Maybe your inbox ate the question I sent a week ago,
Possibly it ate the original, or it may be father down than the distance I scrolled looking for it, I’m not sure :( But I did receive the question you sent with this message, which I answered here! I hope that satisfies 💕
anyway, it’s ok if you don’t want to answer
It’s not that I don’t want to answer anybody’s question! I’m sorry if I made you feel bad :( It’s just that I get lots of questions from lots of people, and there’s only one of me, and I don’t have time to answer all the questions I receive :( I’m sorry!
If you ever send me a question and I haven’t answered it after a while, you can ask me whether I got it or not, and I’ll either tell you, “Nope, tumblr ate it” or “Yes, I received it but I haven’t gotten to it yet, still working” and hopefully that might help, if you want?
Hi! I promise I’m not a Jaime’s redemption apologist but still wonder: what’s his degree of implication or intellectual authorship in the Lannister regime? He obviously profits from it, he killed Aerys, pushed Bran, attacked Ned’s men, fought Robb… but the two main Lannister war-crimes, raiding the Riverlands and the Red Wedding, were rather Tywin’s responsibility. To me, Jaime seemed an action man, ready to carry any of Tywin’s (or ocasionally Cersei’s) ideas without a second thought, but not exactly a plotter. He seemed content with his life as Robert’s guard, could he have urged Cersei to kill him? What do you think?
I believe Jaime is content to be the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard for life, but I don’t think he was involved in Cersei’s plan to get Robert killed. (Maybe I’ve forgotten something in the text, though?) That being said, I think Jaime would have happily killed Robert without a second thought if he felt he had cause. Even Robert believed Jaime would have killed him, given cause, which is why he never hit Cersei on the face.
Ned touched her cheek gently. “Has he done this before?”
“Once or twice.” She shied away from his hand. “Never on the face before. Jaime would have killed him, even if it meant his own life.“
What’s Jaime’s degree of implication or intellectual authorship in the Lannister regime?
What degree of implication do you assign to Erwin Rommel in the Nazi regime?
… um … this post is gonna get wild. Assume this post contains mentions of everything you might expect as soon as I bring up Nazis (possibly extremely triggering), as well as some things you aren’t expecting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Rommel was one of Hitler’s favorite generals, as well as a close personal friend. He “worshiped” Hitler.
(Rommel once said, “I have loved the Führer, and I still do.” According to historian Maurice Remy, Hitler and Rommel had “a dream marriage” and they talked enthusiastically on the phone for at least an hour everyday for a while discussing the latest technological advancements, so if anyone was looking for an idea for some WWII RPF slash, maybe in the manner of The Producers, well, there you go.
Rommel: “Marry me, Hitler. Stand up before the Reich and say it’s me you want.”
Hitler: "I would, if I dared. But the Fatherland—”
Rommel: “You’re Germany’s Führer, and yet you won’t be mine.”
Hitler: “I want you at my side, I want you in my bed, I want you inside me. Nothing has changed between us. Let me prove it to you.”
Don’t forget the pineapples.)
ANYWAYS, Rommel was an extremely popular general who “did everything in his power to make his country strong again” (Thomas Vogel). Rommel had a reputation for being “a chivalrous, humane, and professional officer” who romanticized and “desired to simulate the knights of the past, who also led from the front” [x]. He profited quite a lot from being so close to Hitler, though allegedly Rommel had no political ambitions and instead preferred the life of a soldier. (Is this reminding you of anyone we know? Because I’m getting there.) Many people argue that Rommel didn’t have “strong racial views”. He supposedly didn’t employ excessive uses of force. Rommel didn’t commit any war crimes that I know of.* Many people praise him as “one of the great captains of history.”
But no matter how ~clever~ and ~chivalrous~ and ~respected~ Rommel was, he was still a fuckin’ Nazi** who wanted to conquer North Africa and the Middle East for Hitler. If Hitler had gained control over the Middle East, especially Palestine but other countries too, a lot more Jewish people and other people Hitler considered “undesirable” would have been murdered.
(Gimme a time machine and a gun and a guarantee I won’t distroy the space-time continuum, and I’ll go punch Rommel and Hitler in the face before I shoot both of them.)
Rommel was still a fuckin’ Nazi, and Jaime is still a fuckin’ Lannister.
If you’re actively supporting a morally bankrupt regime, I don’t think it matters that you, personally, are not committing the war crimes.
If you’re working on behalf of horrible people, even if you yourself are not doing The Evil Thing, you’re enabling those regime leaders to do The Evil Thing.
Maybe Rommel didn’t personally believe in murdering Jewish people (debatable), but he still fought for Hitler. Rommel held off the Allies for a long time, which allowed Hitler to murder more people. So does it matter that Rommel didn’t author the Final Solution? Does it matter that Rommel wasn’t a rapist? Does any of that matter when the people you’re working for are committing evil acts, and you’re happy to work for them?
Like, this is really important to me, it’s something I’m addressing in my Lannister fascism essay, that you don’t have to be the idea man or the top brass to be responsible for the Evil that is happening. In WWII, SS officers shot people, and then they would go home to their wives, who would have dinner cooked and who would smile and comfort them and sympathize with what a ~difficult~ day the SS officer had ~~”cleansing”~~ the world of “undesirables” and maybe they would set out a clean uniform for hubby because the one he’s wearing got blood splattered on it. It’s sick.
Evil has a support system, and Evil has invisible labor (often done by women) that no one even thinks about. (Which is why, after WWII, a lot of people painted the women of Nazi Germany as innocent victims, instead of people who were actively contributing to Hitler’s Germany. There was only one Hitler, but there were millions of people who supported Hitler and worked very hard to keep him in power and carry out his ideas.)
So sure, Jaime wasn’t the first man into the Riverlands, but he was happy to pick up the fight. Maybe Jaime doesn’t believe in Cersei’s dwarf genocide, but he’s happy to keep Tommen on the Throne and Cersei in power, which allows Cersei to commit her dwarf genocide. And sure, Tywin orchestrated the Red Wedding so he gets the blame for it, but … look at what Jaime’s doing in AFFC/ADWD … he’s still acting as Tywin’s enforcer to make sure that the outcome of the Red Wedding is put into place, that the Freys get Riverrun and the Riverlands come under Lannister rule and any opposition is eliminated.
Sure, Jaime makes sure Riverrun falls bloodlessly. And some readers praise Jaime for this!! You know what else fell bloodlessly?? Austria, in 1938.
The Lannister Regime commits Evil acts.
It doesn’t particularly matter to me if The Evil Thing wasn’t Jaime’s idea, because Jaime actively chooses to do things that keep an Evil regime in power.
(And like … if we’re setting the bar at “Don’t commit war crimes,” that bar is so low, it’s not even on the floor, it’s under the floor.)
Although idk if I would argue that Jaime commits no war crimes. As you mention, Jaime murdered Ned’s men. Like, they’d effectively negotiated a peace between the two groups of combatants, and then Jaime ordered everyone but the enemy commander slaughtered. so idk, maybe not a war crime. Even if it’s not a war crime, it’s definitely a deplorable act committed on behalf of the Lannister regime to ~punish~ the Starks for arresting Tyrion. It reminds me of Joffrey punishing Sansa for Robb’s victories. Like father, like son.
And Jaime definitely played a major part in the Riverlands invasion:
“Your brother has been covering himself with glory,” his father said. “He smashed the Lords Vance and Piper at the Golden Tooth, and met the massed power of the Tullys under the walls of Riverrun. The lords of the Trident have been put to rout. Ser Edmure Tully was taken captive, with many of his knights and bannermen. Lord Blackwood led a few survivors back to Riverrun, where Jaime has them under siege. The rest fled to their own strongholds.”
Jaime didn’t have to participate in this unlawful invasion, but he chose to lead very significant battles.
So, to answer your question, I consider Jaime’s degree of culpability to be very high. No, he did not orchestrate the Red Wedding, but he remains, even in ADWD, Tywin’s top field commander, working to keep the Lannisters in power on a Throne which they have no right to hold. Even if Jaime is "just following orders,” that doesn’t excuse him from the horrors House Lannister has committed.
I wanna make sure everybody hears this from me: the things the Lannisters do are Evil. Tywin unquestionably commits war crimes like murdering babies. Cersei literally gives people to Dr. Mengele. Jaime subjugates whole kingdoms and puts them under Lannister rule. I scream at everyone that I love these characters, and I do, because these fictional constructs George has made are fascinating, but I want my thoughts on this on the record - the Lannisters commit evil acts. They’re bad people. I love them but they’re bad people.
That doesn’t mean that I’ve written the Lannisters off. Tyrion is actively against the Lannister regime now. Maybe Jaime will turn against the Lannister regime in what I call “Operation Valkyrie”.*** idk.
But right now, Jaime is very much a fuckin’ Lannister who will do everything in his power to keep Tommen on the Throne and to keep the Lannister regime strong.
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*While I’ve always been very interested in WWII, I’m not a military historian and I hope someone will correct me if any of my WWII facts above are incorrect.
**Some people like to split hairs over this but I’m not gonna do that; if they fought for Hitler, they were a fuckin’ Nazi.
***Rommel was one of the people suspected in the 20 July Plot attempting to assassinate Hitler, and Hitler forced Rommel to commit suicide afterwards. But no, I don’t believe in the “Rommel myth” that Rommel was a great guy who was just a victim of the Third Reich. He was a fuckin’ Nazi!!!!! Like, what else needs to said, when someone’s a Nazi! They’re a Nazi!
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EDIT: I want to make it clear that I’m not making a 1:1 parallel between Lannisters and Nazis -- I’m trying to discuss degrees of culpability, which was central to the question being asked. Culpability isn’t something that’s easily quantifiable, so instead I chose to examine this issue relatively.
