Killed a few puppies today?
[gestures to Pycelle] Show him. Go on, show him!
[Pycelle takes out a small scroll and holds it out, but drops it when Tyrion reaches for it]
Ohhh! I'm sorry, my Lord, old fingers. [Tyrion glares at him, snatches the scroll up from the floor and reads it]
"Roslin caught a fine fat trout. Her brothers gave her a pair of wolf pelts for her wedding. Signed Walder Frey." Is that bad poetry, or is it supposed to mean something?
Robb Stark is dead! And his bitch mother! [to Pycelle] Write back to Lord Frey. Thank him for his service and command him to send Robb Stark's head to me. I'm going to serve it to Sansa at my wedding feast.
Your Grace, Lady Sansa is your aunt by marriage.
Cersei LannisterA joke. Joffrey did not mean it.
Yes, I did. I'm going to have it served to Sansa at my wedding feast.
No. She is no longer yours to torment.
Everyone is mine to torment. You'd do well to remember that, you little monster.
Oh, I'm a monster? Perhaps you should speak to me more softly, then. Monsters are dangerous and just now kings are dying like flies.
I could have your tongue out for saying that!
Cersei Lannister
Let him make his threats. Hmm? He's a bitter little man.
Lord Tyrion should apologize immediately. Unacceptable, disrespectful, and in very bad taste!
I am the KING!! I will punish you!
Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king. I'll make sure you understand that when I've won your war for you.
My father won the real war! He killed Prince Rhaegar. He took the crown, while you hid under Casterly Rock!
[Glares at Joffrey, unfazed] ...The king is tired. See him to his chambers.
Cersei Lannister
Come along.
Cersei Lannister
We have so much to celebrate. A wedding to plan. You must rest.
Grand Maester, perhaps some essence of nightshade to help him sleep.
Cersei Lannister
Come.
I don't believe you have met Ellaria. This is the Lord Hand Tywin Lannister and Cersei Lannister the Queen Regent. I suppose it is former Queen Regent now. Lord Hand and Lady Cersei, Ellaria Sand.
Cersei Lannister
Can't say I've ever met a Sand before.
We are everywhere in Dorne. I have 10,000 brothers and sisters.
Bastards are born of passion, aren't they? We don't despise them in Dorne.
Cersei Lannister
No? How tolerant of you.
I expect it is a relief, Lady Cersei, giving up your regal responsibilities. Wearing the crown for so many years must have left your neck a bit crooked.
Cersei Lannister
I suppose you'll never know, Prince Oberyn. It's a shame your older brother couldn't attend the wedding.
Please give him our regards. With any luck, the gout will abate with time and he will be able to walk again.
They call it the rich man's disease. A wonder you don't have it, Lord Tywin.
Noblemen in my part of the country don't enjoy the same lifestyle as our counterparts in Dorne.
People everywhere have their differences. In some places the highborn frown upon those of low birth. In other places, the rape and murder of women and children is considered...distasteful. What a fortunate thing for you, former Queen Regent, that your daughter Myrcella has been sent to live in the latter sort of place.
Uncle. Where are you going? You're my cupbearer, remember?
I thought I might change out of these wet clothes, Your Grace.
No, no, no. No, you're perfect the way you are. Serve me my wine. Well, hurry up. This pie is dry. [He hands the cup to Joffrey, who gulps at it] Mm, good. Needs washing down.
If it please Your Grace, Lady Sansa is very tired.
No. [coughs] No, you'll wait here... [coughs again] un-- [continues coughing]
[short of breath, he takes a gulp of wine to try and alleviate his coughing] It's nothing.
Help the poor boy. [Joffrey staggers away from the table, choking frantically.] Idiots, help your king.
Move away! [He pushes his way through the crowd and runs towards Joffrey as he collapses, choking and vomiting.] Joffrey! Joffrey!
Cersei Lannister
Help him! Someone help him! Joffrey!
[in the confusion, court fool Dontos Hollard appears behind Sansa]
DHDontos Hollard
[to Sansa] Come with me now.
Cersei Lannister
Joffrey! Joffrey!
DHDontos Hollard
[to Sansa] If you want to live, we have to leave.
Cersei Lannister
Don't touch him! Joffrey. Please, Joffrey. Joffrey, what is it? Help him!
[Joffrey begins to bleed from his nose and eyes; after managing to point at Tyrion inspecting the cup, he wheezes out his last breath and finally dies.]
Cersei Lannister
My son! [sobbing]
MMan
He's gone. Our king is gone!
Cersei Lannister
[turning to glare at Tyrion with rising anger] He did this. He poisoned my son, your king. Take him. Take him! TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM!
Your brother is dead. Do you know what that means? [Tommen hesitates in answering] I'm not trying to trick you.
TBTommen Baratheon
It means I'll become king.
Yes, you will become king. What kind of king do you think you will be?
TBTommen Baratheon
...a good king?
I think so as well; you have the right temperament for it. But what makes a good king, hmm? What is a good king's single most important quality?
Cersei Lannister
This is hardly the place or the time.
TBTommen Baratheon
Holiness?
Baelor the Blessed was holy, and pious. He built this sept. He also named a six-year-old boy High Septon because he thought the boy could work miracles. He ended up fasting himself into an early grave because food was of this world, and this world was sinful.
TBTommen Baratheon
Justice?
A good king must be just. Orys the First was just; everyone applauded his reforms, nobles and commoners alike, but he wasn't just for long. He was murdered in his sleep after less than a year by his own brother. Was that truly just of him, to abandon his subjects to an evil that he was too gullible to recognize?
TBTommen Baratheon
No. What about strength?
Yes, strength. King Robert was strong. He won the rebellion and crushed the Targaryen dynasty... and he attended three Small Council meetings in seventeen years. He spent his time whoring and hunting and drinking, until the last two killed him. So, we have a man who starves himself to death, a man who lets his own brother murder him, and a man who thinks that winning and ruling are the same thing. What do they all lack?
TBTommen Baratheon
[thinks for a moment] Wisdom.
TBTommen Baratheon
Wisdom is what makes a good king.
Yes. But what is wisdom, hmm? A house with great wealth and fertile lands asks you for your protection against another house with a strong navy that could one day oppose you. How do you know which choice is wise and which isn't? You've any experience of treasuries and granaries, or shipyards and soldiers?
No, of course not. A wise king knows what he knows and what he doesn't. You're young. A wise young king listens to his councilors and heeds their advice until he comes of age. And the wisest kings continue to listen to them long afterwards. Your brother was not a wise king. Your brother was not a good king. If he had been, perhaps he'd still be alive.
Cersei Lannister
[they both watch her son Tommen] There he is.
Cersei Lannister
Long may he reign.
He sits the Throne like he was born to it.
Cersei Lannister
Yes. He wasn't, though, was he?
Cersei Lannister
You still mourn for Joffrey?
He was my husband, my King.
Cersei Lannister
He would have been your nightmare.
Cersei Lannister
You knew exactly what he was. I did, too. You never love anything in the world the way you love your first child. It doesn't matter what they do. And what he did, it shocked me. Do you think I'm easily shocked?
Cersei Lannister
The things he did shocked me. [they look towards Tommen] He's only a boy. A good boy, a decent boy, he always has been. Who was the last decent king, I wonder? He could be the first man to sit on that throne in fifty years to actually deserve it.
It would be some consolation, wouldn't it? For all the horror that put him there.
Cersei Lannister
He will need help if he's going to rule well.
Cersei Lannister
A mother is not enough. You're still interested in being Queen, I take it?
After all that's happened? It sounds strange, I know, but I haven't given any thought to it. What comes next. It would be a great honor, of course. But I will have to speak to my father about it.
Cersei Lannister
Yes, speak to your father. I'll speak to mine.
We may be faced with an alarming number of weddings soon. I won't even know what to call you. Sister, or Mother?
These meetings aren't always going to be this early, are they? I was up late last night. So, does this mean I am a master of something now? Coins, ships?
MTMace Tyrell
Lord Tywin and I already determined that I shall be the Master of Ships long before you...
[Tywin enters and everybody but Oberyn stands up]
MTMace Tyrell
Lord Tywin, it's a great honor to have been granted a seat on this council. I...
The trial begins this afternoon. We only have the morning for affairs of state. Shall we begin?
Sandor Clegane has been spotted in the Riverlands, my lord.
Cersei Lannister
A coward and a traitor.
My birds tell me the Hound slaughtered five of our soldiers. I believe the phrase "Fuck the King" was uttered.
What would it take to make the common soldier stupid enough to try his luck with the Hound?
10 Silver stags seems a generous bounty.
More whispers from the east, my lord.
Daenerys has taken up residence in Meereen. She has conquered the city and rules as its queen.
Cersei Lannister
Conquered with what?
She commands an army of Unsullied, my queen. Some 8,000 strong. She has a company of sellswords, the Second Sons. She has two knights advising her. Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy. And she has three dragons.
Cersei Lannister
Baby dragons.
Larger every year, Your Grace.
Mormont is spying on her for us.
No longer. He appears to be fully devoted to her. As for Ser Barristan, it would seem he took his dismissal from the Kingsguard a bit harder than anticipated.
Cersei Lannister
He's an old man. He wasn't fit to protect my son.
Joffrey didn't die on his watch. Dismissing him was as insulting as it was stupid.
Cersei Lannister
Don't tell me you're worried about a child, halfway across the world.
A child with two seasoned warriors counseling her... and a powerful army at her back, Your Grace.
Lord Varys is right. I have been to Essos and seen the Unsullied firsthand. They are very impressive on the battlefield. Less so in the bedroom.
Dragons haven't won a war in 300 years. Armies win them all the time. She must be dealt with.
Eventually, if it comes to that. Can your little birds find their way into Mereen?
Most certainly, my Lord Hand.
We've been over this. The matter's closed.
Cersei Lannister
I'm opening it again.
You were betrothed to Loras Tyrell. You are still betrothed to Loras Tyrell and you will marry Loras Tyrell, as soon as Tommen marries Margaery.
Cersei Lannister
I will not.
Jaime cannot marry, or inherit lands. Tyrion's sentence will be carried out tomorrow. You have, on several occasions, made great claims about your commitment to this family's future. Your role in that future is now more vital than it ever was-
Cersei Lannister
I don't care. I will stay in King's Landing where I belong, with my son the King.
When you were nine years old, I was called away to the Capitol; I decided to take your brother with me, and not you. You insisted that you would not be left at Casterly Rock under any circumstances, and if you recall...
Cersei Lannister
I'm not interested in hearing another of your smug stories about the time you won. This isn't going to be one of those times.
Do you think you'll be the first person dragged into a sept to be married against her will?
Cersei Lannister
When you marched into the Throne Room to tell me we'd won the Battle of Blackwater... Do you remember?! I was sitting on the Iron Throne with Tommen. I was about to give him essence of nightshade, that’s how far I was willing to go when I thought someone awful had come to take my son away. Someone awful is coming to take him away.
Cersei Lannister
Joffrey is dead, Myrcella has been sold like livestock, and now you want to ship me off to Highgarden and steal my boy, my last boy! Margery will dig her claws in, you will dig your claws in, and you'll fight over him like beasts until you rip him apart. I will burn our house to the ground before I let that happen!
And how will you do that?
Cersei Lannister
I'll tell everyone the truth.
And what truth would that be?
Cersei Lannister
You don't know, do you? You never believed it. How is that possible? What am I saying? Of course it's possible. How can someone so consumed by the idea of his family have any conception what his actual family was doing? We were right there, in front of you, and you didn't see us. One look in the past twenty years, one real look at your own children, and you would have known.
Cersei Lannister
[grins maliciously] Everything they say is true - about Jaime and me.
Cersei Lannister
[giggles] Your legacy is a lie.
Cersei Lannister
Yes, you do.
Young Cersei Lannister
Tell me my future or I'll have your two boring eyes gouged out of your head.
MMaggy
Your blood. Give me a taste. [Cersei cuts her finger and Maggy sucks the blood] Three questions you get. You won't like the answers.
Young Cersei Lannister
I've been promised to the prince. When will we marry?
MMaggy
You will never wed the prince. You will wed the king.
Young Cersei Lannister
But I will be queen?
MMaggy
Oh yes. You'll be queen. For a time. Then comes another, younger, more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold dear.
Young Cersei Lannister
Will the king and I have children?
MMaggy
No. The king will have twenty children and you will have three.
Young Cersei Lannister
That doesn't make sense.
MMaggy
Gold will be their crowns. Gold their shrouds. [laughs]
[Jaime and Cersei meet over Tywin's body as he lies in state inside the Great Sept of Baelor]
Cersei Lannister
He never wanted you to be a Kingsguard. But here you are. Protecting his dead body.
What he built... it's ours. He built it for us, he meant it for us. They're going to try to take it away. All of it.
Cersei Lannister
"They?"
All of them out there. Our enemies. They're waiting in line to make sure he's really dead. And as soon as they see the stones on his eyes, they'll set to work on tearing us apart.
Cersei Lannister
They had nothing to do with it. The man who murdered our father, he tore us apart. He's the enemy. I've been telling you for years. You've been defending him for years.
This is exactly what they want!
Cersei Lannister
And now our father is dead. And that little monster is out there, somewhere, drawing breath! Did you set him free? [Jaime is silent.] Tyrion may be a monster, but at least he killed our father on purpose. You killed him by mistake. With stupidity. You're a man of action, aren't you? When it occurs to you to do something, you do it. Never mind the consequences. Take a look. Look at the consequences. Here they are. He loved you more than anyone in this world.
[Cersei kisses Tywin's forehead and leaves.]
Cersei Lannister
Uncle Kevan! In light of your position as Commander of the Lannister armies, it would please the King if you would serve as his Master of War. No man living better deserves the title.
That is kind of you to say. I would like to hear it from the King, himself.
Cersei Lannister
The King is very busy at this moment.
He should be here, learning what it means to rule.
Cersei Lannister
He is learning. On this occasion, in his capacity as ruler, he's asked me to speak on his behalf.
I return to the Capital to pay my respects to my brother, and to you, and to serve the King. I did not return to the Capitol to serve as your puppet, to watch you stack the Small Council with sycophants! Sending your own brother away so he won't...
Cersei Lannister
My brother has left the Capitol to lead a sensitive diplomatic mission.
Cersei Lannister
That is not your concern as Master of War.
I do not recognize your authority to dictate what is and is not my concern. You are the Queen Mother. Nothing more.
Cersei Lannister
You would abandon your King in his time of need?
If he wants to send for me, I will be waiting for him. At Casterly Rock.
[At King's Landing, Cersei seeks out the one called High Sparrow and comes across an elderly man along the way, serving food to the poor...]
Cersei Lannister
A young man said I'd find the High Sparrow back here. Where is he?
EMElderly man
High Sparrow? Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Like Lord Duckling or King Turtle. Still, it's meant to. We're often stuck with the names our enemies give to us. The notion that we're all equal in the eyes of the Seven doesn't sit well with some, so they belittle me. [to the poor] Seven blessings to you, my dear. [to Cersei] It's only a name. Quite an easy burden to bear. Far easier than hers.
Cersei Lannister
[Noticing High Sparrow's bare feet] Why no shoes?
Because I gave them away to someone who needed them more. We all do that. It stops us from forgetting what we really are.
Cersei Lannister
Is that why you came to King's Landing? To remind everyone?
Everyone? Hard enough job reminding myself. Well, I tell them no one's special and they think I'm special for telling them so.
Cersei Lannister
Perhaps they're right.
It would be comforting to believe that, wouldn't it? Have the gods sent you here to tempt me? I hope not. I had assumed, you'd only come here to arrest me for that incident with the High Septon.
Cersei Lannister
An unacceptable way to treat the chosen representative of the gods in this world, wouldn't you say?
Hypocrisy is a boil. Lancing a boil is never pleasant. Although they could have been more careful with the blade.
Cersei Lannister
The High Septon came to speak to me today. He doesn't want me to arrest you. He wants me to execute you.
I wouldn't presume to know your thoughts on the matter.
Cersei Lannister
My thoughts on the matter are in line with your own. The High Septon's behavior was corrosive, as was his attitude. Having a man like that reside in the sept eats away at the faith from the inside. So now he resides in the Red Keep dungeons instead. The faith and the crown are the two pillars that hold up this world. One collapses, so does the other. We must do everything necessary to protect one another.
Do you think it's wise, your Grace? Arresting the heir to Highgarden?
Cersei Lannister
The Faith arrested the heir to Highgarden.
Of course. And the Faith were armed on your orders.
Cersei Lannister
The King's orders. Is the King to blame for Ser Loras's perversion?
[Shakes his head.] House Tyrell won't tolerate this insult.
Cersei Lannister
House Tyrell won't tolerate it? I'm the insulted party, Lord Baelish. Ser Loras was promised to me, instead he chose the company of boys.
One's choice of companion is a curious thing.
Cersei Lannister
If there's nothing else...
There is another matter, your Grace. Something so urgent I couldn't trust the words to a raven. You once charged me with finding Arya Stark. To my shame, I failed you. But I have found Sansa Stark. Alive and well. At home again. Living at Winterfell.
Cersei Lannister
That's not possible!
My sources are well placed. They tell me Roose Bolton plans to marry her to his son Ramsay, a bastard recently legitimized by King Tommen.
Cersei Lannister
Roose Bolton is Warden of the North by the grace of my father.
Indeed. His reward for stabbing his own king in the heart.
Cersei Lannister
We were fools to trust a turncloak.
Marrying his son to the last of the Starks gives him more legitimacy in the North than an alliance with a hated southern house.
Cersei Lannister
I will skin him and his bastard like that wretch on their bloody sigil!
I would counsel patience, your Grace.
Cersei Lannister
Patience!? Sansa helped murder my son, Roose Bolton is a traitor!
Stannis Baratheon is also a traitor, marching with his army on Winterfell. Let Stannis and Roose battle. Let the enemies of the Throne slaughter each other, and when they're done, seize Winterfell from whichever thief survives.
Cersei Lannister
Winterfell is a thousand miles away from here. The weather has already begun to turn.
That is why it is critical to strike soon while the victor still licks his wounds. Surely, your uncle Kevan could muster a force.
Cersei Lannister
My uncle Kevan has all the courage of a kitchen mouse.
Cersei Lannister
Jaime is away on a sensitive diplomatic mission. I have no idea when he'll be back.
Perhaps I can help. The knights of the Vale are some of the best fighters in Westeros. Trained to battle in the ice and the snow.
Cersei Lannister
Forgive me, Lord Baelish, your reputation is a moneylender and profit-keeper, not a military man.
You wouldn't risk a single Lannister soldier or a single coin from the royal treasury. What do you have to lose? A brothelkeeper?
Cersei Lannister
And if you succeed?
Name me Warden of the North?
Cersei Lannister
I'll speak to the King this evening. Have an issue of royal decree.
I'll not rest until the lion flies over Winterfell.
Cersei Lannister
And I'll know you're a man of your word when I see Sansa Stark's head on a spike.
As I said, I live to serve.
OOlyvar
Yes. Very well. He is Ser Loras Tyrell out of Highgarden.
How did you come to meet him?
OOlyvar
I squired for him. He took a liking to me. He summoned me to his chamber the first day we met.
And what occurred in his chamber?
OOlyvar
We engaged in intimate relations.
OOlyvar
That night and many others.
LTLoras Tyrell
[hoarsely] Liar! He's a liar!
Is there anyone else who can support your claim?
OOlyvar
Yes. Yes, Queen Margaery. She walked in on us once, not long ago. She didn't seem surprised.
Cersei Lannister
This testimony is an insult to a Great House. Why should the Faith or anyone else take the word of a squire over the heir to Highgarden?
OOlyvar
He has a birthmark, your Grace. Quite high on his thigh. Wine-colored and roughly the shape of Dorne.
[Loras lunges at Olyvar but two Sparrows rush in to restrain him.]
[They pull him away as two more Sparrows walk over toward Margaery.]
What are you doing? Let us pass.
The Faith is satisfied there is enough evidence to bring a formal trial for Ser Loras. And Queen Margaery.
Bearing false witness before the Gods is as grave a sin as any, my lady. Take her.
[The Sparrows take hold of Margarey.]
No! Tommen! Tommen! [Tommen silently raises his hand to the Kingsguard, unwilling to attack the Sparrows.] You can't do this! I am the queen! Tommen! Tommen! I am the queen! How dare you...take your hands off me!
The people who built this place didn't inflict their vanity on those who came after them, the way Baelor did with that great gelded monstrosity up there. Their faith was clean. Strip away the gold and the ornaments, knock down the statues and the pillars and this is what remains. Something simple, solid and true. The Tyrells' finery will be stripped away, their lies knocked down, their true hearts laid bare for all to see. And so it will be for all of us, high and low alike. What will we find when we strip away your finery? A young man came to us, not long ago, broken in body and spirit. He had so much to strip away, so much weighing him down. But, piece by piece, he unburdened himself. Let go of pride, vanity, sin. Now, his soul is so light, he will float through the Seven Heavens like a bird and he has much to say about you.
[Lancel Lannister enters. Cersei starts to exit, but the door opens and she is blocked by a tall Septa]
Cersei Lannister
Move. Let me go, immediately. You will order her to let me go! I am the Queen! I am the Queen, have you lost your mind? Let me go! Look at me! Look at my face. It's the last thing you'll see before you die.
Game of Thrones · 356 quotes
