SFF Chronicles News
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23rd June 2013 03:36 PM
Meredith
The truly wonderful thing about the HBO show “Game of Thrones” is its ability to remain true to nearly all of the characters and the source material of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series. Everyone knows that creator and author George R. R. Martin has a very active, hands-on role in the HBO series (hereon “series”), scripting several of the episodes himself and having a tremendous amount of ‘say’ in the series overall. As fans of the ASOIAF book series (shortened to “books”), that knowledge came as huge relief to most of us. Fans knew the integrity of ASOIAF was not just in safe hands, but in the hands of the creator himself and those he deemed worthy enough to take his brainchild and make it grow in a whole new way.
There are a lot of things that can be done in a television series that can’t be done in books, especially true in a series like this where, in the books, we only get POV chapters, which leaves any character interactions not featured in those chapters open for interpretation. Characters now freed from the restriction of POV can be fleshed out. We as an audience get to see what happens with these non-POV characters, how they interact with others beyond a given narrator’s limited view, what makes them who they are, what drives them to do what they do.
These few are characters that have benefited tremendously from this transition or have fallen victim to changes that seem inconsequential, superficially, but actually change the character’s inherent nature. I will be examining several of these characters over the next few weeks.
The first of these is Cersei Lannister: Victim.
I am a (book) Cersei fan. Let me explain: I love hating Cersei and I love reading how awful she is through anyone’s POV and especially her own. As a Cersei fan, I had really high hopes for seeing this scheming bitch come to life by the tremendously talented Lena Heady, whom I adore.
In the books, Cersei is portrayed as a manipulative, conniving, scheming, power hungry woman who’s willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. She’s not meant to be sympathetic. This is not to say that she is 100% good or 100% evil; the best heroes have flaws and the best villains have redeeming qualities. Cersei Lannister is a villain, and she does have good qualities, such as her loyalty to her [natural] family and how fiercely she loves her children. Do these qualities make her redeemable? Do they make her sympathetic? That depends entirely on how her “villainish” actions are viewed.
In S1: E5, “The Wolf and the Lion,” there is a scene that I really did not like, feeling that it set up an element of series Cersei that would have unpleasant ramifications later on.
In it, Robert and Cersei sit down in Robert’s quarters for a chat. First they discuss the Daenerys issue, but the conversation shifts to their failed marriage. Anyone who loves this scene defends it, saying that it gives Cersei “needed depth” and makes her “more relatable.” What unsettled me so much about this scene was that it was in direct opposition to something Cersei makes clear later in the books, that she never wanted to give Robert the satisfaction of knowing that he hurt her (by calling out Lyanna’s name on their wedding night) or why she hated him. Spite is part of what drives her, so she never had any desire to discuss this; she was content with her hate. This seems like a little thing that I really shouldn’t get that annoyed about, but it didn’t sit right with me.
In S2:E1 “The North Remembers,” Cersei confronts Joffrey about killing Robert’s bastards after hearing the rumor about his parentage; she doesn’t own up to the rumors and we the audience know that Joffrey is the one killing his half-siblings. This is the first major deviation from book Cersei, and here’s why it’s a problem: Giving the “murdering of the bastards” to Joffrey in the series makes him look evil, which he is, but there’s already plenty (and more to come) to suggest that, and it also damages a really important element of Cersei’s character. Joffrey states that he believes this rumor about Cersei’s and Jaime’s incestuous relations is a lie and then turns the conversation around to taunt his mother. Nothing suggests that it even occurs to him there could be some truth to it. He doesn’t believe the rumor, so these ******* siblings are no threat to him, and he doesn’t do the killing himself so he gets nothing out of this; these ******* children would simply be beneath his notice.
On the other hand, Cersei needs to get rid of Robert’s bastards because she knows that the “rumors” are true. The only way she can protect her children, her foremost concern, is by getting rid of any evidence that could possibly suggest Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen aren’t Robert’s. It’s not just a matter of claim to the throne; if anyone were to prove that Robert’s trueborn children aren’t so true, it makes Cersei an adulteress and a traitor. She and Jaime both lose their heads and gods only know what would happen to their brood. This is a matter of life and death, literally, for Cersei and her family.
By making Joffrey responsible, Cersei comes off as helpless, unable to control her wild son. The fact is that while she is unable to control her evil son, as evidenced by Ned Stark’s beheading, she is also extremely calculated and cunning. Cersei does this awful thing (murdering all these innocents) but she does it out of necessity. The only reason she feels a need to go after Robert’s bastards now is because Stannis is searching for said bastards in order to oust her and hers from the throne, and their very lives are on the line.
The second incident that book Cersei is responsible for that is changed to series Joffrey instead is the attempted murder of Tyrion in the Battle of the Blackwater. In S3:E4 “And Now His Watch Has Ended,” Tyrion speculates with Varys on who sent Mandon Moore to kill him; Varys informs him that all his sources point to Cersei, but it’s not something he can solidly confirm. In S3:E6 “The Climb,” Tyrion confronts Cersei about this; Cersei looks rather shamefaced, leading Tyrion to riddle out that it was Joffrey who wanted him dead.
Once again, this comes down to character motivation. Yes, Joffrey hates his ugly impish uncle; Tyrion has the gall to discipline him where no one else ever dared, but Joffrey has not demonstrated the kind of foresight necessary to take action of this nature against Tyrion.
Cersei however has plenty of reason to want Tyrion dead, with no legal way to go about doing it. She fancies herself her father’s daughter, that she has inherited all of his wisdom, cunning, strength, etc. She was dealt an unfair hand being born a woman, something she spends her life trying to overcome. Cersei is power hungry. She wants to rule. Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, is off warring, which leaves Cersei to rule all on her own, a fact she could not be happier about. Then in comes little brother Tyrion, who intends to be the Hand that rules with the king’s own voice. This throws all of Cersei’s plans into a tailspin. She spends most of Clash of Kings clashing with her brother on ruling the realm, getting angrier and more frustrated every time she’s outmaneuvered by him. Everything she does Tyrion undoes or undermines. He is an active obstacle because he will not let her rule the realm she believes is hers to rule; as such, he must be eliminated. Because Tyrion is Hand of the King, even if only in the interim, she can’t believably fabricate treason charges that would stick; even if she could, she still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because Tyrion is there on Tywin’s authority, and not even she would think of incurring her father’s wrath. In order to regain the actual rule of the Seven Kingdoms, she has to eliminate Tyrion some other way, and having him cut down in battle is an excellent way to do it. Killed in battle is killed in battle, there’s nothing suspicious about it. Tyrion would be dead, out of the way, and she would be free to rule the realm all on her own.
Cersei has a lot to gain by Tyrion’s death, while Joffrey stands to gain nothing, especially when denied the pleasure of doing it himself.
These changes also alter the setup and execution for things yet to come. In A Feast For Crows, Cersei finally gets POV chapters, and we discover, through her own thoughts, just how contemptible she really is. The depth of the disdain she feels for those she finds incompetent, which is nearly everyone but herself, is really quite astonishing. Even more staggering are the lengths she goes to to get rid of Margaery Tyrell. Turning poor, distraught Falyse Stokeworth over to Lord Qyburn for his “experiments” is truly horrific because she knows the nature of those experiments. Cersei does this both because Lady Falyse has *”failed” her and to guarantee her silence. If series Cersei wasn’t the one responsible for slaughtering Robert’s bastards and trying to get Tyrion out of the way, then how would she be capable of the deeds yet to come?
Why do these changes damage Cersei’s character? Because these things, these actions, are the very essence of who she is. Who she is is what makes her interesting. Cersei Lannister is unapologetically ruthless. She will do whatever it takes to protect herself and her children, and she stop at nothing to get what she wants. Is she evil? That’s a subjective question and one not easily answered. Is she a villain? Yes, without a doubt. The changes made in the series have watered down the nature of Cersei’s character, made her less than what she is, a villain we love to hate.
Meredith
The truly wonderful thing about the HBO show “Game of Thrones” is its ability to remain true to nearly all of the characters and the source material of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series. Everyone knows that creator and author George R. R. Martin has a very active, hands-on role in the HBO series (hereon “series”), scripting several of the episodes himself and having a tremendous amount of ‘say’ in the series overall. As fans of the ASOIAF book series (shortened to “books”), that knowledge came as huge relief to most of us. Fans knew the integrity of ASOIAF was not just in safe hands, but in the hands of the creator himself and those he deemed worthy enough to take his brainchild and make it grow in a whole new way.
There are a lot of things that can be done in a television series that can’t be done in books, especially true in a series like this where, in the books, we only get POV chapters, which leaves any character interactions not featured in those chapters open for interpretation. Characters now freed from the restriction of POV can be fleshed out. We as an audience get to see what happens with these non-POV characters, how they interact with others beyond a given narrator’s limited view, what makes them who they are, what drives them to do what they do.
These few are characters that have benefited tremendously from this transition or have fallen victim to changes that seem inconsequential, superficially, but actually change the character’s inherent nature. I will be examining several of these characters over the next few weeks.
The first of these is Cersei Lannister: Victim.
I am a (book) Cersei fan. Let me explain: I love hating Cersei and I love reading how awful she is through anyone’s POV and especially her own. As a Cersei fan, I had really high hopes for seeing this scheming bitch come to life by the tremendously talented Lena Heady, whom I adore.
In the books, Cersei is portrayed as a manipulative, conniving, scheming, power hungry woman who’s willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. She’s not meant to be sympathetic. This is not to say that she is 100% good or 100% evil; the best heroes have flaws and the best villains have redeeming qualities. Cersei Lannister is a villain, and she does have good qualities, such as her loyalty to her [natural] family and how fiercely she loves her children. Do these qualities make her redeemable? Do they make her sympathetic? That depends entirely on how her “villainish” actions are viewed.
In S1: E5, “The Wolf and the Lion,” there is a scene that I really did not like, feeling that it set up an element of series Cersei that would have unpleasant ramifications later on.
In it, Robert and Cersei sit down in Robert’s quarters for a chat. First they discuss the Daenerys issue, but the conversation shifts to their failed marriage. Anyone who loves this scene defends it, saying that it gives Cersei “needed depth” and makes her “more relatable.” What unsettled me so much about this scene was that it was in direct opposition to something Cersei makes clear later in the books, that she never wanted to give Robert the satisfaction of knowing that he hurt her (by calling out Lyanna’s name on their wedding night) or why she hated him. Spite is part of what drives her, so she never had any desire to discuss this; she was content with her hate. This seems like a little thing that I really shouldn’t get that annoyed about, but it didn’t sit right with me.
In S2:E1 “The North Remembers,” Cersei confronts Joffrey about killing Robert’s bastards after hearing the rumor about his parentage; she doesn’t own up to the rumors and we the audience know that Joffrey is the one killing his half-siblings. This is the first major deviation from book Cersei, and here’s why it’s a problem: Giving the “murdering of the bastards” to Joffrey in the series makes him look evil, which he is, but there’s already plenty (and more to come) to suggest that, and it also damages a really important element of Cersei’s character. Joffrey states that he believes this rumor about Cersei’s and Jaime’s incestuous relations is a lie and then turns the conversation around to taunt his mother. Nothing suggests that it even occurs to him there could be some truth to it. He doesn’t believe the rumor, so these ******* siblings are no threat to him, and he doesn’t do the killing himself so he gets nothing out of this; these ******* children would simply be beneath his notice.
On the other hand, Cersei needs to get rid of Robert’s bastards because she knows that the “rumors” are true. The only way she can protect her children, her foremost concern, is by getting rid of any evidence that could possibly suggest Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen aren’t Robert’s. It’s not just a matter of claim to the throne; if anyone were to prove that Robert’s trueborn children aren’t so true, it makes Cersei an adulteress and a traitor. She and Jaime both lose their heads and gods only know what would happen to their brood. This is a matter of life and death, literally, for Cersei and her family.
By making Joffrey responsible, Cersei comes off as helpless, unable to control her wild son. The fact is that while she is unable to control her evil son, as evidenced by Ned Stark’s beheading, she is also extremely calculated and cunning. Cersei does this awful thing (murdering all these innocents) but she does it out of necessity. The only reason she feels a need to go after Robert’s bastards now is because Stannis is searching for said bastards in order to oust her and hers from the throne, and their very lives are on the line.
The second incident that book Cersei is responsible for that is changed to series Joffrey instead is the attempted murder of Tyrion in the Battle of the Blackwater. In S3:E4 “And Now His Watch Has Ended,” Tyrion speculates with Varys on who sent Mandon Moore to kill him; Varys informs him that all his sources point to Cersei, but it’s not something he can solidly confirm. In S3:E6 “The Climb,” Tyrion confronts Cersei about this; Cersei looks rather shamefaced, leading Tyrion to riddle out that it was Joffrey who wanted him dead.
Once again, this comes down to character motivation. Yes, Joffrey hates his ugly impish uncle; Tyrion has the gall to discipline him where no one else ever dared, but Joffrey has not demonstrated the kind of foresight necessary to take action of this nature against Tyrion.
Cersei however has plenty of reason to want Tyrion dead, with no legal way to go about doing it. She fancies herself her father’s daughter, that she has inherited all of his wisdom, cunning, strength, etc. She was dealt an unfair hand being born a woman, something she spends her life trying to overcome. Cersei is power hungry. She wants to rule. Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, is off warring, which leaves Cersei to rule all on her own, a fact she could not be happier about. Then in comes little brother Tyrion, who intends to be the Hand that rules with the king’s own voice. This throws all of Cersei’s plans into a tailspin. She spends most of Clash of Kings clashing with her brother on ruling the realm, getting angrier and more frustrated every time she’s outmaneuvered by him. Everything she does Tyrion undoes or undermines. He is an active obstacle because he will not let her rule the realm she believes is hers to rule; as such, he must be eliminated. Because Tyrion is Hand of the King, even if only in the interim, she can’t believably fabricate treason charges that would stick; even if she could, she still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because Tyrion is there on Tywin’s authority, and not even she would think of incurring her father’s wrath. In order to regain the actual rule of the Seven Kingdoms, she has to eliminate Tyrion some other way, and having him cut down in battle is an excellent way to do it. Killed in battle is killed in battle, there’s nothing suspicious about it. Tyrion would be dead, out of the way, and she would be free to rule the realm all on her own.
Cersei has a lot to gain by Tyrion’s death, while Joffrey stands to gain nothing, especially when denied the pleasure of doing it himself.
These changes also alter the setup and execution for things yet to come. In A Feast For Crows, Cersei finally gets POV chapters, and we discover, through her own thoughts, just how contemptible she really is. The depth of the disdain she feels for those she finds incompetent, which is nearly everyone but herself, is really quite astonishing. Even more staggering are the lengths she goes to to get rid of Margaery Tyrell. Turning poor, distraught Falyse Stokeworth over to Lord Qyburn for his “experiments” is truly horrific because she knows the nature of those experiments. Cersei does this both because Lady Falyse has *”failed” her and to guarantee her silence. If series Cersei wasn’t the one responsible for slaughtering Robert’s bastards and trying to get Tyrion out of the way, then how would she be capable of the deeds yet to come?
Why do these changes damage Cersei’s character? Because these things, these actions, are the very essence of who she is. Who she is is what makes her interesting. Cersei Lannister is unapologetically ruthless. She will do whatever it takes to protect herself and her children, and she stop at nothing to get what she wants. Is she evil? That’s a subjective question and one not easily answered. Is she a villain? Yes, without a doubt. The changes made in the series have watered down the nature of Cersei’s character, made her less than what she is, a villain we love to hate.
