Cersei Lannister

Twin sister of Jaime and eldest child of Tywin, Cersei was married to Robert Baratheon to seal the dynasty he had taken, and spent the marriage loving the brother in her bed and hating the husband beside it. She gave Robert no true heirs — only Jaime's children in Baratheon names — and the lie at the centre of her crown was the fault line every rival eventually found.

She mistrusted and was mistrusted in return: Tyrion for being clever, the Tyrells for being popular, the small council for breathing. After Joffrey's death she ruled as regent for Tommen, gave the Faith its army back to ruin Margaery, and answered every problem with the one instrument King's Landing feared most — the wildfire stored beneath the city since her grandfather's day.

Her last defiance — burning the Great Sept of Baelor with Margaery, the High Sparrow and half the court inside it — cost her Tommen and the crown in the same hour. She took the throne back anyway, the last Lannister standing among the ashes, and her reign ended in the collapsing cellars of the Red Keep with Jaime beside her.