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Originally Posted by Requiem
Of course it's all in the context of the world they live in. Doesn't really excuse that she had plenty of opportunity to be a decent person. It still stands to reason that the Lannisters are a bunch of self-entitled pricks who think their money equates to them being better than everyone. Tywin ordered the murder of the Targaryen children, sacked the city when they took it, and some of the things he has done and later does to Tyrion are despicable. He does nothing in the interest of the people he wishes to rule. It's a family of greed and self-interest. The ONLY redeeming quality they have is some twisted sense of loyalty to anyone named Lannister. Even then, if something can benefit them more than the name is worth, they'll throw them under a bus.
It's nice that Tyrion see the family for how it really is. Tyrion for obvious reasons such as being the target of his father's spite and hatred for so long. For Jaime to come around like he does, was an incredible development in his character I thought. It's really easy to hate him at first, but he is actually a really admirable character, because even coming from the family he does, and knowing what's expected of him, he realizes he can do better than that and can be a better person. Really interested to see what becomes of him when the series continues/finishes.
Daenyris and the Starks are possibly the only people actually doing for good and just reasons. Stannis, while technically the rightful king, is going about it in a completely fucked up way by killing his brother and letting himself essentially be ruled by Melisandre.
Rob at least doesn't care about the Iron Throne, he just wants justice for his father being murdered. He wants the north to be their own entity and be outside the rule of the Iron Throne after seeing all the trouble and pointless hardship it creates. |
Cersei is a very bitter character but with good reason. This is hardly a spoiler since it's right at the start of the book, but it's Jaime who pushed Bran out of the window. Cersei didn't want that to happen, so she's not a pointlessly cruel person.
The storyline for Cersei is basically a long tale of being fucked over simply for being a woman, which explains why she is so bitter by the time we get to A Feast For Crows (which I'm near the end of now). There's the fact she was told she would be promised to Rhaegar, who everyone loved, but ended up getting married to Robert. She was separated from Jaime at a young age (because they were boning each other obviously).
When she does marry Robert, she is happy for all of a day when he drunkenly refers to her by a dead girl's name on their wedding night. It also emerges that Robert not only beat her from time to time, but regularly raped her when drunk. She loves her kids and is devastated when Myrcella is taken away and when Joffery dies and sees Tyrion as a threat to her children. This is all in addition to what I discussed before, with her being a woman and thus forced to use cunning rather than brutality. She's also well aware that whoever takes the throne will slaughter her family, as Robert had the Targaraeyn offspring killed when he gained power.
In hindsight as the story progresses it's obvious why she is so bitter. She's an interesting character.
The main genuinely evil characters that I can see would be The Mountain and his men, plus Vargo Hoat and the Brave Companions. Lord Frey, Roose Bolton and Bolton's Bastard are pretty grim too I suppose, given how they cement their power. Tywin does some pretty awful things but he also manages to end or avoid war by doing so, so I guess he's pragmatic in many ways, if ruthless.
As nice a guy as Robb is, he completely fucks over everyone who followed him into the war.
In regards to ruling the kingdoms for the benefit of the citizens, it's mentioned a fair few times that the lives of the ordinary people don't really change no matter who is king. They pretty much have a shit time of it regardless, getting murdered and raped.