In a ritualistic fashion, Arya Stark repeats the names of all the people she intends to gain revenge upon for destroying her family and life. One of the key names on that list is Cersei Lannister. While Arya has not been able to exact vengeance upon everyone on her list, she has managed to scratch a few here and there. With the upcoming Season 6 and in A Dance with Dragons, we anticipate (and see) Arya continuing her training process as an assassin and it’s assumed that her inherent intent is to eventually slaughter the remainder of the people on that list. However, will she be able to nail the Queen or will something else stop her?

This question crossed my mind on several occasions. One thing to remember is the parallels between Game of Thrones and history. In this case, the parallel mostly centered around the War of Roses, where Cersei’s character mirrors Margaret of Anjou. Margaret of Anjou’s fate is that she eventually gets captured and thrown into custody with her former hand maiden Alice Chaucer and later ransomed by Louis XI. But she was forced to give back her family’s wealth and lived in poverty until her death.

Unlike Margaret of Anjou, Cersei has more than one son, but the story with Cersei may still continue in parallel (such as her son going to war and eventually getting killed, leaving Cersei to become broken in spirit, which allows for her capture). I can see that maybe Danerys down the line “pardoning Cersei” if she manages to claim the crown and sentencing Cersei to punishment by poverty. That part certainly goes in line with a portion of the prophecy that haunts Cersei perpetually where she believes a younger and more beautiful woman will slay her.

However, that interpretation of the prophecy only goes so far when it comes to Cersei’s “demise” as it relates to her beloved material wealth and self. The physical part of her end might be at the hands of Arya Stark. So how could that play out? We do see Arya training with poisons and learning disguises. Some people might believe that some day Arya will disguise herself to assassinate Cersei. I cannot see this occurring as impractical as Cersei just hanging around a dinner table and drinking poison. That type of fate might be better left for someone like a Walder Frey.

Instead, my vision of Cersei’s end is a far deeper spiritual one. She might end up in Braavos as a pauper or even as a whore. But a beggar is the most fitting type of irony since she was brought up in wealth and never taught to appreciate her spoils. Then in her darkest moments, she decides to visit the temple of the Many Faced God where she implores for a merciful death. Arya, who is younger and probably grown up to become more beautiful in some ways, might approach Cersei in the guise of someone else, maybe a vision of Cersei’s younger self. Finally, Arya is able to eliminate the final name on her list.

Here, there could be a few endings. One is where Arya sees Cersei for what she is, someone pathetic and haunted by this prophecy that drove her to make poor decisions and possibly sees a part of herself in Cersei. One route is that she immediately pierces Cersei with Needle in a mercy killing, revealing herself to Cersei and telling Cersei that she finally is able to rest since she gains revenge and puts her family’s souls to sleep. Another direction is that she doesn’t perform a mercy killing but enacts a horrible murder and finally becoming no one as she loses her soul to absolute hatred. Lastly, she can enact an even crueler punishment by letting Cersei live and enduring a world of hell by reviewing the regrets in her life.

I feel that one of the most bittersweet moments will lie along these lines for Cersei. She’s a truly tragic figure, mostly because she lacks self-awareness and allows her pride to best her. And in Arya’s case, she’s an unguided soul without the proper mentoring of a loving family to shape her decisions. Her morale compass becomes skewed due to her unrelenting desire for revenge. So for me, the short answer is that yes Arya will definitely play a major role in Cersei’s ending and probably will result in one of the three scenarios outlined above.

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