Spoilerific: Is Jaime Lannister a villain, a good guy, or just a guy?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

He is just a guy.

Almost all of the characters are flwed in some respect.

Almost all are written to be complex characters who are creatures shaped by their environment. At first blush one may think good or evil but as the characters evolve they're just people.

The one exception might be Joffrey (where it is hard to find anything redeeming)

[Vesayen]

Ceresi is an evil ***** who needs to die.

[Jon Miller]

She is now, she wasn't always.

JM

[Stuie]

Was so.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Ves makes the worst threads... we should have a poll on this, but it'd be 5,000,000 to 1 that he does.

http://www.eventis.ws/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4092

Standing tradition since 2005.

[DRoseDARs]

[Provost Harrison]

WhoTF?

[LDiCesare]

The author explained his works, in general, as a confrontation between romanticism and reality, where the romantics always lose. It's much more interesting than a good/evil division imo. So Jaime is an interesting character because he's somewhat romantic (has a concept of what chivalry ought to be) but doesn't live to that respect, as he's too weak (yielding to his sister and his father) and too realistic (he's got much in common with his brother here).
He's not a bad chap per se, he just happens to be on the Lannister side which the readers tend to see as 'bad guys', and his love for his sister makes him do things that are extreme. So when he's not a puppet of Cersei, he is a really nice guy.

[Bosh]

I never really connected with Jaime until book four. For the first two he was just a bad guy and in the third he spent too much time getting beat up and in shock over losing his hand which lead to quite a bit of moping. For some reason I can't stand mopey/whiny fictional characters no matter how justified their moping/whining is.

In the 4th book he really seems to have got his bearings and seems to becomming comfortable in his skin for the first time in a long time and really seems to be making peace with who he is and how people view him (for example how he got Riverrun to surrender). Also while reading the 4th book I was suffering from a tragic lack of Tyrion-style humor and Jaime was the best stand-in that I had.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
He is just a guy.

Almost all of the characters are flwed in some respect.

Almost all are written to be complex characters who are creatures shaped by their environment. At first blush one may think good or evil but as the characters evolve they're just people.

The one exception might be Joffrey (where it is hard to find anything redeeming)

Gregor Clegane?

[Jon Miller]

If you look at what they have done, the Lannister side are (Some of the) bad guys.

Of course, there aren't many who aren't bad guys. Well, and who live.

JM

[Kuciwalker]

Even the Clegane's have a little bit to explain them. Joffrey is deliberately portrayed as unadulterated evil.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Even the Clegane's have a little bit to explain them. Joffrey is deliberately portrayed as unadulterated evil.

Well he did try to give his "father" a kitten.

[Provost Harrison]

Club thread! Close it!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Bosh


Well he did try to give his "father" a kitten.

Cats are teh evil 'nuff said.