'GoT' Joffrey's Villainous Presence Is Missed

Joffrey Baratheon has been dead and gone from the Iron Throne for nearly a full season now, but — dare I say it — I kinda miss him. I absolutely hated his guts for the entirety of his time on Game of Thrones, even before he became king, but seeing how the series has progressed since he was poisoned to death has given me time to reflect and appreciate what a genius villain we had in Joffrey all along. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, apparently.

There's no denying that Joffrey was an absolute tyrant. He was spoiled and narcissistic and raised to believe that everything the whole world had to offer was his for the taking. He was also cruel to the point of being downright sadistic and it was basically a given that he had to go, before he destroyed the entirety of Westeros piece by piece, which he was getting a pretty good start on before he was stopped in his tracks. But beyond that, Joffrey was what the best TV villains are made of, and was the one character everyone loved to hate, the one no one could logically genuinely like because he was just that awful. And while showrunners have now tried to frame Ramsay Bolton as the second coming of Joffrey, he's just not quite as fun to watch.

So yeah, let's take a few moments to celebrate some of Joffrey's worst moments, which, in terms of viewing pleasure, were actually kind of the best (if not most disturbing) to watch.

When he lied about pardoning Ned Stark, then ordered his execution

This was probably the first REAL occasion we got to see Joffrey's nastiness come out, and it was heartbreaking as hell.

When he made Baelish's prostitutes torture one another

All with a crossbow pointed at them. Classy. This is certainly one of the most degrading and terrifying scenes in GoT history, and one that showed the real twistedness in Joffrey that confirmed what a dangerous tyrant he already was at such a young age.

When he left his soldiers on the battlefield to run back to his mummy

This didn't show Joffrey was a tyrant, but rather a coward, which made hating him even easier than it already was.

When he ordered his servants to strip and beat Sansa

Thankfully, Tyrion was on hand to save the day, but Joffrey still tried it again many more times.

When he treated Tyrion like crap at the Purple Wedding

I think we all know who the real winner was here, after all.

All the times he was actually put in his place

I mean, come on — was there ever anything better than watching Jeffrey get slapped in the face by his uncle?

Image: HBO