The connecting record
shownGame of Thrones
Jaime Lannister killed Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones.
Series only. Cersei wanted it done slowly and at length; he argued her down to a cup and carried it up to Highgarden himself, which is how the confession about Joffrey ends up spoken to him and not to anybody who could act on it.
What each of them is ranked on
The killer · Jaime Lannister · rank 4
the Kingslayer
At fifteen he was knighted in the field by Arthur Dayne and given a white cloak the same year, and the White Book records the two facts in consecutive sentences. The rank is taken from the years between that and the night Zollo took the sword hand off. Before it: three riders put down at the Hand's tourney, the third of them the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, who had spent the previous rounds beating two men born thirty and forty years after him; Eddard Stark's guard cut apart around him in a King's Landing street; three named northmen killed while trying to reach Robb Stark through an entire army. After it: Addam Marbrand beats him without difficulty in a practice yard, and he switches to training at night with a man who cannot describe it. Every one of those states is listed above. The number is argued from the earliest, and the story spends most of its length in the last.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 67 (Jaime VIII)
The White Book records him knighted in his fifteenth year by Ser Arthur Dayne for valour in the field, and chosen for the Kingsguard in the same year.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 44 (Jaime VI)
Raised to the Kingsguard by Gerold Hightower at Harrenhal in 281 AC, the youngest knight ever taken into the order.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 11 (Jaime II)
Won his first tourney melee at thirteen, while still a squire to Lord Sumner Crakehall.
All 15 citations
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 11 (Jaime II)
Reckons only a handful of men in the Seven Kingdoms stronger than he is, and that his speed and skill answer them.
statedA Feast for Crows · ch. 8 (Jaime I)
At the knighting, Arthur Dayne's light tap with Dawn cut through to the shoulder, and he told the boy that all knights must bleed.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 29 (Sansa II)
Puts down Andar Royce, Bryce Caron and then Barristan Selmy in the Hand's tourney.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 30 (Eddard VII)
Unhorsed by Sandor Clegane later in the same tourney.
shownA Game of Thrones · ch. 35 (Eddard IX)
Leads Lannister men against Eddard Stark and his guard in the street outside Chataya's brothel; Jory Cassel, Heward and Wyl are killed there.
statedA Game of Thrones · ch. 63 (Catelyn X)
Killed Daryn Hornwood and both of Rickard Karstark's sons cutting toward Robb Stark in the Whispering Wood before he was taken alive.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 21 (Jaime III)
Takes the dead Cleos Frey's sword on the road and fights Brienne of Tarth, months in irons and half starved, until the Brave Companions ride up on the pair of them.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 21 (Jaime III)
Vargo Hoat has Zollo take off his sword hand to put the blame for it on Roose Bolton.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 72 (Jaime IX)
Beaten easily by Ser Addam Marbrand in a left-handed sparring session, he settles on the tongueless Ilyn Payne for practice instead.
shownA Feast for Crows · ch. 27 (Jaime III)
Has an armourer make a hand of gold with mother-of-pearl nails to strap to the stump, sturdy enough to buckle a shield to.
shownGame of Thrones · S03E02 “Dark Wings, Dark Words”
Fights Brienne of Tarth on a bridge with his wrists still manacled after a year in a cell, comes close several times, and is worn down.
shownGame of Thrones · S03E03 “Walk of Punishment”
Held over a tree stump by Locke's men and relieved of his sword hand with a carving knife.
The victim · Olenna Tyrell · off the scale
the Queen of Thorns
The strangler that killed Joffrey Baratheon at his own wedding was reportedly lifted out of Sansa Stark's hairnet by an old woman straightening it for her, in front of the whole court, and no chapter ever shows the hand doing it. Baelish says she did it; the television series has her say it herself, over a cup she has just been handed. By then Highgarden has fallen in one afternoon and she is sitting alone in a study with a Lannister army in the yard. She is off the scale because the only thing she has ever needed to be within arm's reach of is a girl's hair.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 68 (Sansa VI)
Baelish tells Sansa that Olenna took the black amethyst from her hairnet while straightening it at the wedding.
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 68 (Sansa VI)
Baelish calls her a fearsome old harridan and not near as frail as she pretends.
shownA Storm of Swords · ch. 60 (Tyrion VIII)
At Joffrey's wedding she walks with a cane and smiles toothlessly.
All 6 citations
statedA Storm of Swords · ch. 6 (Sansa I)
Claims to be near deaf when she first has Sansa Stark to supper.
shownGame of Thrones · S07E03 “The Queen's Justice”
Highgarden falls in a single swift battle and Jaime Lannister finds her sitting alone in her study; she drinks the poisoned wine he pours.
statedGame of Thrones · S07E03 “The Queen's Justice”
Tells Jaime she killed Joffrey with the strangler, had never seen it work before, and wants Cersei told it was her.
What this does not settle
One death in one work. It is the only place the record puts these two in the same room, and it is evidence about that meeting and nothing wider — not a general matchup, not a rematch, and not a ranking of its own.
The ladder above it is argued from everything either of them has been shown doing; this page is argued from one citation.
Where the two disagree, the disagreement is the point, and it stays visible rather than being resolved by whichever of them happens to be on this page.