TL;DR: Jaime Lannister could kill his sister, Cersei Lannister. This would mean that Jaime is the valonqar.
Maggy the Frog prophecied that Cersei would meet her death at the hands of the valonqar - a Valyrian word meaning little brother/sibling. Could it be Jaime, her fraternal twin and younger brother by just a few minutes?
This theory states that Cersei will be killed by Jaime, her brother, her best friend, her lover; the father of her children. It’s a suitably melodramatic end for one of Westeros’s most conniving, scheming, love-to-hate-them schemers. But could it possibly be true?
The old woman was not done with her, however. “Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds,” she said. “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”
-A Feast For Crows, Cersei VIII
Maggy the Frog’s 3 prophecies
Maggy the Frog made three prophecies for a young Cersei:
- That Cersei would be queen
- That Cersei would have three children
- That when Cersei’s children had preceded her to the grave, the valonqar would kill her
What is “Valonqar”?
“Valonqar” is an old Valyrian word meaning little brother (or little sibling, as Valyrian words are genderless). Cersei has two younger brothers, and while she suspects Tyrion will be the one, Jaime is also a likely candidate.
As the A Song of Ice and Fire series progresses, Jaime and Cersei are far from being as close as they were. Cersei, for her part, has taken many lovers since Jaime was captured by the Starks. She no longer seems to care very much about him, especially since he can no longer be mistaken for a male version of her - due to his hardships on the road back to King’s Landing after Catelyn Stark set him free, and losing his hand to the Bloody Mummers.
Jaime, who has heard of Cersei’s sleeping around, has begun to see through her and to realize that she is incapable of ruling and not worthy of his love. The best evidence of this was when Cersei begged Jaime for help in a letter, and when he got the letter, he threw it in the fire.
A snowflake landed on the letter. As it melted, the ink began to blur. Jaime rolled the parchment up again, as tight as one hand would allow, and handed it to Peck. “No,” he said. “Put this in the fire.”
-A Feast for Crows, Jaime VII
Don’t forget the hands
The emphasis on “hands” in the prophecy is also relevant to this theory. Jaime Lannister has very distinctive hands, given that one is a prosthetic made entirely of gold. Reddit user TheDarkLordOfMorder has a wonderful explanation of the theory, hypothesising that the “hands” of the prophecy are the ones on the necklace of the Hand of the King, and that Jaime will use this to strangle Cersei, if he takes up the post of the Hand after the death of Kevan Lannister.
This is also how Tyrion killed is former lover, Shae. Could that be a harbinger of things to come for Cersei?
The valonqar: Jaime, not Tyrion?
Cersei is completely sure that the valonqar is Tyrion. When has anything ever gone right for a character in A Song of Ice and Fire? It’s entirely possible that Jaime is the valonqar.