Lily

Commission by the talented @nautieval.

Cersei and Tyrion Lannister — Greedy for power, for honor, for love.

This commission is full is symbolism because i just love Tyrion and Cersei and the way their arcs link so I’ll just do something David Lynch wouldn’t approve of and over-explain. it’s mostly based on the quote i mentioned ‘Greedy for power, for honor, for love’.

First of all, I think Tywin’s presence (while it’s a piece focused on Cersei and Tyrion) is pretty much straightforward — he’s holding Tyrion and Cersei’s heads, but in some sort of way he’s also forcing them to look at the other with resentment. While Tyrion and Cersei are pretty similar, their hatred of each other was nurtured by Tywin.

There’s also some sort of oppressor vs victim interesting narrative when it comes to cersei. tyrion holds power over her as a man while Cersei does hold some power over Tyrion as someone who’s able-bodied. They both use their in-world oppression against the other (there’s some sort of longing esp on Tyrion’s part, I believe he always craved a connection with Cersei but that was stripped from him from the moment he was born).

Tywin’s shadow is always crushing them, even after he died.

Now, why are they holding hands? This is where the ‘greedy for power, for honor, for LOVE’ part comes from — both Tyrion and Cersei describe each other as people who crave for love, and they’re both, at their core, people who want to be loved no matter how flawed they’re at it. They’re holding hands as a way to portray the connection that was taken from them because of Tywin — their hands are bloodied because of their chase for power, honor and love (especially love!!!!) has tainted them. As much as love’s normally seen as a pure emotion, it’s tainted for Tyrion and Cersei — they’ve hurt and killed for the sake of it; deep down that’s what they both want, love.

The Hand of the King’s chain vs wineskin is kind of my favorite symbolism used for this commission. Cersei murdered Robert Baratheon via Lancel constantly getting him drunk, and Tyrion used the chain to murder Shae, his lover — there are some anti-parallels to mention too, as cersei murdered her abuser, while Tyrion murdered a teenage girl who was practically his victim and this is a great contrast between their actions.

i kinda forgot tumblr existed