Josh-da-man

An alliance with the North.

Sansa will either marry Ramsay and be his wife, or she will murder Roose and Ramsay in their sleep.

Either way, he gets his alliance with the North.

fujishig

While it was a great scene, why did Cersei go to visit Margaery in the first place?

TheMadMonk

She kept telling Margaery that if she needed any help with anything, Margaery could count on her. This was right after Tommen talked to Cersei about how much she always liked Casterly rock, which I'm sure Cersei knew originated with Margaery. So this was just Cersei's way of trying to win points with Margaery, so she won't continue influencing Tommen to send her packing.

funkyryno

You're probably right, but I thought she went there to try her usual tactic of intimidation on Margaery. The witnesses prevented her from being her usual acerbic self, and she realized she had to hold her tongue now that Margaery had been bedded by Tommen.

creekdipper

And, as Margaery pointed out to Cersei, "enthusiastically" bedded.

Josh-da-man

The thing about Cersei is that she isn't very smart. She has relied on her family's name, her family's wealth, and her husband's station as a blunt instrument to get what she wants. She's not witty or clever like Tyrion, so Margaery easily tore her a new asshole when Cersei tried to confront and intimifdate her.

She now finds herself without Tywin backing her up, the Lannister name is losing its clout, her family's gold mines are running dry, and her husband is long dead.

dhmac

Janos Slynt was only sent to the Wall by the then acting Hand of the King, Tyrion Lannister, for betraying the previous Hand of the King, Ned Stark, and arresting Ned which eventually lead to Ned losing his head because of King Joffrey. (That was back in this clip from Season 2 when Tyrion also appointed Bronn as the commander of the City Watch of King's Landing to replace Janos Slynt.)

The brothers in the Night Watch seem to know why each of them is there but Jon never mentioned knowing this about Janos Slynt in the show (maybe he does in the books?). If he did, there must have been some satisfaction in being able to behead one of the men who betrayed his father, even if it was officially done for insubordination.

Josh-da-man

Since Slynt came to the Watch as a trained soldier, he probably went straight to into command/management/up Throne's ass as soon as he showed up at the Wall so his interaction with the 'little people' was probably kept to a minimum and not particularly social.

The precise reason he was sent there is probably something he wouldn't want to advertise, other than that he got into some trouble in Kings Landing. The story behind his betraying Ned Stark is a political landmine that could piss off some very powerful and vindictive people, and we know that Slynt is a very careful man. Just the fact that he betrayed the Hand of the King, who was later beheaded for treason, is going to raise a lot of questions.

LurkerDan

I don't think she's not very smart, in fact I think the opposite. She has seen and understands exactly what you describe, and is modifying her ways to manage in the new order. Or so it seems.

wishbone

Tywin previously told Cersei: "I don't distrust you because you're a woman. I distrust you because you're not as smart as you think you are."

LurkerDan

I agree with that, but saying "you're not as smart as you think you are" and "you're not very smart" are entirely different things.

Cusm

You have to remember before she had Littlefinger and Varys "advising" her and they were the brains behind the throne. Now she is surrounded by yes men that are not connected and we shall see where this leads her.

dhmac

How often has Cersei's scheming worked out the way she wanted?

- Her scheme to get rid of King Robert by getting him too drunk before the boar hunt worked pretty much as she wanted. So I count that one as a success.

- Another scheme that partially worked was double-crossing Ned Stark which succeeded in keeping Joffrey on the throne - but when he then unexpectedly executed Ned, it caused a major war to break out and that was not something she wanted to happen. How that backfired personally for her was the war ultimately cost Jaime his hand which changed both him (for the better) and their relationship. And the war lead to her daughter Myrcella being sent away to Dorne for (at the time) safety.

- She tried to have a kings-guard kill Tyrion in the Battle of Blackwater Bay, but that just scarred his face. While she may have liked achieving at least that, it did make Tyrion even more of an adversary against her.

- She tried to pin Joffrey's murder on Tyrion but that scheme ultimately lead to Tywin's death, as well as the death of Prince Oberyn which now puts Myrcella in danger in Dorne.


What else? Did she have any other successes? Or just more schemes that backfired for her in unpredictable ways?

aktick

My main concern with putting Sansa with Ramsey is the Boltons know damned well she will probably try something, so it doesn't seem too realistic that she will get to either of them anytime soon. Unless she works on Ramsey and gets him to off the old man for some reason...

TheMadMonk

But someone else is close to the Boltons, knows Sansa from long ago, and is not suspected of anything right now, and has plenty of reasons to want to kill them. Now, if only something can light a fire under him...

aktick

Littlefinger didn't know about Theon did he?

Defiant1

That was Joffrey who tried to have Tyrion killed.

Cersei's original plan to exile Ned to The Wall would have worked brilliantly if Joffrey hadn't have fucked it up. In terms of her intelligence on a scale of 1-10, she thinks she's a 10 but in reality she's more of an 8. She is quite astute and smart (much more so than her book counterpart) but her main problem is that she doesn't think long term and she often lashes out in anger. And she is angry a lot of the time. Can't wait to see her and Margaery continue to duke it out. Methinks the new Queen went too far in provoking the other one.

dhmac

It was? I always thought it was Cersei.

Cersei is someone who can scheme and can get a plan rolling, but she doesn't seem to know how to maintain control of what she starts because she's not any good at making others feel loyalty to her or at least keeping them under her thumb.

Bandoman

What basically happened:

dhmac

I think George R.R. Martin has turned out to be more like George Lucas than J.R.R. Tolkien

outcastja

I've been wondering about this, was it Tyrion's intention to send Myrcella to Dorne? I know he made up three different scenarios to see who would snitch to Cersei. If it was Littlefinger that snitched to Cersei instead of Pycelle would Tyrion would have gone through with it and marry Myrcella to Robin Arryn.

dhmac

I don't think sending Myrcella to Dorne was about implementing one of the scenarios he gave out to spite Cersei, but that Tyrion thought it was best to send Myrcella somewhere for safety before Stannis Baratheon attacked King's Landing with his forces. If Stannis had won the battle and taken over the city then Joffrey, Tommen, Cersei, and Tyrion would have all probably been killed.

So by Tyrion sending off Myrcella, no matter how badly things went with the defense, at least she could live on where Stannis could not reach her and keep the family going by marrying a prince of Dorne. And even if they defeated Stannis, a marriage between Myrcella and a Dornish prince could form a new alliance. So win-win all around.

LurkerDan

the rest of us:

Yes, please, on camera!

Bandoman