Do you ship Jaime/Brienne. Why?
I’m far, far more attached to Jaime/Brienne as a ship in ASOIAF than in Game of Thrones since the characters are quite different - in Jaime’s case, occasionally unrecognisable - on the show. GRR Martin has quite simply done a superb job of writing Jaime and Brienne as opposites who need each other, who help each other despite their differences, who become better people and experience positive change for having met one another. By George’s own admission it’s a gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast, and they slowly learn to love each other for who they are at their very cores.
Brienne sees past his golden, shining beauty and his bravado to find a wounded man hungry for honour, who’d made mistakes and done terrible things but wanted redemption and a chance to be something other than the backstabbing Kingslayer. Jaime sees past her ugliness to find a woman of astounding inner beauty who is strong and brave and loyal almost to the point of stupidity, and wants to be like her. She gives him something to aspire to. And now that Jaime has lost his hand, she strives to bear his sword for him, and be the great, honourable warrior he cannot be anymore.
And something that I think is missing from GoT Brienne is how young she is, and how, deep down, she yearns to be treated as a young lady. She’s proud of her abilities, but she doesn’t scorn her sex or scorn other women as stupid. She doesn’t scorn marriage or motherhood or feminine pursuits. Multiple times in the books she aches to be treated softly, to have a man hold and comfort her. At one point she fantasises about crying on Jaime’s shoulder, and having him soothe her as the young woman she is because she’s so tired of always having to be stoic and strong. She loves fighting and she’s good at it, but she turns away from traditionally feminine things not because she doesn’t want them but because she believes she can’t have them thanks to her appearance.
Jaime wants to be good, and wants someone to see him for who he is. Brienne brings out the best in him because he wants to live up to her faith in him. As for Brienne, she wants to be a knight and a lady, and Jaime sees her as a both. She is a warrior, and she is a lady, and he’ll strike down anyone who dares show her the least disrespect.
Despite their palpable love for each other, I doubt they’re going to marry and have a happy ever after - nor do I really want them to. I can imagine that happening in another universe, but in this story what I really want is for them to achieve redemption and fulfilment from having known each other, and loved each other in this cruel and uncertain world.
tl;dr they’re both incredibly complex characters, riddled with flaws, imperfections and insecurities. I’m in love with how their characters have grown and changed from the moment they met, I’m in love with the careful parallels and beautiful arcs GRR has created for them and I’m in love with the way they love each other. So yeah, I guess I do ship them.
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