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  ===Description===
  In ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996), Jaime is introduced as one of the Kingsguard, the royal security detail, and the son of the wealthy and powerful Tywin Lannister, the former Hand of the King. Jaime's twin is Cersei, the Queen of Westeros by virtue of her marriage to King Robert Baratheon. Perhaps the greatest swordsman in the kingdom, Jaime is derisively referred to as "the Kingslayer" because he killed the "Mad King" Aerys Targaryen in the coup that put Robert on the Iron Throne.
  Eric Dodds of ''TIME'' described Jaime as "handsome, an incomparably skilled fighter and disarmingly witty". ''The New Yorker'' called the Lannisters "a crowd of high-cheekboned beauties ... who form a family constellation so twisted, charismatic, and cruel that it rivals ''Flowers in the Attic'' for blond dysfunction". Lev Grossman wrote for ''TIME'' that while Jaime and Cersei's younger brother Tyrion is a grotesque dwarf, "the rest of the Lannisters are stunted too, but on the inside." The ''Los Angeles Times'' called Jaime "handsome and unscrupulous", though Dodds noted in 2014:
  Jaime loses his sword hand in ''A Storm of Swords'', the third book in the series. He is depicted as having a prosthetic at times thereafter and learns to fight with his non-dominant hand.