So this morning I, uh, “accidentally” wrote an essay outlining the highlights of Jaime and Brienne’s obvious buildup to a romance in response to someone on reddit referring to Brienne as Jaime’s “sister he never truly had.” It’s entirely based on canon and involves little to no interpretation. Since I’ve been kinda off meta lately, I’m adapting it for tumblr:
Jaime and Brienne are a romance and it would take an awful lot of ignoring both text and subtext to read it as platonic.
They begin their story with Jaime laying bare everything most reviled about himself. He owns who he is and what he’s done and Brienne is not at all naive to any of it. This is important.
Jaime doesn’t get a POV until he is on his journey with Brienne of Tarth, all the way in the third book. Their relationship defines his character arc. He spends a good portion of the first chapter admiring her body, although he does not seem to realize he’s doing that. We certainly do not get descriptions of Brienne’s legs from Catelyn. Jaime I also has Jaime’s first, but not only, admiration for Brienne’s eyes.
Their swordfight in Jaime III is an analogy for fucking. The “sword” is a euphemism for a penis fairly often, and that’s especially true here. The whole thing is full of subtext, but here are some choice outtakes:
“Give me the sword, Kingslayer.”
The swords kissed and sprang apart and kissed again. Jaime’s blood was singing. This was what he was meant for; he never felt so alive as when he was fighting, with death balanced on every stroke.
Left, right, backslash, swinging so hard that sparks flew when the swords came together, upswing, sideslash, overhand, always attacking, moving into her, step and slide, strike and step, step and strike, hacking, slashing, faster, faster, faster… until, breathless, he stepped back and let the point of the sword fall to the ground, giving her a moment of respite.
His point scraped past her parry and bit into her upper thigh. A red flower blossomed and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood before his knee slammed into a rock. The pain was blinding. Brienne splashed into him and kicked away his sword. “YIELD!“
Jaime drove his shoulder into her legs, bringing her down on top of him. They rolled, kicking and punching until finally she was sitting astride him.
Brienne lurched to her feet. She was all mud and blood below the waist, her clothing askew, her face red. She looks as if they caught us fucking instead of fighting.
Small wonder, we were making enough noise to wake a dragon. "Well met, friends,” he called to them amiably. “My pardons if I disturbed you. You caught me chastising my wife.”
When they’re captured, Brienne cares for him as a partner would. As Cersei never would have. Jaime tries to teach her his coping mechanisms when he fears she will be raped. Shagwell refers to them as “the lovers.” He later tells Qyburn that Brienne is his “protector,” a term used in the marital rites of the Seven in Westeros.
During the confession in the bath, Jaime pops a boner while looking at Brienne naked. He plainly has no idea what to do with himself, having only ever been interested in one woman before. He continues to think about her body.
In Jaime V of ASoS, he thinks of her as “such an innocent.” Later in Jaime I of ADWD, when asked what he likes in a woman, he replies “innocence.” Who in Jaime’s life could he be talking about? Definitely not Cersei. Brienne of Tarth is the epitome of innocence; she has only ever done the right thing, her entire life.
Jaime’s weirwood dream in ASoS sends him back for Brienne even after he keeps thinking how he can’t wait to get back to Cersei. This is the first but not last instance of Jaime choosing Brienne over his sister. The dream clearly shows to him that his father and Cersei will leave him, but Brienne is his literal light in the darkness. Again, they are naked. He thinks of her as having a woman’s shape and as “almost a beauty, almost a knight.”
He saves her from the bear pit without a second thought, saying he only rescues maidens. This is straight from a fairytale or a Westerosi ballad of knights and their ladies. It’s something Brienne thought she would never have, that she would be destined to play the knight forever, never worthy of being anyone’s maiden fair. But Jaime treats her as such, even if he isn’t fully aware of what’s going on between them yet. If Renly saving her from embarrassment by dancing with her was enough for her to drop everything to follow him, imagine the effect Jaime turning around to actually save her life against all odds just have. And then he just drops “I dreamed of you” on her?
In Jaime IX of ASoS, he gives Brienne Oathkeeper, and it is such a courtly act. He sends Cersei away angrily and in marked contrast bids Brienne to “close the door and come here.” Pretty much back to back. He and Brienne exchange awkward compliments for one another. He’s also outfitted her in a dress that he feels “becomes her” with a padded bodice. I don’t know many brothers who go out of their way to make the most of their sister’s assets. This chapter also has the “we know each other too well” line from Jaime. Brienne knows how he thinks at this point. Their back and forth here is exceptionally familiar and understanding. No one else seems to understand their motivations and desires the way they understand one another.
Jaime gives her a mare he says is as homely as she is. In Brienne’s first AFFC chapter, the same mare is described as “sweet to look upon.” Throughout this book, Brienne thinks often of Jaime. She can’t even stand to be in the same room as the men who start insulting him. She leaves instead to go gaze Oathkeeper and then later thinks about their bath together. She thinks of him as “half a corpse and half a god,” you know, as sisters often do. She dreams of failing Renly, but when the shadow kills who she thinks is Renly, it’s shown to be Jaime who has been slain instead. Other men Brienne has been romantically attached to in one way or another become Jaime Lannister in her mind. Repeatedly.
Jaime, meanwhile, is praying to the Father to give Brienne strength. This is the same character who has mocked the gods and religion. He thinks on more than one occasion (in both ASoS and AFFC) of fathers, babies, bastards, and being a better father if he ever got the chance again. On each occasion, his next thought is of Brienne.
And of course, there’s Jaime III in AFFC where we’re given a description of Brienne’s betrothal to Ronnet Connington. Jaime’s thoughts usually move at a rapid fire pace. But we aren’t given insight to Jaime’s thoughts during all of this. Instead we get:
“The sight of Brienne naked might have made the bear flee in terror.” Connington laughed.
Jaime’s golden hand cracked him across the mouth so hard the other knight went stumbling down the steps. His lantern fell and smashed and the oil spread out, burning. “You are speaking of a highborn lady, Ser. Call her by her name. Call her Brienne.”
It’s another installed it Jaime reacting quickly where protecting Brienne is concerned. He doesn’t think, he just moves. He then sends Connington far away from him so Jaime doesn’t have to look at him anymore.
Brienne later stumbles into some of the Mummers who held them captive and took Jaime’s hand. “That one was for Jaime,” she thinks when she cuts off one of their hands. Later in the chapter she falls asleep thinking of their fucking-instead-of-fighting swordfight and dreams of Jaime draping a rainbow cloak around her. Cloaking is, of course, akin to exchanging rings during marital ceremonies in Westeros. More on this later.
They spend the rest of their journey thinking of one another often. Brienne wishes Jaime was with her. Jaime pops another boner when resisting Pia and then thinks of Brienne when he hops into the bath to hide it. Brienne wonders if Jaime would comfort her if she returned to King’s Landing, much as Jaime wondered if Brienne would let him comfort her if he tried it after they heard about the Red Wedding. She even thinks,
That was what men wanted, wasn’t it? Soft helpless women that they needed to protect?
It’s clearly not what Jaime wants. Jaime seems pretty into women with powerful thighs.
The tale of Galladon of Morne, the Just Maid, and the Maiden is a blatantly obvious parallel to Brienne (whose brother was named Galladon), Oathkeeper, and Jaime with the gender roles reversed. Note that after gifting him the sword, the Maiden falls in love with Galladon.
While fever dreaming after her “no chance and no choice” fight to protect the orphans, Brienne calls out for Jaime over and over. The Brotherhood take this to mean she is the “Kingslayer’s whore.” She dreams again of a man she was romantically attached to (Connington) and the man again becomes Jaime in her dream.
“He will bring a rose for you,” her father promised her, but a rose was no good, a rose would not keep her safe. It was a sword she wanted. Oathkeeper.
And of course, Brienne goes to the gallows rather than promise to bring Jaime back to them. She was going to die for him. The only thing that persuaded her otherwise was the image of Pod, an innocent little orphan boy, hanging next to her. Because she is good and noble, placing the life of an innocent above all else.
And in Jaime I of ADWD, Jaime scrambles to his feet upon seeing Brienne, and worries over her injuries. He abandons his army, his king, and his sister to go with Brienne.
He doesn’t say why he does it, but since they “know each other too well,” I’m sure he has complete faith that whatever she’s leading him toward will be a good and important cause. Is she tricking him? Maybe, probably in some way or another. Will he be angry with her? Probably, but only briefly. If anyone can understand wanting to save the life of an innocent instead of someone you love, it’s Jaime Lannister. He has, after all, just recently told Cersei her was not ashamed of loving her, only for what his love for her had led him to do. The only limitation on Brienne’s love and protection, apparently, is the lives of innocents.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Just a highlight reel, really. And this doesn’t even include any of what George has had to say about it. (Spoiler: Gwendoline Christie has said on multiple occasions that during their talks, George said Jaime and Brienne were a gender-swapped beauty and the beast.) There’s a lot to conjecture about. But whether or not Jaime and Brienne are a love story is not one of those things.