First, let’s talk about the sexist double standatds regarding Westerosi marriages which are the reason why Cersei is framed as a villain in the first place even though her actions in the first book are very understandable and I would argue that a lot of people would do them if they were in her place.

We see that Robert constantly cheats on Cersei with countless women and no one bats an eye. Meanwhile, if Cersei sleeps with a man outside of her marriage, it is considered a treason and she woud be executed. The reason for this is sexism and if you support a woman being executed over having an affair outside her marriage (because I have seen a lot of people who think that Cersei should be executed for commiting “treason” against her husband, then you are just supporting the sexist norms of the society because the story is framed from Ned’s POV. If Robert is allowed to have multiple affairs without any consequences, then Cersei should also be allowed to have an affair without being labeled a “traitor” for it.

We live in the 21st century where we have multiple cases of men killing their women for having an affair with another man and all those men are then sent to jail because killing a woman over something like that is no longer considered justifiable (except in some Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, but nobody cares about their opinion). For those reasons, anyone who expresses the opinion that Cersei deserves to be executed for having an affair with Jaime, but have no problem with Robert having affairs with multiple women, should really reevaluate their moral values because the only countries that still hold such values are Saudi Arabia and co while killing women for cheating is no longer considered justifiable in progressive countries.

The other argument is that she tried passing off her own bastards as Robert, but I have to say, so what? If she revealed to anyone that those children are not Robert’s, she an her entire family would have been executed, so it’s pretty understandable why she wouldn’t do it. The female body works differently than the male, so she can’t just pretend that those babies coming out of her vagina are not hers like Robert does with his own bastards. Cersei didn’t do it to usurp the throne, she did it because she didn’t want a man who constantly treated her like badly and raped her on top of that, to impregnate her which is a perfectly reasonable wish, but most fans frame even that decision as some diabolical machination from the “evil” Cersei to enact her schemes.

Plus, do readers from the 21st century really care if a bastard rules the Iron Throne instead of a trueborn son of Robert. Imagine for a moment if Joffrey was actually a good and wise person who would be better suited for the throne than someone like Stannis (not saying he is, just imagine it), would you have a trouble with him ruling just because he is a bastard and not a legitimate heir. Let’s not forget that Robert himself also didn’t inherit the throne, he usurped it from the Targaryen dynasty and took it for himself, so it’s not like he has moral highground over Cersei in that regard either.

Finally, we come to the fact that Robert raped Cersei repeatedly and she is clearly traumatized by the experience and a lot of her negative qualities stem or at least were worsened by the rape she had to endure. This makes me even less inclined to judge Cersei for what she did because when her spouse who is supposed to treat her more nicely constantly rapes her and she can’t escape her abusive marriage, if she found any comfort in Jaime, then good for her, I don’t judge her for this, at all.

The reason why Cersei killed Robert is justifiable because if she didn’t do it, her entire family would have been executed for something that’s not even considered a crime nowadays and is only considered a crime in Westerosi society because almost everyone is a sexist prick and the reason why so many fans consider this to be a “crime” is because they themselves absorb some of the Westerosi sexism since it’s narrated from Ned’s POV or they themselves have some sexist attitudes towards this subject. Also, if somebody rapes a person, I am totally fine with the rape victim killing the rapist.

And about Cersei not taking Ned’s offer, seen from her perspective: Ned’s offer was more a threat than a way out. And that’s why it was stupid for him to go to warn her. He said so himself “wherever you go, Robert’s wrath will follow you”. To her, he might as well had said “I’m going to turn you and your family in now, so you better run and hide before that bounty catch up on you. And it will eventually.”. She would have to live on the run, with her children, being in constant danger of being caught or recognised. Shamed and humiliated by name, with hardly any power or protection against the crown/Robert’s men. Her best bet was to get rid of the threats before the damage was done, and claim the power. There wasn’t really another way out in her mind. “In the game of thrones, you win or die. There is no middleground”

Also, in this situation if you look more closely, Cersei was actually the one trying to keep peace in the Seven Kingdoms even if it was ultimately for self-serving purposes. She reminded Ned that if he exposed her secret, the Seven Kingdoms would go to war because Tywin would not be happy with the result. Let’s face it, Ned wasn’t doing this because of some believe that he was helping the people of the kingdoms by trying to expose Cersei’s secret because even he admits that if he does it, the people of the kingdoms would suffer through war. Also, he doesn’t believe that Joffrey would be a bad ruler because at this point he doesn’t even know him. So, why does he do it? Because his sense of honor wouldn’t allow the Seven Kingdoms to be ruled by anyone other than the legitimate heir of the King. That’s the whole reason why he is willing to risk a war and that’s why I think that the fans who look at the conflict between Ned and Cersei as purely black and white are really wrong about the whole situation and they just look at it that way mostly because it’s presented from Ned’s POV. There was even a post about “the true villains of ASOIAF”. While I wouldn’t call Ned a “villain” at all, this post does bring up the exact same points I am writing about Ned and how his decision to try and imprison Cersei and her children is not really motivated by feeling that they are a threat to the kingdom and its people but because he just doesn’t want the kingdom to be ruled by anyone who is not the legitimate heir to the throne even if in the long run no one will know the difference and his decision indirectly dooms countless innocent people who would die because of the ensuing war. Also, Cersei actually offered him to just return to Winterfell and forget about this, but he still refused and tried to have Cersei and her kids arrested which would have resulted in their eventual executions if Cersei hadn’t acted first, but a lot of fans forget about that.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that Cersei is “good” or that she is not a cruel and vindictive person, so you don’t have to come up with a list of all the bad things she has done in an attempt to convince me that she is “bad”. I am just saying that I don’t blame her for her actions during her marriage with Robert and in the first book because she was repeatedly raped and accused of a “crime” that is only considered a crime because of the sexist standards of her society, I can’t blame her for fighting against this and trying to protect her family against an unjust execution. I am just saying that a lot of fans would actually see the logic behind that if they didn’t constanty frame Cersei as “the villain” and didn’t accept everything that was presented from Ned’s POV for granted just because he is a likeable character and also a lot of people would understandably oppose the people who are trying to execute their families and that if they use a little critical thinking to analyse the whole situation instead of just accepting everything Ned and Robert do as morally pure because one is the main protagonist of the first book and a likeable character while the other is his friend.