So I guess we are still going with theĀ āJB is gross because itās the Good Woman fixes Bad Man trope!!!ā
Now, I will admit, this is an argument that has stumped me for a while, because even though I realize instinctively that this is not the case, Brienne has been one of the major factors that contributed to Jaimeās identity arc. So, where exactly is the falsehood here? And then it clicked.
At no point did Brienne embark on a campaign to make JaimeĀ āa better personā. Literally. Never once. What Brienne did, was call out Jaime for his shittiness from the first moment they met, dish out insults about his honor as good as she got, and not give an inch even when he attempted politeness. Even after hearing his bathtub confession, she simply started using his name instead of calling him Kingslayer, but continued to be guarded and distant. Hell, she even thought he was asking ger to kill Sansa, when the guy was trying to give her Oathkeeper to protect her. It was only after that, that Brienne began to truly warm up to Jaime, and by that point they werenāt together anymore. The closest she ever got to trying to āchange/fixā him was when she called him craven for wanting to die, and spurred him to snap out of it and make an effort to live. Thatās it. For the duration of their journey together, Brienne never once tried to make Jaime a better person, she just constantly reminded him that he was a profoundly bad one.
So, what happened? Because, like I said above, Brienne is undeniably one of the cornerstones on which Jaimeās character development was built. But the beauty of it, and the reason that, for me, it escaped sexist tropes, was that Jaime did it all on his own. He decided to help her deal with an imminent rape the same way he dealt with Aerys.Ā He decided to lie through his teeth twice to then save her from it. He decided to come back for her. He decided to jump into that bear pit. He decided to offer her a place in the City Guard, he decided to try to comfort her after the Red Wedding, he decided to give her a priceless sword and treat her as the knight she always wanted to be, all him, all the time. And for all of them, he was then met with either outright hostility or, at best, reserved politeness. Brienne never went down theĀ āoooh my misunderstood bb i knew you had it in you to be gud!!!!ā road. Jaime was never āfixedā by her kindness, or her effort, or her support. What Jaime was actually fixed by, was her example.
Because you see, theĀ boy that had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead, was a profoundly jaded man by the start of ASoS, that suddenly comes across a person that embodies everything he wanted to be when he was young. That person then rejects him so thoroughly, that he actually feels the need to share his innermost secret, the thing that defines his character and he has never once shared in 14 years, because he craves her validation. As a knight, and as an honorable woman, not as a romantic partner. And after that, after he unburdens himself, starts the domino effect. Brienne does nothing, materially, besides being someone who encapsulates everything he wanted to be, and shoving in his face with her mere presence how much he failed. Jaime doesnāt do those things because he wants to be with Brienne. He does them because he wants to be Brienne. Combining that with his year-long captivity that forces him to reflect instead of deny, and the loss of his hand, Jaime finally finds the incentive within himself to make a positive change.Ā
In the Bad Trope, the loss of the pure female influence usually makes the male douchebag relapse back into his awful ways, because hey, sheās not there to be impressed anymore (see: Delena in tvd). Contrast that with Jaime actually trying to become a better LC, a better influence on Tommen, and rejecting Cerseiās more paranoid requests, even though Brienne is long gone. Sheās not there to be theĀ āangel on his shoulderā anymore. Yet he doesnāt regress. He doesnāt relapse. He does it for himself, not for her.Ā
And while weāre at that, Jaime does the exact same for Brienne. He appears in her life at a point where her morality is strictly black-and-white, and shows her that people are not always what they appear, and that there are shades of grey you canāt imagine at first glance. Jaime aids Brienneās character development as much as she aids his, and then they go their own ways to further build on it. Brienne encounters many people on the road that challenge her view of the world even further, and is eventually faced with the horrifying revelation that the kind-hearted Catelyn Stark who she revered for treating her as a knight has now turned into Lady Stoneheart, a dead husk filled with hatred and revenge that wants to kill her. This will undoubtedly send Brienne into a moral tailspin, and she will certainly come out of it a changed woman. So you see, Jaime plants the first seed, and then she grows from there by herself. Jaime and Brienneās journey was never just about Jaime, and Brienne was never his prop. Sometimes people have an impact on each other, without it falling into tired sexist tropes. And I think thatās beautiful.
tl;dr JB is not aboutĀ āPure Woman Fixing Damaged Manā, Brienne certainly influenced Jaime, but he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and got where he is first and foremost for himself.
