These 12 television mothers are just downright bad moms

Cersei Lannister – Game of Thrones

Origin story: Cersei is the daughter of a powerful and rich father with little patience for weakness. She has two brothers, one of whom is in an incestuous relationship with her, and she is in constant competition with them. It seems like Cersei never received healthy, functional love, and her ruthlessness grew out of a place of worthlessness and neglect.

Her worst deeds: As far as a mother goes, she was a stage mom a million times. Her need to see her son, Joffrey, succeed, led her to do a lot of really horrible things — including murder, bribery, treachery, and more. However, strong her maternal instincts were, she produced a young man so repugnant — so universally hated — that even this own father(s) had a hard time loving him. He wound up dying a terrible death, and Cersei was a little to blame.

It is obvious she loved her children, in theory, but in practice, she is a manipulative, power-hungry, megalomaniac who would sacrifice anything to get to the Iron Throne. This includes her daughter, Myrcella, as she is inadvertently responsible for her death at the hands of the Sand Snakes. Her other son, Tommen, was pushed to the point of suicide by his mother, and it didn’t take her long to assume his title as ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. In fact, she is only in contention for the Iron Throne because of Tommen’s death.

Where to find her: You may have heard something about it here and there, but Game of Thrones is currently airing its eighth and final season right now. To catch up, you will have to check into HBO’s streaming service, or use the Hulu add-on.