The Case For Joffrey: It's Fiction Guys, Deal With It(Game of Thrones)
The character of Joffrey is undoubtedly the most despised character in TV history, he is no doubt someone tailored to our hatred, he's a spoilt and very, very evil little brat that would kill anything or anyone standing in his way. However, while his actor is praised for making us hate what he does and hope he gets a fast comeuppance, to a large degree, this is undeserved when judging him as a character. It seems that if you hate the person's behavior, you have to hate him as a character. Why is it that? Can you separate your hatred for a person with a character? He isn't poorly written or anything but people are starting to complain about him being annoying. But to what extent is this hatred justified?
I for one completely despise him as a person and wish he would DIAF, but what's not to say I can't like the character? Sure, Joffrey is completely depraved, but he isn't real. Why do we have to hate someone who we will never really meet in real life? Plus fantasy is a safe place to indulge in some of our darker natures, and it's not the first time that we've enjoyed watching people do bad things. And at least he's honest about being irredeemably evil, unlike Dexter over on Showtime who is portrayed as a pretty nice guy, except for his overwhelming desire to kill people, or the Imperium in Warhammer 40K, who are seen as the good guys, except for their Fascist Inquisition tendencies to kill everything they see and furthermore in a series with a lot of moral ambiguity, having a douchbag killing people for the lulz is actually amusing. The more evil he becomes, it actually wants me to like him more. It actually adds a degree of amusement seeing a guy do such monstrous evil in the show. It is actually funny how he subverts what we see in a villain------in most character development for a villain, we learn his backstory and he becomes more sympathetic. Joffrey in other hand goes from an annoying insufferable little brat to a dangerously insane, violently moody, intolerant ruler who don’t like to being told anything he doesn’t want to hear.
So really, what basis is there to hate Joffrey as a character? As a person he is despicable, but why should we hate villains just because they are irredeemable? So yeah whether like it or not, we should all love Joffrey as a character as we are all looking forward for him to get thousand deaths at once, all of them really messy, slow and painful. A lot of villains that have zero redeeming qualities have a truckload of fans that do not strap them in leather pants, why can't Joffrey? It's fiction guys, deal with it.
I for one completely despise him as a person and wish he would DIAF, but what's not to say I can't like the character? Sure, Joffrey is completely depraved, but he isn't real. Why do we have to hate someone who we will never really meet in real life? Plus fantasy is a safe place to indulge in some of our darker natures, and it's not the first time that we've enjoyed watching people do bad things. And at least he's honest about being irredeemably evil, unlike Dexter over on Showtime who is portrayed as a pretty nice guy, except for his overwhelming desire to kill people, or the Imperium in Warhammer 40K, who are seen as the good guys, except for their Fascist Inquisition tendencies to kill everything they see and furthermore in a series with a lot of moral ambiguity, having a douchbag killing people for the lulz is actually amusing. The more evil he becomes, it actually wants me to like him more. It actually adds a degree of amusement seeing a guy do such monstrous evil in the show. It is actually funny how he subverts what we see in a villain------in most character development for a villain, we learn his backstory and he becomes more sympathetic. Joffrey in other hand goes from an annoying insufferable little brat to a dangerously insane, violently moody, intolerant ruler who don’t like to being told anything he doesn’t want to hear.
So really, what basis is there to hate Joffrey as a character? As a person he is despicable, but why should we hate villains just because they are irredeemable? So yeah whether like it or not, we should all love Joffrey as a character as we are all looking forward for him to get thousand deaths at once, all of them really messy, slow and painful. A lot of villains that have zero redeeming qualities have a truckload of fans that do not strap them in leather pants, why can't Joffrey? It's fiction guys, deal with it.