The Game of Thrones Moment That Took Jaime Lannister From Hero to Zero
After 8 seasons of development, Jaime Lannisters' character arc was ruined in a single scene.
Of course, this was just one more dreadful error in an entire season that was so dire, many fans have asked (demanded in some cases) that the entire finale be rewritten and that we consign the existing season 8 to the annals of history.
But the decision to backtrack on Jaime's character development was one of the biggest errors, not just of season 8, but of the entire series. Maybe the writers thought they could get away with it. After all, Game of Thrones was well known for delivering unexpected plot twists.
The difference, though, was that in the earlier seasons of the show, each plot twist dragged the story forward and ramped up the tension. But this failure to deliver in Jaime's character just felt lazy.
What makes it worse is that, up until this point, Jaime Lannister had such fantastic character development. So good, in fact, that it made the weakness of the final season even more stark.
Jaime was, of course, not always a popular character. He was in many ways (actually, most ways) horrible, and it was easy to hate him. But he had something of the 'everyman' about him.
Some of his imperfections, he almost wore as a badge of honour. Others he simply seemed not to care about. But he was someone that, for all his nastiness, was forever coming out second best. He was humbled on so many occasions and, as we all are, moulded by his experiences.
In the end, he had undergone what could only be described as a complete transformation in character as we entered season 8.
And then, it was all thrown away in no more than 5 minutes. Fans were appalled when he headed back to Westeros to be with Cersei. It was exactly what shouldn't have happened. The minute somebody in the writer's room even suggested it, the idea should have been shut down. Unfortunately, though, good quality writing – the very thing that had made the Game of Thrones what it was – seemed no longer to be important to those producing the show.
After Jaime and Brienne's dynamic had built and developed in such a virtuoso way, acted so perfectly by both Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime) and Gwendoline Christie ( Brienne), what they did to Jaime felt almost criminal.