Last we left Cersei Lannister she was finally sitting atop the iron throne, something she had seemingly aspired to do since season one yet only achieved after all of her children had died. Joffrey, Myrcella, Tommen – all dead, and we’re all the more thankful for it because not only were they boring (with the exception of Joffrey, who was a terror and a delight to watch), but they were keeping Cersei from being Cersei.
What do I mean by that? Throughout the show and the books characters comment how Cersei’s only redeeming quality is her love for her children, and nothing else. But now that her children are all dead, what is left? Her primary motivation for anything she did was to protect her family, yet going into season seven the only family she has left is Jaime – she blew up her uncle Kevan with the rest of the sparrows in the Great Sept of Baelor. Cersei is almost completely alone.
Which is why, according to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Cersei will be a large focus of what goes on in season seven. Via Deadline:
Every time Cersei vindictively settled a score, she paid a high price…In the Season 6 finale, she exacts unimaginable cruel revenge on the High Sparrow’s tormenter Septa Unella by making her the plaything of her half-dead bodyguard The Mountain. So he’s not babysitting her king son Tommen, who jumps out a castle window to his death. Was Cersei heartbroken? Has she got any heart left?
Benioff & Weiss: We had intended the connection you just made, so we’re glad you made it. If she had been more focused on her family, and less focused on enjoying her revenge on someone who had done her wrong, then Tommen’s suicide probably never would have happened. That’s what so much of next season is going to be about; finding out what Cersei’s mindset is, and who is she? Cersei has certainly done a lot of horrible things in her life and she could be a very cruel person, but the one thing that was redemptive about her was she genuinely loved her children. Now they’re all gone, and I think that is very interesting for us. Who is she, without her children? The answer is something you’ll find out about next season.
Weiss and Benioff further go on to say how Cersei will do anything to win, however “the only factor limiting her ruthlessness was her love for her hildren. Now that her children are gone, nothing restrains her. As she herself said, ‘love is weakness.’ A loveless Cersei is a fearsome thing.”
Too bad Thrones isn’t set to return until summer 2017. Until then all we’ve got to go on is reruns and hype…long live the hype.
[Via Deadline]