In the third Game of Thrones book, A Storm of Swords, Jamie Lannister’s hand is cut off. I love this moment because it is very simple and it requires Jamie to reconstruct his entire identity.
Even if you’ve never read the series, most of what you need to know about who Jamie is is present in the chapter leading up to his mutilation. At this point, Jamie has been captured by Brienne, his hands are chained, and they are traveling. The chapter starts:
At Maidenpool, Lord Mooton’s red salmon still flew above the castle on its hill, but the town walls were deserted, the gates smashed, half the homes and shops burned or plundered…The pool from which the town took its name, which legend said that Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing with her sisters, was so choked with rotting corpses that the water had turned into a murky green soup.Jamie took one look and burst into song. “Six maids there were in a spring-fed pool…”
“What are you doing?” Brienne demanded.
“Singing. ‘Six Maids in a Pool,’ I’m sure you’ve heard it. And shy little maids they were, too. Rather like you. Though somewhat prettier, I’ll warrant.”
“Be quiet,” the wench said.
They are ambushed by archers and even though Jamie is a chained prisoner, he takes command, pinpointing where the archers are and telling Brienne to charge them. They do and the archers scatter.
She sheathed her sword. “Why did you charge?”
“Bowmen are fearless so long as they can hide behind walls and shoot at you from afar, but if you come at them, they run. They know what will happen when you reach them.”
Jamie acquires a sword and fights Brienne in an attempt to escape. The most telling line during the exchange is, “Jamie’s blood was singing. This was what he was meant for; he never felt so alive as when he was fighting, with death balanced on every stroke.”
They both cut each other and eventually Jamie falls and Brienne nearly drowns him. However, they are ambushed again and captured, Jamie attempting to make bargains and promises of gold all the way. However Jamie’s word isn’t worth much because once upon a time Jamie swore an oath to the king and then killed him and his family.
So here’s what we know about Jamie.
-He won’t show fear. Upon walking into a recently ravaged town, while chained up and unarmed, he is so cocksure and proud he starts singing a bawdy song.
-He is constantly fighting to gain the upper hand in conversation through wit and bribery. Normally, he is successful.
-He doesn’t respect Brienne and though he acknowledges toward the end of the fight that she is strong, he openly insults her skill, makes excuses about being out of practice in his head, and continues to degrade her afterwards.
-He is ashamed of being the Kingslayer.
-He is an amazing fighter. Specifically, this is who he is. This is what everyone knows him for and almost no one is better than him.
And then: “Sunlight ran silver along the edge of the arakh as it came shivering down, almost too fast to see. And Jamie screamed.”
Jamie’s sword hand is cut off. Both practically and symbolically, he has lost what makes him who he is.
He is ridiculed and made ridiculous when he picks up a sword with his left hand and fails utterly, his opponent “hopping from leg to leg” before he “planted a wet kiss atop [Jamie’s] head.”
He has lost his pride, his skill, himself.
When Brienne calls him craven for wanting to die, something no one has ever, ever called him, Jamie wonders, “They took my sword hand. Was that all I was, a sword hand? Gods be good, is it true?”
Hey, look, it’s the question that will drive his internal arc for the rest of the book.
So who will Jamie be now?
Jamie wants to remake himself in his old image. All he can possibly imagine being is who he used to be. He motivates himself to live with the thought of revenge and replacing his hand with a golden one. He reminds himself, “I am stronger than they know…I am still a knight of the Kingsguard.”
He retains his wit:
“You have lost your hand.”
“No,” said Jamie, “I have it here, hanging round my neck.”
When a doctor cleans his wound, he refuses pain killers:
Qyburn was taken aback. “There will be pain.”
“I’ll scream.”
“A great deal of pain.”
“I’ll scream very loudly.”
But returning to who he was is impossible, which is part of why this arc is so compelling. On a surface level, Jamie desperately wants to regain his old identity and he will fight for that for a long time. But really, as soon as he lost his hand that is no longer an option. Not only does this make his struggle all the more difficult and compelling, but the character arc stronger because everything is pointing to him changing.
As he begins to recover, Jamie is unable to maintain his derision for Brienne. When the men holding them captive try to rape her, he gives her advice, tells her to wall herself off, as he has done (also a great hint at Jamie’s suppressed emotions, which is going to be really important). When she insists on fighting and the men are about to mutilate her too, he protects her by reminding them that if she is raped, her father won’t pay for her ransom. The men are forced to back off. Jamie makes light of it, jokes again at Brienne’s expense, “You’re hard enough to look at with a nose. Besides, I wanted to make the goat say ‘thapphiteth.’” But we know this isn’t true. They’re in this together and she saved him from his suicidal thoughts.
Later, after insulting Brienne’s loyalty, he actually apologizes, “Are you as a thick as a castle wall? That was an apology. I am tired of fighting with you. What say we make a truce?”
After riding away from Brienne soon after, Jamie puts himself at a great deal of risk by returning to her and saving her in a bear pit. He begins biting back his cruel comments and acknowledges not only her skill, but why she has chosen to become a knight and suffer the brunt of the world. Being a more traditional lady is something she simply can’t be. That recognition requires a lot of respect and introspection.
Jamie’s loss of identity slowly brings something else to the forefront: a large part of his old identity is being the Kingslayer and of this he is deeply ashamed. If he wants to regain his old identity, he will have to accept being the Kingslayer rather than just stumbling into it. He can’t do that. He’s too ashamed. While his respect for Brienne arises subtly and unconsciously, Jamie has to face this actively.
When Jamie’s hand is cut off, he doesn’t quite realize how much he doesn’t want to be the Kingslayer. That comes out when he begins to confide in Brienne, telling her what happened the day he killed the king. He has suppressed his emotional turmoil, but by talking about it, he has to confront his past choices and how it has made everyone treat him. Later, he has horrible dreams and agonizes over his decisions and guilt. In other words, he becomes more empathetic and emotionally intelligent. When at one point Brienne calls him Kingslayer, “Jamie, he thought, my name is Jamie.”
When Jamie reaches Kingslanding, the external forces set in. He has hoped to regain stability when he gets home. With his family, he knows who he is. No longer will he be wandering the woods, agonizing over his choices. At home, he is the commander of the kingsguard, Tywin’s son, and Cersei’s brother and lover.
But everything is just a little off. His son is dead, supposedly killed by Jamie’s own brother. He and Cersei are still physically attracted to each other, but she’s distant. She avoids him because she’s afraid of being caught and, unbeknownst to Jamie, is sleeping with someone else. Being in the kingsguard is meant to be a position for life, but while he was away, one of the guards was replaced due to old age. So even Jamie’s position is uncertain. His father tells him that he should give up his position and when Jamie refuses, flying into a rage, his father says, “‘You are not my son.’ Lord Tywin turned his face away. ‘You said you are the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, and only that. Very well, ser. Go do your duty.’” A little while later, Jamie thinks, “I am a stranger in my own House.” Jamie has lost his entire family, his entire house. He is barely a Lannister anymore.
Of course, it’s not a straight line and there are many smaller moments I’m not covering here. Jamie still wallows in his shame at being a kingslayer, renaming himself that several times. His wit is still aggressive and cruel. He and Brienne still clash. He respects her, but they’re never going to be friends. He has another encounter with Cersei that effectively ends their relationship because their desires have gone different ways. He struggles with the physical weight of his sword on his right side and the clumsiness of his left hand. He claims to be as good a swordsman with his left hand, but when he trains in secret, he is roundly defeated.
But at the end of the book, his new budding identity culminates when he sends Brienne to find Sansa. Brienne swore an oath to find and protect the girl. Cersei wants Sansa dead and by sending Brienne away, Jamie is betraying Cersei. Jamie’s father gives him a beautiful, mocking sword, which he gives to Brienne, effectively giving up on his identity of the best swordsman in the land. He also asks Brienne to name it Oathkeeper and keep Sansa safe with it, an attempt to redeem himself vicariously through her.
Jamie’s arc after this book is beyond the scope of this essay, but I want to mention one moment that happens later, because it is so vivid and painful. Jamie begins to train using his left hand with Ilyn Payne, a man without a tongue. The reason for the choice is obvious, as he can’t tell anyone about the beating he gives Jamie every night. But there’s a wonderful moment where Payne smiles at Jamie because even though he can’t tell anyone, he knows Jamie’s shame. It’s a great moment of vulnerability and heartache.
I love this character arc because it begins with a simple act and then unfurls into a complex and beautiful shift in character. He is still fighting to be who he is and there are parts of him that will remain the same, such as his military skill and biting humor. But the core of who he was isn’t sustainable. The change is not radical. Large changes of character often feel ingenuine and impossible. Jamie’s arc turns on one small idea: he wants to be someone who keep his word. He grows close to a woman whose defining trait is loyalty. He becomes a stranger in the Lannister house, a house of liars. He acknowledges and turns away from his past misdeeds. In the end, he sends a loyal woman to keep her word with a sword named Oathkeeper. And that choice is not a choice he ever would have made before.