Name: Game of Thrones: Why Daenerys Was Cersei All Along - Two Sides of the Same Queen
Uploaded: 2019-05-21T05:19:35.000Z
Duration: 19 min 27 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

From the start of Game of Thrones
there's been a hidden thread,

connecting two characters:
Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.

These two women have shared
a stunning number of things in common.

Essentially, all along they've been
inverse mirrors of each other,

At its core, their opposition stems
from where they start out:

One grows up in a rich
position of maximum privilege,

while the other grows up poor
across the world from the Iron Throne.

All of Game of Thrones
has been structured around

the trajectory of these two exceptional
and dangerous women

So here's our take on why
the showdown between Cersei and Daenerys

was always the endgame,
and how their conflict reveals

“Do not become what you have
always struggled to defeat.”

NordVPN is the best VPN,
or virtual private network, out there.

Right now, they're offering our viewers
a limited time deal.

All you have to do is click the link
in the description below

to get seventy-five percent off
a three year plan.

That comes out to just two ninety-nine
per month.

And if you enter the code THETAKE
you'll also get an extra month

Let's look at all that Daenerys
and Cersei have in common.

They're both blonde,
highborn women with two brothers.

They're given in a strategic,
arranged marriage

by their male relative
who wants to get the family

Their husband is a dark-haired warrior
who they develop feelings for.

“I felt something
for you once you know.”

Both lose a baby with this husband,
and cause the husband's death,

They have three children, of sorts
not by that husband.

Both have a self-image
that centers on being a mother.

“But when the fire burned out
I was unhurt, the mother of dragons.”

While their kids are to varying degrees
dangerous and feared,

and are killed off one by one,
We might also say that, for each,

if you count Viserion
becoming an ice dragon.

And the second is killed by a sudden,
surprise attack they don't see coming.

They share incredible beauty,
which they use matter-of-factly

“You shall have
what your heart desires,

“And in order to forge a lasting bond
with the Meereenese people,

I will marry the leader
of an ancient family.”

and aren't content to be
merely the wife of the ruler.

“I should wear the armor
and you the gown.”

“Do you think she wants to share
the throne?”

They're both products
of what our world would call incest.

Dany's parents were brother and sister,
while Cersei's parents were cousins.

And they both have
an incestuous love affair.

They grow up without a mother
and for most of their childhood,

under the thumb of a controlling,
male family member.

Both feel that they've been
underestimated by their worlds,

and have to prove time and time again
that they're more than others see.

“Did it ever occur to you
that I might be the one

who deserves your confidence
and your trust, not your sons?”

of the blood of Old Valyria,
and I will take what is mine.”

Both women receive unsettling prophecies
about their futures.

On top of all this,
throughout the series,

they've gone through similar challenges
around the same time.

In season one, they're both queens
through marriage to a male ruler,

and after that,
each starts to build her own power

In season six, they're captured
and treated inhumanely,

and they respond by mercilessly burning
those who were foolish enough

All of these echoes
running through the story

signal that author George R.R. Martin
wants us to be actively comparing

these two incredibly bright,
powerful women.

They get a lot of
the same obstacles thrown at them,

yet, for much of the story,
Daenerys is the role model,

“Put their heads on spikes
outside the stables as a warning.”

Time and again, we see Dany turn
a seemingly hopeless situation

while Cersei continues to
view herself as a victim

no matter how many she hurts
and oppresses.

but Dany transforms hers
into a loving union,

When Daenerys sees
that her children are dangerous,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Game of Thrones: Why Daenerys Was Cersei All Along - Two Sides of the Same Queen

content

material

matter

journey