25 reasons we love Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones

“You win or you die”

Game of Thrones never really hid the fact that it was an HBO show, with all the attending blood, sex, and murder that it could squeeze in. Seriously, the first episode ends with Jaime pushing a 10-year-old Bran out of the window after having sex with his twin sister, the queen. Speaking of that queen, Cersei herself has one of the lines that accurately sums the entire show up.

Let’s set the scene a little. Ned Stark, after arriving in King’s Landing, has been investigating the parentage of Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen Baratheon. By episode 7, “You Win or You Die,” he knows enough to confront Cersei with the truth. Still dealing with his leg injury from Jaime Lannister, he sits and tells her he knows.

She responds by effectively telling him why she hates Robert Baratheon so much and why he, Ned Stark, made a mistake by not taking the Iron Throne.

He declares it wasn’t a mistake.

She then informs him of the following: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” In one line, she not only drops the title of the show itself, she also names the episode and summarizes the entire show.

The goal is the Iron Throne, and Cersei has every intention of winning.

Ned Stark dies in episode 9.