The 30 most iconic moments from Game of Thrones, ranked

28. Jaime tells the truth and Brienne bathe together

It’s not easy making peace with your enemies, but Jaime and Brienne are proof that sometimes all it takes is an involuntary amputation followed by a bath. The two have many interesting moments during their trip to King’s Landing, but is easily the most powerful.

Although by this point we’d heard the story of Jaime betraying the Mad King several times, we never get Jaime’s version of events. During his bath with Brienne, woozy from the steam and feeing like he has nothing left to lose now that he’s lost his sword hand, he reveals the truth about what occurred the day he stabbed King Aerys in the back, and it’s a bit more complicated than we were initially led to believe.

According to Jaime, he begged King Aerys to surrender when Tywin Lannister besieged the city. But the king not only commanded Jaime to kill his own father, but that his pyromancer set off the wildfire under the city, killing Tywin’s army along with hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. The refusal to do either of those things is what led Jaime to betray and kill his king, saving half a million lives and earning him the title of Kingslayer.

This is the key to Jaime’s character, that he’s punished and hated for the best thing he ever did. It lets us understand why he takes such a nihilistic approach to life and properly kicks off his redemption arc, which is still ongoing. And the moment is acted to within an inch of its life by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who should have it in his performance reel until the day he dies.