Her death is coming - but it won't be how you think
Words by Jadie Troy-Pryde
Let's start with a warning. Spoilers are coming. And if you aren't up to speed with what's about to go down in Game of Thrones season 8 I advise you to stop what you're doing, go home, and watch it all immediately in preparation.
Otherwise, let's talk Cersei Lannister. The Mad Queen proved how far she's willing to go in this season's finale, telling her twin/boyfriend/only genuine ally Jaime that she would have him killed in an instant if he didn't do as she said. Cersei has cut herself off from anyone with an ounce of common sense, and she's now holed up in Kings Landing alongside creepy Qyburn and his token wight hand, and a giant purple zombie. She's apparently happy waiting there until she's torn apart by White Walkers - good for her.
Just kidding, obviously. It's all going terribly for her. She is now single-handedly trying to continue the Lannister dynasty, refusing to join Jon Snow (ahem, Aegon Targaryen) and Daenerys in their war against the fast-approaching undead, and she thinks she's got time to carry, raise and mould a future monarch to continue the Lannister name. Lol.
But while we've all been speculating about Cersei's inevitable downfall, it seems we might have missed some vital clues. Maggy the Frog prophesied that Cersei would be strangled by her little brother, and while all fingers initially pointed at Tyrion, fans were quick to point out easter eggs that suggested Jaime (also her little brother) might be responsible for ending her life.
Why? Well there was Ed Sheeran's foreshadowing song Hands of Gold; there was supposedly a hidden message in a moment when Cersei and Jaime were stood on the map of Westeros; and those side-eyes from Jaime in the finale hinted that she was in big trouble.
However, it seems that while we were all hung up on these little 'clues', the Game of Thrones masterminds might have been leading us down the garden path.
This season Cersei announced she was pregnant, which came as much of a shock to Jaime as it did to us considering that the same prophecy that foresaw her death also stated she would only have three children.
The witch in the books tells Cersei: 'Three [children] for you. Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.'
A new theory suggests that the valonqar, or 'little brother', is neither Tyrion nor Jaime - but the child she is currently pregnant with.
Throughout her life, Cersei has despised Tyrion. Her mother died in childbirth, which she blames him for, and she is constantly referring to him as a 'little monster'. If she were to die in the same way, it would be yet another example of the show's trademark ability to mirror the past. It would explain why the prophecy stated she only had three children, and if it were a boy it could fulfil the 'little brother' part, too.
Considering that Cersei has had Tyrion on trial his whole life for being a dwarf and 'murdering' her mother, it would be the perfect serving of poetic justice.