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Episode 160: A STORM OF SWORDS, JAIME II: "To Kneel or Not to Kneel" SHOW NOTES!
🕑 Added 2021-10-25 14:01:02 +0000 UTCHello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.
And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.
Welcome to the one hundred and sixtieth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “To Kneel or Not to Kneel: An Analysis of ASOS, Jaime II,” in which we return to the unambiguously best POV character in the story. Un. Am. Biguous.
This episode is brought to you by our NotASmallCouncil:
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- The severed head of a Targaryan prince, rotting on the council walls
Spoiler warning: All published books, 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!
Question
The Severed Head of a Targaryen Prince Rotting on the Council Walls, a small council patron, asks:
I am really wondering: Do you guys really think we won’t see any more stark kids die? I personally believe Rickon and Arya have to die before the end, if only because Jon Snow has plot armor (dying and resurrection doesn’t count) and Sansa and Bran have more roles to play. It wouldn’t be GRRM if we get to the end without any main characters dying, and Arya’s plot is going towards something very dark imho.
So, thank you, Severed Head of a Targaryen Prince Rotting on the Council Walls for your question! If you’d like to ask us questions we’ll answer here on the NotACast pod-cast, you are welcome to become a Sworn Sword or higher-level patron over at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF where you can also get show notes, free merch, access to the NotASlack, weekly minisodes and of course bonus episodes like our analysis of the worst masterpiece of all time: David Lynch’s 1984 Dune.
Wooo boy. What a movie. What an episode that was. And if you’re listening on release day for this episode, it’s out for all of our Poor Fellow and above patrons. So, check us out again at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF.
But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Jaime Lannister, the unambiguous hero and best POV of ASOIAF, he had come down a romantic river jaunt with Brienne, splashed around with his pal Robin Ryger and offered a paddle to Brienne to save her from drowning. Let’s find out more of Jaime’s heroism in this synopsis of ASOS, Jaime II!
Synopsis
Jaime was the first to spy the inn. The main building hugged the south shore where the river bent, its long low wings outstretched along the water as if to embrace travelers sailing downstream. The lower story was grey stone, the upper whitewashed wood, the roof slate. He could see stables as well, and an arbor heavy with vines. "No smoke from the chimneys," he pointed out as they approached. "Nor lights in the windows."
I am so excited to be back with Jaime. I just am, and I alone am brave enough to speak my courage.
Cleos says there were people at the inn when they were here last, but Brienne puts in that they’re probably all hiding or dead. Jaime wonders aloud if Brienne, no, sorry, gotta use her proper name: the wench is scared of dead people.
She glared at him. "My name is-"
"-Brienne, yes. Wouldn't you like to sleep in a bed for a night, Brienne? We'd be safer than on the open river, and it might be prudent to find what's happened here."
Brienne doesn’t verbalize an answer. Instead, she answers by driving the skiff towards the pier. They all roll out of this clown car of a skiff and head up the dock. As they make their way up, Jaime sees a king on his knees, his hands together in fealty/submission. Jaime loves this, and he knows this place. And what place is this?
Ser Cleos answered. "This is the Inn of the Kneeling Man, my lady. It stands upon the very spot where the last King in the North knelt before Aegon the Conqueror to offer his submission. That's him on the sign, I suppose."
"Torrhen had brought his power south after the fall of the two kings on the Field of Fire," said Jaime, "but when he saw Aegon's dragon and the size of his host, he chose the path of wisdom and bent his frozen knees."
Jaime hears horses and determines that there are multiple horses in the stables. He decides to find out who’s home. So, Jaime very normally walks up to the house and shoves the door open with his shoulder and finds himself with a loaded crossbow to the face. Behind the crossbow is a boy who demands to know “Lion, fish or wolf?” Jaime says he wants a capon instead and comments that crossbows are for cowards. Yeah, but it’ll kill you dead. Sure, but then Cleos will kill the boy dead. No one is killing anyone, Brienne says. They are here for food and drink, and they have money.
The boy crossbowman lowers his crossbow and tells them if they drop their sword belts, they might feed them. Also, you came in on a Tully sail? Um, well, they came from Riverrun, Brienne says carefully as she and Cleos drop their sword belts. Then a man walks in, noting that there’s three of them. Would they like some horsemeat? Sure. Maybe some bread too?
"Hardbread and stale oatcakes."
Jaime grinned. "Now there's an honest innkeep. They'll all serve you stale bread and stringy meat, but most don't own up to it so freely."
"I'm no innkeep. I buried him out back, with his women."
"Did you kill them?"
"Would I tell you if I did?" The man spat. "Likely it were wolves' work, or maybe lions, what's the difference? The wife and I found them dead. The way we see it, the place is ours now."
Cleos asks where this wife is, and the innkeeper who wasn’t an innkeeper says she’s not around. Also, you losers better get gone unless, of course, you have silver.
Brienne tosses a coin to his witcher. Wait, wrong series. She tosses a coin to the man, and he bites into it which becomes a thing in this series. He likes the taste. He dispatches the crossbow boy to grab some onions from the cellar. As he departs, Cleos asks if the boy is the man’s son. Nope. Just a boy. His two sons are dead. Lannisters killed the first. The flux took the other. The boy’s mom was killed by the Bloody Mummers. The innkeeper (who was not an innkeeper) directs everyone to sit down, and Jaime grumbles internally about the clink of the chains on him. He fantasizes about wrapping the chains around Brienne’s neck.
Then it’s supper time. The inkeep grills three horse steaks while the men drink ale, and Brienne drinks cider. The inkeep asks for news of Riverrun, and Cleos tells them that Hoster Tully is dying, but Edmure holds the fords against the Lannisters. Lots of war shit afoot. The inkeep asks where they’re going. King’s Landing. Well, might not be the best time for that. There’s this guy named Stannis who has a magic sword and is besieging the city.
Jaime's hands wrapped around the chain that bound his wrists, and he twisted it taut, wishing for the strength to snap it in two. Then I'd show Stannis where to sheathe his magic sword.
"I'd stay well clear of that kingsroad, if I were you," the man went on. "it's worse than bad, I hear. Wolves and lions both, and bands of broken men preying on anyone they can catch."
"Vermin," declared Ser Cleos with contempt. "Such would never dare to trouble armed men."
"Begging your pardon, ser, but I see one armed man, traveling with a woman and a prisoner in chains."
Brienne gave the cook a dark look. The wench does hate being reminded that she's a wench, Jaime reflected, twisting at the chains again. The links were cold and hard against his flesh, the iron implacable. The manacles had chafed his wrists raw.
Brienne informs everyone that she’s going to follow the Trident to Maidenpool and ride the rest of the way through Duskendale and Rosby. But the inkeep says that won’t work as the river is blocked by sunken ships and by outlaws along the road. And the Lightning Lord is about. Who? Lord Beric Dondarrion. He is called the Lightning Lord for striking so fast and then disappearing. Also, he can’t die. Suuuuure, Jaime thinks. Then we’re onto Thoros of Myr: a wizard with strange powers.
Well, he had the power to match Robert Baratheon drink for drink, and there were few enough who could say that. Jaime had once heard Thoros tell the king that he became a red priest because the robes hid the winestains so well. Robert had laughed so hard he'd spit ale all over Cersei's silken mantle. "Far be it from me to make objection," he said, "but perhaps the Trident is not our safest course."
The cook/innkeep agrees, stating that if they don’t meet Beric or Thoros, they’ll hit the Ruby Ford and Roose Bolton. Or maybe the Lannisters are there. Or no one, Brienne puts in. Uh, sure. It’s your funeral. Anyways, the innkeep says the party should head overland. Brienne doubts they can make it without horses, and Jaime says there are horses here. True, the inkeep says. Three horses. Not for sale. Suuuuuure, Jaime laughs. He’ll show them the horses, right?
Jaime is right. The inkeep shows them the three horses: a plow horse, an old white gelding and knight’s palfrey. Not for sale, of course. Brienne asks how the innkeep got the horses. The plow horse was here when the man and his wife found the inn, the gelding wandered up and the boy caught the palfrey running around with his saddle and bridle still on. The inkeep shows the bridle, and Jaime sees it’s silver, checkered black and pink. It also has bloodstains on it.
"Well, her owner won't be coming to claim her anytime soon." He examined the palfrey's legs, counted the gelding's teeth. "Give him a gold piece for the grey, if he'll include the saddle," he advised Brienne. "A silver for the plow horse. He ought to pay us for taking the white off his hands."
"Don't speak discourteously of your horse, ser." The wench opened the purse Lady Catelyn had given her and took out three golden coins. "I will pay you a dragon for each."
The innkeep balks at the gold dragon, saying he can’t ride a golden dragon to get away or eat it if he’s hungry. So, Brienne offers up the skiff as well. The innkeep requests to taste the gold. When Brienne tosses it to him, he takes a bite and thinks it tastes real enough. Back to negotiation. The innkeep can have three gold dragons and the skiff, and Brienne, Jaime and Cleos get the horses and provisions. They can have oatcakes, salt fish. It’ll cost though. Same with the beds. Everyone’s staying the night, right? Nope. The man tells them not to go out riding at night. They’ll break one of the horses’ legs. Nope. They’ll be fine with all the moonlight. The innkeep tries to negotiate then, saying coppers will do instead of silver. Cleos wants to stick around, and the innkeep says the covers are washed and cleaned. Cleos is tempted again, really wanting that bed, but Jaime has a different idea on the whole thing:
"No, coz, the wench is right. We have promises to keep, and long leagues before us. We ought ride on."
"But," said Cleos, "you said yourself-"
"Then." When I thought the inn deserted. "Now I have a full belly, and a moonlight ride will be just the thing." He smiled for the wench. "But unless you mean to throw me over the back of that plow horse like a sack of flour, someone had best do something about these irons. It's difficult to ride with your ankles chained together."
The innkeep says there’s a smithy in the back of the stable, and Brienne asks him to show him the smithy.
"Yes," said Jaime, "and the sooner the better. There's far too much horse shit about here for my taste. I would hate to step in it." He gave the wench a sharp look, wondering if she was bright enough to take his meaning.
They head out to the back, and Brienne breaks only the chains off Jaime’s legs but not Jaime’s wrists to his chagrin. The innkeep tells them to head six miles, come to the burned village, and then go southeast at the fork in the road.
Brienne thanks the man, and Jaime grumbles about how the innkeeper has more than thanks. He has their gold. Jaime is tired of being disregarded. Brienne ends up with the plow horse, Cleos with the palfrey and Jaime with the one-eyed gelding. This cancels any chance of escape for the moment.
The man and the boy came out to watch them leave. The man wished them luck and told them to come back in better times, while the lad stood silent, his crossbow under his arm. "Take up the spear or maul," Jaime told him, "they'll serve you better." The boy stared at him distrustfully. So much for friendly advice. He shrugged, turned his horse, and never looked back.
Cleos complains about not having a featherbed as they ride out. Jaime likes being mounted, even if his horse drifts to the side of his good eye. But it was good for Jaime to be mounted. He hadn’t been mounted since Robb Stark’s archers killed his destrier at the Whispering Wood. They reach the burned village and all the roads offered.
Brienne considered them briefly, and then swung her horse onto the southern road. Jaime was pleasantly surprised; it was the same choice he would have made.
"But this is the road the innkeep warned us against," Ser Cleos objected.
"He was no innkeep." She hunched gracelessly in the saddle, but seemed to have a sure seat nonetheless. "The man took too great an interest in our choice of route, and those woods . . . such places are notorious haunts of outlaws. He may have been urging us into a trap."
"Clever wench." Jaime smiled at his cousin. "Our host has friends down that road, I would venture. The ones whose mounts gave that stable such a memorable aroma."
"He may have been lying about the river as well, to put us on these horses," the wench said, "but I could not take the risk. There will be soldiers at the ruby ford and the crossroads."
Well, she may be ugly but she's not entirely stupid. Jaime gave her a grudging smile.
Love that my man is giving grudging smiles. They see a light from a towerhouse ahead, and they turn off the road, angle around the tower and come back onto the road. They shelter under some oak trees with a peaceful sky lit by a half moon.
Off in the distance, some wolves were howling. One of their horses whickered nervously. There was no other sound. The war has not touched this place, Jaime thought. He was glad to be here, glad to be alive, glad to be on his way back to Cersei.
Brienne offers to take the first watch, and Cousin Cleos is soon snoring. Jaime leans against an oak, thinks about Tyrion and Cersei and decides to find out more about Brienne. He asks if Brienne has siblings. No, Brienne was her father’s only s-child. Jaime laughs at Brienne and says that she was going to say son. She’s a weird sort of daughter.
In response, Brienne turns away, and Jaime thinks that she reminds him of Tyrion. With that thought in mind, Jaime apologizes and asks forgiveness. And that goes really well.
"Your crimes are past forgiving, Kingslayer."
"That name again." Jaime twisted idly at his chains. "Why do I enrage you so? I've never done you harm that I know of."
"You've harmed others. Those you were sworn to protect. The weak, the innocent . . . "
" . . . the king?" It always came back to Aerys. "Don't presume to judge what you do not understand, wench."
"My name is-"
"-Brienne, yes. Has anyone ever told you that you're as tedious as you are ugly?"
Brienne declares that she is not about to be provoked by Jaime, and Jaime says he’d be able to provoke her if he tried. At that, Brienne decides to interrogate Jaime.
"Why did you take the oath?" she demanded. "Why don the white cloak if you meant to betray all it stood for?"
Why? What could he say that she might possibly understand? "I was a boy. Fifteen. It was a great honor for one so young."
"That is no answer," she said scornfully.
You would not like the truth. He had joined the Kingsguard for love, of course.
The truth was that Tywin brought Cersei to King’s Landing, hoping to marry her to either Viserys or Rhaegar if Elia died in childbirth. Jaime was a squire to Ser Sumner Crakehall and earned his knighthood fighting against the Kingswood Brotherhood. Afterwards, he stopped by King’s Landing to see Cersei. And Cersei told him that Tywin planned to marry Jaime to Lysa. But if Jaime took the white cloak, wellllll, then they’d be close. And hey wouldn’t you know it, but there was a vacancy in the Kingsguard as Ser Harland Garndison died peacefully in his sleep. Aerys would want a young man to replace that old sap. How about Jaime?
"Father will never consent," Jaime objected.
"The king won't ask him. And once it's done, Father can't object, not openly. Aerys had Ser Ilyn Payne's tongue torn out just for boasting that it was the Hand who truly ruled the Seven Kingdoms. The captain of the Hand's guard, and yet Father dared not try and stop it! He won't stop this, either."
"But," Jaime said, "there's Casterly Rock . . . "
"Is it a rock you want? Or me?"
Jaime remembers the night well. They did lots of sex, and Jaime thought Casterly Rock was a small price to pay to be by Cersei. Later, a raven arrived at Casterly Rock, informing Jaime that he had been chosen to join the Kingsguard. He was to present himself at the Tourney of Harrenhal to say his vows. That had freed him of Lysa, but Tywin was pissed. He resigned the Handship and headed back to Casterly Rock with Cersei in tow. So, the scheme hadn’t worked, and Jaime stood guard over a mad king while four lesser dudes tried to be Hand
So swiftly did the Hands rise and fall that Jaime remembered their heraldry better than their faces. The horn-of-plenty Hand and the dancing griffins Hand had both been exiled, the mace-and-dagger Hand dipped in wildfire and burned alive. Lord Rossart had been the last. His sigil had been a burning torch; an unfortunate choice, given the fate of his predecessor, but the alchemist had been elevated largely because he shared the king's passion for fire. I ought to have drowned Rossart instead of gutting him.
All this time while Jaime was reminiscing, Brienne is still there waiting for his answer. So, Jaime says that Brienne didn’t know Aerys II Targaryen. She admits that Aerys was mad and cruel. But Jaime had sworn to protect him.
Jaime knows what he swore. Brienne stands over him in disapproval over what he did. Jaime comments that they’re both kingslayers. Whoa, wait a minute. Brienne never killed Renly. She would kill anyone who says that she killed Renly. Really? That’s what Cleos says. Kill him? And kill lots of people who are spreading the tale.
"Lies. Lady Catelyn was there when His Grace was murdered, she saw. There was a shadow. The candles guttered and the air grew cold, and there was blood-"
"Oh, very good." Jaime laughed. "Your wits are quicker than mine, I confess it. When they found me standing over my dead king, I never thought to say, 'No, no, it wasn't me, it was a shadow, a terrible cold shadow.' " He laughed again. "Tell me true, one kingslayer to another-did the Starks pay you to slit his throat, or was it Stannis? Had Renly spurned you, was that the way of it? Or perhaps your moon's blood was on you. Never give a wench a sword when she's bleeding."
Jaime thinks that Brienne is going to strike him, and he thinks that he can snatch the dagger from her. But Brienne doesn’t move. She a
"It is a rare and precious gift to be a knight," she said, "and even more so a knight of the Kingsguard. It is a gift given to few, a gift you scorned and soiled."
A gift you want desperately, wench, and can never have. "I earned my knighthood. Nothing was given to me. I won a tourney at thirteen, when I was yet a squire. At fifteen, I rode with Ser Arthur Dayne against the Kingswood Brotherhood, and he knighted me on the battlefield. It was that white cloak that soiled me, not the other way around. So spare me your envy. It was the gods who neglected to give you a cock, not me."
Jaime knows the look Brienne gives him. It’s loathing. She would totally kill him save for her vows. But he kind-of respects that she’s open about her loathing. Brienne heads out, and Jaime falls asleep hoping to dream of Cersei. Instead, he dreams of Aerys, pacing in his throne room covered in scabs and fresh cuts as he always cut himself on the throne.
The golden armor, not the white, but no one ever remembers that. Would that I had taken off that damned cloak as well.
When Aerys saw the blood on his blade, he demanded to know if it was Lord Tywin's. "I want him dead, the traitor. I want his head, you'll bring me his head, or you'll burn with all the rest. All the traitors. Rossart says they are inside the walls! He's gone to make them a warm welcome. Whose blood? Whose?"
"Rossart's," answered Jaime.
Aerys’ eyes grew massive then, and he shit himself as he ran for the Iron Throne. Jaime pulled Aerys off the throne and slit his throat. He thought that was too easy. Kings should die harder than that. Rossart had anyways, trying to fight back all alchemist-like.
Ser Elys Westerling and Lord Crakehall had come into the throne room and saw the end of it. So, Jaime knows they’ll know who to assign the praise or blame. And he knows from their looks that he’s going to be blamed. Roland Crakehall told him that the castle and city belong to the Lannisters. Half-true. Targ loyalists were dying as Amory Lorch and Gregor Clegane were scaling the walls of Maegor’s Holdfast, and Ned Stark and his army were coming into the city. Anyways, what are Jaime’s orders?
"Tell them the Mad King is dead," he commanded. "Spare all those who yield and hold them captive."
Should they maybe proclaim a new king? Jaime knows what they’re asking. Should they proclaim Tywin or Robert? Maybe Viserys? Maybe Jaime? Jaime looked down at Aerys’ blood pooling around the body.
"Proclaim who you bloody well like," he told Crakehall. Then he climbed the Iron Throne and seated himself with his sword across his knees, to see who would come to claim the kingdom. As it happened, it had been Eddard Stark.
You had no right to judge me either, Stark.
In his dreams the dead came burning, gowned in swirling green flames. Jaime danced around them with a golden sword, but for every one he struck down two more arose to take his place.
Brienne woke him with a boot in the ribs. The world was still black, and it had begun to rain. They broke their fast on oatcakes, salt fish, and some blackberries that Ser Cleos had found, and were back in the saddle before the sun came up.
And that is the synopsis of ASOS, Jaime II. God, I love Jaime chapters. What did you think, ser?
Depth
This is a transitional chapter for Jaime, which makes sense. His first chapter established him as a POV, but we need to spend more time with him (and Brienne) before things get real bad real fast with the Bloody Mummers. We need a sense of the emotional stakes as well as the physical ones, and that’s what this chapter provides. We see how Jaime responds to Brienne’s contempt for him. We see how he navigates the treacherous environment of Westeros at war. Above all, we see how he relates to himself: his memories, his dreams, the fragmented self-image that results from them. We come out of this chapter with a deeper understanding of how Jaime’s mind works; that’s what makes it so effective when he loses his hand and everything changes.
This is my favorite type of Jaime chapter. Jaime and Brienne’s bickering, Jaime exercising a surprising intelligence, an inn, Jaime and Brienne sparring over what it means to be a knight and a ton of fascinating backstory work for the end of Robert’s Rebellion. In a way, the end of this chapter is a response to AGOT, Eddard III where Ned remembers Jaime on the Iron Throne. In another way, this chapter works as a prologue of sorts to Jaime V and the revelations at the Harrenhal bath scene, and that is one of the best chapters of the entire series. But did I mention the inn? Because you know it’s a good chapter when half of it takes place in an inn.
- The Inn of the Kneeling Man
- Jaime I was all about the feeling of being in motion again, but Jaime II is (mostly) focused on a single location: the Inn of the Kneeling Man
- The river signified rebirth for Jaime, but also death: the women hanged for serving his family’s men. The inn represents both, life and death
- George describes the building as having “long low wings” that seem to embrace travellers. A friendly hug, or a trap? You can check in any time you want, but will you be allowed to leave?
- Cleos remembers how much better things were when he passed this way, as with “They Lay With Lions.” The war has taken its toll on the Riverlands
- Then again, that’s what makes the inn tempting, or so Jaime argues. How many chances will they get to sleep in an actual bed?
- But Jaime’s words are always at war with Jaime’s thoughts; in his head, we see that his actual plan is to find a horse and escape
- We’re back to the theme of freedom that defines ASOS. Contrast that with the image outside the inn: that of a kneeling man, the opposite of freedom
- This is where Torrhen Stark, last King in the North, surrendered to Aegon the Conqueror. Jaime says they couldn’t have asked for a better place
- Why is that? What’s the connection Jaime sees? Maybe he’s making fun of Robb--saying he should have the wisdom to bend his frozen knees
- Or maybe he’s thinking about the Mad King, as he will at length later in the chapter. Jaime knelt to him as a Kingsguard knight...at first, anyway
- I think Jaime laughs because of the inversion of what happened back at the end of the Battle of the Whispering Wood.
- There, a defeated Jaime was forced to his knees by Stark bannermen in front of Robb and Catelyn.
- And now Jaime is in front of the spot where Torrhen Stark bent the knee to the Targaryens.
- Beyond the humor, a big part of what I like about this inn and what it represents is how it shows realpolitik.
- Sometimes to save lives, you bend the knee to the dragons. Sometimes, fighting to the bitter end is futile.
- But Aegon the Conqueror and his sister-wives displayed clemency to those who bent the knee.
- But what happens when surrender doesn’t mean clemency, when common practices of war and peace are subverted? Pure hypothetical at this point.
- Sadly, for Jaime it won’t be so hypothetical when he returns to the Riverlands in AFFC and after the Red Wedding.
- The Blackfish will refuse to surrender Riverrun, because there is no guarantee that he and his people will be safe if they surrender.
- But it’s not as though the bonds of human practice were shattered by one event.
- The dissolution of social norms was a much more long, slow burn as Jaime, Brienne and Cleos are about to discover.
- They’re greeted at the door by the opposite of a bended knee: a crossbow right in the face
- Jaime calls it a coward’s weapon, and snarks that he’s in chains because he killed some crossbowmen. Jaime’s scorn for archers is inextricable from his self-image as the ultimate swordsman--that takes courage!
- But that self-image suffered a massive blow at the Whispering Wood, so now Jaime has to project that tough exterior to mask his shame
- While he’s been in his cell under Riverrun, the war has swept over the Riverlands, remaking everything and everyone in its own image
- The people living here don’t have the luxury of preferring swords to crossbows: they need whatever weapon they can, to protect themselves not only from Lannisters, but Starks and Tullys as well
- That’s the first we hear from the smallfolk in Jaime’s chapters: are you lion, fish, or wolf?
- This follows up on “They Lay With Lions,” which exposed the atrocities being committed by Robb’s men as well as Tywin’s
- The kid with the crossbow isn’t relieved to see them fly Tully colors, and the guy running the inn doesn’t know who killed the actual inkeep:
- “Likely it were wolves’ work, or maybe lions, what’s the difference?”
- That’s the state of things in the war. Everyone’s identity is inverted, everyone has to make things up as they try to survive pure chaos
- The resulting tone is a mixture of menace and farce. On the surface, this is a funny scene. George keeps calling our host “the inkeep who wasn’t an innkeep,” which feels like a line out of a children’s story or something
- Jaime keeps tossing out witty one-liners: sarcastically thanking the NotAnInnkeep for being honest that the food sucks, mocking his feigned reluctance to sell the horses, rolling his eyes at how much Brienne offers
- But really, the humor comes from the absurdity of the entire situation: everyone acting like this is a normal night at an inn, even as they’re surrounded by death and can’t possibly trust one another
- There’s this palpable tension of watching the performances break down, the destruction of the war creeping in from every corner
- This is a family business...kind of. The boy isn’t actually the man’s son, but a war orphan he took in with his wife to guard them at night. Where is his wife, by the way? Don’t ask! This is what domestic life looks like in war
- He sells them horses, like any kindly NPC is supposed to do to jumpstart your quest narrative--it’s what Barliman Butterbur does in LOTR
- But he only does it because he’s in league with the very outlaws he warns them about. George is dipping his toes into the mystery genre here, as Jaime realizes there’s not enough horses to get the stable this messy
- Someone else has been here recently...and they might be coming back. As Jaime says, there’s too much horseshit around here, both literally and metaphorically. The NotAnInnkeep is full of shit; he’s lying to them
- And as we’ll find out when we get to Arya (and I promise, we will get to Arya soon!), this inn is the haunt of the Brotherhood without Banners!
- All that horseshit, as we’ll find out, is from the multiple horses ridden by Harwin, Jack-be-Lucky, Greenbeard and probably others who have been using this inn as a haunt.
- This is also why the whole negotiation over the price of the horses is horseshit too!
- The negotiation over the horses is a farce on multiple levels. As Jaime says, Brienne’s getting ripped off, paying way more than the horses are worth. Then again, as the NotAnInnkeep says, what’s the money worth?
- Unlike Dany, he can’t ride three golden dragons. He can’t eat them if he’s hungry. The war has broken down the structures that make currency work
- In peacetime, he’d take the money without hesitation; it would help him save up for large expenditures, or to take care of his wife in their old age
- But the war has made it so there’s nothing to buy, and no one to buy it from. The war has made it much less likely they’ll survive to an old age
- All that matters now is survival, so friendly commerce between neighbors has been replaced by a crossbow at the door. Trust is a major theme of Jaime’s chapters. Mutual trust is necessary to make currency work
- After all, the NotAnInnkeep doesn’t think he’s giving up those horses for long anyway! The plan is for the Brotherhood to take them back
- So everything is breaking down: family bonds, the national currency, even guest right. It’s a war of all against all: this is the Red Wedding in miniature
- Exactly right! The Red Wedding was the culmination of human norms that have been eliminated by the war -- especially in the Riverlands.
- And while Tywin’s conduct in the Riverlands was the genesis of this decline, it’s not as though the northmen have clean hands.
- “They lay with lions” and the note that “the wolves” probably killed the original innkeeper show how norm-breaking is not just a Lannister phenomenon.
- This is continuing the theme from Jaime I where Jaime sees how war has changed the Riverlands.
- Sex workers are hanged, people run away rather than meet newcomers, the bonds of friendship have disappeared.
- In times past, the inn would be a place of sanctuary, and the innkeeper would have a self-interest in ensuring that travelers didn’t get robbed.
- That line the innkeeper says struck me on this re-read:
- “These days, a man needs someone to keep watch while he sleeps.”
- And later when the party is moving through the terrain, they encounter a watch tower.
- In times past, a watch tower might be a presence for safety and security, but they move away from it, rather than try their luck visiting it.
- You mentioned LOTR earlier, and I think that’s such an interesting friction point between two giants of the genre.
- In LOTR, scarcity and war drove people to work together - with some exceptions.
- That’s not the case here in the Riverlands and ASOIAF - scarcity and war have driven people to live suspiciously with some exceptions.
- He may be ripping off the company, with the idea that he’ll get even more money when the party gets robbed down the road, but he did take in the boy from the war.
- But all of that desperation was caused by the overall war happening which killed one of the man’s sons, the original innkeeper and the boy’s family too.
- I think that’s a thematic element of ASOIAF that I like: War can bring out the best in people and selfishness too.
- But overall, war is breaking the world down at the macro level and down the individual relationships.
- Jaime v. Brienne, round two
- The theme of trust applies to Jaime and Brienne’s relationship as well. Even as he tempts Brienne with a night at the inn, what he’s really thinking about is stealing a horse from the stable and taking off on his own
- So trust is at war with freedom, the other major theme here. Jaime is conscious of his chains throughout this chapter, resenting them, hating Brienne for keeping him in this powerless state
- Then again, Brienne has a cage of her own: gender. Jaime’s only power over her is that he’s a man and knight, and that she is neither
- So he calls her “wench” instead of by her name; when the NotAnInnkeep doubts her ability to fight off outlaws, Jaime thinks that Brienne hates being reminded that she’s a woman
- Women aren’t supposed to wear armor and fight, but Brienne does, with more skill and more honor than most men. Women aren’t supposed to take charge over men, but Brienne proves herself more canny than Cleos Frey; like Jaime, she figures out that the NotAnInnkeep is lying to them
- Jaime thinks he’s tired of being disregarded by this huge ugly cow of a woman. But then she strikes off his leg irons so he can ride, as he hasn’t done since the Whispering Wood, and when she demonstrates her intelligence, Jaime reluctantly concedes in his thoughts: she’s not stupid
- Jaime is gradually coming out of his shell. Years of alienation have cut him off from humanity; he’s not used to treating others with respect, in large part because he feels like no one treats him with respect
- We saw the first sign of a change in Jaime I, when he planned to hit Brienne with his oar but wound up reaching out to her with it instead
- That continues in this chapter, as they make camp in a quiet little oasis; Jaime thinks the war hasn’t touched it. For once, he’s happy: glad to be alive, glad to be on his way to Cersei, his anti-Brienne
- The only people he cares about are his family...and that’s what leads to him thawing with Brienne. He asks if she has siblings. She says she’s her father’s only daughter...but she almost says son
- With a bully’s instincts, Jaime senses her weakness. She feels caught in between daughter and son, as she’ll tell the Elder Brother in AFFC:
- "A daughter." Brienne's eyes filled with tears. "He deserves that. A daughter who could sing to him and grace his hall and bear him grandsons. He deserves a son too, a strong and gallant son to bring honor to his name. Galladon drowned when I was four and he was eight, though, and Alysanne and Arianne died still in the cradle. I am the only child the gods let him keep. The freakish one, not fit to be a son or daughter."
- Jaime pokes at that wound: no wonder you think of yourself as a son, you’re not a proper daughter! This hurts Brienne, as of course it does
- She hasn’t hurt anybody. All she’s done is failed to live up to rigid gender roles: the idea that there are two kinds of people, you have to be one, and if you don’t fit that image, you are a worthless freak to be mocked
- And even as Jaime reinforces this social norm, he realizes that it doesn’t just hurt Brienne. It also hurts his brother Tyrion; it has his entire life
- Jaime thinks that Brienne and Tyrion seem nothing alike at first: the tall woman in armor, the short man whose primary weapon is his mind
- What they have in common is how they are treated. They face dehumanizing scorn every day of their lives. We’ve already seen how Tywin treats Tyrion; we’ll learn more about how Brienne has been treated
- Tyrion told us that Jaime was the only one who was ever kind to him. Now Jaime realizes he’s become like everyone else who mocks Tyrion
- He doesn’t want to be like that. We’ll learn more about why when he reveals the truth about Tysha, but in the moment, it’s significant because this is when Jaime starts to take responsibility for his behavior
- He makes himself vulnerable: asking Brienne to forgive him, and calling her by her name. It’s a bridge between them like the oar
- But she lashes out right back: your crimes are beyond forgiveness. Both of them are treating each other with contempt because that’s what the conventional wisdom suggests: Brienne is a freak and Jaime is a monster
- We’re all shaped by the wounds we take. They’re weaponizing their pain and turning it against each other. Maybe they can get past that and realize that the problem is the norms they wear like chains. If it is wrong for society to treat me this way, then why am I treating you this way?
- Jaime hates being called “Kingslayer” as Brienne hates being called “wench.” If Jaime can see parallels between Tyrion and Brienne despite their differences, maybe the same applies to him and Brienne
- So he tries to start over. Why do you hate me, when I’ve never done you harm? Because you’ve harmed others, Brienne says
- I think George intends for Brienne to stand in for the reader: we might hate Jaime, as he seems to embody everything that’s wrong with Westeros
- He violated his oaths to protect the weak, the innocent...and the king, Jaime finishes. How dare she judge him for that; she doesn’t understand
- The irony is that Brienne didn’t mention Aerys at all--Jaime brought him up unprompted! He’s internalized his pariah status; he’s gotten so accustomed to wearing arrogance like armor that he can’t drop it
- You’re right! I hadn’t realized that Jaime immediately goes to Aerys unprompted.
- And that’s not at all what Brienne is initially referring to:
- “You’ve harmed others. Those you were sworn to protect. The weak, the innocent.”
- Jaime immediately jumps to Aerys. “... the king?”
- “It always goes back to Aerys” becomes something of a mantra for Jaime in his chapters in ASOS.
- Brienne was trying to get at that killing Aerys is not even Jaime’s worst crime!
- There was the whole having an incestuous relationship with Cersei and cuckolding the king, fathering his own children with his sister.
- And then there’s Bran!
- How fascinating is it that Jaime thinks so little of throwing Bran out of a window.
- I think this is Jaime’s human nature roaring out in that he has this cognitive dissonance in wanting to focus on the “crime” that he can be absolved of.
- That said, Jaime’s killing of Aerys was a monstrous crime in the eyes of Westeros.
- His name “kingslayer” was the one Jaime was always known by -- even if the killing of Aerys was a justifiable act as we’ll find out later on.
- So he falls back on insults--you’re as tedious as you are ugly! Brienne says he won’t provoke her; he says he might if he cared enough to try
- They’re both playing the game where you pretend not to care. I’m not mad. I’m actually laughing! This is fun for me!! But it’s really not
- How do we get past this game? Brienne finally asks the question no other character has asked, the question the audience needs to ask: why?
- Not “why did you kill Aerys,” that’ll wait for the bathtub at Harrenhal. Brienne wants to know why Jaime joined the Kingsguard at all. She assumes that he meant to betray his oath from the start
- Jaime says he did it for honor and glory: I was the youngest ever to wear the white cloak. Brienne says that’s no answer, and she’s right. Honor and glory are abstractions that don’t account for individual complexities
- What’s real is love. Jaime joined the Kingsguard for love...but he can’t tell Brienne that, because the love he felt was for his sister
- Cersei was the princess in the tower, Jaime the idealistic young knight who dedicated his life to duty in order to be near to her
- They stole away in the dead of night to a different inn; Cersei dressed up as a peasant woman, which only excited Jaime all the more
- After that night, he was happy to give up everything, even Casterly Rock, to be with her always. It’s a perfect chivalric romance on the surface
- But beneath the surface, this is the story of an unhealthy relationship that ruined Jaime’s life. Not only is Cersei his twin sister, adding a dose of narcissism to their dynamic, but she clearly manipulated him into this
- Not only that, it didn’t work! Tywin was so furious about losing his heir that he resigned his position and took Cersei with him back to the Rock
- Jaime wound up watching his father’s successors as Hand rise and fall, facing exile or worse as their fate. No wonder he became so bitter
- Now we’re beginning to get a sense of how Jaime turned out this way: he’s a disillusioned romantic, a child star who grew into a cynical world
- Jaime says it was the white cloak which soiled him. That’s a vital line for his character, following up on his oaths monologue to Catelyn. The problem isn’t our failure to live up to moral standards; the problem is the standards themselves, as with our gender roles
- The two are connected: Jaime thinks that Brienne resents what he did with his knighthood because she wants it so desperately, but she can’t because of her gender. Blame the gods for not giving you a cock, he says
- Jaime uses gender roles to distance himself from Brienne and her contempt. What do I care what this improper woman says? She probably killed Renly because she was on her period!
- Brienne protests it was a shadow who killed Renly. We know it’s true, but it sounds ridiculous to Jaime. That makes him happy--if Brienne’s a hypocrite who’s just like him, then he doesn’t have to engage in any self-reflection. He’s beginning to crack, but he’s also pushing back
- “He had joined the Kingsguard for love, of course” is a great line, because it lines up with how readers were really first introduced to Jaime.
- “The things I do for love” were the words Jaime said before he tossed Bran from a window.
- And even if GRRM hadn’t fully fleshed out Jaime back in AGOT, George took time to note that he said this with loathing in his voice.
- There’s an echo here: “The things I do for love” with how Jaime ended up in the Kingsguard.
- Jaime wanted Casterly Rock to be a knight and a lord, but his love for Cersei drove him elsewhere.
- I agree that the white cloak soiling Jaime is very important for Jaime’s characterization.
- But I think that’s the poisonous nostalgia at work with Jaime.
- Like Robert, Jaime looks on his teenaged years prior to him being named to the Kingsguard with nostalgia.
- He was a squire to Lord Crakehall, had earned his knightly spurs fighting against the Kingswood Brotherhood.
- Later, Jaime will contrast his experiences in the Kingswood with the idea of how he wanted to be Arthur Dayne but became the Smiling Knight instead.
- But even then, Jaime was using the sword in violence as a mere teenager.
- Dreams of the past
- Jaime can use contempt to hide from Brienne, but he can’t hide from himself. He hopes to dream of Cersei, the love for which he put on the white cloak; he dreams instead of where that love led him, to Aerys
- The Mad King is terrifying, but also pathetic: pacing, picking at his scabs, going on paranoid rants. George describes his “royal mouth,” the royal color of his purple eyes, before telling us he died shitting himself and squealing like a pig. Jaime thought that a king should die harder than this
- What does it mean that he was crowned and anointed, as Brienne says, when in the end he dies like anyone else? The dragon skulls watched; they’re dead and gone, and without them, the Targaryens aren’t special
- In this dream, we get hints of what Aerys was up to: Rossart has gone to make “a warm welcome” for Tywin, Jaime dreams of the dead surrounded by green flames. But that’s not the focus, not yet
- The focus is on Jaime’s identity: who he became as a result. Jaime Lannister died, and the Kingslayer was born
- Indeed, there’s a conflict in this dream between his family name and his Kingsguard cloak. He says he was wearing the golden armor, and that everyone forgets that--implying that he was acting as a Lannister first
- That’s reinforced when Tywin’s men burst into the room. Jaime sees blame in their eyes, but no surprise, because he had been Tywin’s son before a Kingsguard knight. So his identity is a paradox
- He was expected to do this as Jaime Lannister, but once he does, he’s hated for it as an oathbreaker. Robert’s Rebellion temporarily broke down the social order; Jaime briefly considers that he could crown anybody
- But then he thinks that Viserys and baby Aegon have the Mad King’s blood in them. Nothing will change; Jaime became a nihilist
- The implication here is that Jaime killed the Mad King to save Tywin’s life, but even that isn’t the full story. We’re being shown the limits of our perspective, how we’ve projected more than we realize onto Jaime, just like Brienne does. The question of “why” is what will drive us forward
- “You had no right to judge me either, Stark” or “You had no right to judge me either, reader.”
- “Don’t presume to judge what you do not understand, wench” or “Don’t presume to judge what you do not understand, reader.”
- These are meta moments in the narrative, a signal that we as readers need to question our own initial judgment of Jaime Lannister.
- This is what I love about Jaime’s chapters: it makes us reconsider our prejudgements of Jaime, our biases.
- Like you said earlier, I think we’re a lot like Brienne in this chapter.
- Sure, Aerys was violent and clearly having a long-term psychological break, but Jaime was supposed to guard the king. That’s his role!
- But what happens when your vows come into conflict? What if the king tells you to kill your dad?
- It’s a continuation of the themes from the end of Catelyn’s final ACOK Chapter.
- Vows and vows. They make you swear and swear.
- And yet, we don’t know the full story yet.
- Even here, we think well … obviously, being ordered to kill your dad is a real conflict.
- But he is a war criminal, rapist, murderer. So, gotta do what you’re ordered to, right?
- It’s as we learn the why that a full picture emerges of the human Jaime Lannister.
Foreshadowing/Groundwork
Torrhen bending the knee to Aegon might foreshadow Jon, as King in the North, bending the knee to Daenerys.
Jaime mentions Aerys’ “horn of plenty” Hand--Owen Merryweather, whose grandson Orton will become important in AFFC. He also mentions the “dancing griffin” Hand, who’s even more important--that’s Jon Connington. George clearly came up with JonCon while writing ASOS, as he’s mentioned multiple times.
Jaime fantasizes about strangling Brienne with his chains which serves as immediate foreshadowing for how Tyrion will strangle Shae with the Hand’s chain. But it may be foreshadowing for how Jaime will strangle the anti-Brienne: Cersei. In a fun way, “hands of gold” that we see in Tyrion’s chapters foreshadow Jaime’s strangling of Cersei while “strangle with chains” from Jaime’s chapters foreshadow Tyrion’s actions.
We get reminded here not only of Beric Dondarrion, but his partner-in-crime Thoros of Myr; Jaime tells us about his reputation as Robert’s drinking buddy, so we recognize the change in him when Arya sees him beneath the hollow hill.
Theory/Discussion
How did Cersei arrange for Jaime to join the Kingsguard?
- Precedent of Alicent Hightower and Jaeherys I
- Like Alicent, Cersei was the daughter of a proud and haughty Hand of the King; Otto might have brought Alicent to court in order to marry Viserys after his first wife died, and Jaime thinks Tywin brought Cersei to court in order to marry Rhaegar after his first wife died
- Alicent was a constant companion of the Old King Jaeherys in his final years; Mushroom claims in his Testimony that Alicent did more than read to him
- Is it possible Cersei offered sexual favors to the Mad King in order to influence him? We already know she wasn’t as loyal to Jaime as he was to her
- It fits these characters: the way the twincest echoes Targaryen practices, Tywin’s resentment for Aerys, Cersei’s later lust for wildfire
- Aerys and Joanna
- Killing of Ser Grandison fits with Cersei’s MO that we’ll see with the High Septon in AFFC: make it look like they died in their sleep
Conclusion
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