"Instead of it being two disaster siblings latching onto each other out of genuine affection, codependency, obsession, narcisism and because it made narrative sense"
I can see how Jaime's affection for Cersei was genuine despite everything else that made it toxic, but did she ever really love him? To me it always felt like it was all about her ego
While Cersei's ego was part of it, I really don't believe it's fair to say she didn't truly love Jaime, and when you look through the scenes that highlight their relationship with an open mind, that becomes pretty easy to see.
In some of his POVs, Jaime remembers how he could never stand to be away from Cersei for too long, and they’d sleep with their arms entwined, and in a few chapters they recall dressing up as each other, Jaime daring Cersei to kiss Tyrion, They genuinely liked each other’s company and were absolutely inseparable their whole lives - to the point that they’re basically treated, both by the people around them and by Martin, as identical twins. Is it that hard to believe two people who are this close could fall in love?
And fall in love they did. Pretty damn fast, because Jaime says he can’t even remember when he and Cersei started to kiss, and they used to copy animals mating from a very young age - before Tyrion was even born - and it led to their mother trying to separate them. Jaime is Cersei’s first love, and said love last up until their adult lives.
While Jaime was never allowed to (or too interested in) be a proper father to his children, the fact still is that he IS the father of all of Cersei’s children, as she proudly said, that he was there by her side when she was giving birth - even going as far as threatening that guards that tried to keep him away from her - while her husband was out hunting. She’s even happy when she thinks Tommen is taking after him, and almost lets the secret out because she just had to gush about that.
Since I mentioned Robbert, let’s not forget that on top of being a shitty father (and having zero excuse for it) he was also physically abusive to Cersei, cheated on her too many times to count and even said Lyanna’s name on their wedding night, and Cersei was expected to just put up with it. Meanwhile, here’s Jaime again, being faithful to her his whole life (and even taking a celibacy vow that also included losing all of his claims), and Cersei straight up said that Robbert would have been fucked if Jaime knew about how he mistreated her. And while Jaime could be sexist every now and again, we cannot forget that he used to be totally okay dressing up as Cersei when they were little and just let her take his place as Tywin’s son, and even said the words “If I were a woman, I’d be Cersei” - can you seriously tell me that would not win him a ton of points with a woman that was constantly screwed over because of her gender?
And let’s not forget about the other men in her life - she clearly didn’t give a shit about any of her lovers, was insulted when Rhaegar rejected her but didn’t grieve for him when he died, and straight up tried to have Robbert killed. And while she was offended by the fact that Robbert didn’t give a shit about her, she was never jealous of his whores, or of his love for Lyanna - who was also one of the women Rhaegar chose over her. Meanwhile, she gets mad just remembering the time a former childhood friend asked “When am I going to marry Jaime?” and it’s even implied she was the first person Cersei killed, and she was just a young girl, and she CONSTANTLY says things like “We are one person in two bodies”, “I’m not whole without you”, “We came into this world together, he would not leave without me.”
There’s also things like her only showing her tears to him, canonically only enjoying sex with him, genuinely believing that either their love will make him able to save her in a trial by combat or that they’ll die together as she always believed it was supposed to happen, thinking about how he loved her hair and about him kissing her thighs when she’s being prepared for her walk of shame, and thinking about how he always said she was beautiful to try and be strong enough to face said walk. She even believes the obvious lie that Loras is sleeping with his sister and joined the kingsguard to be near her solely because that absurd scenario is her own story with Jaime. She is absolutely in love with that man.
Jaime is not just her twin and her lover, he is Cersei’s real husband in all but name and she absolutely thinks of him as her other half, her soulmate, the love of her life - she even has dreams of their relationship being public, and truly feels like there’s no point in living in a world where he doesn’t exist. Even George R.R. Martin said so, and confirmed she loved him, when he was talking about that insane scene of these two fucking next to their dead son (how romantic):
“In my mind, she’s clearly thinking that Jaime may be dead. The only person she ever truly loved besides her children may be lost to her forever and suddenly there he is before her—but shockingly maimed and transformed. There is a mutual passion for each other. And it’s like if you get a cable that your husband has been killed in war, and then suddenly there he is—he’s not killed in war.”
So yeah, their relationship might be super unhealthy and Cersei might have made a fuck ton of mistakes, but she DID love him.
romaincrisis
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
ellievsbear
izzy806
kianamaiart
baratheonpilled
