Do you think the books will end this way as well? I just can’t see how they’d get to this point specifically with Jaime’s character, no matter how much GRRM explains it. Especially leaving Brienne like that, sleeping with her knowing that he’s going to leave her for Cersei immediately afterwards.

Do I think it will end that way for Jaime and Brienne in the books? No.

I think D&D are using GRRM’s plot points without any of his context, and sometimes with the wrong characters, and in the wrong order. 

Brienne and Jaime are hit by four massive deviations:

If I had to guess the Brienne and Jaime plot points that GRRM shared with D&D, they were probably:

How their show story played out:

Game of Thrones overpowered Cersei for far longer than George will. This combined with the elimination of Jaime and Brienne’s post-Dance storyline meant that D&D were left to invent stories for both of them (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they both end up with Sansa), that did not include one another when they should have. 

As a result, Jaime was left to circle Cersei’s orbit, subservient to her storyline, for far longer than he should have. They apparently found it easier to keep him from breaking up with her in order to make that believable, eliminating his discovery of her infidelity and leaving him in a state of arrested development with regard to their relationship that they only visited occasionally (in minor ways) when they needed some drama.

No disagreements between Jaime and Cersei were allowed to be serious enough for him to actually break ties with her. Partly because he was a useful tool in the plot they invented for Cersei once she seized the throne in her own right, and partly because they didn’t have anything else relevant to the plot for him to do. They were clearly just keeping him around for the final fight against the Night King. Brienne meanwhile did eventually find and serve Sansa (book plot point).

So we reach Season 8, and they send Jaime off to battle the Night King (book plot point), decide they may as well finally have him get with Brienne (book plot point), after all they laid the groundwork for their relationship starting in Season 2. Then once that’s all over, Jaime has to get back to KL to die with Cersei, probably because they couldn’t bear to have him valonqar her, if I had to guess. That is most likely a result of their intense fascination with their show version of her character.

How I suspect their book story will play out:

Jaime and Brienne (currently together in the Riverlands or wherever in the books) will play out whatever their Winds+ storyline is, which they definitely both survive. They will then part ways with Jaime returning to deal with Cersei and however many of their kids are still alive, and Brienne doing whatever with Sansa (taking her to Jon? idk). I would not be at all surprised if they start banging before they separate, but who knows.

Jaime “deals” with Cersei–possibly at KL, possibly at Casterly Rock–and probably ends up killing her or causing her death. I believe he outlives her (weirwood stump dream, lights). Jaime, probably with Widow’s Wail in hand, then joins Brienne and everyone else for the final battle in the North (and also has his long awaited Tyrion reunion). I believe Jaime dies in battle against the Others. Brienne lives in the books too, or I eat my hat.

The difference between the book and show Jaime/Brienne relationship:

Brienne and Jaime are written as soulmates in the books. Everything about their arcs is made to fit together like two sides of a zipper. George’s big joke is that it’s Cersei and Jaime who talk and look like soulmates, when it’s actually Brienne and Jaime who in every conceivable way complement one another. 

Jaime and Cersei’s “romance” is a satirical send up like Romeo and Juliet, made to mock the silliest elements of typical melodramatic tragic love. It’s at the center of Jaime’s origin story, but theirs is not the story GRRM is telling in the books. I say again: 

There is a reason Jaime doesn’t need a pov until he meets Brienne.

The imagery in Jaime’s weirwood stump dream of Cersei and her light leaving him while Brienne’s lit sword is the only thing standing between him and death is, to me, as clear as an author can be without flat out stating intended plot points about where ALL of that is headed.

If you think–for one moment–that Jaime and Brienne are not one another’s great loves in the books, you have failed utterly to interpret the narrative. Did GRRM assume that D&D would understand that the plot point of “Jaime and Brienne start banging” meant that they were consummating their soul deep love? Probably. Did D&D totally not pay any real attention to Jaime’s pov ever and probably never do anything but have their interns write summaries for Feast and Dance? Probably. 

They clearly know JB is a love story, but in their minds Cersei is the center of the Westeros universe and it would be inconceivable for Jaime not to feel exactly the same way about her that they do. And hey, Jaime always will love Cersei in a way in the books, but I absolutely do not believe that love will ever EVER be to the exclusion of Brienne. 

If you never really read Jaime’s Feast and Dance chapters, you might not understand exactly how far Jaime has moved on emotionally. I think they heard the plot point “Jaime valonqars Cersei” and just decided, oh tragic love! And I really do think that’s the explanation. Jaime and Brienne’s romance being the big central thing for Jaime’s character did not fit their version of Cersei’s story, and just did not compute with their understanding of his character.

(And never underestimate how much they really may have wanted to stick it to Nikolaj for harassing them for years about when they were finally going to portray Jaime’s real book story and love affair with Brienne. We know George told Gwendoline that Jaime and Brienne were his Beauty and the Beast. I have no doubt GRRM told Nikolaj the same. No wonder he kept playing Jaime toward that ultimate end.)