Jaime Lannister: What Your Game of Thrones Quiz Result Means

Jaime Lannister is the knight derisively called the Kingslayer: Cersei's twin, Tyrion's older brother, and the elder son of Tywin Lannister, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in HBO's Game of Thrones. If your answers on the Game of Thrones character quiz pointed to him, this page covers who he is across the show, what the Jaime answers have in common, where they part from Jon Snow's and Cersei's, and what the match can and cannot tell you. It discusses the whole series, ending included.

Who he is when the show begins

In the first episode Jaime is a member of the Kingsguard and is hiding an affair with his twin sister, Queen Cersei ("Winter Is Coming," season 1, episode 1). His nickname comes from killing the "Mad King" Aerys Targaryen in the uprising that put Robert on the Iron Throne (Wikipedia's article on the character). The reason he gives for it comes out in season 3, in the bath scene below.

How he changes, scene by scene

Every scene here names its season and episode, and each episode link goes to that episode's plot summary, so any of it can be checked.

The man the reputation describes (seasons 1 and 2)

• The tower window. Bran Stark climbs an abandoned tower and finds Jaime and Cersei together. To hide the affair, Jaime pushes him out of the window, with the line "The things I do for love" ("Winter Is Coming," season 1, episode 1); the line is on Wikiquote's season 1 page.
• The ambush. Jaime and his men ambush Ned Stark over Tyrion's arrest. Ned's guards are killed, Jory Cassel among them, and while Ned duels Jaime, one of Jaime's men spears Ned through the leg from behind. Jaime lets him live and demands his brother back ("The Wolf and the Lion," season 1, episode 5).
• The squire in the cell. Held prisoner by Robb Stark, Jaime kills Alton Lannister, who once squired for him, to draw the jailer, Torrhen Karstark, into the pen, then strangles Torrhen and runs. He is recaptured, and when Catelyn Stark calls him "a man without honor," he answers bitterly with the contradictions his vows as a knight put him in ("A Man Without Honor," season 2, episode 7).

The hand and the bath (season 3)

At the end of season 2, Brienne of Tarth, who serves Catelyn, is escorting Jaime to King's Landing ("Valar Morghulis," season 2, episode 10). Season 3 is the stretch of road where the picture of him gets complicated.

• The hand. On the road to Harrenhal with Locke's men, Jaime convinces Locke that Brienne's father is a rich lord, and Locke stops his men from raping her. When Jaime then promises that Tywin will reward Locke if Jaime is returned, Locke pretends to accept and cuts off Jaime's sword hand ("Walk of Punishment," season 3, episode 3).
• The bath. In the baths at Harrenhal, Jaime tells Brienne about Robert's Rebellion and the Mad King's plan to burn King's Landing with caches of wildfire. Ordered to bring the king his own father's head, Jaime killed him and broke his oath, to protect the city, its people and his own father. Brienne asks why he never told Eddard Stark the truth; Jaime's view is that he did not have to explain himself ("Kissed by Fire," season 3, episode 5).
• The bear pit. Before Jaime leaves Harrenhal, Brienne makes him swear to keep his oath to Catelyn and return the Stark girls to their mother. When he learns that Locke will not ransom her, he goes back, finds her forced to fight a bear with only a wooden sword, leaps into the pit to protect her and gets her away from Locke ("The Bear and the Maiden Fair," season 3, episode 7). By the end of the season he arrives in King's Landing with Brienne ("Mhysa," season 3, episode 10).

Paying for other people (season 4)

• Oathkeeper. Jaime sends Brienne to find and protect Sansa Stark, and gives her armor and his Valyrian steel sword, which she names Oathkeeper, with Podrick as her squire ("Oathkeeper," season 4, episode 4).
• The bargain. At a recess in Tyrion's trial, Jaime agrees to leave the Kingsguard and go to Casterly Rock as heir if Tywin spares Tyrion. Tywin agrees at once, and both brothers realize this was his plan all along ("The Laws of Gods and Men," season 4, episode 6).
• The cell door. With Tyrion waiting to be executed, Jaime helps him escape ("The Children," season 4, episode 10). What Tyrion does on the way out is in the site's Tyrion article.

Riverrun, Highgarden and the road north (seasons 6 and 7)

• Riverrun. Jaime gives Brienne until nightfall to talk the Blackfish into giving up the castle. The Blackfish refuses, and Jaime makes Edmure Tully order the surrender by threatening to kill Edmure's son ("No One," season 6, episode 8).
• Highgarden. Jaime and Randyll Tarly take Highgarden, and Jaime gives Olenna Tyrell a quick, painless death by poison instead of the public, painful execution Cersei had planned. After drinking it, Olenna tells him she was the one who murdered Joffrey ("The Queen's Justice," season 7, episode 3).
• The charge. After Daenerys has Drogon destroy the supply train Jaime is bringing from Highgarden, Jaime charges at her as she dismounts to tend the dragon's wound. Bronn tackles him out of the fire and into the river, where his armor starts to drag him under ("The Spoils of War," season 7, episode 4).
• The road north. As Jaime prepares to move the army north, Cersei tells him she lied and will not join Daenerys and Jon. He is disgusted. She threatens to have the Mountain kill him, then relents, and he leaves King's Landing alone, riding north as snow begins to fall on the city ("The Dragon and the Wolf," season 7, episode 7).

The knight, and the way back (season 8)

• Winterfell. Daenerys and Sansa let Jaime fight for them after Brienne vouches for him. He apologizes to Bran for trying to kill him, and Bran holds no anger, since that act led both of them to become who they are. Drinking with Tyrion, Brienne, Podrick, Davos and Tormund before the battle, after Tormund says he would knight Brienne without hesitation, Jaime knights her ("A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," season 8, episode 2).
• The return. After the battle Jaime goes to Brienne's room and they sleep together. When he learns that Cersei has captured Missandei, and Sansa suggests Daenerys will execute Cersei for it, he leaves for King's Landing in the night, despite Brienne's tearful plea that he stay ("The Last of the Starks," season 8, episode 4).
• The Red Keep. Captured on the way, Jaime is freed by Tyrion so that he can take Cersei to Pentos if the city falls. He fights Euron, fatally wounds him and is badly hurt himself, then reaches Cersei and finds their way out blocked by rubble. He comforts her as the Red Keep collapses on them, and both die ("The Bells," season 8, episode 5).
• The Book of Brothers. In the finale Brienne, now Lord Commander, completes Jaime's entry in the Book of Brothers ("The Iron Throne," season 8, episode 6), writing that he "died protecting his queen" (Wikipedia's article on the character).

Read in order, the arc is not a straight climb. The man who saves Brienne from the bear and gives her the sword she names Oathkeeper is also the man who, in season 6, threatens Edmure's son at Riverrun, and the man who rides away from Cersei in season 7 goes back to her in season 8. The show leaves both halves standing, and Brienne's entry in the book gets the last word.

What the Jaime answers have in common

Every question on the quiz, in the short version and the full one, has one answer written for Jaime. Read together, they fall into a few strands.

One act instead of an explanation

Given command of people who don't trust you, the Jaime answer is "Do something undeniable. One act can rewrite a reputation faster than a speech." In a negotiation it is an offer "so surprising it resets the whole negotiation." With three people arguing, it is "Make a bold call. Right or wrong, at least it moves things forward." Asked why people follow you, it is "You've earned it through actions, not words, often when it cost you something." The show turns this around on him: one act, the killing of Aerys, is what made his reputation, and the explanation he gives Brienne in the baths in season 3 is one he never gave Eddard Stark.

The reputation and the person under it

Asked what people most consistently misread about you, the Jaime answer is "They think the reputation is the person." Asked what keeps you up at night, it is "Whether you are, at bottom, the person everyone assumed you were," which leaves open that the reputation might be right. The full version adds the answers most plainly about change: a song about "The knight who was made of more than his worst moment," a lesson for a child that "you can be more than your worst moment if you're willing to do the work," a legacy centered on "The distance between who you started as and who you became," and survival because "You changed, really changed."

Temptation, admitted

Several Jaime answers do not claim to be above temptation. Offered exactly what you want at the price of your principles, the Jaime answer is "Consider it seriously, and despise yourself for considering it." Offered a legend for one serious moral compromise, it is "Be honest with yourself about how tempted you are, then probably pass." After a catastrophic mistake, it is "With something close to guilt you've never quite resolved," and with advice you don't want to hear, "Respect the courage it took to say it and wrestle with it honestly." Where several other characters' answers state a settled position, these describe a struggle still under way.

Cost, and nerve

Love, in the Jaime answer, is shown "By doing something that costs you something real," and protecting someone who can give nothing back happens "probably at personal cost, because you know what it feels like to need it." The rest lean toward nerve and the present: the one night before everything changes spent "Doing something that feels like living," a laugh "for real" at someone who says you have no idea how the real world works, a room full of performers disrupted with "one well-timed, unguarded thing you weren't supposed to say," and, as a supernatural advantage, "Immunity to fear, or at least the appearance of it."

One thing about the two lengths is worth knowing. The short version keeps the Jaime answers about bold acts, guilt, cost and reputation, but the questions about the enemy's offer and the legend, the song, the lesson for a child, your legacy and how you survived are in the full version only; the list of answers further down this page marks which version each question is on. So on the short version a Jaime result rests on nerve and unease; on the full version it can also rest on temptation admitted and on the answers about becoming someone else.

Where Jaime differs from Jon and Cersei

Reading the options side by side, the two characters whose answers sit closest to Jaime's are Jon Snow and Cersei Lannister. That is a reading of the wording, not a measured rate. The scoring itself has no weights: each answer is one point to one character, the result shows the count for every character, and a tie at the top names everyone tied. If Jon or Cersei came close, or shared the result, these are the differences to look at.

Jon Snow

Jon's answers and Jaime's often point the same way. Both take unwelcome advice seriously (Jon will "sit with it, even when it's painful"), both earn trust by doing rather than saying (Jon by "leading from the front and letting results make the case"), both carry a mistake for a long time, and both pass on a legend built on a moral compromise, though Jaime only probably. The difference is how settled they are. Jon's answers arrive already decided: "Pass. You'd rather be forgotten and know you lived right." Jaime's reach the same place only after admitting the pull. Jon's mistake becomes something that shapes "every choice after"; Jaime's stays as guilt never quite resolved. Asked how they survived, Jon "refused to stop getting back up," and Jaime "changed, really changed."

Cersei Lannister

Jaime's twin is the other close neighbor. On the question about what people misread, both answers say the surface is not the whole person: Cersei's is "They think the hardness is the whole story," Jaime's "They think the reputation is the person." Both lose sleep over what kind of person they are, both love by paying a price or breaking their own rules, and both settle an argument by acting. The difference is what each does with the gap between how they look and who they are. Cersei's answers use it: told she has no idea how the real world works, she smiles "because it's useful when people believe that about you," while Jaime's laugh is "for real." The Cersei answer's worry is "Whether loving what you love has made you someone you wouldn't have wanted to become"; the Jaime answer's is whether you are the person everyone assumed you were. Offered a legend for one moral compromise, Cersei's answer takes it and Jaime's probably passes. The Cersei answers rarely question themselves; the Jaime answers often do. The site's article on four leadership styles follows Cersei through the night Jaime leaves her and on to the collapse of the Red Keep.

Tyrion shares some of the lighter register. His one night before everything changes is spent "Drinking good wine with someone brilliant, possibly your enemy," close to Jaime's "Doing something that feels like living." But in a room full of people performing for each other, Tyrion watches and enjoys it, and Jaime breaks it up.

What it means to answer like Jaime

Only this much, and only about the answers: a Jaime result means at least as many of your answers were Jaime answers as any other character's. Those answers lean toward one decisive act over a long explanation, toward doubt and guilt admitted instead of settled, and, on the full version, toward the idea that a person can be more than the worst thing they have done. It does not mean you have a worst moment to live down, and it says nothing about whether you would make any of his choices, from the tower window on. The quiz has no way to know either.

It also helps to see where the quiz is kinder than the show. The Jaime answers read most like the climb: the bath, the bear pit, the sword, the road north. The show also has Riverrun and the ride back to Cersei. Answering like Jaime means answering like the version of him that the redemption reading picks out, which is one way to read the character and not the only one.

If this result does not fit

Look at the counts the result shows for every character. A close second, or a tie, means your answers were split, and the section above shows where Jaime's answers part from Jon's and Cersei's. If you took the short version, the full one adds the questions about change and legacy, where Jaime has answers the short version does not offer. The quiz page explains how answers are scored and how often random answers would tie, worked out from its own questions. And this is a character quiz built on a TV show: a result says which of these written answers you picked, not who you are.