Cersei Lannister is the worst person of The Last of the Starks in Game of Thrones.

After each episode of Game of Thrones season 8, we will answer a crucial question: who is currently the worst person in Westeros? This week, editorial assistant Rachelle Hampton is joined by Slate Associate Editor Seth Maxon.

Rachelle Hampton: Hi Seth, and thank you for joining me in deciding the worst person this week in Westeros! There are many contenders now that the army of the dead is now dead and Cersei is back on the board after what I can imagine being a nice nap last week. She was really in the form of Mad Queen this week, managing to kill the only morally pure character in this series and breaking my heart.

But back to the beginning of "The Last of the Starks", which opens with a solemn reminder of the person who died during the Battle of Winterfell – let's set everything up for my daughter, Lyanna. This merry feast after the battle had a lot to do, from drinking games to this extremely strange interaction between Sansa and the Dog to Dany who decided to make Lord Giffry on the fly. This last gesture was a little politicized and was perhaps one of the only intelligent decisions made by Dany during the season, proving that she too can be as smart as supposedly Tyrion.

And speaking of his intelligence, he is, again, not found in this episode. In trying vainly to convince Cersei that she is not a monster, going through her loyalty to Dany in spite of her obvious crazy (and discreet, badly written) ascent, Tyrion is a shadow of himself. Is his misplaced trust enough to make him the worst episode of his life?

Seth Maxon: Before arriving at Tyrion, let's talk about this battle feast. Given the stakes and the short time remaining in the series, it is quite surprising how much of the first half-hour of this episode was centered on the fact that the characters drop out or do not drop, or even give up the future . (Pause hard, now, Lord Gendry.) The world is almost done, though, and they are all astonished to be alive, so I guess getting drunk and feeling down is like a proper party. The chaim!

Tyrion continues to seem misled – but I think that more is happening here than blind trust. It was not false in this last scene thinking that he is, at this point, the only person with a hint of hope to convince Cersei of anything. They grew up together and, despite everything, he knows her more deeply than anyone on both sides of this impending conflict. Talking to Cersei might have been futile, but I think he was right in trying to appeal to her because it was the only chance he had to stop the war. . His tongue, it is said, is his greatest weapon and speaking was then all he could do. And in terms of his loyalty to Dany's unsatisfactory narrative descent, Tyrion seems mostly motivated by what he mentioned to Sansa about barricades: fear. He is probably wrong when he tells Varys that Dany is the best leader for Westeros, but he is not bad for being afraid of his anger.

What about Daenerys herself? While the rest of Winterfell was mourning and drinking sorrow (and descending), she began this episode by swirling quickly from "humanity is lucky to have survived the apocalypse; a group of people we love are dead "at" the game is back. "And she constantly ignored the advice of her most intelligent and allied advisers (including Sansa, again) and in doing so, increased her chances in the war against Cersei, she saw her closest confidant and her dragon child being killed and (with Cersei) made mass death inevitable almost inevitably Daenerys is the worst?

Hampton: Even if it's hard for me to say, this week's Daenerys decisions have finally made sense. I may be getting used to his megalomania and his unique talent to bring together advisors for the sole purpose of ignoring their advice. I could just want her to burn King's Landing after the queen of my heart Missandei is dead, who knows! But the decision to march his troops immediately south after going through this battle was not a decision she made alone: ​​Jon and Tyrion both seemed to agree. And it does not really seem that waiting a few weeks would have prevented this sneaky Euron attack that should not have worked without effort. She flies thousands of meters in the air and does not see a battalion of ships? Only one of his dragons can rotate now? I'm calling bullshit. In terms of who is more directly responsible for the thousands of deaths that we will certainly see in the coming weeks, I must unfortunately say that Dany does not share the same blame with Cersei.

Of course, Jaime's decision to return to Cersei's side is all the more depressing. His slow evolution of consciousness, apparently cemented by his northward turn and his relationship with Brienne, was one of the most fascinating parts of the series in its current state. And then he throws all this for his sister's crazy pants. While I hate what the writers did in Brienne in her final battle-hardened battle scene, she would never have told Jaime to turn away from a fight – I hate Jaime's return to the dark, incestuous side. But what are you saying, Seth?

Maxon: Man, good point on the dragons and the queen of the dragon missing the Euron fleet from above. Get your dragon heads in the game, all of you. And Missandei absolutely deserves to be avenged; I wish it for all of us. But I think the most important point about Dany is that Jon and Tyrion supported her when they might have the power to stop him. The responsibility for the forthcoming bloodshed is indeed shared, between them as well as with Cersei.

Jaime preparing to return to his sister's home was hard to watch. He is destroying everything he has built – in himself and with Brienne – to succumb to his ultimate demon. The great Ser Brienne believed in Jaime and he betrays this faith. But I think there is more to his choice than what can be immediately obvious. Now that humanity is saved, he probably thinks that he owes his loyalty to the person to whom he has always been the most faithful. And, in his self-hatred, he is more faithful to what he really is. He thinks he is a mythical knight – and at bottom he is one – and that it would not be the same for Brienne to play in a great war. I think Brienne will be right about Jaime's nature at the end. "Return to Cersei" is also the only way for him to stop him personally. The regicide can not kill the Winterfell queen. At King's Landing, he can still.

As for the Queen, it is her refusal to join the struggle for the survival of humanity and her clash at the throne at the expense of all the other factors that led to this war. If we believe the prognosticators, thousands of people will die to remain on the throne and transmit power to her baby. These are the only goals of Cersei. And perhaps even colder again: she ordered Missandei to be decapitated. You see where I'm going here.

Hampton: I see where you are going and I am with you. From the moment Cersei arrived on this platform with Missandei, it was obvious that it was going to happen and that it was going to cement her as The Worst. But to be thorough, let's review his crimes against humanity this week. Normally, Cersei's nastiness amuses me at least, and as I said last week, she inspires in me the wine aunt who seeks vengeance. But not this episode. First of all, she used her people as a human shield and as a hostage to place him in the Red Keep to maximize human benefits if and when Dany decided to storm the city. Then she lies to Euron about the paternity of her baby – which, frankly, does not interest me, but is not great. One of the cruelest moments is to put Missandei back in the strings while making fun of Dany's "chainbreaker" title.

Of course, what turns it into the world of the worst people is this decapitation, which was not only heartbreaking, but stupid from a pragmatic point of view. Keeping Missandei hostage while refusing to surrender would have made a lot more sense in the long run. It would also have kept some of Dany's rage, thus minimizing the risk that she decides to use the scorched earth tactic and limit the losses. Before that moment, just like Tyrion, I had the slightest hope that Cersei was not content to rule a blazing town of screaming children just to say that she won. Now, it's fair to say that hope is as dead as the mountain was. Cersei was not always a saint, but was his actions this week enough to call him our worst person?

Maxon: I think they were. I, too, can not be too moved by Euron, mistakenly thinking he is a future dad, but it is a long and awful list of cruelty and death. And why? A long history of cruelty does not exonerate more cruelty. Cersei Lannister, some weeks you have that vengeful wine aunt charm, but this week …

Hampton: Even a pitcher of the best Dornish wine did not stop you from becoming the worst person in Westeros.