Much as Jaime wants to argue in Rhaegar's Valyrian favor, even a poor student of history such as he understands that by the time his prince was poised to inherit the Iron Throne, Aegon the Conquerer's bloodline had been significantly diminished. Although they'd kept up the tradition of intermarrying best they could, their numbers weren't what they once were and they were forced to marry into the Great Houses of Westeros in order to ensure their survival. Rhaegar was a Targaryen, yes, but his great-grandmother had been a Blackwood, his great-great-grandmother a Dayne... The bloodline had been considerably diluted and it was honestly a testament to the strength of their Valyrian ancestry that the Targaryens he knew in his youth were still silver-haired and purple-eyed.

though sometimes those features don't shine through at all cough jon and coughjaimehimselfcoughcough

"He thought in the only way he knew how," he finally settles on in Rhaegar's defense. "With the admiration he had for his House and his heritage, I've no doubt that he would have thought differently had he been able to."

Rhaegar tried, but he also for some unfathomable reason also saw fit to kidnap Lyanna Stark and instigate a war and wound up dead instead of seated on the throne that should've been his.

Jaime won't pretend to understand why he did that, only that the kidnapping and the death of Ned Stark's sister does not line up with anything he knew about the Prince of Dragonstone. It didn't make sense, but he's long given up on trying to wrap his head around that.

What's done is done. History cannot be rewoven, especially not by him.

"She is the most sensible person I've ever met," Jaime declares without hesitation. "Stubborn, yet honorable to a fault. She sets her mind on the impossible and defies expectation by seeing it through. She's far more knightly than I'll ever be."