"Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then?"
--Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones (season three, episode five)
"To be honest, I never really cared much for them, innocent or otherwise."
--Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones (season eight, episode four)
Perhaps the greatest character of Game of Thrones is Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer and Oathbreaker, whose arc seems to lift him from an antihero of the more villainous kind to a consistent hero, only to bring him back full circle just before his death. The Kingslayer spends most of his time in the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones gradually revealing his benevolent side and abandoning his selfishness--and Cersei, his cruel, egoistic lover and sister. In the eighth season, however, he abruptly forsakes his character's new path, returning to Cersei out of love for her and claiming he is not a righteous person.
Before one casts aside Jaime's storytelling destination in the way that many viewers seem to have done, it is worth reflecting on the fact that people are perfectly capable of behaving in truly contradictory ways, the motivation of one action conflicting with that of another, the goal of a behavior conflicting with the worldview that is allegedly behind it. There is no such thing as a person that could not develop such complexity even when it is not already present. No, human existence is far more complicated than this, and the truth demands a more honest depiction of characterization than one that simply satisfies a viewer base.
It is not as if the abrupt confession in season eight that Jaime never cared even about innocents is the first time he showed himself to be a conflicted, contradictory character. The same Jaime who saves Brienne of Tarth from rape in season two seems to rape his incestuous lover Cersei in season four. The same Jaime who reveals in season three that he refused to follow the Mad King's command to burn innocent civilians pushed a young child out of a window in season one, with the intention that the act would kill the child and prevent his incestuous relationship with Cersei from becoming known.
In light of these other nuances, Jaime's decision to return to Cersei after seemingly turning his back on his vile sister is not as out of place as it may seem. Moreover, this decision is not entirely unlike many of the choices made by ordinary people on a regular basis. Humans, whether because of thoughtless irrationality, lack of self-awareness, or simply conflicting desires, are no less capable of such dramatic twists than Jaime. It is possible for any two separate motivations or goals to war with each other in ways that might appear ridiculous to outsiders.
Not all people are contradictory, but all people have the capacity for deep complexity--and even for genuinely paradoxical personality traits or motivations. These paradoxes may be commonly concealed from the public eye, perhaps in an attempt to sidestep the confusion, slander, or hostility of the world, but invisibility is not nonexistence. The complicated nature of human life cannot be soundly dismissed as nothing more than a scriptwriter's error. The truth of the matter is far more nuanced and vital than most stories could even come close to capturing.
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