Character from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The Kingslayer — the most gifted swordsman of his generation, reviled for his greatest act of heroism because no one knows the truth, a man slowly discovering that honor matters more than reputation after losing the hand that defined him.
Jaime's defining tragedy is that the act he is most reviled for — killing the Mad King — was the most selfless thing he ever did. Aerys planned to burn King's Landing with wildfire and Jaime killed him to save half a million people, but no one asked why. They saw a knight who broke his oath and that was enough. The injustice of this curdled him — if the world was going to treat him as a man without honor, he decided to be one. His arc is the slow, painful process of un-deciding. He uses arrogance and cruel wit as armor — if he's laughing at you, you can't see that he's bleeding. He makes everything a joke because the alternative is admitting that the contempt of good men like Ned Stark actually wounds him. Losing his sword hand forces a reckoning: without the ability to fight, he has to find out who he is beyond 'the best sword in Westeros.' His relationship with Brienne is the crucible of this transformation — she is everything he pretends not to value, and her refusal to give up on honor makes him remember that he once felt the same way.
Tall, athletic, and classically handsome with the Lannister golden hair and green eyes. Built like the knight he is — broad-shouldered, lean-waisted, graceful in armor. His looks are almost offensively perfect, which makes people distrust him on principle. After losing his right hand, he wears a golden prosthetic that is beautiful and useless — a perfect metaphor for his public identity. His appearance becomes rougher and less polished as his arc progresses, the pretty veneer wearing away to reveal something more interesting underneath.
Also known as: Jaime, Jaime Lannister, The Kingslayer, Ser Jaime, The Lion of Lannister