet the reactions were completely different. When viewers start asking stuff like “Why did [character] do that?” or “How could the writers make [character] deviate so much from his 7 seasons arc?”- those question should raise eyebrows on their own self. Like Nikolaj Coster Waldau (who played Ser Jaime Lannister) candidly stated in one of his wonderful reactions post-season 8, accusing David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for lack of interest in landing the show’s ending right is completely unfair- “For anyone to imagine or to think that the two creators of the show are not the most passionate, the greatest, the most invested of all and to for a second think they didn’t spend the last 10 years thinking how they were gonna end it is kinda silly”, he said. The writers dedicated more than a decade from their lives to the show, so perhaps we should consider an entirely different angle as to why all those things happened in the last season. …
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