on knighthood and jaime/brienne
the best part of Jaime & Brienne as a Thing to me is that they go into it and Brienne is pretty much the ONLY representation of a True Knight who does what is Good and Honorable in the ENTIRE BOOKS except for one tiny detail, she’s a woman.
And then you have Jaime who is good looking and strong and an awesome fucking swordsman and he thinks honor is the name of a horse.
That’s it! That’s the point!
Brienne’s moral compass points to honor and Jaime’s points to Cersei’s vagina.
Even when he starts to hate her it’s fueled from the same obsession with Cersei, he hates her because she is no longer the manifestation of his desires he can no longer reach out and grab her and keep her close even when she fights the fight is going out of him so he can’t be bothered to fight her anymore so he decides it would be easier to hate her but it’s still caught up in this impenetrable mix of violence and lust only now instead of lust with a side of violence it’s violence with a side of lust (aka the difference between grabbing her and fucking her on the altar of her dead son with the blood pouring out and being incapable of grabbing her and doing anything so instead he thinks a silent cersei would be sweet but I’d miss her tongue when we kissed).
The point of Jaime and Brienne traveling bros is not that Brienne’s honor and good heart changes Jaime into a better person, if you want that read another fucking book. The point is that Brienne comes to terms with the fact that the world is full of terrible people and the men you expect to be true knights are not true knights at all and meanwhile Jaime feels emasculated and broken and falls apart and they are set up as foils in terms of Knighthood.
Are they an interesting pair? Absolutely. They are fascinating. But they are also not romantic. And it is not about Brienne redeeming Jaime. Brienne has her own fucking arc! It’s about dealing with the realities of life instead of the songs in her head and it’s about being caught between Catelyn (and later Lady Stoneheart) and Jaime.
So really.
What I’m saying is.
We should all ship Catelyn/Brienne instead.
I like this analysis of Jaime/Brienne… Except I still sort of want to mash their faces together.
See, Brienne is very strong and capable, but she’s lonely. She has a huge heart and she falls in love so easily. If I were Brienne (and I identify most strongly with Brienne than almost any other character), I would have loved Renly; and after Jaime comes back to rescue her from the bear pit… well, I’d love him, too. Even if I didn’t want to.
Among all the other complications in Brienne’s life, I do think it’s suggested that she’s fallen for Jaime a bit… and (possibly selfishly), I wish that could be fulfilled.
My heart wants what it wants!
