During last week's episode "The Spoils of War," Bronn saved Jaime Lannister from a certain flaming death, by plunging him into the water. The last few seconds of the episode hung with Jaime sinking towards the bottom. Is this the end for Jaime Lannister? Did he trade a fiery death for a watery one? One fan donned a suit of armor in a swimming pool to answer the question: Could Jaime possibly even clamor towards the surface with his golden Lannister armor? Spoiler: outlook not so good.
A filmmaker named Michael Bergstrom tested this theory a few years ago in a Vimeo video that addresses this very topic. He suits himself up in plated armor that isn't too dissimilar from Jaime's getup. At a depth of just five feet, he finds it nearly impossible to swim a normal breaststroke. He can't even float on his back. The armor is just too heavy for human muscles to compensate for the extra weight. After all, if Jack's weight would sink the door, Jaime's armor definitely sinks him way down.
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Swimming Test from Michael K. Bergstrom on Vimeo.
Who knows though, maybe he made it out of the water? The water doesn't seem like it was all that deep — Jaime's horse charged across the river shore with total ease towards Drogon. The water is maybe only a foot deep there. Jaime and Bronn plunged into the water only a few yards from the shore, so the water should still be relatively shallow. Jaime could very well swim to safety if he weren't wearing his armor.
However, the Game of Thrones cameras showed him falling into infinity (either literally or figuratively, who knows) so perhaps those waters were deeper than we could see?
Scientific theories aren't exactly at the forefront of the Game of Thrones world, considering that it is a show that features giant dragons born from stone eggs thanks to a magic spell. So maybe the rules of the real world won't apply here and Jamie will survive. Unfortunately for Cersei's heart, since he's weighed down, Jaime is a goner if Westeros follows normal laws of physics.
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