Cersei Lannister was Worse in the Books

Cersei Lannister is one of the few characters that was hated by fans, but also cherished in the show, due to the great performance by Lena Headey. Fans can't exactly say the same thing for her version in the books, however. Cersei in the books is far more ruthless and evil and honestly comes off so creepy.

At a very young age, Cersei was already hinted to be born a complete sociopath. Once she was told her prophecy about what will happen to her children later, she completely snapped. The first thing she did was murder her supposed best friend, and even though this was never outright confirmed, it was strongly hinted that she had something to do with her friend's death.

She had killed her, due to either her extreme jealousy over her own brother, or perhaps she wanted to keep her prophecy a secret.

Also, the main reason why she got with her brother was pretty sick.

Cersei is described as an extreme narcissist in the books, and she saw Jaime as another part of herself. Since Cersei is literally obsessed with herself, she was willing to seduce her own brother. She did this to keep him close, so that he would always remain by her side, no matter what. He was supposed to be married off to another woman, but she convinced him to join the Kingsguard, so that he would never leave.

It is a little hard to refer to Jaime as a victim in this situation, since he did do despicable things himself in both the show and the book, but I can see why he had given in to something so forbidden and disgusting. The siblings didn't exactly have their father in their lives. Once their mother had died from childbirth with their other sibling, and their father became distant with his own children, they became co - dependent on one another. Jaime most likely fell deeper into the relationship, after the events of the Mad King. Jaime had no choice but to murder his king, in order to protect his family, and the innocents living in King's Landing.

No one knew about what the Mad King had been planning behind the scenes, and Jaime became known as 'Kingslayer,' an insult that would haunt the knight for life.

So, I would 100% blame Cersei here for convincing Jaime to fall for his own sister and have children with her. He was in such a vulnerable state of mind, and I think that Cersei was automatically born a monster in the books.

She even stated that she didn't care about what would happen to women in King's Landing and even found it humorous about the women getting tortured by a possible army, if they had made their way into King's Landing. There was also one very disturbing scene that takes place with one woman, that ends up getting tortured by so many men in King's Landing, and Cersei took this awful news with a grain of salt.

She constantly cheated on her brother too, which kind of surprised me, since she had this very unhealthy obsession with wanting to be with him. From my own speculation, I don't think that Cersei actually loved her brother. She saw him as a mirror image of herself, and she loved the fact she got to be with someone that was a part of her. She constantly wanted to control his every move, and once he lost his hand, she stopped viewing him as her own protector. She began to see him as a useless tool, and I think Jaime eventually caught on to his sister's manipulation, which explains why he started to fall for Brienne in the books.

Cersei Lannister is a cold-hearted monster in the books, and I can't believe just how cruel this woman was.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn