Because she is cruel—the cruelest, really—it’s easy to forget just how unkind life has been to Cersei Lannister: Her mother died in childbirth with her youngest brother. Her father gave away her daughter, who was later killed in her adopted city. Her eldest son was poisoned in front of her eyes on his wedding day. Her youngest brother killed her father, her youngest son died of suicide. When Cersei was young, she was wed to a boorish, unfaithful husband—forced to live in a loveless political marriage. Despite being the most capable Lannister, society gave her no power, no lands, no titles of any worth. She was a woman who could have been a powerful leader trapped in a patriarchal society. In one of the most controversial moments of Game of Thrones, she was raped by her younger brother and longtime lover, Jaime. At the end of Season Seven Jaime—who supported her in her most evil moments—abandoned her to ride North and join her enemies.
George R.R. Martin has always loved wordplay. And when they call Cersei the Mad Queen, it's not just because of her unhinged behaviour—it's because anger defines her. And while we won’t know Cersei's ultimate fate until Game of Thrones ends in May, fans seem to agree that she's doomed to go the way of her children. Even Cersei would agree with that prediction—she's known it since she was a young woman.
In the first episode of Season Five, Game of Thrones's first flashback shows a young Cersei visit a fortune teller named Maggy the Frog. There, Cersei hears a prophecy that influences the rest of her life. Maggy tells her that she will be be queen, but only until a younger, more beautiful one comes to take her throne. This part of the prophecy dictates Cersei's hatred—and eventual murder—of Margery Tyrell and everyone else in the Sept of Baelor. Maggy tells young Cersei that she will have three children who will die. In the book—a section of the prophecy removed from the show—it also says that she will die at the hands of a little brother. Since then, Cersei has believed it’ll be Tyrion who blights her, and given his new position in Dany’s ranks, it’s easy to see why. But that’s also why it’s easy to see how the show would favour a more surprising outcome: death by Jaime, her younger twin brother and former lover.
Fan theories favor two ways that this might happen: One, Jaime actually turns on her and she dies at his hand (literally, one hand!). Two: Arya wears Jaime’s face while finally crossing Cersei’s name off her kill list.
Jaime killing Cersei is a poetic conclusion to both character arcs. The Kingslayer would have begun his run taking down the Mad King and ended it by eliminating the Mad Queen, redeeming himself in the eyes of anyone left standing. Now that Jaime has joined the opposing side of his sister, this seems bound to happen.
“The tragedy of Cersei will be that she spent her whole life fearing, hating and being paranoid about the little brother she thought would kill her,” one fan pointed out on Reddit, “but in the end it turns out to be the brother who she thought loved her.”
But this is a show that hates, above all else, being on-the-nose. Which is perhaps why the option that Arya, wearing Jaimie’s face (what do they do about the height difference?), squeezing the life out of Cersei, has gained such credence with fans.
Redditor NightKingBran has an idea as to how Arya gets the Kingslayer’s face: “Jamie will actually die fighting the dead at Winterfell. From there Arya will take his face and make her way to Kings Landing to get close to the most important name on her list. Cersei. We will see Jamie choke the life out of Cersei, only to have the face pulled off and reveal it was Arya the whole time.”
It wouldn’t just be that she would look like Jaime, either, that would satisfy the valonqar prophecy, either. Maggy the Frog’s missive said that Cersei would die at the hands of a younger sibling, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be hers, as many are quick to point out online. Also, as we’ve seen time and time again, Valyrian words are actually genderless. So it doesn’t even need to be a younger brother—Arya, a younger sister, fits the bill just fine.
It’s hard to remember, sometimes, because we’ve been endeared to Arya and opposed to Cersei for so long, but the two are actually poignantly similar in their motivations: They simply want everyone who’s ever wronged them to pay, dearly, for their choices. That's it. Arya keeps a list of all the names she must cross out while Cersei points her army in the direction of all who’ve defied her.
They are, also, at this point, the only two characters propelled by family, or the loss of it. Jon and Sansa are out to save humanity; Dany to save humanity and then capture the lands that are rightfully hers; Tyrion to be the best campaign manager you’ve ever seen; Bran….well, who knows really what the Three-Eyed Raven is after, but it’s not family. Cersei is seething at the world and the patriarchal game that robbed her of her children and father. She must win to rebuild it. Arya must avenge Ned’s death and protect Jon’s reign. She can only do so when her most fabled foe falls.
The Lannister family has ruled too long, and too poorly. Cersei's decision to go against humanity, at large, proves that her reign must come to an end. That Arya would usher in a new world order by getting back at those behind one of the earliest, most unfair deaths the show has ever witnessed (and that's saying something) is the ending we all deserve.
Madison Vain is the Digital Director at Esquire; a writer and editor living in New York, she previously worked at Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated.
