Joffrey Baratheon
Joffrey Baratheon is a male literary character who features in Game of Thrones.
Contents |
Biography
Joffrey Baratheon was a male human born in Westeros as the son of the incestuous relationship between Jaime Lannister and his sister Cersei Lannister of House Lannister. Afterwards, Cersei came to marry Robert I Baratheon where it was claimed that Joffrey was his child. Joffrey grew up as a spoiled and indulgent child with a cruel streak within him. His father, King Robert I Baratheon, came to be deeply disappointed with his son and feels little affection for Joffrey.
Once after learning a kitchen cat was pregnant, Joffrey killed the animal and cut open its belly to see the kittens inside. He showed one of the unborn kittens to his father. Robert was so shocked and angry he hit Joffrey so hard it knocked out two of his baby teeth.
Prince Joffrey was taken by his parents to Winterfell and is betrothed to Sansa Stark in order to create an alliance between House Baratheon and House Stark. At first, Joffrey is kind and polite to Sansa. However, he refuses to show sympathy with the family when Bran Stark falls from a tower, until physically forced to by his uncle, Tyrion Lannister. While on the Kingsroad to King's Landing, Joffrey and Sansa come across Arya Stark practicing swordplay with a commoner Mycah. Joffrey accuses Mycah of assaulting a noble girl and makes a cut on his face with a sword. This causes Arya to hit Joffrey, allowing Mycah to escape. When Joffrey then turns on Arya, her direwolf Nymeria attacks Joffrey, injuring him. Later, Joffrey lies about the attack, saying it was unprovoked and demands Nymeria to be killed; however, Sansa's direwolf Lady is killed instead. He later had his bodyguard Sandor "The Hound" Clegane hunt down and kill Mycah.
Later, Eddard Stark discovers that Joffrey was not King Robert's biological son and refused to acknowledge Joffrey's claim to the throne when King Robert dies. He is taken into custody. On Sansa's pleas, Eddard issues a false confession of his treason. Joffrey promised Sansa that he would be merciful but then beheads Eddard anyway and later forces Sansa to look upon her father's head.
After taking the Iron Throne as Robert's heir, Joffrey starts his first court session by naming his grandfather, Lord Tywin Lannister, as the new Hand of the King, appointing his mother to the small council and Jaime Lannister as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, and dismissing the legendary knight Barristan Selmy from his service, against all traditions. When Barristan storms out in disgust, making a remark about the ease with which Stannis would take the throne from him, Joffrey orders Barristan seized and questioned, though the old knight escapes. The vacancy on the Kingsguard is filled by Joffrey's sworn shield, Sandor Clegane, the first person to serve on the Kingsguard without having earned knighthood.[28] Further during the court session, Sansa, to whom Joffrey is still betrothed, kneels and begs for him to spare her father Eddard's life, asking that Joffrey to do this for love of her. Joffrey promises Sansa that he will be merciful. However, after Eddard confesses his crimes and declares that Joffrey is the true heir to the Iron Throne, Joffrey's mercy turns out to be Eddard's public beheading by Ser Ilyn Payne before Sansa's eyes at the Great Sept of Baelor. This rash act is against his family's wishes to minimize further bloodshed and restore the king's peace and leads to the intensification of hostilities.
Joffrey continues to mistreat and abuse Sansa, a penalty for each of Robb's victories. Forcing her to look at her father Eddard's severed head is the start of a string of beatings he commands his Kingsguard to abuse her with. He threatens to force her to look on her brother Robb's head when he kills him, as he boasts, in single combat. Joffrey came to fancy himself a warrior, and considered leading the City Watch of King's Landing into the field. Cersei withholds the news of Renly's coronation at Highgarden from Joffrey lest he insist on marching against him.
Stannis Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone and the brother of King Renly and the late King Robert, has his supporters spread the message that Joffrey and his siblings, Prince Tommen and Princess Myrcella, are bastard abominations. Stannis presses his own claim to the Iron Throne. After Renly's death at Storm's End, Stannis hopes to present Robert's bastard, Edric Storm, as proof that Joffrey is illegitimate. Arya Stark, incognito in the riverlands, includes Joffrey in a list of those she wants dead. Ser Arys Oakheart would tell Sansa Stark that smallfolk referred to the red comet as King Joffrey's Comet. During a small tourney held to honor the boy king's name day, Sansa convinces Joffrey to spare the life of the drunken Ser Dontos Hollard, who becomes Joffrey's new fool. While Tywin Lannister is Joffrey's Hand of the King, Tywin is on campaign during the War of the Five Kings. Tyrion Lannister, Tywin's son and Joffrey's uncle, acts as Hand in Tywin's stead.
Joffrey rules with whim and caprice, proving difficult for even his mother to control. Sansa becomes imprisoned to his will, and he frequently has his Kingsguard, with the exception of the Hound, beat her when she displeases him. When he tries to have her stripped, however, he is stopped by Tyrion. Although Joffrey never tries it again, he is determined to eventually have Sansa in his bed whether he marries her or not. Joffrey's cruelty and the decreased quality of life at King's Landing due to food shortages and other hardships make Joffrey an unpopular king, and he is nearly killed in a riot sparked by his temper. Acting as his temporary Hand, only Tyrion stands up to Joffrey's authority, and the king develops a special hatred for his uncle. Tyrion, in return, holds his nephew in contempt, viewing him as a monster.
During the Battle of the Blackwater, Joffrey wears gilded mail and enameled crimson plate, with a golden lion on his helm, and he carries a new blade, Hearteater. The king commands the Three Whores during the battle. When Stannis's men begin to attack the gates of King's Landing, Cersei Lannister has Ser Osmund Kettleblack bring the king to the safety of the Red Keep. Although this leads many of the gold cloaks to abandon their posts and the Hound's fear of wildfire causes him to flee, Stannis is ultimately defeated by the arrival of Lords Tywin and Mace Tyrell. Following the battle, Joffrey rewards many of the survivors in the throne room. The king puts aside his betrothal to Sansa and instead promises to wed Margaery Tyrell, Mace's daughter and the widow of Renly. He was excused from court after cutting his arm on the Iron Throne.
Lord Tywin Lannister becomes Joffrey's Hand of the King, replacing Tyrion. Most of Stannis Baratheon's supporters who survived the Blackwater submit to Joffrey. At Dragonstone, Melisandre burns leeches which have fed on Edric Storm in attempts to kill Kings Joffrey, Balon Greyjoy, and Robb Stark. Sansa Stark informs Olenna Tyrell, Margaery's grandmother, of Joffrey's cruel personality, and the Tyrells plan to wed Sansa to Margaery's brother, Willas Tyrell. Tywin, however, quickly arranges for Sansa to marry Tyrion. King Joffrey gives Sansa away during the wedding ceremony, though he discretely touches her breast while doing so. When Joffrey announces it is time for the bedding custom, Tyrion outrages the king by threatening to geld him in defense of his new wife. Joffrey is delighted when he hears of Robb Stark's death at the Red Wedding and wants his head so he can serve it to Sansa at his own wedding, in addition to wanting to show no mercy to the northern and river lords who surrendered following Robb's death. Tywin instructs Joffrey to be merciful in victory, but then sends the king from his solar in the Tower of the Hand when Joffrey is insulting in response. Before his wedding, Joffrey receives a goldenheart bow from Jalabhar Xho, riding boots from Tanda Stokeworth, a jousting saddle from Kevan Lannister, scorpion brooch from Prince Oberyn Martell, silver spurs from Ser Addam Marbrand, and a tourney pavilion from Mathis Rowan. The king is presented with a model of a war galley by Lord Paxter Redwyne, who says King Joffrey's Valor is being built for him at the Arbor. Tyrion gives Joffrey a rare book, Lives of Four Kings, and Mace gifts him a seven-sided wedding chalice. Tywin gives his grandson a Valyrian steel sword as a wedding present, which Joffrey names Widow's Wail. Joffrey slices Lives of Four Kings with his new sword, demanding a better present from Tyrion and Sansa. Since Joffrey boasts that he is no stranger to the metal, Tyrion thinks that Joffrey is referring to the Valyrian steel dagger given to the assassin at Winterfell, though he is unable to fathom why, attributing it to Joffrey's innate cruelty. Jaime later deduced that Joffrey did it in an attempt to impress his father after overhearing a drunken Robert say it would be kinder to put the crippled Bran Stark out of his misery.
Joffrey's marriage to Margaery was on the first day of 300 AC at the Great Sept of Baelor. During his wedding feast in the Red Keep's throne room, Joffrey pours wine from his new chalice atop Tyrion when his uncle refuses to join the dwarfs reenacting the War of the Five Kings, and the king forces Tyrion to serve as his cupbearer. When Joffrey begins choking after eating pigeon pie and drinking wine, Ser Meryn Trant tries to save him by jamming a spoon down his throat. While the entire court looks on, Joffrey's face turns black as he asphyxiates while tearing at his throat. Joffrey lifts a hand in Tyrion's direction as he dies. Margaery's mother, Alerie Hightower, says that the king choked on his pie, but Cersei accuses Tyrion and Sansa of having poisoned her son. While Tyrion is taken into custody by the Kingsguard, Sansa and Ser Dontos Hollard escape King's Landing and reach a ship in Blackwater Bay. Lord Petyr Baelish takes Sansa aboard the ship and then has Ser Lothor Brune's men kill Dontos. Littlefinger reveals to Sansa that he orchestrated Joffrey's murder with Olenna Tyrell. Due to the color of the amethysts in the unknowing Sansa's net used to poison Joffrey's wine, and the actual color of the wine, the wedding has since been referred to by fans as the Purple Wedding. Joffrey was laid in state in the Red Keep's royal sept in gilded armor, and when Jaime returns to King's Landing he makes love to Cersei in front of the corpse. Joffrey is ultimately laid to rest in the Great Sept of Baelor. Because Joffrey was poisoned, Jaime tasks Ser Boros Blount with tasting all of King Tommen I Baratheon's food and drink. He refuses to recognize Joffrey as his son. During Tyrion's trial for Joffrey's death, witnesses downplay the king's behavior and exaggerate Tyrion's actions. Grand Maester Pycelle accuses Tyrion of having poisoned Joffrey with the strangler. Tyrion demands trial by battle, and he was represented by Oberyn, who seeks vengeance for the death of his sister, Princess Elia of Dorne, who was killed years ago by the crown's representative, Ser Gregor Clegane, during the Sack of King's Landing. The Mountain kills the Red Viper in combat, however, and Tyrion was deemed to be guilty by the gods. Before Tyrion can be executed for Joffrey's death, Jaime frees his brother from the dungeon with the aid of Varys. Angry at Jaime having deceived him about his first wife, Tysha, Tyrion lies and takes responsibility for Joffrey's death. While escaping the Red Keep with Varys, Tyrion killed his father Tywin in the Tower of the Hand.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Joffrey Baratheon was a male human said to hold the look of a Lannister with him being tall for a boy his age and having blond curly hair.
He was shown as being an amoral sadist who disguised his cruelty with a thin veneer of charm. He enjoyed forcing people to fight to the death, and enforced cruel punishments for lesser crimes. It was shown that he had no sense of personal responsibility with him instead blaming failures on others. In addition, he lacked self-control and often insulted his allies as well as his own family members. Though intelligent and cunning, he was also impulsive, which frequently leads him to make irrational decisions. He had an uncontrollable temper not unlike his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister, and an unchecked sadistic streak.
In public, Joffrey is allegedly the oldest son and heir of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister, both of whom entered into a political marriage alliance after Robert took the throne by force from the "Mad King" Aerys II Targaryen. In reality, his biological father is his mother's twin brother, Jaime Lannister. He has a younger sister, Myrcella, and a younger brother, Tommen, both of whom are also products of Jaime and Cersei's incestuous relationship. Their sole biological grandparents, Tywin and Joanna Lannister, were also noted for being first cousins.
Powers and abilities
After the death of his father, he came to claim the Iron Throne of Westeros.
Notes
- Joffrey Baratheon was created by George R. R. Martin where he featured in the setting of A Song of Ice and Fire.
In other media
Television
Appearances
- Game of Thrones:
External Links
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