How Will Jamie Lannister Die?
***GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT***
Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 4, The Spoils of War, is amazing in many ways. The battle with the dragon is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The creators of the show made an interesting decision: to film it mainly through Jamie’s eyes. That battle has given us enough tips to predict how Jamie will die.
Jamie’s Ring
Jamie starts GoT as one of the best swordsmen in the realm, a cocky kingslayer that defenestrates Bran from the tower where he’s having sex with his beloved sister.
In the first half of his story arc, in season 2 mostly, we learn that he was a reluctant king-slayer. He killed the Mad King Aerys for the greater good, starting his redemption arc. He loses his hand, challenging his core identity as a world-class swordsman.
Through the seasons, he has continued his redemption arc, but he’s been dragged down by the folly of his sister, who’s falling down the same hole of folly as Aerys.
In Episode 4 of Season 7, Jamie endures the Midpoint of his arc. He faced the loss of his army and the inevitability of Daenerys’s triumph through fire. He nearly died consumed by Drogon’s fire, and is drowning in a lake, dragged by his armor, his hand, and his traumas.
Drowning is a standard trope in movies. It’s a symbol of death and rebirth. To survive, Jamie will probably lose his armor and hand. His identity as a fighter will drown with them.
Maimed, without an armor, without an army, and on the losing side, he will be a changed man. Back in King’s Landing, he will try to convince Cersei of the futility of the fight.
Cersei, obviously, will not accept that. She will try to fight back, probably with wildfire, killing thousands along the way. The very thing that Jamie prevented by killing Aerys.
At this point, Jamie will face the last dilemma of his transformation: he won’t be a cocky fighter anymore. He will still love Cersei, but if he doesn’t stop her, then he really was just a king-slayer, not a savior.
When pitching the love for Cersei against everything else, he won’t have a choice. He will have to kill her to be consistent with his new ways and his integrity. Yet he won’t be able to live without Cersei, because she’s the only thing left that’s worth living for. And so, he will kill them both.
How? By closing his Ring, his circular story. Jamie and Cersei started the show showing their love by having sex in a tower and defenestrating Bran out of it.
Jamie will now follow Bran and his son Tommen by jumping from the Red Keep with Cersei.
Like a ring, Jamie’s story will be circular, closing similar to how it started, yet changed. His story will begin and end through the love of his sister. It will begin and end with the fall from a tower. But whereas he started a selfish, cocky fighter, he will finish as a selfless queen-slayer.
Edit 08/10/2017
If you doubted that Game of Thrones loves its parallels in deaths, here’s a great piece from Mashable illustrating it. Watch the video at the bottom of the article.
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