Game of Thrones fans majorly disappointed with anti-climactic death of Cersei Lannister: 'All to die under rubble'
This article contains major spoilers for season 8, episode 5
It's a tough thing to live up to fan expectations as it is, but when you're a phenomenon like 'Game of Thrones', the task becomes even more challenging because the fandom comprises people who have digested every word from the original books by George RR Martin.
And with the latest episode of the final season, writers David Benioff and DB Weiss seemed to have gone extremely wrong with the death of probably the most villainous character of all time - Cersei Lannisters - and fans are not too pleased with how her journey came to an end.
Born of a cruel man who could only prioritize his sons as potential rulers of the Iron Throne, Cersei's life hadn't been short of crises. She lost all her children one by one and was made to undergo a very public, and massively humiliating walk of shame for committing incest among other crimes, but all of that paled in comparison to the amount of spite and venom coursing through her veins when it comes to people crossing her.
Known as the Mad Queen more recently, Cersei blew up an entire building full of hundreds of people just because she needed to do away with a handful of them. And even after that, as she ruled as the queen of the seven kingdoms with no loved one by her side to support her through, she remained unflinching.
Over the years, Cersei Lannister grew to be the most complex anti-hero who has had more dips in her arc than Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) - the proverbial hero of the show - has had.
She was cruel, but there was a sense of authority in her cruelty. There was a principle in her hatred - as bordering on insanity as it was - and there was a certain discipline with which she exercised her rage as an element of fear in her inferiors, and which was especially remarkable coming from someone who was born to attract pure loathing from those who encountered her.
So the fact that a force as powerful as Cersei was taken down like a weakling under a mountain of rubbles is not only unfair but almost sacrilegious if you consider the amount of effort spent into building up her character.
And of course, fans took notice of that sheer folly that has been blatantly committed by the writers yet again, within the span of the same season. It is almost as if they got bored with the character and decided to give her the most anti-climactic ending because there is nothing that they considered could be more shocking in terms of Cersei's plot arc.
Taking to Twitter, fans expressed their shock and dismay at how poorly the character's fate culminated on the show, and every bit of it is passionate.
"Anyone else kinda feel gipped that Cersei died like that? I wanted to see Jaime finally snap and strangle her, Arya put the face of Qyburn on and slit her up & down, The Mountain throw her over a cliff...something more than crushed under rubble with her bae," one fan tweeted. Another one also noted elaborately: "So you’re telling me the villain of ALL villains was not given an epic death... started bawling her eyes out and died in Jaime’s arms. All to die under rubble. This is not the Cersei Lannister we know. She may falter, but she does not give up."
It's true; the Cersei we have known is relentless when it comes to her family name. A pile of rubble in the arms of her twin brother, and lover, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) - as poetic as it might sound in terms of them being born together and dying together - was not the signature soap-opera style melodramatic death she deserved. One particular fan makes an interesting observation of how "killing Cersei (if she is indeed dead) under a pile of rubble with Jamie was awful. She deserved an execution," and come to think of it - her death deserved more time and screen space. This is just not done, D&D.
'Game of Thrones' returns with the finale of season 8 on Sunday, May 19, at 9 pm, only on HBO.
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