When last we saw Jaime Lannister, he was riding out of King’s Landing and presumably north to join Dany, Jon, and Tyrion in the war against the Night King. After learning Cersei had no intention of abiding by the truce they’d just agreed to and instead planned to double cross the opposing forces, her brother finally abandoned her. It may have taken him way too long to get there, but Jaime Lannister finally reached his limit. Does this mean that a reunion is pending for Tyrion and Jaime? Let’s theorize about the brothers Lannister and Game of Thrones final season.
No Looking Back
If Jaime’s intention is to join the Targaryen/Stark alliance, it’s doubtful he’ll be welcomed with open arms. Even if he brings information of Cersei’s betrayal as a peace offering, Dany has no reason to trust Tyrion’s brother. He blatantly tried to kill her on the field of fire, and while the dragon queen bears no love for her late father, it’s unlikely she’ll thank Aerys’ assassin, the Kingslayer. Plus, if Jaime makes it as far as Winterfell, it’ll come out sooner or later that he attempted to murder Bran, and at that point, he’ll be lucky to make it off his horse before Arya slides a knife across his throat.
Considering he has no army behind him to bargain with, there’s no reason for Dany and Jon to allow Jaime to join their side apart from needing literally every able-bodied human they can get their hands on. But even then, considering the discord he could sow, Jon and Dany might not see any good in embracing him. There’s only one person who’d be happy to see Jaime, but as luck would have it, his pull with the Queen waned considerably over the course of Season 7.
Tyrion’s time as Dany’s Hand hasn’t gone as well as anyone would’ve liked. His plans to take Casterly Rock backfired catastrophically when he failed to anticipate Jaime’s attack on Highgarden. It cost Dany three major allies and seriously hampered her abilities to take the Seven Kingdoms with a minimal amount of fire and blood. Since then, Dany has trusted him less and less, acting paranoid when he questioned her about plans for the succession and accusing him of remaining loyal to the Lannisters instead of her.
On the flip side, Dany’s impulsiveness is something that greatly disturbs Tyrion and something he’s struggled to reconcile with his faith in her. He’s watched her burn decent men alive, risk her life and everything they’ve built to fly beyond the Wall and save Jon Snow, and then further compromise her objectivity by getting involved with the King in the North. His concerned look at Dany’s door after she grants Jon Snow entry in the season finale tells us all we need to know about how he feels about their budding romance (just wait till he finds out they’re related).
Tyrion’s loyal to Dany, but like Varys, he’s not blindly loyal, and it’s possible the Hand could make a move against his queen if he thought she wasn’t acting in the best interests of the Realm. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a Lannister did what was necessary to save Westerosi lives from a Targaryen.
New Alliances
Given the already strained relationship between the Dragon Queen and her closest advisor, if Jaime shows up and Tyrion and Dany disagree about how to deal with him, it could be the final nail in the coffin for their relationship. The somewhat tarnished silver lining of that outcome would be that Jaime and Tyrion would finally be on the same team again.
If Jaime and Tyrion are as alienated from the rest of the Northern/Targaryen contingent as we predict they will be, the two will need each other if and when they meet again. Plus, without their twisted sister around to tear them apart, we might finally get to see a Lannister relationship that isn’t mind-bendingly dysfunctional. Tyrion and Jaime remain the only two members of their family that accept and love each other for who they are, and that makes the prospect of them coming together in Season 8 something that could redeem the legacy of their historically greedy and self-serving house.
Game of Thrones returns in 2019.
