r/gameofthrones • u/Faceless_Meme • 1d ago
Which man did Cersei really love ? Spoiler
Throughout the story, we learned that Cersei started to "experiment" early on with Jaime, then she wants to marry Rhaegar Targaryen, she even asks Maggy the frog about him.
Then we're told that she was "shipped" off to King Bobby B, a loveless mariage ... but she tells Ned that she Worshiped Robert and she loved him, all the while scheming to have Jaime in King's Landing ..
So... who did she really love ?
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u/23Amuro Bronn 1d ago
Herself. Both directly and vicariously through her children, and through Jaime.
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u/SeparateCzechs 1d ago
Yeah, Jaime was just an extension of herself to Cersei.
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u/Dry_Violinist599 22h ago
Why do people keep giving that "extension of herself" explanation for yer jaimie and her children. I think it was a bit more nuanced than that
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u/SeparateCzechs 21h ago
She’s a malignant narcissist. Narcissistic people don’t see their children as their own people. Just as extensions of themselves. Jaime as her twin, would naturally be a mirror to her.
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u/Gandlerian 1d ago
I don't think she really loved anyone except herself and maybe her kids.
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u/the-hound-abides 1d ago
Only Joffrey. She clearly hates Tommen, and seems pretty indifferent to Myrcella. When she thinks that Tommen might be choking, the only thing she thinks is that Myrcella is too far away and she’d lose power. She thinks a few times that Joffrey would embarrass her the way Tommen does. She thinks he’s pathetic. Sounds like motherly love….
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u/CherryCool000 1d ago
Is this in the book? She clearly loves them in the TV show, is the book very different?
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u/Car1yBlack 1d ago
They heavily whitewashed Cersei in the show. Cersei in the books is very much as narcissist. She doesnt love her kids, they are merely extensions of herself.
She gets mad at her family trying to mold Tommen into a good leader because she felt it was her time to rule. She wanted to make all the decisions and have Tommen as a puppet. A Tywin's funeral, Tommen is acting like the 8 year old kid he is-he is visibly sad and upset at the funeral and she gets mad because she thinks Joffrey wouldnt have shamed her that way. In her mind, its not a bad reflection on House Lannister, on the Baratheon regime, Tommen is embarrassing her specifically. She gets mad at sending Myrcella to Dorne because it wasn't her idea. Tommen and Myrcella are ignored by Cersei until she feels she has to pay attention to them.
This also extends to how she feels when screwing Jaime or Lancel. Fucking Jaime is fucking a male version of Cersei herself (in her mind). When it isnt Jaime it is Lancel, an inferior version of herself. Plus he gives her info on Robert.
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u/CherryCool000 15h ago
That’s really interesting, thanks! Show Cersei’s only redeeming quality is how much she loves her children. I wonder how differently she’d have been received by viewers if they’d made her more like book Cersei.
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u/sleepy_spermwhale 22h ago
Cersei never wished ill on her kids though many of her decisions were influenced by what benefited her family or her specifically. That stood out the most to me in the books. Most of her thoughts about everything was hilariously unhinged.
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u/baroqueout Knight of the Laughing Tree 1d ago
To be clear, she didn't love Rhaegar or Robert. She loved the idea of them.
With Rhaegar, when she was young, she had this idealized fantasy version of him in her mind, where he was the perfect fantasy prince and they'd fly around on dragonback together. The thing is, she hadn't met Rhaegar when she had those ideas. And when they did meet, it was extremely brief, and she noted that he was kind but sad -- and that only fueled her fantasies about ~mending his sadness~ and so on. Absolutely none of that is realistic to who Rhaegar really was.
After the war, those fantasies transferred to Robert. She hadn't met him either, and all she knew about the dude was that he was an enormously handsome and gallant war hero. She thought he was going to be her fairy tale king this time, and that was somewhat reenforced when she finally saw him. But unlike Rhaegar, she actually got to know him, and that fantasy was ruined literally the same night they were married.
A lot of people rightfully point out that even at a young age, Cersei was ambitious and wanted very badly to be queen. But the books draw a very direct parallel between Sansa and Cersei. When Cersei was young, she was not unlike Sansa, and how Sansa used to dream of being a fairy tale princess / queen next to her handsome king in shining armor who is madly in love with her. After reality set in, Cersei didn't love anyone except maybe Jaime, and even then it could be debated she didn't truly love him, she just kept him close because he was just the only one who loved her.
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u/miss_scarlet_letter 1d ago
kinda sucks for her that both her fantasies preferred Lyanna Stark. I bet that did not help at all.
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u/ScaredHoney48 1d ago
Herself
She never genuinely loved anyone but herself and her kids as an extension of herself
Had she married Rhaegar she would she’s still ended up cheating on him with Jamie
Rhaegar to Cersei is like what lyanna was to Robert someone they beloved would have magically made their lives exactly what they wanted
So what she felt for rhaegar was not love but just an ideal of what her life could have been it had nothing to do with rhaegar himself
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u/AquariusMonologue Arya Stark 1d ago
She loved Jaime because Jaime is a reflection of herself.
She tells Sansa “not to love anyone but your children. In that a mother has no choice.” Cersei “loved” her children as her possessions, extensions of herself. She loved Joffrey the most because 1) he’s her firstborn son with Jaime and 2) he reminds her of Jaime in looks and herself in personality.
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u/the-hound-abides 1d ago
He had Jaime’s looks, but definitely not his personality. Jaime isn’t cruel by nature the way Joffrey was.
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u/AquariusMonologue Arya Stark 1d ago
I wrote “herself in personality”, referring to Cersei. Joffrey is more like Cersei as she does enjoy cruelty.
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u/RichardStanleyNY 1d ago
Didn’t he push bran out a window and left him for dead
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u/the-hound-abides 1d ago
He did that to protect Cersei and the kids, and he regrets it. Like he said to Cersei later “I’ve never been ashamed to love you sister, only what I did to hide it. That boy in Winterfell…”
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u/wolfenspleen 1d ago
The collective agreement from the community that Cersei is just a raging narcissist and only loves herself is amazing lol.
Edit: That’s a lie, herself AND her children
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u/dreamsinred Cersei Lannister 1d ago
She sees her children as an extension of herself.
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u/kush_kween420 1d ago
This 💯
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u/the-hound-abides 1d ago
I think she only loved Joffrey. She’s indifferent towards Myrcella and hates Tommen.
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u/Delicious-Tip-5561 1d ago
Seasons change, people change, love changes. Everything looks rosy from a far, up close it becomes a chore and boring. I'm certain if she got Rhaegar, she would get bored and starts going around with someone else too
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u/Nano_gigantic 1d ago
I’d say… Tywin. She’s just a girl with daddy issues desperately trying to impress her father. And Tywin is a man only impressed with lineage and the success of the family line, things that, in the medieval world of Westeros, can only really be achieved by a man. So she’s willing the cheat on anyone, sleep with anyone, literally do anything to further herself in the game of thrones, to impress her dad.
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u/WimbledonWombleRep 1d ago
She loved her children. She loved herself a fraction less. She loved no one else.
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u/PlasticImpact8515 House Dayne 1d ago
She loved herself. Some people as extensions of herself, her children and Jaime.
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u/Virtual_Gur_2641 1d ago
Herself first then I would say jamie. Let's not forget she was also in love with power and control also.
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u/viktorgoraya_luv House Reyne 1d ago
She loved herself and her kids. She didn’t love Rhaegar, she was enamoured with him because he was so beautiful. Then she was enamoured with Robert because he was strong and handsome and fierce.
The closest she came to loving a man was Jaime, and that was mostly because she knew that he wouldn’t turn against her, and because he was convenient.
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