Cersei: “I will burn their cities to the ground if they touch her.”

Thus spoke Cersei last season in terror and fear for her daughter Myrcella after receiving Ellaria Sand’s dead snake warning. But it’s not the first time Cersei has talked about burning stuff. She threatened to burn the Lannister house to the ground rather than allow Tywin to control Tommen. And though the show has cut much of Cersei’s plotting, let’s not forget that it was Cersei who commissions the pots of wildfire for the coming war with Stannis back in Season 2. (Warning: this post contains a few potential spoilers from A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.)

Knowing this, and knowing that Cersei has now returned to the Red Keep with a steely look of determination that suggests she’s ready for revenge, these rather alarming rumors from Ireland suggest that Cersei’s plan to burn them all might be coming sooner rather than later. This is from reddit:

..And I was walking past the main hangar and the doors were open so I had a cheeky peek in and there was a METRIC SHIT TON of gasoline/petrol. Like i’m talking 20, 20 gallon barrels filled with the stuff. So I thought about it and i’m guessing there’s either going to be a fire in the Red Keep Throne Room, (as that set is built in NI), maybe the whole Cersei going Mad King in Kings Landing will lead up to it or it’s simply being used for fuel for the crew vehicles.

Perhaps fuel for vehicles. But then add in this report from the end of last week:

From sources: Small boats seen and an on hand Fire truck (maybe for back up safety support) entering Titanic Studios in Belfast(Iron Throne) — Irish Thrones (@IrishThrones) August 6, 2015

Now there are several theories as to what this could be for. The first is a moment from the books that was skipped over last season: the burning of the Tower of the Hand. In A Feast For Crows, Cersei burns the Tower with wildfire as part of Tommen and Margaery’s wedding celebrations, as she has decided she cannot look upon it since he father was murdered there. As fun as that might be though, I think the moment for that may have passed. Margaery and Tommen are already married, and unless there’s some other celebratory thing Cersei can try and ruin with bizarre myopic behavior, I cannot see Kevan allowing it.

Other theories are more nebulous. We know that Cersei, having already gone through a traumatic walk, will now be confronted with the body of her daughter, so that’s sure to push her to the edge of her rocker. If Maggy the Frog’s prophecy (“gold will be their crowns and gold will be their shrouds”) proves true, Tommen may not survive next season, which certainly would drive Cersei completely over the edge.

So what would the fire be for? To punish Dorne? To punish Trystane? To punish the High Sparrow, Kevan and all those who are trying to hold her down? If the wildfire is to punish Dorne, would the fire in King’s Landing be an accident? If it’s to punish Tyrstane, would she murder him in the public view, or would it be staged as an accident? Or is Cersei going to start pulling (as many have theorized over the years) a Mad King Aerys and start burning people regularly while she sits upon the Iron Throne and laughs? That is, once she figures out how to get Kevan out of the way? (That is, assuming that Kevan and Grand Maester Pycelle don’t find themselves murdered in the first few episodes of next season.)

One more theory: Cersei sets a fire to the Sept of Baelor to try and kill the High Sparrow and accidentally murder Margaery while she’s at it. Would Tommen then rush in and be killed trying to save the love of his life? How mad would Cersei go if she were the one responsible for Tommen’s death?