MostlyJaime&Brienne

It opens by naming his old identity out loud. He tells himself he’s safe as long as he has his hand, then safe as long as he has a sword. That’s the whole of who he was: the hand, the blade, the name. Tywin gives him the sword. Cersei is the only light in the world. The Lannister legacy, past and present, standing before him.

Brienne pops up when he’s still defined by all of that. She’s in chains. She asks him for a sword. He frees her, and she has a sword now, and he can see her in this light as almost a knight, almost a beauty, and then her flames take life, and the darkness retreat some more.

And then Cersei tells him “The flames will burn so long as you live. When they die, so must you”.

Then his family leaves. Tywin and Cersei turn and go, and they take every Lannister ghost in the cavern with them, leaving just Jaime and Brienne alone.

And Brienne, in this dream, she starts in chains, then he frees her, then he arms her, and then her blade takes flame until she’s a second source of light, equal to him, standing beside him. He notices her body again, sees that she has more of a woman’s shape. When she touches him, he shudders, because she’s warm.

Then the ghosts comes. But it isn’t the ghosts that hurt him. His flame only starts to flicker when he gives in to the guilt, and the more it swallows him the lower the flame burns, until it goes out. Jaime’s flame dies because he surrenders to despair.

And what is the rule the dream laid down? As long as the flames burns, he lives. When they die, so does he.

His flame dies. Brienne’s is still burning.

And now Brienne is the hand holding the sword and the only light in the world.

When he collapses under guilt, she still stands. She stands between him and his ghosts. She stands between him and the darkness. His flame went out yes, but her light still remains.

So I don’t know if the dream necessarily means Jaime dies before Brienne, but that his living or dying is tied to her. As long as the flames burn, he lives. Once they go out, he’s gone. Hers is still burning.

It’s the verb here.

Jaime scrambled to his feet.

It’s not rose, it’s not stood up, it’s not got up, it’s not pushed himself to his feet.

Scrambled.

It’s haste, it’s a loss of composure. Immediate movement. Instinct, really.

Throughout the first part his chapters of AFFC, Jaime cannot think about Brienne without reaching for some protective layer of mockery. Everytime he wonders where she is, or remembers her, or hopes she’s alive and well, he cushions those thoughts with insults. Stubborn, ugly, a face that could curdle milk. Wench. The longing for her is there, but so the reflexive need to disguise it from himself.

Then two very specific things happen, shortly from one another:

1) Ronnet Connington. Learning from her ex that she was once engaged, hearing him sneer and mock her. Ronnet laughed. Jaime did not. Golden slap as we all know it. Sending the guy away because he can’t stand the sight of him. After this, something changes in Jaime’s head. The insults disappear. The wench disappears. She becomes Brienne now.

2) He remembers the bath they shared in Harrenhall. It’s a very specific scenario. He’s kind of aroused by Pia hitting on him, and his mind recalls this other time where he was also aroused, when he saw Brienne naked and he had a boner. And he thinks that now, with Pia, he no longer has an excuse like he did before. Which is an astonishing thought when you stop to look at it, because no longer has an excuse for what? The implication is obvious. Deep very very deep down he knows he has been making excuses. It’s interesting because he doesn’t feel the need to excuse his attraction to Pia or to Hildy later on. But he felt the need to do that with Brienne.

And after these two very specific scenes, there’s almost a silence where Brienne is concerned. It’s as if Jaime is deliberately avoiding thinking about her.

And I wonder if it’s because he’s running out of ways of explaining things away. Running out of excuses. He can’t hide behind the insults anymore, behind the disrespect, behind the jokes. He lost the taste for it after Ronnet, he doesn’t want to be Ronnet for Brienne. So silence is the next best defense. Which is Jaime’s preferred method for dealing with anything that genuinely moves or unsettles him and that he’s not ready to confront yet. Avoidance. Ignore it.

And then in his last and only chapter in ADWD, there’s that little thought:

Brienne, where are you?

It almost feels accidental, like something that slipped out before he could stop it.

A few pages later, a guard tells him a woman is demanding words with him.

A moment later, Brienne walks into the tent. For one brief second, before the defenses come up, we see exactly what Brienne causes him when he doesn’t have a moment to compose himself.

It opens by naming his old identity out loud. He tells himself he’s safe as long as he has his hand, then safe as long as he has a sword. That’s the whole of who he was: the hand, the blade, the name. Tywin gives him the sword. Cersei is the only light in the world. The Lannister legacy, past and present, standing before him.

Brienne pops up when he’s still defined by all of that. She’s in chains. She asks him for a sword. He frees her, and she has a sword now, and he can see her in this light as almost a knight, almost a beauty, and then her flames take life, and the darkness retreat some more.

And then Cersei tells him “The flames will burn so long as you live. When they die, so must you”.

Then his family leaves. Tywin and Cersei turn and go, and they take every Lannister ghost in the cavern with them, leaving just Jaime and Brienne alone.

And Brienne, in this dream, she starts in chains, then he frees her, then he arms her, and then her blade takes flame until she’s a second source of light, equal to him, standing beside him. He notices her body again, sees that she has more of a woman’s shape. When she touches him, he shudders, because she’s warm.

Then the ghosts comes. But it isn’t the ghosts that hurt him. His flame only starts to flicker when he gives in to the guilt, and the more it swallows him the lower the flame burns, until it goes out. Jaime’s flame dies because he surrenders to despair.

And what is the rule the dream laid down? As long as the flames burns, he lives. When they die, so does he.

His flame dies. Brienne’s is still burning.

And now Brienne is the hand holding the sword and the only light in the world.

When he collapses under guilt, she still stands. She stands between him and his ghosts. She stands between him and the darkness. His flame went out yes, but her light still remains.

So I don’t know if the dream necessarily means Jaime dies before Brienne, but that his living or dying is tied to her. As long as the flames burn, he lives. Once they go out, he’s gone. Hers is still burning.

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Jaime, who found himself wanting to stop travelers on the road and ask if they had seen her pass this way.

Jaime, who walked to the bear pit where he had once leapt in after her.

Jaime, who slapped her former betrothed for speaking ill of her.

Jaime, who sent the man away because he could not bear the sight of him.

Jaime, who remembered the bath at Harrenhal where the sight of her naked had aroused him.

Jaime, who wondered where Brienne was.

Jaime, who scrambled to his feet when she stepped into his tent and “My lady. I had not thought to see you again so soon.”

Maybe he had not.

I’m not this easy.

Okay, I am this easy. Like, so many ways? JonCon is invading the Stormlands and if Cersei does get her last little grasp of power, I could see her being like, “Hmmm, let me interrogate that relative of JonCon’s someone told me is in the dungeons.” And then she finds out Jaime sent Red Ronnet away, and she’s like, “Did he do anything to indicate he was going to disappear with this Brienne of Tarth creature?”

And then, Red Ronnet is like, “Well…”

oMFG

RONNET PLEASE CALL HER BY THIS NAME WHEN YOU TALK TO CERSEI

Cersei be like: he’d never abandon me for that freak.

Ronnet: Well, he smacked me across the face with that golden hand of his for calling her just that.

Cersei: are you sure it’s Brienne of Tarth you’re speaking of?

Ronnet: I’m sure. Nobody can mistake Brienne the Beauty for another woman.

Cersei: Lol Brienne the Bea-