♘ info
In Character Information
character name: Joffrey Baratheon
Fandom: A Game Of Thrones (A Song Of Ice And Fire)
Timeline: End of Book One/A Game Of Thrones (the show)
character's age: 14
powers, skills, pets and equipment:
c a n o n ;
As is customary for high born children - especially as customary for princes and the children of nobels in King's Landing - Joffrey received basics in swordsmanship, as well as archery and riding.
He's no where near as gifted at this as others, bested by even little Arya Stark during their trip to King's Landing, and occasionally slapped across the face by his Uncle Tyrion, though he never raises a hand back - favoring running to tell his mother. She and her motherly overprotectiveness, is perhaps, his greatest weapon, although that will do him little good in Anatole without her.
Even without his mother, he's a charismatic little prick. It comes from being blond, possibly, and also 120% Lannister and somewhat of a master of manipulation, as showcased in his seduction of Sansa Stark and the seeming ease he has at fooling everyone into thinking he's a polite little prince when they first meet him. It usually isn't until later that he tends to show his truer (and more sadistic) colors.
a n a t o l e ;
A gift from the mighty Mist runs along the vein of his personality, with subtle (okay, not always so subtle) manipulation becoming even subtler, to the point he hasn't got to touch something in order to make it bend to his will. Yes, that's it exactly, you've guessed it - telekinesis.
Subtle, it will be, and possibly undiscovered for a long time, but there. Once discovered, it will probably be a weak power and Joffrey will only be able to move smaller items - pebbles, spoons, coins, etc. As time goes on, perhaps larger items, but this will be gradual and quite possibly mood dependent.
Another added strength will be a few simple enhancements - the general kind; a few physical ones in the strength and and agility, possibly swordplay, too, if he works on it. It won't be enough to keep Joffrey from getting beaten up by little girls all the time, but if and when he discovers a few more ounces of courage, perhaps it will be useful some day.
canon history:
For all appearances sake, Joffrey Baratheon was born to Cersei Lannister and King Robert Baratheon - the first born son and the heir to the Iron Throne and The Seven Kingdoms. In all possibilities, he could have been a reasonably sweet babe, with a shocking head of bright blond hair and the green eyes commonly found on his mother's side of the family.
Complete and utter indulgence ruins even the best and worst children, though, and with the overindulgent mother to compensate for the little interest his father took in him, Joffrey quickly became the spoiled little brat he is known for. It is suggested that, while Robert Baratheon did not care much for spending time with (raising) his heir, he had some interest in the boy, which was spoiled when he stumbled upon the curious lad dissecting a pregnant cat in the castle to see what was "happening".
Despite the further detachment that grew between them after Robert beat him bloody over that incident, Joffrey grew to somewhat idolize his father - not only vowing to become a great warrior like he had been, but also occasionally expressing chagrin at not being similar to his father.
Even with an often absent father figure, Cersei Lannister made sure that Joffrey wanted for nothing. She continued to spoil him, shelter him, perhaps place him at a higher level of importance than his younger sister and brother - Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen. She also fostered the rather cruel and sadistic streak that emerged from him at an almost alarming rate, which quite contradicted his several attempts to emulate and model himself after Robert. It also made him somewhat of a bane of his siblings existence, for he terrorized them on occasion, as well as the cats around the castle. As an added bit of protection, Cersei appointed Sandor Clegane, more often known as The Hound (and the younger brother of "The Mountain That Rides") as his bodyguard and sworn sword.
Joffrey calls him his dog.
He's no replacement father figure, however, but it's not as if Robert was ever an appropriate one when he didn't ignore Joffrey and the other children. He's a drunk, loud, fat and often enjoys spending time with his whores and siring bastards instead of his own children.
Although... Technically, they aren't even his children.
For where the King has infidelities, as does the Queen - only she manages to pass off her children as the Kings, even when they are fathered by her own brother; her twin brother, Ser Jamie Lannister, also known as the Kingslayer. Incest meets infidelity and adultery and spawns bastard children bound to become horrid kings and horrible people atop of that. Yet, while Joffrey and his siblings look a whole lot like Cersei and Jamie, it is somewhat of a well kept secret in the Kingdom.
However, when Jon Arryn - The Kings Hand and a friend of Robert Baratheon - traced the lines of Lannister and Baratheon back ages and finds that, whenever the two houses have come together and had children before, the gold always yielded to the coal - meaning that never before had any child of the unions had been golden hairs, as the three royal children were. Also, all the bastards Robert had fathered with his whores were black of head, too, even if their mothers had been blond.
Jon Arryn figured it out, and then he was poisoned by the Queen and her brother.
When Robert Baratheon traveled north to Winterfell to ask Eddard Stark to be his new Hand, Joffrey, his mother and his sister and brother accompany him. And when Robert wishes to unite the Starks and Baratheons as they would have been if Robert had married Eddard's sister, Joffrey and Sansa Start are betrothed. He wasn't terribly pleased about this, sure, but with the endorsement of his mother behind it, he really had no choice and brooked no real argument. In fact, he was quite charming and polite to Sansa.
Not so much her family, showing no sympathy when Bran Stark falls - "falls" - from the tower. His Uncle Tyrion the Imp has to chastise him, and even smack him soundly across the face a few times before he's cajoled into showing some of the same niceties he offered to Sansa (at his mother's request) to Lord and Lady Stark (at Tyrion's insistance).
Arrangements are made and a party, including Eddard Stark and his daughters Sansa and Arya, heads out of Winterfell for the southern providence of King's Landing. He's still charming toward Sansa at this point, and even takes the initiation of asking her to spend time with him - to take walks. It's on one of these walks that the two of them, slightly drunk off a wineskin, happen upon Arya stark and the butcher's boy, Myca, playing with "swords".
Myca hits Arya when she is distracted by Sansa and Joffrey's arrival, and under the poorly veiled guise of punishing the boy for laying a hand on one of higher birth, Joffrey whips out his own sword and begins to slice along Myca's jaw. Enraged, Arya smacks him with her wooden stick-sword, only serving to make Joffrey whirl around and turn his sword on her. He gets in a few good slashes (all of which miss) before Arya's direwolf, Nymeria, leaps and bites his wrist.
Joffrey drops his blade as well as to the ground, and once released by the wolf, finds that Arya has picked up his sword and is holding it upon him. Reduced to rather cowardly roots, he pleads with her for a moment to not hurt him. And while it seems she wants to, Arya throws the sword into the river before running away. Sansa approaches Joffrey as he cradles his injured wrist and tries to comfort him, but he snaps at her somewhat vehemently, demanding she go back to camp and get help. It's harsher than the kind words and compliments he'd rained down on her before, but Sansa did return to camp.
After being patched up, Joffrey ran to his mother with the complaint about the attack. He lied, however, and claimed that Arya and Myca had beaten him with sticks before setting Nymeria upon him like some sort of sport. He made a whole big deal out of the events, and the bite he received (although truthfully he was lucky to keep his hand in the jaws of a direwolf) and his mother, equally angered, brought the matter before the King, who was forced to call an almost miniature trial. Joffrey's "truth" stretched considerably, and Arya loudly protested his claims, but when Cersei saw fit to bring a frightened Sansa before the "court", Sansa sided with Joffrey. Arya, of course, called her sister a liar then, too, and Robert Baratheon did his best to keep the peace - "children will fight" he said.
But Cersei wasn't having that, and insisted that the direwolves be removed and killed. Arya had sent Nymeria off into the woods, but Sansa's own wolf, Lady, was in camp, and it seemed that would suit as a replacement wolf, even if Lady had not bitten anyone. Sansa was upset, and pleaded that Lady be left alone, but Joffrey turned as much a deaf ear to her pleads as he did a cold shoulder to her for some time afterward. With subtle aggression and a few lies, however, Cersei and Joffrey got the direwolf (and Myca) "taken care of".
The wolf bites scar.
Robert Baratheon hosts a tourney, during which time Joffrey approaches Sansa again. It's in a bit of a party setting, and again includes a little wine, but he's reasonably nice to her again, charming still, even - although he still brushes off the task of escorting her back to the castle to The Hound. Later in the tourney, The Hound and his brother engage in a fight on the field, which Joffrey is all to interested in, especially with the added bit of violent flare it added to the event.
Although he wanted to, Robert did not fight in the tourney. Apparently needing to blow off some steam after learning of the wedding of a Dothraki to the fled Targeryan princess and pregnancy that came of it, the King organized a hunt. And, while pursuing a giant bore, Robert is so intoxicated that he misses his spear thrust and got gored through the gut. It took the other men on the hunt too long to get hi back, and by then his wound somewhat festered and he was doomed for death, leaving Joffrey as the new king.
Show-wise, there's something of an exchange between the two of them on Robert's death bed; Joffrey teary eyed at the idea of losing the father even he somewhat idolized, and Robert reflecting almost vehemently that he should have spent more time with his son, and taught him how to be a man. He then bids everyone leave his rooms save for Eddard Stark, for some important business discussion.
Joffrey doesn't overhear anything of discussion between his father and the Hand, nor is he aware of the confrontation Eddard posed Cersei about her incestuous tendencies and bastard children (for he, too, had it figured out). But what he was aware of was, very soon after his father died - before his blood was even cold - he ascended the Iron Throne with his mother at his side. When Eddard Stark approaches them with a note with Robert's seal declaring him the Protector of the Realm until Joffrey (Ned had fudged it a little to say "true heir") came of age. The note, essentially would dethrone Joffrey and put Ned in power, and while he was to one day turn the throne over to Joffrey by right, he intended to prove that he was not Robert's true born son and pass the throne to Robert's brother, Stannis Baratheon.
Cersei, however, ripped the letter up, and accused Eddard of treason, and when Ned denies that and insists it's the King's orders, Joffrey commands his guards kill Ned's men, and Eddard is taken prisoner at knifepoint by Littlefinger, and escort him to the dungeons. In the pattern of removing the old and bringing in the new, Joffrey dismisses Ser Barristan Selmy from the Kingsguard and appoints Ser Jamie Lannister in his place (who had fled King's Landing, but the appointment was more in preparation for his eventual return).
Whilst listening to oaths of fealty, the newly christened King Joffrey also listens to his betrothed, Lady Sansa, plead mercy for her father's crimes, and after listening to her beg on her knees, proclaims that her words have touched him, and he will indeed grant Eddard Stark mercy, if - and only if - he came forward, confessed his crimes publicly, and swore fealty, saying blatantly that Joffrey was the indisputable king.
And, after a bit of cajoling from the castle eunuch, he did. Joffrey had Eddard Stark brought before him in a public setting to account for his crimes against the crown. The Hand did so, on his knees, confessing to his intent to kill Joffrey and take the throne for himself as the audience looks on in displeasure. When his confession is done, everyone looks to Joffrey for the decision on the traitor's fate.
He had, after all, promised him mercy.
But Sansa's definition of mercy and Joffrey's differed greatly, for instead of sentencing him to the Wall as his mother had suggested, King Joffrey had Eddard Stark beheaded, right then and there, in front of both Sansa who stood with Cersei and Joffrey, and Arya, who had escaped and hid in the crowd under the guise of a boy. Quite possibly, the fact that Sansa screamed and protested so much was more of a plus for him than the actual beheading - the beheading that started a war, as in result, Robb Stark gathered his banners and set out against him.
Directly before The Door grabbed him, Joffrey had taken the liberty of showing Sansa, whom he was still betrothed, his collection of severed heads, including that of her father and her septa. He forces her to look upon them, gaining a fair amount of glee from tormenting her in this way. He muses, openly, of making a gift of her eldest brother's head to her as well.
"Or maybe he'll give me yours."
Sansa's rebuke doesn't sit too well, and Joffrey starts for her, almost striking her across the face before he restrains himself, as a king should never strike his woman.
So he has his knight do it.
After he strikes her, and unbeknownst the Joffrey, Sansa debates pushing him off the small bridge they are standing on, which is high enough to cause him some major damage, if not kill him. She even takes a few steps forward to do him, but is stopped by Sandor Clegane, and Joffrey leaves to continue arrangements for the war that is to be waged.
personality:
First and foremost, Joffrey Baratheon is a manipulative brat. He is generally vain and arrogant, with an immodest and conceited streak that runs deep in his person and shows through to most all those around him when his temper gets out of hand. While he can be charming and sweet at times, it's not often that he does so of his own accord; it is, more often than not, his mother that insists he acts nice and sweet and polite in public, and then his other relatives who rebuke him when he does not - an example of this being when he rejects the idea of offering the Starks his condolences for Bran's fall, and yet proceeds to do so after some harsh words and a few slaps from his uncle, Tyrion.
Joffrey favors violence over any other means to an end. Someone threatens his right to the throne? Behead him. Someone slanders himself and his family with a song? Cut out their tongue. Sansa gets out of line? Order her slapped. He demands someone else carry out these acts more often than actually doing them himself - a smart move for a young boy who is playing a dangerous game, perhaps.
There's also the fact he's no good with the sword (a blow to him after trying so hard to emulate his father and garner some approval), and thus compensates with the strength of people like The Hound or his guard. It feeds his ego to see people do his work as well - to see his power at work. The more this approach seems to work, the more erratic and almost irrational his demands and actions became, especially once he was king; Joffrey's a prime example of power going to one's head.
While high born and educated, Joffrey lacks the attention span and mind for politics, despite how many people may have attempted to teach him. As mentioned before, he much prefers to use physical, violent tactics instead of words to settle his disputes - public ones, too, instead of the subtle murders his mother and Uncle Jaime are partial to.
Joffrey has a pretty deep deep-end. He's erratic and cruel, as has been said, and those traits have developed over years of unrestrained mean streak. He targeted weaker people when he was weak - his younger siblings, mostly. He graduated to "bigger fish" as Joffrey, himself, became a bigger fish - from siblings to adults to almost "innocent" adults. It was an intoxicating drug, really - power. And something that, unlike his public vagrancies, people rarely scolded him for.
Cersei doted upon Joffrey in the place of Robert. He was her first born son, and she turned plenty a blind eye to all his devious and occasionally harmful acts toward castle cats and kittens as a child, and as a teen, she backed his story of the direwolf and Stark attack indubitably. She's his mother and one of his few protectors; in a sense, he is dependent on her for guidance and comfort. She treats his wounds, talks him through in recognizing their "enemies" and kills a few people to keep him named the rightful heir to the throne, as any good mother would do. Her faults - incestuous behaviors, political paranoia, that murder thing that keeps coming up - are usually overlooked (or unknown) by him, and in a way they don't much matter, either.
While he is moderately dependent on his mother, that doesn't mean he is entirely respectful - she may be able to reign in his vile side with more ease than others, but that does not mean she doesn't get disrespected from time to time. It's mostly behind her back, however. He has an open distaste for women. He cannot stand their wailing, he think they are weak - he objectifies Sansa a great deal, insisting she must be pretty and smell sweet and fawn over him when she doesn't automatically do that herself. He, like many other men, thinks himself superior to women and places much of their worth in their looks and ability to bare children.
While he will never live up to Robert's infamous, glorious reputation, he will always wish to. It is just generally a part of a boys want, back then, to live up to their father's title - and when that title is King, the pressure's on pretty hard. Joffrey reads Robert's disinterest in him as dissatisfaction, and often, it is. And while that wears on him at times, it also made him work all the harder to gain it whilst his father was alive. The words at Robert's death bed hurt, when he wished he had taught his son to be a proper man, but it fit in the vein of their relationship. It is probable that he justifies some of his crueler actions as doing them for the kingdom and for his dead father's approval.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?
Not only do Game of Thrones children tend to be aged up in the show, but also much older than their years would indicate in our day and age. While Joffrey's not very well suited for taking care of himself, he's not completely incapable and the setting not only gives him the opportunity to experience confrontations he never would have otherwise, but also some room to grow - be that exponentially up, or linearly down.