ΠΑΝΤΑ ΡΕΙ

House Colors: Red and Gold

House Words: Hear Me Roar.

House Seat: Casterly Rock

Just as House Stark is set up at the beginning of the story as the protagonists, House Lannister is very much set up as the antagonists. Our honorable Ned Stark distrusts them, they've seized a worrying amount of power at court, and there's only one Lannister PoV to the six (SIX!!) Stark PoVs in book 1. And said Lannister is the black sheep of the family at that.

1. Lord Tywin

The current Lord Lannister, as of Book 1, is Tywin Lannister. Tywin Lannister is many things: a harsh pragmatist, a brutal foe, a man obsessed with legacy. But perhaps most importantly for us, he’s a terrrrrrrrrrible dad. It turns out that when you raise your children to believe that family legacy is all that matters and everyone outside your family is a tool or an enemy…they don’t turn out great :/

Tywin’s big thing is that he wants capital-R Respect for House Lannister, which he believes comes from fear and an iron grip. His father Tytos “the Laughing Lion” Lannister was seen (at least by Tywin) as a weak lord who could be taken advantage of by the lesser houses. Tywin does not like laughing. Tywin REALLY does not like being laughed at. It’s kinda his whole thing.

One time House Reyne of Castermere made some trouble, so Tywin chased the entire family into a mine. Then he redirectd a river. To slowly drown them. Over hours. They wrote a song about it and everything. That’s Papa Tywin. Great start to the family!

1b. The Golden Twins

Two of the most famous – and infamous – figures in modern Westeros are Tywin’s Golden Twins, Cersei and Jaime. (Yes, people really call them that in universe.)

Cersei and Jaime are rich. They’re blond-haired and green eyed. They’re almost identical and used to swap clothes and children. They’re gorgeous – people routinely refer to them as the most beautiful man and woman in Westeros. They look like anime villains. They’re powerful. They’re bitchy. They’re sneering at you right now. They think they’re better than you. They’re utterly miserable. They’ve got a certain Team Rocket meets Flowers in the Attic je ne sais quoi that can’t be beat.

TRULY characters of all time.

2. Cersei Lannister

(Art by Amok)

Cersei Lannister is queen of Westeros, married to King Robert Baratheon. Said marriage is a disaster. For one thing, Robert’s still obsessed with Ned Stark’s dead sister, Lyanna. For another, he makes no secret of his sleeping around and he’s got (we assume) 16 bastard children. He's at least occasionally physically violent with her and the children. Genuinely a terrible husband!

Cersei, for her part, is carrying on an incestuous affair with her twin brother Jaime, and all three of her children are (unsurprisingly) perfect blond-haired, green-eyed Lannister xeroxes of the twins.

(In retrospect, this miiiiiiight not have been a smart political move.)

The crown is heavily in debt to the Lannister family, which gives them – and by extension, Cersei – an outsized amount of power in court. Still doesn’t make Cersei happy though.

By the time we meet Cersei, she’s had years to stew in resentments and paranoia. (This is especially true by the time she becomes a PoV character in Book 4.) She – completely understandably! – resents the social role she’s been forced into a woman, and envies the relative freedoms she attributes to Jaime and his life. She’s her father’s eldest child, having been born a few minutes before Jaime, but she cannot inherit his Lordship. Her father treats her marriage as a bargaining tool to be used without her consent, even when she’s a widow in her mid-thirties. And Tywin has always treated Jaime as his favorite child, despite him lacking Tywin’s own ambition and political savvy. Traits Cersei feels she has in abundance!

So Cersei becomes obsessed with the idea of herself as the heir to Tywin’s legacy; a great queen who will be remembered in history books to come.

Also, to be fair to her paranoia, people really are out to get her. Just…often not the people she thinks or in the way she thinks.

3a. Jaime Lannister

(Art by Amok)

Oh boy. Jaime. Jaime Jaime. Where do I even start on this guy. Like his siblings, he's a huge mess. Disaster of a man.

Ok. So.

Jaime Lannister is best known in Westeros by his epithet: THE KINGSLAYER. So to talk about Jaime, we have to talk about The Kingsguard. If you don’t want some lore, skip to the tl’dr at the end.

The Kingsguard is a group of seven elite knights – the best (at least in theory) the kingdoms have to offer. They swear a holy vow to serve and guard the king. For life. Like the men of the Night’s Watch, they may hold no lands or titles, father no children, take no wife. Service to the king (and royal family) is meant to be their entire raison-d’etre. No family for you! Your brothers of the Kingsguard are your only family now! Appointment to the Kingsguard is an incredible honor, one that all-but guarantees that  your name lives on in history.

(It’s such a big deal that when Quentyn “Fireball” Ball was promised a future spot in the Kingsguard, he promptly forced his wife into a religious order so he could become eligible for the placement. Then when the king died before a spot opened and the next king was, uh, horrified by the wife thing and didn’t want to work with him, Ser Quentyn got so mad he joined a rebellion. But that’s an old story. Fuck Fireball, is all I’m saying.)

Anyway! When Jaime Lannister was 15, he was a sword-fighting savant. A clear generational talent. And he became the youngest knight ever to serve in the Kingsguard, in service to King Aerys Targaryen. You know. The one who there was that big rebellion against (see the world-building post).

(And here’s the thing about joining the Kingsguard. Huge honor! Honor to you! Honor to your family! Honor to your house!!! But it does make you ineligible for land or title. So. You know. Kind of an unspoken rule you maybe don’t pick eldest sons of major houses unless there’s another potential heir in the wings ready for the mantle. So Aerys picking Jaime was also a fuck you to Tywin, because he knows Tywin hates his second son. More on that in a minute.)

Robert’s Rebellion happens, and Aerys’ old buddy cum nemesis Tywin seems to be hanging back, not supporting either side, until Robert wins a decisive victory at the Trident, killing crown prince Rhaegar. Lord Tywin shows up with an army at King’s Landing and someone on the inside (maaaaybe his Kingsguard?) convinces King Aerys that this army is totally here to help! Let’s open the gates for them and let them in!!

Tywin’s army was not there to help. They sack the city on behalf of the rebellion. And when Ned Stark joins and fights his way to the Red Keep…he finds Aerys dead on the throne room floor, and his sworn Kingsguard, Jaime Lannister, sitting on the Iron Throne with the sword he used to stab his king in the back. Clearing the way for his father’s victory in the city.

(You can see why Ned maybe didn't trust this guy. Art by Michael Komarck.)

So. Yeah. Kingslayer. Not just a king, not just the king, but HIS king. The king he was sworn above all others to protect. And the fine folk of Westeros take that idea very seriously. He’s not just a murder or a traitor. He’s an oath-breaker, a man whose word means nothing, an affront against the gods themselves.

But here’s the thing: Kingsguard serve for life. And when a king dies, he inherits the Kingsguard. So Jaime Lannister’s still a sworn brother of the Kingsguard! Awesome! Everyone loves this and no one is angry about it. Obviously.

Tl;dr: Jaime swore an oath to serve and protect the king as one of his elite, trusted guard. He stood by while the king did horrible things, but then literally stabbed him in the back at a moment advantageous to his family. So now everyone calls him “Kingslayer” and cracks jokes every time he tries to make a promise.