Characters I Love that Fandom Hates (Part 1)
In a coat of gold or a coat of red,
The lion still has claws
And mine a long and sharp,my lord,
As long and sharp as yours...
A Joffrey/Jack Appreciation Post. Yes, seriously...
Book fans spoiled me long ago for Joffrey's impending death. So I've been bracing myself for the painfully predictable Tumblr celebration for a very long now. I'm not going to argue with the many fans already creating happy GIF sets of Joffrey's gruesome poisoning. I just wanted to make my own little lonely post mourning the loss of King Joffrey who (for me) was one of the most fascinating characters in the show. And also mourn the departure of Jack Gleeson from the cast, who IMHO was the best of the show's many talented young actors and the one whose magnificent performance was the most thankless. All praise to Jack for his fearless commitment to this role. I'm so sad that he is reportedly quitting the acting profession but I wish him success in whatever else he chooses to do.
Now onto Joffrey. I'm not going to argue that Joffrey was a good person, but in my estimation, Joffrey was good at playing the game - good for a child player who had been dealt a very bad hand in a very brutal game. Unlike most other players Joffrey never had any choice in being in contest for the Iron Throne. Joffrey was born and groomed to inherit the throne with no way of opting out. It was always a matter of win or die for Joffrey. Being the son of the usurper King Robert was bad enough. Joffrey already knew he would be inheriting Robert's enemies when he was crowned. But what made Joffrey's situation so much worse is that he was born into a lie. Because he's even not the son of the usurper king - he's the product of his mother's incest. Joffrey was born into a humiliating royal scandal that would never be forgiven by the seven kingdoms. It's been shown that Westeros shows no mercy to innocent children and however many evil deeds Joffrey has committed - he and his siblings (oh and Bran Stark) were the innocent victims of Cersai and Jaime's incest. Ned Stark knew those children would suffer if he outed that secret (they murdered the Targaryen children in their beds...) and so he made the mistake of showing Cersai his hand and gave her the chance save her kids. But Cersai didn't take it. She's been gambling with her kids lives since the day they were born.
I don't know if this is strictly canon, but I've always felt from Gleeson's performance that Joffrey knows he is incest spawn. Or rather, King Joffrey knows about the digusting lies about his mother and Uncle Jamie and he'll cut off the head anyone who breathes a word of that filthy lie because deep down Joffrey guesses that it's true. Joffrey could never allow himself to consciously accept that it's true but if you need a reason for why Joffrey was becoming the new Mad King, it's because in a dark corner of his mind he knows he's been completely fucked over by his own disgusting parents. Let's remember that Joffrey is a kid and if your kid is a monster you have to look at the people who raised him. Is Joffrey a monster through nature or nuture? As the child of Cersai and Jamie he's got plenty of "shitty human being" genes to start with. That said Joffrey's younger siblings aren't little monsters so I think the problem comes from how Joffrey was raised. And unlike the younger children, Joffrey was specifically raised to be king. And from what I've seen nobody in Joffrey's family ever raised him to be a good king (as in, morally good). Cersai raised Joffrey to believe that once he was King the world would be whatever he wanted it to be. Cersai insisted that Joffrey exert his power over the whole world. Ahhh, but that's not really what Cersai wanted. She and the rest of the Lannisters wanted Joffrey to act as their puppet. However Joffrey, like most teenage kids, is driven to rebel against his parents and authority figures. And how does Joffrey rebel against a family like the Lannisters? A family who have forced Joffrey into the most powerful and dangerous seat in the seven kingdoms but then undermine Joffrey's kingly status at every turn by insulting him and slapping him around. Joffrey can't rebel by being a good boy. Being good would get him killed. Being passive would make him their prop. And besides Joffrey is a seriously pissed off teenager who needs to some way unleash his hate and exert the power he was promised from childhood by that family who fucked him over.
So it seems that Joffrey can only find power in acts of cruelty and brutality that the Lannister family could barely control. Is that so surprising? Joffrey's only role model for how to be a King was Robert who Joffrey only knew as a loud self-indulgent pig. So Joffrey follows Robert's lead but his pleasures are far more sadistic. Is his cruelty such a shock either? Westeros is a world teeming with sadists and most often the sadists are the winners. Ramsey Snow goes to even further extremes than Joffrey in his acts of sadism in the pursuit of power. Everyone knows Ramsey is a bastard - Joffrey is determined to avoid that damning title. Yet it's not just evil little monsters like Joffrey and Ramsey that develop sadism as a form of survivalism and self-empowerment. Recently we've seen little Arya Stark smiling as she slowly pushes a sword through a man's throat. Win or die. With these stakes, sadism is a natural symptom of any person with a desire to win.
Obviously Joffrey has now become the latest loser in the game, but it's interesting that Joffrey could only be killed by the sneak attack of a poisoned cup, where as Rob Stark could be killed so publicly. And it seems Joffrey's downfall was his petty grudge match with Tyrion, not because I think Tyrion was the poisoner but because Joffrey got so fixated on hating one member of his family that he forgot that he had enemies on all sides. But cruelty towards the Lannister family was Joffrey's own game of revenge and Tyrion was his easiest target, not his incestuous parents because Joffrey had to maintain that the incest thing was a big fat lie. I like that Joffrey is still playing the game even in his dying breaths by pointing the finger at Tyrion and being determined to take Tyrion down with him. His last action was to set the Lannister family against one another and leave them to tear each other apart (a lion still has claws...)
That's enough from me. Share your own thoughts of Joffrey in comments and you can be as negative as you want, but please no silly Joffrey death celebrating here. As they said in the AV Club review "to actively revel in this plot point is to be no better than the horrific boy king himself". Funny how the internet is so susceptible to this culture of gleeful sadism too.
dedicated to lenina20
The lion still has claws
And mine a long and sharp,my lord,
As long and sharp as yours...
A Joffrey/Jack Appreciation Post. Yes, seriously...
Book fans spoiled me long ago for Joffrey's impending death. So I've been bracing myself for the painfully predictable Tumblr celebration for a very long now. I'm not going to argue with the many fans already creating happy GIF sets of Joffrey's gruesome poisoning. I just wanted to make my own little lonely post mourning the loss of King Joffrey who (for me) was one of the most fascinating characters in the show. And also mourn the departure of Jack Gleeson from the cast, who IMHO was the best of the show's many talented young actors and the one whose magnificent performance was the most thankless. All praise to Jack for his fearless commitment to this role. I'm so sad that he is reportedly quitting the acting profession but I wish him success in whatever else he chooses to do.
Now onto Joffrey. I'm not going to argue that Joffrey was a good person, but in my estimation, Joffrey was good at playing the game - good for a child player who had been dealt a very bad hand in a very brutal game. Unlike most other players Joffrey never had any choice in being in contest for the Iron Throne. Joffrey was born and groomed to inherit the throne with no way of opting out. It was always a matter of win or die for Joffrey. Being the son of the usurper King Robert was bad enough. Joffrey already knew he would be inheriting Robert's enemies when he was crowned. But what made Joffrey's situation so much worse is that he was born into a lie. Because he's even not the son of the usurper king - he's the product of his mother's incest. Joffrey was born into a humiliating royal scandal that would never be forgiven by the seven kingdoms. It's been shown that Westeros shows no mercy to innocent children and however many evil deeds Joffrey has committed - he and his siblings (oh and Bran Stark) were the innocent victims of Cersai and Jaime's incest. Ned Stark knew those children would suffer if he outed that secret (they murdered the Targaryen children in their beds...) and so he made the mistake of showing Cersai his hand and gave her the chance save her kids. But Cersai didn't take it. She's been gambling with her kids lives since the day they were born.
I don't know if this is strictly canon, but I've always felt from Gleeson's performance that Joffrey knows he is incest spawn. Or rather, King Joffrey knows about the digusting lies about his mother and Uncle Jamie and he'll cut off the head anyone who breathes a word of that filthy lie because deep down Joffrey guesses that it's true. Joffrey could never allow himself to consciously accept that it's true but if you need a reason for why Joffrey was becoming the new Mad King, it's because in a dark corner of his mind he knows he's been completely fucked over by his own disgusting parents. Let's remember that Joffrey is a kid and if your kid is a monster you have to look at the people who raised him. Is Joffrey a monster through nature or nuture? As the child of Cersai and Jamie he's got plenty of "shitty human being" genes to start with. That said Joffrey's younger siblings aren't little monsters so I think the problem comes from how Joffrey was raised. And unlike the younger children, Joffrey was specifically raised to be king. And from what I've seen nobody in Joffrey's family ever raised him to be a good king (as in, morally good). Cersai raised Joffrey to believe that once he was King the world would be whatever he wanted it to be. Cersai insisted that Joffrey exert his power over the whole world. Ahhh, but that's not really what Cersai wanted. She and the rest of the Lannisters wanted Joffrey to act as their puppet. However Joffrey, like most teenage kids, is driven to rebel against his parents and authority figures. And how does Joffrey rebel against a family like the Lannisters? A family who have forced Joffrey into the most powerful and dangerous seat in the seven kingdoms but then undermine Joffrey's kingly status at every turn by insulting him and slapping him around. Joffrey can't rebel by being a good boy. Being good would get him killed. Being passive would make him their prop. And besides Joffrey is a seriously pissed off teenager who needs to some way unleash his hate and exert the power he was promised from childhood by that family who fucked him over.
So it seems that Joffrey can only find power in acts of cruelty and brutality that the Lannister family could barely control. Is that so surprising? Joffrey's only role model for how to be a King was Robert who Joffrey only knew as a loud self-indulgent pig. So Joffrey follows Robert's lead but his pleasures are far more sadistic. Is his cruelty such a shock either? Westeros is a world teeming with sadists and most often the sadists are the winners. Ramsey Snow goes to even further extremes than Joffrey in his acts of sadism in the pursuit of power. Everyone knows Ramsey is a bastard - Joffrey is determined to avoid that damning title. Yet it's not just evil little monsters like Joffrey and Ramsey that develop sadism as a form of survivalism and self-empowerment. Recently we've seen little Arya Stark smiling as she slowly pushes a sword through a man's throat. Win or die. With these stakes, sadism is a natural symptom of any person with a desire to win.
Obviously Joffrey has now become the latest loser in the game, but it's interesting that Joffrey could only be killed by the sneak attack of a poisoned cup, where as Rob Stark could be killed so publicly. And it seems Joffrey's downfall was his petty grudge match with Tyrion, not because I think Tyrion was the poisoner but because Joffrey got so fixated on hating one member of his family that he forgot that he had enemies on all sides. But cruelty towards the Lannister family was Joffrey's own game of revenge and Tyrion was his easiest target, not his incestuous parents because Joffrey had to maintain that the incest thing was a big fat lie. I like that Joffrey is still playing the game even in his dying breaths by pointing the finger at Tyrion and being determined to take Tyrion down with him. His last action was to set the Lannister family against one another and leave them to tear each other apart (a lion still has claws...)
That's enough from me. Share your own thoughts of Joffrey in comments and you can be as negative as you want, but please no silly Joffrey death celebrating here. As they said in the AV Club review "to actively revel in this plot point is to be no better than the horrific boy king himself". Funny how the internet is so susceptible to this culture of gleeful sadism too.
dedicated to lenina20