Most of the main Lannister family (which includes Jaime, Tyrion, Cersei and Tywin) are not particularly good people to put it mildly. However, from what I have seen, the ASOIAF fans at least try to understand where Jaime, Tyrion and Tywin come from and there are a lot of people who think they are not actually evil people even if they have their faults.
Yet, when it comes to Cersei, the fandom just hates her and think she is irredeemable and evil and constantly dehumanizes her and refuses to see things from her perspective even she is no more morally reprehensible than the rest of her family. Tywin as actually done much worse things than her and Tyrion’s actions are just as bad as Cersei’s and in soe cases can be even worse (I don’t recall Cersei organizing a massive invasion against the Vale where many innocent people are killed or feeding human flesh to unsuspecting poor people).
The fans completely ignore the fact that most of the things Cersei has done are done to protect her children from harm and I honestly don’t even blame her for her actions against Robert and Ned. Robert raped her and he would have executed her children because Cersei commited the “crime” of cheating on her (which is something Robert also did, but when a man does according to the fandom, it’s not a crime, but when a woman cheats on her rapist husband, she is Satan herself and needs to be beheaded along with her children and isn’t allowed to do anything to protect her family from this injustice). Ned endangered her kids wit his actions (just to be clear, I don’t hate Ned but if you look at things from Cersei’s perspective, Ned’s actions would have led to her children being executed) and that’s why I can’t blame her for acting to protect them. But most of the fandom totally ignores how executing a woman and her children because said woman was forced to marry a man she didn’t love and cheated on him is morally wrong and laos conveniently ignores that Robert also cheated on her and raped her (if somebody rapes you repeatedly, I personally would be totally fine with you killing said person even in the present day).
Also, there are some double standards that readers use to judge characters when it’s convenient to them. For example, Cersei isn’t allowed sexual freedom and shouldn’t do anything about her husbadn rping her because “that’s how things were back then” but when Catelyn is cold towards Jon due to his bastard status or when people don’t like Tyrion due to being dwarf, the fans apply modern morality and judge the people who do it harshly even though that also falls under the category of “that’s how things were back then”.
My point is not that Cersei is 100% good and pure and should be excused of all her faults. My point is that she has reasons to be the way she is and she has relatable reasons behind her actions and she should be judged the same way Tyrion or Jaime are judged by the fandom.
by AmphibianJolly8699