On Sunday night, "Game of Thrones" returned to HBO to begin a sixth season (read our full review here), and one character who was pushed to the forefront was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Jaime Lannister. Bringing his dead daughter back to King's Landing, many were expecting Lena Headey's Cersei Lannister to berate and curse Jaime. However, the siblings/lovers did not fight as expected.
Rather than further distance herself from Jaime, Cersei sought comfort from him. Instead of blaming him, she noted an old prophecy that foretold of her children's deaths. Jaime reacted with promises of vengeance.
"When someone you love is in pain, you want to do anything to comfort them," Coster-Waldau said. "And he kind of goes to that moment saying, 'Listen, it's you and me against the world. We can do this. We're going to fight back. We're going to take revenge.' Because he's never seen her this broken before. And now he wants her back. But, of course, he has no idea what's happened at King's Landing before, as we find out the whole power dynamic has changed. You have the religious uprising. It's a tricky situation."
It's made even trickier by Cersei and Jaime's strained relationship. The two have been relatively at odds with one another for some time, and it's difficult to fully heal wounds such as that.
"She hasn't been happy with him for a long time," he said. "I think, actually, since he came back with no right hand, she kind of lost a bit of interest in him. And I think now she needs him. And I think he is, for now, happy to step up. But she's not an easy lady to deal with."
Even casual fans of the show could have told you that. But Jaime feels a sense of ownership towards Cersei, especially as members of his family continue to drop dead or disappear.
"His father's gone, Tyrion's gone, he's all Cersei has now," Coster-Waldau said. "He has to deal with protecting their last kid, Tommen, who's also the king - who is a teenager in love, which is also not easy to deal with. It's hard to control him. So he has to deal with that. And first the biggest enemy here, of course, is the Faith Militant, this religious uprising, being spearheaded by the High Sparrow. He has to deal with him. That's what he's gonna do."
"Game of Thrones" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
Follow Brandon Katz at @Great_Katzby
