I forgot to repost some post to @badthingshappenbingo from IG, so here they are. There will be post for AO3 too...
It's not like there is not a piercer - well, maybe Claire's would be more in his price range - somewhere nearby. Or that a professional work would be more noticeable for his father. Or...
Okay. There were no reason for piercing his ear in a high school bathroom with a safety pin. And yet, there he was.
For #badthingshappenbingo Ear injury, fandom Hamilton
Maybe was Oberyn a little bit luckier. Maybe he was a little quicker, or the Mountain a little weaker. Maybe, for whatever reason, he stopped.
No matter what, Oberyn survived. And gods protect anyone who would see him as no longer a threat.
Do you remember Pedro Pascal being hot even before Mandalorian and Last of us ❤️ as Oberyn in Game of thrones? I don’t understand why there are no fan fictions about him surviving duel with Mountain.
I have no interest in the Jaime discourse that’s been going around but I’m a sucker for parallels and honestly, this one really got me.
If you ask me, Jaime spent the entire episode running away from his choice, until it hit him in the gut because of Cersei facing imminent death.
It’s not Cersei having the upper hand that sends him back.
It’s knowing that it will get Cersei killed. That Dany will have no mercy.
That Cersei may die alone surrounded by her enemies.
The thing with Jaime is that he wants so bad to be an honorable knight, so bad to be like Brienne, who is the embodiment of all the qualities that he admires, that he kids himself into believing that he can run away.
That he can walk away from Cersei.
But he can’t. Once the fight is over and Jaime comes off cloud nine, the thought of Cersei follows him to bed; even when he shares it with a woman other than her for the first time in his entire life. Even when said woman is the paragon of everything he strives to be.
But the truth is that we have already seen Jaime’s face when he watches the woman he loves sleep and it’s not the same look he had on his face this episode.
(Pictures behind the cut)
Why is it so different? Why, when they had finally won the fight and he has even gotten to consummate his relationship with Brienne? Why, when he’s so enamored with her?
Why does he look so uneasy?
It seems pretty obvious to me in that scene that Jaime feels he doesn’t belong where he is. And it’s nothing to do with Brienne (who’s too good for him) and everything to do with him. And honestly? I bet Cersei weights on his mind. You can even see him sigh, see the tension in his jaw. And why wouldn’t he think of Cersei, when she’s the only woman by whose side he has ever slept?
This is the first time in the episode where we see Jaime being caught up by the thought of Cersei, and where we can observe that he’s nowhere near over her.
But he keeps running, thinks he may escape from her if he stays in Winter Fell playing house with Brienne and ignores the battle that is about to go down in Kings Landing; something Jaime would have never done, because be it for Cersei or against her, Jaime is a knight. He would’ve made sure to see that battle to the end.
But he couldn’t. He hid away because he wasn’t ready to face Cersei.
The fact that he didn’t offer himself to battle against her said it all. But the episode explores it slowly, lets Jaime hide for a little longer.
And then comes the second reminder. When Bronn reveals that Cersei promised him a castle if he killed her brothers, Jaime is amused.
“And you believed Cersei?” he says. The exact kind of comment he threw at Tyrion back in the second episode. “She’s always been good at using the truth in her lies. [...] She’s fooled me more than anyone”.
In the second episode, it’s Tyrion who reminds Jaime of the undeniable truth: "She never fooled you. You always knew exactly what she was. And you loved her anyway."
But now, it’s Bronn. It’s only when Bronn says Cersei is dead meat that Jaime’s expression changes.
"I knew your sister was dead the second I saw those dragons."
The amusement is instantly gone. Cersei’s possible fate sobers him up. Once again, Jaime is painfully reminded of the fact that no matter how he tries to see Cersei now, he worries about her anyway. The thought of her dead hurts him.
And the fact that it gets him the way he does serves as a reminder of a simple fact:
“You loved her anyway.”
The third and final reminder comes from Sansa. When Jaime sees that raven fly in, he knows at once that they bring news from the battle. And once again, he thinks of running away.
He stares after them, weighting whether he should go in or not. But he wants to know. Needs to know. And so he goes.
When he hears that Euron killed one of Dany’s Dragons, Jaime understands two things. First is that Cersei kept her word; she is using Euron--Euron, who was the straw that broke his back in Season 7. Because it’s not until Cersei reveals that she plotted with Euron behind Jaime’s back that Jaime is truly angry--and thus the Golden Company to fight against Dany.
Second and most importantly: she is digging her own grave, because there’s no way in hell that Dany’s going to let her live now that she’s actually hurt her and killed one of her Dragons.
Sansa confirms this right away.
“I’ve always wanted to be there when they execute your sister. Seems like I might not get the chance.”
Dany is unforgiving and Cersei is as good as dead. Every chance of them letting her live is gone. Sansa knows this. Brienne knows this (“They're going to destroy that city. You know they will”). Jaime knows this.
And you can see in his face how much that shakes him. That’s when it catches up to him, the fact that he can’t leave Cersei alone. That he can’t let her die alone.
He knows then that he can’t run away anymore. That this is a battle that he can’t walk away from.
That he can’t walk away from Cersei.
The next time we see Jaime, he has already made his choice. He’s going back to Cersei. She’s his sister and he’s loved her for too long to let her die alone surrounded by enemies.
And Brienne knows exactly what Jaime is going off to do: “You don’t need to die with her.”
Jaime is not going there to fight against Dany and for Cersei. He knows that’s a lost battle.
Jaime has chosen to die with Cersei, whatever that might entail.
Look at how sad he looks when he admits that Cersei is hateful. He looks much, much sadder there than he does when he admits that he himself is.
Jaime loves a hateful woman. A woman who lies and manipulates, but who has never hid from him the kind of person she is.
And he loves her anyway.
And so, what does that say about him?
Back when Tyrion first pointed out that Cersei has never fooled Jaime, Jaime looked stricken.
But now he owns it. Him admitting that he’s no better than Cersei is him admitting that Tyrion was right. He did always know, and he did always love her despite it.
And now he’s ready to atone with her instead of running away from it.
Honestly, I understand Lena when she says that she felt mixed about Cersei’s death at first because I, too, wanted her to go out in a blaze of glory and in her own terms. But she’s right, this was perfect.
Cersei has been fighting wars (real and imagined) since forever, so getting to die in the arms of her other half, in her own peaceful haven admist the chaos of someone else’s own making, serves as the perfect contrast and was the least she deserved.
Not to mention that tbh I always thought Cersei would rather burn KL down than to give it to Dany. But nope. She actually chose to surrender, which is what the people were asking out of their Queen. And I think that’s what some people hated because Cersei ultimately made the choice that should’ve saved her people, so there was nothing to reproach her last episode. And people wanted reasons to keep hating her even in her final moments lol
I read in your tags that all of your favorite GoT characters are dead (including Cersei and Jaime now), so I was wondering what are/were your favorite characters from this show? And did you care about any pairs other than Jaime/Cersei?
Hi there anon! The other characters I truly cared about were Jorah (probably my favorite after Cersei tbh), Margaery, Melissandre (she got really, really interesting once she started questioning her Lord. So much potential and then they just sent her away until her powers were needed away sobs what a waste) and Lady Mormont.
As for other pairs, not really! Closest would be show!Jorah/Dany, though I think they were beautiful just the way they were. I remember I also really enjoyed Margaery playing mind-games with Joffrey back in the day but that was all about my love for her character lol
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Game of Thrones (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Characters: Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth
Additional Tags: Fluff, Married Fluff, Domestic Fluff, I mean it about the fluff!, Common Cold, Ficlet, Fix-It, Writer’s month 2019
Summary:
