Sullied on Unsullied: Is Cersei getting what she deserves?

After years of watching Cersei Lannister wield her power as Queen to hurt those around her, viewers have lately gotten to see the Queen Mother in a position very foreign her: helpless, in prison, and at the mercy of idealists with whom she is not equipped to negotiate. On this week’s edition of WiC Live, our panelists considered whether Cersei was finally getting what she deserved.

Cersei Lannister is not a good person. She’s responsible for the deaths of Sansa’s wolf Lady and King Robert Baratheon. She had Ros brutally beaten to send a message to Tyrion, and she actively campaigned to have her little brother executed after he was falsely accused of killing her son. She’s manipulative, haughty, and cruel, so it makes sense that people are getting some satisfaction out of seeing her get her comeuppance.

At the same time, comeuppance is a tricky concept on Game of Thrones, a show that seems to have little interest in giving characters what the audience thinks they deserve. Ned, Robb, and Catelyn Stark were noble-hearted warriors whose causes were just—none of them deserved to be killed in the ways they were, yet that’s what happened. On the flip side, the Bolton and Lannister families clawed their way to the top by lying, cheating, and murdering. In a world where the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished, the Boltons and Lannisters would deserve defeat, but Game of Thrones doesn’t take place in that world.

Instead, it takes place somewhere the righteous and the wicked aren’t always easy to tell apart. Cersei has done despicable things, but the show hasn’t ignored the fact that she has redeeming qualities. Namely, she loves her children (that and her cheekbones), something that Lena Headey has done a great job of conveying. Cersei may not always express her love in healthy ways, but she meant it when she told Tommen that she would do anything to keep him from harm in “The Gift,” and it was easy to see her genuine concern for her son when Qyburn told her about Tommen’s increasing seclusion in “Hardhome.”

It’s this dedication to finding the bad in the good and the good in the bad that sets Game of Thrones apart from some other fantasy stories where good and evil are a bit more binary. It’s hard to blame people for engaging in a bit of schadenfreude as they watch Cersei struggle, but it bears remembering that she’s also a scared mother who suffering at the hands of people who are pretty despicable themselves, what with their practice of denying prisoners water until they offer up confessions. A few cells over, is Loras also being denied a drink until he admits his homosexuality?

Depending on how you approach it, the moment when Cersei slurps water off the dungeon floor could be read as tragedy or some seriously black comedy; the pitiable result of self-destructive behavior or a loathsome person finally getting hers. It’s probably a bit of both. As far as Cersei’s character goes, I think Headey and the producers have done a solid job of finding that balance. Let’s hope they keep that up as we head into the home stretch of the season. If A Dance with Dragons is any indication, the final chapter in this drama will have to handled very carefully. 

• Published on 06/02/2015 at 5:02 PM CDT
• Last updated on 06/02/2015 at 5:02 PM CDT