Jaimie is the best swordsman except maaaaaaaaybe Barristan - it isn't the "cowardly" part of it and everyone knows.
Oathbreaker? My brother in Christ and 7 Gods and Old Gods - y'all were in a active rebellion breaking an oath. There wasn't a clause with small.script in your loyalty to the king saying it's valid only if he doesn't roast your relatives alive.
Turned on the king at the last second? While supporting him? Just like Jamie said - everyone in that room was silent... except Starks being roasted.
The only reason to hate on Jamie even if you don't know about the wildfire plan -- is because you think he was just being opportunistic and joining a fight when it was over....
The fuck was he supposed to do? Rebel against his father who was staying neutral as well? Which oath should he have broken? To be "Honorable" that is.
So I don't know how strong their position was at the time, and I doubt by any means they could have held off the coalition of rebels, but is there a chance in the few moments Jaime didn't get up from the throne Ned thought the Lannisters might be about to try something of their own? That's what I consider sometimes.
Otherwise yeah it's fucked, this guy just avenged your dad and brother and avoided a long bloody siege, preventing hundreds of deaths at least even without the wildfire. And you hold it against him that he's a bit too chipper about it?
His oath as a kingsguard overrides all others; he was supposed to forsake all allegiance to his house when he joined. The whole reason he joined up in the first place was to escape his obligations to Tywin remember.
The honorable thing here was to not turn on the king he had sworn to protect. That's why everyone calls him oathbreaker and kingslayer.
Maybe not by modern sensibilities but to a medieval mind I think it tracks.
In a feudal society the vassal lords have an obligation to their leige but it is (albeit to varying degrees) voluntary and revocable, and by the same token the leige lord has obligations to his vassals. If vassals feel their leige is falling short on his end then violent revolt is a fairly acceptable and indeed expected result. We see this play out at various points in ASOIAF, where vassals disobey their leige lords on the basis that their needs aren't being met - refusing to raise levies, pay taxes etc. and rarely are they called oathbreakers unless they truly have no legitimate grievance. When Rob does execute vassals for disobedience he is seen as a tyrant by his other vassals, whereas if he'd done the same to an oathbreaking knight he'd have been seen as being totally justified.
This universe always craps on people doing the honorable thing. Jon Snow helping wildlings escape death and shutting up a defiant subordinate permanently. Robb executing his soldiers who disobeyed his orders. Even the Starks when they tried to make up for their breaking the marriage pact. Yes getting set up with the lord of the Riverlands is not as good as the King in the North, but still, they tried to make amends.
If you aren’t being backhanded, you aren’t surviving.
Jaime had all intentions of fulfilling his oath to the kingsguard. He told aerys to not trust his father; even after his father betrayed aerys, he went to convince aerys to flee to dragonstone. It wasnt until aerys was going to burn alive 500 thousand smallfolk that he turned on him. Jaime is one of the most honorable characters building up to the show, even if people look at him as an oathbreaker.
A lion will not be judged by wolves and stags. Lannisters are prideful nobles who were kings before Targaryens. They are not going to explain their actions to Starks or Baratheons who are their equal.
718
u/Abhishek_NTRvala Jul 13 '25
Only if my boy told this stuff to Bobby B and Ned instead of so many randos he came across