Brienne's 'Real' Age in Martin's Books Makes Jamie's Arc Way Creepier
The relationship between Ser Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) was one that emerged gradually over several seasons of Game of Thrones – before ending pretty quickly when Jaime infamously returned to his sister's bed.
Beginning in season 2 during the episode 'A Man Without Honor", Jaime and Brienne's bond brewed for a further 6 seasons before the pair finally got together. And fans were totally there for it. Finally falling for the proud and as yet untouched Brienne seemed to complete Jaime's character arc and show us that people can change.
Up to that point, quite aside from the fact he was just generally horrible, Jaime's story had been heavily influenced by his incestuous relationship with Cersei. Indeed, it was in support of his manipulative and sadistic sister that he did many of the horrible things we hated him for. But in season 8 episode 2, we saw him as a changed man. A man who had found true love with a girl he wasn't related to by birth.
How sweet!
Until you realise that in the books he was 31 and she was 17. 'A man without honor', indeed.
And when you look at it like that, the character arc of Ser Jaime Lannister just gets even creepier than we all thought it was. Because now we have a man who is essentially grooming a young girl over several years but still having sex with his sister in the meanwhile.
Now, the 6 seasons thing may change your opinion on the age gap. Two consenting adults aged 37 and 23 sleeping together is pretty much nobody else's business. But 31 and 17? Sure, it's legal but the gap feels significantly larger at those ages.
George RR Martin says that, when he wrote the story, he was looking to "take the traditional format of Beauty and the Beast and change the roles — and also the genders."
Whether that was quite what we got from this relationship is up for debate. But certainly, what we saw on screen was an unconventional relationship between two characters who were both broken and misunderstood. And who gravitated towards one another in a sort of grudging way that could have made their subsequent coupling up feel like an acquiescence – had it not been for the superbly acted scene in the bath at Harrenhal.
But once you know the age gap the author had in mind when writing this tale of blossoming love, it becomes difficult to get over the fact that all it really does is add another layer of creepiness to Ser Jaime Lannister.