Why did Jaime Lannister fill our hearts with love only to crush them a short while later? Anyone who watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones knows what I’m talking about. Ever since the final season started, long-time shippers of Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth were hoping for them to finally get together. Their wish was granted last night, but the celebrations didn’t last very long. When Jaime heard that his sister-lover Cersei was in mortal danger, Jaime went galloping back to King’s Landing, leaving Brienne and the rest of us in tears.
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Last year, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau spoke to Vanity Fair about Jaime’s decision to leave Cersei at the end of season 7, and how it presaged this latest development. When he left Cersei, the subtext of his exit was, “I don’t love you anymore. . . . I’m calling your bluff, and, you know, you can’t hurt me now because my heart has been destroyed by you. You can’t hurt me anymore than you already have.” But Jaime has been with Cersei his entire life, and even though he walked away, staying away may be harder than he thought.
"That’s, of course, said in a moment of passion. Who knows if it’s true? I’ve almost been married 20 years—June 6th will be our 20th anniversary—and I’m very, very lucky. I have a wonderful wife. But over 20 years, there are times where you have fights. You can be so angry that for a second in your passion and anger you can go, ‘Oh, fuck this.’ Of course, three seconds later, you go, ‘No, no, no. What am I doing? What am I thinking?’ . . . I think the fundamental emotions are the same in every relationship. As a setup for the season we’re shooting now, it was just amazing."
Is that what happened with Brienne? Jaime starts to grow something new and has a panic attack when he hears he may lose Cersei forever, even if he knows she’s the worst thing to ever happen to him?
"We’re used to having a whole season to get to a point. Now suddenly, a lot of things happen very quickly…[T]here’s so many things that obviously you can’t go through, on-screen, all of these moments, but you have to still walk through them in your mind, if you’re an actor, at least talk about them. There was a lot of those connecting the dots throughout."
Maybe the dots will lead you back to Brienne? Eh?
Jaime Lannister has always been a man of his word, even in his worst moments. After fulfilling the promise he made to fight in the North, he now has another promise to attend to, the one he’s made to his family. Something tells me there isn’t a happy ending in the cards for Jaime in the final two episodes, but at least he will go out with honor. Sigh.
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