The Most Unfortunate Lannister

This post will have Game of Thrones spoilers, so if you haven’t caught up with the latest episode (S03EP05), I recommend turning around and leaving.

Everyone feels bad for Tyrion; poor guy just doesn’t catch a break. But in my honest opinion, I think Jaime’s had it worse. Before you get your pitchforks out, hear me out!

Yes, Tyrion’s father hates him, and his sister always wants to get him in trouble. Other than that, he doesn’t seem to have that big of a problem. People mock him for his height, but remember his advice to Jon Snow in Season 1?

Let me tell you something, Bastard. Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you.

Agreed that it’s not always easy to follow your own advice, but other than that, no one seems to have anything against them. Hell, most people even respect him. But what about his poor older brother Jaime? The only one in his family to love him.

Jaime, according to me, has the saddest tale to tell (except Beric Dondarrion). Yes, he is incestuous, but if you notice, it’s not just some “I just want to bang my sister” kind of an issue; he is truly in love with her. Does that make it alright? Most certainly not, but I can see where he’s coming from. I don’t think twins have otherwise been mentioned anywhere in the show (or the books), and Targaryens always practiced sibling-marriages to keep the bloodline “pure”. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Cersei told Jaime that it was something they had to do to keep the Lannister line pure and solid, and hey, look! Even our rulers do it that way. On top of that, they were twins, and in his mind, it was “destined”. It’s a psychological issue and therefore, I can’t hold that against him. He truly loved her. He never slept with anyone else but Cersei, which is more than what we can say about her. Yes, pushing Bran out of the tower was an awful thing to do but he had to. If anyone else found out, both of them would be put to the sword. Jaime doesn’t care much about himself, he’s always getting into fights where he could potentially get killed, but he does it anyway. He threw Bran out to protect his sister, his lover. Yes, he was a total douche for picking a fight with our beloved Ned Stark, but he did that to send a message across. He loves his brother (lets hope not to the degree to which he loves his sister), and he had to ensure that the Lannister name was still respected and feared.

And now to the topic of “Kingslayer”. I mean, come on, that is such a cool name to be called. I wish my friends called me that. It sounds badass, doesn’t it? But in Jaime’s context, he is called “Kingslayer” not because he killed the Mad King and saved the realm or anything, but because he betrayed his king and slew (not like slu) him in cold blood. It was a demeaning nickname; he was judged for it. As a member of the Kingsguard, it was his duty to protect the king. Much like the Night’s Watch, when you join the Kingsguard, you give up your right to land, wife/children, or any such thing – your only duty is to protect the King at any and all cost. Yet, Jaime did the exact opposite when his father came through the gates of King’s Landing. And he was rightfully judged and mocked for it. Or so you may think. Earlier in the show, he says this when he’s captured:

So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another.

At first, to the non-readers, this may not make sense, but the latest episode shredded some light on this. When he tells Brienne about his side of the story, you really understand how misunderstood he is (I didn’t mean for that to happen). Here is his monologue:

The mad king was obsessed with it (wildfire). He loved to watch people burn, the way their skin blackened, blistered, melted off their bones. He burned lords he didn’t like; he burned Hands that disobeyed him; he burned anyone that was against him. Before long, half the country was against him. Aerys saw traitors everywhere, so he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city: beneath the Sept of Baelor, the slums of flea bottom, under houses, stables, taverns, even beneath the Red Keep itself. Finally, the day of reckoning came. Robert Baratheon marched upon the capitol after his victory at the Trident. But my father arrived first with the whole Lannister army at his back, promising to defend the city against the rebels. I knew my father better than that. He’s never been one to pick the losing side. I told the mad king as much. I urged him to surrender peacefully. But the king didn’t listen to me, didn’t listen to Varys, who tried to warn him. But he did listen to Grandmaester Pycell, that grey sunken cunt. “You can trust the Lannisters,” he said. “The Lannisters have always been true friends of the crown.” So, we opened the gates and my father sacked the city. Once again I came to the king begging him to surrender. He told me to bring him my father’s head. Then he turned to his pyromancer, “Burn them all,” he said. “Burn them in their homes, burn them in their beds.” Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men women and children were burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then? First, I killed the pyromancer, and then when the king turned to flee I drove my sword into his back. “Burn them all,” he kept saying. “Burn them all.” I don’t think he expected to die. He meant to burn with the rest of us and rise again reborn as a dragon and turn his enemies to ash. I slit his throat to make sure that didn’t happen. That’s where Ned Stark found me.

He had choices to make. Some really important one. Was he going to kill his own father and do his duty or kill the king he had sworn to protect? If he killed his father, he would have been called “Kinslayer” and lets face it, none of us would be able to kill our own father. If he killed the King, he would have brought an immediate end to the war, and he could have saved the innocent people of the city from dying a painful death, by burning alive. He had to act quick, and he knew that the consequences either way would be heavy. Now keep in mind, he wasn’t older than 16-17 years old at the time of the incident. And I would have just had a meltdown under that kind of pressure. He never told a soul about his true motives behind killing the King; he was humble, in his own way. He could have claimed the throne for himself or his father, but he waited and gave it over to Ned Stark for Robert Baratheon. He did what was necessary. He was a teenager who changed the way the war was going on, and brought an end to it. He saved the lives of thousands of people. He was a tool in the feud between his father and his King. I say he deserves some respect.

What made him who he was, were his skills in combat. Often called the greatest swordsman in all of Westeros, Jaime had something to be proud about, openly. That is up until Locke (or Vargo Hoat, in the books) took that away from him, chopping his right hand off. Without his swordhand, he is nothing. He can no longer fight (as effectively) and in his own world, he has no purpose left. He is miles away from the woman he loves, without any guarantee of ever seeing her, the only thing he could be openly proud about is taken from him, and he has given up the right to be the heir of Casterly Rock after his father.

Jaime Lannister has nothing going on for him. His body and spirit have both been crushed.