Jaime Lannister is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where he is portrayed by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

[4] The New Yorker called the Lannisters "a crowd of high-cheekboned beauties ... who form a family constellation so twisted, charismatic, and cruel that it rivals Flowers in the Attic for blond dysfunction".

[5] Lev Grossman wrote for TIME that while Jaime and Cersei's younger brother Tyrion is a grotesque dwarf, "the rest of the Lannisters are stunted too, but on the inside.

[4]Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly noted that in the novels, "[Jaime is] a vaguely villainous minor character in Game of Thrones, then is basically absent from Clash of Kings, and suddenly he becomes a tragic hero in Storm of Swords.

"[8] In A Game of Thrones, Jaime is not only carrying on an incestuous affair with his twin sister, but he pushes a young Bran Stark out a high window to his likely death after the boy witnesses them in the act.

Ned later discovers that Robert's three children are actually the products of Jaime and Cersei's affair but is executed by the oldest child, Joffrey Baratheon, upon the latter's ascension as king.

Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly called the twist of Jaime and Cersei in the tower "lurid and shocking, exactly what I needed to jolt me awake and make me start paying closer attention ... By the end of the chapter — 'The things I do for love' — I was totally hooked on Thrones".

Jaime then mocks Ned for having tarnished his own honour by fathering a bastard, prompting Catelyn to call her bodyguard Brienne of Tarth for her sword.

Their leader, Vargo Hoat, cuts off Jaime's sword hand in the hope that Tywin will blame Roose and prevent the Boltons defecting to the Lannisters.

He takes the King's Justice, Ser Ilyn Payne with him to teach him to fight with his left hand, using the lessons to confess to his numerous crimes.

[17] It is unknown how much of this is true, as Brienne was previously seen as a prisoner of Lady Stoneheart, the reanimated corpse of Catelyn Stark, and the anti-Lannister Brotherhood Without Banners.

The turning point was when Jaime was captured and chained up by the Starks—an ordeal that humbled him, humanized him, and eventually left him without a sword hand, struggling to find a new, post-Kingslayer identity for himself.

[4] Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post wrote: What happens next dramatically complicates the work Game of Thrones has done to make Jaime a more explicable, even sympathetic character, given what we learned of his reasons for killing the king he was sworn to protect.

Introduced in the pilot, "Winter is Coming", Jaime is established as queen Cersei Lannister's brother and a knight of King Robert Baratheon's Kingsguard.

After being discovered by Brandon Stark to be having an affair with Cersei, Jaime pushes the boy to his presumed death, only for Bran to survive the fall, admittedly with life-changing injuries and little recollection of the event.

At one point Jaime attempts to escape by beating his cousin and fellow inmate Alton Lannister to death and strangling his guard Torrhen Karstark when he comes to investigate.

After Jaime goads Catelyn by mentioning Ned's rumoured infidelity, she releases him and has Brienne of Tarth escort him to King's Landing to trade for her daughters, Sansa and Arya.

As they make their escape they are accosted by Oberyn's bastard daughters, the Sand Snakes, and engage in a fight before all five are arrested by the Water Gardens' palace guards.

Doran Martell realises that the message was sent by Oberyn's paramour Ellaria Sand and decides to send Myrcella and his own son Trystane back to King's Landing with Jaime as a peace offering between the two houses.

He orders Trystane to stay on the boat outside the city to protect him from Cersei's wrath, and sends word to Doran naming Ellaria as Myrcella's killer.

After a failed parlay, Brienne arrives and implores both Jaime and the Blackfish to end the siege without bloodshed, so the Tully rebels can help Sansa Stark retake Winterfell.

Upon arrival, he is horrified to discover that the Great Sept of Baelor has been destroyed in a wildfire explosion, with the majority of House Tyrell and the entire Faith Militant killed in the attack.

Despite his discomfort at the circumstances leading to Cersei's coronation, Jaime remains loyal to his sister, with Daenerys Targaryen and her forces sailing on Westeros.

Cersei agrees to marry Euron Greyjoy after the war against Daenerys is won, but continues her relationship with Jaime, no longer attempting to hide their intimacy from their servants.

Tyrion wants a truce between the two queens in order to form an alliance against the White Walkers, as well as a meeting between Daenerys and Cersei to present evidence of the danger.

At the meeting in King's Landing, Jon Snow and the Hound present an undead wight to Cersei's court, and Jaime realizes the impending doom.

Instead, she has ordered Euron Greyjoy to travel to Essos and retrieve the Golden Company, an army of sellswords, and wait for the Northern forces to be weakened (or eliminated).

In the series finale, titled "The Iron Throne", Tyrion discovers Jaime and Cersei's crushed bodies buried under the rubble in the crypt under the Red Keep and, in his grief, renounces his loyalty to Daenerys and persuades Jon Snow to kill her.

Matt Roush wrote for TV Guide that Coster-Waldau plays "dastardly" Jaime "with malevolent charisma",[39] and Dodds noted that, despite the "despicable things" he has done, "the Kingslayer remains one of Game of Thrones' most popular characters".

[4] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote: The most riveting characters are the most self-serving, notably the queen, Cersei ... and her twin brother Jaime Lannister ... with whom she is having an incestuous affair.