Jaime Lannister has gradually evolved from an all-around douche-bag to a character who earned our respect in the finale episode of Game of Thrones, ‘The Dragon and The Wolf’, when he walked away from Cersei, who he has loved throughout the series and has shown it in not-so-discreet ways.
In an interview with HBO, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the actor who plays Jaime Lannister, recently bared it all regarding Jaime’s epic walk-out in the season 7 finale of the show. He says that the deceit of Cersei in the finale episode has got Jaime thinking about her cynicism. The character does not appreciate Cersei for not giving two hoots about the fate of others.
He also says that Jaime is pretty straightforward when it comes to “walking the walk”. Though, he has been by her side in every game that she chooses to play, he cannot follow her on this path.
He finally has the answer to the fans asking why he chose to do it now when he stood by Cersei even when she blew up the Sept of Baelor. He says,
“She seems more or less willing to kill him, and he finally realizes that whatever he feels for her, it doesn’t go both ways.
That whole thing of “We’re in this together,” well, we’re not quite in this together — because you’re not. We’re not playing the same game.”
It is evident that when ‘The Mountain’ stood in front of him, and Cersei did not do anything about it, really fuelled his decision to leave her, and Jaime was as surprised by her decision as we were.
On questioned about his feelings when shooting the scene, Nikolaj responds that it was a great scene to shoot and he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Although, Jaime has seen her do crazy things before, the fact that Cersei lies to him and everyone else to plot with Euron Greyjoy left Jaime truly disillusioned with the woman he loved.
Looks like Jaime Lannister will completely transform as a character with a strong moral principal in future episodes. What do you think?