Spoilers if you haven’t caught the Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones. If you haven’t watched, skedaddle out of here and read one of our other lovely stories, like what we know about GOT Season 5.
Winter may be coming, but Game of Thrones is already here, and tonight’s Season 5 premiere has already introduced us to a notable flashback. Prior to the airing of the episode, fans were wondering exactly when and how the show would shoehorn in flashbacks for the very first time. Although I never expected it to be in the season's opening moments, director Michael Slovis chose the perfect time to give us our first taste of the past in a way that didn't seem choppy or like an introduction to brand new characters. Interestingly, we got to meet young Cersei and fortune teller Maggy the Frog in the first flashback.
Here’s how it went down. Young Cersei was walking with a friend through the woods. While she seemed unconcerned, her friend was timid, afraid of Cersei’s father, Tywin, but also whatever was in the woods. Soon, the two came upon a creepy wooden hut, and young Cersei brazenly walked inside, finding a woman who seemed to be asleep. She soon woke, startled, but Cersei asked to have her fortune told, threatening that she would have the fortune teller, Maggy's, “two boring eyes gouged out of her head.” This isn't a pint-sized human to be trifled with.
The prophecy, however, was the really interesting part. Maggy said a few things that have already come true, including the fact that Cersei would wed a king rather than the prince she was initially betrothed too, and that Robert Baratheon would have 20 children while she would only have three. Interestingly, she also noted that they would eventually wear both gold crowns and gold shrouds, which came off as pretty foreboding (as well as straight from the books). But the other thing that Maggy said was truly interesting.
You’ll wed the king and will be queen. For a time. Then comes another. Younger, more beautiful to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
We’ve known for a while that Margaery is still gunning to remain Queen by taking Tommen’s hand in marriage. Sly looks and secret bedroom visits have already made the teenaged king smitten, and if the Tyrell daughter gets her way, she will officially replace Cersei soon. In fact, Cersei seemed as if she was on borrowed time throughout the Season 5 premiere. Her world is still unraveling, and now she doesn’t even have her father to protect her. Her only ally is Jaime and yet she’s pushing him away. It’s probably no coincidence that Cersei thought of her fortune telling experience in this episode, but we’ll still have to wait and see how it affects her future, just as we’ll have to wait and see how flashbacks will inform the series as it moves forward.
We’ve known for a while that Game of Thrones would flash back to show us young Cersei as a child, an ill-tempered and bossy girl, but one who seems less morally bankrupt than the now-adult version. Originally, the Game of Thrones team was staying mum about what the flashback would entail. Now we know, and it looks like Cersei—and her remaining children—are going to run into trouble.
HBO’s Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. In the meantime, if you would like to comment, please be courteous to our readers who haven’t read the books. Our full book-spoiler heavy response piece will be coming soon.
