Stump the Kingslayer

Valar Morghulis. It means “All men must die,” in HBO’s “Game of Thrones”’ fictional language of High Valyrian.

Jaime Lannister, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, is hoping that reality comes sooner than later for him right about now.

When we first met the eldest Lannister son, also known as “the Kingslayer,” he seemed tailor-made to earn the audience’s hatred. In the April 2011 series premiere, Jaime Lannister was gorgeous, arrogant and wealthy. He’d accompanied his twin sister and lover, Queen Cersei Lannister Baratheon (Lena Headey) and her husband, King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), to pay a visit to Ned Stark (Sean Bean) in his Northern fortress of Winterfell.

While at Winterfell, Jaime and Cersei stole away to a deserted part of the upper castle for some alone time, but were spied by one of the younger Starks, Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), who had climbed up the castle wall to see what he could see. To keep their secret, Jaime pushed Bran off the wall. In that episode’s shocking end, which set the audience up for many other shocks as the series has gone on, Bran plunged to the earth. Jaime intended for him to die — thus assuring that the twins’ secret was safe — but Bran managed to live, though paralyzed.

Little did we know then that Jaime also was headed for quite a fall.

“I did know from the beginning where the show was headed, and I think that was important, at least for me, so I could find the balance in playing him,” says Coster-Waldau. “I thought it was wonderful to start at that extreme place. Since then, I’ve had a lot of ground to cover.”

You may not have heard of him, but Coster-Waldau, who is Danish, is an acting vet. At 42, he’s married with two children and has been working around the world since his early 20s. This year alone, he’s starred in Guilllermo del Toro’s “Mama” with Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain and co-starred with Tom Cruise in “Oblivion,” which has racked up nearly a quarter of a billion dollars at the global box office. He’s currently shooting, “The Other Woman,” with Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Kinney and Kate Upton.

While Coster-Waldau, like Headey, exactly embodies the golden Lannister visage described by George R.R. Martin in the novels on which the TV show is based, his physical beauty has quickly become irrelevant. He spent most of Season 2 chained in a cage — even on the actor’s actual birthday, July 27 — or being dragged on the ground being kicked and shoved by extras. Things haven’t improved much in Season 3.

Although Jaime managed to escape his Stark captors, who are at war with the Lannisters, and begin the journey back to his family in King’s Landing, accompanied by the she-warrior Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), his hope of freedom came to a screeching halt when he was recaptured by one of Robb Stark’s bannermen, Locke. After he talked Locke’s men out of raping Brienne, they repaid Jaime’s sense of justice by chopping off his sword hand. As the most famous knight in the realm, that’s a cut Jaime’s having a hard time coping with.

“I actually see him as quite an honorable man,” says Coster-Waldau, although that’s hard to see from the point of view of the series’ first episode. “Although, I think if he was told that he could have either saved Brienne or saved his sword hand, I think he would have just told those men, ‘Be gentle with her,’ and shut up.”

Jaime’s relationship with Brienne, who is a tall and imposing fighter herself, has turned into an unlikely alliance but a pivotal moment awaits both characters. While Jaime’s incestuous relationship with Cersei is considered as morally taboo in the made-up land of Westeros as it is in modern society, Cersei is the only woman Jaime has ever loved or been with. The same certainly cannot be said for Cersei.

Jaime isn’t in love with Brienne — who herself loved the now dead (and gay) Renly Baratheon, brother of King Robert — but he’s found a kindred spirit in her.

“It’s been the first time he’s been forced to spend time with someone outside of his family,” says Coster-Waldau. “After he meets someone who’s so honorable, just and trustworthy, it does remind him of himself.”

Besides the horrific scene of Jaime losing his hand, Coster-Waldau also got to play a crowning moment in Jaime’s story this season, in which he confesses to Brienne the true story of how he earned his “Kingslayer” title.

The story is complicated, but suffice to say that Jaime killed the king he had sworn to serve because that king had gone insane and was about to commit mass genocide. While that may have been a noble act, from that day on everyone thought Jaime did it solely to claim power for his own power-hungry family. “It was the right thing to do, but he’s been vilified for it,” says Coster-Waldau.

While it’s been a tough season for Jaime Lannister, it’s been a great one for Coster-Waldau as far as drama is concerned: “I was always hoping the show would make it that far,” he says. “I knew that confession scene would come up and that it would be a high point of the season.”

The lesson of Jaime Lannister is “don’t judge a book by its cover,” he says. “That’s what’s so interesting about any of the characters in this show really. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens further down the road with some of the characters who you currently think are the good guys. People in this show change.”

For example, a reunion with Cersei is in his immediate future, and “Jaime’s a different man now,” says Coster-Waldau.

And as we’ve seen — with the beheading of Ned Stark in Season 1, the death of Renly Baratheon in Season 2, and the loss of Jaime’s hand this season — no character, no matter how major, is safe on “Game of Thrones.”

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