#sidenote i HC any other kids Tywin+SecondWife might have arent as emotionally strong as the oldest son so he protects them a lot

[a-libra-writes]

I read your post about Tyrion's trial and Tywin's second wife's reaction towards it. I really enjoyed reading the part about Tyrion's feelings towards Tywin's second wife and her children and I was wondering if you could do a separate post including Cersei and Jaime and their thoughts and feelings on the second wife and the children she has with Tywin? If you wanted you could also include Tyrion again if you have anything you want to expand on about his feelings.

me whenever yall ask me for my long-winded opinions

so!! no surprise I have many thoughts on this dynamic and I rlly wanted to explore it in that fic, or some other one, but agh I was having hard time putting it together. So Im glad I can just dump my thoughts here. Let’s do Jaime first because Cersei’s opinions are exactly what you’d expect lol.

Initially, Jaime just goes with what people want of him. Doing it for love, and all that. He gave up being the heir to Casterly Rock because his sister - his love - asked it of him. He believed that was worth it. And by the time he’s an adult, when he’s well into the Kingsguard, after his roadtrip from hell and opening his eyes to what his sister truly is ... He still doesn’t want it. 

Jaime was raised to be the Perfect Heir. The Lannister Son, Tywin Lannister’s oldest. Handsome, excellent with the sword, amiable, a powerful family. Still... it wasn’t what he truly wanted. Jaime said it himself; he’s only truly alive when he’s “holding a sword or making love”. And let’s be real, he’s pretty aloof to things that aren’t immediately important to him. By the time the second wife comes on the scene, he’s the Kingslayer, he’s a Kingsguard, and he’s sleeping with his sister. As far as he’s concerned, she’s not his business.

However, he’s very curious about his father remarrying in the first place. The news is everywhere in the Red Keep. Tywin Lannister remarrying - presumably for an heir, because why else - and that means ... Jaime immediately thinks of Tyrion when he hears the news. He thinks of how hurt his brother must feel, how angry. Jaime spends several days in a dark mood, wondering what things would have been like if... maybe if Tyrion had been born differently. Maybe if their mother lived. But he realizes that’s pointless thinking.

He doesn’t attend the wedding, because Cersei refuses to. It’s a mild scandal, the Queen not attending her father’s second marriage, but Robert doesn’t go either and the drama is blown over through Tywin’s sheer force of intimidation + I HC that "second wives" and any wife after that aren't treated the best, especially after the husband has already had grown children. Jaime doesn’t see her for a long while. It’s when she comes to the Red Keep, when he and Cersei are forced to meet her. And...

He’s not sure what he expected. Jaime is underwhelmed. She’s pretty, naturally. That was expected. She’s dressed in Lannister colors, she’s amiable and charms most people she meets. She’s clearly intelligent. She’s so ... so good. And she isn't afraid of his father. It’s strange, Jaime thinks. What a strange choice his father made, but he doesn’t want to think of it. He doesn’t want to care, but Cersei does, and he anticipates she’ll only become more irate.

I feel like Jaime purposefully makes distance between himself and his stepmother for many reasons - His own tendency to keep others away because he assumes they’re assuming the worst of him, Cersei’s hatred of the woman, guilt toward Tyrion, apprehension to his father’s intentions, and so on. There’s something almost disturbing about the way his father listens to her, especially later in their relationship - the way he takes her counsel, sits close to her, touches her hand in front of everyone, and so on. Jaime doesn’t remember much of his mother; he knew his father loved her, but... seeing his cold, ruthless father being so careful and considerate is just unsettling. He doesn’t want to linger for too long. 

The second wife would no doubt try to speak to him, try to be friendly. It’s difficult. Jaime feels like something is off with her.

When she shows what she’s capable of, when he sees that iron hand under the silk glove, it clicks into place. That’s why his father chose her. 

I think she and Jaime wouldn’t truly connect until well after he’s lost his hand, when he’s still somewhat doing Cersei’s bidding, when he and his sister against his stepmother, Ser Kevan and his half-brother. Jaime can’t even call the boy that, or any other children the second wife might have. When he looks into them, he sees his father, but also his step-mother. 

He thinks the boy will make a good Lord of Casterly Rock. Like Tyrion, he hopes the boy will have more of his mother than this father, but he doesn’t get his hopes up.

Time for Cersei. Oh, Cersei.

It’s easy to write that she’s jealous and angry, because, yes. Duh. But it’s a lot deeper than that. Like her brothers, she’s suffered under Tywin’s “parenting”. And unlike her brothers, she remembers her mother. She’s been through trauma guys, especially in the books where you can clearly read her thoughts, memories and delusions. Joffrey got that cruelty from somewhere. Cersei got it from somewhere.

When she hears the news, she nearly cuts the tongue of the messenger. Her father, remarrying? To who? What woman could possibly measure up to her mother, who they said was just as capable as her father, if not moreso? She’s disgusted by it. She blames Jaime, even though she’s the one who convinced him to take the white cloak. She curses Tyrion, as if he could have stopped it by being “better”. And most of all, she curses her father, for not considering her as the rightful heir. Because this is the only reason this marriage is taking place - Casterly Rock needs a “proper” heir.

She’s right about that, of course. That was Tywin’s reason for remarrying. The first time she meets her “stepmother” (oh gods does she refuse to use that word) it’s months after the wedding. Maybe almost a year. Honestly, Tywin doesn’t care about her absence; it makes things easier. By then the second wife might even be pregnant, though not visibly so, and that’s a minefield in and of itself.

Cersei hates the second wife immediately. There’s no way that wouldn’t happen. Everything about her is a fault, no matter what she does. It wouldn’t matter if she was the only daughter of the wealthiest or oldest house in Westeros, it wouldn’t matter if she was a Targaryen with a dragon. When speaking to Jaime and Tyrion, Cersei uses “that whore” to refer to the second wife.

Listen, Cersei has a lot of internal misogyny. I mean, Westerosi culture just does that. What makes it worse is the genuine hurt of her father “moving on”. The fact her brothers don’t seem to remember as much of Joanna as she does. Then there’s the jealousy - she should be the one her father is consulting with. Is she not just as cunning as a man, just as ruthless, as capable of getting done what needs to be done? Is her husband not a useless oaf who couldn’t politic his way out of anything, besides maybe a brothel?

 Cersei is convinced her father looks down on her because she’s a woman. Tywin doesn’t take her seriously because she’s rash, temperamental, prideful, cruel... ... ... I wonder how she ended up that way 🙄

Her anger, jealousy and hurt only worsens when the stepmother gives birth to a son. Oh, it would have been so good for the bitch to die in childbed, to give birth to a daughter - better, an ugly, deformed daughter that would kill her on the way out. No, it just had to be a healthy son. It’s a son she watches her father hold - even if it’s briefly - when he still refused to hold Joffrey. A son her father looks at approvingly, a son who will soon learn swords and politics so he can take what’s her’s.

It makes her physically sick.

It’s no secret to Jaime and Tyrion that she wants the boy dead. The second wife doesn’t trust her worth a damn, but she doesn’t voice her concerns to Tywin. He doesn’t think Cersei is stupid or rash enough to do such a thing. And in a way, he’s almost right - one evening when she’s visiting Casterly Rock, she angrily storms into his office, telling him he’s ruining the family. The boy is too young, he’s probably not even a Lannister, he must be a bastard - even Tyrion would be better -

Tywin gives her such a fearsome response, she feels herself turning small and powerless in an instant. She leaves his office, fighting her tears, feeling like a helpless girl again. She hates it. It takes all of her willpower not to go to the boy’s room and smother him right there. If her stepmother crossed her path then, Cersei truly believes she’d do something drastic.

It’s difficult for Cersei to think of the second wife with any objective thought. Doubly so for the son, who she can’t even call brother without acid coming up in her throat. In her greatest delusions, she dreams of killing the boy and taking the Rock from him. It isn't his birthright, it's her's, she's the oldest... Westerosi inheritance laws be damned.

I’ve discussed Tyrion’s feelings in that previous ask and in this fic. Gods, it would be such a whirlwind of emotions for the poor guy - his self-destruction and bitterness might be accelerated, but there might be something freeing in his father just outright finally disowning him and moving on. ... ....  Yeah, nevermind. It just turns to more hatred. He and his stepmother have a really ... complex relationship where they both know what makes it difficult and unfair, they both know Tywin is the cause of this hurt, yet they continue to be good to each other. Sometimes it hurts Tyrion to be that way, so he has to distance himself from her for a while.

It’s the same way when he deals with his half-brother. Tyrion isn’t sure if his younger brother’s affection and admiration makes him want to smile or cry.

I imagine the son as intelligent, capable, a good swordsman in spite of his young age and well on his way to becoming a knight. I feel he’s more observant of adults than people think, he’s more on the quiet side, he has those eyes that are so eerily similar to Tywin’s, and that same nose. I think by a certain age, he’s very, very aware of what his half-siblings think of him. And as he gets older, he becomes increasingly aware of what sort of man his father is. 

I think he really, really misses Tyrion. Missing his father, after how Tywin died, well ... it’s complicated. At least he has his mother and Uncle Kevan, and maybe Jaime. 

#libra headcanons #libra says #hope this all kinda makes sense and flows aight haha #god damn these lannisters dude #the only family with worse family dynamics is the greyjoys and thats debatable #sidenote i HC any other kids Tywin+SecondWife might have arent as emotionally strong as the oldest son so he protects them a lot #both from tywin and cersei and anyone else #tywin lannister x reader