Game of Thrones (TV Series)

You Win or You Die (2011)

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: Jaime Lannister

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Quotes 

• [at the Lannisters' army camp, Jaime enters the tent where his father is. Tywin is busy sharpening a knife, his back turned to his son. The carcass of a dead stag is on the table. Jaime reads aloud the royal decree which declares Gregor Clegane as an outlaw] 

  Jaime Lannister : Poor Ned Stark. Brave man, terrible judgement.

  Tywin Lannister : Attacking him was stupid.

  [Tywin starts butchering the stag] 

  Tywin Lannister : Lannisters don't act like fools.

  [Tywin pulls out the entrails of the stag and dumps them into a bucket. Jaime opens his mouth, but Tywin interrupts before his son can speak] 

  Tywin Lannister : [wipes his hands]  You're gonna say something clever? Go on, say something clever.

  Jaime Lannister : Catelyn Stark took my brother.

  Tywin Lannister : [continues butchering the stag]  Why is he still alive?

  Jaime Lannister : Tyrion?

  Tywin Lannister : Ned Stark.

  Jaime Lannister : One of our men interfered, speared him through the leg before I could finish him.

  Tywin Lannister : Why is he still alive?

  Jaime Lannister : It wouldn't have been clean.

  Tywin Lannister : [sneers]  Clean? You spend too much time worrying what other people think of you.

  Jaime Lannister : I could care less what anyone thinks of me.

  Tywin Lannister : That's what you want people to think of you.

  Jaime Lannister : It's the truth.

  Tywin Lannister : When you hear them whispering "Kingslayer" behind your back, doesn't it bother you?

  Jaime Lannister : [reluctantly]  Of *course* it bothers me.

  Tywin Lannister : A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.

  [Jaime does not answer. Tywin continues slaughtering the stag] 

  Tywin Lannister : I suppose I should be grateful that your vanity got in the way of your recklessness. I'm giving you half of our forces. 30,000 men. You will bring them to Catelyn Stark's girlhood home, and remind her that Lannisters pay their debts.

  Jaime Lannister : [slightly surprised]  I didn't realize you place such a high value on my brother's life.

  Tywin Lannister : [snickers]  He's a Lannister! Maybe the lowest of the Lannisters, but he's one of us. And everyday that he remains a prisoner, the less our name commands respect.

  Jaime Lannister : So the lion does concern himself with the opinions...

  Tywin Lannister : [interrupts Jaime impatiently]  No, that's not an opinion, it's a fact! If another house can seize one of our own... and hold him captive with impunity, we are no longer a house to be feared.

  [Jaime nods silently. Tywin continues carving the stag] 

  Tywin Lannister : Your mother's dead. Before long I'll be dead, and you... and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us rotting underground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor... but family. Do you understand?

  [Jaime nods quietly. Tywin thrusts the knife at the table and wipes his hands clean with a cloth] 

  Tywin Lannister : Hmm. You're blessed with abilities that few men possess. You're blessed to belong to the most powerful family in the kingdoms. And you're still blessed with youth. And what have you done with these blessings, huh? You served as a glorified bodyguard for two kings... one a mad man, the other a drunk.

  [Tywin approaches Jaime] 

  Tywin Lannister : The future of our family will be determined in these next few months. We could establish a dynasty that would last a thousand years... or we could collapse into nothing, as the Targaryens did.

  [Tywin places his palm on Jaime's right cheek and looks at his closely in the eyes] 

  Tywin Lannister : I need you to become a man you're always meant to be. Not next year, not tomorrow... now...!

  [Tywin turns away from his son, picks up the knife and continues butchering the stag. Jaime lingers, then leaves. Tywin looks after him]