Whether or not Jaime Lannister is going back to King’s Landing to protect or kill Cersei, it’s highly likely that these two will share their last moments together. Jaime and Cersei’s actions over the past 8 seasons of Game of Thrones have led them to where they are now. If Jaime hadn’t pushed Bran out the window after the boy caught Jaime and Cersei having sex, the world of Westeros would look very different than it does right now.
Despite the incest, Cersei and Jaime have only ever loved each other. Jaime loves his family, including Tyrion, but his connection to Cersei goes beyond familial love. Jaime has stood by Cersei’s side and has never regretted the choices he made for her. Jaime has done terrible things for Cersei — all in the name of love. In the third episode of the series, Jaime vowed to kill everyone who stood in their way “until you and I are the only people left in this world.” When he left for King’s Landing in the fourth episode of the final season, he told Brienne: “I once pushed a boy out of a window and crippled him for life because of Cersei. I strangled my cousin with my own bare hands because of Cersei. I would murder every woman and child for her. She’s hateful, and so am I.”
At the end of the day, it’s only ever been Jaime and Cersei for Jaime and Cersei. “Jaime and I are more than brother and sister. We shared a womb, came into this world together. We belong together,” Cersei told Ned Stark in the first season. Jaime and Cersei deserve each other. They also deserve to die together.
Even though Jaime has gone through an incredible redemption arc since the first season, his love for Cersei has never wavered. He didn’t bend the knee to Daenerys when he went North. He only pledged to fight for the living. When Daenerys and Sansa called out his past crimes, Jaime said, “Everything I did, I did for my house and my family. I’d do it all again.” That’s when Bran echoed what Jaime had said to Cersei before pushing Bran out the window: “The things we do for love.” Everything always comes back to Cersei for Jaime. He may have a connection to Brienne, one that would serve him better, but his love for Cersei is burned into his soul.
Regardless of what Jaime’s intentions are in returning to King’s Landing, he just can’t leave his sister alone, which will be his downfall. Olenna Tyrell told him so before she died. “She’ll be the end of you,” Olenna told Jaime. If he kills Cersei, he could very likely die at the hands of The Mountain or Daenerys. If he goes to stand by her, Daenerys or Arya won’t hesitate in killing them both. Jaime and Cersei haven’t shared a scene yet in the final season, and there’s just no way the show isn’t going to let these two have a final conversation. Everything in the first season has come full circle in these final episodes, and Cersei and Jaime’s arc will, too. They will be the end of each other.
“I cannot die while Cersei lives, he told himself. We will die together as we were born together,” George R.R. Martin wrote during Jaime’s chapter in A Storm of Swords, Jaime says. In A Feast For Crows, Cersei says: “We will leave this world together, as we once came into it.” For these sibling lovers, their fates are intertwined, as they always have been. So prepare yourselves now for these two characters to go out together as the battle for the Iron Throne rages on. Game of Thrones season 8 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.