Character Analysis
Joffrey Baratheon brings all fans of the novels and television show together, united under one voice. While some readers might like Catelyn and others be frustrated by her, some viewers might pity Bran and others find him annoying, everyone—and we mean everyone—straight up hates Joffrey. But does the child King of the Seven Kingdoms really deserve such scorn? The short answer is absolutely. The long answer is a less resound absolutely because of some complicating factors.
One Mean Mother
Joffrey is simply and utterly cruel. He lacks any sense of empathy and is essentially what would happen if you made Ted Bundy king and said, "Go Nuts!" There are so many choice examples of Joffrey's cruelty that we don't even know which ones to pick. So here's a smorgasbord of evidence:
- When a drunken Ser Dontos loses his match during the tournament, Joffrey commands the knight be drowned in a cask of wine (3.Sansa.50).
- When Tommen is knocked off his horse by the quintain, Joffrey "laugh[s] longest and loudest of all" (3.Sansa.80).
- When King's Landing citizens come to speak to Joffrey to discuss the food shortage, Tyrion intercepts their complaints, thinking, "his nephew would send them off with whips and spears" (18.Tyrion.61).
- He brags about shooting a starving man through the throat for demanding bread at the castle's gates (33.Sansa.22).
- When he is hit in the face with a cow pie, he commands the man be brought to him to lick it off or be beheaded. This instigates the King's Landing riots that cause untold mental and physical harm to many people.
- Ordering the Kingsguard to beat on Sansa, Joffrey tells them to not hit her face because "I like her pretty" (33.Sansa.26).
And with that, we can't stomach listing any more. Seriously, this kid is just the worst.
One Mean Momma's Boy
But let's complicate the issue by bringing up the king's parents.
Joffrey believes he owns the people of his kingdom, as though they are his playthings—we see this in small moments throughout the novel, like when he calls Sansa like a dog or treats her like a doll (58.Sansa.6-7). We're willing to bet he learned a lot of this mentality from his mother, who is notoriously not a fan of the "smallfolk."
During the Battle of the Blackwater, citizens gather to find safe haven in the Red Keep. Cersei commands the Kingsguard to send them home and notes, "If they won't go, have our crossbowmen kill a few'" (61.Sansa.28). Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It would fit in nicely with the smorgasbord of awful we listed above.
Additionally, Joffrey is always miming his mother's words—"Fear is better than love, Mother says" is a nice example (33.Sansa.49). Speaking of miming, Robert's love for all things war and killing likely rubbed off on his son.
Let's also not forget that Joffrey is still a young man—a boy really—so when he injures himself on the Iron Throne, he cries out for his mother (66.Sansa.45). Evidently, he still relies heavily on her for emotional support and likely moral guidance.
Now we're not going to say Robert and Cersei are entirely to blame for Joffrey's, um, Joffrey-ness. But we will say that they certainly didn't seem to help matters, and this complicates the picture of Joffrey many readers have.
Siblings Aren't the Best Defense
Importantly, Joffrey's younger brother and sister, Tommen and Myrcella, are nowhere near as fiendish as him, which kind of diminishes how much we can hold his parents responsible for his terribleness. Tyrion thinks Myrcella confronts leaving home for Dorne with "courage and dignity" (42.Tyrion.2), two words we're pretty sure have never been associated with Joffrey. When Prince Tommen cries, it is Myrcella who comforts him—Sansa even thinks that she wouldn't mind marrying Tommen and wishes he were the eldest Baratheon (3.Sansa.87).
Since they had the same parents, how did these two people end up so completely different than Joffrey? We suppose it was one part nurture, and two parts nature. Or something like that anyway.