With the “Game of Thrones” endgame near, we thought we had it figured out. Now Jaime Lannister is here to say, “Oh hell Snow.”
After Cersei Lannister blew up King’s Landing in the “Game of Thrones” Season 6 finale, and Jaime shot her that cold look, it seemed like things were already written. The ink was dry.
Jaime will kill Cersei.
The pair have always had a conflicted relationship. They’re siblings; They’re lovers. Now, she’s burned a whole bunch of people alive ― and the reason Jaime became the Kingslayer in the first place was to stop King Aerys from burning people alive.
It’s complicated. But it’s a popular theory.
There are dozens of posts in forums and stories online listing all the evidence for why Jaime will kill Cersei.
There’s also a prophecy about Cersei in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the inspiration for “Game of Thrones.” We got an abbreviated version of it in the Season 5 premiere, but a part from the book that got cut out of the show reads, “The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”
“Valonqar” is said to be High Valyrian for “little brother.”
It all seems to work out perfectly that Jaime would be the one to take down Cersei — a little too perfectly if you ask Jaime himself, actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
The Huffington Post recently talked to Coster-Waldau about a variety of topics, including being a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and his partnership with Google Street View to raise awareness on climate change, since winter is coming. We also asked about the idea that Jaime could kill Cersei.
“It’s a theory … but it has a beautiful, romantic, tragic thing [to it],” Coster-Waldau said before adding, “It’s probably too obvious.”
The actor said that, ultimately, he had “no idea” how it would all turn out.
If that’s true, and Coster-Waldau doesn’t know, we can probably count on Cersei surviving through Season 7. Filming on the season is wrapping.
But is Jaime killing Cersei really “too obvious”?
In Martin’s books, Tyrion complains, “Prophecy is like a half-trained mule. It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head.”
If we’re not buying that the prophecy is about Jaime, there are some other possibilities. (After all, the prophecy says the valonqar will wrap his “hands” around Cersei’s throat. Last time we checked, Jaime had just one.)
Tyrion is another choice to cause Cersei’s demise, but he’s “obvious,” too.
He’s also Cersei’s younger sibling and clearly doesn’t see eye-to-eye with her, especially since she tried to have him executed for Joffrey’s murder.
That put a damper on the relationship.
Another strong possibility is Sansa. As we’ve said, the show’s version of Cersei’s prophecy is abbreviated, but it does mention that someone will come to destroy her.
“You’ll be queen for a time. Then comes another — younger, more beautiful — to cast you down and take all you hold dear.”
With Margaery now gone (R.I.P., Marg), Sansa is a leading candidate to fit the prediction of the “younger, more beautiful” person to take down Cersei.
Perhaps instead of “little brother,” the “valonqar” is actually a “little dove,” aka Cersei’s nickname for Sansa.
The culprits could also be Arya, whom actress Lena Headey said she wants to take down Cersei, or Dany because, duh, she’s the Mother of Dragons.
Or, as theorized by many, Jaime could kill Cersei. Like Coster-Waldau admitted, at this point, he doesn’t even know.
Will Jaime go from Kingslayer to kin-slayer?
Cersei did kill all those people, and Jaime, like all Lannisters, always pays his debts.
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