Jaime

[Jon Targaryen]

I think the OP has good reasons for why some females like Jaime but not for why all females like Jaime and he is simply wrong in that most of Jaime's fans are female, imo.

[Eponine]

I'm a female and it didn't bother me from the beginning that Jaime threw Bran off the wall because I can't manage to see Bran as a "real" person and certainly not as a 7 year old child. I don't think that Jaime was a good person by any stretch of the imagination, but if he had caught an adult whom we didn't know (like a random guard or hedge knight) watching him and Cercei, I don't think most people would have nearly as strong a reaction to what he did. This isn't because I'm a Jaime fan or defender so much as I just don't care about Bran- more than anyone else in the book, he seems like a flat plot device to me, and I just can't get worked up about the attempted murder of a plot device.

I also don't think that killing Aerys was anything for Ned Stark to get all upset by, since Ned was a traitor and rebel against his rightful king and fought to the death against the very men whom he claimed that Jaime should have emulated. They may both be wrong or may both be justified, but I don't find Jaime any worse in this situation as Ned, Robert, or any other lord who was sworn to the crown and rose against Aerys anyway. Too bad about Brandon and Lyanna, but I don't think that they gave Ned a more noble reason to rebel than Jaime had in seeing Aerys' atrocities firsthand.

Jaime hasn't been one of my favorite characters, but I'll probably become more of a fan or at least enjoy reading about him more if he becomes more involved in politics and intrigues. That has nothing to do with his sexual attractiveness, since the most interesting characters to me are ones who are involved in or observe the KL politics (Littlefinger, Tyrion and Varys; later Sansa, Cercei and the Tyrells) none of whom are exactly the epitome of male sexuality.

[Widdall]

Well, Im a guy, and I like the Kingslayer. Hes one of the most complex characters in the series.

[Prince of the North]

Jaime's a great character in a story full of great characters, plain and simple!

[suffix]

Jaime is attractive, smart, and he can talk. 3 important traits for the opposite sex, other than that i have no clue trying to figure wemon is difficult.

[Gen]

Well, I'm a female and I've got to say I'm both a Jaime fan and a Tyrion fan, and it's got nothing to do with their looks. For me, it has to do with their character. I have to admit before I read Jaime's viewpoint I was v. v. biased against him. And I think that is because we had to see his actions through a "Stark" lens, so to speak. It didn't matter if he was the best looking guy in the realm. He attempted to kill a child, broke many, many oaths, and committed incest with his sister. Now, has any of those things changed? No, but the understanding of the WHY he did performed those actions changed.

Now, with Tyrion, we've been introduced to him as a man with a sarcastic wit, and a sympathetic character. To the point, we forgive him and even admire him for his cunning and ruthlessness, but through his viewpoint we have from the beginning been privy to his more "sensitive side." To be honest, there are times when I have really hated Sansa for not seeing past his looks, and really hoping they could make a good marriage. It sometimes hard to remember that Sansa is very young Therefore, she not only has a fangirl crush on the good-looking Loras, but has a very "romantic" notion of what her lover should look like. So, she's not at the age to look past the physical.

For an example of someone who likes good-looking guys like Sansa, Brienne is it. Brienne likes Renly though not only because he is good looking, but because she sees what she precieves as gallantry and noblity of character. And Jaime is just as good-looking a Renly, but she is only attracted to him after he makes his confessions of what went down with Aerys.

[Zoë Sumra]

All generalisations are suspect, and there are too many of them.

Sarcasm aside...

Female reader here, massive massive Jaime fan, and not for any of the reasons cited by the OP (or Raif Snow's theory, which IMO seems utterly crackpot but, hey, I'm not a psychologist). Like Gen in the above post, I detested Jaime on first meeting him. I started wondering if there was more to him in his one ACOK scene, and by the end of ASOS was utterly enthralled by his character.

His looks have nothing to do with my liking for him. Firstly, I find his situation interesting - for an example of the reverse, I was very fond of Arya in AGOT but have liked her less and less ever since because I find her subsequent plotline and therefore her chapters boring, whereas Jaime's are always great due to being mixed up in the King's Landing situation, to which I'm far more drawn. His sarky sense of humour in the narration helps too.

Far more than that, though; he's a fantastic depiction of a reforming villain who knows exactly how far he's fallen from his youthful high ideals, who knows he's not going to get credit from the remaining characters in the story for starting to do the right thing, but who is going to do it anyway. GRRM really takes the trouble to develop him and to do so in a subtle way that really rewards the reader.

Just my £0.02.5.

[Ser Spidey]

Well, I'm a guy, and I like the Kingslayer. He's one of the most complex characters in the series.

However, this became apparent only when he got his own POV.

I'm a guy too, so...

[Daemrion]

I'm a guy, and I am by far the hugest Jaime fan here.

But I do remember that Sea Kings Daughter (a forum member who doesn't post anymore, who's just as big of a Jaime fan as I am) is female.

Reasons why I like Jaime:

1. By far one of the most interesting POVs in ASOIAF. Jon, Arya (post AGOT) and Dany don't come close at all in terms of interesting POVs.

2. He channels the 'cool' factor

3. He definitely channels the 'unjustified hurt' factor - for the Kingslayer thing post ASOS.

4. He's a good older brother to Tyrion despite Tywin's disgust at Tyrion and Cersei's plain hatred

5. And in term of character development THE most interesting. Everyone else's character bar Tyrion is staid in comparison.

EDIT: I sent SKD a PM, but according to friends stats she hasn't been on since 2006 March.

We don't know. She just stopped coming - no melodramatic goodbye or anything.

I hope nothing bad happened to her.

[Shewoman]

What happened to Sea King's Daughter? Her posts were amazing!

[Jon Targaryen]

We don't know. She just stopped coming - no melodramatic goodbye or anything.

Daemrion,

You should try PMing her. Maybe she'll come back.

[Regina]

Let's see:

-interesting character arc

-great dialogue

-strange yet compelling chemistry with Brienne (a highly sympathetic character)

Versus:

-described as being easy on the eyes

Gee, which is more important to me as a reader?

[raif snow]

I still believe without Catelyns, Briennes and Cerceis insights and attraction to him he would be not half as interesting. If you cant handle my opinion call me crackpot! lol. Sometimes its diffulcult to hear something thats simple and obvious, we all want to be complex and brooding.

[mashiara]

Raif snow, maybe Brienne's insight helped to change people's view of him, but Cersei's and Catelyn's? No way. Brienne helped us see how Jaime is changing. That's why writers have characters interracting, so we can benefit from everyone's perception of others and get a more complete picture. That doesn't mean in any way that because character A is attracted to someone we all have to be. (and the whole Alpha Female suggestion was just way too funny for me, sorry.)

I wasn't a big Jaime fan before he got his POV. After getting to see inside his head and find some justifications for what he did.. and especially after seeing him starting to change for real, then I started liking him. His struggling with himself over things, his whole thought process gripped me. His sense of humor was an added bonus. His good looks had nothing to do with it. I'm a big Tyrion fan and he wouldn't even come close to being called good looking, would he?

[raif snow]

okokok...but did Tyrion find any favor from Cercei, Cateyln or even her sister? No they all tried to kill him as a matter of fact, quite the opposite to Jaime. I think George plays on our natural behavior patterns then flips it.

[mashiara]

okokok...but did Tyrion find any favor from Cercei, Cateyln or even her sister? No they all tried to kill him as a matter of fact, quite the opposite to Jaime. I think George plays on our natural behavior patterns then flips it.

IMO the fact that pretty much everybody likes Tyrion despite the fact that the women in the series don't proves the exact opposite of what you originally said. The approval of the 'alpha' females isn't needed for us to like a character.

[The Boar of Gore]

The original post is full of them. That most fans of Jaime are female. That females find such and so qualities attractive in a man. That female fans therefore like Jaime because they find him attractive.

In my experience, all sorts of people like Jaime for all sorts of reasons.

Yes but I'm canvassing this forum to find out if these generalisations have any substance rather than simply asserting them as fact.

It's mainly because it bugs me how many posters love Jaime and I'm trying to figure out why.

And I'm not talking about those who find him an interesting read. I do too. I mean those who sympathize with him.

[The Boar of Gore]

*raises hand*

Can't stand Jaime. I maybe hate him a tiny bit less now, but I still loathe him.

[Starkaryan]

Eloisa, your last post was amazing! Sums up my opinion of him too. I enjoy Jaime because of his "redemption" which is a rare thing to find in GRRM's world.

However, if I were a woman, I'd probably be attracted to him more than any of the other male characters... maybe Robb... maybe both of them together... that would be hot... Oh wait, I'd be a woman, though, and women don't get as turned on about two-of-the-opposite-sex+you=YES!! as men tend to...

Seriously, though, speaking with experience as a man who has seen most of his friends (that are women) in and out of relationships with assholes, yes, I can attest that there is something about arrogance and recklessness that women seem to find irresistible, which is quite irritating to "nice" guys who have no desire to play games with women's emotions (it doesn't really irritate me, though, because those aren't the types of women I'd want). It may be a generalization, but it is true for "most" women, so if it's not true for some of you gals, then my hat's off to you... want my number?

[Shewoman]

I realize that we are told that Jaime's attractive, but this is a BOOK. I seldom react to physical descriptions of characters in books . . . for one thing, in real life I've frequently had the experience of meeting someone a friend told me was gorgeous or ugly and not agreeing with the description at all. In a book, it's going to be the dialogue and actions that define a character for me. The fact that Jaime does seem to be trying to change from the person he was when we met him is intriguing. This doesn't mean I'm now prepared to have Jaime babysit my children or that I think he was right to throw Bran down--just that his character has more dimensions than it did in the first two books.

And I seriously doubt that anyone in the readership is attracted to Jaime because Cersei is.

Starkaryen, I've never run into a woman who's said "You must meet my boyfriend--he's so arrogant!" We've all seen friends hook up with people and not understood the attraction. But it's not been my experience that all women prefer arrogant bastards.