The queen was in her cups, Jaime realized. Of late, Cersei always seemed to have a flagon of wine to hand, she who had once scorned Robert Baratheon for his drinking.
[…]
“Cersei, listen to yourself. You are seeing dwarfs in every shadow and making foes of friends. Uncle Kevan is not your enemy. I am not your enemy.”
Her face twisted in fury. “I begged you for your help. I went down on my knees to you, and you refused me!”
——
-from A Feast for Crows
How could I possibly have forgotten how close this was to what happened in my own real life? Please trust me when I say the similarities are almost frightening. I wonder if GRRM went through something similar with someone he cared about — I have no idea how else to account for how absolutely dead-on he is about Cersei’s multiple trauma-induced downfall, from the problem drinking to the new best friend who eggs her on to the rejection of the people who truly have her best interests at heart. If you are ever tempted to reject the AFFC Cersei material as too broad or too blunt, please think of me and know that it’s actually as sharp as a goddamn knife.
