Character Info

[born_a_lion]

- ★ NAME: Jaime Lannister
- ★ AGE: 36
- ★ CANON POINT: during the Battle of the Whispering Wood, near the end of Book 1
- ★ CANON INFORMATION: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Jaime_Lannister

- ★ PERSONALITY: On the surface, Jaime is - to put it bluntly - an ass. He is arrogant, self-centered, and morally bereft. He doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind, no matter how unkind his thoughts may be. He is hot-tempered, and never shies away from a fight. He had the gall to slay the king he was sworn to protect, and was ruthless enough to throw a child from a window to keep his secret safe. He is truly a vile, despicable human being - worthy of the derision with which many regard him.

But one could argue that these traits are more a product of his name and upbringing than his true nature. As the eldest son of Tywin Lannister he has quite a reputation to live up to. His father is a hard, ruthless, unyielding man, who would likely have been intolerant of any display of weakness from his children.

For example, when Tyrion fell in love with and secretly married a crofter’s daughter at the age of 13, Tywin sabotaged the marriage by getting Jaime to tell him that the circumstances under which they had met had been staged, and that the girl was, in fact, a whore Jaime had bought for him. He tells Jaime that the girl is only interested in their money, which makes her no better than a whore, so it wasn’t even really a lie. And besides, Tyrion will thank him later. Jaime does as he is asked, and later Tywin has his men rape the girl while Tyrion watches, just to further drive the point home. Granted, he has no great love for Tyrion, but this incident also shows us his willingness to manipulate and use Jaime (and theoretically Cersei, as well) to achieve his own ends.

Tywin's own father was a drunken laughingstock, and he's spent his entire life working to compensate for that. One would imagine he expected his children to live up to the reputation he had so carefully built. Jaime has become the arrogant, ruthless man he is largely because that is what was expected of him. He is a Lannister, after all.

Beneath the awful, arrogant veneer however, is a kindhearted young man. He is the only member of the family to show any kindness to Tyrion. The incident surrounding his brief, disastrous marriage is the single instance in which he was unkind, and he did that at his father’s bidding.

On more than one occasion during his time serving King Aerys, he spoke out against the King’s cruelty. One night, while he was standing guard outside the door, the King violently raped Queen Rhaella. Jaime wanted to intervene, stating that they were sworn protect the Queen as well, but he was stopped by his fellow guardsman, who told him, “We are, but not from him.”

He had a similar reaction to the execution of Lord Rickard and Brandon Stark. But he was promptly reminded by another member of the Kingsguard that he swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.

His entire tenure in the Kingsguard - under Aerys, at least - seemed to be an exercise in learning to stand quietly aside while terrible, disturbing things happened. He learned to cope by “going away inside” or, to put it in modern psychological terms, dissociating - a common coping mechanism amongst victims of trauma and abuse.

He drew the line at allowing the King to burn the city, however. He was willing to do whatever was necessary to stop Aerys and keep the people safe. Killing the King was an act of treason, for which he could have been executed, but he was willing to risk that. He is, in fact, proud of killing Aerys. He considers it his finest act.

In general, he is willing to do whatever must be done. He is ruthless, like his father, but his ruthlessness is tempered by a certain carefully concealed nobility. Even his most deplorable act - pushing Bran out the window - is something he felt he had to do. The boy nearly fell on his own, and Jaime pulled him back up, much to Cersei’s dismay. He had to consider what to do, and he was not pleased with the conclusion to which he came. There was loathing in his voice when he looked at his sister and said, “The things I do for love” just before he pushed Bran to his likely death. He had no desire to kill an innocent boy, but he was willing to do whatever he must to keep his sister safe.

Much of Jaime’s life consists of doing things he doesn’t want to do, but there are two things he does genuinely enjoy. Fighting and making love. Though, the latter, he will only do with his sister. He is unflaggingly faithful to her.

- ★ COURT ALLIANCE: Unseelie. Jaime’s beliefs align quite neatly with the Unseelie code. He is a man of action and impulse, always ready to do what needs to be done - whatever that may be. He is more than willing to resort to violence, if need be, and should his goals require him to end a life, so be it. He has no qualms about killing even those some would deem innocent.

He has little use for vows and codes and such structured ideals. They sound nice enough, but they’re ultimately meaningless. Actions speak louder. And vows are often contradictory - in keeping one, a man is often forced to betray another. He’s grown quite jaded to the whole concept of honor and duty, preferring instead to live by no rules but his own.

- ★ ABILITIES: Jaime has no paranormal powers or magickal abilities, but as a knight, he is very skilled in various forms of combat. He has experience commanding his family’s forces in battle. He’s won his fair share of jousting tournaments and melees. But his greatest skill lies in close combat, with the sword.

- ★ INVENTORY: Jaime will arrive with his sword, armor, and a pouch full of gold.