I couldn't figure out what they were doing, and then I realized I really didn't want to know.

I almost pity Cersei, but I can't quite get there. She raised this kid to be a monster, and now he's out of the cage and she has zero control over him. And his contempt, to boot.

Speaking of Theon, does anybody else think the guy who promised to help free him is actually Ramsey Snow ?

I still can't quite sympathize with Cersei either, but Lena Heady deserves much credit for coming very, very close to making Cersei.... Something.

Sean, I think he has to be, since that pivotal character Theon's being turned into was never introduced, so there's gotta be another way to get to there.

I do and don't sympathize with Cersei. On the one hand, almost everything that happens to her is her own damn fault. On the other hand, she was dealt an incredibly difficult hand, and it's not like the rest of her family are exactly paragons of mental health and handling things well either.

I also saw a lot of ugly sexism in the Cersei-hate that came out after the last book, which gets my hackles up and makes me want to defend her.

I think that having your brother's children is a symptom of damage that was caused to you, but at some point you're grown, and that point is before that baby was made.

Indeed. I really don't know what to say to people who get the screaming heebie jeebies at the mere thought of a vagina. Except that in this case, they're clearly reading a different set of books than I am, since, of Cersei's many vile character traits, having a vagina is not one of them. Nor are her negative traits at all universal among the vagina-having population of Westeros, so proclaiming her gender the source of her nastiness is flawed reasoning at best.

I think that having your brother's children is a symptom of damage that was caused to you, but at some point you're grown, and that point is before that baby was made.

You know, I would think that by this time in the history of Westeros, "The Targaryens did it" would be Warning Sign Number One for Bat Shit Crazy.

But that's how you get to rule Westeros! Being bonkers. And having dragons. You probably need both.

I'm going with the dragons being more relevant.