A lot of people have been saying that Jaime’s arc is one of identity, not redemption, but couldn’t one lead to the other? I imagine that his run-in with Stoneheart will force him to confront the aspects of himself that he’s been running from, and if he’s able to accept the reality of what he’s done, couldn’t that be the “rock bottom” for him to finally start redeeming himself from?

guileandsubterfuge:

racefortheironthrone:

I suppose it depends what you mean by redemption. I don’t think Jaime’s getting a happy ending where he becomes a better person and lives a good life. 

Keep reading

I’ve honestly read stuff like this so often in the last few weeks that I want to puke all over my screen, put it in an envelope, and mail it to those of you who keep perpetuating this stupid idea. Really? That’s Jaime’s arc? He’s gonna commit murder/suicide? I can accept meta like that from teenage Cersei-stans but not from actual adults who’ve allegedly actually read these books.

Jaime may very well be the valonqar, but I’ll eat the damn books myself if that’s the end of his story. His weirwood dream very much foreshadows a leading role in the battle against the Others. Supplemental material like AWoIaF’s Lion of Night/Maiden Made of Light sure as hell make me believe that he (and Brienne) are destined for more than an end by Lady Stoneheart and a bloodbath in King’s Landing.

Just because Jaime probably isn’t going to get a happy ending doesn’t mean he’s going to get a stupid and blatantly out of character ending like this romantical murder/suicide bullshit.

Each to their own, but…

1. Maggy’s prophecy states pretty damn clearly that Jaime, the ironically unforseen valonqar, is going to kill Cersei. 
2. Brienne’s character arc has been all about her desperately trying to live up to the chivalric ideal specifically as someone’s bodyguard and falling short due to no fault of her own (the shadow assassin killing Renly, Catelyn sending her away prior to the Red Wedding). Her dying to save Jaime completes that arc.
3. Cersei’s arc is definitely heading toward wildfire bomb in King’s Landing, whether it’s the Chekov’s stashes under the city, Cersei’s trial run with the Tower of the Hand, etc. 
4. Jaime’s foundational act as a character is that when Aerys tried to burn King’s Landing, Jaime murdered him. If Cersei’s arc completes, Jaime really only has one way to go.

And as Cersei says over and over again in AFFC and ADWD, “We will leave this world together, as we once came into it.”