An End to a Magnificent Bastard

Tonight on Game of Thrones, the Purple Wedding happened. Joffrey is dead and everything is about to change for a lot of characters. The episode was beautifully done and the wedding feast was perfection. And Joffrey died. Best part. I'm going to miss Jack Gleeson. He really brought a lot of life to the character. In a time when most villains are portrayed as morally gray, Joffrey was unabashedly horrible. It was most impressive.

As our culture of storytelling becomes more complex, we often find ourselves facing morally gray characters. We have protagonists who make horrible, sometimes evil decisions. We often have antagonists who possess hidden depths and have so much motivation for what they do. I fully well support this kind of character complexity . . . WHEN it is warranted. Sometimes, however, characters (like people in real life) are just assholes.

Joffrey was horrible. He was a brat. He was a coward. He wanted to be the best, most scary warrior around, but never fought in any battle or directly challenged anyone who could have posed a real threat to him. He was selfish and violent. He loved to humiliate people who were clearly in no position to defend themselves. Worst of all, he was the king. He had the power to kill everyone else around him and no one truly had the legal power to stop him. The fact that he was poisoned at his own wedding seemed a fitting death.

I don't think this makes him a flat character though. He was awful, but it was very easy to see why he was awful. His mother spoiled him, as he was the perfect product of the love she shared with her twin. Cersei's vanity played a large role in shaping the man Joff would become. She believed nothing imperfect could come from her and Jaime and therefor turned a blind eye to so much of Joff's actions. The biggest mistake she made was thinking she could control him.

As much as people want to put the blame of Joffrey's behavior on Cersei, I think Robert was just as much to blame. Robert may have not been Joff's biological father, but Joff didn't know that. The person that Joff was, and the king that he became, is very much a reflection of the spoiled jackass that Robert became once he gained the throne. Robert was loud and violent. He liked to hunt and kill things. He loved to make people do whatever he wanted them to do, always reminding them that he was the king. Robert killed his enemies and Joff believed he was doing the same thing. Robert crushed any rebellions and Joff believed he should do the same thing. Robert would not stand for anyone to question him, and neither would Joffrey. He may have been Jaime's son in blood, but he was Robert's son in deed.

And now he is dead. He was the big, horrible head of the hydra and the characters get to breath a sigh of relief for one second before the new hydra springs some new heads. Things get vastly more dark after this, but that is only fitting. The king is dead. Long live the madness.