#jaime’s story does the bulk of the deconstruction is so many ways

[ilynpilled]

I think it is quite funny that Jaime becomes disillusioned with chivalric *violence* because of his dealings with Aerys and the whole system around him, so throws himself into a chivalric *love* with Cersei to cope (ie. He is forced to love her from a distance, being the Lancelot to her Guinevere.)

In AFFC, his faith in chivalric love *also* collapses, when he is forced to reckon with the fact that the type of chivalric love he has been indulging in leaves him alienated and distant from his beloved, and it means he doesn’t really know her in any meaningful way. Idolising “the lady” is just projection, not genuine love.

Enter Brienne. His dealings with her allow him to reframe both violence and love, because she embodies both the ideals of a genuine knightly protector and a lover who he can know completely, inside and out. I’m very interested to see where GRRM takes this in TWOW (if he ever does, of course).

yeah heavily idealistic chivalric values/codes clashing with the actual reality of chivalric violence/chivalric love/chivalry and gender and misogyny specifically and just knighthood as an institution in general is such a key tension in the text and i am also excited to see how it will continue to develop with him and brienne (the female true knight). i just love how knighthood is deconstructed and then reconstructed and how the two of them are at the center of the theme ig