‘Game of Thrones’: Cersei’s Prophecy Is Not Finished Yet

As foretold, Cersei has watched her three children die. But there’s another part of the prophecy that could hint at her death from an unlikely killer

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HBO

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for the “Game of Thrones” Season 6 finale)

When Cersei Lannister’s firstborn son, Joffrey, died of poison, she was beside herself with grief. When she discovered from her brother Jaime that her daughter, Myrcella, also died of poison, she sat in tearful silence.

But when her final child, Tommen, committed suicide after realizing that Margaery was killed by his mother in the explosion of the Great Sept, Cersei’s reaction was truly chilling. After seeing her child’s body, she coldly ordered Qyburn to burn it and to spread the ashes over the remains of the Sept.

It seems that Cersei has stopped trying to fight the fate that was foretold to her many years ago. Cersei’s bloody path to the Iron Throne has had the specter of Maggy the Frog looming over it.

Maggy was the fortune teller who, long before the events of “Game of Thrones,” told Cersei that she would live a life defined by power and tragedy.

She was told that she would wed the king, and indeed she did when she was brought into a marriage with Robert Baratheon. Maggy told her she would have children, “Six-and-ten for him, three for you.”

Sure enough, Cersei had three children out of her incestuous affair with Jaime, while Robert had over a dozen bastard children with random women he bedded over the years.

Then came the tragedies in the prophecy: “Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds.” We have now seen that part of the prophecy come true, as Cersei has gazed upon the dead bodies of her three children.

She fought to avoid this fate at first, but in the Season 6 finale, she seemed to treat Tommen’s death as an inevitability, a price that had to be paid for her to finally vanquish her enemies and take her spot on the Iron Throne.

While those deaths were a major part of Maggy’s prophecy, there’s still more to come. It was foretold that Cersei will be queen until “there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.”

It’s pretty easy to tell who that’s referring to. Daenerys Targaryen is coming with hundreds of ships, thousands of men, and three dragons to kick Cersei right off that throne she just claimed.

But the last part of the prophecy is the most intriguing. It is the part that tells of Cersei’s final demise: “When your tears have drowned you, the Valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

The word “Valonqar” means “little brother” in Valyrian. At first glance, “little brother” could refer to Tyrion, who certainly fits the phrase. Tyrion is on a boat with Daenerys, ready to aid the Queen of Dragons in dethroning his sweet sister.

But what if the prophecy is foretelling that Jaime will be the one to kill her? Jaime and Cersei are twins, but Cersei came out of the womb first, making Jaime her “little brother” in the strictest sense. Jaime killed Aerys to stop him from using wildfire to kill the people of King’s Landing, and that is exactly what Cersei did when she blew up the Great Sept.

Her actions led to Tommen’s suicide, and with all of their children gone, Jaime may realize that Cersei is no longer the sister he loved. She has turned into the Mad Queen, and he may be forced to kill another occupant of the Iron Throne. It would be a fitting end to the tale of power-hungry treachery and karmic retribution that has defined the Lannisters.

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