Brienne “The More Beautiful”

Cersei will outlast her children and die by the hands of the valonqar… Jamie Lannister, Azor Ahannister reborn?

But killing Cersei may not forge Lightbringer as she is not his true love like Nissa Nissa. Instead, giving Brienne The Beauty the gift of mercy after Cersei tries to assassinate Brienne leaving her suffering with with a mortal wound and Jamie will give her the gift of mercy at her heart/breast. This will combine Brienne’s soul, a true knights soul with the sword and set it ablaze.

The prophesy

“Queen you shall be… until there comes another, younger and MORE BEAUTIFUL, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.” Anger flashed across the child’s face. “If she tries I will have my brother kill her.” Even then she would not stop, willful child as she was. She still had one more question due her, one more glimpse into her life to come. “Will the king and I have children?” she asked. “Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you.” That made no sense to Cersei. Her thumb was throbbing where she’d cut it, and her blood was dripping on the carpet. How could that be? she wanted to ask, but she was done with her questions. The old woman was not done with her, however. “Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds,” she said. “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

After Cersei loses her children and thus the regency for the throne, what else does she hold dear?

Jaime.

Who has been described as a beauty over and over? Brienne The Beauty. According to the wiki Cersei is born in 266 AC and Brienne in 280 AC, so Brienne is younger. Maggy the frog is a grotesque in appearance. She may have different meaning by beauty. Or using symbolic foreshadowing using sigil and nickname etc. she clearly would see through Cersei’s exterior to know she isn’t beautiful. Far from it. Cersei is the true grotesque at heart.

The Legend of Lightbringer

“Darkness lay over the world and a hero, Azor Ahai, was chosen to fight against it. To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero’s sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over. The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered. The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew before hand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her breast,her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer.”

I think Brienne (or Jamie) may kill Lady Stoneheart (tempering it in water as Tullys are a fish) (hat tip EPK-SG) and that absorbs Stonehearts spirit energy capable of conquering death, then in killing Cersei (the lion) and finally Jamie “Azor Ahannister” could forge lightbringer by giving Brienne his true love the gift of mercy after a botched murder attempt by Cersei or something else of unspeakable horror.

In killing Cersei Jaime will fulfill both the valunqar and come one step closer to fulfilling the Azor Ahai prophesy. In effect Cersei would make her response to the prophesy come true, she will have had her brother kill her after Brienne casts her down (wherever that will come to mean).

When someone called Brienne “The Beauty” to Jaimes face once he got to know and love her for the truly beautiful person she is, he bashed him in the head with his golden hand. This is not book canon but the word “Lord of Light” is almost identical to the word “golden hand” in the Valyrian language GRRM I am sure helped create. Aeksio Onos = Lord of Light in Valyrian. Aeksion Ondos = Golden Hand in Valyrian. I am connecting “Lord of Light” with Azor Ahai, who is the light’s champion.

These things come in threes. First Jamie killed the Mad King, then he will kill the Mad Queen… and lastly as Azor Ahai reborn, being reborn amidst his salt tears and maybe smoke from wildfyre, Jaime will be Azor Ahai an defeat the third and final king, IceBrandon the ice dragon, King of Winter, sacrificing his own life in the process. But his immortal spirit returns to its resting place until humanity needs him to be reborn once again in eons hence in future Long Nights. Perhaps the longest summers on record is what spur these heroes to be born again, because the longest coldest winters follow.

Jaime is the only universal hero in the story. GRRM masterfully puts us off his trail as he maims and almost kills Bran. But we do not know how Bran’s arc will go and whether Bran will be a positive force for humanity in the end. Bran needed to become crippled or bound to be an archetype for Fenrir, the crippled “Bound Wolf” of the Ragnarok Norse myth. The best evidence for that theory is that Hodor is the name of the Norse God of Winter, in effect Hodor has become a meme, a joke and shoved in our faces over and over without us knowing that Hodor is name of The Great Other, the name that must not be spoken. The name which may not be spoken, is said over and over and over.

HOOOOODOOOOOOR!!!

There probably is a magical reason Hodor can’t say anything else. He may be under a spell by the actual Hodor. Brans turn to darkness (unless GRRM flips the trope to mean something else) is evidenced in this quote:

“Never fear the darkness, Bran. The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother’s milk. Darkness will make you strong.” – Three-eyed crow to Bran Stark

Jamie killed the Mad King when he tried to kill 500k innocent people by burning them alive with wildfyre. Jamie saved more people than anyone else in the story by doing so. More recently they suddenly found 300 vats of wildfyre in the city before Stannis’ invasion, perhaps from Aerys’ initial planting. The Mad Queen may go into a rage and try to do something equally mad as burning the whole city and Jaime will need to take her down, more on that below. Jaime is the only person to successfully save everyone, not just defending “good” people and fighting against “bad” folks. Jamie is not freeing the slaves and hurting the masters, but he saved all the people of Kings Landing: the liars, Silent Sisters. cheats, schemers, innocent babes, whores and saints alike. Not saving one group over the other, as he saved followers of The Seven and R’hilor just the same. Jaime is the only universal savior in the story thus far. And he never took credit publicly for it; accepting only the scorn for his actions. That is the real stuff of heros. Only Brienne knows this side of him. Only Brienne knows the truth.

The Game of Thrones and Norse Mythology (Ragnarok) blog author Dorian The Historian said he was reborn amidst the smoky ruins of Harrenhall or the steam of its baths and the salt of the ham Roose Bolton fed them, reminiscent of Renlys joke about Stannis: “Born amidst salt and smoke. Is he a ham?” I am open to his full rebirth not fully having happened yet as his heirs may need to all be dead for Azor Ahais spirit to be back. Only life pays for life.

Speaking of only life pays for life… Qyburn has several ladies in his mad pseudosceintist laboratory, maybe he needs kings blood to seal the deal. Can you imagine what kind of madness Cercei would fall into if she found out that her champion, UnGregor saved her life at the price of her son Tommens life? Or even worse? Leaving her with with unTommen after commanding Qyburn to save him.

Perhaps not having a hand is the only way a person can wield a blazing unaturally hot flaming sword, as anyone else’s hand wouldn’t be able to touch it, never mind fight with it. As you may recall Maester Aemon said Stannis’ sword is a glamour as it gives off no heat. As Lord of Light = Golden Hand maybe he needs the golden hand to be able to wield the sword. Dragonbone is resistant to heat (HT: Radio Westeros) and there is a lot of dragonbones in the Red Keep that Jamie could use to craft another hand/swordhilt.

“There are no men like me. Only me.” – Azor Ahannister

Hat Tip to Radio Westeros for sparking the idea.