Episode 152: A STORM OF SWORDS, JAIME I: "The Dark Knight Rises" SHOW NOTES! (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.

Welcome to the one hundred and fifty-second episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “The Dark Knight Rises: An Analysis of ASOS, Jaime I” in which Jaime Lannister proves himself to be unquestionably the greatest POV of all time.

This episode is brought to you by our NotASmallCouncil:

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack
• Grandmaester Timbob, troubleshooter of systems and designer of circuit boards
• Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N.
• Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
• Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Micah, the Quilled Lion, Warden of the West, Herald of the Golden Tooth, Master of the Banefort and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen's Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Kelly, Warden of the East and Mistress of (Old) Bay of Crabs
• Steven the Steadfast, Master of Hounds
• The Blue Winter Rose Knight of Highgarden
• Lady Stephanie
• Lord Carlos
• Lord Andrew the Restless, a Priest of the Drowned God
• Ser Sourcedelica
• Sugar Tits Dent the Troglodyte Warrior
• Lord Penchant for Nostalgia
• Queer Alex who has chosen a brand, new title for A Storm of Swords which is: “Queer Alex, Beyonce's Favorite Stan, Herald of Cher, and Bastard of Chromatica, Exalter of Black Lives and Defender of Trans Lives, Rainbow Commander of the Theydes and Gentlethems and the Not A Cast’s Nonbinary Not an Army.”
• Haldivar, The Waiter for TWOW
• A-a-ron Damphair Prophet of the Forsaken and High Priest of Euron Crows Eye
• Lieutenant Glenn Lord of H town
• Vanerys of the House Colgaryen, the First of Her Name, Princess of Dragonstone, Mistress of Art, The Overworked, Queen of the Pencils, the Eraser and the First Draft, Queen of Monochrome, Devotee of the Great GOT, Portraitist of the Realm, Lady Realist of the Seven Kingdoms, Blender of Paints, Maker of Drawings and the Michaelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Lord Adam T
• Lady Alexandra of Tarth
• Ser Kristoph Logas, Bloody Scorpion of the Red Field, Defender of the Letter of Kin, and the Wolverine of house Qorgyle
• Lady Elizabeth, Mistress of Horse (Faced Lesbians)
• Ser Josh Snow Bastard Bounty Hunter of the North
• Ser Veyor, Chief of Parties in the Frozen Wastes
• Lord Peter
• The Dead Sheppard Reborn, Preacher of the Poor Fellows
• Marshall Harrison—Absent, shipwrecked in the Jade Sea
• Grave-Robb Stark, the Cadaver King and Horror of Harrenhal
• Olaf, proponent of establishing a feudal, pseudodemocratic system of Great Councils, wherein every count votes
• Ser Tim: The Knight Who Was Guided By Voices
• Lord Nick
• Thucydides, Lord of Plagues
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• Lady Anna, The Lovely Castellan
• Pat Yronwood, the bloodroyal and guardian of the Boneway
• Luke, Lord of Lone Leaf & The Pillar of Autumn
• Joe Snow “King of the Metro North and protector of the Tri-State”
• Squire Matt S, future Ser Matt S, the one who will bring balance to the Kingdoms
• Lord Kyle
• Lord Samuel Seaworth
• Ser Max, Lord Commander of the Constitutional Guard
• Lady Ivory Dayne, aspiring noble author in the seven kingdoms, lady of Starfall, wardeness of the south, and patron of freewheeling bisexuals
• Lady Jemisa, She Who Suggests That Coconuts Migrate
• Lord Kristoff of Arendelle, official ice master and deliverer, the valiant pungent reindeer king, keeper of feisty pants, and prince consort to his ginger sweet love Queen Anna (Pronounced Ah-nuh)
• Lord Sir Septon Ruthers
• Ser Grizzly Adams, the King’s Justice, Warden of the Kingswood and Sheriff of the Seven Kingdoms
• Ser Kell, Contractor in Charge of Continually Extending the Small Council Table
• And returning back - actually has been around for a while, I just, uh, kinda fucked up putting him back on the list - but RETURNING BACK is Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves, Captain of the war galley NIGHT WOLF, the ship that stalks the Seven Seas, and Wielder of the Valyrian Steel trident SUMMONER, the blade that brings the Deep Ones

Spoiler warning: All published books, 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

Question

Our question this week comes from Queer Alex, Beyonce's Favorite Stan, Herald of Cher, and Bastard of Chromatica, Exalter of Black Lives and Defender of Trans Lives, Rainbow Commander of the Theydes and Gentlethems and the Not A Cast’s Nonbinary Not an Army who asks:

I’m so excited to reach the midpoint of the published material.

I feel like Storm is not only the midpoint of the series but also a breaking point in the narrative as the relatively singular narrative explodes after this book.

So my question is a bit of an open ended one, if you were in George’s shoes (or his editor’s) and you were going to change or alter any details of Storm to make an easier to conclude series, what would you change? Would you delete characters? Skip Meereen? Have the Red Wedding fail? Continue with the 5 year gap regardless? How would you approach editing this pivotal book to still be strong but also not create a narrative that is so hard to complete?

So, thank you Queer Alex for the question. If you want to ask us questions we’ll answer here on the NotACast pod-cast, you are welcome to become a Sworn Sword or higher-level patron where you can also receive show notes, bonus ASOIAF/pop culture/Fevre Dream episodes, free merch, access to the NotASlack and more! Check us out at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF.

Yes indeed! Please come join our patreon! We’d love to have you. And for all of our $5/month Poor Fellow and above patrons, our next bonus episode will be an in-depth look at the 2008 animated film Waltz with Bashir. Again, this episode will only be available to our Poor Fellow and above patrons. So, come join us at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF.

But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with … well, we’ve never actually checked in with Jaime Lannister before. But when Catelyn last checked in with Redemption Man Jaime Lannister, she had questioned him and then got mad online when the blonde god talked some shit back to her. She ordered Brienne to bring her sword. Let’s find out the outcome of all that in this synopsis of ASOS, Jaime I!

Synopsis

An east wind blew through his tangled hair, as soft and fragrant as Cersei's fingers. He could hear birds singing, and feel the river moving beneath the boat as the sweep of the oars sent them toward the pale pink dawn. After so long in darkness, the world was so sweet that Jaime Lannister felt dizzy. I am alive, and drunk on sunlight. A laugh burst from his lips, sudden as a quail flushed from cover.

"Quiet," the wench grumbled, scowling. Scowls suited her broad homely face better than a smile. Not that Jaime had ever seen her smiling. He amused himself by picturing her in one of Cersei's silken gowns in place of her studded leather jerkin. As well dress a cow in silk as this one.

Obsession over Cersei. Unexpected and surprisingly poetic musings. And Misogyny. Classic Jaime!

Jaime thinks that Brienne could row good with those muscled legs, and she never grew tired throughout the night. BTW, he’s so not into her already. Brienne spoke like a highborn and wore a longsword and dagger. But can she handle a sword well? Jaime was going to find out. No subtext here at all. As for Jaime, he was in handcuffs and foot cuffs joined together with a chain, because that’s his kink. And we don’t kink-shame on this podcast.

Jaime thinks back to his escape from Riverrun. Jaime was very drunk from Catelyn’s wine, and he could only recall some of what happened. Brienne had gotten him out of his cell and overcame the jailer. He leaned on Brienne to get up the endless stairs, got into a traveler’s cloak and put into a skiff. Catelyn ordered the portcullis of the watergate raised, and then they were off. Jaime then took a nap.

But now Jaime was up, thinking that Tyrion will laugh at him sleeping through his escape. He asks if Brienne would take off his irons so he could help row. Nope. He’ll stay in his chains.

"You figure to row all the way to King's Landing, wench?"

"You will call me Brienne. Not wench."

"My name is Ser Jaime. Not Kingslayer."

"Do you deny that you slew a king?"

"No. Do you deny your sex? If so, unlace those breeches and show me." He gave her an innocent smile. "I'd ask you to open your bodice, but from the look of you that wouldn't prove much."

Ser Cleos fretted. "Cousin, remember your courtesies."

Negging Brienne complete, Jaime spares a stray thought about his cousin Cleos. He was Aunt Genna’s son by Emmon Frey. Emmon was scared shitless of Tywin and sided with Tywin when Walder Frey raised his banners for Riverrun and Robb Stark. Cleos looks like a weasel, isn’t a good fighter and is a coward. Cleos joined in on this thing because Catelyn vowed to release him if he helped deliver Jaime to Tyrion.

They'd all done a deal of vowing back in that cell, Jaime most of all. That was Lady Catelyn's price for loosing him. She had laid the point of the big wench's sword against his heart and said, "Swear that you will never again take up arms against Stark nor Tully. Swear that you will compel your brother to honor his pledge to return my daughters safe and unharmed. Swear on your honor as a knight, on your honor as a Lannister, on your honor as a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard. Swear it by your sister's life, and your father's, and your son's, by the old gods and the new, and I'll send you back to your sister. Refuse, and I will have your blood." He remembered the prick of the steel through his rags as she twisted the point of the sword.

Jaime thinks that the High Septon would look askance at a vow at swordpoint while drunk -- not that Jaime cares, of course. He is a bit mystified at why Catelyn was trusting someone she did not trust, but then he realizes that Catelyn was trusting Tyrion, not him. He thinks aloud that Catelyn isn’t stupid. Brienne thinks she’s talking about him. But Jaime replies he wasn’t. Just talking to himself. Jaime decides to talk with Brienne then, noting that Brienne is nobly born. She is. Selwyn Tarth, Lord of Evenfall, is her dad. Jaime politely notes that Tarth is a ghastly rock. But why is Brienne supporting Robb Stark instead of Stannis? She serves Catelyn, but seriously stfu, Jaime. Or talk to Cleos. Brienne doesn’t care to hear from monsters:

Jaime hooted. "Are there monsters hereabouts? Hiding beneath the water, perhaps? In that thick of willows? And me without my sword!"

"A man who would violate his own sister, murder his king, and fling an innocent child to his death deserves no other name."

Innocent? The wretched boy was spying on us. All Jaime had wanted was an hour alone with Cersei. Their journey north had been one long torment; seeing her every day, unable to touch her, knowing that Robert stumbled drunkenly into her bed every night in that great creaking wheelhouse. Tyrion had done his best to keep him in a good humor, but it had not been enough.

Jaime warns Brienne to be courteous when it comes to Cersei. He says this while calling her a wench for only the fifth time this chapter. Brienne states that her name is Brienne, but Jaime wonders why she should care what a monster calls her. Instead of answering, Brienne just repeats that her name is Brienne.

"Lady Brienne?" She looked so uncomfortable that Jaime sensed a weakness. "Or would Ser Brienne be more to your taste?" He laughed. "No, I fear not. You can trick out a milk cow in crupper, crinet, and chamfron, and bard her all in silk, but that doesn't mean you can ride her into battle."

Cleos quivers that Jaime should be nice, and they shouldn’t fight. But Jaime says he only quarrels with a sword, not with words. Anyways, Jaime wants to know if every woman on Tarth is as ugly as Brienne which, Jesus, dude. In response, Brienne says the Sapphire Isle is beautiful, but please SHUT THE FUCK UP or else she’ll gag Jaime.

"She's rude as well, isn't she, coz?" Jaime asked Ser Cleos. "Though she has steel in her spine, I'll grant you. Not many men dare name me monster to my face." Though behind my back they speak freely enough, I have no doubt.

Ser Cleos coughed nervously. "Lady Brienne had those lies from Catelyn Stark, no doubt. The Starks cannot hope to defeat you with swords, ser, so now they make war with poisoned words."

They did defeat me with swords, you chinless cretin. Jaime smiled knowingly. Men will read all sorts of things into a knowing smile, if you let them. Has cousin Cleos truly swallowed this kettle of dung, or is he striving to ingratiate himself? What do we have here, an honest muttonhead or a lickspittle?

Cleos continues on by saying that Jaime is very obviously innocent attempting to murder Bran, because he’s a Kingsguard, and they never harm children. Jaime decides that Cleos is a lickspittle. But he had regretted pushing Bran from a window. No, not morally. Just because Cersei wouldn’t shut up about it. Cersei’s plan was to frighten the boy into silence. As Cersei warned that Bran may talk when he woke up, Jaime pulled Cersei onto his lap and said they’d declare Bran a liar and kill Ned Stark if it came to the worst.

"And then what do you imagine Robert will do?"

"Let Robert do as he pleases. I'll go to war with him if I must. The War for Cersei's Cunt, the singers will call it."

"Jaime, let go of me!" she raged, struggling to rise.

Instead he had kissed her. For a moment she resisted, but then her mouth opened under his. He remembered the taste of wine and cloves on her tongue. She gave a shudder. His hand went to her bodice and yanked, tearing the silk so her breasts spilled free, and for a time the Stark boy had been forgotten.

Jaime wonders if Cersei had hired the catspaw Catelyn mentioned, but he doesn’t think so. Cersei would have sent Jaime to do her child-mustering for her.

Back to the river, the sun was rising as the skiff passes red clay on the south bank and high rocky bluffs on the north bank. When the wind shifts, Cleos helps Brienne get the sail up. As Brienne takes the rudder, Jaime says they’d go faster if they went to Harrenhal to Tywin instead of to Tyrion, but Sansa and Arya are in King’s Landing. She’s going there.

At that, Jaime asks Cleos for his knife, but Brienne refuses, saying that Jaime is not to be armed. Okay then. Jaime will have Cleos shave him bald. Why? Because everyone knows that Jaime is a beardless knight with long golden hair. He’ll have a yellow beard and no hair instead to move unawares towards King’s Landing. And so, Cleos shaves Jaime with a somewhat-dull knife, and Jaime’s hair fell into the river. Some of his beard was trimmed short. Jaime takes a look into the water to see himself.

The reflection in the water was a man he did not know. Not only was he bald, but he looked as though he had aged five years in that dungeon; his face was thinner, with hollows under his eyes and lines he did not remember. I don't look as much like Cersei this way. She'll hate that.

At noon, Cleos is asleep, and Jaime stretches out to watch the world go by, loving the sights and sounds of a world that was not a dungeon. They see some houses on poles in the river but no people. Jaime catches sight of a silvery trout and thinks that’s a bad side, but they move on. And then he sees a worse omen: dead people floating in the water wearing Lannister crimson cloaks. That seemed a worse sign.

As they move, Jaime thinks the forks of the Trident would have been a lot more busy with lots of folks going up or down river selling stuff, but the war had altered that significantly. Deserted villages, empty nets and when they did meet people, they fled or watched them warily until they passed. In terms of terrain, the Red Fork was more dangerous than met the eye, flowing slowly but full of sandbars and snags. But Brienne maneuvered around them. Jaime tries to compliment Brienne on her handling of the skiff, but Brienne says she doesn’t know this river, only the waters around Tarth.

Cleos “the Pooh” Frey wakes up then, and says tut, tut, it smells like rain. Jaime thinks rain would be great as he stinks bad from being in the dungeons. But then Cleos sees smoke downriver. As they approach, Jaime sees a smouldering building and an oak tree with dead women hanging from the branches.

The crows had scarcely started on their corpses. The thin ropes cut deeply into the soft flesh of their throats, and when the wind blew they twisted and swayed. "This was not chivalrously done," said Brienne when they were close enough to see it clearly. "No true knight would condone such wanton butchery."

"True knights see worse every time they ride to war, wench," said Jaime. "And do worse, yes."

Brienne turned the rudder toward the shore. "I'll leave no innocents to be food for crows."

"A heartless wench. Crows need to eat as well. Stay to the river and leave the dead alone, woman."

Instead, Brienne lands upstream of the oak, and they get out. Jaime dunks his head in the water and laughs at his less-muddy reflection. He looks thinner and paler than he remembered. Brienne orders the corpses cut down from the trees, and Jaime offers himself. He just needs the chains off. Brienne, though, doesn’t hear him.

The wench was staring up at one of the dead women. Jaime shuffled closer with small stutter steps, the only kind the foot-long chain permitted. When he saw the crude sign hung about the neck of the highest corpse, he smiled. "They Lay With Lions," he read. "Oh, yes, woman, this was most unchivalrously done . . . But by your side, not mine. I wonder who they were, these women?"

Cleos says they’re tavern wenches that he and his men may have kinda-sorta hung out with. They fucked the sex workers if you know what I mean. Jaime didn’t know about sex work. That was Tyrion’s business. He was only into virtuously porking his sister, like a gentleman. Jaime thinks this is Bracken land, and that’s why Lord Jonos ordered them killed. Or maybe it was Marq Piper (maybe) or Beric Dondarrion (no) or Roose Bolton (yeah, likely). Jaime thinks Bolton unlikely as Tywin beat him at the Green Fork. Yeah, but Roose came back and took Harrenhal.

Jaime liked the sound of that not at all. "Brienne," he said, granting her the courtesy of the name in the hopes that she might listen, "if Lord Bolton holds Harrenhal, both the Trident and the kingsroad are likely watched."

He thought he saw a touch of uncertainty in her big blue eyes. "You are under my protection. They'd need to kill me."

"I shouldn't think that would trouble them."

"I am as good a fighter as you," she said defensively. "I was one of King Renly's chosen seven. With his own hands, he cloaked me with the striped silk of the Rainbow Guard."

"The Rainbow Guard? You and six other girls, was it? A singer once said that all maids are fair in silk . . . But he never met you, did he?"

The woman turned red. "We have graves to dig." She went to climb the tree.

Brienne cuts down the corpses as Cleos complains about caring for the bodies of dead sex workers. But then Brienne shouts that they need to get back into the boat. She sees a sail.

It takes them a minute to get into the boat, but when they do, Brienne orders Cleos to grab an oar. They move quickly through the water. Jaime sees the top of the other sail, commenting that it’s mud red and watery blue in color. Brienne orders Cleos to row faster. The inn disappears behind them, and Jaime hopes the noble Tullys stop to bury the dead girls. Jaime does not want to go back to the dungeon. Tyrion would think of something clever to do here, but Jaime can only think to go at them with a sword.

For the good part of an hour they played peek-and-seek with the pursuers, sweeping around bends and between small wooded isles. Just when they were starting to hope that somehow they might have left behind the pursuit, the distant sail became visible again. Ser Cleos paused in his stroke. "The Others take them." He wiped sweat from his brow.

"Row!" Brienne said.

"That is a river galley coming after us," Jaime announced after he'd watched for a while. With every stroke, it seemed to grow a little larger. "Nine oars on each side, which means eighteen men. More, if they crowded on fighters as well as rowers. And larger sails than ours. We cannot outrun her."

Ser Cleos squeaks over it being eighteen dudes, but Jaime thinks he’ll take on six Tullys at a time, though he’d prefer eight if he was unchained. PS, Brienne, can you unchain Jaime? Nope. Fine, but Jaime notes that they’re going to catch up as they have more rowers, and they probably have more like 20-25 people on that ship.

His cousin groaned. "We can't hope to defeat eighteen."

"Did I say we could? The best we can hope for is to die with swords in our hands." He was perfectly sincere. Jaime Lannister had never been afraid of death.

Brienne stops rowing for a moment and grows that Jaime is under her protection. Jaime thinks that seems rather Sandor Clegane like, if he had tits. But she has no tits. So. Look. I’m just the messenger here.

The river galley catches up with the skiff pretty quickly as Tully bros come up on deck. Jaime notes the archers, and he hates archers.Then he sees the Riverrun captain of guards Ser Robin Ryger who emerges on deck. When the boats are only fifty yards apart, Jaime yells across the water, asking if Ser Robin had come to wish Jaime godspeed. Nope.

"Come to take you back, Kingslayer," Ser Robin Ryger bellowed. "How is it that you've lost your golden hair?"

"I hope to blind my enemies with the sheen off my head. It's worked well enough for you."

Ser Robin was unamused. The distance between skiff and galley had shrunk to forty yards. "Throw your oars and your weapons into the river, and no one need be harmed."

Cleos tells Jaime to tell Robin that Catelyn sent them, and Jaime does so, but it doesn’t do any good as Robin declares that Catelyn is not in charge of Riverrun. As Robin says this, four archers join Robin. He orders Jaime to throw his sword into the river. In response, Jaime says he has no sword, but he’d kill the kill out of Robin if he did. In response, four arrows come from the Tully ship as Brienne angles the skiff across a bend in the Red Fork. The sail cracks as Brienne shifts the tiller, the sail rippling.

Jaime watched her eyes. Pretty eyes, he thought, and calm. He knew how to read a man's eyes. He knew what fear looked like. She is determined, not desperate.

Thirty yards behind, the galley was entering the bend. "Ser Cleos, take the tiller," the wench commanded. "Kingslayer, take an oar and keep us off the rocks."

"As my lady commands." An oar was not a sword, but the blade could break a man's face if well swung, and the shaft could be used to parry.

Oh Brienne has pretty eyes, Jaime. Weird, that. Cleos shoves an oar at Jaime and scrambles to the tiller and turns hard away from a bluff. They move from sunlight to shadow, but then the boat rocks, and Jaime feels the skiff rocking and hears a splash in the water. He turns and sees Brienne scrambling up the bluff and then climbing. Jaime thinks this foolish as he orders Cleos to keep steering as Robin Ryger’s ship turns towards them from the bend. The sharp turns were making it hard for the archers, but Jaime knows they’ll adjust sooner or later. Jaime sees Brienne is halfup up the cliff face, and he decides to distract her and buy her time.

Jaime decided to see if the old man's pride would make him stupid. "Ser Robin," he shouted, "hear me for a moment."

Ser Robin raised a hand, and his archers lowered their bows. "Say what you will, Kingslayer, but say it quickly."

The skiff swung through a litter of broken stones as Jaime called out, "I know a better way to settle this-single combat. You and I."

"I was not born this morning, Lannister."

"No, but you're like to die this afternoon." Jaime raised his hands so the other could see the manacles. "I'll fight you in chains. What could you fear?"

But Robin has orders, and his orders are to bring Jaime back to Riverrun. He orders his bowmen into action, but then a series of pebbles starts falling on them. But then a huge boulder detaches from the cliff and comes crashing down the bluff, splitting in two with one chunk snapping the mast and the other drilling a hole into the hull. Jaime watches as men start abandoning ship, realizes that some of them couldn’t swim and laughs, because Jaime is ON A REDEMPTION PATH.

Jaime and Cleos leave the archers behind, and Jaime thinks he’s rid of Brienne and would get out of the chains, but then Cleos shouts. Jaime looks up and sees Brienne moving across the clifftop. She jumps off the rock and forms a graceful dive. When she hits the water, Cleos angles the skiff towards. Jaime, still clutching his oar, thinks he can hit her hard and be free of Brienne.

Instead he found himself stretching the oar out over the water. Brienne grabbed hold, and Jaime pulled her in. As he helped her into the skiff, water ran from her hair and dripped from her sodden clothing to pool on the deck. She's even uglier wet. Who would have thought it possible? "You're a bloody stupid wench," he told her. "We could have sailed on without you. I suppose you expect me to thank you?"

"I want none of your thanks, Kingslayer. I swore an oath to bring you safe to King's Landing."

"And you actually mean to keep it?" Jaime gave her his brightest smile. "Now there's a wonder."

And that is the synopsis for ASOS, Jaime I! I have many, many thoughts about Jaime’s first chapter, but here I’ll just say yes. Hell yes. Love this chapter. Love Jaime’s POV chapters. And love that I get to do this first one with two special people. What did you both think?

Depth

I...love Jaime now??? No.

I never reacted emotionally to Jaime the way a lot of people do. Maybe that’ll change as we go through ASOS and I see him through your eyes! But even if not, it doesn’t really matter, because his chapters are so well written that I love them anyway. This chapter is a perfect beginning. George covers all his bases without tipping his hand as to where he’s taking this character. It starts with a lighter tone than most Jaime chapters, gets very dark in the middle, and wraps up with a thrilling action sequence designed to make you keep reading, like the cliffhanger in the Prologue. Already in ASOS, we’re seeing this assured confidence in George’s writing as the story comes to him faster than ever; it feels like there’s nothing he can’t do.

I remember on my first read of these books hitting the Jaime chapters and literally saying out loud, goddammit George, stop making me like this guy. It’s been interesting being on my now like seventh re-read how much my views on characters have changed and how these chapters don’t make me like him more anymore. He’s a very layered character and George writes him very well.

You know my first thought when I turned the page from the ASOS, or in reality, heard Roy Dotrice finish the prologue and transition to Jaime was an audible groan. I hated Jaime in the first two books. Why would George inflict his POV on us readers, I was thinking. But what George does with Jaime is reintroduce him. It’s a soft retcon of the character we knew in AGOT. Jaime wasn’t planned as a POV character. Per the pitch letter, Jaime was originally envisioned as a straight-up villain, killing his way to the Iron Throne. That’s the character of Jaime in book 1. But by the final Catelyn ACOK chapter and especially here, George reboots Jaime. I love the way he symbolizes this through Jaime  shaving his beautiful, golden curls off and then dunking his head into the river. Tell me that isn’t George baptizing Jaime to readers’ eyes, visualizing how we’re supposed to re-evaluate Jaime from the original impression we had of the man. And soon, the hand that pushed Bran from the window will be gone too. Do you recognize the man in front of you? Will he be the same man by the end of the story?

• Opening rebirth
  • I wanna start with the transition into this chapter from the Prologue. George is great at sequencing, one chapter playing off the next in interesting ways; he makes use of the gap, like the silence in between songs on an album or the “gutters” in between comic panels
  • Chett’s Prologue ended on a nightmarish cliffhanger: the arrival of ice demons and their zombie army, ready to wreck shit...
  • ...and then--boom!--we’re drifting downriver in the pale pink dawn, a breeze tugging at Jaime like a lover’s fingers
  • Everything has changed: the setting, the imagery, the tone, it all feels like the opposite of the previous chapter. We were sucked into hell, and now we’ve been spat back out into something resembling paradise
  • It’s like a palate cleanser, washing away the taste of Chett’s POV, recalibrating our senses so we can get used to Jaime’s headspace
  • As I said last week, when that third horn blast sounded, it felt like nothing else in the world mattered, like everything was about to change
  • Yet now here we are, with the river running eternally, the birds chirping like nothing’s wrong. As your namesake said on the thrones show:
    • “It often comforts me to think that even in war’s darkest days, in most places in the world absolutely nothing is happening.”
  • The danger for Jaime is all too human: the war and the emptiness inside him. Even if the Others never returned, he’d have to face them
  • The jarring shift in tone is appropriate for his character. Not only does the book feel like it’s been reborn, but Jaime feels that way too
  • He’s emerged from the dark cave beneath Riverrun: a womb, a crucible for his rebirth. He’s getting used to the world again, and we have to reacquaint ourselves with Westeros through a new pair of eyes
  • Right on. It’s a new pair of eyes, and it being a palette cleanser is exactly correct.
  • In terms of genre, we went from the brutal, evil character study of Chett which transitions to horror at chapter’s end.
  • And then here in Jaime’s chapter it’s all the beautiful scenery and then an almost swashbuckling adventure story by the end of this chapter.
  • It could have felt like whiplash, but somehow it doesn’t, and I think the reason why is in the character of Jaime himself.
  • Part of what makes Jaime so dynamic to me is how he starts at the level that readers expect him to be at.
  • He’s a mockery of chivalry. Wait, wait, Shiloh. Don’t get mad. STAY ME WITH ME.
  • Jaime’s got the looks, the skills, and in a society, that makes him the model chivalric knight, right?
  • Well, no. Jaime also has that less-than-stellar personality. The one where he’s constantly insulting Brienne “unchivalrously” as Cousin Cleos chides Jaime.
  • I am 100% with you on this one, buddy. In fact, if people have time to kill, the latest Learned Hands episode covers the whole question of chivalry and how Jaime ain’t it pretty well.
  • I think that’s a major component of why Jaime works here immediately after the prologue.
  • We’ve seen Chett’s red boils, felt his rage and seen his alienation from everyone around him north of the Wall.
  • And then when we get to Jaime, he’s got the looks, the skills, but he’s as embittered as Chett.
  • The major difference for Jaime, though, is that his embitterment over chivalry is the cynical sort: an optimist who believed in something fiercely who was bitterly disappointed by it.
  • Again, I sense no correlations to my own life experiences and am shocked you would even think this.
• Escape in ACOK
  • So after we’ve recovered from the shock of how the Prologue ended, and the shock of Jaime being our POV, next up is the shock of what’s actually happening in this chapter. Why are Jaime & Co. in a boat on a river?
  • When last we saw these characters, Catelyn was calling for Brienne’s sword; we might think Catelyn is about to execute Jaime on the spot!
  • But George set up Catelyn’s desperate desire to get her daughters back, especially after she hears that Theon killed Bran and Rickon
  • Cleos told her about Tyrion’s public promise to exchange her daughters for Jaime. Gradually, we realize that Catelyn is trying to make that deal: she has sprung Jaime from jail and sent him on his way to King’s Landing
  • This is...kind of a big deal, as we’ll see starting next week in Catelyn I. Here, though, Jaime doesn’t dwell on the politics of his release
  • He’s alienated from the power structures of Westeros, even those he’s a part of, as we’ll see throughout the rest of the book
  • Plus, of course, he’s recovering from months in a cell, not to mention getting drunk off his ass at the end there. So everything is sensory
  • He only remembers bits and pieces: Brienne knocking out the guard, Catelyn giving the orders. When Jaime tried to escape previously, it was with a sword in hand. This time, he slept right through it
  • This sets up the dynamic between freedom and control running through Jaime’s chapters. He was dragged out of his cell rather than escaping, and even now he wears chains. So has he truly been set free?
  • He spends a lot of the book as a passive or passive-ish character, being handed off from one captor to another, offers being made to trade him, almost like he’s in the “damsel” position in his own story and Brienne is his knightly protector. He tries to claim the active protector role a couple of times, but it doesn’t work out so well for him.
  • He’s wearing literal chains, but also metaphorical ones. He’s imprisoned by the past, his devotion to Cersei, and his rep: the eye of the beholder
  • Ultimately, he has imprisoned himself. As Jeff said, Jaime is a cynical man; he has learned not to invest himself emotionally. We see that in how he thinks about the oath he swore Catelyn; he doesn’t consider it binding, remembering only the steel of the sword as Catelyn pressed it against him
  • Looks like the hostage trade is in trouble! Then again, as Jaime thinks, Catelyn is trusting him as little as she dares, putting her faith in Tyrion instead. Who would trust me? I have shit for honor; I broke my oaths
  • As it turns out, this internal drama is the whole point of Jaime’s story in this book. Actually getting him to King’s Landing is an anticlimax. By the time they arrive, their mission is moot: Sansa’s gone, Catelyn’s dead
  • So the stakes become more personal, even existentialist: it’s about who Jaime is by the end of the journey, compared to how he starts here
  • I think this is one reason that even though I’ve gone back and forth on whether he’s actually on a redemption arc and whether I even like him that much he’s still fascinating to me because he does have such a clear arc, and it’s going to be super interesting to see what George ultimately does with him in The Winds of Winter. When we get it. Next week.
  • “You’d think my word as a Lannister was not good enough,” he “jokes.” Jaime doesn’t believe in oaths anymore. He doesn’t believe in the High Septon, nor the gods he claims to serve, nor anything beyond Cersei
  • We started to learn why in ACOK, with his story about the Mad King murdering the Starks. But as Jaime admitted, that still doesn’t explain how he became the man he is
  • What I love about how GRRM writes Jaime is it reflects his compartmentalization. So much is buried in the subtext, in his subconscious
  • George hides his depths from the audience at first to reflect how Jaime is hiding from himself. His true feelings are connected to secrets he cannot let slip, secrets about both Aerys and Cersei
  • He thinks of himself as an island, because that denies any vulnerability; when his hand is cut off, he can’t deny vulnerability any longer
  • And though the endpoint is moot by the time Jaime reaches King’s Landing in ASOS, there is something we learn in later chapters.
  • Jaime intends to keep his oath; not because he’s some sort-of oathkeeper, but because it would be real fucking funny if he kept his oath.
    • Jaime had decided that he would return Sansa, and the younger girl as well if she could be found. It was not like to win him back his lost honor, but the notion of keeping faith when they all expected betrayal amused him more than he could say.
  • But even in that later Jaime chapter, Jaime's inner thought process masks what’s really at work in Jaime’s chapters.
  • Jaime uses his bitter, cutting sarcasm and cynicism as internal and external shields to a world that doesn’t make sense to him.
  • Which is interesting because Tyrion does the same thing but because the world makes too much sense to him.
  • When Jaime was young and idealistic, he wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, a knight in shining armor, abiding by the oaths of chivalry, knighthood and the best ideals of the kingsguard.
  • But now that Jaime has been bitterly disappointed by reality not meeting his expectations, his defense mechanism is to pose as the shittiest person you’d ever meet.
  • But as you were saying, the journey is more important than the destination for Jaime’s character, and the journey is all about stripping away that veneer to get to the bathhouse where all defenses are stripped away to reveal the raw truth and person beneath.
  • It’s an utterly thrilling story for me in ASOS, but the one central dynamic of that story is oaths: what they mean, what value we put in them.
  • But George wouldn’t be as interested in this dynamic unless there was a dramatic foil to cut away the veneer, a person who Jaime absolutely does not love, but those eyes are so beauti- I mean, she’s SO UGLY. But those eyes.
• Sparring with Brienne
  • What everyone loves in Jaime’s chapters, no matter how you feel about him, is his relationship with Brienne, some of GRRM’s best character work
  • What makes it such an engaging dynamic is that it’s both obvious and subtle. The deeper currents of connection are as profound as they are because of how immediately (and hilariously) they butt heads here
  • Long before they change each other’s lives, they just piss each other off. Jaime/Brienne are a couple out of screwball comedy
  • Screwball comedies were popular in the Great Depression era and have been influential ever since. They spoofed romantic plots by emphasizing fast-paced conversation and farcical situations; the romance emerged gradually out of the humor, rather than being an earnest seduction
  • There’s often a class element in screwball comedies, with the rich presented as idle and leisurely. Brienne is highborn, of course, but Jaime mistakes her for a “big strong peasant woman” at first
  • You’ve got your roguish male lead, a failson of immense privilege. You’ve got your no-nonsense female lead, just trying to do her job
  • They’re the perfect odd couple. Jaime’s smiling; Brienne’s scowling. She’s rowing hard; he’s lying back and looking at the trees. Made for each other!
  • They bounce off each other, talk past each other, do everything they can to avoid vulnerability with each other, yet in the process, they fall for each other. This is the classic screwball structure--“enemies to lovers,” as they call it in the fanfic world
  • Here at the beginning, they’re operating strictly on the surface. Jaime mocks Brienne for not living up to beauty standards, for not looking like how he thinks a woman ought to look
  • More specifically: she doesn’t look like Cersei, the only woman Jaime’s ever had sex with, his gold standard for all women
  • Jaime pictures Brienne in one of Cersei’s silk gowns, thinking it would be like dressing up a cow. These vicious insults are the face Jaime shows not only the world, but himself. Under the surface, something else is going on
  • Why does Jaime picture Brienne in a dress at all? Why does he take note of not only her calf muscles “like cords of wood,” but also her pretty blue eyes? Because he’s attracted to her, no matter what he says or thinks!
  • As Shiloh said: at some level, Jaime is the damsel in distress, and Brienne is the knight whose strong biceps he clings to and flutters his eyelashes
  • That also fits with screwball comedies, in which characters often cross-dress or impersonate each other, wearing a variety of masks
  • Jaime starts off the book with strict gender roles, calling Brienne “my lady” and then “wench.” We are different, men and women, and you’re lesser
  • But over the course of the book, he comes to realize that this distinction is largely a social construct, one that has made them both miserable
  • And so he will decide to try and be less miserable, get outside the things he’s taken for granted and make something new, something better
  • That goes hand in hand with opening up to Brienne. Here, though, he can’t deal with his subconscious attraction to her, the anti-Cersei, so he externalizes it as mockery. No way I could be attracted to a freak like you
  • There is a twisted version of chivalry inherent in Jaime’s fixation on Cersei and externally/internally stated disregard for Brienne
  • Jaime notes later in the chapter that he left sex workers for Tyrion, because Cersei was all he needed.
  • That mental thought invokes the thought of monogamous, chivalrous love — albeit one which is twisted from its recognized form.
  • Jaime almost thinks about Cersei like a wife, a bride, the one and only he is sworn to be with.
  • Almost like Lancelot and Guinevere.
  • In Jaime’s memory, he was willing to go to war with Ned Stark or Robert Baratheon over his sister which invokes all sorts of weird chivalrous feelings.
  • What I wonder with all of these “Brienne is so ugly” statements and thoughts is Jaime putting up a barrier so as not to be tempted towards cheating on Cersei.
  • It’s almost like he’s overcompensating with the insults to shield his heart from being stolen away by this blue-eyed hottie.
  • Of course, his fidelity to Cersei is twisted by the incest part of it, but it wouldn’t be Jaime without his expression of chivalry to be tied up with something not quite right.
  • For her part, though, Cersei will not have the same fidelity to Jaime that he had for her. But I’ll save some of those thoughts towards the end of this chat.
  • Later in this book, Jaime will pose the question of “why can’t we be Targaryens” to Cersei which Cersei will dismiss due to Tywin who … y’know married his cousin.
  • But what about Brienne. What does she think of Jaime?
  • Brienne, for her part, resents Jaime even more than he resents her. Their relationship starts with Brienne telling Jaime to STFU. Quit laughing at the world! Quit enjoying yourself! Brienne has no interest in his rebirth
  • Jaime may think scowls suit Brienne more than smiles, but we saw a smile light up her face when Renly made her one of his Rainbow Guard
  • We saw her naive belief in the stories and songs; we saw her grief for Renly; we saw her sorrowful solitude in Riverrun. This hostility is new, and it’s inspired by Jaime
  • Here’s the twist on the screwball formula. The male lead isn’t just roguish--he’s a child-killing sister-fucking oathbreaker, and the initial distaste between the couple is philosophical as much as it is personal
  • Brienne loathes Jaime for his crimes. She wants him in chains--metaphorical, societal chains as well as literal ones
  • She doesn’t even think of him as a person, really. Instead, as she says, she thinks of him as a monster. The Kingslayer, she calls him
  • It’s only then that he shifts from calling her “my lady” to “wench.” Jaime is so used to being dehumanized that he dehumanizes everyone else. He’s pure alienation; like Chett, he learned only how to hit back
  • Brienne tells him to call him by her true name, and that’s all he wants, too: to be seen as a person again, Jaime instead of the Kingslayer.
  • Why shouldn’t she call him the Kingslayer, she asks? Didn’t he kill a king? Well sure, he says, but she’s a woman, and still doesn’t like being called “wench.” Moreover, if he’s such a monster, what does she care? My words only hurt because they’re coming from another human being like you
  • Jaime is expressing deep pain...in the most crude and juvenile way possible. If you call me names, I’ll call you names! Jaime senses that Brienne’s weak spot is her gender presentation: she wants to be a knight, but isn’t allowed to. He zeroes in on it to distract from his own weak spots
  • In between them is Cleos Frey, the hapless third leg of the triangle. The Jaime-Brienne dynamic exposes the holes in social norms, how they fail to match up with individuals; Cleos tries to uphold those norms, and fails
  • And because we never get into Cleos’ head, George leaves us to wonder how much of it he means. Is he just upset that Jaime isn’t following the chivalric script? Or, as Jaime himself wonders, does he really believe all of it, even the demonstrably untrue parts?
  • Even as Jaime insults Brienne for challenging him, part of him finds her honesty refreshing: most people only call me a monster behind my back!
  • That’s because most people Jaime knows are like Cleos: polite to his face, which only makes him hate them more. Hypocrites, ignorant lickspittles
  • Cleos defends Jaime from Brienne’s accusations. The Starks could never defeat such a great warrior with swords, so they do it with lies
  • But as Jaime thinks, the Starks did defeat him with swords, and he did indeed throw Bran from the window. He prefers Brienne’s truth, even though she hates him, to Cleos’ lies, even though Cleos is kissing up
  • He keeps those thoughts to himself, of course. He gives a knowing smile, letting Cleos read whatever he wants into it; that’s how Jaime operates
  • The only person with whom he has ever been intimate is Cersei. Their power dynamic is complicated, as we’ll see in King’s Landing
  • Jaime kicks things off physically, and is blunt and aggressive in terms of how he talks about Cersei’s body
  • But Cersei’s really the one in charge. Jaime only threw Bran because he thought she’d want him to, and regrets it afterward when she complains
  • He’d go to war against Robert and Ned and anyone else just to be with her. He would’ve killed Bran in his bed for her if she’d told him to. She knows that and has made use of it
  • Once again, George is turning romantic tropes on their head. Robert fought a rebellion for his lost love; look how that turned out
  • Same applies to Jaime. His all-consuming romance is with his own twin sister, a narcissistic hive-mind that has led to murder and war
  • As he thinks, when he spilled open her bodice, the Stark boy was forgotten. Sex with his mirror image keeps the bad thoughts at bay
  • Whereas Brienne’s bodice doesn’t distract him--she makes him think consciously about it all, and he hates that!
  • So Brienne and Cersei are the two poles of Jaime’s arc. Which one will he be with? More importantly: which one will he be like?
  • Jaime asks for a knife. Brienne thinks he’s trying to escape, but he wants only to turn the blade on himself, cutting away his golden Lannister hair
  • He doesn’t want to be recognized in this state. This isn’t how he thinks of himself. This isn’t the man Cersei loves
  • But cutting his hair only further separates him from her, from his whole Lannister identity. A louse scuttles out of the hair; Jaime crushes it. The past is dead, and the man looking back at him from the river doesn’t look much like Cersei anymore. He doesn’t know who he is now
  • Fantastic point! Cersei would “hate” the way Jaime looks now.
  • That flows well with the idea inherent in Jaime and Cersei’s relationship that Cersei’s main interest in Jaime is an expression of narcissistic self-love.
  • But in keeping with some of my opening remarks, I think Jaime is supposed to look less like the man readers knew in the first two books.
  • He appears ugly, disheveled, older and bald.
  • Jaime had lost the look of chivalry: the fabled Lannister beauty.
  • He thinks that it’s for his survival now — so that he won’t be recognized as Jaime Lannister.
  • But I maintain it’s a signal from George about the change in reader perception about Jaime.
  • Jaime feels like he is eschewing or has lost the trappings of his power, the physicality he brought.
  • In essence, he’s becoming less of a knight in shining armor in appearance.
  • His physical change dovetails so well with his bitter cynicism about chivalry. “True knights see and do worse every time they ride to war” as we’ll discuss in a moment.
  • But I like to think that George is stripping away the shell surrounding Jaime, the stark beauty that surrounded him, to reveal the person underneath.
  • But that will come later in this book. For now, there are feeding crows and humanity to attend to.
• “They Lay With Lions”
  • So this chapter starts with some beautiful imagery that leads into some comedic dialogue, but then the tone starts to change
  • What makes this different from most romantic comedies is that our odd couple is traveling through an active warzone
  • The horror intrudes slowly, just like in the last book when it was Arya getting deeper and deeper into the hell of the Riverlands at war
  • Jaime takes some passing trout as a bad omen--that’s the Tully sigil! But then he sees a corpse float past, wearing Lannister crimson
  • Suddenly, taking the fish as an omen seems so silly, like when Illyrio makes fun of how attached Westerosi nobles are to their symbols
  • The corpse is a more blunt symbol, unmistakable. Jaime has been reborn; that could be his old self floating past, tied to his family name
  • Once, Jaime was a shining young prodigy; once these rivers were full of life, the people of Westeros traveling, trading, entertaining each other
  • Now, there are villages without villagers, and everyone they do see keeps their distance. That’s how Jaime’s felt his entire adult life! The empty land represents Aerys’ atrocities, as Jaime says in his next chapter, but it also reflects how Jaime feels inside: alienated, walled off from humanity
  • It’s at this point in the podcast that it’s worth once again re-emphasizing that the dead bodies, abandoned villages and suspicious villages wouldn’t have been possible if not for Tywin’s illegal and immoral war.
  • Still, we can reasonably assume that this dead Lannister floating in the river was a casualty of Edmure Tully’s heroic yet fateful defense of the fords just a brief while ago.
  • At the start of ASOS, GRRM put a note on the chronology, stating that the early chapters take place prior to the chronological end of ACOK and the Blackwater.
  • So, we can assume this a casualty from that battle
  • Jaime wonders if this was someone he knew.
  • There’s no hint in the text that it is though, and that’s perfectly fine and great.
  • In the end, this War of the Five Kings will kill tens of thousands by the sword and hundreds of thousands through starvation and exposure when winter comes.
  • In the end, this war - no matter how justified on the Stark side - will rob people of life and make them bloated corpses, alone and nameless.
  • That feeds into what they find next: “a live oak full of dead women,” the beauty of nature contrasted with the ugliness of human nature
  • These are the literal fruits of the war: an unshakable horror image designed to generate our outrage, as it does for Brienne
  • She’s been focused on her mission--I will return with the Stark girls or not at all--but now she stops dead to care for strangers. That’s Brienne in a nutshell. Same thing happens in AFFC with “no chance and no choice”
  • Jaime mocked her for being a woman dressed like a knight, but here we see that Brienne upholds the values of chivalry more than most knights. As Jaime tells her, the Tullys would never stop to bury these women, and “true knights” see and do worse than this in every war
  • This bit does some interesting work with continuing the themes of knighthood and chivalry but also showing us that both sides are kind of assholes, not just the one. Robb might be a better man than Tywin, but the men who follow them don’t necessarily have their same attitudes and compunctions. And the smallfolk get caught in the middle of their fights, which we’ve already seen from Arya’s chapters in the last book.
  • George emphasizes that in how he paces the scene. First, we see the corpses and then learn which side was responsible. So he’s got us--we’ve already absorbed the horror, and can’t excuse it
  • Imagine the war, not from Robb’s perspective or Jaime’s or Brienne’s, but from the perspective of these women. They were living their lives, kneeling to Jonos Bracken if he rode through, doing him homage as their overlord
  • Then the Lannisters came to town. What were these women supposed to do? Refuse them service? For all they knew, the Brackens were about to fall and these were their new masters. Even if not, keeping the soldiers happy is the best way to stay alive, to help yourself and your loved ones
  • These women weren’t Lannister agents. They were killed for the crime of staying alive. Same thing happened at Harrenhal--those civilians who helped Vargo Hoat when he served the Lannisters are punished for it when he switches sides to the Starks
  • Whoever killed these women probably didn’t think they were actually disloyal. It was more about sending a message: fuck the Lannisters!
  • That’s a message we might agree with, but it’s being meted out on people who had nothing to do with the Lannisters burning out the Brackens
  • No wonder so many smallfolk prefer Beric, or give up on their leaders altogether. When this is how your leaders respond to an invasion, by holding you responsible instead of themselves, why believe in them?
  • There is special contempt reserved for women who use sex to stay alive; I think you can see a link to Jaime’s nasty atittude towards Brienne
  • This is what that hatred for women outside the norm looks like when converted from words to actions, put in service of a merciless power structure that sees individuals as pawns in a zero-sum struggle
  • Cleos represents that conventional wisdom: this is too much trouble to take for such women, and I won’t sully my sword to do so
  • It’s a cautionary tale for Jaime..but also one for Brienne, because now she sees what her own hatred of Lannisters looks like in its worst form
  • If Robb’s righteous crusade could lead us here, maybe Brienne’s righteous loathing for the Kingslayer isn’t actually the best way to look at Jaime
  • But beyond the metaphors, these are still people who were murdered, and Jaime stays totally detached from that reality, while Brienne engages in it
  • Jaime’s focused more on himself, naturally, his ongoing rebirth: laughing like a child at the cold touch of the water, but sobered by the realization that he’s thinner and weaker than before the dungeon. A changed man
  • On reread, we know why Jaime tends to detach himself from violence: the traumatic memory of killing Aerys, and why he did it
  • It’s also from a lifetime in battle: he doesn’t name horses because it’s too difficult when they die. On first read, we’re just waiting for him to break
  • That Cleos recognizes this inn from when his soldiers came through on their way to Riverrun shrouds these murders in even greater horror.
  • What I suspect is that this inn was targeted specifically because Cleos’ party visited.
  • And what was Cleos’ party? Ostensibly it was a diplomatic mission to Alderaan, wait, Riverrun.
  • Of course, the Lannister goons in Cleos’ party were Tyrion’s creatures and tried to spring Jaime free under that diplomatic banner.
  • But still, the Brackens or Boltons or Mallisters didn’t know about the betrayal.
  • They wanted to make themselves feel better by spilling innocent blood.
  • Jaime bears some responsibility here all the same.
  • After Gregor and Amory, it was Jaime’s swords that struck the first blows in the Riverlands, smashing the Tully army near the Golden Tooth.
  • And Cleos’ men had duplicitously come to Riverrun with the mission to free Jaime anyways.
  • In part, Jaime’s arc in ASOS is a reflection of where past blame and responsibility truly lie and what responsibility means in future tense.
  • But hey let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s swashbuckling fun to be had first!
• Boat chase!
  • George doesn’t linger on the horror in this chapter; plenty of that to come in later Jaime chapters. He wants to get us there step by step. The boat chase restores the breezier tone, even as the stakes get higher
  • You could totally film this with Yakkety Sax playing under it and it would work. And despite Jame thinking that Tyrion would have smartass quips that he doesn’t, he definitely gets pretty smartass and funny here.
  • They’re outnumbered by their pursuers, who have a faster boat. The situation seems hopeless. But Jaime just jokes, because he’s ready to die
  • This is self-loathing masking as courage. Jaime’s bravado is rooted in his cynical certainty that nothing in life really matters anyway
  • Ironically, his envisioned last stand is right out of the stories and songs! It’s the same reason he hates archers: because they rob him of a straight fight. Jaime never found anything to believe in beyond a glorious death
  • He was shattered by harsh realities, whereas Brienne is determined to transcend them. She has the true courage, as Jaime acknowledges beneath the insults when he calls her “the Hound with teats.” He’s under her protection; once again, she’s the knight and he’s the damsel
  • The pursuers catch up, in the river galley like a great dragonfly buzzing over the water. Robin Ryger is in command; Jaime taunts him
  • It’s the only language he knows, the empty swagger of fighting men, even though Ser Robin is past his prime and Jaime’s skills have gone to rust
  • Brienne tries to speak more earnestly: this is a lawful exchange of captives. But Robin tells the truth: Catelyn’s not in charge at Riverrun
  • Jaime and Brienne are outlaws now, and so Brienne has to use all her wit and strength to save them, instead of accepting death like Jaime
  • But he still helps out. As Cleos gapes uselessly, Jaime realizes he has to distract Ser Robin and his men so Brienne can spring the trap
  • So Jaime taunts Robin again...but this time, it’s with a purpose. This time, it’s not just empty bravado. It’s a performance of bravado as a diversion
  • And it works! Brienne knocks down the boulder in a supreme display of badassery: it took timing, quick thinking, and intense raw strength
  • Jaime laughs, as he’s been doing all chapter. Seems like everything’s coming up Milhouse! The gods are good after all. It’s a beautiful day with no one after him, and he’s even gotten rid of Brienne…
  • ...or has he? She swan dives after them, suddenly graceful, nothing like he would’ve expected. Maybe that’s why he lets her back into the boat
  • It’s a perfect little moment that sums up Jaime’s relationship to Brienne and his story in this book. His conscious brain is going full Kingslayer: to hell with this wench! I’ve been getting ready to escape all chapter, and I was never going to keep my oath. Time to get rid of her for Cersei, right?
  • But another part of him knows he owes Brienne, and even more than that--he knows she just did something amazing, impressive, like a knight
  • She’s everything he wants to be, so he reaches out to her--literally! She swore an oath, and means to keep it; he remembers what that was like…
  • Even as Brienne despises him and calls him the Kingslayer, she’s giving him hope, stirring something inside of him he thought was gone forever
  • You can see the parallel to Sandor and Sansa in the previous book: a moment of devotion that inspires transformation
  • The songs and stories are coming true after all, just not in the way young Jaime ever would have expected
  • I love that final thought of Jaime in this chapter: “And there’s a wonder.”
  • Jaime had spent the whole chapter mocking Brienne’s conception of knights and chivalry
  • He knows the real truth behind it all: the truth is that it’s all lies: pretty ribbons around swords that still kill.
  • Vows are routinely broken by knights in service to lords, themselves and their safety, their purses.
  • But then he’s confronted by Brienne, a person who embodies all of the values that Jaime once aspired to.
  • Brienne intends to keep her vow to bring Jaime to safety, to King’s Landing.
  • Brienne could have ducked out, sought her own safety, headed back to Tarth after abandoning ship.
  • Instead, she chose to save Jaime’s life. She chose her vow to safeguard a monster over an easier path.
  • That’s a wonder to Jaime Lannister. He’s only seen the hypocrisy inherent in the system.
  • And now he’s confronted with a true believer — someone who lives the ideals that he once valued.
  • It’s a wonder to Jaime, because he’s facing the actualization of an ideal. And he’s going to be on a long journey with that living ideal in Brienne.
  • But while he extends the paddle to her now, the sword will come out soon enough.
  • Totally not a dick metaphor.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Roose holding Harrenhal will indeed spell doom for the travelers; in Catelyn I, we learn Edmure has told Roose about the escape, and in Jaime III, Vargo Hoat takes Jaime and Brienne captive before dragging them to Roose at Harrenhal.

George reminds us about the catspaw by having Jaime think it doesn’t make sense for Cersei to send anyone other than him to kill Bran Stark. But if it wasn’t Cersei...hmm…

George also reminds us about Beric Dondarrion; Cleos says he only kills soldiers, showing us how his positive rep has spread even among Lannister loyalists.

Jaime asks if Brienne would prefer being addressed as “Ser Brienne” rather than “Lady Brienne”, and I like to think this foreshadows Jaime knighting Brienne. I wonder if that line will come up when Jaime knights Brienne.

Jaime says Tyrion will laugh himself sick to hear about Jaime’s escape...but when they reunite at King’s Landing, it will be Jaime helping Tyrion escape! Also this starts a continuing theme in this book with Tyrion and Jaime each thinking about how the other would handle whatever situation they’re in and how they’d do it better. Like Jaime’s thought that “Tyrion could think of something clever now, but all that occurs to me is to go at them with a sword.” I wonder if just thinking about how Tyrion would mouth off gave him the inspiration for his humor during the boat chase, and I tell you what, I wish we’d gotten more happy times scenes between these two as a foundation for this hinted-at relationship.

Theory/Discussion

• I think one of the reasons I like Brienne so much and I guess Jaime since he hangs out with her--and why I wanted to come on for this episode in particular--is how their stories--separately and together--have so much in common with medieval romances. And I don’t mean capital-R Romance like Walter Scott, but the romances like Chretien de Troyes’  or Marie de France’s Arthurian romances. George makes a big deal out of how chivalry is this great big lie the society tells itself to excuse all the violence, but he also managed to end up with some pretty solid medieval-style storytelling.
• In the romances, knights often have to go out questing to sort of find themselves, and we see that a lot with Jaime and Brienne. This chapter is just the start of these two learning things about each other and chivalry and oathkeeping and the world in general while they’re stomping around in the wilderness.
• I’ve argued before that Jaime and Brienne in particular and the way they play off each other remind me a lot of Lancelot and Galahad partly because of how Brienne serves as an example to Jaime of how a knight should act, and he can’t quite live up to her example because of his own internal flaws.
• Love your points about Jaime and Brienne’s story fitting into true chivalry, ™ and specifically the Arthurian romance of it all.
• My question to you is how does Cersei fit into this?
• As I briefly alluded to earlier, if we take Jaime as a twisted Lancelot, Cersei is his Guinevere. Of course, that starts to get shaky when we actually get Cersei’s POV, because by herself she isn’t very Guineverey, but within Jaime’s story, that’s her role. Kind of like how I would argue that within Jaime’s story, Brienne acts as both a Galahad and Elaine figure, but on her own she’s much more Galahad if he wasn’t perfect to the point of being boring.
• Having listened to your recent Learned Hands episode, I wondered whether she is a gender-swapped tradchiv knight — a sexually wanton knight while Jaime remains the chaste damsel back home?
• Eh? I think she’d like for that to be the case, but Jaime definitely does more questing while Cersei has to stay home and do the politics--until they don’t let her anymore.

Conclusion

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