Jaime's Season 6

[Garse Ironjade Janacek]

Well, its been a rough couple of years for Jaime on the show.  His arc has been a dramatic one at times.  Jaime really developed in seasons 2 through 4.  His time with Brienne of Tarth was some great stuff.  But, sometime in season 5 things started to really go wrong with Jaime and the story around him. He's been dramatically different than book Jaime.  This is odd, because for the first few years "book Jaime" and "show Jaime" were pretty similar.  I'm gonna try to assess his season six story without basing complaints on the differences between book and show.  I'm just gonna focus on what we've seen.  

Season 6, started badly for Jaime.  He really seemed criminally incompetent as the Commander of the KG.  Really, really bad.  He lost track of the King, he got himself ambushed in a situation he should have reasonably concluded was dangerous, and he was generally outwitted by the HS in a few episodes.  He continues to love Cersei unconditionally, despite the fact that she is becoming very unbalanced and clearly is a danger to herself and her family.  Oh well, Love is blind.  It's just not great stuff to watch, nor does it seem to advance the general plot nor develop either character.   In the end, his own son rebukes him and sends him away (although to an honorable post) after the HS gets over on him in a very public and embarrassing way.  The step scene and his dismissal were actually pretty well done scenes; both are meaningful and advance the story significantly....These two scenes actually turns out to be a great thing for those of us watching.

He goes to Riverrun and at first is a bit of a hypocrite when he bashes on the Freys for getting ambushed, since he did the exact same thing, in the exact same place.... That said, this story generally becomes entertaining and Jaime shows that he is not the same man who was taken prisoner that day.  It's a nice parallel situational reminder of how much things have changed since he was last involved in a seige there, and I appreciated that. The dialogue seemed crisp and efficient, and the writing relatively stout.  Jaime tries multiple tactics to make peace with the bitter old Blackfish, but is rebuked.  Rather than accept defeat, or resort to violence, he keeps finding another way to try.  His solution with Edmure was rather creative and had a touch of both finesse and threat of force.  He knew his reputation would make his threats to Edmure very, very serious.  In the end, he finds a way to make peace without blood which turns out to be a very rare thing this season.  He also reunites with Brienne of Tarth, which is generally a good thing, but this season's interactions between them (while well acted) didn't really do much for the story.

In the finale, he seems to distance himself from Walder at just the right time.  That exchange between he and Walder was actually pretty good dialogue.  He goes home and looks at Cersei as she is crowned.  End of Season 6.

I have to think at this point he may have be the one to step up, and stop another Monarch from mass wildfire killings in King's Landing with his sword.

I was greatly encouraged by how the season ended.  I am not sure if Jaime will live too much longer, so it was nice to see him get a few things done.  His character is clearly at a very important crossroad for himself, his family, and the Seven Kingdoms.