We Are The Vengeance

YOU WIN OR YOU DIE

RIVERLANDS

Jaime is wearing a full set of Lannister armor, is reading a letter to his father, Tywin, who is preparing to skin a dead stag.

Jaime: [reading] "- summoned to court to answer for the crimes of your bannerman Gregor Clegane, the Mountain." Uh, "arrive within the fortnight or be branded an enemy of the Crown." Poor Rickard Grimes. Brave man, terrible judgment.

Tywin: Attacking them was stupid.

He begins skinning the stag.

Tywin:: Lannisters don't act like fools.

He cuts open the belly of the stag and removes its intestines. Jaime looks as though he is about to protest.

Tywin: Are you gonna say something clever? Go on, say something clever.

Jaime: Catelyn Stark took my brother.

Tywin: Why is he still alive?

Jaime: Tyrion?

Tywin: Ned Stark.

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

Tywin: Why is he still alive?

Jaime: It wouldn't have been clean.

Tywin: Clean. You spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you.

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

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

Jaime: [annoyed] It's the truth.

Tywin: When you hear them whispering "Kingslayer who spawned a bastard" behind your back, doesn't it bother you?

Jaime: It does not bother me. I had my reasons for killing the Mad King.

Tywin: The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.

Jaime looks away, frustrated.

Tywin: 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: [surprised] I didn't realize you placed such a high value on my brother's life.

Tywin: He's a Lannister. He might be the lowest of the Lannisters, but he's one of us. And every day that he remains a prisoner, the less our name commands respect. Your daughter may be a bastard but she has Lannister blood flowing in her veins. Simon may be weak but he too is also a Lannister.

Jaime: Simon is far from weak and I know what my daughter is but she is still my daughter.

Tywin: If another House can seize one of our own and hold him captive with impunity, we are no longer a House to be feared.

They stare each other down briefly, understanding each other. After a few seconds, Tywin resumes skinning the stag.

Tywin: Your mother's dead. Before long, I'll be dead. And you, and your brothers, your bastard, and your sister and all of her children. All of us dead, all of us rotting in the ground. 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 gently. Tywin looks skeptical.

Tywin: Hmmm...

He grabs a nearby rag to clean the blood off his hands.

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