People have been fascinated by the supposed power to foretell the future since ancient times. For example, King Croesus is said to have fought Persia because he heard that he would destroy a great empire by doing so, never realizing that the great empire belonged to him rather than his enemy. Similarly, Themistocles and the rest of the Athenian leadership chose to oppose Xerxes on the sea rather than the land in the Second Persian War, trusting in the Delphian Oracle’s prophecy that a “wall of wood” would be the one thing that remained uncaptured in the subsequent conflict.
In the Game of Thrones setting, prophecy possesses even more power over the minds of people than it ever did in the real world. In part, this is because of the undeniable power of magic, even though it has fallen far from its former heights. However, it should also be noted that House Targaryen came to Dragonstone because one of its daughters dreamed of the Doom of Valyria, thus enabling its members to make their escape in spite of the mockery of their dragon-riding peers. As a result, it is no wonder that more than a few members of the Great Houses in Westeros acknowledge the power of prophecy, so much so that they are willing to act upon it.
Maggy’s Prophecy
With that said, few have gone as far as Cersei Lannister, who has lived most of her life under the awful knowledge of a prophecy spoken by Maggy the Frog, who is by curious coincidence, an ancestor to House Spicer. In brief, the prophecy states that she would be undone by a younger, more beautiful queen, that she would outlive all of her children, and that she would be killed by the valonquar, which is Valyrian for the younger brother.
Who Are the Leading Contenders for the Valonquar?
Cersei believed that the valonquar would be Tyrion, who had been an enemy in her eyes ever since he killed their mother in the process of been born. This is the simplest and most straightforward answer to the question of who the valonquar might be. Moreover, there is a strong argument for this being the case, particularly since Cersei has done much over the course of their respective lives to turn it into something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, not all of the fans are convinced. Some people have pointed out that a younger brother doesn’t have to be Cersei’s younger brother. As a result, some people have suggested other candidates with a more peripheral role in Cersei’s affairs, with Sandor being a particularly popular example. In rarer cases, fans have even suggested younger sisters on the basis that valonquar might not mean younger brother but rather younger sibling, which is not as much an act of grasping for straws as it seems because we know that the Valyrian word for prince can refer to either men or women. Said individuals often suggest Arya as the one who will kill Cersei, which is possible but runs into the same problem as the rest of the non-Lannister candidates. In brief, they are peripheral figures in Cersei’s story, meaning that their use as the ultimate cause of her downfall is less satisfying than someone who actually matters to her on a personal level.
Tyrion, of course, is one of the few people who still matter to Cersei on a personal level. However, there is one more candidate in the form of Jaime, who has been one of Cersei’s pillars of support since their childhood but has since started drifting away upon the realization that she mattered a great deal more to him than he did to her. More importantly, while Cersei and Jaime were fraternal twins, Cersei was the first of the two to emerge from the womb, while Jaime was born clutching her leg. In other words, Jaime is Cersei’s younger brother, meaning that he is just as appropriate as a candidate for the valonquar as their younger brother Tyrion.
Final Thoughts
It remains to be seen who will fulfill the prophecy that has hung over Cersei for most of her life. However, either Tyrion or Jaime would make excellent choices, with one being the nemesis of Cersei’s own creation and the other being the doom that Cersei failed to see because of her monomaniacal focus on all of the other threats out there. Whoever it turns out to be, the revelation is bound to be a dramatic one.
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