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This Pure Evil was Headlined on September 2022. | ||
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Everyone is mine to torment. | „ |
| ~ Joffrey Baratheon to his uncle Tyrion Lannister. |
| “ | The King can do as he likes! | „ |
| ~ Joffrey justifying his atrocities to Tyrion as he humiliates Sansa Stark. |
King Joffrey I Baratheon is one of the main antagonists of the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.
He is the eldest legal son and heir of King Robert I Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister. He is the older brother of Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen. He's very proud of being Robert's son and always tried to be like him, while also trying to get his attention. He is proud of being Robert's son to the point of trying to be like him and gain his attention in the process. However, unknown to him and his siblings, his real biological father is actually the queen's brother, Ser Jaime Lannister - thus meaning that Joffrey is not only a bastard, but also a product of incest.
Soon enough he became a sadistic and cruel tyrant who loved to torture and kill innocent people, so much so that Joffrey has been compared to the Mad King himself on more than one occasion to the extent being referred to as "Aerys III" by his uncle Tyrion. Although he was the King on the Iron Throne, Joffrey actually ruled in name only - being only a pawn of the small council and the powerful nobles of King's Landing.
He was portrayed by Jack Gleeson.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- He is uncaring for his family, even for those who truly care about him, like his mother. He also despises his brother Tommen and has bullied him on multiple occasions.
- He is a heartless, sadistic and cowardly boy who only acts "brave" when he's mercilessly hurting weaker and defenseless targets, while backing away or running away when confronted by strong opponents or real threats, and the only times when he acts tough in front of the latter types are only whenever he's surrounded by his knights and men-at-arms.
- Throughout his life, he displayed open cruelty and violence, especially against his uncle Tyrion and Sansa Stark. When people criticize him, he reacts with rage and threatens violence against them.
- He caused Arya's friend Mycah to die after he tortured him by cutting his face with a sword, and when Arya's direwolf, Nymeria, bit him to save them from Joffrey, when questioned about the incident, he lied, which led to Mycah getting executed by Sandor Clegane on Queen Cersei's orders.
- He is shown grinning when his mother suggested executing Sansa's direwolf, Lady, as punishment for his injury by Arya's despite Lady having nothing to do with what had happened, which his father consented. Joffrey didn't even speak in defense of his own betrothed, his then-future wife Sansa, despite the fact she was in love with him and didn't snitch on him to King Robert, and only presented a satisfied face while she cried and despaired over Lady's fate, showing how he had zero love and sympathy for her.
- He had Eddard Stark's household executed. Although Cersei had already ordered and arranged for this massacre in advance, which did not exclude non-combatant household members who were no threat (such as Septa Mordane and the steward Vayon Poole), Joffrey supported it and felt no sympathy for the victims.
- He also personally ordered the execution of Septa Mordane, who was initially captured alive for being godsworn.
- He had Ned Stark beheaded in front of his daughter Sansa even after Ned confessed his treason and proclaimed him the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms, despite Joffrey promising him he would be spared and allowed to take the black.
- By doing this, he even disrespected the High Septon, his authority, and arguably committed sacrilege, as his mother had promised the High Septon they weren't going to kill Ned at the Great Sept of Baelor, yet Joffrey ignored this arrangement and hastily carried on Ned's execution at the holy sept, knowing it was forbidden and considered evil in his society. He even mocked the requests of Sansa and his mother by saying that their requests to give Ned mercy was them having "the soft hearts of women", showing how sexist he is.
- After having a singer arrested for writing and playing a mocking song about his legal father Robert I Baratheon, he forced said singer to choose between having his fingers or his tongue removed. Although this punishment is common standard against offenders in this universe, this seems excessive over a song (though the offensive contents of this song are unknown in the books).
- However, in the novels Joffrey gave this sentence in a more formal manner, in his attempt to act like a king, and gave the singer (who's not Marillion, who stayed in the Eyrie) a few days of time to think about the choice, instead of carrying on the mutilation immediately and in front of the court, like he did in the TV show.
- He forced Sansa to look at the heads of her father and her septa.
- He then promised Sansa to bring the head of her brother Robb as a "present" for a future event (like her name day or their own wedding). When she stood up to him by saying that maybe Robb will give her Joffrey's head instead, he ordered Ser Meryn Trant to slap her face with his armored hand twice. He even goes as far as to forbid Sansa to mourn them openly.
- When Ser Dontos Hollard arrived drunk on his name day tourney, he ordered Ser Meryn Trant to drown him with wine. Even when he ultimately spared Dontos at Sansa's request, he still stripped him of his knighthood and forcibly named him a court fool.
- He frequently abused Sansa both for his own sadistic glee.
- The most notable episode of this, is when he ordered Ser Boros Blount and Ser Meryn Trant (just Meryn in the TV show) to strip her naked (barely in the show, while in the books she's fully exposed naked) and brutally beat her with mailed fists in front of the court audience, as punishment for Robb's victory in the Battle of Oxcross and for the death of Ser Stafford Lannister, punishing Sansa for deeds committed by her brother and by Lord Rickard Karstark (who killed Stafford). He would've gone further with the beating, had Tyrion not intervened to stop it.
- He ordered Sandor Clegane and his knights to kill a mob of starving smallfolk Kingslanders, just because he couldn't identify one of them, who threw cow dung at him.
- This order caused the mob to rage in terror, hatred, and mass hysteria, leading to the bread riots in King's Landing and many deaths and rapes, including the murder of the High Septon.
- When Sansa was lost in the riot, he dismissively let the rioters have her and refused to send any of his Kingsguards back to find her, despite the fact that her death might have resulted in his uncle (and real father) Jaime being killed by the Starks in retaliation.
- This order caused the mob to rage in terror, hatred, and mass hysteria, leading to the bread riots in King's Landing and many deaths and rapes, including the murder of the High Septon.
- During the Battle of the Blackwater, he possibly ordered his Kingsguard knight Ser Mandon Moore to assassinate Tyrion out of spite. However, this is just a possibility and the reason why Ser Mandon attacked Tyrion remains unconfirmed.
- He retreated from the Battle of the Blackwater to the Red Keep as soon as he realized his side was losing, rather than staying with his troops to defend King's Landing from Stannis Baratheon and his army.
- He threatened to rape Sansa during her wedding with his uncle.
- Following the Red Wedding, he was gleeful and delighted in telling Tyrion that both Robb and Catalyn died. Joffrey then planned to have Lord Walder Frey deliver him Robb's head so he could serve it to Sansa at his wedding feast to further torment her, an idea which shocked his small council to disgust, who had to remind him that Sansa became his aunt-in-law.
- He used his Valyrian steel sword, Widow's Wail, to destroy Lives of Four Kings, a history book he received as a wedding gift from his uncle, Tyrion. There were only four copies remaining in Westeros that are written by its author's hand, which are respected and admired by the nobility. However, after Oberyn and Pycelle pointed this out, Joffrey showed indifference at having destroyed one of the four original copies, and instead only demanded a better present from Tyrion and Sansa.
- During his wedding feast, he dedicated a play and joust to antagonize Tyrion in a reenactment of the War of the Five Kings, with all the performers being dwarfs to mock Tyrion (in the novels, the dwarf siblings Oppo and Penny are "casted" to play Stannis and Robb).
- Always during his wedding feast, he humiliated his uncle Tyrion after the dwarf joust was done, pouring wine on his uncle's head after he refused to join the dwarfs' reenactment, and finally appointing him to be his cupbearer.
Exclusive to the books[]
In General[]
- He abused animals, including opening a pregnant cat's belly just to see her kittens and show them to his "father" Robert, who instead reacted in horror and rage, hitting him hard in the face and knocking him out. He also expressed joy when Sandor Clegane suggested killing Bran's direwolf for its howling following Bran's crippling, only not doing so because Tyrion intervened.
- In addition to frequently bullying his younger brother Tommen, he also regularly bullied the sickly and physically fragile Robert Arryn, calling him cruel names and once slapping him with a wooden sword.
- He was so vile that his own biological father Jaime refused to recognize him as his son after his death.
- Tyrion believes that had Joffrey lived to adulthood, he might have become a king worse than Aerys II Targaryen.
A Game of Thrones[]
- It is believed by Tyrion and Jaime that he hired an assassin to kill Bran Stark. After hearing Robert comment it would be more merciful for the boy to be killed, rather than leaving him comatose or with the prospect of becoming a cripple.
- This would make Joffrey indirectly responsible for the tensions between the Lannisters, Starks, and Tullys resulting from the assassination attempt, leading to Catelyn Stark abducting Tyrion Lannister and the latter's father Tywin retaliating against the Tullys by raiding the Riverlands, thus initiating the War of the Five Kings.
- After Barristan taunted him while being dismissed in disgrace by the Kingsguard, and suggested that Stannis Baratheon will sit on the Iron Throne, he ordered Janos Slynt to kill him for suspected treason, though he failed.
- He displayed twisted and sadistic notions about law and justice. For example, when two petitioners came at court to put forth a dispute over land, Joffrey simply "solved" the matter by having the two fight in single combat to death, granting the land to the winner.
A Clash of Kings[]
- He randomly shot a cat of the Red Keep with his crossbow, causing it to die a few moments later.
- He (although unintentionally) caused the bread riots in King's Landing, first by offering money to a mob of smallfolk to find whoever threw cow dung at him, leading to the masses accusing each other for the reward. Then, after losing patience, he ordered the Hound to cut his way through the starving and malcontent mob of smallfolk to find the culprit, leading to the mob hysteria and violence. Joffrey's cruelty led to the riots and ultimately caused a lot of murders, injuries, fires and criminal activities.
- Notable results of the riots include the deaths of the High Septon, the Kingsguard Ser Preston Greenfield, and the Red Keep's master-at-arms Ser Aron Santagar, the gang rape of Lollys Stokeworth, and the disappearance of Joffrey and Cersei's cousin, Tyrek Lannister.
- When several refugees ask for shelter and bread from Joffrey, he shoots them with a crossbow since they treated him as a "baker".
- He cruelly executed a merchant guild of Stannis supporters, rich influential smallfolk called the Antler Men, by tying them to three trebuchets and launching them against Stannis's army during the Battle of the Blackwater, which he did with excitement.
A Storm of Swords[]
- During Sansa's wedding with Tyrion, Joffrey sexually harassed her by groping her breasts.
- After the Red Wedding, Joffrey did not want to show any mercy to the northern lords and riverlords who surrendered after Robb's death, refusing to pardon them and wishing to execute them all. This did not take place thanks to the fact that Joffrey was not of legal age of ruling, and his de-facto regent Tywin instructed him to learn to be merciful in victory, an advice that Joffrey rudely dismissed as weakness.
Exclusive to the TV show[]
In General[]
- While he is shown crying over Robert's deathbed, he specifically says it's because Robert was a "great war hero", not because of who Robert was as a person. He also didn't hesitate to have Robert's best friend, Eddard Stark, executed rather than giving him a merciful punishment for his "treason", in addition to having at least five of Robert's other children killed, just for his own satisfaction and cruelty.
- Although he seemed to have affection for Margaery Tyrell, it is based more on pragmatism, with it being subverted when she was forced to confess for her life when Renly Baratheon was involved.
- During their wedding feast, he mocked her brother Loras and his relationship with Renly by having a dwarf entertainer crudely reenact Renly's death.
- He may have some comedic moments for the fans, but he is taken seriously as a dangerous threat in-universe. In fact, most of them show how truly vile and sadistic he is.
Season 1[]
- He ordered Ser Ilyn Payne to remove Marillion's tongue after he wrote a mocking song about his presumed father Robert I Baratheon.
Season 2[]
- Upon being slapped in the face by his furious mother after he insultingly mentioned how Robert had sex with other women once he grew tired of her, Joffrey threatens to have her executed if she ever does it again.
- After his rival and presumed uncle Stannis Baratheon spread the word of his true parentage across the entire realm, he ordered any bastards of King Robert located in King's Landing to be executed, including the infant Barra, who was killed in front of her mother.
- At least five bastards of Robert were killed on his orders, with two of them being infants (Barra and another unnamed baby).
- He misused prostitutes, forcing Ros to brutally beat up Daisy, while threatening the former with a crossbow. After this was done, he ordered Ros (under the threat of violence) to take Daisy to Tyrion's chambers to show him what he thought of his uncle's gift (Tyrion sent him the prostitutes).
Season 3[]
- He announced that he might ban and execute all homosexuals in the realm, having originally wished to kill his legal uncle Renly earlier on, although Renly himself was not an innocent person, as he was guilty of high treason and was openly waging war against his own "nephew" and planning to kill him in turn.
- When Petyr Baelish gave him the prostitute Ros, Joffrey, to try something "new and daring", used her as a live target after having her tied to his bed and then shooting her multiple times with his crossbow until he killed her.
Season 4[]
- He mocked and showed complete indifference to his uncle/father Jaime's previous fall in captivity, and showed no sympathy over Jaime's loss of his sword hand, instead mocking him for having failed to achieve any notable great deeds throughout his career as a Kingsguard.
- During his own wedding, he tormented his fool Dontos by offering a gold dragon to the person who would knock Dontos' hat off, resulting in Dontos being pelted with objects thrown at him from all directions.
- In the TV show's version, Joffrey's play and "tourney" of the dwarf War of the Five Kings is intended to antagonize Sansa as well, in addition to Tyrion, since it includes a mockery of Robb's death, with the dwarf playing Joffrey performing a sexual act on Robb's "severed head" (a fake direwolf's head mocking Robb's bond with Grey Wind).
- Always in the TV show, this event is far more vulgar and humiliating than in the books, as well as insulting to Joffrey's own family by marriage, House Tyrell, since it mocked his brother-in-law Loras.
- Although his death was horrific, as he choked on his vomit after being poisoned, with his mother being unable to help him, none of this was played for sympathy, and he indeed deserved it for his despicable actions.
- It is claimed by Tommen that Joffrey threatened to kill his cat, Ser Pounce.
Trivia[]
- According to the author George R. R. Martin, Joffrey's death by the strangler in the novels was meant to be played for slight sympathy, with it being more gruesome than its television counterpart, as it has Joffrey clawing at his own throat and tearing at his own skin as he fought for air, while exposing blood and flesh from his neck. However, readers only found Joffrey's death satisfying.
- Other than Cersei, none of Joffrey's family members in-universe felt sympathy for him as well, with Tommen, Jaime, Tywin, Kevan and Tyrion not caring about him and his legal uncle Stannis being only pleased at his fate. Sansa cried for him in the shock and horror of the moment, but later subverted this by thinking he deserved it, after calming down and the horror of the brutal demise wore off. Although Margaery cried a lot at her husband's fate, with her mother Alerie Hightower comforting her and reassuring her, it is unknown how she felt about him later, when things calmed down, and she didn't particularly mourn him, other than showing basic respect for the dead.
- Contrasting Jack Gleeson's kindly and gentlemanly personality, he was reportedly uncomfortable with portraying Joffrey at times, abstaining from swearing during rehearsals.
- He also had a close friendship with Sophie Turner on-set, in contrary to the characters' antagonistic relationship with one another.
- Jack Gleeson stated to Entertainment Weekly that another Pure Evil was the inspiration for his portrayal of Joffrey: Hexxus from FernGully: The Last Rainforest commenting that he inspired him to play Joffrey as an intrinsically evil villain with no speck of good or humanity in his bones.
- In the same interview, Gleeson addressed that while shooting the scene where Joffrey gives Sansa Stark a necklace to "apologize" to her, he was originally going to play the scene in a way that made evident Joffrey didn't actually care for how much he had hurt her, but showrunner D.B. Weiss asked him to try to express real love, as he apparently believed that Joffrey did genuinely love Sansa, in an attempt to give him some moral complexion, but Gleeson still thought that Joffrey's still evil to the core.
- The author of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, has stated in an interview that Joffrey's death was written in such a way as to make the audience feel conflicted about it and to remind them that Joffrey is a 13-year-old boy who is murdered at his own wedding and who in his last moments is desperate for his family's help and would never get the chance to grow up and potentially seek redemption.
- However, this doesn't affect his book version's PE status for being sympathetic or scapegoat, since Word of God is not applicable on whether or not the villain can qualify to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Joffrey Baratheon on the Villains Wiki
- Joffrey Baratheon on the Pathetic Pinhead Wiki
- Joffrey Baratheon on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Joffrey Baratheon on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire
- Joffrey Baratheon on the Wiki of Westeros
- Joffrey Baratheon on the Shonen Villains Wiki
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