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Originally Posted by edslunch
I think the Mad Queen thing is a bit overstated. We could see her mindset deteriorating over time but to me that was the result of circumstances not random madness. Her closest advisors were killed, except for the one that consistently gave her poor advice; two of her children are dead; the mission she sacrificed much of her army for resulted in a double cross by the same family that double-crossed her family years ago; she increasingly clearly has no support in Westeros; she lost her lover; and she lost her legitimate claim to the throne - everything she has been working towards is falling apart.
So what does she do? She does what conquerors have done since the beginning of time - respond with unforgiving brutality to exact revenge and to make an example of their power for the rest of the realm. Making examples through brutality has been her MO all along - crucifixion, execution by dragon, etc. She made a point of sparing the innocents in the past so that is definitely a turn, but is entirely consistent with real world historical norms, not necessarily indicative of madness.
If she doesn’t do this she leaves herself open to challenge by all the other houses based on Jon’s birthright. Instead she decided to assert her claim through fear - what house will challenge a monarch who is not beyond torching a city? Clearly what she did was overkill, having already shown she can defeat military defences with ease, I’m just not convinced that next step can be easily explained as madness.
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This is a fair assessment, but as you noted they have many times shown her to be frustrated and blockaded in the last couple seasons and each time she retreats into previous habits more and more.
I suppose the next episode will show whether or not she is truly insane or simply just Cercei Part Deux.