Jaime Lannister claims 3 men could beat him...which three?

[John Doe]

The problem with Jaime is imho that we never actually saw him fighting in his prime, in contrast to, for example, the Hound.

But Loras could never defeat Jaime in a sword fight .Brienne defeated Loras and could barely defeat a Jaime who was severely weakened by his emprisonment, I think she said herself that she would have lost to him had he not been weakened. Garlan is another matter, though.

[BRANDON GREYSTARK]

Arthur Dayne

Barristan Selmy

Rhaegar Targaryen

[Ser RoddyRuinuous]

These kind of arguments get really frustrating, especially when we start having to consider hypothetical situations against other swordsmen at varying points in their careers, that are totally in different time frames. It's like comparing professional athletes IRL. Could prime Tyson take prime Ali? Or, if you prefer, the eternal Bruce Lee vs. Jackie Chan vs. Jet Li vs. Tony Jaa fantasy tournament. You can't really say, because these matchups can never be seen, even though they would be cool.

I would say that among his living contemporaries during the time of his greatest badassery (in order to limit the possibilities) that Ser Garlan Tyrell, the Hound, the Mountain, Robert (his badass period coincided briefly with Jaime's), Drogo, Barristan (again, 16 years ago, Barry's age was far less a thing) and Bronze Yohn would have been the most likely contenders to have given Jaime a serious run for his money. This is in terms of an actual fight, not a tourney. As for Loras, he's a genius lancer, but merely a very good swordsman.

[James Arryn]

Not sure why Jaime is being portrayed as unrealistic/arrogant about his martial skills. First, he and Selmy are the 2 POV's who think most often about the subject, and they think about it very systemically.

Second, Jaime is repeatedly candid...people stronger then himself, seeing Loras on a horse and grudgingly chiding himself for previously chalking it up to luck, talking about Brienne being much better than his expectations, etc. These are the kinds of thoughts unrealistic/arrogant people don't have.

[markg171]

Not sure why Jaime is being portrayed as unrealistic/arrogant about his martial skills. First, he and Selmy are the 2 POV's who think most often about the subject, and they think about it very systemically.

Second, Jaime is repeatedly candid...people stronger then himself, seeing Loras on a horse and grudgingly chiding himself for previously chalking it up to luck, talking about Brienne being much better than his expectations, etc. These are the kinds of thoughts unrealistic/arrogant people don't have.

Those are all thoughts that he has after his sword hand is cut off. It's after he loses his sword hand that his personality really changes. Robb's defeat of him was what started things though. The fact that he was travelling around without his main host with him, and didn't bother to send out enough outriders speaks of arrogance and Jaime himself notes on that fact in one of his later POVs where he makes his army fortify their camp, even though there was no threat around them, as he did not want another Whispering Wood to happen. There's a marked difference in him after his defeat to Robb and the loss of his sword hand.

[OmnomnomPomelo]

I think he didn't know everybody, so we can leave the North, Dorne and the Iron Islands out. One is Barristan Selmy for sure. My bet on the other 2 goes to the Clegane brothers.

[markg171]

Probably not a popular opinion, but I've always been of the opinion that Robert could have beaten him. Even in his drunken and fat state, he still managed to throw Jaime to the ground. That tells me that he would have been more than capable of doing so in his prime when he was far stronger.

And short of a beheading, which would be unrealistic considering Robert would be wearing a gorget if they ever fought, Robert is noted to have been able to take wounds like nobody else. Rhaegar wounded him badly enough at the Trident that he had to send Ned to KL in his place (though I personally think that has more to do with the fact that he sent his maesters to look after Selmy instead of his own wounds so he physically couldn't ride onward as he hadn't yet been patched up and just chose not to wait for them to get to him), yet he still managed to kill Rhaegar. And even years later when he'd lost the vast majority of his warrior ability and had a monstrous boar's tusk in his belly, he still was able to grab his dagger and plunged it through its eye and kill it. So Jaime would have to kill him in one blow and that blow would have to be a beheading as otherwise Robert would just fight on even in Jaime's sword was out his back.

And I've always found it interesting to note that GRRM stated that Jaime was the best "swordsman" in the realm. Robert fought with a hammer. So GRRM is perfectly capable of saying that Jaime was the best swordsman in the realm, without saying that he was the best fighter. For a guy who's so careful with the words he uses in his books, that seems to me that he specifically chose not to call him the best fighter, otherwise he would have done so. I've always found that to therefore indicate that there were people better than Jaime and off the top of my head the 3 known warriors who could have posed this threat were Loras (who fights with a morningstar), Victarion (who fights with an axe), and Robert (who fights with a hammer).

[Klepper101]

the mountain

the greatejon

barristan

[Sir Bronn]

Barristan for sure

Blackfish maybe

Garlan maybe

The Hound maybe

[Ser Lepus]

My guess he means

Ser Arthur Dayne

Ser Gerold Hightower

Ser Barristan Selmy

Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Barristan Selmy, I'm sure.

Not so sure about Gerold Hightower. He was among the best, but, I have never read any character saying that he was so good as Dayne or Selmy.

They say king Bob in his prime was among the best, using strength and size to his advantage, but Jaime despises him too much to think of him even as his equal, even if young Bob would be more than a match to him in a real battle.

Rhaegar is another option. People say that he was top leage too, but he was killed by king Bob, which would tarnish his worth as a fighter quite a bit to Jaime's eyes.

Oberyn is another option, but I don't know if Jamie appreciated his fighting style, or even if he ever saw him to fight outside jousting.

[Sir Bronn]

But he probably meant 3 ALIVE fighters

[ThunderG]

First, it is cheap boasting from GRRM to say Jaime is better than Aragorn or Rand-I-don't-know.

Achilles and Anakin and Luke Skywalker would beat Jaime any given day.

And staying within GRRMs universe, any of the White Walkers would defeat him unless he uses an obsidian sword. Areo Hotah and Victarion Greyjoy might axe him, and Anguy would take him out before he knew.

[Poppa Chase]

I think he was talking about the people that were stronger than him. When he was talking about the Cleganes and Strongboar.

[Guess who's back]

I think he was talking about the people that were stronger than him. When he was talking about the Cleganes and Strongboar.

Has anyone in the books called Jaime strong? I always had the impression that he was slender and quick. I'd say that even the fat Robert was stronger than him.

[Poppa Chase]

Has anyone in the books called Jaime strong? I always had the impression that he was slender and quick. I'd say that even the fat Robert was stronger than him.

He said in his own thoughts that they were stronger so at least he believes himself to be pretty strong. Robert probably was stronger than Jaime, he was known for swinging a warhammer from horse back. That's not easy.

I'd have to say he is fast strong and technical. He was the best all around til the Tyrell boys grew up. You could argue Barristan or Arthur Dayne, but Jaime was neck and neck

[Dofs]

Those are all thoughts that he has after his sword hand is cut off. It's after he loses his sword hand that his personality really changes. Robb's defeat of him was what started things though. The fact that he was travelling around without his main host with him, and didn't bother to send out enough outriders speaks of arrogance and Jaime himself notes on that fact in one of his later POVs where he makes his army fortify their camp, even though there was no threat around them, as he did not want another Whispering Wood to happen. There's a marked difference in him after his defeat to Robb and the loss of his sword hand.

Jaime still before losing his hand admired Barristan and Atrhur Dayne, never meant any ill to those who defeated him and judged other fighters fairly. Jaime simply assumed that he is better than everyone by a large margin, but never did he held a grudge against those, who proved him wrong, it's the other way around actually, his respect of them grew. Seriously, his two-hand arrogance is vastly overestimated in the forums.