Worst after-effect of the first season? The atrocious portrayal of Cersei has caused the Cersei-apologists to crawl out of the woodwork in full force. Poor girl is apparently just the victim of the men around her.
Sure, it wasn’t easy growing up with Tywin Lannister as a father. Sure, being a twin underscored the inequality between men and women in a particularly strong fashion way for her when Jaime got to do things she wasn’t allowed to do.
The normal reaction to that is still not to sleep with your twin, to hurt your infant dwarf brother or to murder your best friend as a young teenager. Cersei is not normal, there’s something wrong with her. She’s not quite as much of a psychopath/sociopath as Joffrey, but she’s clearly lacking impulse control and ability to empathize and sympathize with others. She is also very self-centered and focused on what is good for herself, with her children and (sometimes) Jaime being viewed as extensions of herself.
The worst disservice of the first season was the scene between Cersei and Robert. Cersei was never truly prepared to give Robert a chance, even before he said Lyanna’s name. If he had not done so, she would still have continued to sleep with Jaime, just as she did on her wedding day. Maybe she would have accepted having a child by Robert, its possible, but she would have happily continued to cheat on her husband without any remorse whatsoever. Sure, Robert would also have been cheating on her, but whatever one thinks of that, the fact remains that Robert’s whoring around would never risk any bastards being passed off as legitimate heirs. But such small considerations aren’t allowed to get in the way of Cersei’s own pleasure.
Was she the only one making the marriage bad? No, Robert did his part too, but I don’t think he would have been coming drunk to her bed if she hadn’t been insisting on demonstrating her disgust with him every time after their wedding night. And they both had a duty to produce heirs, so its not like he could just stop trying. He could have been a good deal more considerate, but ultimately he would have had to sleep with her now and then, even if she insisted on just lying there.
I expect the second season will continue this ridiculous rewrite of Cersei judging by how the trailer has her talking about her sins and sounding remorseful. In the end, I don’t really care that she’s unwatchable on the show, but I do care when people bring it into their discussion of canon-Cersei.
Who is a very unpleasant and, yes, a pretty evil person.