This 'Game of Thrones' theory about Cersei's maid is convincing a lot of people

Game of Thrones fans theories have always ranged from outlandishly ridiculous to so convincing you immediately take them as canon. For every ‘Varys is a mermaid’ and ‘Daario, Euron and Benjen are actually the same person’, there’s an ‘R+L=J’.

And this new theory about Cersei’s maid definitely falls much closer to the latter category – get ready to be convinced.

So, in the most recent episode, you might remember a scene where Cersei and Jaime are in bed together, and they hear a knock on the door. Jaime tells Cersei to ignore it, saying “no one can see us like this”, but Cersei doesn’t care. She gets up and opens the door for her maid, who sees Jaime lying naked in bed, but remains schtum. She ain’t saying nothing.

Some fans were trying to work out who this maid was – we’ve never seen her before, right? But actually, it’s the same maid Cersei has always had – Bernadette – she just looks a little different this season.

See, Bernadette has been known to adopt her Queen’s style, and with Cersei now seemingly opting for her shorter pixie cut full-time, the maid has followed suit, cropping her hair short. Here’s a little chart of their changing styles:

Why is this relevant? Well, what this tells us is that clearly Cersei trusts Bernadette implicitly – maybe even with her life. 

Bernadette has proven her loyalty to Cersei on many an occasion. Back in Season 2 she found Sansa trying to hide evidence of her first ever period, in a desperate bid to avoid sex with Joffrey. Bernadette immediately rushed to expose her secret to Cersei. In the third and fourth season, Bernadette spied on Tyrion for Cersei in order to find out the identity of his secret lover – and, again, gave up this information of her own free will.

Bernadette was there to help Cersei into her clothes before the Queen watched the Sept of Baelor explode in plumes of wildfire, and she’s at her side now. Cersei does not have many allies, but Bernadette is certainly one of them.

Which makes hers the perfect identity for someone to assume if they were trying to take Cersei down. Perhaps someone who knows how to steal faces.

If Arya does decide at any point to reignite her mission to kill the Queen, then Bernadette’s face would be the perfect one to wear. Her character isn’t in George R. R. Martin’s books, and this isn’t a show that keeps a lot of loose ends, so maybe she’s being kept around for this exact reason.

Arya killing Cersei would go against Maggy the Frog’s prophecy that she will be murdered by her ‘valonquar’ – High Valyrian for younger brother. Cersei has always believed this refers to Tyrion, but most fans feel that actually, Jaime may be the one to do the deed, once his sister and lover finally pushes him over the edge.

Thing is, after this week’s episode, Cersei and Jaime seem stronger than ever, so maybe the rift that everyone’s expecting will never actually come to pass.

There’s also another bit of Maggy the Frog’s prophecy which states Cersei will be struck down by “another, younger and more beautiful”. Perhaps this refers to Bernadatte? Or Arya? Though someone like Sansa would be more fitting. It could have also referred to Margaery, whose brief marriage to Tommen took away Cersei’s right to call herself Queen.

So what do you reckon? Will Arya use Bernadette’s face to take down Cersei, or is this just a red herring?