Game of Thrones – Cersie and Sansa

First off, can I just say that these episodes seem really short. Also, this season feels more like something that needs to be binge watched as opposed to one episode at at time. Having said that, let’s get on with it.

For the past few episodes, people have been drawing a comparison between Sansa’s hairstyle and Cersie’s and I just had a thought about it. We already know about the prophecy that says Cersie will be dethroned by another queen, one who is more beautiful than her, she will take everything from her. So far, the only other queen anywhere near Cersie is Sansa. This is where the hair comes in. We know that the costume designers and hair stylists are meticulous when it comes to crafting the look of every character in the show. Sansa’s hair mirroring Cersie is no accident, nor does it mean that Sansa is turning into her. I think it’s the show runners’ way to drawing a parallel between the two women. They have both been through extremely traumatic events, been betrayed, used and abused but have come out of as very different women. Cersie’s loss of her children, spelled her doom, her children humanised her, kept her grounded. But she turned from Tommen even before he killed himself. She gave up on him when he repeatedly undermined Cersie, his own mother. When she was forbidden from even saying goodbye to Myrcella, Tommen did nothing. All of these little things turned her away from him. Meanwhile, so far, Sansa has only known abuse in one form or another, it is only now, at Winterfell that she has some semblance of control and power over what happens next and her own actions.

Unlike both Dany and Cersie, who rule from high towers and palaces, Sansa walks among her people, seeing them work, getting involved in the little things, while also knowing that it is important to delegate, it is important that the people who work for her, know that she sees their value and trusts them to handle things on their own. Dany is not yet a Queen, not in the real sense and so far both she and Tyrion have been outsmarted and outclassed by Cersie.

We know that Cersie is very likely insane but she has still has her sharp mind, the things she learned from Tywin are still very much part of her. Tyrion never spent much time with Tywin and Dany is so confident about her dragons that she’s never had to think about strategies. And then you have Sansa, someone who lived at King’s Landing and spent a great deal of time with Cersie before her engagement to Joffrey was annulled. She watched Tywin and Tyrion work, she saw the court and the games people played. Even now, she is learning from Little Finger. he’s a little creep but you can see her absorb his counsel when it is sound. In my opinion, the only person who is likely to outsmart Cersie is Sansa.

I believe the other Queen in the prophecy is Sansa becuase of their shared history. They know each other whereas Dany and Cersie are adversaries but they’ve never met. They know of each other but that’s it. Dany hasn’t had anyone from the Lannister house killed and it is the same with Cersie. But Joffrey killed Ned Stark, Tywin organised the massacre that killed both Robb and Catelyn, they set up the Boltons in Winterfell. The Lannisters and Cersie and Joffrey are personally responsible for all the misery that Sansa has suffered. And Cersie believes that Sansa killed Joffrey or helped Tyrion do it.

We’ve seen all three women rule and there are stark similarities between Cersie and Dany. If not for Tyrion, Dany would have sent her forces to King’s Landing and taken it by force, collateral damage be damned. It was Tyrion who stayed her hand. Cersie has no such qualms. she saw a chance to take out all her enemies in one fell swoop and she took it. She didn’t care that she inadvertently also killed her own son. Dany has never lived at KL, she doesn’t care about it or its people. They are not her people. It is not her home. For her, taking the Iron Throne is purely based on power, she wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms, it’s all about her, her quest for the throne, her belief in herself. It’s not really about the people, they don’t feature in her grand plan. I am not saying that she’ll turn evil or is evil, just that they don’t fit, at least not in the prophecy.

Sansa’s hair matching Cersie’s, the Cersie who could occasionally be kind, who was still ruthless and who protected her family at all costs. That’s the part of Cersie in Sansa right now. She’s home and she’s slowly getting her family back and she will fight tooth and nail to make sure that they are safe. Sansa is the perfect foil to Cersie, this is who Cersie could have been had she been less hungry for power.

On a side note, I am inclined to believe that the cancellation of marriage between Joffery and Sansa was possibly one of the rare moments when Cersie was perhaps a little sympathetic to Sansa. Cersie never liked Margaery, she didn’t really care about what happened to her. Contrast that with the time she spent with Sansa, she told her about Joffrey, told her that he would never love her or be gentle with her. In her own way, she was trying to prepare Sansa for what was sure to be a truly horrible marriage. She does none of that with Margaery. Even at Sansa’s wedding to Tyrion, when Joffrey starts going towards Sansa, she tries to stop him and draw his attention to his own betrothed, sitting alone and looking bored and he shrugs her off.

The dynamic between these two women is so complex and layered that it’s fascinating to analyse which is why it would be fitting to see these two women facing off, as opposed to Cersie against Dany.