Game of Thrones begins....

[HVC]

She is my least favourite character from the books, so that might be clouding my perception of her in the tv show. Book Cersi is aggrivating. It's not even because she loves her kids, at least not until the 4th book or something. It's because she has dick envy. She thinks she's her father when she's not and is pissed she was passed over since she wasn't a man. But her ego clouds her to the fact that she's just bad at playing the game. Every second comment is "if i was my father/if i was a man they'd treat my seriously". She's basically the polar opposite of the queen of thorns. Like the queen of thorns she's bitter at not being able to play the game in the open, but unlikely her Cerci's just really bad at playing the game from behind the scenes.

[Josquius]

Yeah.
Even if she was a man she would not be her dad as she thinks. She'd be more like the mountain.

[katmai]

Complex?

[Viking]

On a more serious note, I don't think Martin has children so he might only appreciate motherhood vicariously.

As soon as a noble woman of Westeros whelps she immediately goes batshit insane or goes and hides in a castle.

I refer you to Lysa Tully [spoiler]poisons her husband at Littlefinger's request[/spoiler], Catelyn Tullly [spoiler]who starts the war by arresting Tyrion without evidence as well as going Batshit Zombie on us later[/spoiler], Dany [spoiler]who lays waste to cities in essos[/spoiler], Cersei [spoiler]fucking jamie, trying to fuck over tyrion, trying to fuck over margaery tyrell, subborning the murder of her future daughter in law's pet[/spoiler], Allanis Harlaw [spoiler]hiding in a tower[/spoiler], Mellario of Norvos [spoiler]hiding in a tower[/spoiler]

It seems the only prominent noble with stretchmarks to retain her sanity is Olenna Tyrell.

[grumbler]

Wow, you guys are weird. I think the show's Cersei is one of the most complex and interesting characters - and it seems the general consensus of critics/commentators is the same. You sometimes interpret this show like teenage nerds.

Wow!  This one has it all:  personal attack, argument by assertion, faulty appeal to authority, and an ad hom - and all in just three sentences!

I just wanted to quote this to preserve it for posterity, in case Martinus ever claims he doesn't make truly absurd posts.

[The Minsky Moment]

On a more serious note, I don't think Martin has children so he might only appreciate motherhood vicariously.

Exactly.  The parent-child relationship is so exotic to him its easy to mistake for real complexity.

Of Martin's grown up women, only Catelyn is really fully fleshed out and given complex motivations.  But then [spoiler]Martin turns her into a zombie[/spoiler]  Brienne and Asha are given dimensionality but are deliberately defined in opposition to traditional feminine qualities.  The only function of their gender is to create plotting obstacles for them.  Dany is just a human plot generation engine.  The Tyrell women are interesting characters in concept but there is zero access to their inner life and their motivations beyond their ambition. 

[Berkut]

I very much like what the show has done so far with Maergery. In just a few scenes, they've defined her extremely well, and made her interesting.

"Do you want to be a queen?"

"No...I want the be THE queen."

I hope she gets more of a role in the series.

Plus she is incredibly attractive.

[jimmy olsen]

Edmure is in!

http://winteriscoming.net/2012/05/leaked-audition-tape-confirms-edmure-tully-will-be-cast/

[Habbaku]

Edmure is a no-duh cast.  It's the Blackfish that everyone's wondering about.

[Sheilbh]

I'm almost up to date in the latest season, though I've not read the new book so I've avoided this threat like the plague.

But seriously how did they find these child actors.  Arya, Bran, Joffrey and Sansa are all brilliantly played.  If directors copy the auditions these guys must have done we'll never again have to endure hype about Haley Joel Osment or Rupert Grint.

[Sheilbh]

Eh. She's a shallow, incompetent and spiteful fool. That's her role. And she looks like Skeletor. I don't see the complexity, nor the attraction. I'll cop to being a nerd, but "I'll do dumb self-destructive things and make everyone hate me because I love my kids" is not exactly a claim to depth.

I disagree that that's all there is to it.  I think she's an interesting and well-portrayed counter-point to Cate.  They're both motivated by love of their children and make dreadful mistakes for it.  I think where Cate's suffering makes war ever more real to her, the relative lack of suffering from Cersei means war's still a game it's as serious and petulant as her fights with Tyrion.  You get the feeling Cate's going to go and become a full on Greek tragedy mourning mother that'll tear the world down, while Cersei will spiral in ever smaller and less significant circles and in the process lose everything. 

That may change - as I say I'm not up to date on the books.

[Sheilbh]

Also with the ending of Harry Potter I'm delighted that something else has emerged to keep all British actors ever fully occupied and employed

Edit:  This does also make me feel the dull waste of British TV.  It's like when I watched Deadwood, saw Ian McShane's performance and realised the best we'd given him for decades was Lovejoy 

[Razgovory]

She is my least favourite character from the books, so that might be clouding my perception of her in the tv show. Book Cersi is aggrivating. It's not even because she loves her kids, at least not until the 4th book or something. It's because she has dick envy. She thinks she's her father when she's not and is pissed she was passed over since she wasn't a man. But her ego clouds her to the fact that she's just bad at playing the game. Every second comment is "if i was my father/if i was a man they'd treat my seriously". She's basically the polar opposite of the queen of thorns. Like the queen of thorns she's bitter at not being able to play the game in the open, but unlikely her Cerci's just really bad at playing the game from behind the scenes.

I found Cersi the second least interesting character of the book after her son, Joffrey.  Joffrey seems to have no motivation for the evil things he does.  Cerci has weak ones.  Martin seems to realize this and tries to flesh them out later, but it's a dime short and a day late.  He should read "I, Claudius" for how an evil Matriarch should act.  I will admit that I don't full understand dynastic politics, there are plenty of ruthless dowagers to model her actions on.

I think a great deal of the problem is that Martin changed drastically what kind of story he wanted to tell and how he was going to tell it part way through.  Cersei was originally just pure evil and loathsome as he decided to flesh her and the rest of the Lannisters out the one dimension portrayal clashed with any future attempt to deepen the character.

[Sheilbh]

But if you model her on Livia or known she-wolves you've a bit of a problem in that it assumes success.  Why can't scheming matriarchs fail and not be competent?

I'd add that I think all of the characters are better and more richly portrayed on screen than they are in the books and Cersei's no exception.  I think Martin writes good and enjoyable books but I wouldn't go to them for credible, believable, psychologically penetrating character studies.  Luckily the TV writers are good at that because it matters a lot in their medium and they've hired good actors.

[Kleves]

-Jaime's escape scene was retarded, it wasnt necessary to kill that guy for itt

Sure, but does Jaime care? If he thought killing the guy would give him even a slightly better chance at escape, isn't Jaime the kind of guy who would take it? Shit, maybe he just wanted to kill someone.