ASOIAF Theory: The Prophetic Dreams of Jaime Lannister

dreams in fiction often hold great importance they can present deep insights into a character's past and internal workings and they can often act as Reflections on the present from perspectives unique from those the viewer has previously received I've always regarded the lack of dreams and HBO's Game of Thrones as the weakness of the show as compared to its book counterpart early on such things are quite difficult to translate to the screen but they can have great payoff if such a translation is done properly one of the things I love about my favorite show of all time The Sopranos is how it handles dream sequences in a great way that all said today we'll be taking a look at two dreams within the Song of Ice and Fire book series both of these dreams Come From A Feast for Crows and pertain to one of my favorite point of view characters and both of them seem to have enormous implications for the future of the story as a whole so today let's examine a pair of Jaime Lannister's prophetic dreams Jamie isn't a character who's typically associated with magic in the texts he grounds himself in reality and fixates only on the things directly in his surroundings often intentionally blocking out the larger meaning of life in order to preserve his sense of self that sense of self and carefully manicured reality come crashing down early in A Storm of Swords in Jamie's worldview shifts drastically over the three books in which the viewer is exposed to his perspective as a Viewpoint character during the fourth and best book Jamie spends a good amount of his time dealing with the aftermath of the war of the five kings in the riverlands these chapters see Jaime developing as a leader and as an individual and coming to grapes with his own legacy that of his father and the many vows that he's made over his life all that's to say that this is the first time Jamie's new identity is really self-actualizing and through doing so he seems to come into contact with two distinct forms of both internal dream self-knowledge and magical knowledge of some sort or another in these two visions that have been discussed earlier both of these dreams that I've mentioned raise red flags as to their potentially magical nature in the case of the first instance chronologically Jamie falls asleep while his head is resting on the stump of a weirwood throughout the book series the reader sees the mystical potential in these trees particularly through Bran's chapters late in dance they seem to be a magical network of some sort by sleeping pretty much plugged into it Jamie's dreams may be influenced whether intentionally or unintentionally but this magical Collective Consciousness that existed across Westeros for what seems to be thousands of years it seems as though these Visions might be kind of influenced by a larger magical sphere rather than sent by any one individual the first Dream is a lot Jamie wakes up and immediately identifies three things he's home again at casterly Rock he's naked and he's once again in possession of his sword hand he is forced to March down further into the Rock by a number of figures armed with Spears and wearing these dark helmets he's confronted with Darkness beneath the castle and is told that it is his place by his father and by his sister Brienne then appears chained in speaking to Jamie one passage specifically states that she a sword she begged suddenly the pair of them have flaming swords casting away some of the darkness he notes that she is warm before observing two writers on pale horses approaching more soon appear and Jaime is confronted by the brothers with whom he had served aerys II as a kingsguard these brothers confront him about his oath breaking causing his sword to dim and eventually creating such a panic in Serge Amy to cause him to wake from his slumber like I said that dream is a lot in an initial draft of this video is going to read the whole thing but it took far too long and I didn't want to just drone on and on about it and if you want to read this further you can absolutely take a look at the chapter itself in A Feast for Crows as it's the best book and it's in my mind the best one to reread let's unpack some of the important parts here casually rock is our setting for this dream and it's an important one for Jamie in both the dream and reality Tywin states that it's Jamie's Place showing that Jaime seems to have internalized this desire from his father to become lord of the rock as Tywin repeatedly urged Jaime to Cast Away his vows the kingsguard and take what Tywin believed to be his proper seat at capsley Rock probably mostly to prevent Tyrion from doing so what's more some of the other figures in cafsley rock seem quite interesting namely the men with helmets and Spears escorting Jaime deep into Castle Rock seemingly as a prisoner to me the main force that sounds similar to this is the unsullied perhaps Daenerys could order this Army to seize the rocket in an upcoming conflict such a thing happens in HBO's Game of Thrones but it's very anticlimactic and doesn't really have any build up this could be an indication that something similar but different happens in the book namely because Jaime seems to be present for it one specific part of this stream that really lends itself to the idea that Jaime is tapped into some sort of prophetic magic is Brienne asking for a sword this runs directly parallel to brienne's final chapter in feast in which she's forced to make an impossible Choice by Lady stoneheart either she can choose the Noose and be hanged alongside her companions or she can choose the sword and hunt down Jaime Lannister bringing him to the vengeful spirit that is now Catelyn Stark Brienne initially changes The Noose and but as she's hanging she shouts a word given that she crops back up in Jamie's only chapter and dance it seems quite likely that she chose to bring the kingslayer to lady stoneheart doing so by shouting the word sword much as she does in this dream this is the main detail that really seals it to me that there is some form of Otherworldly knowledge in this dream as it runs directly parallel to the I would say most important event in Bran's story throughout A Feast for Crows which Jaime has no way of knowing about as of the current story it's also important to discuss the King's Guard they mostly seem to serve as a representation of Jaime's past and his trauma however there are some strange occurrences there as well Arthur Dane is quoted as follows we all swore Oaths said Arthur Dane so sadly this is a pretty exact mirror to what we saw him say in to Ned at the tower of Joy via flashbacks in the first book this is quite notable as Jaime wasn't present for this event as he was half a continent away in King's Landing further lending to the idea that he's tapped into some Hub of larger Consciousness and one that could be potentially tapped into by other characters in the near future the final part of this specific dream to discuss is the presence of the others the dead play a massive role in this sequence as does the idea of a flaming sword this has caused many people to associate Jaime and or Brienne with being Azor ahai as in this Vision they seem to be the final fiery sword standing against the tide of bone specifically Jaime sword extinguishes when he allows the horrors of his past to consume him which makes me think this is a warning of sorts against what Jaime must not do in an eventual fight against the White Walkers there's a lot of evidence that many different characters could be Azor ahai and this dream is one element of many that tosses Jaime's hat into the proverbial prophetic ring the second dream takes place in Jaime's final chapter in A Feast for Crows it's a bit shorter so I am going to read it verbatim and I think there's a lot of interesting things to discuss and analyze within this specific passage that I'll get into after the passage has concluded that night he dreamed he was back in the great sept of Baylor Still Standing vigil over his father's corpse the sept was still and dark until a woman emerged from the shadows and walked slowly to the buyer sister he said but it was not Cersei she was all in Gray a silent sister a hood and Veil concealed her features but he could see the candles burning and the green pools of her eyes sister he said what would you have of me his last word echoed up and down the sept me me me me me me me I am not your sister Jamie she raised a pale soft hand and pushed her hood back have you forgotten me can I forget someone I never knew the words caught in his throat he did know her but it had been so long will you forget your own Lord father too I wonder if you ever knew him truly her eyes were green her hair spun gold he could not tell how old she was 15 he thought or 50. she climbed the steps to stand above the buyer he could never abide being laughed at that was the thing he hated most who are you he had to hear her say it the question is who were you this is a dream is it she smiled sadly count your hands child one one hand clasped tight around the sword hilt only one in my dreams I always have two hands he raised his right arm and stared uncomprehending at the ugliness of his stump we all dream of things we cannot have Tywin dreamed that his son would be a great knight that his daughter would be a queen he dreamed that they would be so strong and brave and beautiful that no one would ever laugh at them I am a knight he told her and Cersei is a queen a tear rolled down her cheek the woman raised her Hood again and turned back on him Jaime called after her but already she was moving away her skirt Whispering lullabies as it rushed across the floor don't leave me he wanted to call but of course she'd left them long ago he woke in darkness shivering the room had grown cold as ice despite the fact that in Born to Run Bruce Springsteen thinks dreams and Visions are the same thing in one lyric I don't think that's the case in A Song of Ice and Fire specifically when talking about the two instances of dreams as I've called them earlier in this video with Jaime Lannister I think they are different things the first one is just that it's a dream it is not something that is intentionally being given to Jaime he is sleeping Atop A weirwood and it is giving him these unconscious magical thoughts that perhaps pertain to him in some way through his subconscious but overall aren't being intentionally sent to him by anyone whereas in this Vision that we've just gone over he specifically remarks on the fact that he only has one hand and in his dreams he typically has two hands this doesn't seem to be a dream this is what I would call a vision this is being sent to Jaime by someone for some purpose for some reason that is as of yet unremarked upon in any other instance in the story as it is pretty late in this story as it currently goes specifically it seems as though someone is trying to communicate something to Jamie through this Vision sequence in his last chapter in Feast standing visual over his father and meeting with this mysterious figure who is this mysterious figure it's quite obvious given the fact that he says it very closely resembles Cersei this seems to be his mother Joanna Lannister this would make sense given that it's a face that he claims to have maybe forgotten given the fact that it's been so long since he ever saw his mother but it seems as though he would never truly forget that face as he does seem to have that memory of her and seems to come to grips with it as the vision goes further what's more this Vision has some interesting parallels to other figures in the story The Silent sister kind of parallels cersei's current problems in Feast that she's going through at the same time this vision is happening as she's imprisoned by the faith and additionally the idea of this being a hooded silent being the operative word sister there is some comparison to Catelyn Stark both wearing gray robes and both being important figures in Jamie's psyche and in the future of Jaime's story that being said it doesn't seem like it would be Catelyn who is sending this Vision as she doesn't seem to have any such power in the story so far it could just be some element of the story that Martin is using as a parallel in that specific instance in terms of who might be sending this second division to Jaime there are two main candidates in my eyes the first of these is Quai there isn't as much explicit evidence for quaith as there is for the other one which I'm going to get to but she is the only woman in our story we've seen have the ability to send dreams to people as she does this to Daenerys throughout books three and five in the series additionally we see that she could be kind of playing the game similarly to how bloodraven seems to be as bloodraven sends divisions to at least bran and probably more people and she might be trying to do other things as well as quaint could be shirazishtar that's what I typically think that uh quaith is but overall there isn't a ton of evidence for it being quite other than both kind of main figure in this Vision being a woman the main candidate who I think could have sent this Vision to Jamie Lannister is the three-eyed Crow people believe that three-eyed Crow could be Brendan Rivers could be a future version of Bran Stark and I myself have gone back and forth on that a couple times in the recent past I might make a video on that in the near future but the main thing that tells me on the fact that this is the source of Jamie's vision is a distinct parallel to Bran's First Vision in his third chapter in a Game of Thrones to quote from that immediately after a bran has been thrown from the tower by Jamie himself he begins receiving these magical visions that end up setting him on the quest that he is still following in the story to quote from that chapter brand three Game of Thrones are you really a crow bran asked are you really falling the crow asked back it's just a dream bran said is it ask the crow and then to compare that to jaime7 A Feast for Crows who are you he had to hear her say it the question is who are you this is a dream is it she smiled sadly count your hands child the back and forth of this conversation is pretty much one to one between a dreamer being Bran or Jamie and whatever entity seems to be sending them their dreams this could be the same person doing it or if uh quaith is uh she are a sea star and bloodraven is the three-eyed Crow it could be a parallel between the two of them however overall I do like the interpretation that this vision is being sent by a future version of brand back to Jamie to influence him somehow but how exactly does bran want to influence Jaime in this Vision I don't think it's quite clear here but I think it's very much sowing the seeds for something in the future he's kind of priming the ground getting Jamie ready to receive some other prophetic Vision in the future as there isn't really much actionable in this specific Vision but it is kind of painting the direction bran wants Jamie to go he seems to want Jamie to Branch out from his father's ideas of himself and it almost seems to be counteracting the dream that he had previously received from the weirwoods and from sleeping on that stump overall it is a really interesting combination of Dreams it is a very kind of mixed signals between the two albeit they both seem to be driving Jamie towards a very specific end game and that is one that is very involved in the overall Destiny of the world and the plot with the white walkers which I hope he's very involved in because that would be a lot better than what ended up happening in the show so what do you think of these two dream sequences I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below let me know if there are any other dream sequences you want me to cover I'd love to do more of them because as I said at the top they are super super fun to cover uh I really enjoyed making this video be sure to leave a like And subscribe if you enjoyed it as well really helps me grow the channel and just generally helps me uh feel good about doing all this and that uh that just helps everything so yeah I really appreciate you watching and sticking around to the end and I will be back with more videos in the near future thank you all for watching and I hope you all have a good one I'll see you soon

Channel: Quinn The GM

Views: 70,284

Keywords: asoiaf, ASOIAF, the winds of winter, winds of winter, TWOW, GRRM, Jaime Lannister, jaime lannister theory, jaime lannister twow, twow theory, george r r martin, game of thrones jaime, lady stoneheart, brienne of tarth, cersei lannister, tywin, game of thrones, house of the dragon, hotd, got, GoT, HotD, house lannister, game of thrones theory, hotd theory, hotd season 2, glidus, alt shift x, preston jacobs, quaithe, bloodraven, bran stark, time travelling bran, three-eyed crow, prophecy

Id: eBPdqbYWQ5E

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023