You don't think Shae and even Bron genuinely like him, to some extent?

What I can't stand about Cersei hating everyone who isn't an immediate-relation Lannister is that it's so very Malfoy and "mudbloods".

What I can't stand about Cersei hating everyone who isn't an immediate-relation Lannister is that it's so very Malfoy and "mudbloods".

She also hates Tyrion and to some extent, her dad! So it's not just racism.

I think Shae and Bronn have some real affection for Tyrion, but I don't think either of them would hang around very long if he stopped paying them.

That's true about Cersei.

I wonder if Shae would abandon Sansa, though.

I have this feeling that Podrick Payne will wind up being one of those unsung nobodies that wind up having major heroic songs sung about them (as if his actions during the Battle of Blackwater weren't heroic enough). Like Ser Duncan the Tall, who was a squire to a hedge knight until he faked a knighthood upon his master's death, and wound up ultimately becoming Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

In short, I [heart] Pod.

I know get why everyone was all "hey, easy on Sansa", but I feel perfectly okay with disliking Cersei because of her choices, especially the continued one to NOT KILL JOFFREY. Which, fine, not rationale, but Joffrey's not accidentally despicable. GRRM made those choices, and there's backwash.

It's not just about amoral and manipulative or vaginas, because I do like Margaery. "Being born a Lannister was really rough for you" isn't much of a pull for me--the way that Tyrion manipulates his environments (and fails) has been consistently intriguing. And... I guess I need to see what Jaime does next. I'm a pretty stalwart Brienne fan at this time, so...

Brienne is easily one of my favorite characters in the entire series. Incidentally, GRRM has confirmed at book signings and the like that Brienne is in fact a descendant of Ser Duncan the Tall.

Also, Tarth is both Brienne's family name, and the name of the island that entails her family's holdings, hence her being Brienne "of Tarth", in answer to Jessica's question earlier.

I think it would be hard for any mother to kill her son, even a sociopath like Joffrey. And I'm thinking that she probably on some level feels a little guilty about how Joffrey turned out what with all the incest and inbreeding, so that probably makes her feelings about him even more complicated.

Brienne is just an all around kick ass character! I really appreciate that there are all kinds of women in GRRM's world - strong women, weak women, smart women, cunning women, brave women, cowardly women, independent women, powerful women - just women all up in the mix.

I like TV Brienne. Book Brienne was just...really boring. She was a fully realized three dimensional character and not an idealized warrior princess, and I appreciated that. But I found myself skimming more of her POV chapters than I wanted to. Jaime, scum that he is, has a much more vibrant inner life.

I think it would be hard for any mother to kill her son, even a sociopath like Joffrey

She's so not "any mother" by this time, or just any woman, that I do see it as a Cersei-specific limitation. I would (as a show-watcher, not book reader) see her as wanting to get ahead on her son's achievements, but also appalled by him-there's no woobification there, or maternal principle past selfish DNA. I'm trying to put other mothers into a similar position, but I can't even get nearby.