Originally posted by ares834I disagree. Jaime's rape of Cersei happened ten episodes after his maiming and two episodes after his return to Kings Landing. He had just barely decided to continue his pursuit of the Stark girls at Brienne's urging to keep his oath to Cat, and was still in the early stages of his redemption arc.
Jaime raping his sister ruined his entire arc.
There's also the fact that this specific scene was right out of the books where Jaime forced himself on Cersei despite her protests (venue was her main argument against in both). Sure, she ended up enjoying it after, but it was still rape. IMO it's meant to illustrate change. Before, he was the best swordsman in the kingdom. Cersei was enamored with him, he could be as forceful with her as he liked, and she'd join in. Then he came back maimed, was ridiculed by many including his Son/King, father, and sister, rejected by the woman he loved at every advance since his return, and spent his afternoons being beat down by a sellsword he has to practice against using dulled swords like a child.
Book or show, Jaime's entire arc is about his gradual transformation into the storybook honorable knights he idolized like Dayne and Selmy and finding an ending for the blank pages in his Kingsguard entry. It's meant to be a twist on the archetype. Cersei's alienation of him is meant to be part of it (which is something he's a bit more proactive about in the books). In the books, it happens because she cheated on him with tons of dudes and he decides screw her during his siege of Riverrun. She writes for him to come back to her, and he outright rejects her by burning her letter.
In the show, it happens because of the strain on their relationship from the deaths of his children leading up to Tommens death (as a result of her actions, as was his daughters death) and her blowing up the sept with Wildfire (like the Mad King intended to do on a larger scale before Jaime stopped him). He raped her despite her protests but there was an eventual role reversal where she raped him despite his rejection. Then, after she blew up her own subjects and got all his children killed, she went back on her word to fight the White Walkers with Jon and Dany. This cut the potential forces against the WWs in half and potentially dooms the entire realm, so he makes the choice to leave and join Jon/Dany despite her being pregnant with another of his children. This is all done differently because a lot of BookJaimes character progression is through internal dialogue. IMO show Jaime's estrangement from Cersei is fine. It's going slower than the books, and even regresses in some instances (mostly through dialogue; that "I'll kill every Tully if it gets me back to Cersei" line was fkn stupid and poorly written if it wasn't a bluff like the "I'll hurl your newborn at your castle with a trebuchet" line), but it still went in the same direction as the books. He ended up leaving Cersei because she ordered him to abandon his vow to fight the White Walkers. It's the exact same choice he made with the Mad King. Follow the Kings/Queens orders as Kingsguard/Queensguard to the detriment of (hundreds of) thousands, or uphold his vows to protect the realm. He chose the latter again which was meant to be a big turning point for the character. Him pulling a black glove over his golden hand as he abandoned Kings Landing was also pretty heavy handed symbolism. Their inevitable separation went a lot slower, but Jaime's arc is about more than just their estrangement. He still has the best character arc in the show.