Jaime Lannister

"There are no men like me. Only me."

- Jaime Lannister

Jaime Lannister is a major character in the first and second seasons. He is played by starring cast member Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and debuts in the series premiere. Ser Jaime Lannister is a knight of the Kingsguard and is in love with his twin sister, Queen Cersei Lannister, with whom he has been sexually involved for years. He and Lord Eddard Stark have had a caustic relationship ever since Jaime killed King Aerys, an act Eddard thinks dishonorable. Jaime Lannister comes to Winterfell in King Robert's entourage, and he pushes Bran Stark from a derelict tower when Bran sees him having intercourse with Cersei. Bran survives but is paralyzed and with no memory of the event. After evidence that implicated House Lannister emerged and a feud with House Stark was sparked, Jaime left his post to join his father, Lord Tywin Lannister, in his attack against the Riverlands. After King Robert Baratheon's death and the dismissal of Lord Commander Barristan Selmy, Jaime was promoted in absentia to Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Jaime was laying siege to Riverrun when his son Joffrey assumed the Iron Throne. Jaime was captured by Robb Stark's forces during the Battle of the Whispering Wood but was later released by Catelyn Stark in an attempt to make an unofficial exchange for Sansa and Arya Stark. Ser Jaime is currently being escorted to King's Landing by Brienne of Tarth.

Background
Ser Jaime Lannister is a knight of the Kingsguard, a position he has held for twenty years since he was a teenager. He was appointed to the position by the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen. At the conclusion of Robert's Rebellion, Jaime's father Tywin betrayed King Aerys by arriving at the gates of King's Landing with the main Lannister army and pleading his allegiance, then after his army was allowed inside the gates, turning them loose to attack the city. As Lannister soldiers raped and pillaged throughout the city during the Sack of King's Landing, King Aerys remained holed up inside the Red Keep, for hours maniacally repeating the order to "burn them all". Despite being sworn by the holiest oaths to protect the king as a member of the Kingsguard, Jaime ultimately turned his own sword on Aerys, slaying him at the foot of the Iron Throne itself. For this infamous act, he earned the epithet "Kingslayer".

He was forgiven his breaking of his vows by King Robert Baratheon and permitted to remain in the Kingsguard as part of Robert's alliance with House Lannister, along with the marriage of Jaime's twin sister Cersei to Robert. In addition to the slaying of the Mad King, Jaime is known for his good looks, arrogant demeanor, and superb martial skills. He is so skilled with a sword that he claims that there are only 3 men in the seven kingdoms which may have a chance at beating him in a fair duel.

Jaime is the eldest son of Joanna Lannister and Lord Tywin Lannister. Tywin is the head of House Lannister, the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms and Lord Paramount of the Westerlands. The Westerlands are one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms and House Lannister is one of the Great Houses of the realm. Jaime had great difficulty learning to read as a child because he transposed letters in his mind. Tywin sat with him through 4 hour a day practices until he learnt. Jaime resented being forced to spend so much time on reading.

Jaime is the older brother of Tyrion and the twin brother of Cersei. Their mother died giving birth to Tyrion. Due to his place in the Kingsguard, Jaime cannot inherit his father's lands or titles, making Tyrion his father's heir; a fact which vexes Tywin. Unlike Cersei and Tywin, Jaime always treated Tyrion with a degree of kindness and respect. In a secret known to only a few, Jaime is Cersei's lover and the biological father of her children, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, whom the world believes are Robert's kin.

Season 1
In King's Landing, Jaime counsels his sister, Cersei over fears that Jon Arryn may have discovered their secret prior to his death. Jaime argues that even if he knew, Arryn did not inform the king, for if he had, they would already be dead. If Arryn knew, his knowledge died with him. He accompanies King Robert to Winterfell where he plans to ask Eddard Stark to replace Jon Arryn as Hand of the King. After their arrival, Cersei sends Jaime to find their younger brother Tyrion. Jaime tracks Tyrion to a brothel, tells him that he is needed at the feast that night and brings him several whores to speed his exit.

At the evening feast, Jaime blocks Eddard's path and asks if there will be a possibility of their competing against each other at a tournament. Eddard dismissively says no as he doesn't play at fighting and doesn't show off to let opponent know his abilities. The next day Jaime talks to John Snow in the courtyard. Ostensibly, he thanks Jon for his service joining the Night Watch, but really he is making fun of him, as those from the south see it as waste of time. It's ironic that he makes fun of an order that denies marriage and is joined for life when he joined such an order himself.

Eddard and Robert go hunting, leaving the castle largely empty. Cersei and Jaime liaise in derelict tower. Bran Stark climbs the tower and finds them engaged in sexual intercourse. He is caught watching by Cersei, and Jaime grabs him. He asks how old Bran is. When Bran replies "Ten", Jaime sighs and pushes him out of the window, saying "The things I do for love".

Several days later at breakfast, Tyrion tells his family that Bran is expected to live and notes his sibling's guarded reactions to the news. Tyrion informs them of his decision to journey north to see the Wall before returning to King's Landing. The parties depart Winterfell. Jaime is with the group traveling south to King's Landing.

The royal party reaches King's landing. Eddard barely has time to get off his horse before he is asked to attend a meeting of the king's small council. Jaime awaits him in the throne room. Jaime is unhappy with Eddard judging him for killing the Mad King, the murderer of Eddard's father and brother, but Eddard is unapologetic. He says it wasn't justice that drove Jaime to kill Aerys, and that Jaime served Aerys loyally when serving was the easier thing to do.



A raven arrives at King's Landing with news of Bran's recovery. In the capital Cersei fears he will expose their secret, but Jaime comforts her. Elsewhere, Robert swaps old war stories with Ser Barristan Selmy, a distinguished and famous knight and commander of the Kingsguard. Jaime is called in to join them. He tells them that the first man he killed was an outlaw from the Kingswood, and, as he took off the man's head, there were no last words. Robert disappointed in not being able to mock him about this, turns to questioning him about his role in the death of the Mad King, for killing a defenceless old man. Jaime points out that the old man had spent the day ordering the execution of supposed traitors and criminals by having them be burned alive.

Jaime guards the king's bedroom whilst Robert cavorts with several women, Jaime taking it as a calculated insult to himself and his sister. He reminisces with Jory Cassel, the captain of Eddard's household guards, about the Siege of Pyke during the Greyjoy Rebellion and the fierceness of the fighting.

Upon hearing of his brother's capture by Catelyn Stark, he confronts Eddard in the streets of King's Landing. Knowing that killing Eddard will result in Tyrion's death, he instead has Eddard's guards executed, stabbing Jory through the eye himself. He and Eddard cross swords, and Jaime is surprised that Eddard is a match for him. The fight ends prematurely when a Lannister guardsmen stabs Eddard through the leg. An irritated Jaime knocks out the guardsman and then departs the city, telling Eddard that he wants his brother back.

Jaime joins the army of his father, Tywin Lannister, in the field. Tywin laments Jaime's pride and how he spends so much effort trying to convince others he doesn't care what they think of him. Tywin is incredulous and disgusted that Jaime would let Eddard live and go free because his victory was not "clean". He says that if other Houses think they can take a Lannister hostage and not suffer for it they will lose respect for the Lannister name. Tywin says that Jaime must accept responsibility for the future destiny of their house, which will be decided by this war against the Tullys and Starks. They will either die out like the Targaryens or begin a dynasty that will last 1,000 years. He gives Jaime thirty thousand men and sends him to besiege Riverrun. In King's Landing, Eddard tells Cersei that he knows that Jaime is the true father of Cersei's three children. She admits it, saying they have loved one another from the womb and are destined to be together always.

Some weeks later, Ser Kevan Lannister, Jaime's uncle, tells Tyrion that Jaime has won several significant battles, smashing a host of the river lords at the Golden Tooth and is now laying siege to Riverrun.

Robb Stark marches two thousand men towards Tywin's forces in order to create a distraction. The remaining force feints outside Riverrun, drawing out Jaime and a small number of troops to deal with what appears to be a small scouting party, and Jaime is taken prisoner in the resulting Battle of the Whispering Wood. Jaime offers to fight Robb in single combat to decide the war, but Robb knows that Jaime is better at swords than he is and says they aren't going to do it his way. Robb initially intends to use Jaime as a bargaining chip for his father's and sisters' lives. However, Eddard is executed in King's Landing before news of Jaime's capture can reach the capital.

Catelyn Stark visits the captive Jaime, he taunts Catelyn, saying widowhood suits her, informing her that he would have sex with her if she was lonely. She hits him in the head with a rock. Jaime knows that the Starks won't kill him as long as his sister holds Sansa and Arya hostage, but Jaime Lannister always taunts others while he is in chains to show them he doesn't fear them and they aren't superior to him. She says he has gone against the laws of gods and man, he says, "What Gods?" Where were her gods when her husband was killed. When she says injustice in the world is because of men like him, he tells her, "There are no men like me. Only me." When asked directly, he admits pushing Bran from the tower, but doesn't reveal why.

Season 2

 * Main: Jaime Lannister Season 2

Jaime remains a captive of House Stark. King Robb Stark keeps Jaime caged and chained to a post in his camp at all times to prevent Lord Tywin bribing or threatening one of his bannermen into giving him up. Jaime remains defiant, taunting and insulting Robb when he comes to confront him. King Stannis Baratheon has made Joffrey's parentage pulic, by sending letters to all the lords throughout the kingdom, exposing Jaime's incest with Cersei. Jaime counters that Stannis has a personal stake in these accusations, as if all of Cersei's children are Jaime's bastards that means Stannis is heir to the throne. However it is Jaime who is intimidated when Robb threatens him with his snarling direwolf Grey Wind.

Months later, Jaime is joined in his cell by his distant cousin Alton Lannister. They talk about the time Alton served as Jaime's squire at a tournament, and Jaime tell him about his own experiences as squire of Ser Barristan Selmy. Drawing Alton Lannister closer, Jaime seizes the opportunity to escape. When he leans over to hear Jaime whisper about an escape plan, Jaime head butts him then strikes him in the head repeatedly cracking his skull. When the guard (Torrhen Karstark) is distracted by discovering Alton's body bloody and convulsing, Jamie strangles him to death and takes his keys to free himself from his chains.

Jaime is soon recaptured. Lord Rickard Karstark demands Jaime's head for killing his son. Catelyn Stark convinces Rickard to wait until Robb returns but fears that his patience will not hold. Catelyn visits Jaime's cell with her female guard Brienne. She accuses Jaime of being a man without honor because of his broken vows. Jaime explains his view that his vows frequently conflicted with one another. He asserts that he has more honor than some; he reveals that Cersei is the only one he has slept with and reminds Catelyn how her husband Eddard Stark cheated on her and fathered Jon Snow. Catelyn releases Jaime. She tasks Brienne with escorting him to King's Landing to exchange him for her captive daughters.

Brienne successfully smuggles him out of the camp on horseback and then they travel by rowboat to evade pursuit. Jaime needles her about her appearance and masculinity, unsuccessfully attempting to goad her into dueling him. He changes tack, focusing on her virginity and childhood. They find a trio of women, hanged for sleeping with Lannister soldiers. He mocks her service to House Stark and she asserts that she serves Lady Catelyn specifically. As Brienne goes to bury the bodies they are accosted by a trio of Stark soldiers. Brienne kills all three after they recognize Jaime, and he is impressed by her skill. He questions her readiness to kill Stark men and she reasserts her dedication to Catelyn and the task she set her.

Personality
Tywin Lannister has raised Jaime and Cersei with the principle of ruthlessness as a virtue. Yet even though Jaime Lannister often behaves unapologetically amoral, in his own warped way, Jaime is one of the few Lannisters (other than Tyrion) who shows any hint of honor or principles. This is largely based on his arrogance and pride at being a member of the Kingsguard. Although he wasn't aware of it at the time, Jaime is deeply upset when he finds out that Cersei dismissed Ser Barristan Selmy, whom he always admired and respected. She then started staffing the Kingsguard with political cronies, whom he felt were not worthy of that high honor. Jaime became extremely disillusioned with ideals of honor and loyalty when he saw firsthand the atrocities committed by the Mad King, how other "honorable" members of the Kingsguard stood by and did nothing while King Aerys had people burned alive for imagined insults, because they felt bound by vows of faith and fealty. A key difference between Cersei and Jaime is that Cersei honestly believes, in her skewed view of the world, that she is "good", Joffrey is a great king, and all of her enemies are "evil" people trying to destroy her and her children. In contrast, Jaime does not maintain any pretense of being a "good" or honorable man: he has become so disillusioned that he thinks there is no sin and there is no virtue, there are no gods rewarding the good and punishing the bad, and all is mere hypocrisy.

Moreover, Jaime isn't a very politically ambitious man, turning down Cersei's frequent urgings that he should try to become Hand of the King. Political maneuvering is not his way, he sees himself foremost as a soldier who when confronted with a problem takes out his sword and cuts its head off.

Jaime is the only member of Tyrion's immediate family who ever treated him with respect or kindness. In fact, he admires Tyrion's intellect and his ability to tell off those who insult him. Jaime never approved of Tywin and Cersei's long history of abuse towards Tyrion, and has always treated him like a brother. Indeed, Jaime is the only member of the core Lannister family (Tywin and his three children) who has a reasonably good relationship with all of the others. Among the three siblings, Cersei and Tyrion can't stand each other, but they both like Jaime. Tywin is a stern man feared by all of his children, and in turn Tywin ignores Cersei as a woman and scorns Tyrion as the dwarf who killed his wife in childbirth. However, Jaime is on reasonably good terms with Tywin - not so much that he's "proud" of Jaime so much as he has the "least shame" for him compared to his brother and sister. Even so, Tywin is upset that Jaime joined the Kingsguard, as while it is considered the highest honor for a knight, its members give up the rights to marry or inherit lands, meaning that Jaime cannot be Tywin's heir. Jaime wasn't in a position to act as a father to his biological children with Cersei, though he is generally supportive of Tommen and Myrcella. However, in sharp contrast with Cersei, Jaime isn't particularly fond of Joffrey, nor will he defend his actions the way Cersei does.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Jaime Lannister is described as extremely handsome with bright green eyes and hair like spun gold. The books do not mention him suffering from dyslexia. He is a prodigious warrior. Knighted at fifteen and appointed to the Kingsguard by King Aerys II Targaryen, he served alongside such great and vaunted warriors as Lord Commander Gerold Hightower and Ser Arthur Dayne, the legendary Sword of the Morning. Jaime's appointment infuriated his father, Tywin Lannister, as the Kingsguard take vows to serve for life, never marry, and give up the right to hold lands and titles. This meant Jaime was no longer his heir, the honor of which instead fell to Tywin's misshapen and hated youngest son, Tyrion, whose dwarfism made him unfit in his fathers eyes to inherit Casterly Rock.

At the climax of Robert's Rebellion, when the Lannister armies stormed King's Landing, Jaime betrayed his king by murdering him at the foot of the Iron Throne itself. He cut Aerys throat rather than stabbing him in the back as in the TV Series. Robert Baratheon forgave Jaime, reasoning that someone had to kill Aerys, and he was just happy that the Lannisters were the ones who got their hands dirty instead of himself. Eddard Stark believed that Jaime should have faced justice for killing Aerys, or at least stripped of his position on the Kingsguard and made to take the black, but Robert didn't want to upset his crucial alliance with Jaime's father Tywin, his own new father-in-law. Jaime is stuck in an ironic situation: Targaryen-loyalists despise him for personally killing the last Targaryen king, but even those who joined Robert in rebellion (and wished Aerys dead) often question why he didn't kill Aerys sooner, preventing the loss of life that happened in the war. A small number of people don't even mind what Jaime did or when he did it, but place so much respect on honor and justice that they feel his breach of his Kingsguard vows to defend the king are a sacrilege that can never be forgiven. For his part, Jaime points out that Aerys was a madman who roasted women and babies on spits because the voices in his head told him they were plotting against him, and he has no regrets about killing the Mad King.

The early sections of the book A Game of Thrones play to the suspicion that Jaime wants to seize the throne himself, but this is later shown to be a red herring.

After Jaime is captured in the Battle of the Whispering Wood, he is held at Riverrun, not taken along with Robb's army, though Robb only leaves Riverrun some time later so he can consolidate his forces. No scenes between Jaime and Robb are depicted in the books (as neither is a POV character at this point), though it is entirely plausible that the scene with Robb in Jaime's cell in the Season 2 premiere could have happened in the books, just "off screen", as Robb doesn't immediately leave Riverrun. At first, Jaime is held in comfortable imprisonment in a tower of Riverrun, but after a failed escape attempt in which he manages to kill three guards before being subdued, he is chained up in the dungeon.

The TV series' depiction of an escape attempt by Jaime, during which he kills Torrhen Karstark, is a very loose adaptation of events in the books. In the TV version, Jaime kills Torrhen because he was guarding his cell, which causes Lord Rickard Karstark to become enraged and demand revenge, to the point that Catelyn releases Jaime (in promise of her daughters' safe return from King's Landing) because she fears he won't live out the night. In the books, Jaime killed Rickard's sons Torrhen and Eddard Karstark at the Battle of the Whispering Wood (Eddard Karstark's death is apparently unchanged in the TV version). While Lord Karstark was certainly upset in the books, he wasn't going to go disobey Robb's direct command as his liege-lord that Jaime must remain unharmed (at least because he thought they'd execute him eventually). Catelyn's decision to exchange Jaime as a prisoner isn't rushed by pressure from within the Stark camp, but is rather due to her grief at hearing the (false) report that Bran and Rickon have been killed by Theon at Winterfell. Believing (somewhat justifiably) that even holding Jaime as prisoner is no guarantee that the crazed Joffrey won't have her daughters killed on a whim, Catelyn decides that keeping her remaining children safe is what matters most, so she releases Jaime, sending him under escort by Brienne to King's Landing. Rickard Karstark only truly becomes enraged after Catelyn releases Jaime, because he never thought they'd release the killer of his sons, as well as because it is a very poor exchange to trade a prominent Lannister warrior for two girls. The TV series may have moved Torrhen's death around to make it closer to Jaime's release, instead of just mentioning that Jaime killed Torrhen at the end of Season 1 and expecting the audience to remember this over a season later.

Similarly, "Alton Lannister" is actually a renamed version the character Cleos Frey in the books. Cleos' father is a Frey but his mother is a Lannister, and his name may have been changed because of concerns that the audience would be confused as the Freys are on Robb's side. Jaime does not kill him in the books to create a diversion to distract his guards, this is an invention of the TV series. Intead, Cleos is sent back to King's Landing again along with Brienne and Jaime, but is killed by outlaws along the way.

Jaime doesn't appear during virtually all of the second novel, A Clash of Kings, emphasizing that he is a prisoner of the Starks and in isolation. He only appears near the end during one chapter when Catelyn Stark visits him in his cell to release him. Dialogue from this scene in the books was split in two, so that some of it is used in the scene where she releases him late in Season 2, while parts of it were moved back to a separate meeting between Catelyn and Jaime in the Season 1 finale (it was just one long meeting in the book). Jaime then comes back to the forefront of the narrative in the third novel, A Storm of Swords, even becoming a POV character, but while this can be done in a book, the TV series producers felt that it would be odd for one of the main cast members to disappear for an entire season (similarly, Daenerys Targaryen doesn't appear that much in the second book either, so the TV show padded out her storyline in Qarth). This was partially made up for by showing more events that happened to Jaime "off screen", such as Robb interrogating him (in the season premiere) and actually depicting his failed escape attempt. Their primary solution, however, was to move ahead some of Jaime's storyline from the third book to late Season 2: Jaime is only released from captivity at the very end of the second book (as a cliffhanger), thus all of Jaime's scenes with Brienne leading him back to King's Landing are actually from the beginning of the third book. TV producers Benioff and Weiss insisted that they don't see each season as being required to neatly adapt each book matched to one season, but instead they are trying to adapt the story as a whole, so parts from other books will spill into other seasons as they are required, i.e. pointing out that the Jaime/Brienne scenes in late Season 2 aren't fabrications of the TV series, just moving up some scenes that actually occurred in the next book.

Abilities
By the time of the War of the Five Kings, Jaime is one of the most skilled and dangerous warriors in all of Westeros, ranking alongside Gregor Clegane, Loras Tyrell, Eddard Stark, and Barristan Selmy as arguably the best swordsman on the entire continent. Gregor's prowess relies more on his immense strength than on skill, while Eddard and Barristan are self-admittedly not as young and quick as they used to be. Loras is not quite as experienced as Jaime yet, but is one of the few knights who has on rare occasion actually managed to knock Jaime off his horse during a joust. Jaime, meanwhile, is at the peak of both youth and experience, and even his enemies often consider him to be the most skilled living warrior in Westeros, albeit not the most honorable one. During the Battle of the Whispering Wood, even with his army ambushed and wiped out, Jaime managed to single-handedly carve a path through the Stark army until he reached Robb Stark, and almost managed to kill Robb before he was knocked unconscious. This short list is supported in the TV series in "The Prince of Winterfell", when Jaime boasts to Brienne of Tarth that he thinks there are only three men in Westeros who might have even a chance of beating him in combat.

Quotes
"It's a strange thing, the first time you cut a man. You realize we're nothing but sacks of meat and blood and some bone to keep it all standing."

- Jaime Lannister to Jon Snow

"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."

- Jaime Lannister