if the show was just a bit better Tormund/Jaime/Brienne could provide some material. In the books, I had a vague impression Martin was positioning Ser Hyle as a bit of a replacement Jaime - if Martin ever got round to give him a bit of a redemption arc, and have Brienne develop the slightest interest, which at this point is unlikely. Too minor a character for now, had to look up the name.
Yeah, I remember thinking of Ser Hyle as a back-up plan, of course it retreads the Jaime-Brienne dynamic though but it’s still nice to know that Brienne has options, lol. (I am in a supremely awkward position fandom-wise of liking both Jaime/Cersei and Jaime/Brienne and so I always feel like I have to disclaim things constantly--I found the idea of Ser Hyle as a spare nice, though clearly not superior, because of caring about Brienne herself and not because it would take an obstacle out of the Jaime/Cersei path. Like, I agree with J/C fans that Jaime’s probably going to die with Cersei somehow, but I agree with J/B fans that this doesn’t mean that Jaime isn’t allowed to and hasn’t grown away from Cersei--anyway since I think J is doomed I hope B doesn’t spend her whole life pining is all. And the fact that I feel that I have to disclaim this much goes back to what I was saying about all this fighting over dudes, lol. But I guess it shouldn’t stop me from talking.) I feel like show-only fans could give Tormund an equal chance (you know, if the series wasn’t ending “soon” and if he wasn’t also a fairly secondary character) but book-first fans might find it hard to shake that “replacement’ feeling.
