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The best moment in the very first episode of Game of Thrones wasn’t the direwolves, or even Ned Stark’s honorable dad energy. It was Jaime Lannister calmly walking across a tower, locking eyes with young Bran Stark, and pushing him straight out the window with a deadpan, “The things I do for love.” That line didn’t just send Bran plummeting. It sent the entire series into motion. From that second, we knew exactly what kind of story we were in for. This wasn’t going to be your average fantasy tale with chosen heroes and neat morals. Nope — this was a world where people protected secrets with blood, love meant lies, and kings fell just as hard as innocent boys.
Jaime and Cersei’s reckless relationship had been a time bomb, and Bran just happened to be in the blast radius. That one push didn’t just paralyze a boy, it tore the Stark and Lannister houses apart. It made Ned dig into Jon Arryn’s death, cracked open the truth about Cersei’s children, and handed the Baratheon brothers the excuse they needed to fight for the throne. Sure, Littlefinger stirred up plenty, but it was Jaime and Cersei who lit the match.
The One-Liner That Haunted The Kingslayer
Fast-forward eight seasons, and that moment came back to haunt Jaime in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Standing trial before Daenerys, Sansa, and Bran, Jaime tried to explain away his past. He had pledged himself to the living. He was doing the right thing now. And Bran — now the all-seeing Three-Eyed Raven- hit him with that quiet, devastating callback: “The things we do for love.”
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