How Dorne set Jaime on a different path from the books

Jaime and Bronn’s sojourn in Dorne was not a high point for Game of Thrones, to put it lightly.

When Jaime lost his sword hand in Game of Thrones season 3 he also lost his identity. He had won his first tourney at 13, was knighted at 15 and joined the Kingsguard shortly after. Being so far advanced from such a young age meant that Jaime never had to worry about himself. He always knew who he was: a knight and a member of the Kingsguard.

Losing his hand really threw him for a loop, in some ways even more so in the books, where he struggled to fight with his left hand significantly more than he appeared to on-screen. There, when Jaime caught out a training partner he didn’t go with Bronn, who he didn’t trust, but with Ser Ilyn Payne. It wasn’t that he trusted Ser Ilyn, but that Ser Ilyn couldn’t spread stories about how inept Jaime had become. Ilyn Payne had no tongue you see.

Where Jaime traveled through the Riverlands in the books, he was sent to Dorne in Game of Thrones season 5, ostensibly to rescue Myrcella. Everything that happened there, from the Sand Snakes to the talk with Doran, up to Myrcella’s death, was the invention of the show.

Bronn’s continued presence in the show is, in and of itself, a pretty big departure from the books. In the show, he essentially served as a stand-in for Ser Ilyn Payne, who has not appeared on the show since Blackwater in season 2. There is a good reason for that though, because the actor was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Tywin Lannister indicated that Payne was still alive in season 4, but he has not appeared on-screen. So Bronn was brought in when Jaime needed a sparring/training partner, and the two traveled together. In the books, Bronn kind of took the money and ran. After refusing to fight The Mountain for Tyrion he married a noblewoman in a marriage arranged by Tywin. Then he spent the next few books maneuvering (and assassinating) her relatives until she was the ruling lady of her house.

Another big change the show made here was Jaime and Cersei’s relationship. In the books, Tyrion had broken the news to Jaime that Cersei actually wasn’t faithful to him while he was away, and even after he got back to King’s Landing (that was a wild sentence to write). That was actually the first thing to really come between the twins, and drove them apart, even though Jaime never confronted Cersei about it. After that happened, Jaime was more than willing to leave her side, and headed out to the Riverlands, to help the Lannister army out there.

In the books this was a choice he made himself, and against Cersei’s stated wishes, on the show he waited for her approval, and really her orders. Not learning about Cersei’s unfaithfulness drastically changed Jaime’s storyline over the past two seasons, and not just in Dorne. However, in season 7, it seemed like the Wight did get his attention. It was Cersei’s refusal to take it seriously that motivated him to finally break away from her.

It will be interesting to see exactly where Jaime’s journey takes him in season 8. He certainly looked to be heading north in “The Dragon and the Wolf,” which could mean an imminent reunion, maybe with Tyrion, maybe with Brienne, or maybe even with Bran, who almost certainly knows by now what Jaime did to him way back in season 1.