Cersei II

Cersei Lannister (Artwork by Amoka)

Cersei restlessly paces her cell. She was unable to sleep the whole night, frightened of the things to come. She has decided to face it as bold as she can, remembering an episode from her youth when she faced a lion in a cage where Jaime dared not to. She muses about Jaime, wishing he was here, and hoping that she reaches the Red Keep soon. When dawn finally breaks, some septas come into the cell and shave her completely. When Cersei asks for sandals, they are denied to her. She is then put into a white septa's robe and ushered outside, where a huge crowd has gathered. A knight of the Faith Militant introduces himself as Ser Theodan and commands her escort through the city. Memories of Eddard's execution wash over here as she stands the exact same spot.

The masses that assembled to watch her walk of shame are poor, ragged and filthy. The septas announce her and her crimes, and she has to think of Tytos' Lannisters consort, who had to walk the same walk of shame at the command of Tywin. She has to get out of her robe, and completely naked, freezing in the cold winds, she commences her walk through the city. The streets are filthy, and she is in danger to slip several times and does so once or twice. While her escorts clears a path through the people who cry insults at her and throw rotten vegetables, she longs for Jaime, who, she is certain, would have cut down the rabble in an instant.

When the people begin to insult her appearance, her self-confidence shatters. Suddenly, she imagines to see Meggy the Frog in her path, quoting her prophecy at her. Tears are running over her face, she tries to cover herself, runs, stumbles, crawls until she is in the Red Keep. There, Kevan orders her to be covered, and a giant of a knight in kingsguard clothing carries her away. Qyburn comes to her, introducing the knight as her champion Robert Strong, having taken a vow of silence until he destroyed all her enemies. Cersei, dizzy, confused and hallucinating, is just glad and fades away.

This chapter is really short, but it has one punch for the reader and Cersei alike. Who would have thought that the proud queen, villain of four-and-a-half books, would end like this? Running naked through King's Landing, thrown filth at, insulted and tumbling at the edge of the abyss of insanity? As so often, Cersei is a victim of her own judgement. She thought that the walk concerned only her pride, and that she could weather it, but the fate of her grandfather's whore should have taught her a lesson. A person naked is a common person. It is a lesson that Doran explained earlier about the water gardens, a realization that has come to the old queen Daenerys already. It's lost to Cersei until it is too late. When she finally realizes it, she snaps, making it even worse by trying to cover herself, running, stumbling, crying. She destroys her image as hard, beautiful queen for good her. Whatever future lies ahead of her in the coming novels, it will most certainly be changed drastically. Like Jaime lost all he was with his swordhand, Cersei lost all she was with this walk of shame. They both are half people after. Knowing Cersei, however, it won't be a pleasant transformation here.

At the end of the chapter, we meet Cersei's new champion. The evidence found in "A Feast for Crows" suggested that Qyburn had the Mountain somewhere down in his cells, transforming him into something we don't know yet, but now we have almost certainty. Who, if not Gregor, should this knight be? Ser Robert Strong, my ass, the contempt for their own evidence is there even in things like the alias of this particular beast. Everyone who has eyes can see what this knight is, has to be, and what an obvious sham is conducted here. The question is, will anyone? Kevan's death in the Epilogue suggests that Cersei comes back into power, and she was never one for being too prudent in these matters.

As to side notes, we can see Cersei's false understanding of courage in the episode about the lion in the cage. She thinks that she would make a better fighter than Jaime for not fearing the lion and putting her hands through the bars, but in truth, it's fear that makes a fighter efficient. Cersei would be a brutish berserk and die quickly against a better man, since her fearlessness would cloud her judgement as it tends to do even so. Second, Cersei herself thinks about Tommen as "a good king, he does as he's told". It's a repeatedly stated phrase about kings. The first time we heard it being said by Bronn to Tyrion. Third, Cersei casually remembers Littlefinger trying to gain Sansa's hand after Eddard was captured. That confirms the assessments of his character stating that he is obsessed with her. Last, Cersei thinks that women are most cruel when other women are concerned, which seems to be a correct statement. Even today, it is startlingly oftentimes women who denounce "bitches" instead of men. Strange.