Killing Cersei Might Not Be The Best Choice For Dany On 'Game Of Thrones'

With the Night King dealt with, one Big Bad remains between our heroes and finally vanquishing the forces of evil… and her name is Cersei Lannister. But who will have the honor of dispatching the cruel queen? Will Daenerys kill Cersei on Game Of Thrones? The list of candidates for the job is as long as the cast list, since pretty much everyone in Westeros bears a grudge against Cersei at this point. But Daenerys doing the deed would be both fitting — and potentially disastrous for the Mother of Dragons.

Most theories about Cersei's death revolve around her brothers Tyrion and Jaime, due in large part to a prophecy from George R.R. Martin's books. On the page, the woods witch Maggy the Frog told a young Cersei that, "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," in reference to her three future children with the king. "And when your tears have drowned you," she continued, "the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."

In High Valyrian, the word valonqar means "little brother" — which could refer to either Cersei's little brother Tyrion, or her twin Jaime, who was born minutes after her. But that might not be how it plays out on the show.

That's because the show actually cut out the crucial valonqar portion of Maggy's prophecy. While the witch does predict Cersei's marriage to Robert Baratheon and the deaths of her three children, there is no mention of the mysterious figure who will kill Cersei in the end. This could have been for either of two reasons: because the showrunners thought including that part of the prophecy would be too obvious… or because they planned to change George R.R. Martin's intended ending.

However, Maggy's warnings on the show do contain another part of the book prophecy: the part that reads, "Queen you shall be... until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." Cersei convinced herself that the young, beautiful would-be queen in question was Margaery Tyrell — first wed to Joffrey and then Tommen, and completely unapologetic in her desire to be the queen and push Cersei out of the equation.

As is so often the way with prophecies, Cersei's single-minded reaction to this assumption proved her (temporary) undoing. Just as Voldemort chose Harry as his rival based on the vague terms of a prophecy, so did Cersei choose Margaery as her rival. She unleashed the power of the Faith Militant in an attempt to bring Tommen's wife down, and in the end this rash decision led directly to her own imprisonment and humiliation, as well as the death of her last living child.

But what if Margaery wasn't the queen Maggy was referring to? Or what if there was more than one? Daenerys fits the bill of the prophecy as well as Margaery did; she's certainly coming to take all that Cersei holds dear… which, at this low point of Cersei's life, is pretty much just the Iron Throne. The show, if not the books, does feel as though it's heading towards an inevitable confrontation between these two powerful women. And if it comes down to the elephant-less Cersei and the dragon-riding Daenerys… I'm putting my money on Daenerys.

But killing Cersei might prove to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Mother of Dragons. Tyrion has already balked at Daenerys' tendency to burn her enemies alive, arguing (futilely) for her to spare Randyll and Dickon Tarly after the loot train attack. Tyrion has never had great love for Cersei, but she's still his family; it's clear that a factor in his recent tactical blunders has been his reticence to harm his older sister. He chose to take Casterly Rock instead of attack King's Landing, he chose to seek out an armistice with her, and he ultimately chose to trust her word when everyone told him he was being foolish.

If Daenerys were to burn Cersei alive — along with her unborn child, who would be Tyrion's niece or nephew and the future of his house — that might be the final straw that drives a wedge between the Dragon Queen and her Hand. In killing Cersei, Daenerys might win the throne… but lose her closest Westerosi ally. She's already lost a dragon, all her Dothraki and Unsullied, and her most trusted advisor. The more isolated Daenerys feels, the more dangerous she becomes. The fulfillment of Maggy's prophecy might be just as deadly for Dany as it is for Cersei.