No other character is carefully presented to have self-depreciating, self-critical and hopeless depression and incredible anger at the world than Jaime Lannister. While none of the extremes apply to many of us, I can say without a doubt there is a lot we could learn from such an intricately-woven character like him.
The bath scene in Season 3 remains one of the highest points in the Game of Thrones TV show. This moment reveals the true Jaime Lannister. The amount of loathing in his voice is palpable. Notice how smug and obnoxious he was in Season 1? The way he carried himself arrogantly, proudly displaying his “Prince Charming” looks and shining armor, were a facade to the corrupted, vile and twisted individual that threw a child off a tower for accidentally finding out about their incest. After Season 3, I look back and feel that he was constantly bitter and angry about himself. His conversations with Jon Snow and particularly Ned Stark showed a level of contempt for the concept of honor that appeared to be the most important value in the world of Thrones. He was the epitome of shame in the world, the Kingslayer. As a Kingsguard, he was bound to protect his King, Aerys Targaryen, but he killed him to prevent millions from burning in Wildfire at the hands of the Mad King. This was the moment he lost all his ideals and would go on to be constantly fed by an existential frustration. He hated the gods. He hated the world. He hated the values he once held. He hated Ned Stark. He hated himself, above all, because he could have just enjoyed the dream of chivalry, honor and admiration.
His incestuous relationship with Cersei may have stemmed from their connection and lust formed from neglect and isolation from the world but after being called Kingslayer for the death of the Mad King. In a way, he hated life itself for being such an awful reality to live in because he spent much of his life in a dream of bliss. Defending his sister-lover, the queen. Raising himself to legend, akin to his father’s immortality project for the dynasty. Above all, he saw the value and meaning through the fights he excelled in. When he lost his hand, it was like a second awakening and a second death. For me, even that frustration and anger was like a dream unto itself. He saw the world and remained lull to the inevitability of the evil and cruelty going on around him. When he lost the one thing that validated his worth to others, he realizes he was a miserable existence, dedicating himself to nothing. Even his love for Cersei was not a meaningful bond. It was twinged with lust, hatred, secrecy, lies, confusion, uncertainty, domination-submission and toxicity, maybe the most toxic of the relationships in the entire canon of the series.
So when he poured out his flood of frustration and misery, he might have realized that in the Pandora’s Box that was Jaime Lannister, he released his honesty. He was honest and open and vulnerable and in pain to someone for the very first time in his life, a life that felt so much like an actual death sentence. It took one woman reaching out to him and he earned…his name back. Someone called him Jaime. Someone who was not Cersei, who held him as the only other for her. Someone who was not Tywin, who held him as a failed dream. Someone who was not Tyrion, whom he would have gained an eternal friendship and sincere bond with but could not due to his actions and sense of being trapped in the cruel world. It was a woman he wronged, Brienne, a woman who was not a woman in the world of Thrones, who brought down the mighty Lion from his throne of misery.