The Wolf and the Lion

HBO Max Original Series

He was raised in House Lannister. He served the Iron Throne with absolute loyalty. Then Ned Stark was executed and he had to decide what loyalty actually meant. Set in the first phase of the War of the Five Kings (~298-299 AC) — from Ned Stark's arrival in King's Landing through his execution and the war's opening campaigns — The Wolf and the Lion follows Ceron Lannister, 26, a Black man raised within House Lannister of Casterly Rock as a ward and household knight. He is entirely Westerosi and entirely Lannister-formed: he speaks the Common Tongue, knows the court's ways, serves with the competence the Lannisters demand, and believes — with the specific conviction of someone raised to believe in something — that the crown is worth serving. When Ned Stark is executed and the war begins, Ceron's position becomes untenable: a Lannister man who knows Cersei's schemes are wrong, a knight who took vows he cannot honorably break, and a soldier in a war he cannot morally support. His marriage to Lysa of the Riverlands — a minor noblewoman caught between the war's factions — is the series' central human story. S1E1 — The Lion's Court Ceron in King's Landing at the height of Joffrey's arrival. His reading of the court's new reality is the episode's political intelligence. S1E9 — The Execution Ned Stark executed. Ceron in the crowd, watching. What happens in his face in that moment is the series' most important single shot. S2E12 — The Deserter's Honor Series finale: Ceron makes the choice he has been building toward for two seasons. It costs him everything Lannister. It costs him nothing that matters.

Story added by mr95 on August 9, 2026