Game of Thrones 7.3 "The Queen's Justice" (spoiler alert)

[politicat]

37. Back in Season four...

Once upon a time, The Queen of Thorns' favorite granddaughter (Maergery) was to be married to Joffrey, the King Shit of Turd Mountain, the Biggest Waste of Space in all of the 7 kingdoms, Monster in Graduate Training and the actual child of Cersei and Jamie. Then Joff the Tosser got poisoned at his own wedding to Maergery, and it was not a nice poisoning. Pretty much nobody was actually *sad* except Cersei. Even Jamie seemed to have a lot of mixed feelings that Joff was dead.

Cersei (and to be fair, almost everyone) blamed Tyrion, which is ultimately why Tyrion was wandering the eastern deserts, got enslaved and ended up with Danerys.

But The Queen of Thorns was the actual poisoner, and we've known that thanks to a single, almost throwaway line that she told Maergery almost three years ago. (You didn't think I'd let you marry that monster?) So we've been sitting on this ever since.

Jamie made the strategically sound decision to consolidate resources and not fight for something that doesn't have much strategic value: Casterly Rock. Once upon a time, it was a gold mine, but it hasn't been significantly productive in years; it's in the far west of the country (while Dany and Cersei are basically just out of line of sight of each other, across the Blackwater Bay, on the east -- think the distance from Dublin to Liverpool), while most of the war will be in the east. The Lannisters (and again to be fair, most of the aristocracy) has been surviving on credit for a loooong time. Which is why the Iron Bank is calling in their loans (and really should have done so a long time back). Strategically, the food and agricultural produce of the Tyrell lands is going to far more valuable.

The Queen of Thorns' confession was her way of winning some of the war. It turned Jamie's apparently easy victory into moral ashes and will likely ultimately maybe open Jamie's eyes to the depth of manipulation he's been subjected to. That's just how she has always rolled -- Lady Olenna's goal, as far as I can tell, has always been to force those around her to open their eyes to uncomfortable truths and face them. And a lovely final exit for her. But I don't expect the Lannisters to have much luck with the Tyrell holdings, as Tyrion outlined: people may fear Cersei, but fear doesn't make people work, and the Tyrell people loved their aristocracy. They're not fighters, but that doesn't mean they're not saboteurs and subversives.