Why do you LOVE the Kingslayer?

[Antonius Pius]

I like Jaime's chapters because he's a wonderful villain. IMO he remains a villain as yet, but that's a different discussion. He has a great combination of boldness, arrogance and verbal wit, and he is in some of the interesting places meeting some of the most interesting people in Westeros. I love his flashbacks to Aerys' and Rhaegar's days as well.

His story-arch is very interesting as well. I agree with Daemrion that he was truly in love with Cersei, the falling apart of his relation with is a very big deal. Hi skewed relationship with his kids and Tywin, the Tyrion-Tysha thing. His inner conflicts, his wish for redemption etc. etc. all make him a great character IMO.

[niamh]

Heh.

He's Prince Charming. GRRM's version of Prince Charming, but Prince Charming nonetheless. Murderer, oath breaker; but you know what? All the girls are/have been in love with Prince Charming. Even George cannot change this.

[Ser Warpechowski]

Looks like the girls here love him just because he is the bad boy...

Anyway, I like him because he has the best character development of all the books. Not only he changes, but also our perception of him.

Both him and Cersei starts mainly as the same. But Jaime turns out good, and Cersei turned out like shit.

[Guest Other-in-law]

He has one of the more touching moments in the series, imo. When he tries to get out of the bath at Harrenhall, and he's weak and lightheaded from the heat, rehashing his notorious past for Brienne he becomes angered at the memory of Ned Stark's judgement and slips and hits his stump and nearly passes out.

"Guards!" he heard the wench shout. "The Kingslayer!"

Jaime, he thought, my name is Jaime.

At that moment of feeble helplessness, he's struggling to assert his own, human identity against the savage caricature (for all the wrong reasons, ironically) that he's not only allowed to define himself, but even embraced. His name really is Jaime.

[Caine]

There's no excuse for intentionally, willingly and purposefully pushing an 8 year-old innocent boy out the window to his death, I don't care how much Jaime truly believes he loves his sister. There's no shades of grey that justifies that single act, no matter how much you want to delude yourself.

Having said all that, Jaime is one of my favorite characters in a list that includes Jon, Arya and Tyrion. With Jaime, obviously GRRM is playing a game. The phrase it's a matter of perspective isn't any more resounding as it is when comparing the world from Ned's eyes in AGOT, and then looking at it from Jaime's eyes in ASOS. He's just much too fun in ASOS to hate him, it's very refreshing. Even with all the witty humor and banter, it's watching him come back to save Brienne that really endeared his character.

Obviously none of it forgives him of pushing an innocent boy out the window, but ah well, such is GRRM's game... we're made to hate him from Ned's perspective and then really understand and love him in ASOS later on.

I would like to draw the distinction between ASOS Jaime and AFFC Jaime however. I enjoyed ASOS Jaime, I found AFFC Jaime pathetic. Maybe the intent is to show a drastic change, and in that respect I guess GRRM succeeded.

[Markus]

Jaime's popularity as a PoV character might be derived to a good degree from the fact that his character and its development is interesting to explore and read about, and that his chapters have had their share of wit, interesting background information or some action, and not so much for him being a good or loveable or even likeable person.

For myself I'm quite sure that Jaime has to do a lot more to earn forgiveness, not to speak of love, for all the evil he has done or contributed to.

When Jaime smilingy orders the murder of Jory Cassel there was an ugly part of Jaime's character revealed which has ever stayed with me despite his somewhat genuine attempts to rediscover the man he wanted to be once, before he took a wrong turn and went a long way on a darker road.

[ooshabooboo]

Personally I don't love him but I can relate a bit too him. I really enjoy reading his chapters (at least post hand loss) but after every reread of GoT the hate rekindles a bit and seeing him die would very much please me.

[Dayne's Sword]

hated him till round about he took over as LC of the KG. i love his arrogance and conceit. same as tyrion's always like flash buggers. but only if they have depth. which he does now with his pov's

[Rhaegon Targaryen]

His dry, cool wit and his courage.

[niamh]

OK, prince charming aside, why I love Jaime:

- The golden curls (Yes, I am this shallow)

- He's brave to a fault

- He's loyal as nobody else but Ned was. I value loyal people above others. By loyal, I mean to his friends and family, not fake imposed loyalty to some crazy. Take that back, he has no friend. But he'd make the most valuable friend of all, and a rare one. Brienne is starting to discover this.

- He's true in love

- There is no deceit in him. What you see is what you get.

- He's a cynic

- Add his real love of Tyrion, for what Tyrion is, not what Tyrion looks like. It goes back to the no deceit quality.

[Darius]

He's funny, outspoken and genuinely quite different from all the other characters. I really enjoy getting the perspective of someone whose morals have been dramatically shifting as the story goes on, and he's become even more endearing since he shunned Cersei's cry for help. I'm finding the way he deals with the loss of his sword hand intruiging as well.

[Thaune]

Things I like about him...

- he's a grey character, ergo interesting

- brave, fighting etc... not afraid of anyone

Things I don't like about him...

- shows Tyrion sort of "love" (who loves Jaime but hurts him in the end, with intent.. Jaime does the same thing to Cersei)

- killed Jory, shoved Bran

- still deserves to die, but so many characters in ASOIAF deserve to die more than him, I find myself hoping he'll make it and live to the end. Maybe take the black or something.

[Worthy Dane]

Jaime is all internal conflict

When we meet Jaime, he seems to be almost pure evil. We know he is sneering and boastful. We know he is a breaker of oaths. We know he sleeps with his sister. And then he pushes poor Bran out of a window. It is easy to assume this act is very typical of his character, though we later find out it is not. While Jaime isn't exactly the "plagued with guilt" sort, he does, at least, realize that this was an evil act.

My view of the Kingslayer began to change when he remembers the sack of King's Landing from his own POV. EVERYONE knew that Aerys had to be killed. EVERYONE wanted Aerys killed - but NO ONE ELSE had the balls to do the killing. After, those who had been too cowardly to kill Aerys also proved too cowardly even to admit that Jaime had been their savior at that moment. That Jaime is scorned for doing this dirty job is just profoundly unjust. It also seems that however unacceptable incest may be in this world (and in Martin's, to some degree), Jaime truly did love Cersei. This doesn't excuse anything, but it makes him seem a lot more human.

Also Jaime changes a bit. When he gives "Oathkeeper" to Brienne, it is clear that he knows what honor is, that he still feels bound by it, and that perhaps he no longer the man who crippled Bran.

Of course, as far as honor goes, Jaime is still no Ned. This we see when he contemplates breaking his vow about fighting Starks and Tullys. At this stage, Jaime is an interesting character to watch - his soul seems divided. While Tyrion is principled and ambitious, Jaime is unprincipled and eratic. He has power, even as power disintegrates around him. To what end he will use that power, however, we can only guess.

[Ser Romin]

Jaime's my third favourite character behind Arya and Bran. If he keeps up what he's been doing in the past two novels he may even surpass Bran as my all-time favourite (and if he enters into Bran's service at some point he will cement himself as the best character I've ever see in a novel, movie, whatever).

Why do I LOVE the Kingslayer? Well here's a list:

- He's more feared than pretty much any other character.

- He loves his family, and in particular his siblings, more than anything.

- He's loyal to his family.

- He's the most misjudged character in the series (Sandor's a close second).

- He regrets pushing Bran out of the window, but he doesn't let this regret destroy him.

- He's a man who will do what needs to be done and is willing to live with the consequences.

- He's known as the Kingslayer and as being dishonourable, yet there aren't many who can claim to be more honourable than he is.

- He doesn't seek praise from others, nor does he go out of his way to prove people wrong.

- He's absolutely hilarious.

- He commands respect, even without a sword arm.

- He's on a path to truly become the man he idolized as a kid, Arthur Dayne and is breaking away from how others have judged him in the past.

Anyways, I could go on and on. I think Jaime will live until the final novel at least and quite possibly till the end of the series. If he dies I want it to be by Bran's doing. I also it would be a great moment if he went back to King's Landing, rescued Cersei and then took Tommen, leaving Cersei behind. Tommen can be Jaime's "redemption"; raise the boy to be the man Jaime once was.

[Mad Monkey]

I don't really love him. I just say that to get him in bed.

[scraft]

Jaime is arrogant, sarcastic, and kind of an asshole. Much like me, thats why I like him as a character.

[Lady Blackfish]

The well-written part is what does it for me. The smart-ass son of a bitch part, yeah sure, but they're kind of a dime a dozen IMO. He's interesting, that I like.

ETA: Part of what makes Jaime accessible to me is that he has a clear character arc. By the time he becomes a POV his character has a lot of momentum. So, admire him or hate him, you know that Something is happening there, which is great to read. I think people changing always gets an audience if you can invest them enough in the characters. Part of it also is that he's the poster boy for the "conflicting duties" theme of the series, that makes him resonate in terms of the larger drama. And then there's the fact that having Tywin as a father gives both him and Tyrion some basic rooting factor. Breaking free of their father's shadow has been a theme for both characters and it's interesting to watch them go in different directions now. Plus it seems with his whole redemption arc there's a lot of irony in store, that'll be good drama.

[Ran]

I think Jaime's an excellently written character, and just another sign of GRRM's skill. He is not my favorite person in the series, however, in the sense that I don't suppose we'd get along if he were a real person. I certainly don't consider myself an apologist for Jaime Lannister, and I'm not sure the character himself would _want_ apologists, but he does seem to get them never the less.

[Fatuous]

After rereading the series a few times, I have come to like the Kingslayer, evil acts and all. When he pushed Bran out the window, he did for Cersei. When he confronted Ned and Littlefinger in King's Landing, that was for Tyrion. And when he killed Aerys, that was for making him choose between his vows as a knight and the vows as one of the Kingsguard.

He's changing and he's trying to become something better than what he was but also better than the rest of his former Kingsguard, the ones who forgot their knightly vows as they served the King without question. The trick will be achieving this while keeping quiet about his past reasons.

Plus, he's doing it all with wit, style and some true badassness so what's not to like?

[The Pita]

"With a trebuchet"

Need I say more?